There are certain skills that you must firmly grasp before you tell folks you're an internet marketer. If you don't, and I hear you tell someone "I'm an internet marketer!", I'm going to stalk you in my Toyota Prius and pin you to a fence.

You need to know the following, inside-out, backwards and forwards. They must be second nature. If they ain't, you ain't ready:

1. XHTML and CSS. You don't have to be a god(ess) of web programming. But so help me God the next 'internet marketer' who gives me a blank stare when I mention CSS gets an atomic wedgie. And by the way, web standards have nothing to do with the metric system.
2. Search engine optimization. Search engine results are the starting point for at least 70% of all online behavior. How on earth will you help someone market themselves online if you don't even know what moves a site up and down in the rankings? Quick hint: Saying "SEO? Oh, we optimize your meta tags" is the same as saying "I am a severely impaired nubwit".
3. Pay per click marketing. Nothing sucks money out of a marketing budget faster than undisciplined PPC marketing. Assuming you care about your clients, you need to know a lot about PPC. Knowing where PPC ads show up doesn't count, by the way. You need to know and understand concepts like negative keywords, quality scoring, dynamic keywords and content networks. Another hint: "Negative keyword" doesn't mean "Keywords that make you feel bad".
4. Analysis. Let me make this clear: A bar chart is not analytics. If I ask for analysis and you e-mail me a bar chart I will so kick your behind. Analysis/analytics is the practice of turning data (the bar chart) into action steps and conclusions like "Wow, our ROI on this keyword is great. We need to build a landing page."
5. Usability. Please, please read Don't Make Me Think. Just for starters. Then start keeping an eye on Jakob Nielsen's site and other resources. Usability is a non-stop learning process. So get going.
6. Complete sentences. Write every day. Every day. I don't care what you write about. But you need to be able to write a post like this in 30-40 minutes, and it needs to be readable. If not, I shall become Conan the Grammarian and smite thee. (awesome image submitted by OneTakeMedia)
7. RSS and feeds. I shouldn't even have to say this. But you do know how to use Google Reader, right? Right?!
8. Blogging and social media. Write at least one blog. See 'Complete Sentences', above. And know what people mean when they say 'social media'. They really mean media. Understand what makes it all tick, and how you can help someone interact with their audience in a meaningful way.
9. E-mail marketing. Learn to build a house e-mail list. Learn why most rental e-mail lists suck eggs. Know what makes an e-mail work or fail.
10. Statistics 101. If you don't know what a rolling average is, don't even talk to me.
11. Marketing. Oh, did I mention? You need to be good at, you know, making people understand why something is The Product For Them.

Remember when you first learned to drive? You were so busy remembering to signal before turning, maintain safe following distances and generally not humiliate yourself in front of your friends it's amazing you didn't drive right into the car in front of you.

Now, of course, the mechanics of driving are second nature. So is tailgating, but we'll skip that part.

If you're going to be an internet marketer, all the secondary skills have to be second nature, too. Until they are, you've still got a big 'STUDENT DRIVER' sign on top of your car.

A note from Ian: Fred Janssen wrote today's post. Fred is the most knowledgeable operations and business consultant I know. He worked with Portent and helped us totally turn around our customer service and management processes. In this post, he talks about choosing, serving and keeping customers.

Every business owner wants a diversified base of satisfied, profitable customers who are loyal to the business and who refer you to others like themselves. It certainly leads to more money, and it also leads to more time to do the things that you really want including a better nights' sleep. Successful businesses usually start strong in this area. As they grow, however, it is common for customer relationships to become a bit more hit-and-miss due to poor communication, inconsistent procedures, inadequate systems and lack of accountability. Throwing more people or technology at the problem often creates additional chaos without solving the underlying issues.

Here are five things that I help to keep customers longer, happier and more profitable:

Choose your customers wisely.

1. I recommend creating a customer success profile based on the attributes that you know will lead to successful projects and good relationships. Use it to evaluate every potential customer. Some potential customers should just be avoided and, while no customer is a 'perfect fit', if you are clear about areas of compromise you can manage the risks more effectively.
2. Perform periodic reviews of each customer. In addition to the typical financial metrics, re-evaluate them against your success profile to see how well they currently 'fit'. You may find that it is time to firmly "reset" a relationship or "manage a customer out" of your business.

