For this week’s edition of Entrepreneur University we looked for advice on what to do when prospects give you the “silent treatment” by turning to sales expert Ari Galper. Ari is the creator of Unlock The Game™, a new sales mindset that overturns the notion of selling as we know it today. With a Masters Degree in Instructional Design and over a decade of experience creating breakthrough sales strategies for global companies such as UPS and QUALCOMM, Ari discovered the missing link that people who sell have been seeking for years.

Here is Ari’s advice on how to get past the silent treatment from your prospects:

“If you’ve been selling for a while, you’ve probably had at least one experience in which your prospect suddenly started giving you the “silent treatment.”

Anthony described this dilemma very poignantly when he called me a few weeks ago:

“Ari, I don’t know what to do when I get hit with the ‘silent treatment’ — you know, when I’ve worked with a prospect for quite a while, and we’ve had great conversations, and they’ve expressed interest in our solution — and then all of a sudden everything stops. I try calling them back once or twice. I even send a follow-up e-mail, but nothing. They just disappear. And I figure I’ve lost the sale, and I don’t know what I did wrong, or what to do next. It makes selling feel like such a painful and arduous process.”

If this has happened to you, you may have felt anxious and confused. You may have told yourself, “It’s not as if I’m the one who did anything wrong. I put everything into the relationship. How can I rescue the sale if I can’t even get them to talk to me?”

The “Hopeium” Trap There is a pressure-free way to reestablish communication when your prospect starts giving you the “silent treatment.” But first, it’s important to understand why the situation has happened in the first place.

Most of us who sell get caught up in “hopeium,” a comical term that means we focus our hopes and desires on making the sale. But hopeium can be a trap, because it’s impossible for you to keep in mind your most important goal: to learn your prospect’s truth.

When we fix our minds on the outcome — making the sale — we automatically begin anticipating how the process will go, and we also begin expecting that things will happen as we hope they will.

But if we’re in that mindset and our prospect suddenly breaks off communication, we feel lost, anxious, frustrated, discouraged, and confused. We become preoccupied with what went wrong.

We may even feel betrayed.

Is there any way to clear up the mystery?

Yes, by giving up your agenda and learning the truth about where you stand with your prospect –and being ok with whatever the truth may be. “But how can I learn the truth when they’re avoiding me?” you may ask. “And why do I need to let go of the sale?”

Let’s take the second question first.

If you approach your prospect while you still hope the sale will happen, you’ll introduce sales pressure into the relationship. This will push your prospect away from you and destroy any trust you have developed with them. Instead, you can eliminate sales pressure by telling them that you’re okay with their decision if they’ve decided not to move forward.

In other words, you take a step back instead of trying to chase and follow up with calls because you’re focused on getting a “yes.”

The bottom line is:

When a prospect gives you the “silent treatment,” it doesn’t mean you’ve lost the sale. It just means you don’t know the truth yet.

What you need to do is call and learn the truth.

Why is learning the truth so important?

Here are 4 important reasons:

1. You stop losing confidence in your selling ability. The “silent treatment” threatens our “hopeium.” We start blaming ourselves. We don’t know where we stand — a painful state of limbo. Our self-talk is negative and full of self-blame, and we’re on pins and needles wondering whether the sale will still come through somehow.

2. You increase your selling efficiency and decrease your stress level. Once you learn the truth about your prospect’s situation, you can either stay involved with the prospect or move on. I often say, “A ‘no’ is almost as valuable as a ‘yes.’” Why? Because it frees up your time to find prospects who are a better fit with your solution. This lets you work much more efficiently because you can quickly weed out prospects who aren’t going to buy. Knowing the prospect’s truth lets you walk away without that guilt-laden voice whispering, “If you give up, you don’t have what it takes.”

Learning your prospect’s truth translates into tangible results that equal real dollars. You’ll also put an end to the self-sabotaging stress that comes from living in “silent treatment” limbo.

3. Sales pressure pushes prospects away. When you respond to the “silent treatment” with calls and e-mails, you’re really telling them that you’re determined to move the sales process forward — which means you’re looking out for your needs, not theirs. This makes them mistrust you and run the other way.

4. The “silent treatment” — totally breaking off communication — is how prospects protect themselves from sales pressure when they don’t feel comfortable telling us their truth. The more we press, the more they run.

But the opposite is true, too. The more we relax and invite the truth, the more straightforward they’ll be with us. Prospects feel okay sharing what’s going on with them when they know we’re okay with hearing it.

