Heya Greg -
Someone may have touched on this already - I haven't read the entire thread yet.. [here goes]


1. You want clients? Get you some clients !!! My favorite stress free approach is to hire a telemarketing company and/or a college student(s), give them lists that I purchased, along with the 'telemarketing script' and push em forth. WHen they get a 'yes, I'm interested', then the prospect gets a fax and / or email , along with a follow up from me [so you do your follow ups].

2. How are you on personal networking, the human kind? Do you get out to:
a. ToastMasters
b. Sumner Chamber of Commerce [if there is such a thing]
c. Professional Business Groups
I find the personal touch a bit more convincing, if you are able to 'talk the gab' that leads to a sale. Also - if you can give presentations in quasi-English-like Business Language to Professional Groups in your area, say covering the topic of 'Automating the Office PaperWork Flow' - you should get a good response out of each presentation. You can ask to be scheduled to speak at a myriad of groups in your area.

3. Have you thought about putting a salesrep on commission ?

4. Want to Web-a-Cize yourself ? Get a website [my fav hoster is LunarPages, at http://efgroup.net/efglunar.html] and google-ize your site, complete with Search Engine Optimization Stuff AND !!!Most Importantly - set up a google account for Google AdWords - and do a preliminary 3 day or 140 USD ceiling 'test' of your placement to click through to sales ratio. I see you have a web site already - have you google-ized your site for both top rankings AND purchased Google AdWords ? [for an example of google adWords - hit any page on the fox wiki except the main page] [googlebot info is here: http://www.google.com/bot.html ]

Check your visitor log on your website - see if the GoogleBot is a constant visitor, and add more stuff into your Meta area, and put invisible (visually) url links in at the bottom for the rest of your pages [in case your website is *THAT* dynamic]

Nota Bene - I did not see any meta tags/descriptions in your html source. Without That ? A GoogleBot Scan is pointless. [GoogleBot puts your web pages INTO it's search engine, btw]

5. Are you *IN* a particular vertical market or technology speciality? Let other SW devs know about it. Michel sells, from time to time, targeted email distro lists from UT - ask him what he'll charge you for a list consisting of _________.. Then ? send out your targeted email to those developers. Some will consider it spam, some won't - so you've been warned ahead of time. An innocuous, less invasive approach would be to purchase ad space on UT, if you have a toolset to push/sell.

Also - suggest you formalize a developer-to-developer referral program. My standard one pays any other developer 10 percent of any sales activity.

6. Got a toll free number ? I use Kall8, a firm based around your area, actually - see http://ld.net/products/?product=kall8&cogid=efgroup for more info.

7. Client Acquisition Costs. How much of your income stream are you gonna 'give up' to close on a client? I personally think if over 20 percent, then its a tad much. I always look at 10 percent [perhaps I'm a cheap b@stard?], but at the same time, I am always in the mode of 'Zero Dollar Up Front Costs' for Client Acquisition. I can tell you more about that sometime, send me an email if you'd like more information about that.

OK - Comments about your front page on your web site..
1. you have a link to paypal there - but - its not doing you any good monetarily. It's not linking to either a payme page for GLR OR the newer PayPal Affiliate / Credit Card linkage [for an example see http://efgroup.net/paypal.html] [you're leaving money on the table, imo]

2. RentaCoder has an affiliate program as well. Suggest you sign up for it and change your urls [you're leaving money on the table, imo]

3. SectorLink has an affiliate program as well. Suggest you sign up for it and change your urls. [quote from SL HP -> Sectorlink's Affiliate Program
Signup Today! Earn up to $399 per sale plus get 10% recurring commissions on each sale. You do not have to be a Sectorlink customer to participate.]
[you're leaving money on the table, imo]

4. I like the fox/sheep animated icon. Are you one of the original Daryl's ? [vbg]

That's it for now - my mental break is over - time to get back to coding.
I wish you well in your endeavors.

Mondo Regards [Bill]