Free Marketing: 101 Low and No-Cost Ways to Grow Your Business, Online and Off [Hardcover]

Jim Cockrum (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2011

Simple, powerful marketing strategies every business can afford to implementThere's never been a better time to be a marketer or entrepreneur than right now. Thanks to the Internet, a new world of free and inexpensive tactics can help get the word out to the prospects of any business with a limited marketing budget. Free Marketing delivers more than 100 ideas to help any small business owner or marketer generate new revenue--with little or no marketing budget.
With both Internet-based and creative offline ideas, you'll discover ways to turn your top customers into your unpaid sales force, get your competitors to help you promote your new products, grow a loyal audience that devours your content, and spread the word about any product, service, cause or personality.

• Use simple videos as promotional power tools
• Hold an eBay auction for publicity purposes (author Jim Cockrum made over $30,000 and earned tons of free publicity from just one auction)
• Find the perfect online partners that can take you to the next level quickly...and more!

Grow a successful business without letting your marketing budget tell you "No." Jim Cockrum has proven that the most powerful marketing strategies are the cheapest.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Jim Cockrum's book is a megaphone for anyone who wants to get the word out about their business!" -Dave Ramsey, New York Times Bestselling author

"...I will be requiring that every one of our team members digest this book from cover-to-cover to help us...transform our business"  Dan Miller, author 48 Days to the Work You Love

From the Author

I wrote this book for everyone that has a dream of succeeding in business at any level. It's a book of simple business and marketing ideas that I've collected from over a decade of phenomenal success online in my own business, and in coaching others into success.  My greatest goal in life is to help entrepreneurs and creative leaders vigorously pursue their life's calling - this book is my best shot at doing just that.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (September 27, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1118034716
• ISBN-13: 978-1118034712
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 1.1 x 9.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (73 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #40,612 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #76 in Books > Business & Investing > Marketing & Sales > Marketing > Web Marketing

More About the Author

Jim Cockrum (of JimCockrum.com) has inspired and earned the trust of tens of thousands of online and "real world" entrepreneurs with his creative yet down to earth and proven training style.

He has sold millions of dollars of products and services online in his own online businesses, he runs two successful online membership sites with over 15,000 total paying members, and has helped thousands of other budding entrepreneurs and businesses start or grow successful online businesses since he began doing so in late 2000.

Currently he is ranked as the "Most Trusted" Internet marketing trainer on the web as voted on by the 40,000+ members of the third party watchdog site IM Report Card. The IMRC monitors thousands of products and experts in the Internet Marketing community and allows open voting by all members.

Jim earns his entire living from the Internet and works from home with his wife (married 1994) and five home schooled children. They enjoy the freedom of an Internet lifestyle and share their successes and failures openly with a large a diverse reading audience. His free newsletter "CES News" is read by over 100,000 subscribers. (You can subscribe free at SilentJim.com)

Jim has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Men's Health Magazine, Entrepreneur Magazine, eBay radio, has hosted a weekly radio broadcast "Creative Internet Income Strategies", and has several successful book titles as well.

He is best known for his all time best selling Internet business success book titled "The Silent Sales Machine" that has been read by more people than any other eBay/Internet success book on the web. Details: SilentSalesMachine.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

102 of 108 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Ideas - But Lacks Tips on What Can Really Help November 21, 2011

By Compay TOP 1000 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

For over 10 years I have developed hundreds of websites, gotten them ranked well on Google, and have made my clients a great deal of money. But like any experienced web marketer, I'm always looking for fresh ideas for my clients and for myself.

Free Marketing is a good primer if you're new to promoting yourself on the web. Where the author succeeds are the chapters on what he is most experienced with, which is email marketing. Web newbies are provided with useful tips on newsletters, mass mailouts, and automating your marketing emails.

The book also offers useful ideas related to blogging, marketing through the use of original content, and the benefits of promoting your business through Youtube videos.

Having purchased at least 50 sales, marketing and web promotion books through Amazon, I was surprised that the author was probably the first to print an extremely important technique related to Youtube promotion. Google owns Youtube, and tends to mix videos into many of its search engine results. That being the case, a business owner can find their videos on the first page of Google for a search of their target keywords. It's an effective strategy that I've been surprised more web marketing authors haven't emphasized.

Having said all this, the book is unfortunately light on the type of marketing tips that could help most. The author admits that he isn't particularly savvy when it comes to social network marketing (Facebook, Twitter), so the chapters on how to capitalize on using them are lacking. Other books dedicated solely to social networks provide case studies that prove just how powerful promoting yourself through those websites can be with respect to free marketing.

The author's lack of knowledge on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) also hurts how comprehensive a book on free marketing could have been. While the book does provide a simple breakdown of how Google ranks websites, the author paints a grim picture of maintaining a positive ranking.

