What's Going on With SWI .

Hi, Everybody!

Recently, several WA members have made contact to find out if I'm still alive. Too funny ... just on overload working on my business.

With this blog, I want to let you know what er're up to over here at SmithWorks Inc. (SWI) and more importantly, it would be awesome to hear how many of you are doing something just a little different with WA instead of affiliate marketing.

Why We Are Where We Are

For us, the decision was made for us when our (then) new governor changed the tax code in our state. All the Amazon associates who live here received a prompt email from Amazon telling us we were no longer a part of their program.

Well OK then ... :-)

Granted, there are plenty of affiliate opportunities with other companies, but we decided we wanted to have more control over our Internet presence and our long-term success.

So This Is What We Did ...

First, we wrote a continuing education course and submitted it to a national massage board. It is currently under review and we anticipate no issues with approval. This provides us a market of over 35,000 prospects within our niche. Every single one of these prospects is required to maintain 12 hours of CE each year in order to maintain licensure. It is indeed a very niche market. (BTW - ours is a 12-hour course.)

The research involved in creating the course led us to some interesting discoveries. After some intense market research involving direct contact with our niche market, we invested in the development of a plugin. This plugin will make things much easier for our niche market and the biggest news is that there is currently nothing else on the market like it but at the same time, bits and pieces of what our plugin does are offered by 3rd-party websites to our niche market.

Basically, our target market can now have their clients and prospects schedule appointments directly at the business owners website (though out tool does much more than this) and it provides follow-up emails to all parties with confirmations, schedule changes, cancellations, etc.

Currently, this type of service is available, but when the site visitor clicks "schedule appointment," they are taken to the external vendor site to complete the transaction. The ability to stay on-site is what makes our tool so unique.

We shortly expect to do an alpha release on the product so if you or anyone you know is interested in participating, please let me know and you'll be placed on our prospect list.

Whew - we've been busy people. :-)

What about you?

Are you doing anything different with the expertise you've gained through WA? It would be great to hear other stories and find out where everybody is and what you've been up to.

I can't wait to hear what you've been up to!