The entire point of an expert network is to have the best and brightest answer industry specific, or even company specific related issues. A standardized platform with canned answers may be useful for cursory topics. However, the customers who pay for experts from the expert network community want very detailed information that cannot simply be produced by a streamlined response.

Use Facebook insight. There is a feature in facebook that you can use to identify your potential customer and i'm revealing you a simple trick. Choose a 'public figure' of your niche: as an example if you are a personal trainer you can choose a very known name, then go to facebook insight, in the business manager, and put the name of him. If it's very well known, probably he has a fan page or something, so Facebook will display you the identikit of the people interested. They go VERY IN DEEP: you can see how much they earn, what is the average family, where they live etc Write down these datas. You can use it further also for paid ads.

Would rather suggest you focus on current buyers and either table a deal you expect to them or walk away and then solicit other bids...See two prev messages re soliciting bids.

Surprised PPC wasn't good. What did you try and how long? Did you use things the target market already likes, such as magazines or public figures, as a starting point? One of the most powerful things you can concentrate on as a marketer is bringing around the prospect to your point of view. I do a lot of this with my clients: the prospect arrives with curiosity but does not know what "the thing" is, why it matters, or how they could use it. An educational course entertains and explains, and often gets used as a revenue generator. The product/service is positioned as essential to the prospect. Then the offer is made. Much better conversion rates. Articles and ebooks require people to read. Many don't like reading (I do, but I'm in the minority.) What are you doing with video as a marketing tool? Have you asked in your group what the members would say if explaining the idea to a friend? What the biggest problem it solves for them is? Getting the target market to explain in their own words what's up...and then using those exact same words in your copy...works wonders on marketing material. Unfortunately, most business owners and product creators have The Curse of Knowledge and believe the reasons *they* would use or buy the thing are the reasons everyone else would. Not the case.

Without knowing what you're doing, it is hard to tell you how to improve it. Discounting SEO strategy and PPC because of low search volumes is kind of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, likely, *someone* is searching for your services (otherwise, perhaps it is time to consider a new service). If the market is enough to justify your entire business plan, there is enough to justify a targeted marketing plan. I'm happy to discuss the details and learn more of what you have done, and are doing now, to attract traffic - then offer suggestions on how to improve. All the best, -Shaun

In general, your database has value. Probably very little, but value, nonetheless. It would have considerably more value if you revived it and were able to prove that you had a viable business and active user base. While there are investors who buy dormant businesses, you'll find a much larger buyer pool if you have a turnkey business. All the best, -Shaun

Finding a coach is easy - there are many of them out there. Finding the right coach is the challenge. There are several factors to consider: Working with a coach that has similar experience in their background is not absolutely necessary, but can be very valuable. Having someone that can truly understand what you're trying to accomplish, and can empathize with the challenges you face, will help smooth communication. Coaching skills are equally important, though. Many experienced business people position themselves as "coaches", but they aren't actually very skilled at coaching - they're more likely to tell you what *they* would do, rather than truly help you dig deep and find the right answer for yourself. The result is that you end up pursuing your version of someone else's goal, or someone else's version of your goal. Neither is totally fulfilling. "Fit" is also really important. Personality, communication style, sense of humor... - these all factor in to the quality of a coaching relationship, and are very personal and unique to each coach. Take the time to meet several potential coaches and see who you connect with. Also, don't ever feel bad about saying "this just isn't working". I used to be very skeptical of coaching as a profession, for a number of reasons. Once I found the right coach, though, the experience was transformational for me, and pivotal to my success as an entrepreneur. I'd be happy to have a conversation to determine if there's a "fit". I work with dozens of entrepreneurs, having been one myself for over 12 years. I'm not right for everyone, though. You have to make that determination for yourself.

Unless you are trying to rank for /"country"/, it does not matter for search engine optimization purposes. If you are using a CMS like WordPress, you can actually edit these categories and tags in bulk. It would take approximately 2 minutes. All the best, -Shaun

Through defining that niche community, testing variations of wording that would speak to problems/benefits you can either solve or provide and running said wording as ads with clear selection variables (ie age etc)

One way to do this would be to BUY emails from a B2B database service such as Adenzo. There are also FREE alternatives such as ContactCloud (formerly Elucify) which give you up to 100 free emails a week before asking you to pay for more. Otherwise, LINKEDIN is a fantastic (free) source of emails as it is home to over 500 million professionals (many of whom are B2B decision makers) and they often put their contact details on their profile. You could either get the emails MANUALLY (by searching for a contact, going on their page, copying & pasting down their email when you find it) as many times as you need to to build a decent-sized mailing list. OR, you could do this with Linkedin AUTOMATION tools which will automatically visits hundreds of pages a day and retrieve the contact emails. If you need help with this, please do set up a call with me via Clarity.fm to talk further about mining contact emails from Linkedin with automation. Jonny Rose Linkedin Coach (Win At LinkedIn)

