The end of 2009 and into 2010 was proving to be a very difficult year for my company, Taz Solutions, Inc. a web marketing, strategy, PR, and design firm. I discovered that the old ways of doing business were just not working in the “new economy. “

Rather than simply lowering the prices, I knew I needed to think outside the box. I decided to turn to the most well known marketing brand in history; Guerrilla Marketing. I’ve been familiar with Guerrilla Marketing for years, but I had never really fully utilized its power. The whole essence behind Guerrilla Marketing is using time, energy and imagination rather then money, which was simply perfect as I was strapped for cash!  Instead of just reading some more of the materials, I decided to take some massive action — I fly out to Orlando and spent several days with Jay Conrad Levinson to become a Guerrilla Marketing Master Trainer.  They were so impressed with my style and commitment, they made me the Chief Marketing Officer for their whole company!  Check them out at www.gmarketing.com <http://www.gmarketing.com/>

When I started delving deeper into the concepts of Guerrilla Marketing, I found that there were over 200 Guerrilla Marketing weapons that I could put into action. Rather then test out all 200, I tested about 30 of them. The following are my top five favorites that produced the best return.

1) Designated Guerrilla

To keep our strategies organized and streamlined, I decided to make one person at my company the designated guerrilla. This person was responsible for the marketing calendar, and making sure that the Guerrilla Marketing weapons we were putting into place were being done correctly and tracked to the nth degree.

2) Extra Value

I’ve never been a fan of dropping prices, especially since I never compete on price. Therefore, in order to make sure we started winning more deals, we began increasing the amount of value provided for clients. Here are some examples of what our clients now receive: a client-only event once a year (educational in nature), access to our training portal, and even a virtual assistant for ten hours a week at no cost.

3) Testimonials

I had testimonials all over the place, but I wasn’t leveraging them. I also discovered that using video testimonials, as opposed to just text, worked much better. Rather then just letting the testimonials sit dormant on the web site; I integrated them into the marketing materials as well as the sales process. This took the social proof factor up to a whole new level.

4) Authoring a Book

A book is the best possible business card you can ever have. It took a lot more work than I expected, but the results have proven to be invaluable.

5) Free Public Talks

My favorite Guerrilla Marketing weapon is free public talks. I contacted various chamber of commerce organizations as well as some local business groups and offered to come and speak on various topics relating to web marketing, monetizing social media, and web 3.0 marketing. They were thrilled because they were used to paying speakers, and I was happy because I was able to practice education-based marketing and contribute to the local business community. I did not even have to “pitch” my business to the crowd, which would have been a little tacky. People simply came up to me afterwards asking for my business card.

If you’re looking to generate some business without spending a lot of money, Guerrilla Marketing has worked wonders for me and my businesses.

© 2010 Michael Tasner, author of Marketing in the Moment: The Practical Guide to Using Web 3.0 Marketing to Reach Your Customers First

Author Bio
Michael Tasner is an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and charity proponent who specializes in helping people achieve their dreams in life and goals in business. He founded Taz Solutions, Inc., in 2000 and has built it into a leading Web marketing firm with more than 1000 contractors involved in all areas of online/Internet strategy, marketing, and web site design.

For more information, please visit michaeltasner.com <http://michaeltasner.com/> , follow the author on Twitter <http://twitter.com/michaeltasner>  and connect with him on Facebook <http://www.facebook.com/michaeltasner> .

Joel J. Greenwald, Esq., Founder and Managing Partner of Greenwald Doherty, LLP, a labor and employment law firm in New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut, is a friend of mine who I met at the Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO).

He was recently recognized by the New York Enterprise Report (NYER), a publication serving the New York tri-state area small and midsize business market, as both the Attorney of the Year and Best Employment Law Attorney. This honor was received at the NYER Best Accountants and Attorneys for Growing Businesses; the special awards event that recognizes the New York area’s top business advisors.

I was at the event.  Actually, my HJMT staff worked with Rob Levin, publisher of magazine, to coordinate and organize the event, which was held at the Trump Soho in New York City.

When Joel received the awards, I was so happy for him.  He does so much for the entrepreneurial community.  I learned so much from him.  As a matter of fact, I attended two of his EO huddles.  Things that I never thought about were brought to life and for that, I’m in deep appreciation for him.

The judging for the NYER Best Accountants and Attorneys for Growing Businesses were done on a number of different criteria such as the positive impact on the business community and how each nominee went “above and beyond” in helping their clients succeed. Each entry was rated and scored with the highest total score chosen as this year’s recipient.

Although my staff worked on the event, we had no idea who was getting the awards that evening and when Joel received those two, I just smiled.

Joel can be reached at Greenwald Doherty, LLP, call (212) 644-1310, email firm@greenwaldllp.com or visit www.greenwaldllp.com

Tee shirts are great advertisements.  Everyone reads what is on your shirt, no matter if it’s a small Nike icon or a full blown photo and statement.

At the gym today I wore a tee shirt that I bought when I went rafting down the Colorado river.  It reads: “Women who behave rarely make history.”