How to Reopen Communication After Anthony and I had talked about some of these issues, he said, “This all makes a lot of sense, Ari, but I’m still not sure what to say when I make that call.”

It’s simpler than you might think.

* First, simply give your prospect a call. (E-mail and voicemail are very impersonal, so use them only as last resorts if you can’t reach your prospect after several phone calls.)

* Second, take responsibility and apologize for having caused the “silent treatment”. Here’s some language I suggested to Anthony that will make prospects feel safe enough to open up and tell you the truth about their situation:

“Hi, Jim, it’s Anthony. I just wanted, first of all, to call and apologize that we ended up not being able to connect. I feel like somewhere along the way maybe I dropped the ball, or I didn’t give you the information you needed. I’m not calling to move things forward because I’m assuming you’ve probably gone ahead with someone else, and that’s perfectly okay. I’m just checking to see if you may have some feedback as to where I can improve for next time.”

When you respond to the “silent treatment” this way, the results will probably surprise you. You may even learn that the prospect has legitimate reasons for not having gotten back to you.

You’ll also find yourself more productive and less frustrated. It’ll make a world of difference in your productivity level, your stress level, your income, and how much you enjoy what you’re doing.

Remember…

You haven’t lost the sale. You just don’t know the truth yet.”

How have you gotten past the “silent treatment” with your prospects?

After the success of our last poll, Top The 21 Celebrity Entrepreneurs, I wanted to start a new poll on the top mistakes that start-up business owners make.

We did our own list in February on the Top 10 Mistakes Entrepreneur Make which included:

1) Not enough money.

2) Not thinking survival.

3) Losing momentum.

4) Doing it all alone.

5) Not hiring right away.

6. Doing it just for the money.

7. Getting to year 1, past year 2.

8. Don’t build around a customer.

9. Don’t seek mentors.

10. Don’t get involved in the community.

It was a popular post that made the front page of Digg and got 78 comments!

What makes your list of top start-up mistakes? We’ve created a new post in the YE Forums and I look forward to hearing your thoughts! To cast your vote click here.

Last week I offered free SEO advice for Dorm Room Biz. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader, Jonathan from Radical Notion.

Radical Notion - http://www.radicalnotion.net

Hey Evan.

I love Young Entrepreneur.com! I have literally grown up reading it and I apply it’s advice everyday.

Here is the website for the company. My business partner and myself are 25 and 26…

http://www.radicalnotion.net

Jonathan

My Recommendations

1) Build better title tags.

Your title tags (the area in blue above the URL) all have Radical Notion in them and don’t have many descriptive keywords. Chances are you’re going to rank for the keywords Radical Notion anyway, so take it out of your title tags or, at the very least, move it over to the right side of the title tags. Also, put in descriptive keywords instead of using Artists, About, and FAQ’s. You’re never going to rank for any of those keywords so replace them with 100 characters of targeted keywords you can drive traffic for.

2) Have 300+ words of content.

Google likes content. If you have it, they’ll love your site and rank you well. If you don’t have it, they won’t. You want to make sure that each of your main pages have at least 300 words of targeted content. Right now the only page with any substantial content is your FAQ page. It means more work and requires layout changes on occasion but having at least 300 words of text will greatly improve your chances of ranking in Google.

3) Get some links!

Your website has a Page Rank of 0. This either means that Google doesn’t know you exist or you have been penalized / banned. My guess in this case is the former. You should tell Google about your website as your first step. Just use Google’ free Add your URL to Google tool to submit your site. Next you want to build up your back links. The more links you have to your site the more Google will respect you. Try to focus on quality links as supposed to just quantity and get your Page Rank built up.

4) Non SEO-Advice - SEO vs. Design

SEO strategies are typically at odds with design because to rank in Google you need lots of text and website owners typically want a clean design that is picture heavy and is low on text. You need to strike a balance between the two. If you don’t like the idea of adding more text to your homepage, focus on the inside pages. Write articles that highlight what you do and will drive targeted traffic to your site.

Good luck Jonathan!

Readers, what do you think about Radical Notion?

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!

Mark Cuban is an American billionaire worth about $2.8 billion. He is also the owner of the Dallas Mavericks and writes the popular blog, Blog Maverick.

Mark recently came out with his list of his top 12 rules for startups. Here are numbers one through seven.

