Vapourware? Maybe not.

I don't believe a part-time business just three weeks in operation qualifies as a "Professional Contracting Association" and hate the cheesy squeeze-page set up on Steve Sellers' marketing materials, but behind his site are actually some useful free resources.

Steve Sellers from Professionalcontractingassociation.com, based in New Jersey, responded to my email inquiry when I prepared the Vapourware Marketing posting yesterday. In my email to him, I asked:

If I'm wrong in my assumptions, we should communicate so I can write an accurate story. If I'm right, don't worry, no one should be able to trace you from this posting and I never name individuals/organizations (negatively) publicly in the blog.

If the truth is somewhere "in between" also let me know -- while I can't write an artificially positive review, we can still share notes.

His answer:

"In-between" would be the most accurate. This IS a new venture for me, although I am not new to Internet marketing. That being said, I owned/operated a small construction company in New Jersey (you are right about the Eastern U.S.), and no, this is not my home address--it is an office.

Long story, but we are shutting down our construction business this month... I'll be happy to share all of the torrid details over the phone...

I've tried very hard not to over-inflate my claims and if it appears that I have done so, then any feedback would be highly appreciated!

He followed up with a phone conversation and emailed some rather interesting material behind the site, including a marketing e-book and a six week course on how to effectively structure and operate a contracting business.

It turns out he has a contracting business which he would like to sell or quit; a manager is operating it while he works at another full-time job and he tries to make his Internet marketing business viable.

He told me he got into trouble when he purchased a maintenance franchise; the franchiser didn't know the business, and it lost thousands of dollars until he ditched the franchise and learned how to do things himself. Last year, the business turned a small profit.

"Why not validate your approach by making your contracting business truly successful," I asked him. He said he is disillusioned with the business and the harrowing experience the ill-fated franchise put him and his family through. He is burned out. His manager would like to purchase the business, but of course doesn't have the spare cash.

Sellers' Internet business, meanwhile, has been in operation for three weeks. He has sold one marketing system, a newsletter/email follow up management system provided by The Halos Marketing Group.

His Adwords budget is $10.00 a day, and this generates 15 to 25 leads -- of which about half of one per cent convert to a request for a free newsletter subscription. But since the system operates on autoresponder, it may turn out to be a modest part-time business if he can sell two or three marketing packages a month.

Fair enough. Is this vapourware? Digging beneath the surface, maybe not. Sellers has hard-knock experience. His e-course, which is right now free, is quite well presented and provides practical and useful materials. (Free is also a rather good price!)

I'm not sure I'd pay the fee for the marketing/newsletter package, but you might want to check his free course at http://www.6weekbusinessremodel.com. And since his marketing e-book is also free, you can check it here: http://www.professionalcontractingassociation.com/Marketing.pdf.

I still wish he wouldn't use the word "Association" when he is operating a small, part-time one person business. And I really hate the cheesy squeeze page "Internet marketing technique" format. Every time I see this sort of site, I feel like running for the hills.

Nevertheless, the free stuff is quite good and he really has been in the business, so I'll keep my mind open and grant him a hyperlink for his blog at http://professionalcontractingassociation.com/blog/

Vapourware marketing

This image from Derek Siver's blog says that counting on even one per cent marketing reach may be folly. Many marketing initiatives result in no return. Beware of "vaporware marketing".

Derek Sivers, in a blog posting referenced by Seth Goldin, wrote about a musician who pressed 10,000 CDs, expecting a flood of orders from his quarter-page ad in a magazine with a circulation of one million. The musician assumed if he could attract just one per cent of the magazine's readers, his mailbox would be full, within a week.

The musician received four orders.

Experienced marketers know the folly of the musician's mistake; notably, don't pin all your hopes in a single ad and certainly don't spent significant amounts of money without checking and testing first. The musician might have had much better luck if he had received a raving review in the magazine or set up some "trial by Internet" system where people could hear his work. Or, as commenters remarked, the musician could have succeeded, slowly, by playing at local gigs and selling a few CDs at a time.

Seth Godin notes that the "long tail"; (see my review of Chris Anderson's book here) -- the great collection of small purchases and tiny niches possible within the Internet, still has a bottom limit. If no one buys, even if it costs a tiny amount to sell, you still have nothing. An if you spend a small fortune on marketing for minimal return, you are worse off than if you did nothing -- unless you persevere and learn from your experience.

This brings forward my next point. A few days ago I saw an ad on someone else's site promoting a contractor marketing service. I clicked on the ad, and (not surprisingly) received the free e-book offer in exchange for my email.

The book, not professionally set up, offered useful advice but nothing earth-shattering. That's okay, I suppose when it comes construction industry marketing, I "know it all" (I really don't.)

Not surprisingly, again, I am now on this marketer's autorespond list promoting his lead-generation program.

But I have my doubts about how much he is really selling (and has sold) and whether he has just bought someone else's package and is repurposing it. Whois.com searches take me to what I expect is a residential address in the Eastern U.S., and what appears to be some sort of inactive condo service business with an email address whose emails bounce.

I smell vapourware . . . that is someone putting something up for sale which he hasn't really validated or proven through first hand experience and results. I believe he will be disappointed about the response he actually receives and his own marketing budget will go into the "zero return" space.

(Note I will continue to try to track him down, and if the news is actually good, share it with you. If not, I will write a follow-up report without, as is my policy, identifying the marketer. As a rule, this blog does not publish negative reports naming specific individuals or businesses.)

Then does any marketing work? Of course -- but please use some common sense before believing any claims.

Check credentials with real references. If you are working with someone or something new, this is okay, but expect limited results and ensure you don't pay for effort without results.

Most times, if you expect people to give you money, they will need to form a relationship with you, validated by relationships with others they know. In other words, you need an environment where you can achieve social validity and word-of-mouth referrals to back up your marketing activities.