Web 2.0 Is Just So 2008 – ClickZ

Web 2.0 Is Just So 2008 – ClickZ

This is great article. ClickZ often puts out articles to keep in front of the reader, many of them suck. Sometimes a good one comes up, and this is one.

This article reinforces what I have been saying over and over. The new internet marketing is about giving the people what they want. The mystique of the internet is gone, it doesn’t amaze anyone anymore and no one goes on to just aimlessly search and search. If you want to stay relevant, you need to be a destination.  I am not talking about adding a chatroom to your auto parts site, but you need to be a place where people who want auto parts can go to when they don’t need auto parts.

If you cant think of a way to increase your content and add some interactivity, at the very least you need to be out there participating in other ‘networks’ and attaching your personality to your website.  This is a prime example of what is wrong with  so many agencies. They still think that you just need to build the site, maybe throw in some cool flashy doo-dads and then just leave it. That is a recipe for disaster.

Read up on Web 2.0 (I hate that term about as much as I hat the term ‘generation X’) Find out about social networks, social bookmarking, video marketing, article marketing, etc. The one constant is – Content is king, however, as I have said – the name of the game is reputation and interaction. People need interaction, with you, and with each other.

The internet is rapidly becoming another dimension where you can live part time. If you think of it that way, imagine if you lived in a world, alone, filled with nothing but shops, and in the shops there were tons of products but no people, maybe one person behind the register to take your money, but no one there to tell you if what your buying is any good, no one to talk about last weeks game, its just you.  Who would want to live in a world like that?

Outdated marketing methods – the dinosaurs still walk among us

It’s my birthday today. I am exhausted as usual. I’ve been in the office for 40 minutes and already my blood pressure is up. The decisions that are made here are based solely on speculation and outdated ideas. One bad decision after the other and a completely reactive environment. Every suggestion I make is shot down, it almost seems deliberate, like no matter what, go against the employee. More wasted money, more sub-par results.

Without going into too much detail, we are working on a project that is potentially really cool, however my enthusiasm has already been squashed because the way we are going about things is wrong, and I am tired of being ignored. The only reason I would make any suggestions now is to have the “I told you so” opportunity at the end.

I could write a novel on the wrong way to go about things. Whether you are marketing your own business or marketing someone elses, the steps that are necessary to succeed are the same.

1. Know your audience

2. Know your content

3. Know what works and what doesn’t

4. Know when to pull the trigger and when to pull the plug

Today I watch a fairly nice budget slowly get chipped away,  you could do a hell of a lot with $60,000. Let me give you an example. If you are promoting an event that is recurring, say it’s an annual event.  You should set up your marketing methods so that it builds on what you did last year. If you pay attention at all,  you should know that 85% of search marketing is reputation. A site reputation is no different than a persons reputation. To make it simple, reputation is based on age, history, and what people are saying about you. Simple enough right?

So, using those 3 pieces of reputation, which would you ithink would be the best idea?

a. Create a solid website that can be modified to fit the event each year. Build links to it, get reputation through social networking, let the site age, use it to showcase the event AFTER it happened so that the site generates traffic through out the year untl the date of the next event year? Oh yeah, and HOST THE SITE???

or would you think it was a good idea to:

b. Build the main (money site) as a profile page on a social networking site, then promote that website with paid search, viral marketing etc.  I guess you wouldn’t care that since you don’t own the site, you cannot control the uptime, you cannot harvest the email addresses or contact information directly to your database or email list. The paid search you are doing is actually promoting the network that is hosting the page, not the website, so any links that are built are actually pointed at the social network site that is hosting the page, thereby increasing the reputation of that social network (which is already the top 5 website on the internet). I don’t really need to continue here right? It’s obvious why this is an incredibly stupid idea, right? Apparently not.

There is a reason that Carl Icahn says that all CEO’s are morons.  Personally, I am totally OK admitting when I don’t know something, and if I don’t know something, I will defer to someone who does. Never assume you are the smartest guy in the room and there is no room for hunches in marketing. The beauty of marketing is that there is no shortage of stats, plans, metrics and methods that show exactly what you need to do.

Regardless of whether or not you want to be involved in the marketing of your business, you owe it to yourself to at least know what questions to ask.

1. What are you going to do to make people want to come to my site?
2. What are you going to do to get people to stay?
3. What are you doing to make them want to come back?
4. Is there a call to action on every page of the site?
5. What methods are you using to capture visitor information? Just because they aren’t interested now doesn’t mean they wont be in the future.
6. Are you taking advantage of social marketing methods? Do you understand them?
7. Are you paying attention to usability?
8. Are you leaving room to explore new avenues as they become available? Do you keep up with changing technology and trends?

Obviously, there are more but this gives you some idea. Internet marketing is interesting and fun. The ability to be able to modify campaigns at any time, stop on a dime and change directions, tweak and fine tune. There is no reason to fail.

Writing this rant gave me the idea to write up a list of questions to ask a potential search marketing company. I can give you 10 questions that will immediately tell you if the person is full of it or out of touch. I will try to get that up in the next couple days or so.

Free Money Making Information. How to make money online. Free Marketing Ebooks!