1. Don’t start a company unless its an obsession and something you love.

2. If you have an exit strategy, its not an obsession.

3. Hire people who you think will love working there.

4. Sales Cures All. Know how your company will make money and how you will actually make sales.

5. Know your core competencies and focus on being great at them. Pay up for people in your core competencies. Get the best. Outside the core competencies, hire people that fit your culture but are cheap

6. An expresso machine ? Are you kidding me ? Shoot yourself before you spend money on an expresso machine. Coffee is for closers. Sodas are free. Lunch is a chance to get out of the office and talk. There are 24 hours in a day, and if people like their jobs, they will find ways to use as much of it as possible to do their jobs.

7. No offices. Open offices keeps everyone in tune with what is going on and keeps the energy up. If an employee is about privacy, show them how to use the lock on the john. There is nothing private in a start up. This is also a good way to keep from hiring execs who can not operate successfully in a startup. My biggest fear was always hiring someone who wanted to build an empire. If the person demands to fly first class or to bring over their secretary, run away. If an exec wont go on salescalls, run away. They are empire builders and will pollute your company.

What are your rules for running a startup?

You may not know him by name, but chances are if you have ever had a sleepless night and turned on the television, Ron Popeil has been there to keep you company.

He is the king of the late night infomercial, and the man who made famous such catch phrases as “But wait, there’s more!” and “It slices! It dices!”

But, Popeil is also more than that. Over the past forty years, Popeil has created for himself an empire.

By inventing and selling over $2 billion worth of products, Popeil has turned his company, Ronco Teleproducts, into a global leader in direct response marketing.

There are some who say that what Popeil has been able to accomplish in his career is nothing short of magic. To create an empire out of seemingly nondescript kitchen wares is without a doubt an impressive feat.

It was not, however, magic. The secrets behind Popeil’s success are as simple to follow as the instructions on his Veg-O-Matic.

“The first time I went there the proverbial light bulb went on in my head. I saw all these people selling products, making sales, pocketing money, and my mind went racing. I can do what they’re doing, I thought, but I think I can do it better than they can.

I talked, I yelled, I hawked, and it worked! I was stuffing money into my pockets, more money than I had ever seen in my life.

Through selling I could escape from poverty and the miserable existence I had with my grandparents. I didn’t have to be poor the rest of my life.

Developing and marketing a product are like left and right feet. They both have to work for the product to succeed.

If you have that passion, it is conveyed through marketing. People see it. I get up before them and show them something new and wonderful. When I create something, I believe in it, and I am very passionate about it.

They throw a lot of stuff against the wall and hope something sticks. The failure rate is dependent solely on what you’re throwing up against the wall.

I’m willing to make a serious investment in an idea and take two to two and one-half years of my life to create it, to get behind it and understand it and take it to the marketplace.

First, I see what is needed in the marketplace. The next thing is I ask what’s out there. What you don’t want to do is come up with a product and then find out that someone is successfully marketing a good product and can take business away.

If you create a product that’s needed in the marketplace, people are going to buy it. It’s so easy for me to sell my products because the market exists.

I have an innate talent. I used to think it was luck, but after one success after another, I realized that I know what is needed in the marketplace. Most people don’t understand the market. Most people have no clue. All they know is ‘I got an idea, and I need a patent.’

Before I went on TV with the Chop-O-Matic, I spent several weeks selling the product at Woolworth’s. After several days of demonstrating the product, I learned what features consumers were particularly interested in.

If I’ve been chopping away for 10 hours a day, giving the same pitch over and over again refining it a little bit each time, why would I ever need a script?

You hear about all these people making all this money on paper. And everybody wants to get rich quickly, but they don’t want to work for it. They want to sit back and leverage everything they’ve got to make the big score. People say, ‘Ron, you’re so lucky.’ Yeah, the harder I work, the luckier I am.“

For this week’s Entrepreneur University we connected with Tim Knox. Tim is the founder and president of four successful technology companies and serves as an investor, mentor and advisor to many companies in his home town of Huntsville, Alabama. Here are Tim’s suggestions for how to build find products to sell on eBay:

“I was part of an eBay Roundtable discussion recently with six other experts and we all agreed that the number one question most new (and even old) eBay sellers ask is:

“Where do I find things to sell on eBay??”

To help answer that question I have compiled 11 ways that anyone can use to find products to sell on eBay. This is by no means a definitive list and depending on your situation, some of the ways may not apply to you. However, if you’re a beginner and don’t know where to start, this list should help you get on track.

