Midas Shoes? I bet you have no idea who Midas Shoes is… and you are right for not knowing that brand.

Midas shoes is  just another brand of shoes, but the difference is that that type of shoe was the shoe that Prime Minister Julia Gillard was wearing the day of the horrible attacks by Aboriginal protesters on the last Australia day.

So if you are reading this from outside Australia this is the deal:

Prime Minister gets attacked by a gang of protester. Bodyguards panic. She falls. She looses 1 shoe. The Shoe brand is Midas Shoes. The name of the specific style is “Glorify Shoe”

Anyway… so you think.

DAM, now their marketing department is going to get smart…. now is the time to really promote something interesting, specially when the protesters decide to take ransom the shoe and put it to “auction”.

But no.

Instead the marketing department has decided to “fix” the problem and launch a new shoe with an ankle strap to prevent the Prime Minister will shoe their shoe again.

VOILA!

That’s it ladies and Gents… welcome to wasting energy and how not to do Social Media.

So why Midas Shoes sucks in Social Media?

Let’s see

1. They announced the new shoe long after the protest. Nobody cares about the bloody shoe now. The time it takes for a PR marketing department to “plan an strategy” is simply to long. People don’t “react” to staged PR moves.

2. Nobody really cares about Midas Shoes.
If midas shoes has some previous followers, then they could have use their followers-groopies-fans-buyers to spread the news about a new shoe… but the fact is Midas Shoes has 281 followers in Facebook  and 19 in Twitter.

Yep: You read it right. Even I have more followers in Twitter and I DO NOT USE TWITTER.

3. The amount of sales of the new shoe since last  week is 14.

OMG. 14? So you have national exposure and everyone was wondering what type of shoe the Prime Minister wears and you still can’t sell more than 14 shoes?

YOU HAVE a website! You have people looking for Shoes… you have people wondering what’s the name of the Prime Minister shoe… and you sell 14???????

This clearly shoes that marketing departments and managers still fail to realize that you can’t create buzz or followers from one event. Instead you need to create followers NOW, so when an event like this happen… your followers can make it viral.

But you can’t depend on IMPOSSIBLE EVENTS to get people to follow you, specially when the main event is: Look who unreliable my product is that the Prime Minister ends up shoeless in the middle of the road.

The amount of shoes sold since last week is 14 (ARE YOU KIDDING ME?)

Hey! I have an idea, what about If I take down Yellow Pages.com.au ?

Seriously… just me, from home, here in my home office looking at my garden. What about If I take down YellowPages by producing something so freaking amazing that anyone that looks at YellowPages thinks… mmm Gab’s stuff is better.

So let me do quick brainstorming and analyse why Yellowpages.com.au sucks.

1. Corporate look, boring user experience.

2. The info provided by Yellowpages is mainly one thing. DATA.

3. The DATA is not even current in many cases.

4. You go to yellow pages, you find what u are looking for… you get out of there.

5. Why visit Yellow pages if you can Google it (right?)

So how to become better than yellow pages? How to simply Crush them by doing something 100% different?

To start: by offering something UNIQUE . 

Something FRESH

Something HUMAN.

Yes Baby: Human

Yellow pages is created by Robots, by boring Bots that scrape data about all type of industries and provide ZERO value to the end user… (to you!)

So if I want to provide VALUE to humans, I need to let the HUMANS provide value to “their content” – isn’t that a smart theory?

Well… no more talking about it, instead let me reveal my new baby.

(and yes… it’s a baby…. still growing in silence, waiting for someone to notice how amazing it’s really going to be)

Presenting….. (drums please)

TOP NETWORK

What is TopNetwork.com.au, the first network of interview-driven directories in Australia.

If you are thinking “oh no! Another boring directory….” – then STOP and READ

This is not a collection of directories… these are fresh, full of juicy content sites where the main players in each industry reveal what they think and love of their industry, businesses and professions.

The idea is simply amazing (even If I say so) … and I’m in love with the fact of providing amazing sites and content for different industries.

So far you can see some of the network sites here

• Top Bookkeepers
• Top Business Coaches
• Top Commercial Photographers
• Top Cooking Schools
• Top Copywriters
• Top Dance Schools
• Top Day Spa
• Top Dog Groomers
• Top Driving Schools
• Top Home Builders
• Top Hosting Companies
• Top Life Coaches
• Top Network
• Top Web Designers
• Top Wedding Cakes
• Top Wedding Celebrants
• Top Wedding Dresses

Last month was my biggest month ever from a financial point of view. You see my wife is a Nurse Manager making a nice salary, well last month my tiny (microscopic ) business made in 3 weeks the equivalent of 7 months of my wife’s salary.

