R.I.P. SEO

R.I.P. SEO

Imagine one day you logged onto your computer only to find your business had disappeared from the Internet. No sales, no clicks, no visitors, no nothing.

Your presence online had virtually been deleted. Because your chief marketing strategy had suddenly and inexplicably been outlawed.

Suddenly you had no way to reach your market, no way to attract prospects, no way to basically earn a living.

OK, while that scenario may sound a bit apocalyptic, the end result danger can be very real.  Especially if you fall into the trap that far too many entrepreneurs do.

The trap of trying to build their reputation, their following, their credibility all on their own. And to do it by relying solely on one overly popular strategy to get it done… SEO.

What if SEO died?

So let me ask you a question? What if there was no more SEO? What if it was outlawed around the world? What if your single biggest source of traffic was stamped DOA?

What would you do?

Ridiculous question? Well maybe. But the truth is, there is a very real danger to relying on any one tactic or strategy too heavily.

And unfortunately it’s an error that too many entrepreneurs make right out of the gate. They focus far too much of their time on one single tactic or another. And that, by itself, is a dangerous strategy.

Marketing strategist Jay Abraham once called it, building a “one legged table.” If something happens to that one leg, your business could be wiped out.

So it’s far smarter to have a more flexible more robust strategy to not only protect yourself, but also to continuously grow your business.

Alternatives to DIY…

One of the key alternatives to doing it yourself, is something I call “Standing on the shoulders of Giants.” That basically means leveraging other online business peoples lists, reputations, and communities.

It’s not that hard.

The key to getting your content out with them is by thinking about their self-interest. What would make them look good in the eyes of their followers.

Then simply create some value that they’d be happy to share with their crowd. It can be an interview with them. Or offer to write a guest blog. Contribute an article or a podcast…

If that sounds impossible remember, just like you, they have to create killer content for their crowd. If you can offer them something they would be happy to offer, they’ll most likely jump at it in a heartbeat. They’re giving their followers great value, and they’re getting a load of work off their own desk.

And they’re giving you a great boost in your reach throughout the Internet.

So here’s your action step. Find two or three celebrities in your niche, and think of what kind of value you could offer them to make their lives easier…
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The Obstacle With MicroPayments.

The Obstacle With MicroPayments.

As Marketing Pilgrim reported today, Google is now trialing a new micro-payment service.

The article, Would You Pay 50 Cents to Read This Post? Google Tests Micropayments for Content, starts by saying:

“People have always been happy to pay for newspaper and magazine subscriptions, as long as the words arrived printed on actual paper. Asking those same people to buy that same content in digital form is another story”

and goes on to raise an obvious question:

“What they’re building is iTunes for content instead of music. A song for $.99 is an impulse buy, a $9.99 album not so much. The difference is, we listen to songs over and over again. How many articles would you read more than once?”

THE THING IS THOUGH…

What people are buying, when purchasing a newspaper or a magazine, especially traditionally, is not the information, OR it being ‘printed on actually paper‘.

They were paying for the access to information.

AND ALAS THE CURRENT PROBLEM facing online publishers…

… access to alternate pieces of “micro- content”, content only worth 50cents, is in abundance on the web.

Want to find out about different knitting yarns?

1] You can stumble across this page, probably from a google search, decide the information is worth 50cents to you, fumble through login/purchase process, and then consume the content.

OR

2] You can stumble across this page, probably from a good search, realise they want to charge you 50cents, decide the time and effort to login isn’t worth 50cents, hit the back button, click the 2nd listing in the Google results, and then consume that content. 

As the author points out, iTunes is entertainment; and people are clearly willing to pay .99 cents for entertainment they can enjoy over and over again.

But information?

Most information is consumed once, and then internalised in the form of knowledge.

… and as I said, it was and still is the access to the information (for consumption and retention) that people are willing to pay for,

… only if made available in a (perceived) vacuum, without easily accessible alternatives.

It is this ‘perceived vacuum’ that is the true obstacle that online publishers need to overcome to make micro-payments succeed.

