“We are Known” by Marvin Webster

The opportunity industry is second only to the entertainment industry when it comes to money spent. Opportunity feeds on everyones desire to make money. That desire leads to people buying into opportunity on a massive scale.

You May Be Addicted to Opportunity If . . .

1. You are on more than 3 mailing lists about making money online.
2. You have purchased more than 3 products or services to help you make money online.
3. You have changed your strategy for making money online more than once.
4. The prospect of accumulating wealth or becoming rich occupies your mind most of the time.
5. You actively seek new money making advice or strategies in forums.
6. You often try a new money making strategy.
7. You buy domain names on a whim and never do anything with them.
8. You have purchased a money making opportunity or system and never did anything with it.
9. You have purchased a money making E-book and never read it.

One or perhaps even two of these indicators may not be significant, but if you answer yes to three or more you are very likely addicted to opportunity. Opportunity addiction can rival gambling and drugs in its ability to destroy our lives if left unchecked, but it can also be the passion that fuels our inner success engines if focused on a well prepared plan.

Most of us are or have been addicted to opportunity at some point in our internet marketing careers. I think I once answered yes to all nine.

What is important is recognizing the addiction and taking action to correct it.

Escape The Opportunity Addiction

Charles Heflin calls this addiction a “black hole” and in his excellent manifesto “The Master Plan” he says the way to escape the black hole is to adopt a clear plan of action and create a clear cut business plan. He recommends we ignore information that makes us stray away from our business plan.

Imagine yourself in the middle of a sphere. Success is at evry edge of that sphere. You can go in an infinite number of directions . . . up, down, left, right, forward, backwards, etc.. Every direction will lead to the edge (success) if you stick to one path and keep moving forward without getting sidetracked and changing courses.

Seven Steps

Perhaps we can create a “Seven Step Program” for opportunity addiction.

I would like to think this post will get some interesting comments. What’s your story?

We are Known

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Owners of the IM Index Mind Map should file this under Mindset

I have never been a “Black Hatter”. I would rather spend a few months getting a site indexed and generating traffic and be able to breath at night knowing my site wasn’t one click away from the Google sandbox if my blog farm was busted or my cloaked links were uncovered. Neither do I always take the high road. There is a shade of grey where I find my comfort zone.

In my previous post I talked about a new site I had launched that used silo architecture and Latent Semantic Keyword Indexing. Coincidentally, it was the first site I had launched since Google implemented their new rules in mid May.

No More Apples for Apples

Remember when a search for “apple” brought up real apples. Try it today using the tilde (~).  This tells Google to do a semantic ~apple search.  You get something like this.

Apple Computer, Quick Time, Apple’s, Windows, Computer, Mac, iMac, G4

Semantic indexing is making Google more human with every passing upgrade. And now they have caught on to one of the little grey hat techniques I really liked . . . and they nipped it right in the bud. (well actually the sitemap file).

It Was Only Embellished A Few Hundred Percent

Here is (was) the trick. If you have 10 articles in a silo go through each article and find the best long tail for each paragraph. Use it in a headline for the entire article, but instead of the headline being written in perm-a-link.text write it in perm-a-link.php. Example: article-headlines-are-neat.txt would be article-headlines-are-neat.php which would activate a simple script that would serve up the correct article with the headline. The content is there and is accurate. The only thing that isn’t accurate is the appearance that there are between 50 - 100 articles instead of 10. Each article had multiple headlines and each headline appeared to be a different article..

A Whiter Shade of Pale

To make a long story short Google sent their bot to index the site and left without indexing. Google told me through Google Webmaster Central they couldn’t find any pages on my site. They also suggested I place a sitemap in my public_html directory to help them out. So I scripted a simple sitemap.php and put it in the top directory and notified Google Webmaster Central the sitemap was there. They visited again and this time I was told that my sitemap format was not a format their bot could read. They recommend using sitemap.xml.

It Was Only Meant To Gain An Unfair Advantage

What really bothers me is that since the second visit I haven’t been able to get Google to go near my site. I know they will eventually get around to it, but something tells me they already disapprove of my tactics and are penalizing me for even trying.

It has been less than two months since Google released their last major upgrade so there is still much to be learned, but I believe Google is getting smarter with each improvement. Instead of buying the next latest hot trick to generate traffic I think we can serve ourselves better by studying Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Therein lies the answers to our internet marketing futures.

Meanwhile, here is a site I launched only two days ago and Google has already indexed it. Is my first site doomed? Sandboxing would be a pretty stiff penalty for a minor effort at search engine manipulation. Then again, Google is trying to constantly improve the experience of their users and they tell us what they want to see.

Sorry About The Bad Ping

I wrote another message on this blog a few days ago or at least I thought I did. Afterwards I sent out a ping to those on my RSS feed. Sorry for the bad ping. I don’t know what I did wrong, I guess I thought I had saved the content when I actually hadn’t.