1. Look Around The House:

We all have items lying around the house that we no longer use or need. Have you grown or shrunk in size? If so, you have clothes you can no longer wear and can sell. Did you get a gift for Christmas or your birthday that you will never use? If so, slap it on eBay (just don’t let the person who gave you the gift find out). Do your kids have toys they no longer play with? Just looking around your house and garage should give you plenty of things to get your eBay ball rolling.

2. Garage Sales and Flea Markets:

When it comes to eBay, remember this old adage: One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. Now this is not to say that you should sell junk on eBay. You should only sell products in good condition. The point is you can find items in good condition at garage sales and flea markets that you can pick up cheap and resell for a profit. Remember, nobody wants to buy your old Beanie Babies that no longer have eyes and noses, but they may buy “gently used” items if they’re in good shape and offered at a good price.

3. Talk To Your Friends and Relatives:

After you’ve gone through your own in-house inventory, contact your friends and relatives and tell them you have started an eBay business and will sell their items for a piece of the sales price. Chances are they have as much excess stuff lying around their house as you did. Offer to list the items for them and if they sell, take half the profits. You will probably have to pay the eBay fees out of your pocket up front, but you can then deduct the eBay fees from the sales price before slicing up the pie.

4. Consignment Sales:

Consignment sales are a great way to find a wide range of products to sell on eBay. Consignment selling means that you offer to sell an item that belongs to a company. In exchange for your trouble you get a percentage of the sales price. You can charge up to 50% plus fees for smaller items like clothing, lamps, jewelry, etc. and around 15% for larger items like cars, boats, and bulldozers (yes, I said bulldozers).

Contact every business in town and offer to list their excess goods on eBay for a piece of the action. Most businesses have returned items, liquidated products, used equipment, etc. that they would love to get rid of, but don’t have the time to do so.

Many will see you as their hero if you can help them get rid of this merchandise and you’ll make a pretty profit for your efforts. For business customers you should have them pay the eBay fees on the front end, not you.

5. Thrift Stores:

Thrift stores are an excellent place to look for things to sell online. Stores maintained by the Salvation Army and non-profit organizations are best. Many church thrift stores price their goods at almost retail level, so you may not find too many bargains there.

Much of the merchandise you will find at thrift stores has been donated by middle to upper income families, so many times you can find high quality merchandise in excellent condition. And don’t be afraid to make them an offer, especially if you are buying in bulk. Nobody pays sticker price at thrift stores.

6. Mini Storage Unit Sales:

Mini storage companies are everywhere and most of them are filled with stuff that people no longer want, but have no other place to store. Did you know that if someone who is renting a mini storage unit fails to pay the rent the owner can confiscate their stuff and sell it? This is bad news for the renter, but great news for you. Call every mini storage company in your area and ask that they notify you if they ever have items to sell. Many will put you on a notification list for their upcoming sales.

Some may even say, “Sure, come on over!”

7. Local Auctions And Estate Sales:

I’m a live auction nut. I’m not talking about the hooty snooty art auctions. I’m talking about the good old fashioned auctions with hard benches and hot dogs and cheap, good stuff. I love going to auctions and digging through boxes and bidding on things. My problem is I don’t know when to quit buying. It’s just so dang much fun holding up that little paddle and winning a sale, even if it’s something you don’t really need.

Check your area for auctions and sales you can attend. Just make sure you don’t pay more for something than you should. Your goal is to buy low and sell high. Don’t get so caught up in the bidding that you pay more than a product is worth (voice of experience here).

8. Closeout Stores:

You can find some great bargains at the big warehouse closeout stores. Look for liquidated items or items you can buy in bulk.

And don’t be afraid to make them an offer. I never pay sticker price at closeout stores and neither should you. Call the manager over and ask him what he’ll take for the entire box of something you’re interested in. You may be surprised to find him more than willing to deal.

9. eBay And Other Online Auctions:

Did you know that you can find great deals on products you can buy and resell on eBay and other online auctions? If a seller does a lousy job on his ad chances are he will get very few bids and you can snap up the item at a deal, then create a great ad and sell it for a profit.

You can also find wholesale bulk lots on eBay that you can buy and piece out for sale one at a time. This requires the cash to buy the inventory and a place to store it, but this is the best way to get the lowest price on most wholesale goods.

You should also visit the other online auction like Yahoo and Ubid.com to look for bargains. These sites do not have the traffic and customer base that eBay has, which means auctions there get fewer visitors and lower bids. Do a Google search for “online auctions” to hunt for treasure there.

