Mitch Joel

Your question has been sent to Mitch Joel. Ask another

• Do you think that offering one's services as a free speaker is a good way of getting an audience and establish yourself as a serious player in your fiels (providing you have compelling content to share, obviously)?

  • 

    It’s also good because you get to practice, but free shouldn’t be “free.” You can be paid in non-monetary ways: promotion, media, recommendation, use the performance to record, etc…

• When you first started, what was your answer to potential clients who hesitated to hire you because of a lack of actual clients ? How can we overcome those first few months without that sacred 'portfolio' ?

  • 

    Show them you care. Over-deliver and impress them with both the strategy and the creative. You have to do more and prove more… it’s a simple reality.

• Once upon a time, SEO and SEM were excellent cost-effective lead gen tactics for small businesses. With the rising competition and costs of these tactics (mainly driven and dominated by the larger brands), how will a small business (small budgets) be able to compete against the larger brands (large budgets) in the area of SEO and SEM?

  • 

    Push towards Social Search. When people are talking on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Formspring, whatever, be present, be human and give them great value.

• What podcasts would you recommend?

  • 
    • For Immediate Release.
    • The Beancast.
    • Marketing Over Coffee.
    • JaffeJuice
    • TED
    • Inside PR

• What metrics should I be paying attention for my blog?

  • 

    How long do people stick around and read? Do they comment? Do they chat about it on Facebook, Twitter, etc…? Does it spark Blog posts by other Bloggers? Does the mass media call you up for a quote? Do you notice traffic growing on other sites?

    All of those are good, but they are meaningless unless you have the strategy upfront. Define the metrics before starting.

• Where's the best place for me to better understand the easy things I can do to better my SEO?

  • 

    Attend Search Engine Strategies or Search Marketing Expo events. Follow peope like Danny Sullivan (Search Engine Land) and Bryan Eisenberg. Read all of the Bogs (SEOBook, etc…) and fall in love with it.

• What do you think of Web Analytics ?

  • 

    It is the beginning, the middle, the end and the re-beginning of everything. I bow at the alter that is Avinash Kaushik. He’s right. All of the time.

    http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/

• How can I do a better job cultivating engagement around my podcast?

  • 

    Find out why it may be lacking engagement now. Burn some episodes to a CD and give them out to clients. Promote it more and see why/how it clicks.

    Pushing that further, hire an out of work radio DJ for a couple of hours to give you some feedback :)

• What big web trends are you predicting for 2011?

  • 

    I don’t do predictions well. I saw YouTube and wondered why anyone would want to watch a shaky cam on a 2x2 screen that is always buffering. What do I know.

    I consider myself Presentist.

    More on that here: http://www.twistimage.com/blog/archives/presentist/

• You used to be a journalist - what made you want to become an entrepreneur?

  • 

    I was actually always a little bit of both. Shortly after I started writing, I started publishing my own magazines. I have always been either an entrepreneur or entrepreneurial. In terms of what made me like this? Simple: I don’t want to rely on anyone but myself for my own personal success.