Is it just me, or has this been one of the worst past two months in a long time?

The very definition of “Urban Professional” is one who is upwardly mobile, ambitious, financially savvy, and easily adapts to their environment.  Urban Professionals are educated, and conscious of the environment around them (whether political, social, or cultural, we are the Captains of our surroundings).  This is one of the main reasons we started RoddyJonesTrading.com; to market fashion clothing and accessories to urban professionals while providing them designer products at good prices.

However, as the stock market goes, so goes our business and clientele.  Because of the sour economy, we’ve had to adapt our marketing efforts and business practices.  My fellow Urban Professionals, what have you been doing to adapt to the current economy?

One negative trait of many business people is that when we come across a good idea or successful model, we tend to keep it to ourselves instead of passing our knowledge to others.  However, I believe when people of similar backgrounds, beliefs, and goals dialogue and work together, shared success is possible.  So, all my fellow urban professionals, I’ll ask again, what are you doing to adapt to the current economy?

We are using the down economy to get back to our roots–we call it “diamond in the rough” marketing.  Our best clientele are the ones who found us via marketing efforts that didn’t cost a penny.  Honestly, we’ve experienced our highest conversion rates from people who found us on a blog link, internet article, or even Craigslist and Backpage.  While PPC does bring some sales, the fashion clothing and designer accessories market is so competitive that the conversions are often just not there.

Getting back to our roots, and knowing that the best marketing is free, we researched the web and found several websites that help small internet business owners for free or at a very reasonable monthly rate.  The websites that we would recommend are Wealthy Affiliate, Marketing Sphere, and Marketing Pilgrim.

I’m not going to give too much time giving “shout outs”, but these websites are definitely worth bookmarking for valuable information on internet marketing.  Marketing Sphere and Marketing Pilgrim are both free websites that give really good gouge (Navy word for information) on internet marketing and affiliate marketing.  Marketing Pilgrim is built like a community, and I always enjoy a website where people actually interact and share ideas (as I am hoping for TheUrbanProfessional.com)  Both websites have enough information to keep you busy for quite some time.

I have only become recently familiar with Wealthy Affiliate.  From what I can tell though, this website is one of the best resources of ANY type that I’ve seen on the internet.  My first impression was that Wealthy Affiliate was a scam–i.e., another one of those “make money online” or “home internet business” get rich quick schemes.  However, after doing the research I decided to try the website.  While they cost about $39/month, I truly love this website.  The site is geared as a resource for those getting into affiliate marketing, but I’m finding information, lesson plans, and forums that have been extremely helpful in internet marketing.  The website even includes a keyword discovery tool, free web hosting, and website designer (All of which I wish I’d known two years ago).

Anyhow, this is my start to a post that I hope to be a wonderful discussion.  What are your thoughts?