As an Internet Marketer I use a ton of tools on a daily basis, and our staff uses even more. It is part of the game, and weeding through the crap can take a ton of time.
What takes even longer is training a staffer how to properly use the tool.
This is the disconnect that happens with tools related to Internet Marketing. People think if they buy a great tool, automatically it is going to create a change in the way they approach and succeed on the Internet. That’s a bunch of hot garbage.
A hammer, in and of itself, is simply a mixture of wood and steel. However, in the right hands a hammer can build a home. No matter what the hammer is comprised of in terms materials, in the end it is just a tool, and without expertise it is worthless on how to use it, it is simply a way to hang a picture.
This is a problem I see with a lot of Software as a Service.
That is part of the reason that when we designed the tools for Second Step Search we built them with labor as a major component. Think of it as “Service as Software”. The tools allow us to find links, qualify them, and the labor builds them. On a massive scale. The same with our content offering. We can produce more content, in more languages, at higher levels and lower prices due to the software we have built to manage the writers and editors who create the copy.
Imagine a tool, that doesn’t leave the heavy lifting up to you. It is a restaurant, where all other marketing tools are a grocery store.
That’s what makes me so excited about this project. We are giving people tools to get actual production they need, regardless of their personal skill set. I know personally I have tried almost every SEO or social media tool on the market, and probably have found 5% to be useful for my daily work. The issue is that most of these products were created for the developers themselves to use in conjunction with their skill set and knowledge base, leaving them almost useless in anyone elses hands.
On that note, there are tons of great tools, and SEJ Tools offers a version of one of them. What I will say is that if you are purchasing tools to equip your staff, you should also equip them with training on how to leverage those tools effectively.