mattgratt

As far as websites, both SEOmoz and SEObook are both great, even though they represent very different opinions and frequently disagree.

There's a surplus of SEO material on the internet, ranging from great to potentially harmful if followed.

Read everything, but don't believe everything you think.

There's also a UC Berkeley data science class - http://datascienc.es/ - that's helpful.

4 Steps to the Epiphany is a phenomenal book on selling new b2b IT products.

Secrets of Question-based Selling is the best consultative sales book

SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham is also quite good

Tested Advertising Methods and Scientific Advertising continue to be two of the best books on copywriting, despite being very old.

However, for list building and 'softer' DR actions like a whitepaper download or a lead form fill, it can work very well.

There's also a lot of off-the-wall targeting things you can do, like advertising your blogger program to mommy bloggers, targeting reporters at techcrunch and mashable with your app launch, and other things that fall outside of the scope of traditional display advertising.

Check out internet brands - http://www.internetbrands.com/ib/acquisitions

As far as link opportunities, this seems to me like something that could go in: - lists of google maps mashups - lists of cartographic resources - lists of outdoors resources - On the resources page of every rafting club and outdoors club in the country - especially clubs at colleges.

Is the whitewater data you're laying over the Google Map yours, or does it come from somewhere else?

Ask nicely from other sites like yours. 'Resource' or 'Links' pages are your friend.

Ask your friends to link from their blogs. If your friends are tech folks, they probably have more than one blog or site they can add your site too.

If you post your site I'll give you some specific strategies and examples.

600 some tweets, still going. Works good in certain verticals - works really good in web analytics/online marketing.

- Marketing is Highly Situational

- Different Markets Should Be Approached Differently

- Tactics are constantly changing and evolving, so mix, match, and measure until you find something that works.

It sounds like you're looking for the essence of web marketing strategies for early stage startups. The best person blogging about this topic right now is a guy named Sean Ellis (http://www.startup-marketing.com) who's the CEO of Catchfree and ran marketing at some really amazing companies (Dropbox, Eventbrite, Xobni, etc.).

His framework, as detailed in these interviews here - http://venturehacks.com/articles/sean-ellis-interview - the Sean Ellis framework seems to be the following:

- Value Proposition Clarification based on user interviews/analytics/qualitative customer data.

- Conversion Optimization - not only conventional LPO or form optimization, but actually optimizing for high quality users, attracted by the value proposition found in part 1.

- Channel experimentation/optimization - At some level, web companies are not highly scalable until they can "buy" customers profitably - until there's a known, strong relationship between CPA (cost per acquisition) and CLTV (customer lifetime value), and of course, you can get CPA below CLTV at scale. So this step is where experimenting with different channels and different tactics fits in. Here's where you'd try different channels like paid and nonpaid social media and search engine activities, other advertising channels, affiliates, etc.

So that's what I'd do - clarify the value, optimize the conversion flow, and then relentlessly test channels until I could find something where I could acquire customers at a profit.

(In an slightly related side note, I'd suggest you read Noah Kagan's blog OKdork.com, where he writes on cool startup marketing topics.)

(Note: this assumes your product is not a social network.)

If you want to earn your audience, you're doing the right thing. Additionally, consider guest blogging on other blogs in your space.

For buying your audience, I have found Facebook ads targeted at your page can be very effective. I've paid ~$.60/US per fan, who then come to your site when you post new things, etc. I bet you could get the CPF (cost per fan) lower if you played with the optimization for a while. (I targeted the ads at people who liked sites and interests similiar to mine.)

The solution is to use a different throw-away account for each site.

If you're blogging for traffic/links ala Mint.com, you can outsource it. Mint outsourced their early blogging to a finance blogger they found.

If you're blogging for B2B customers, or to become a thought leader, outsourcing can be tougher. It still can be done, but it's tough. Many ecommerce/web marketing companies with successful blogs have outsourced most of the content creation, or use multi-author blogs.

It's free b/c it helps marketers measure and optimize their Adwords spend, and justify it to their managers. (Most search advertising requires cumbersome custom tagging - in Google Analytics, Adwords is basically integrated automatically or with one click.)

Unless I'm mistaken, this is like a hiring automation system - sort of like Salesforce.com for tracking your hiring. If I look at Salesforce.com's Sales Cloud's landing page (http://www.salesforce.com/crm/sales-force-automation/) they focus on giving your reps more time selling and less time managing - maybe a good value prop for Hirely as well?

I think "Don't Let Candidates Fall Through the Cracks" might be an interesting sub-head.

Additionally, pull the Guy Kawasaki quote. I find it confusing and distracting. I start wondering what Guy Kawasaki has to do with your product, and start trying to connect a hiring management system with actual hire quality.

I also don't see "See Everything About a Candidate on One Screen" clearly explained on the first page - which seems to be the most compelling part of your "the story of hirely" page.

Hope this helps - would love to help more.