CRAZY.

Am I bragging?

No. I don’t brag. But I want to share… you see, I don’t blog about making money online…. but I think people out there that try to hire an SEO company or an SEO consultant, forget the basic principles about making money online..  (and how the people that really make money online really do it.)

So here we are: my top 8 points about why YOU are not making money online

1. Your site is not just a website ,it’s a business

Be serious about your site, if you are going to do SEO, do it properly, don’t spend $100 expecting to dominate the industry.

If you are going to promote yourself online, be sure the site you have really represent who you are.

In a few words, you can’t make 100K with a $100 dollar website.

Stop asking your BROTHER to develop your site!

Stop asking your FRIEND to do your SEO!

This is not a hobbie. This is a business…. so get it together.

YOUR COMPETITOR is doing things in a professional way… why do you think they are doing it that way?

The answer: BECAUSE IT WORKS!
2. Stop finding excuses

For god sake. Stop it. Stop crying. Stop blaming Google, your competitors, your lack of knowledge, or “the world economy”.

The world is boooming. People are killing it out there and the reason why they are achieving their objectives and winning the game is because they JUST DO IT.

Stop complaining : NOBODY CARES.

Instead do. Do more. Do better. Be Smart.
3.Stop chasing the money.

One of the best sentences I read this week is this:

legacy is greater than currency    

(By Mr by Gary Vaynerchuk – simply the most freaking amazing Internet Marketer of all times)

Pretty important to keep in mind: People out there trying make money online are looking for quick bucks.

In 2008 I made 50K with 1 site.

Success? To anyone out there… yes huge! I made 50K in 12 months with 1 site.

But deep inside = 100% failure.

No Legacy. Nothing to be proud of. Nothing to show my kids .

Stop chasing the money. Chase the Business.

Chase Overall Life Success, then money will flow.

4. You keep implementing others peoples BluePrints

In the SEO world, I see SEO companies that steal some of my SEO marketing ideas.

That’s OK.

But the problem is: they are stealing my style and my style only work on me. BECAUSE IS MINE!!!

So stop buying info products that teach you how to become the next Anthony Robbins. You can’t be the next Anthony Robbins… in the same way I can’t be the next Michael Jackson. (stupid example I know)

The point is: DO YOUR OWN STUFF. FIND YOUR OWN SYSTEM. Be Unique. Be Real.

5. You don’t fail fast enough

I’m a JEDI MASTER in failing. If you think about one topic in online marketing : I have failed.

I have failed good. I have put my heart and soul in so many online projects that I now know that failing fast is VITAL.

While my competitors are making mistakes, i do bigger mistakes! I invest more. I loose more. But I learn 20 times more.

I become 20 times better in understanding my market. I fail faster. I fail bigger. I’m a failure in many projects and the more I fail… dam the better and braver I get.

6. You are in business, not in a beauty pageant.

Many of my competitors spend their time, blog commenting, consuming social media, twitting, loving the “profile ego”.

Although EGO is nice… ego doesn’t get you paid.

Calling yourself an online business is nice… but what defines if you have a business is one: YOU MAKE MONEY.

If you have a site, and you don’t make money online = you don’t have a business.

Stop socializing, stop chatting on skype,  stop networking  with the excuse of “building a brand” … instead SELL . Improve your PITCH. Improve your product. Block Youtube and stop twitting what you had for breakfast.

NOBODY CARES

7. You don’t really care – WORK FREAKING HARD

When I started my business I put all my hard work, all my time… all my reason… for the simple reason: I had no option.

I had to succeed or bad things where REALLY going to happen to me and my family.

While my competitors slept: I worked.

While they spend time watching Australian X Factor.

I was working. I became my number one fan: I build sites daily, I invest every single penny in growing my business…. (I still do) and every time I got an email laughing of my “bad spelling blog posts” I kept writing…  I kept trying, I kept working… I didn’t stop …. and I still don’t.

In fact this post is being written at 2:00 am…. after a whole day of taking the kids to the pool, dealing with customers,  building sites, improving systems, cleaning the dishes, walking the dog…

If you care: Work hard. Harder than me. Harder than your competitors…. don’t quit and when you think you are not making progress….. work hard, change faster and keep going.