Gotcha…

I am so tired of the information marketing crap-flood that lands in my email box every day. You know the emails I am talking about, you landed here because you are the ideal target. Actually, I bet I could get you to fork over $27 in 200 words or less. You think you are savvy, but I could. I wont, but I could.

Hey Ben,

its Joe LaDouche here. I just got off the phone with  a guy who also floods you

with obnoxious emails!

I have lost the use of my left arm from excitement.  and he showed me a new

system that he has been quietly using to make 100 million dollars an hour for

the past 6 months. I talked to him for 3 hours and he literally blew my mind!

The information he shared with me is so revolutionary, I literally wet myself

and saw jesus in the pee stains on my jeans! He let me look over his shoulder

while he showed me how he could manipulate Google with his mind while

simultaneously funneling PPC money from his competitors to make his ad

show up on the inside of peoples eye lids when they sleep!

He has a FREE video up but its only going to be there for 10 more seconds

so you better get over there quick before this information is gone forever.

Just between you and me, the last time this guy put out an e-book, he

caused the earth to spin off it’s axis and toilets flushed in the opposite

direction.! Get over there before your head explodes and you get evicted.

Seriously, I know that you have spent your kids college fund $97 at a time

but this is the real deal, I know I said that last time, and the time before, and

the time after, but I swear to God… This time I’m serious.

Oh No! My margins are getting

smaller and smaller I might

have to start sending emails

one character

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In my brief jaunt into the information marketing world, I did learn some interesting things, for sure. However, what I also learned was that even people – with an otherwise altruistic outlook, found nothing wrong with selling people common sense and advertising 101 in an e-book or membership site. I used to work in porn back when it was fun, I make no secret of that. Porn was the original business of reselling intangibles, and yes, the marketing is manipulative, but there is a big difference between convincing someone that they might be able to score with a chick who is out of their league is a far cry from convincing someone that if they fork over $997, you will tell them something that will change their life.

I manage to get almost any of these systems for free. If you know where to look you can find website communities that will share the cost of these workshops, ebooks, etc. Everyone kicks in $10 an buys it. Honestly, I have felt ripped off paying $10 for a $1000 product. Not everything I have checked out is garbage, there are definitely some smart people out there. Ryan Deiss is a clever guy to be sure. I enjoy reading his stuff.

I’m not going to bash anyone by name. I will tell you something that you should know if you are a customer of that group of gurus. One of them, and this is the Gods honest truth, is currently working with a big community of black hatters to create a completely fictional internet marketing genius, make this character a guru, and pimp his product for him. You know who the guy is who is doing this, he is one of the biggest names in the business, but I’m not going to name him because I don’t need the headache and I don’t like informants. However, just know, that the next time you get an email from your favorite online marketing guru and they mention that some guy they know is coming out of the shadows to reveal some amazing new product – there is a distinct possibility that its a scam. This isn’t speculation on my part, this is something I know as FACT. I have the chatlogs to prove it.

There really isn’t a purpose to this post other than for me to vent a little bit. I was checking my email from my phone and deleting all the information marketing emails and its been a long day, so I was a bit more annoyed than usual.

Think about it before you pull out your credit card. If the price ends with a 7 – take a breath and think back to all the other information products and systems you have bought in the past, now think about how many of them made you a million dollars.

I hope this information helped you. Actually, come to think of it, I might just out this Guru for the scam they are about to pull off. I will tell you who it is… For just $27

Be an expert on LinkedIn by Answering Questions

Linkedin.com is one of the few social networks that I think really is a necessity for business. No matter what you currently do, you should be working on your profile on linkedin because you never know when you might need it. Linkedin is a social network for professionals. You can post your experience, work history, resume, and of course , make connections. The nice thing  about Linkedin is that it encourages contact because it opens the other person contacts up to you.

I ran across a social network a while back that was interesting. The premise was the degrees of separation. You would find a person you wanted to talk to, then the site would figure out who you knew and who they knew that could get you to the person you wanted to speak to. The idea is good, but uploading my address book is not going to happen, ever, and it also would require a lot of other big-time people doing the same, so its not going to go anywhere.

Back to linked in. There is a bar that shows how close you are to completing your profile, I have been sitting at 90% for about a year. I finally decided to get to 100%. In my research to find out what I was missing, I stumbled on part of linkedin that I had not paid much attention to up until recently: the answers section. Linkedin has a section where you can ask a question for any industry and other members will answer them. You can also place links with your answer (hint hint) and a private note to the person who asked the question. I started flipping through the questions and saw quite a few that I knew the answer to. So, I answered one. Then, I answered another. Pretty soon, 2 hours had gone by and I had answered 15 or so questions. I was reading the answers from other users and I was impressed by the knowledge and helpfulness of the community. Very nice people, smart, and helpful.

This morning I logged and and there were a bunch of messages in my inbox. Most of the people who had asked the questions that I answered had written me personal notes. I also got a couple requests to join their networks, which if you recall opens up their contacts to me. Good deal.

Once again, no one likes a know-it-all but it works in some places. Never miss an opportunity to get your name out there and links to your site. Confirming that you are one of the smartest people in the room doesn’t hurt either.

Make sure you add me as a connection!

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