10. Wholesalers and Dropshippers:

Once your eBay business is rolling you can move it up a notch by establishing relationships with wholesalers and dropshippers who can provide you with merchandise to sell. You will get the lowest price by buying in bulk from wholesalers, but that is a level you should build up to. Don’t buy a truckload of liquidated products until you are sure you can sell them.

11. Contact The Manufacturer:

If you find a product that you think would be a good seller just pick up the phone can call the company that manufactures. Tell them you are interested in the product and were wondering if they had a distributor in your area. If they do, contact the distributor and inquire about buying the product wholesale. If the company does not have a distributor in your area simply say, “How do I go about becoming your distributor.”

There may be costs involved that makes if prohibitive for you to become a distributor, but you never know until you try. Again, research the market thoroughly to make sure there are customers who will buy the product and if you do have to invest money to get started, only invest the minimum allowed and consult an attorney if there are legal forms you’re asked to sign.”

Our 20th Review our Blog entry comes thanks to Kimberly Maul from MerchandEYES. You can read what she had to say about in her blog post: A Community for Young Entrepreneurs.

The blog is written for small business owners, especially in the jewelry, gift and variety/discount industries. Their main categories include Jewelry, Gifts, Variety/Discount, Consumer Surveys/Insight, Just For Fun, and Current Affairs. The blog is also run by ASD / AMD merchandisegroup.com.

Thanks for the review Kimberly!

If you are interested in doing a review, check out our Review Our Blog initiative for instructions.

Have you started a new business but don’t have the time to sort through all the websites online to find the best and most relevant information?

Look no further.

Here is our list of 7 insanely helpful websites for venture start-ups.

1) Venture Hacks

Venture Hacks is an entrepreneur’s guide to hacking venture capital. Their goal is to help entrepreneurs get on an even footing with their better-informed counterparts when negotiating an investment.

Favorite Posts:

• Send an elevator pitch
• Focus on your share price, not your valuation
• Hire investors for money-add and employees for value-add

2) The Funded.com

TheFunded.com allows entrepreneurs to research, rate, and review venture funds from around the world, providing invaluable information and guidance to other entrepreneurs looking to raise critical growth capital.

Favorite Posts:

• Sequoia Capital
• Draper Fisher Jurvetson
• El Dorado Ventures

3) DocStoc

Docstoc is a user generated community where you can find and share professional documents. You can find free legal documents and free business documents as well as upload your documents for all the world to share.

Favorite Docs:

• Web Development Contract
• Business Plan Worksheet
• Invoice Template

4) Instigator Blog

The Instigator Blog is all about instigating discussion, ideas and better business. It is focused on entrepreneurship, small business, marketing and technology, with a heavy dose of humor.

Favorite Posts:

• An Introductory Guide to Startup Funding
• 10 Steps to Building a Social Media Empire
• 10 Essential Business Leadership Skills

5) ProBlogger

ProBlogger is dedicated to helping other bloggers learn the skills of blogging, share their own experiences and promote the blogging medium. The over well over 3500 articles, tips, tutorials and case studies for bloggers.

Favorite Posts:

• How Bloggers Make Money from Blogs
• Blogging Tips for Beginners
• Adsense Tips for Bloggers 1

6) How To Change The World

Guy Kawasaki is a managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Entrepreneur Magazine. His blog, How To Change The World, is about entrepreneurship, marketing, venture capital, and evangelism.

Favorite Posts:

• The Top Ten Stupid Ways to Hinder Market Adoption
• The Entrepreneur’s New Year’s Resolution: “I Will Fix My Pitch”
• Ten Questions With Aziza Mohmmand

7) Entrepreneur’s Journey

Entrepreneur’s Journey is a blog aimed at those interested in Internet business and Blogging. The blog is aimed to help you with all aspects of starting and running your own Internet business and making money online.

Favorite Posts:

• Do You Want To Run Your Own Business? Read This First!
• The Top 8 Search Engine Optimization Techniques
• How I Have Made Money Online

What are your favorite websites for venture start-ups?

Last week I offered free SEO advice for myaboo. I’m going to continue my SEO Advice series today by helping out another YoungEntrepreneur.com blog reader, Chris from Dorm Room Biz.

Dorm Room Biz - http://www.dorm-room-biz.com

Hi Evan,

I just saw your post on providing SEO advice to some different blogs and thought that I would submit my site, Dorm Room Biz. I think it would be a great step for my site to get some extra advice on making it better and attracting some more visitors! The site is at www.dorm-room-biz.com; please let me know what you think!!