Get the right people together to think through the details of your proposal before you present it.

Making the time to hold a structured proposal review meeting could be the most profitable thirty minutes you invest in a project. Include key employees who know the potential pitfalls to look for and who are willing to ask hard questions no matter who is in the room. You will go into the deal with a better chance of success and, if you do make compromises, at least you all go in with your eyes open.

Follow a structured process of internal and external communications before the work begins.

1. Create an Internal Customer Profile that includes useful "intelligence" and insights gained from the sales process such as: who are the decision makers and what do they expect from the project; who are your strong supporters and who are not; what are the unique qualities of this customer (and project); why did they choose you over your competition. Use this in conjunction with the contract as the basis of an internal kickoff that includes every relevant group (i.e. management, accounting, production, support). You will save a ton of time and energy down the road if you make the effort to get everyone in the same room at the beginning to hear one version of the truth.
2. Provide your customer with some sort of welcome document where you introduce your team, explain your processes, let them know what they can expect from you and what you need from them for the project and relationship to be a success (there should be no surprises here). Then hold a kickoff meeting with your customer to introduce your team and make sure they understand the information you sent them. This is also the time to review the project scope, make sure everyone understands what "success" means and establish mutual responsibility for achieving that success.

Communicate in a proactive, consistent and honest manner throughout the project and relationship.

1. This needs to be modeled as well as explicitly taught to your employees in order to become part of your culture. You can develop systems and procedures to support this objective, but it is the habits and behavior of your employees that make the difference here.
2. In addition to routine status meetings with the customer, it is important to hold regular high-level meetings with the decision maker who may not be that involved in the day-to-day activities of the project. This is an important and valuable opportunity to see things from their perspective, build the relationship and realign the expectations of both parties.

Always follow through and follow-up.

1. This is where so many companies fall short. Again this is a combination of training and modeling along with systems and procedures to create accountability. For example, when you deliver your product or resolve a problem make sure that you positively confirm with your customer that they consider it delivered or resolved.
2. Schedule a follow-up after some time has passed since delivery. Make it personal; don't just rely on surveys and email. You might find that initial expectations have 'morphed' into something that the customer now feels are unmet. Don't let feelings sit there and fester - find out and deal with it. This doesn't mean doing more work for nothing. It means clarifying and understanding and moving ahead on the basis of mutual knowledge and respect. These follow-ups also cement your relationship and are great opportunities to generate new business and get referrals.

While the specifics of each of these need to be adapted to fit different businesses and industries, if they are well implemented and maintained you will improve the value of your business.

You can read more on Fred's web site: www.fredjanssen.com

The folks over at Idiom Strategies have done a video about Conversation Marketing.

It's dang funny. However, I don't agree with their definition of 'Conversation Marketing'. To me, the 'conversation' means it's two-way between you and every member of your audience. Not that you pursue influencers or leave out 'marketing fluff'. Check out my book for my version.

That said, it's a great video, and it's not like I'm the sole authority on the subject:

Just a forewarning: I'm renaming my SEO Copywriting eBook this week to The Fat Free Guide to SEO Copywriting.

As I launch new ebooks, they'll be called the Fat Free Guide, too. See, I'm branding! Clever, huh?

Also, I'm now offering the ebook in cooperation with Mike Corso and Cool Site of the Day. Mike is an all-around great guy, and a far better salesman than I, as evidenced by the fact that he's sold more copies of the book in 2 weeks than I have since 2008. Sigh.

So, from now on, you can buy the book from Cool Sites, here.

PS: The checkout and download process is a little wonky right now. We're aware that it asks for your e-mail address about 999 times. We're working on fixing it. For now, if you choose the 'no thanks' or 'just download' option you'll get through. Rest assured I'm not trying to spam you.

Yup, we're here. Part 5 of 5 in my link-building series. In spite of rain, sleet and lack of brain, I made it, and so did you.

You now know why link building sucks, what tools to use, how to research competitors' links, and how to get the links once you find 'em.

So here's the thing: All of the advice I gave you in the last 4 posts just catches you up to your competitors. It doesn't help you win.

