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Meet John W. Tuggle, a guitarist living in Athens, Georgia. Thanks to SEO and social media, John was found by Gibson Guitars, uses Skype to give guitar lessons worldwide, and has a waiting list of hopeful students.
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from eMktgStrategist 1402 Days ago #
Votes: 0

Hey Matt,This is a really good case study and I’m forwarding it around to some contacts and clients.  But, I have a nagging question.  A little red flag went up when I searched on Jason van Orden.  In your case study, two different products of his are mentioned (one is a podcast and one is a book) but you don’t say they are by the same person.* "Internet Business Mastery podcast, I heard about people doing marketing through this new media, Web 2.0 age, and I knew I could make it work."* "I also learned how to promote my podcast from Jason van Orden and his excellent Promote Your Podcast book. After I applied his techniques I saw my subscribers go from five to about 250."Early in the article you say that you don’t have a professional relationship with John Tuggle but do you have a professional or social relationship with Jason van Orden?This doesn’t change how I feel about the great content you’ve included, I just want to make sure I know the whole story when I talk to folks about it.Elge

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from MattMcGee 1402 Days ago #
Votes: 0

Hi Elge - thanks for the kind words. I’d never heard of Jason Van Orden until John mentioned him in the email. I had to lookup the URL for that Internet Mastery thing when John sent me his replies to my questions. Don’t know Jason, never met him.I do know Miriam, the web designer mentioned; never met her in person, but we are email friends. Miriam responded to my first interview (from March) when I asked at the end for others to share their own small business success stories. And that’s how I got connected with John. :-)Any other questions? Please do fire away. And thx again for the compliments.

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from markalves 1402 Days ago #
Votes: 0

How refreshing to see a social media case study that shows how someone overcame real-world obstacles with persistence and creativity online. It sure beats the common  how-I-got-a-bazillion-links-in-a-fortnight posts that often are difficult to replicate for other businesses.

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from MattMcGee 1401 Days ago #
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@markalves -- I agree 100%. Even if you’re a solo act, enough hard work and creativity and you can make it work for you. Thx for your kind words.

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from earlpearl 1401 Days ago #
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That is a great story Matt and a nifty use of technology.  In fact its an amazing story of using current technology to take a business out of the basement and make it webwide.Thanks for the report....and congrats to Miriam.Dave

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from MiriamEllis 1398 Days ago #
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Thanks Dave!This was such fun, and I am just loving this series of Matt’s. What a treat to have a client featured in his column.Miriam

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from clicksharpmarketing 1293 Days ago #
Votes: 0

Matt -- I still remember this post from when I first read it... it’s always one of my go-to’s when dealing with skeptical small business owners.  Thanks for making my life easier.  We just put out a white paper called "Small Business Guide To Web-Based Video Marketing" and we’ve referenced this article among the additional resources at the end.

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