Chapter 2
Your Role as a Consultant

Chapter 1
Getting Started as an Internet Professional

Chapter 2
Your Role as a Consultant

Chapter 3
Planning Your Business

Chapter 4
Assembling Your Team

Chapter 5
Setting Your Rates

Chapter 6
What the Client Expects from the Internet and You

Chapter 7
Finding Customers

Chapter 8
Planning Your Presentation

Chapter 9
Making the Presentation

Chapter 10
Writing the Proposal and Contract

Chapter 11
Organizing and Managing the Website Development Process

Chapter 12
Billing and Budgeting

Chapter 13
Growing the Business

About these pages

Chapter Overview

Almost all Internet web designers, developers, programmers and marketers will take on the role of consultant when working with clients. This chapter explains what that role is and why it is so important. Updated 04/07/2012

Links to resources relevant to this chapter.

Vision X Software
http://www.visionx.com/mfcpro/cons/breakin.htm

A resource for programmers who would like to become consultants.

Smart Business Supersite
http://www.smartbiz.com/sbs/cats/consult.htm

A grab bag of articles on various aspects of the consulting business.

Recent Marketing Trends 2012

The most obvious Internet and Online marketing  trends continue to be SocMobLet or Social (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Blogs), Mobile (mobile ready websites and "third screen" design for iP:hone and Android devices) and Tablets.

Gaining friends, fans and followers on Facebook, Twitter and Blogs continues to be imporant. Pinterest is emerging as the next Wild West Frontier until copyright laws put them virutally out of business sometime in 2014.

Mobile apps, mobile games, virtual currency are established techniques being used by more and more marketers with mixed results. Apps are expensive to build and have short lifespans. The need to update apps continuously to meet the demands of Apple and Google platform standards adds to cost.

Ebooks are surging on Kindle, Nook and ITunes platforms. Many marketers are overlooking these distribution platforms for free and low cost ebooks. Many opportunities here to test and exploit.

Traffic generation via pay per click, ad network CPM, CPC and CPA buys are mature methods that continue to dominate. Fraud issues continue to plague this segment.

Email list building and database marketing are running strong.

Email marketing is making a sort of comeback and SMS text messaging is emerging as a strong outbound messaging platform.

On the SEO front, staying out in front of Google's ax wielding updates is still driving marketers crazy, and even recent best practices are failing to deliver results. SEO continues to be a queue jumping game, just as it always was going back to 1995.

The market for local businesses marketing to local area customers bumps along, largely driven by Yellow Page reps and SEO companies. 

Content marketing, that is, using web content to attract an audience and then convert that audience into customers is another important trend.

The Geek's Guide to Internet Business Success
The Definitive Business Blueprint for Internet Developers, Programmers, Consultants, Marketers and Service Providers

Author: Bob Schmidt
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN 0471288381