Hall of Fame Profile: Tom Antion, Tom Antion and Associates

Tom Antion has been a professional entertainer and speaker since 1988. His company provides entertaining and informative keynote speeches and educational seminars. He also offers advanced public speaking and presentation skills training and Internet marketing training for small businesses. Tom has over 2100 paid presentations to his credit.

Tom has also been featured in The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Associated Press, Woman's World Magazine, Insight Magazine, Roll Call (the magazine of the US Congress) along with many other regional newspapers and periodicals. He's been featured on the Canadian Broadcast Network, Australian Broadcast Network, Tokyo Today Show, MSNBC plus many other radio and television stations nationwide.

Tom is the author of the best selling presentation skills book Wake 'em Up Business Presentations. And Click: The Ultimate Guide to Electronic Marketing.

The following excerpt comes from the "The Slightly Famous Web Site" chapter in Get Slightly Famous. Here, Antion discusses the Internet marketing success strategies he's used to grow his business.

Real-World Success Story
How a Professional Speaker Clicked His Way to Success

A few years ago, speaker, author, and Internet marketing expert Tom Antion decided to learn Internet marketing techniques that would help him book more speaking engagements. By systematically pursuing this goal, he's developed a powerful Internet presence that attracts plenty of speaking opportunities, and earned him a reputation within the speaking industry as an Internet marketing guru.

"I'm not all that computer literate, nor do I want or need to be," says Antion. "I just know where to click to make money, and that's all I, or any other businessperson, needs to care about."

Antion uses the Internet to sell a line of products, seminars, teleclasses, and e-books on Internet marketing. Not only that, his speaking fee has gone from $5500 to $10,500 per day, and he regularly speaks at conferences on Internet marketing (one audience bought $52,000 worth of his products after just one of his speeches). In addition, he publishes the speaking industry's largest e-mail newsletter, having signed up more than 100,000 subscribers in just two years.

Antion also leverages his online marketing to establish greater visibility and credibility within his target market. His site ranks high on most major search engines. He encourages hundreds of related sites to link to his Web site, which serves as an endorsement and traffic-generating tool. All of this tends to convince people that Antion knows what he's talking about, a fact that draws audiences to his events in droves.

"I wouldn't cold-call anybody if you put a gun to my head," says Antion. "That's why I cultivated a lot of visibility and credibility online, and sell my knowledge from my Web site. I learned that people do not hire a professional speaker or a marketer per se, they hire an expert. I merely use the Internet as another tool to demonstrate my expertise in a way that attracts prospects and opportunities."

Antion has succeeded because he makes his Web sites the center of his marketing activities, while using e-mail to affordably reach his target market. His many articles, which he publishes on a variety of Web sites, help him grow his online mailing list.