Make Money Alert: The New Guru Scam to Avoid

Some days I just can’t sit still.  I feel like a pot boiling.  It’s like I am sealed up and ready to explode. I am all filled with ideas and things I want to try.

This keyboard should be exploding! 

The truth!  I am stuck.  You see I have all these great things I want to try but no one to try them with. How do you charge a client for something that you are not 100% sure will work? And I’ve created so much overhead with my design business that I can’t afford to gamble.  I’m stumped.

I’m desperate.

I am ready to make something happen.  I am tired of the limits imposed on me by other people’s budgets and lack of vision. I want to make you feel what I am writing.  I want my content and photos give you Goosebumps.  I want my content make your hair stand up.

I am not scared of dark hallways or clocks clicking.  But I can’t handle another half-assed website, with half-assed content, being built on a half-assed budget.

It’s not good enough, start over.  I keep thinking I’ve figured it out.  But no wait…

Give me a break!!

But I think deep down I am scared.

But why am I afraid?  I feel like a slave to the web design industry. 

I am not a quitter.  But it’s now or never.  It’s all or nothing.  It’s a race against the clock.  It’s all about making my voice heard.  I can’t give anyone a choice. With SMO & SEO I might have half a chance at making this work.

The online marketing landscape is constantly changing. And I don’t want to deal with customers or create products. So…where does that leave me?

Oh and let’s not forget, I’ve got no money to invest and a deadline of 30 days to see results.

I feel like I’ll make a fool out of myself but what the heck. I use to love doing this; so what scares me this time?

Either way I told some friends I was planning on doing this so there isn’t going to be an evacuation because the one thing I don’t have is time to waste.

So my solution is a second try at affiliate marketing.

But with most companies not wanting to deal with me because I am in Colombia and others wanting to hold my money for more months then I can afford my options are limited.

Limited down to selling silicone wristbands as an affiliate.

I am sitting here talking to my beautiful sweet loving daughter about all the things see’s never seen. Like records!

My daughter is 12 years old but has never seen a record before. She’s got no idea what I am even talking about. And doesn’t much care!

And how much worst will the next generation be? When I was 12 years old I was raising two younger brothers and two younger sisters. I cleaned house and cooked dinners. In my spare time I picked coffee to help pay the bills.

This generation brings the games with them. Right in their hands! Now Isn’t That Cool!

These kids could care less about our history. They just want to know when the next release is coming out for their little hand held device.

Kids demonstrating all over the country acting like their doing without while holding a device that does everything any of them ever want to do.

The Internet has changed the way we view the world. Information is sent to us in seconds. The old method of interrupting us is slowly being done away with.

My kids and grandkids will never know how intrusive marketing use to be.

If the way we market today is with conversations then the way businesses marketed before were with interruptions. A television commercial, radio ad, direct mail, spam, anything that prevents me from doing what I am currently doing is an interruption.

We are seeing a decline in these methods because they do not connect with the customer.

The old system is impossible to track. And speaking as a viewer it does not connect.

Magazines use to get top dollar because they knew a little about their viewers.

Facebook knows when your kids graduate. Facebook knows when it’s your wife’s birthday. Facebook knows when your daughter is getting married. Facebook knows where you vacation. Facebook knows when you vacation. Facebook knows how you vacation. Facebook knows what you like to do and when you like to do it. Hell… Facebook will know when you are getting a divorce before you will.

This is a marketers dream!

The way we market today is nothing like it used to be. The way we market today is about delivering information that’s valuable to the person that’s receiving it. Marketing today is about creating content that builds trust, credibility, and authority. Today’s marketing is about satisfied customers.

The new way of marketing is about doing a lot of things right.

You need to have a credible website. You need to have a credible blog. You’ve got to be participating on sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and the like. By participating I mean providing good, meaningful helpful, insightful content for free with no strings attached. This means a steady stream of tips and advice about things that are important to the people that are following you.

It’s about leaving no stone unturned.

You want to be everywhere. You want to be hanging out, giving out great information and advice, no matter what direction your potential client turns. This has to be your mission. The whole time learning from your potential clients as well as your current clients. Learning what they want. Learning what they need. Learning how your product can better serve them. Learning what would make them buy more of your products or services.

This is a game changer!

To be a successful business you have to become a publisher of information. You’ve got to become your own private TV station. Your own private radio station. Your own private newspaper.