We Are Know

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Owners of the IM Index Mind Map should file this under Search Engine Optimization

Today I launched my first website using Latent Semantic Keyword Indexing and Silo Structuring. I believe these two technologies when used together will change the face of internet marketing. I will be sharing the performance of this site in future blogs.

Blueprinting

It all begins with a blueprint. We would never build a house or do an add-on without designing a set of blueprints the contractors would use to insure it was built to plan. Websites should be no different. For years we have built websites from the outside in. We have built the visual website and then added the databases and technical components to make it perform. We would add content and then try to entice the search engines to index our keywords. Again, outside in.

Latent Semantic Keyword Indexing

The Long Tail has been hashed about for years as a keyword technique used mostly by pay-per-click marketers and other passive or responsive methods. Latent Semantic Keyword Indexing when combined with Silo Structuring (we’ll get to that in a minute) takes the The Long Tail and turns it into an aggressive keyword technique designed to get all the marbles . . . and to do it fast.

Themes

Take for an example the keyword short tail “internet marketing”. No marketer in his right mind would attempt to swallow that market whole. Break it down into smaller bites like “internet marketing copywriting”. “internet marketing audio”, “internet marketing adsense”, “internetmarketing affiliates” and so on. Now, pick the best long tails that relate to internet marketing and use each one as a theme for it’s own unique “silo”. If this is done right it will probably encompass at least half the internet marketing niche as a whole, but each silo would only reach a much smaller niche.

Silo Structuring

After the blueprint is done the silos are constructed around each theme as if it was a stand alone website (no links from copywriting silo to video silo). Fill each silo with good articles and pertinent content to that silo’s theme. Add steroids by plugging in an RSS feed filtered to the silo’s theme so content is changing constantly. Monetize and launch the site and alert the search engines we have brought our marbles and are ready for the game.

Dance with the Spiders

Using the combination of properly designed Silo Structuring and Latent Semantic Keyword Indexing a site becomes a ballroom dancer when the search engine spiders come along . . . 10 - 15 themes working in unison, yet separately . . . creating a synergy with the power to take a site from zero to tens of thousands of visitors a month with minimal marketing expense.

Playing for Keeps

I have a belief that a team of a few hundred internet marketers working together in vertical markets could take this idea to even higher levels with each marketer’s sites becoming planned themes and providing synergy in even broader markets.

We Are Known

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Owners of the IM Index Mind Map should file this under Search Engine Optimization

He Revolutionized Article Submission

In June 2005 Jason Potash released ArticleAnnouncer, the web’s first article submission software and training course.

Google Filed New Patent

The effectiveness of Jason’s methods caused Google to file a new patent application in 2006 (US Patent Application) designed to counter the methods Potash introduced. Potash says the result has been “Duplicate Article Detection on Steroids”.

Potash Calls For Duplication To Stop

Potash is now saying “We Must Curb Duplication of Articles”. This 180 degree turn by the father of duplicate content more than grabbed my curiosity.

Potash Calls For A Commitment

After reading the report Potash calls for readers to take a pledge. It will have far reaching effects in my writing from this point forward. If you are a serious blogger, article writer or internet marketer I suggest you download this report from http://contentcomposer.com/pdf/900-Pound-Report.pdf.

Free Copywriting Duplication Measurement Tool

Potash writes a very persuasive report. You might end up taking the pledge yourself. You will want to save this report and also download the free copywriting duplication evaluation tool. I guess Potash figured if you would read 23 pages of his reasons for repentance you deserved something in return. It’s a handy utility for copywriters.

We are Known

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Owners of the IM Index Mind Map should file this under Copywriting

Regardless of what you sell or produce from the comfort of your home, your home business will benefit from the efficient and proper use of a home computer. If a person knows how to use both the machine and its programs efficiently, the business will run more efficiently overall.

Create Marketing Materials

Those home business owners stuck in the mid-twentieth century may wonder how a computer could revolutionize their business, but it indeed can make the home business life much simpler than in the BC age (before computers). Home business owners with a computer can create and print advertising materials with the appropriate programs. No longer do they have to pay hundreds of dollars to a professional printing service that may or may not have them done by the time they need them, but they can both design and print their materials-letter heads, business cards, fliers-from their home. Even the savvy home business owners from the BC age understand the importance of advertising and marketing, and they carry and distribute business cards regularly.

Build Websites

The personal computer at home can maximize the communication potential of a home business with the creation of a personal website. A home business owner can use a simple web design program, purchase web space, and then be open to the world market in a matter of days. If a home business owner does create his own website, he should follow a few basic guidelines. First, he should visit other professional websites and note their similarities. Many use intriguing but not loud colors. They have simple, clean designs with easy-to-read font, no loud colors or blinking words, and tactful graphics and pictures. All good business websites will also include contact information with a hyperlink.

