Michael Cheney
Michael Cheney is a British Internet marketing consultant who has been running his own online businesses and selling marketing products for nearly two decades. He has designed over a dozen audio, print and video marketing products to help beginning marketers find success online. In particular, Cheney’s products are known for focusing on the basics and working up to concepts that many marketers begin with. Cheney’s most famous product is his “11 Days to List Profits,” in which he claims he can teach anyone who knows how to use a mouse how to earn money online in 11 days even if they don’t have a product, website, marketing experience or start up money.
Cheney’s first book, The Website Marketing Bible, was his attempt to consolidate his years of experience into an easy-to-follow, comprehensive guide for beginners and marketing veterans alike. Instead of focusing on just one topic of online business or a particular concept of Internet marketing, The Website Marketing Bible covers everything relating to Internet marketing. The notes he used to write this book came both from his own business and his experiences as a marketing consultant. Since The Website Marketing Bible, Cheney has written many other books and has also recorded CDs and filmed DVDs. Some of his titles include “Michael Cheney’s List Building Jumpstart,” “Michael Cheney’s Traffic Explosion” and “Confidential Conversation With Michael Cheney.” While The Website Marketing Bible focused on general marketing concepts and attempted to be an all-inclusive document, his other books focus more specifically on certain niche markets or marketing techniques.
A unique aspect of Cheney’s marketing training is his focus on the quality of website over the search engine ranking achieved. Most marketing gurus teach that search engine rank is the end all and be all of online marketing. Cheney differs from this status quo by saying that unless the website in question is actively converting visitors into customers, search engine rank means very little. Cheney cites one of his biggest past failures as losing many customers due to not offering his website visitors what they came to him looking for. In the beginning, Cheney failed to convert many visitors into customers simply by not giving them enough information about his services. By realizing this error and changing his website, he gained the experience and expertise he now passes onto beginners.
Cheney also advocates the use of email lists to market online products and also encourages marketers to give away free, valuable information to draw customers in. By offering samples of a product or service for free, customers can truly see what is being sold and decide for themselves whether it would be useful. For instance, Cheney runs a free training called “Internet Marketing Made Easy.” He offers this course free not only so that beginners have a chance to get started, but also because he knows that if his customers like what they receive, they will continue coming back to him for more. Once a website is effectively generating customers, Cheney advises beginning to market the website via email lists. He recommends beginning list making early on and using it regularly from the development of a product launch to the continued sales of the product.
Cheney started his marketing career at 27 when he hit rock bottom, doing drugs and drinking. Through Internet marketing, he has transformed himself and his life. He began using the Internet as early 1993 when he first started frequenting chat rooms and message boards. Two years later, Cheney was developing and marketing websites while also in college. When he graduated, he did IT work for ExxonMobil before launching his own online business as a consultant. It was around this time that he founded Seniority.co.uk, an online community for Brits over 50, which quickly became the most popular senior site in the UK. This was Cheney’s first taste of the marketing world and started him on the career path that has made him famous. Today, Cheney also runs two other websites: his consulting business, Magnet4web, and his “Website Marketing Bible” sales website. Cheney lives in Scotland, UK, with his wife and has been featured on BBC, NBC and other mainstream media.
