About the Author

Rok Hrastnik, MarketingStudies.net

Rok Hrastnik wrote the original "Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS" e-book in 2004, and then a few years later a completely revamped version, which was published in print in Japan.

However, Rok's work is no longer in any way related with RSS (except for using it as a marketer).

So, what's Rok up to now?

Rok Hrastnik is an experienced international internet marketer and manager in Central & Eastern Europe, lead by the conviction that marketers should first be driven by measurable business outcomes: sales and profits.

And that is his primary focus in working with businesses online: helping them achieve real measurable profits.

Or in his own words: "No sales, no cookies." And he also loves analytics, sincerely believing its "hot".

He is currently serving as the International Internet Director at Studio Moderna, the leading CEE direct response TV & multi-channel retailer, managing their internet operations across 22 countries (Russia, Poland, Czech Republic, Turkey, Romania, the Baltics and others).

Starting with a team of just 2 (and that included himself), Rok built the company's internet department to the current team of 140+ internet marketing professionals across the region, and transformed online into one of its key sales channels, making the company one of the leading online specialty retailers in the region.

In his spare time Rok is

• an international speaker (conferences such as MarketingSherpa's Email Summit, Conversion Conference, DMA Annual, ERA Europe Annual etc.),
• author (in 2003 he published "Unleashed the Marketing Power of RSS" in the US, critically acclaimed as "the best and most comprehensive" resource on RSS for marketers; published in 2007 in Japan) and
• entrepreneur (right now as co-owner of Mapyx, an up-and-coming leader in UK digital mapping).

His other previous experience includes online business media management, online marketing consulting to small and enterprise businesses, publishing in the US, entrepreneurship ... and even design.

His home is part-time Slovenia and part time travel between US, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, US and other CEE markets.

Connect with Rok

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Email: rok.h[at]marketingstudies.net

Some More of Rok's Present and Past

Studio Moderna

Developing and managing internet marketing for Studio Moderna on 20 Central & Eastern European markets, with full responsibility for overall internet sales channel business results, including markets such as Russia, Romania, Turkey, Poland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and others.

Started with a team of 2 employees and developed it to over 140+ internet marketing professionals, managing more than 100 webstores across the region. This included running online strategy, online organization, international online management, team development and online sub-channel development.

Developed and then implemented the Studio Moderna internet marketing strategy, making the company one of the largest e-commerce players in Central & Eastern Europe. The strategy and models developed included e-mail marketing practices, search marketing practices, online advertising models, online analytics & optimization models and more.

Today primarily focusing on overall international sales channel management, long-term strategy development, internet marketing practices development and optimization, and new online project/brand development.

Mapyx

Mapyx is quickly becoming a leading provider of digital mapping solutions for outdoor enthusiasts in the UK and Ireland. As a shareholder, Rok is assisting Mapyx in developing their online marketing strategy and implementing search marketing, e-mail marketing, online advertising, landing page optimization and online analytics.

Business Daily Finance

Internet business management for the Business Daily Finance, the first Slovenian business daily newspaper, part of Bonnier Business Press, Sweden.

Was primarily responsible for increasing internet ad sales revenues, mostly by working with the ad sales team, as well as managing online relationships with key online media agencies. Brought the company to 2nd place among all Slovene online media in terms of online ad revenues (as measured by Modiana), directly after Najdi.si, the leading local search engine. An important achievement, considering that Finance.si at the time was generating app. 10 times less traffic that the top Slovene online media properties.

While at Finance Rok also developed the e-book publishing business model and innovated multiple new online ad formats (such as the prestitial and full page ad takeover), not previously used in the country.

Consulting and Publishing

Worked as an internet marketing consultant, working with larger enterprises such Iskratel (telecommunications solutions provider), as well as mid-sized businesses such as Paron (furniture producer).

As Boris Vene’s and Nikola Grubisa’s foreign markets agent for their book “The Millionaire Mindset: How to Tap Real Wealth from Within”, he organized the translation of the book using an accomplished U.S. editor and writer, and then co-published the book as an e-book in August 2002 with one of the best recognized U.S. small business marketing experts, Joe Vitale, and then led the marketing activities for the book throughout 2003, turning it into an almost instant e-book hit.