But the truth is that I have clients that were first on Google eight years ago that are still first on Google today, simply because they meet Google's largely unchanging criteria for ranking well. There is no "Google Code" (as he puts it) to crack, it really boils down to proper on-site optimization, original content, and scoring quality backlinks from other sites. Despite the author's dislike of informational websites, my clients have generated millions in revenue thanks to having deep sites with interior pages that also ranked well for highly-specific keyword searches (long tail keywords).

The author's misfires on SEO are most obvious when he suggests leaving comments on blogs with links back to your site to improve your ranking. Most experienced web marketers, however, know that almost all blogs include "nofollow" attributes to links that appear in the comments area. A nofollow tag instructs search engines to not place any value on the link, making it worthless unless someone actually clicks on it. Long story short, blog comment links won't help you at all with respect to Google ranking, nofollow was created to discourage spammers from trying to game search engines. [update on author's response at end of my review].

Overall, this is a good primer when it comes to web marketing, but it's definitely not a comprehensive book. Having a focus on SEO and social network marketing would multiply the results you get from this book's techniques. If you're new to web marketing, buy it, but also supplement it with other books such as:

SEO: The Ultimate Web Marketing Guide, Web Marketing All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies

Content Marketing: Content Rules, Get Content Get Customers

Sales Copy & Psychology: Ca$hvertising, Words that Sell, The Copywriting Sourcebook, The Copywriter's Handbook

Social Network Promotion: Likeable Social Media

I hope that you found this review helpful, feel free to comment if you have any questions you want answered with regards to SEO and web marketing.

[2/11/13 Update. The author of this book commented on my review that he made no reference to using blog comments to improve search engine ranking. So in response, I have included in the review comments the chapter, page and paragraph of where he suggests this technique. It is literally the first suggestion of Chapter 16 "Get Found on Search Engines."]

[3/27/13 Update. The author has since deleted parts of his earlier reply, and offered a hasty explanation. But here are the facts: 1. His book was published late 2011, 2. Nofollow was introduced in 2005, 3. Blogs like Wordpress from version 1.5 (released 2005) and onward used nofollow for comment links. This wasn't something that occurred a year or two before his book came out, his suggestion had been outdated six whole years before publishing.]

60 of 68 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Marketing/Entrepreneurship Book I've Read in 15 years! September 27, 2011

By Jamie Smith

Format:Hardcover

I am an ebay Titanium($100k+ per Month in Sales)Top-Rated Seller who owns several ecommerce websites and several brick and mortar business. I've read virtually every book there is about making money online, entrepreneurship and low-cost marketing methods. It was one of those books that I first ran across the name "Jim Cockrum." The book itself was awful and a complete waste of money EXCEPT for the special "Tips," section in it which kept featuring this guy named Jim Cockrum. I decided to google him and let me just say it was one of the best internet searches I have ever conducted. It led me to his membership websites where I quickly became a member and devoured much of the information at his sites. In this book Jim lays it all out. This book is packed full of some of the best advice from Jim's membership sites. It also spells out how Jim has become one of the most-influential marketers in the world of online marketing. There is a reason most of us who belong to his sites and have read his books hang on his every word.....TRUST! I have studied many an internet-marketing guru and read them all. All the guys who parachute out of planes or shoot videos of themselves riding around in jeeps in california peddling their "Get-rich-quick," internet courses for $1497 and I can find better information and information that actually works on Jim's sites and in his books. Simply put, Jim Cockrum is the only Internet-Marketer/Guru who has actually helped me put money into my pocket year after year. And he is an all around wonderful guy who responds to everyone of his customers. I seriously don't know where the guy finds the time somedays because he interacts with all of us! If you are one of the millions of people in this country who is unemployed or has been negatively affected by this economy then this book is exactly what you need as well. If you own a business that has hit a plateau or is failing then you better order this book right away! If you have books like Guerilla Marketing, Good to Great, Think and Grow Rich or How to Win Friends and Influence People, then you need this book sitting alongside those in your library as this will become a business classic. If you don't want to make money and improve your life then don't buy this book. Bottom line!

23 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars BEWARE! Read this book and you won't sleep tonight! September 28, 2011

By Jenni Hunt

Format:Hardcover

Over the years, Jim Cockrum has taught me several methods to grow my online business that you are about to learn in his Free Marketing book.

In fact, when I first started my online business, I took just ONE of Jim's ideas and I generated a recurring monthly income of $500 in 24 hours... and in his new book, he shares 101 ideas that are low and no cost!!

Just from reading the first few pages of Jim's new book - Free Marketing, I gained five new ideas that I can implement tomorrow to further grow my business online.

I'm still plowing through the book myself - and as expected, the wheels are turning from the ideas I'm reading about... BEWARE! Buy this book and you won't be able to sleep tonight... you will be too busy coming up with ways to implement Jim's creative marketing ideas!