In the past if I wanted information on turtles I would go to the library and look for an old outdated book on turtles. Or I could ask the local vet. Whether the vet would know anything about turtles would be debatable.

However today I would just Google it.

Now I can find a guy who is an expert on nothing but turtles. This guy does nothing but study turtles all day. His information is more extensive than the information at the library or vet.

I can take a photo of my turtle and post it on the guys Facebook page. He’ll then tell me everything I want to know about my turtle.

Who do you think I’ll be buying my turtle products from?

All you have to do is focus on delivering relevant, valuable, correct, helpful, insightful information that’s able to get people’s attention in your industry.

This creates trust, credibility, and builds you up as an expert in your industry. People will come to you when they are ready to buy something.

That’s it.

What does content have to do with search engine optimization?

Well actually…everything!

Search engine optimization is the practice of using a variety of techniques to improve a company’s rankings on the search engines for that company’s CONTENT.

The words and phrases you use in your content, the clips you choose for your videos, and the way you sound in the podcasts all contribute to the overall picture of your web success.

You tag and optimize this information so it does not go unnoticed.

And what’s all this talk about SMO?

SMO is social media optimization and it’s every bit as important as SEO.

It’s the activity of finding and attracting unique visitors to your website.

There are two Kinds of SMO

SMO were features are added to the content. Like RSS feeds, sharing buttons, user ratings, polling tools, and many others like images and videos.

The second kind of SMO includes activities like blogging, commenting, posting photos, discussion groups…

It doesn’t matter how great your content is if no one sees it.

Your first step should be creating profiles on social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and any others you can think of.

When it comes to content marketing SEO and SEM plays a major role. They are tools in your marketing tool box.

It doesn’t matter how great your content is if no one sees it.

Great content ensures long-term success. Great content builds brand recognition.

Brand building is establishing a recognizable presence. Brand building is having a standard way of doing things. Brand building is establishing a certain level of confidence in the minds of your customers.

Your customers should always know what to expect when doing business with you. Then you need awesome content. You need awesome content because great brands always communicate very well.

Now there are basically three types of content.

1. Your website pages: homepage, service page, case studies, blog.
   
2. Content that is created for lead generation. This is landing pages, white papers, webinars, emails and e-books. This is the type of content that most companies have yet to discover.
   
3. Social media content. This is your tweets, videos, power point presentations, slideshows, photo shares, status updates and the list goes on.
   

If you are serious about making money online then you need to create content in all of these areas. And you need to produce all types of content hard-hitting copy, powerful audio, and visually appealing video.

The secret is in automating the process and leveraging it with tools.

Before I start writing content I want to figure out how I am going to get it in front of my target audience. About the best way I know of to do this is with a blog. A must read blog for people in my industry.

I can use it to build a relationship with my target market. And since the search engines love blogs I can start driving people to my content.

But here’s the thing, my audience has to love my blog. In order to do this I have to write content that will make their lives better, more interesting, happier, more product, and more profitable.

My content has to be good enough to get people to sign up for my RSS feed or newsletter.

That’s when I know I have them!

Now it’s time to build a relationship.

You have to have good quality content. You have to be able to teach and entertain more than sell. You have to be able to use metaphors and tell stories to make your content conversational and easy to read and understand.

But the same time you have to use techniques to create an audience of buyers, not just loyal readers. You’ve got to learn how to add persuasive elements to your writing, your videos, and your photos.

At the same time you are doing this you have to be getting more information about your audience. What are their likes, dislikes, where do they live, what makes them buy, and more?

Basically you’re building a relationship based on trust. Making your target market fall in love with you.

And then…when someone in your audience is ready to make a purchase you’ll send them to a well-crafted landing page on your website.

Basically the way your website should be laid out is that the only pages trying to sale are the ones that are designed to sale. These are the pages with the great offers and clear call to actions.

Keep in mind that once customers by the first time, if their happy with their purchase, then there is a good chance they’ll buy from you again.

If you do this correctly they’ll tell people about you. They’ll follow you wherever you go.

And when this happens you know you’re just getting started!

Now…you want to make sure you get the most out of everything you do.

So here’s what we are going to do.

Once you get active with your blog, your videos, your Facebook fan page, and so you want to make sure you get the most out of it.

I almost forgot about client generated content…testimonials, interviews, samples of work, case studies, products and product reviews.

And everything will be optimized for the search engines.