In August 2006, I predicted U.S. real estate and economy news for 2007. I made some shocking predictions.

Perhaps the most interesting prediction I made was comparing Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to Enron. I thought then, and still do believe, that this will make Enron look like chump change. Read the rest of this entry »

Apparently I attend marketing seminars in my sleep now, because I just had the most interesting dream. Since I think it will help you as much as it just helped me, I want to share it with you.

In my dream, I was at a marketing seminar, sitting at a round table with a few friends. The challenge was to figure out how to increase the value of our product or service. The focus was on monthly subscribers (or “membership sites” in marketing lingo). However, I believe this concept can be applied to any small business. Read the rest of this entry »

I have a confession to make: I’ve pretty much never succeeded at Internet marketing.

I’m embarrassed to admit that my company’s website actually won a contest where the goal was to find a profitable hosting company with a terrible website. (The prize? A website redesign, of course.) Our Adwords strategy was never profitable. I even failed at promoting profitable affiliate programs to our clients, and I never built a list. Frankly, I was awful at anything related to marketing.

But we lined up client after client. Read the rest of this entry »

One thing that consistently amazes me is the sheer number of inventive ways frugal bloggers reduce their expenditures. From making your own laundry detergent to sneaking candy into a movie theater, there are many options for those who want to make every dollar stretch farther.

What I haven’t seen, though, is a detailed breakdown of whether some of these activities are worth it for those of us who are not on a salary. Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend, I was in San Antonio, speaking at Pat O’Bryan’s UnSeminar5. Somehow, I had found Pat O’Bryan on Twitter during my recent foray into Internet marketing, and when he announced he had two Erics speaking at his UnSeminar, I told him he needed an Erica, too.

Of course, Pat had no idea who I was, so I sent him an email. I wrote the following:

“I am 26 years old, and recently sold my Internet-based business (a web hosting company) for $1.1 million. I started my web hosting company at age 20, having little or no concept of how to run a business, and very much ‘flew by the seat of my pants’ for a few years!

In a commoditized industry with over 20,000 companies competing in an often cutthroat manner, I grew my business from $0 to over $1 million per year in revenue — without taking on any investors, and while spending less than $25,000 on marketing (most of which was wasted money!) Read the rest of this entry »