Having been working with and advising companies on how to get great customer feedback for many years, I have a couple of ideas you could try. One of the key assets you have is your customer list. You already have permission to approach them, I assume, so reach out to some to start a dialogue. If you are able to segment them by sales, you can approach your great, repeat, customers with a simple question such as "What is it that you and your dog like most about our brand?" and "Are there items you are looking for that you haven't seen in my shop? If so, what?" or "What were you looking for the first time you found us?" Don't blast them to everyone, don't "survey" them, just ask the occasional probing question to try and understand what the "job" was they were looking to do when they engaged with you. Another possible idea is a have a monthly contest where you ask a question in your newsletter and enter anyone answering into a draw for a small prize. Then publicize some of the best answers and give a shout-out to the winner in the next newsletter. At the end of the day, you want to simply start a conversation with your customers, so you can listen and react to what they have to say. There's only so much to cover in this forum, so please let me know if you have any questions. Steve

I'd recommend talking to a business consultant or coach, preferably someone with experience in your industry. As someone outside your industry, I would recommend that you think more about how you can consolidate into fewer brands. Managing five brands means splitting your resources, time and money to the point where, as you yourself have said, no single brand is able to shine. My advice to you would be to decide which brand has the best opportunity to stand out and consider focusing your efforts on that one brand. If you want to talk further, feel free to contact me.

As an Accountability Coaching for over 15 years I realize this is the most ask question of most startups. It truly depends, on if its mindset or resources related problem with the efficient of your business. The basic keys to managing a business more accurately is a commitment to time management and delegation. You must utilize today's latest business productivity tools such as CRM and project management system to hold you accountable for your day-to-day actions. You must create monthly, weekly and more importantly daily goals in all areas of your business. If you need any assistance with discovering resources or creating a define strategy plan towards your growth connected with me. Hopefully the information I provided, can help!

I cannot tell if you are asking a legitimate question or have stuffed a poorly-constructed answer in the question to attempt to influence website traffic. Regardless, since barbering is a geo-limited profession - meaning you would not seek out licensed barbers in Seattle if your salon was in Denver - you are best to search local barber academies. Social media is also ripe for finding talent, as many professions have dedicated groups on sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook. All the best, -Shaun

Since Shaun's answer accurately addresses the main question, I am going to address this in a slightly non-technical, business-strategy way that does not deal directly with SEO rankings. As a business, the blog is really to get people to learn about you, your e-commerce store, and your products. I'd suggest that you consider a self-hosting account on Medium so that you get the best of both worlds - your blog becomes more discoverable due to Medium's extensive network and you still have a custom domain name (blog.domain.com). This may or may not fit in into SEO wisdom, but works very well from a business perspective. I'm not sure how your affiliate marketing attribution is done, but I don't imagine that will be impacted whether you use Medium, Wordpress, or a simple HTML page to power your blog. I've seen more and more companies move away from running after rankings through technical SEO manipulation. As long as your content is relevant to the audience coming to your website and they spend more and more time on your website, your ranking will continue to improve. Any short-term "hack" you make to improve rankings outside of content will be short-lived. So do you what you'd do normally to get more business for your business.

I am sorry you've had difficulty finding a reputable designer. As with any industry, there are good and bad players. Fortunately, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of skilled, ethical, and reliable developers out there. You just need to go where they hang out. When you say, "none are able to deliver," what do you mean? I would guess that you've put your request out there on a few freelance sites and worked with the first person to respond - since you do not have the background and experience to know what to ask for, they do exactly what you ask and nothing more. They don't dig for what you really want and you don't know what you're asking for (in their terms). Generally speaking, the high-quality developers are not hanging out on Freelancer.com, they have simply built a business outside of that platform. Freelance sites like that are good for establishing a portfolio of work to then win bigger, more reliable projects. Those who spend their entire career there are generally "pump and dump" - meaning they work on volume; quickly turning projects with low margins. You need a developer who will help you define the entire project, ask questions, challenge your 'why', and be able to describe why something will or will not work. This comes at a cost. To find reputable developers, look at reputable platforms: LinkedIn and Clarity, for example. Reach out to a few of them with a general idea of what you are looking for. They will likely charge you a flat rate for a discovery call - do this. The questions they ask will benefit you just as much as they help the developer. At this point, you're each seeing if it is a good fit. If not, move on. If it is, you have a sense of how they work, their methods, and their skill level. I have a few developers that I would recommend you call - out of respect for the community, I will not share their contact information publicly. Drop me a private message or schedule a call on Clarity and we can discuss further. All the best, -Shaun P.S. I spent a number of years on the design/developer side before transitioning to consulting. If you want to learn more about what to ask, what to expect, and how to protect yourself, schedule a call.

