Mike Keesling, Search Engine Marketer, on partnering with Enthusiast:

It's the single best networking partnership that I've ever been involved with. What we do for web sites doesn't overlap, but instead we complement each other.

I landed a client that I was introduced to through Enthusiast, one of the best clients I've ever had. It looks like it's going to be pretty long term and very good for the bottom line. Both of us and the client ended up winning.

A good partner is, first of all, one whose products and services complement yours. There must be synergy and benefits for the client.

Second, make sure your partner has ethics. What I'm really selling is my credibility, and I don't want to fall into guilt by association. Being associated with Enthusiast helps make me instantly acceptable by other clients."

The Power of Partnering: an interview with Mike Keesling

Q: Perhaps you could tell us a little bit about partnering, and how it serves you.

A: These days partnering is one of the most critical parts of business networking. In Enthusiast, I have found a wonderful partner in that our skill sets and services are entirely complementary. The SEO work I do has helped close an Enthusiast sale or two and several of the leads I've received from Enthusiast have converted into wonderful clients.

Q: So it works both ways, and you've benefited as much as Enthusiast:

A: I have seen my business triple in the last six months, in large part because of my association with Enthusiast. They're like having a top sales team on my side which has allowed me to concentrate more on doing the work than on finding the clients.

Q: What are some of the elements of a successful partnership? Aside from bringing you new clients, how have you and Enthusiast managed to work together?

A: Another reason the collaboration efforts have gone so smoothly between myself and Enthusiast is that they understand the importance and methodology that make up Search Engine Optimization. Content Management Systems (CMS) are clearly the wave of the future, empowering businesses and individuals to add new content to their websites without needing to know HTML programming. Unfortunately, CMS products, for the most part, are not search engine friendly. Besides being great partners to work with, Enthusiast is one of the very few CMS systems that was designed from the ground up to be search engine friendly.

Q: That's great! Are there any new projects we can look forward to in the near future between the two of you?

A: Their soon to be released upgrade will feature many new optimized search engine features; the result of a lengthy collaboration between myself and Enthusiast.

Mike Keesling
Search Engine Marketing & Optimization