 

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PreneurCast075: The Cost of Doing Digital Business

PreneurCast075: The Cost of Doing Digital Business
Pete and Dom discuss the issue of people complaining that major companies like Apple and Amazon want a large share of revenue from authors or publishers of digital books, audio products or other digital media, and why this is the wrong perspective to take.

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“But My Business Is Different!”

“But My Business Is Different!”

I think I need to make this a non-commandment of the Preneur Community.

I hear it so often from many deluded would-be successful entrepreneurs, cutting themselves off at the knees with their own short-sighted self-sabotage, thinking this is a huge temptation but couldn’t be more wrong.

Not only are ALL, and I repeat and reinforce, ALL businesses fundamentally, mechanically the same when it comes to marketing, lead generation and sales.

It’s a ‘not-so-secret’ success trait practiced by the highest-earning entrepreneurs: to ‘Swipe + Deploy’, ‘Translate + Transfer’, ‘Mix, Match + Mold’ strategies, ideas and examples from outside their field into their business to gain competitive edge and create breakthroughs.

This is especially true of “online marketers” unwilling to even acknowledge that there is no such thing as an “online business,” their blinders limiting them to see that the internet is just another medium, that marketing and business principles are true no matter what the media — online, retail, e-comm, blue-collar tradie services, etc. (and it’s just as true for traditional industries’ inability to adapt or embrace ideas from the online world).

If you are incapable of, or bluntly, too darn lazy to examine information, case studies and campaigns from businesses markedly different than your own and deploy it to your business for self-gain, you, frankly, lack a vital key entrepreneurial skill.

As Dan Kennedy puts it:

Unfortunately, most business owners behave as if Amish: mentally staying in their own little box, suspicious of the outside world.

Do I really need to roll out the overused example of McDonald’s “ethically swiping” the drive-thru idea from the banking industry to reinforce the point? I sure hope not.

To this point, I encourage to take action today, open up your eyes, look around, and see if you can find one idea, one way a business (that’s not in your industry) is generating leads, converting those leads, or monetizing their products and services that you can put in your mental filing cabinet for use in your business be it now or in the future.

You should always be on the lookout, proactively building this swipe file of implementable ideas.

And to that, here’s a case in point, wheeled out for you on a silver platter so you have no excuse to move on it.

It’s a new report from the team behind the awesomely named app development company Secret HQ Games called App & Game Monetization Guide.

It’s a 50+ page report, covering 50+ ways to monetize an app…

…and it’s only $1.

http://www.preneurmarketing.com/app-report

I personally want to help you build this habit of looking in different industries and verticals. So if you invest $1 in this guide, add it to your swipe-and-deploy library, and if you can’t get one single lesson or idea that is transferable to your business or industry, I’ll give you a 500% ROI. Yep, I’ll PayPal you 5 times your investment… A whopping $5.

See, I know my metrics. If that sort of guarantee is what’s needed to get you thinking the right way about your business, building the right habits, and taking action today, it’s worth it. I’ll still be profitable, you’ll be profitable and thank me for it (and that’s a lesson for another time).

So here’s your call to action, or call to arms if you will.

Invest $1 in your business, in your swipe file, in the correct commandment, “My business is NOT fundamentally different.”

Yes, the app industry is essentially new, but the “business” of selling games, entertainment and generating buzz is centuries old. There ARE many lessons in this little gem of a book that is applicable to ALL businesses, industries and in particular, your marketing.

Check it out:
http://www.preneurmarketing.com/app-report

 

 

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Over The Shoulder With Oren Klaff on Pitch Anything

Over The Shoulder With Oren Klaff on Pitch Anything

Something a little exclusive today.

I was recently having a Skype conversation with Oren (for those who don’t know, author of Pitch Anything), and getting his advice on a few things when we dropped some gold!

Luckily, actually it’s not really luck, I have my Skype Call Recorded set to auto-record all conversations, and was able to edit out all the private bits, get some slides created and share the advice he gave me, here with you.

Now don’t skip this saying “I don’t have to pitch or raise capital… this doesn’t apply to me” … You couldn’t be more wrong. There is a very fine line between pitching and selling in general, and everyone sells. So shake that attitude off, and dive into this 10min video and look for how you can apply this in your business.

Enjoy!

 

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