To formulate a strategy that is a match for the outcome you are trying to accomplish we would have to further understand your business model, the issues you are encountering, and many other business specific questions. I would love to help and talk further about this.

Go to thisweekinstartups.com and scroll down to find the Startup Basics button. Felix Dennis was crystal clear in his book How To Get Rich that giving up equity was crazy. I agree with him. If, and only if, a co-founder can strongly impact the growth and effectiveness of the business...then I might consider it. Otherwise, pay bonuses or revenue share. In the VC world, many idea creators have been taken out by venture capitalists because of the contract they signed. Eyes alight with the funding capital, the founders signed the VC agreement and ignored a clause. The clause said if certain performance figures were not met at specific times, equity defaulted to the funder. The startup did not grow as expected and the targets were not met. After a time, the VC firm owned the startup and the founders discovered themselves either ejected from the business or having become employees. An IPO is a different animal. Again I recommend the Felix Dennis book as he describes his foray into that world and how ridiculous and constraining it was.

Start today. Do small spends every day. Test. Test. Test. Keep what works (produces profit).

Startups are, by definition, "temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model.” (as reported by Steve Blank). The main bits differentiating startups from mature companies are: * Narrow target - startups always start small, focusing on a narrow niche/subset of the industry they aim for. They define the buyer persona, going into as much detail as possible. The focus is crucial for all of the marketing and brand messaging, as well as avoiding ubiquity in their product. * Agility - startups are flexible. Processes are available, but just loosely followed. During the first 3-4 years, processes are aligned to the process of finding a product-market fit and the available staff at hand. People often determine the culture, buttom-up. * Speed of execution - startups must move fast. This is one of their key strengths. Less bureaucracy, fewer processes, rapid release cycles. The senior management team (often the co-founders themselves) are heavily involved in the day-to-day operations, responding to customer requests and even support tickets. * Team efficiency - each and every team member is absolutely crucial to the success of the organization. Looking for experts comfortable working in fast-paced environments. Juggling on a daily basis. Marketers asked to touch code here and there, helping with product planning or sales. * Startup spirit - the mindset of a startup is different. Things may change rapidly on a daily basis, or multiple times a day. Everyone fights for survival, growth, beating the competition and stealing market share. It's a small army of sort.

I have built the revenue of client companies as well as my own startups and built a consumer-facing company to $9M in five years. 1. Never rely on friends and family input 2. Do the Due Diligence 3. Know your product's core customer 4. Justify the value your product provides to its core customer 5. Determine the optimal channels to reach your core customer 6. Study what your competitors do well and their weaknesses 7. Reward your team because the quickest route to slow growth is an unmotivated team or constant turnover 8. Pay close attention to what produces income and don't dwell on what doesn't 9. Expand your market share mindfully 10. Know your limits as a leader and never hesitate to engage competent advice. I have witnessed too many startups shutter because the founder didn't ask for help and missed out on major revenue. Need an assist? Call me.

Hi there i found a very extensive article where you can order UPC barcodes from Amazon http://www.cpcstrategy.com/blog/2016/07/amazon-upc-codes-101/

First, avoid UPC codes. They're expensive + cumbersome + Amazon no longer uses them... or rather... even if you have a UPC code, you'll require replacing these with the Amazon AISN number assigned you. https://www.gs1us.org - UPC Mafia, where you purchase UPC codes. More important is a high throughput multicolor printer (to print ad-hoc labels) + a barcode reader device, to ensure your barcodes are accurate (can be read by Amazon barcode scanners).

Hi, I'm Stephanie and I've helped people like you for over two decades. ALWAYS register, trademark, copyright, etc. your brand as well as your real full name. One of the clients I worked with literally became famous overnight after a national TV appearance, and someone dishonest had bought her real name on .biz etc. domains as well as a name similar to her business. I can walk you through the steps you can take to ensure your brand stays YOUR brand without spending a ton of time or money - and also ways to help you succeed. I would love to help you more with this soon, so please consider booking a follow-up call. Best wishes, Stephanie

Niche down to help a certain kind of client. Find out what serious problems you solve for them with your solutions. Don't talk about SEO or web design: you'll turn yourself into a commodity if you do. See this: https://www.jasonkanigan.org/what-to-do-if-you-are-a-commodity/