This is a long term strategy. Remember… we are building a business.

8. Provide Value

Provide a huge amount of value to your market and  and money, clients and profits becomes an easy process.

But to achieve this you need to provide VALUE: Try to change people’s lives or at least help to solve their problems before selling them your magic product.

2012 is not the “Give me your credit card year”, instead it  should be “build a business structure that will last more a lifetime year” .

So stop reading this silly blog. and get back to work. Be brilliant. Life rewards brilliant and brave people.

I learn from you… yes… my amazing blog spammer… yes you the quick-easy-money–spam-guy clicking xrummer…  thank you!

thank you to make me smile… that’s why  I decided to post my favorite blog spams

The Spinned-non-sense post.

Ola! Internetninja,
Thanks for your thoughts, A key phrase rich link constructing offer (a package deal of inbound links for your word wide web internet site) will significantly benefit your page to seem in position success for the key phrases you want to be identified for. You possibly will have a effectively made online site that you’ve spent a lot of time and revenue on, this webpage could perhaps be a exclusive job or even an net small business net web page where by you promote your products and services web-based. If although your web blog fails to present up very highly in lookup motor success then the likelihood is that you happen to be not gaining viewed by your target viewers. A link developing deal deal can remedy that circumstances. Catch you again soon!

The positive spammer:

Really beneficial many thanks, There’s no doubt that your current followers may well want a lot more info of this nature. Maintain the good work!

 The one that thanks for sharing

I am new in this blog, but I was happy that I visited here. You have an awesome post and you said it well.

Well said and easy to understand.

Thanks for sharing.

The words that say a lot but nothing deep inside

That i positively allow every thing you experience reported. Really, As i read during your own other article content so i carry out suppose you happen to be completely accurate. Congratulations utilizing this on line websites.

The “make it better” feedback

Have you ever thought about including a little bit more than just your articles? I mean, what you say is valuable and everything. Nevertheless imagine if you added some great pictures or videos to give your posts more, pop! Your content is excellent but with images and videos, this site could undeniably be one of the most beneficial in its field. Good blog!

The spammer that gives me a link in this blogroll

I’ve added this blog to my Blogroll, it will definitely be very helpful for my Blog, keep up the good and informative article

The one that ask…. expecting an answer

How do I know if a WordPress theme supports a subscribe option?

The Blog Critic

fairly stimulating. Nonetheless, I beg your pardon, because I do not give credence to your whole plan, all be it radical none the less. It looks to me that your opinions are generally not completely justified and in actuality you are generally yourself not really fully certain of your assertion. In any event I did appreciate reading it.

Because I’m part of his Daily Rutine

I constantly spent my half an hour to read this web site’s posts everyday along with a mug of coffee.

The one providing Technical Feedback

Greetings from California! I’m bored at work so I decided to browse your blog on my iphone during lunch break. I love the info you present here and can’t wait to take a look when I get home. I’m shocked at how quick your blog loaded on my phone .. I’m not even using WIFI, just 3G .. Anyhow, superb site!

I guess I could spend all day posting my top blog spam messages…. but it seems the more I read, the more I realized that many spammers are wasting their talent.. may be they could get a basic copywriter job?

He is little. He is not so sexy as he thinks he is… he is a huge Jets fan… he is freaking amazing. and every time I watch this video I get 100% pumped.

Even if you know already about Gary, this 62 minutes will pump you to become a freaking superstar in your niche/market. The always smart Jedi Master:  Gary Vaynerchuk

Enjoy

]]> http://www.internetninja.com.au/62-minutes-that-will-change-your-mind-about-social-media/feed/ 2 http://www.internetninja.com.au/like-google-karma-is-a-btch-that-hates-mediocrity/ http://www.internetninja.com.au/like-google-karma-is-a-btch-that-hates-mediocrity/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:50:55 +0000 Gabriel Machuret http://www.internetninja.com.au/?p=1115

When you work online it seems people forget that everything you do, get’s recorded.

Where?

Recorder somewhere, recorder in a place where “life” is just waiting to pull that “article” “blog comment’ “link” or “old email” where you cut corners.

I know about it, because when I started to make money online, I was playing to game of “quick bucks”, thin sites… or creating sites that didn’t made a dam different to anyone out there….