Communications

The home business will run much more efficiently with a computer. While it may be one of the biggest investments a home business owner makes initially, the computer can save the home business owner money in the end. The home business owner can print his own materials, create and manage his own website, and reconcile his accounts all on his own computer. He can contact clients much more quickly with e-mail than any other method and yet minimizes the risk of interrupting that client’s day.

Get Organized

This one tool, probably one of your more expensive home office devices, will revolutionize a home business. Imagine the home business in the BC era. It consisted of a home business owner and his or her office with a desk, a fat stack of papers, some inventory, and a ten-key calculator. The only visual difference between that office and the office of the twenty-first century is how the stack of papers has been replaced by a computer. That’s it. Yet this one replacement will make the business run much more efficiently than the fodder for fire it replaces.

We are Known

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Owners of the IM Index Mind Map should file this under PC Management

The information superhighway has revolutionized nearly every aspect of life for those that have chosen to jump on it. The spectators still feel the swoosh of air, the results of the highway as they stand by and watch everyone else ride. The home business has benefited greatly from the information superhighway. Today not only can the biggest corporations in the United States do business with someone across the world, but the stay-at-home mom in the rural Midwest can too.

Affordable to Everyone

The inexpensiveness of accessing the world wide web has made it accessible to nearly anyone. Even those who cannot afford a connection at home can access the world wide web through his or her public library. With this kind of access home businesses now have the world literally at their fingertips for a fraction of the price in the past. They can work with clients from Europe, Africa, South America, Australia - just about anywhere that a person can connect to the internet.

Faster than a Speeding Bullet

Not only can the home business contact more clients, but the home business can sell their given product or services at a much faster rate than in the past. Consider much time passes when a business airmails an envelope across the pond. Then consider how much time passes from when an individual presses “send” from their e-mail program in the States to when the client receives the e-mail in England. Our old school method of communicating took weeks and the information superhighway takes minutes and possibly just seconds. Thus the home business can do business at a much higher frequency than every before.

More Diverse than Paris Hilton

Finally, the world wide web has opened a much greater variety of a market for the typical home business owner. No longer does the home business owner have to cater just to the needs of their neighbors and the clients in their town. They can find a much more specific market states away, thus tying together a whole new group of individuals that live literally thousands of miles away. Think about this: let’s say our home business owner designs and makes handbags. However, not everyone in that home business owner’s specific geographical area may fall in love with those handbags. If the home business owner takes her market global and posts a website with photographs of the bags and a method for clients to order them, she will discover a whole new group of individuals not tied to a specific geographical area. Once one person a few thousand of miles away purchases a handbag and the individual’s friends see it, then our handbag creator and home business owner has suddenly expanded her market to that specific geographical area.

The Internet Loves Home Businesses

The internet consists of more than silly videos and mass porn sites, but it has become a business tool that has revolutionized all businesses, but made a place specifically for the home business.

We are Known

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I received an invitation today to a party I will have to miss.

Caution: The links provided are only for information. Don’t click on them if you are easily offended.

The Rich Jerk (a rogue internet marketer whose name pretty much tells it all) is inviting other internet marketers who are willing to fork out twenty big ones to this insane benefit. (I didn’t know he had a benevolent side).

After reading the invitation I came up with five good reasons why I would not be attending.

1. I don’t have an extra $2,000 laying around to spend on a party.
2. I have no desire to meet The Rich Jerk.
3. I doubt there will be much business related activity going on at this party.
4. I don’t need the tax write off.
5. My wife would kill me.

So, for those of you who will be attending this event, I hope you have fun and raise a ton of money for charity.

We are Known

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I recently began a test of 100,000 pop-under ads.

OK, I hear the boos, but think about it:

• “Highly targeted” pop-unders cost about $3.50 per thousand
• There would be long term value in new customers.
• There would be added benefits from the branding.

After coming up with a few more reasons to justify my decision the test began.

96% Blocked

Obviously. any ad that doesn’t get past the prospect’s pop-up blocker is worthless. With the test about 25% complete some interesting revelations are emerging. First, 96.08% of all ads are getting blocked. My first thought is that there is no way this is going to be cost effective, but on further analysis . . .

Bottomline

With 3.92 impressions per hundred and a cost per hundred of $0.35 my cost per impression has been a surprisingly low 8.9 cents.

As long as the cost per impression stays reasonable I may continue to pop in every now and then. I hear those boos again. Justifiably so, because the conversion rate still may not be acceptable, but I wanted to share this testing information. I found it a bit surprising.

How big is the Internet?