MarketingStudies.net

MarketingStudies.net was originally built as an online marketing education platform to support the marketing of Rok's "Unleash the Marketing Power of RSS" book, critically acclaimed as the best and most comprehensive guide on RSS marketing by top US internet marketers. With the shift of Rok's interests from RSS the website went on a years long hiatus, and is getting ready to be re-launched "soon".

In the meantime, however, it was transformed to serve as his online publishing platform for Slovenia.

Donos

Donos is a personal finance consulting company.

At Donos, Rok was responsible for online marketing development and execution, helping the company increase its total sales volume by 300% in the first 6 months of implementing the internet as a communications channel and by five times in the first year, with an investment of under $1,500. Following this initial success and during Rok's time there the company shifted all of its prospect acquisition investments fully online, as well as focused heavily on using e-mail to educate prospects, build a relationship with them and facilitate their purchase decision.

Rok sold his share in the company in 2003 to invest in new online businesses.

International Speaker

• Featured speaker at MarketingSherpa's Email Summit in 2009
• Speaker at Conversion Conference London 2010
• Regular speaker at DMA Annual (2007 - 2010) and ACCM (2007 - 2010)
• Regular speaker at various conferences in Europe, such as ERA Europe Annual (2008 and 2010, Monte Carlo), Internet CEE (2008, Poland), German Teleshopping Conference (2008 and 2007, Germany), German Mail Order Conference (2006, Germany) etc.
• Practically non-stop speaker at various online marketing workshops in Slovenia
• His favorite speaking experience is doing a series of 7 seminars in a single month, presenting to a total of more than 2,900 attendees

Other Contributors to "Unleas the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS"

"Unleash the Marketing & Publishing Power of RSS" also features contributions and interviews with leading RSS experts, marketers, thought-leaders and developers, and thus provides a really full-circle view of RSS marketing through cumulative knowledge of the top minds in this industry.

Other contributors include:

• Tinu Abayomi-Paul, FreeTrafficTip.com
• Greg Reinacker, NewsGator
• Mark Carlson, SimpleFeed
• Stuart Watson, SyndicateIQ
• Ovi Crisan, 2RSS.com
• Robin Good, MasterNewMedia.org
• Dana VanDen Heuvel, blogsAvant
• Bill French and F. Andy Seidl, MyST Technology Partners
• Tom Hespos, Underscore Marketing
• Bill Flitter, Pheedo
• John Moore, Brand Autopsy
• Laura Ries, Ries & Ries
• Amy Gahran, Gahran.com
• Åsk Wäppling, Adland
• Fergus Burns, Nooked.com
• Eric Ward, EricWard.com
• Shawn Collins, Shawn Collins Consulting
• Paul Chaney, Radiant Marketing Group
• Jim Gray, Quikonnex.com
• Alex Barnett, Microsoft, UK
• Sally Falkow, ExpansionPlus
• Alan Webb, ABAKUS
• Olga Farber Becker
• Tom Barnes, MediaThink
• Crt Jakhel, Dergan
• Jeanne S. Jennings, JeanneJennings.com
• Tig Tillinghast, MarketingVox
• James Robertson, Cincom
• Kim Bloomer, KimBloomer.com
• Trina Schiller, TLC Promotions
• Rick Bruner, Executive Summary Consulting
• Derek Scruggs, Escalan
• Christopher Knight, EmailUniverse.com
• Chad Williams, RSSads
• Alain Jourdier, MarketingDriven
• Heiko Hebig, Six Apart
• Kevin Bidwell, All-In-One-Business.com
• Doug Hudiburg, The Daily Marketing Ace
• Dwight Shih, Ideoplex

Download the e-book for free!

Learn how to take full marketing advantage of RSS and get all the expertise, knowledge and how-to information for implementing RSS in your marketing mix, from direct marketing, PR and online publishing to SEO, traffic generation and customer relationship management.

"Unleash" starts with the basics, but also goes beyond to advanced RSS marketing topics not covered elsewhere, such as using RSS for direct and affiliate marketing, RSS metrics, RSS promotion and SEO and even internal communications.

Click here to download the e-book now or browse this site to find out more about RSS marketing and the contents of the e-book.

Just don't forget - it was written and published so long ago, that many things have changed since. While it still has its uses, look at it first as a piece of internet history and not as a reference guide for 2011 and beyond.