This post will give you the Magical Secret Formula to Link Domination.

Get a piece of paper.

And a pen. You don't want to miss this.

Ready?

OK.

Do it better than your competitors do.

Wait! Don't smack our forehead (or mine, for that matter) just yet. You do need to out-execute your competition. That's how you win in the link-building wars.

Out-executing means finding links where they don't, and making sure you squeeze every last bit of authority out of every link. Here's how you do it:

Build Authority Slow and Steady: Article Marketing

Sign up for a service like Article Marketer. Write 10 biography blocks. Be sure you link to your site in the bio block. Then publish 10 good articles a month, each one with one of your biography blocks.

The article site will syndicate your content to sites that want it. Those sites publish your article, including the bio block.

Bingo: More links.

These are not high quality links. They're kind of lame, actually. But they add up, and in my experience article marketing builds a great foundation for your link building campaign.

Fix Every Broken Link: Google Webmaster Tools

The easiest links to get are the ones you already have. How zen is that? But it's true: Fix broken links and you'll boost your authority right away. And it's a lot easier to fix a busted link than it is to find a new one.

Get your site set up and verified with Google Webmaster Tools.

Then go straight to Diagnostics > Web Crawl > Not Found.

Look the list of not found URLs. In particular, look for ones with multiple 'linked from' pages, like this:

Click the 'linked from' count and you'll see where those broken links come from:

Every one of those links comes from another web site. They could be sending you link authority but they aren't, since they're broken.

It's a pain to contact every webmaster and ask them to fix the links.

Instead, create a 301 redirect from the broken link to the working one. It must be a 301 redirect. Search engines pass most of the link authority through a 301 redirect to the correct page. Voila. All fixed.

Once you've fixed all of those, fix all the broken links you created on your site, will ya?

If you don't know what a 301 redirect is, contact your web hosting provider. You probably have a control panel or some such that will let you set them up. If they won't set it up, fire them immediately and switch providers. 301s aren't that hard to do.

Your goal: Zero 'not found' URLs in your Webmaster Tools Report. I'm not saying it's possible. But it's a good goal.

Buy Links...?

I can't say 'buy links' because Google Hath Proclaimed Link Buying Is Bad. However, I can almost guarantee your competitors are beating the crap out of you, in part, by buying links.

So, if I were going to suggest buying links, I'd say something like this: Don't buy from link-building services. Instead:

• Sponsor industry associations. They often provide great links in exchange.
• Join the Better Business Bureau. They'll link to you.
• Get your site certified by a service like McAfee Web Security. Yes, it's basically a sticker. Your site is only as secure as your most pissed off webmaster. But they'll list you in a directory of certified sites, which means a nice link.
• Get your site listed in every relevant directory. SEOMOZ has a fine list of resources here.

There are more, I'm sure, but since I'm not actually saying this, I can't tell you about them here.

Grab the low-hanging fruit

There are lots of links out there that don't cost a dime, too. I can't just give you a list, because it varies depending on your industry and location. But possible link resources that your competitors likely missed include:

• City business directories.
• Social media sites: LinkedIn, Facebook and lesser-known sites all provide a few quality links if you know where to get 'em.
• Press releases do still provide links. Use a service like PRWeb and include a link or two in your press release. As the press release gets passed around, it'll create a nice base of links for you. Not great ones, but links are links.

What not to do

Whatever you do, do not:

• Trade links. Reciprocal link trades went out with trickle-down economics. They don't work.
• Buy links from a service. Have to say it again. I'm not paranoid but if I were, I'd worry about Google sitting and watching just those services to see who's cheating.
• Hire some service that calls you out of the blue promising to get you 199 quality links. Run. Screaming.
• Use an automated program, unless you really, really know what you're doing. Someone just accidentally plagiarized 1/2 my site using one of those programs. He had to read one angry Tweet after another from me and everyone else I told about him.

It's not about the plan. It's about doing it.

You can read the whole series again and again. But at some point, you'll have to get out there and just get to work. So go do it.

Why are you still here?

The Link Building Series

Part 1: Why Link Building Sucks
Part 2: 3 Competitive Link Research Tools
Part 3: Finding the Opportunity Gap
Part 4: Get those links
Part 5: Out-execute the competition