Chris Breikss recalls hir first 10 years in business as a start-up digital marketing agency and some of the obstacles that he had to overcome. The presenation is from a 1 hour webinar that is archived at http://www.6smarketing.com/10-things-ive-learned-the-hard-way-about-the-internet/

2. About Me Chris Breikss President, 6S Marketing Founded 6S in 2001 Expert in SEO, SEM, and Social Media Speaks at, sponsors and attends industry events across North America Chris got married last month (Dec. 2011 in St. Lucia)

3. Our Team 6S Marketing Skilled, dedicated and industry-savvy team of 25 employees Project managers have 4 to 10+ years internet experience Worked on 500+ projects BC’s Top Ten company to work for in 2010

4. And Now…

5. 1 Being #1 in Google Isn’t the Answer Well it’s pretty good but… You can’t be #1 for everything. Is your top keyphrase the right one? Need to have a good website in order to convert business Clearly describe your products or services Look at your Google Analytics reports bounce rate, conversions

7. 3 Don’t Spam Allow people to get on or off your lists MailChimp is our favourite SMB email system Silverpop for lead nurturing Salesforce.com for CRM

8. 4 Renew Your Domain 10 Years in Advance If you are still in business in 10 years then, great! 6Smarketing.net was jacked! Print all domain and hosting info and put into a fireproof safe at your mom’s

9. 5 Change YourPasswords Often Nothing worse than getting hacked Our phone system was hacked Upgrade your WordPress website

10. 6 Don’t Dress Like a Bum Just because you work in the Internet I wear an un-tucked dress shirt (Hugo Boss), dressy jeans (7 For All Mankind), semi-casual dress shoes (Aldo) and a nice sport coat. It’s called “The Uniform.”

11. 7 Get Your Home Based Business Out of Your Home Meet with clients in an office setting; people will take you seriously We got out in 13 months Posted “Office space wanted” signs We once had a TV crew in our “home office”… awkward

12. 8 Don’t Help Friendsfor Free They won’t value your product or service if you give it away for free OK to discount <30%, but don’t lose money or go below cost You can’t eat contra

13. 9 Don’t Hold Out for“The Big Payday One Day” Pay yourself fairly with a respectable salary Banks won’t lend you money or give you a mortgage if you don’t make money Set goals. By year 2, I want to be making $60k

14. 10 Don’t Let Others Take Advantage of You Get signed contracts Business done on a handshake is old skool Small claims court is not hard to win if you have signed paperwork and its under $25K

15. 11 Things ChangeQuickly People used to say “How do you have time for email?? The notifications pop up and distract me, and I drop what I’m doing…” Sound familiar? (Hint: every social media tool) In 2000 (10 years ago) very few people knew what Google was Then Now

16. Questions Chris Breikss chris@6Smarketing.com @chrisbreikss @6S_Marketing