When I think about it, I think of women during the wild west who struggled to keep their families alive during the long journey.  The women during World War II, when they had to fill their husband’s jobs.  And I think about the women who burned their bras during the 1960′s to get equal rights.

Think about women who have made history today — Oprah, Hillary Clinton, Sandra Day O’Connor, Madonna, Lady Gaga and me, Hilary Topper (well, maybe?). In any event, they have all broken out of the “ideal woman” barrier and have gone out of the box to make a statement.  Because women who behave rarely make history!

When my daughter was in fifth grade, she was the victim of cyber bullying.  I later found out that she wasn’t alone.  This cyber bullying was all done on Facebook, a site that has no parental controls and anyone can “friend” anyone. The major thing I didn’t like was that I couldn’t see what she was writing or saying unless she “friended” me, which she didn’t do. It was a scary time for me as I’m sure it was/is for other parents.

In May 2010, a new social networking site was launched, called Togetherville. The site is free and specifically geared for children under the age of 10 and their parents. The best part is that a child cannot link with another child or adult that his/her parent doesn’t know.  This provides a sense of safety and security for both the parent and the child.

Interestingly, Togetherville is associated with Facebook.  When a parent signs in, he/she does it through his/her Facebook page.  Friends and relatives can be found through Facebook.

The parent has the opportunity to interact with his/her child and see what the child sees.  Parents can also see weekly reports on what the child is doing.  He/she can also view artwork and share with his her community either on Togetherville or on Facebook.  Most importantly, the parent has an all access pass to the child’s profile and has control over who the child interacts with.

The child has a very different experience.  As a child, it’s all about fun! One of the ways to have fun is to create things like Happy Birthday cards, gifts, logos and other artwork.

Children can play various games that are both male and female oriented. Application developers that allow children to experience online social interactions with an educational component designed these games.

And, children can watch trailers and other age appropriate videos that also appear on YouTube.  However, all of the YouTube videos are age appropriate.  For example, there is one video where a basketball player received the world record for dribbling.  Another video demonstrates the use of Crayola Crayons and various “new” techniques for the 100-year-old product.

Once both the children and the adult logs in, they could post a status update.  Then every time they do something on the site, it asks them various questions and gives a pull down menu to select the most appropriate answer.

Interestingly, there is a trendy topics area very much like Twitter.  This area talks about current events and asks children what they think with the pull down menu.

Other elements include gifts that can be given from a parent to a child or visa versa, badges, which can be earned on or offline and allowance which enables children to purchase virtual goods, games, and gifts within his/her community or neighborhood as the folks at Togetherville call it.

When you log into Togetherville, there are beautiful photos of diverse children smiling, playing and just being happy.  It puts a smile on your face when you see these photos.

As a matter of fact, I’m really happy that co-founders, Mandeep Dhillon and Rajveer Singh Tut invented this site.  It’s fun, interesting and entertaining for both parents and their children.  Hopefully this site will alleviate some of the cyber bullying that was and is still on Facebook.

I have a thing for anything Long Island.  I love the music, the food, the culture and the people.  So when I have an opportunity to review an artist from Long Island, I get excited.

Recently I had the opportunity to listen to An Evening With, a new Long Island band that focuses on rock, pop and pop-punk.  An Evening With really stuck out.  I enjoyed the music.  It was right in line with what I like to listen to.  I think the band could easily be heard on Alt Nation on Sirius/XM.

An Evening With consists of Jay Alexander (vocals), Mario Mendoza (guitar, vox), ReDi (drums), Mike DiRoma (guitar, vox) and Adam Pallack (bass, vox).  All are from the Moriches on Long Island, New York.  Jay Alexander started the band and then the others joined in after. The band members are young, have high energy and a great sound.

When you listen to the album, Cruel Intentions, you can tell the Fall Out Boys, Blink-182 and Boys Like Girls influenced the band.  The music is tight and stirs up positive energy.

Cruel Intentions is the band’s first full length debut album and was released in October 2009. To date, the band has more than 25,000 downloads on iTunes, Napster and Purevolume.   The album was recorded and produced by Rob Freeman of Hidden in Plainview, New York.  Freeman has also recorded artists like, Hit the Lights, Cobra Starship and Armor For Sleep.

The first song on the album, Forever Young, draws you in like a good book.  Some of the songs, like Invincible and Hearts on Fire, start off slow and acoustic and one may think they will be mellow, but when the entire band chimes in with their electric guitars, it’s high energy all the way.  You can’t help but bop your head to the music.

I’m impressed with the whole band but in particular ReDi, the drummer, who keeps the beat going strong throughout the entire album.  I also really enjoyed listening to Jay Alexander and the rest of the guys on vocals. Their voices sounded good together.

My favorite song on the album is Luck & Cruel Intentions.  It reminds me of a cross between My Chemical Romance and Linkin Park. It starts off as a new age sound and then triumphs with a hard rock sound.  Songs like this get me moving!

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This blog “Music Review: An Evening With Cruel Intentions” was first published in Blogcritics.org.