Today I delete bulk of comment on blog moderation list. These guys took some effort to put their comment and I delete it. Because they are not commenting on article or entry, they are simply marketing their stuff. There is often such comment you will find on your websites, but is this marketting really useful to post such comments to personnel blog or company websites.

Hello, I am Mr. X and can help you get top rank on Google Search result. Try our SEO service.

I got these message very often, but hey I am already on top 10 results for keywords I want. Did you ever research that ? More over, this is not a business site, so why I want anyone to find my blog. I write it for my pleasure of sharing. If someone need my blog they always find it anyways.

If you are really wanting to market your service, there are certain rules to follow:

1. Be ethical, yes that is most important rule of marketing. Often we see marketing or sales representative are great liar. They sale their stuff on false promise, if I am not wrong every person on this world have atleast got in this trap for something. But is it really worth. I say no. I do my 80% of business from repeat client. If I ever lie to them, will they trust me next time? Answer is ofcourse No. Don’t sell on what is not true about your product.

2. Be realistic, if you are promising that is not possible for you don’t promise it. Believe me there are 1000 other factor which anyways can make your promise fall, but if you want to increase that number to +1 it is always your choice. This choice is very disastraous as it is human fault.  Your fault.

3. Say less do more. I learn this hard way. In my early days I often promise what I want to deliver then client came up with something in addition and I end up on low budget as I not always able to increase price on changes they want because they simply says, “You misunderstood our need before, we never ask that feature, but this feature”. Because a feature that you think is their need they do not realise it until they use it, but they do see it as waste of money until a sign off took place. So I now do not tell the hidden feature of my software until they ask for it. I have to give it to them, but since they do not see it as part of pricing, they never complain about it. But thanks me later for my Great work as they are not expecting those. This help me gain some trust from them as they know I understand their need much better they do. They realise their demand can be inadequate to their need, but my decision for them will not be. What else they need. I am not a outsource developer for them, I am their inhouse manager who is doing part of his job.

4. Never compete. Again I think it is eyebrow raising quote, but it is true for me. Whenever a client ask me that certain company or developer is doing it for X amount or with Y feature or both. I said, Okay use his service, but when these feature doesn’t meet your requirement, I start my suggested solution for you at price applicable at that time [inflation you see, otherwise no change]. I do not suggest to reduce feature or price because someone else is doing so. Though to fit in client feature we discuss to reduce feature, but not out of competition. You might be wondering why, because each company or person has its own expenses and each client have its own need and budget. If a client is not of your budget today, will he be in future long run? If not why invest on him today?

You always have the choice to just sell your product or get hired with your skills. I got hired, always. I have high success rate in marketing as I never spent anything on marketing or I never really have to market. My clients are my market, they trust me is enough for me, they get me business, they market for me, I do not for me.