I look forward to hearing back from you!

Thanks,

–
Chris Pund

My Recommendations

1) Continue to focus on the basics.

You’ve done a great job in using your title tags, putting your keywords in your url string, and posting frequent content that is over 200-300 words. The advantage of using a blog publishing platform like WordPress is that it automatically adjusts for most of the basic SEO components. Continue to post daily, in depth content and Google will send you more love.

2) Watch your keyword frequency.

Make sure that the keywords you use in your title are also repeated in the post itself. For example, your post on Fake it ’til you make it offers great advice for young entrepreneurs. From the post I would assume that you are trying to rank for “Fake it ’til you make it.” This key phrase is in your title, url tag, and h2 tag (great work!) but it’s not anywhere else in your actual post. You should mention the key phrase at least a few times in your content to increase your chances of ranking for it in Google. Because you have the basics down, it’s now time to get more strategic with what you write.

3) Select Titles Carefully

Because blogging platforms optimize around the title of your posts, you want to make sure you put some research into picking which titles to use. For example, which key phrase drives more queries: fake it ’til you make it, fake it ’till you make it, fake it til you make it, or fake it until you make it? According to Google’s Keyword Tool, there actually isn’t a difference but you want to research your options before posting. Make sure to select titles that will drive targeted traffic and are popular enough to get you noticed.

4) Non SEO-Advice - Sell Direct Ads

You seem to have focused your income generation on affiliate sales and, to a minor extent, Google Ads. Direct ad sales are typically the biggest income earner for the top bloggers. At a very minimum you should put it on your Advertise page along with your sponsored posts and links section. I would also suggest going out to actively promote your blog to potential advertisers and try to get a few sponsors on board. Chances are you’ll drive a lot more money through direct sales than through your affiliate programs.

Good luck Chris!

Readers, what do you think about Dorm Room Biz?

To learn more about how to get SEO tips for your website please read my post: Need SEO Advice? Submit Your Site!

Guy Kawasaki is the blogger behind How To Change The World. According to Technorati, his blog is ranked #55 most popular of all blogs online and he gives practical advice on how to succeed as an entrepreneur.

I was first introduced to Guy a few years ago by a mutual acquaintance, Neal. Neal had brought Guy to Toronto for an event and knew that I was starting a website for entrepreneurs. He set up an email intro with Guy and within an hour I had a response.

I wanted to use some of Guy’s work and promote it on my site. I was looking for some brand name recognition as I was just getting started and Guy had one of the most popular books on the market for entrepreneurs at the time, “The Art of the Start.” Despite not knowing me he gave me his blessing to use his work and said that he “trusted me.”

I was able to use the fact that Guy Kawasaki said yes to recruit other celebrity experts who didn’t want to be the first on board. They wanted proof that what I had was something more than an idea - they wanted to see others agreeing first. It was a tremendous help to my site and I appreciate Guy’s help to this day.

What surprised me was how quickly Guy responded and how genuinely nice he was. I’m sure Guy gets bombarded with emails on a daily basis with all the ventures he has on the go as well as being a Top 100 Blogger. Everyone these days has “getting popular bloggers on board” on their list of marketing ideas so it’s all the more impressive that Guy would even bother writing back. I’ve written to a number of other top experts only to get handed off to their juniors, put off for months, or ignored completely! Luckily my site has now grown to the point where it’s easier to get a yes because I can bring some tangible value.

I’ve connected with Guy a few times over the past couple of years to suggest a few partnership ideas that I had. Each time he has said he was too busy because of other things he is working on, but I got a reply the same day, he never put down the idea that I came to him with, and he always tried to help out by recommending someone I should speak with or giving me a site with information that might help.

One of his recent replies was:

Evan,

Honestly, I’m just too jammed to do this right now. Alltop is all consuming! How about partnering with my friends at MyVenturepad.com?

Thanks!

Guy

From all the blogger’s I’ve dealt with over the years, Guy is definitely the world’s most gentlemanly. Along with the fact that he’s got great content on his blog, it’s no wonder that Guy has quickly become one of my favorite bloggers and I check in daily to see what new content he has created. If you’re wondering what Alltop is, it’s a new service that Guy has come out with. You can check out the section on Small Business for more details.

Thank you Guy for being a wonderful resource and keep up the great work!