When was the last time you took a good, hard look at your website?

It's not enough to just have a website today. It's got make a bold statement of who you are... what you do... and what makes you different than your competitors.

It’s not an option.

Your business website is critical for credibility and customer contact.

But even more imperative is knowing what to look for in a web developer so that your site successfully functions the way it needs to be profitable.

Most likely you already have a website and are looking to either redesign or enhance it. Knowing the four types of [...]

Behind every great entrepreneurial success story is an untold story - and it's usually more interesting and a lot more inspiring. They all tend to have a few common elements, though.

One of which is ugly grunt work.

Take Bob Stupak, for example. A true renegade marketer. He took a one-floor, slots-only dump at the downtown end of the Strip and built it into the big, tall, flashy Vegas World Hotel & Casino, now called The Stratosphere...all without taking on any debt and building it one floor at a time as he had the cash to do it.

He generated cash by selling [...]

You may know Joe Sugarman from his infomercials or his QVC appearances for Blu-Blockers.

But he was also a mail-order pioneer hawking the world's 1st pocket calculator, cordless phones, and digital watches to the public via his direct sales  and marketing genius.

I was listening to a recording one of Joe's speeches the other day and he said, "One good path to success is to learn all the proven rules and meticulously follow them. Another path is to occasionally break all the rules, because breakthroughs come only from breaking rules."

Resonates with me - I've always been more maverick than not. On the [...]

Walter Bergeron, Dan Kennedy's 2012 Marketer of the Year, tells the story about speaking to a crowd of over 1,000 well-dressed entrepreneurs in big old Texas.

He was describing his "shock and awe" campaign that resulted in an unheard of 70% conversion rate.

When he got to the end of his presentation and unveiled the grand finale, there was a mob of questions about the cool techy toy that capped off a brilliant multi-step, multi-media campaign that took him months to put together.

They were all obsessed with the shiny object - not the research and work that went into finding the perfect [...]

A few weeks ago, I woke up and my right arm was throbbing. My right hand was completely numb. And after checking, it didn't appear that I'd slept on my hand.

So like 90% of the human race I Googled "my hand is numb."

Apparently, I could have a spinal cord injury, Lyme disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, type 2 diabetes, cervical spondylosis and syphilis. Great!

So maybe I should have gone to the doctor after attempting to pull out a deer tick from my stomach and leaving half of it there.

Seeing as I haven't had a regular checkup in 10 years, I call [...]

When I found out that Quibb was getting a 50%-70% open rate on their daily email...

I had to find out what they were doing to get those kinds of results.

I mean that's unheard of.

If you've never heard of Quibb, it's a exclusive online community where professionals from the tech and start-up industries are invited...and their acceptance rate for new members is currently 36%.

OK - I'm intrigued.

Then I read that their goal is to revolutionize the business news industry and create a modern version of The Wall Street Journal.

Now I'm borderline obsessed with what they're up to.

So here's how their membership [...]

If you've ever been to Disney's Hollywood Studios, you've probably experienced The Tower of Terror.

As soon as you enter the ruins of what appears to have once been a magnificent and glamorous hotel, you are immersed in a story.

It's a stormy night in 1939. A group of people are in the hotel elevator when lightning strikes the Hollywood Tower Hotel - and they vanish into thin air.

You experience that fateful elevator ride and feel the terror. And then the ride is over, and you're quickly led out a door into the bright sunshine of the park, right?

What’s the number #1 thing that creates loyal customers?

Giving over and beyond what they expect. Surprising them with something, anything that lets them know you value their business and you want them to succeed. In Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini (by the way, every marketer should read this book once a year) Dr. Cialdini notes that subjects in a study rated other people more likable just from the simple act of buying them a can of soda.

A simple can of soda! As Cheryl and I thought about our goals for the New Year, we had to admit [...]

Easy is the new norm.

X,Y,Z is simple and FAST to learn so you can implement this information immediately.

Quadruple your income in just 30 days with this easy, guaranteed system.

Yep...easy is highly overrated. There are two scenarios where I see a need for a huge paradigm shift in thinking if you’re going to increase your sales and income in the coming year.

It never fails to make me cringe when I read or hear a sales pitch playing the “quick and easy” card when you know darn well there's going to be a learning curve.

Too many times, a prospect [...]

Sales has been in my blood for my whole adult life.  Selling investments, loans, properties.  It's all the same.

Getting results for clients who are desperate for results and who trust me to work magic on their behalf is what drives me.

And the thrill of hitting pay dirt never fails to get me excited.

So when a colleague asked me a certain question on the golf course the other day, it made me think...a lot.

He said:  "Art, if you had a son and he was following in your footsteps - you know, going into business for himself...what words of wisdom would you [...]