On June 10, 2007 www.internetworldstats.com put it at just over 1.3 billion users worldwide and 231 million users (20.4%) from North America. Asia had the most with 409 million connected. Europe had 319 million internet users.

North America leads the world when it comes to internet penetration at 69%.

It’s Fight Time

Serious internet marketers will want to read Internet Smackdown: The Amateur vs the Professional by Wired Magazine’s Tony Long.

We are Known

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For 25 years Earl Pitts has been offending the politically correct on radio stations coast to coast (particularly in southern states) with his redneck humor.

Now Earl is the kind of guy who tells it like”it ought to be” . . . well, at least in his way of thinking. In the end Earl usually has a core of common sense.

For the uninitiated, here are some Earl Pitts moments:

• On Native Americans complaining about being namesakes of sports teams: “Native Americans say the Atlanta Braves name don’t accurately reflect the history of their culture. You know, they’re right. The Braves win.”

• On picking up women: ``It’s a lot like fishin’. . . . The first rule of bimbo angling is finding just the right spot. Some bars is stocked with champion trophy catches and some bars is stocked with bottom feeders. It’s tough to catch a striper in a pond full of carp. And number two is you got to have the right equipment. Like me. I use 120-pound test line. You hook into something bigger and you could break your rod, if you know what I mean. Number three, you got to showcase the bait. The lure is the most important thing. I prefer the splash of Aqua Velva.”

And after offending everyone equally he always closes with his trademark call to action, “Wake Up, Uhmerika!”.

I got to thinking about what Earl Pitts might say about internet marketing,

Perhaps it would go something like this:

“You know what makes me so sick that I want to force-feed Al Gore a spotted owl cheeseburger?”

“Boxes. That’s right, boxes. Not just Umerika, but the whole world is addicted to boxes.”

“Ever since that feller named Gates figured out how to stick his finger in the electronic pie we’ve become addicted to boxes. Did you know those boxes is gettin’ so smart they can get you to whup out the credit card and part with good money faster than Betty Lou on a Saturday night.”

“Well not me! No Sir! I ain’t lettin’ no box put me in a hypnotic trance. That’s right! Those salesmen in those boxes have figured out a way to hypnotise you into sending them money. I mean the other day Pearl was on her box and she bought the same item twice without even knowing it. She was in a buyin’ trance the likes of which I never seen.”

“You know, I have half a mind to figure out what those salesmen in those boxes are doin’. It can’t be that hard. And just imagine the look on Pearl’s face when she finds out she sent her money to my PayBuddy.”

“Wake Up Uhmerika!”

Earl may have a whacked-out way of arriving at it . . . but he usually has the right answer.

Internet marketing has evolved to a point top marketers do write copy that almost creates a hypnotic trance. There are billions of dollars out there, but the competition for every dollar is so fierce only marketers who have fully educated themselves have a serious chance of competing.

“Wake Up Umerika!”

We are Known

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Advertising is probably the single most important aspect of any business, but this is especially true of the home business.

We are Hidden

One of the reasons for that is because it’s not out in the open where everyone can see that you have a business, so the only way they are going to find out is by reading your advertisements. It’s important to know how to utilize advertising to your advantage, and how to use it in a way that will be the most beneficial for your business. It doesn’t matter if your home business is online and simply a concept that you operate from home such as a hair salon, child care center, remodeling business, or any other kind of business that doesn’t require you to have an office away from home.

What Kind of Advertising?

Depending upon the nature of your business, you may find that certain types of advertising models work better than others. For example, if your business is based in your local area, you may find that local media advertisements work best. This advertising scheme may include radio advertisements, televisions advertising, flyers, newsletters, direct mailing, and even personal contact with those who might benefit from your expertise. On the other hand, if you have an online business, you may have better luck with email advertisements such as opt-in lists or even a signature line in every email you send out, notification to those you know will be interested, classified advertisements, and other types of online advertising.

Advertising is an Important Expense

If you want your business to succeed, don’t take short cuts with advertising costs. Many people, especially when it concerns an online business, try to get by with free advertising sites, and though this may save you money in the beginning, it will cost you in the end. After all, you know that you get what you pay for, so free ads are not likely to produce the same results as a paid advertisement. In the case of online ads, the paid ads get a better spot in the advertising scheme, and often have bold headings and special ranking that puts them out front for everyone to see. Even with newspaper advertising, you get a different type of advertisement for a higher price, and the key is to draw attention to your advertisement and make people want to read it.

Advertise with Your Blog or Website

If you have a website, you have the best advertising tool that the Internet has to offer. The right website gives you the highest rankings with the search engines, and thus assures you that more people will see your presence. By the law of averages, the more people who visit your site, the better the chances that someone is going to be interested in the goods or services you have to sell. You may only have one chance to make it work, so make it your best effort.

We are Known

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