And until now, if you Google my name, you will find stupid articles where I used to praise “the value of X coffee maker vs Y coffee maker” trying to pull some cents from affiliate marketing.

THIS IS KIND OF AMAZING ARTICLES I WROTE MYSELF TRYING TO PROMOTE MY THIN AFFILIATE SITES!

Did I failed?

You bet I failed.

I failed like the big buys. I did everything I was told to do: I created shit sites, with poor content, expecting to get 100 daily visitors to my site and hopefully I could pull 1 dollar per site per day and in that way… build a huge network.

Sounds familiar?

The important point is that I didn’t failed in an economical point of view….

You see, 2 years ago my snow holidays with the family was paid with the profits of “info products’ … but while I was skying with my kids, I quickly realized that that infoproducts I was promoting… deep inside where crap.

So where is the problem?

From a profit point of view, no problem really, from a lifestyle point of view, the idea of being involved with mediocrity created an issue.

You see, I don’t care about working in businesses where the idea, from a financial point could fail…. but businesses where the main purpose is just to generate profit regardless of the end result, became a serious problem.

I lost sleep.

I wanted to be able to walk out the street and meet my proud and happy customers …. (but clearly you never meet happy info product buyer customers)

You see, I didn’t want to know as the “guy with a hemorrhoid cure ebook” site.

So why KARMA it’s a Bitch?

Because in the same way an article can come back to hunt you down, Google can do the same thing with a link, with a rough outsourcer, with a dodgy spam tactic or with thin low level affiliate sites…. you name it.

What happened to all my affiliate sites?

i lost them all, with one single Google update. (Mayday update).

Unfair?

Not really… I was looking for it. I knew it was going to happen. I was creating cr*p with nice graphics. I never put one single effort in that sites and instead I build thin sites just waiting for a long-tail-traffic to click the buy now.

So why am I admitting this in public? 

Hoping that anyone out there looking to cut cornet realize that cutting corners it’s usually the fastest way to building a limited business. A business that will be limited by it’s own weakness.

You see…

This week, someone that I criticized 2 years ago, for using Indian link builders to blast spam comments in WordPress… contact me asking me to “fix”  his problems with Google.

The funny thing is that even when I pointed where his “link farm” problems relay and how his own team was guilty of Google penalizing and flagging his site, this amazing “business consultant” refused to admit…

“Yes, we deserved what we got”

Instead he offered to “pay to get this solved”

You see, you can’t “pay an SEO consultant” to fix Karma, especially when you still are not apologetic for your own actions.

The first step to fix your own dodgy link network is to realize in first place that, well… it’s dodgy.

 To accept you have a problem.

The second step is to understand that quality needs to be the priority and that “using” the same team of link spammers, it’s not the “proper” way to go.

At the end, as I wrote in the title of this “rant’ … Karma, SEO, and/or Google Algorithm seems to hate mediocrity, especially when the creators of the of this mediocrity are so arrogant that even when they are penalized… they refused to accept that their own mediocrity put them in the bad Google-karma books.

]]> http://www.internetninja.com.au/like-google-karma-is-a-btch-that-hates-mediocrity/feed/ 1 http://www.internetninja.com.au/harvey-norman-direct-imports-a-predictable-failure/ http://www.internetninja.com.au/harvey-norman-direct-imports-a-predictable-failure/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2011 02:40:58 +0000 Gabriel Machuret http://www.internetninja.com.au/?p=973

In Internet Marketing MONEY is not everything. You need to have charisma, you need to have balls, you need to have something different….

in 2012 I worked with many businesses online, some of them failed as business models, some of  them became a raving success…. in fact many of them became so successful that I became intrigue to learn (and understand) the REAL REASON behind their success.

And before you think: SEO, Budget, or Customer Experience… the reason may be different:

HEART

Heart… passion… that insane need to succeed and that commitment to start small and then grow towards becoming an authority in their own market.

That’s why when I read about HaveyNormalDirectImports I knew that failure was for sure a clear option.

If you are reading this post from overseas… a quick intro about Harvey Norman

Harvey Norman is a large Australian-based retailer of electrical, computer, furniture, entertainment and bedding goods. It is effectively a franchise and the main brand owned by Harvey Norman Holdings Limited. There are more than 230 Harvey Norman stores in Australia, New Zealand, Slovenia, Ireland, Malaysia, Croatia and Singapore altogether. [source]

So once you know who Harvey Norman…. let’s continue

Harvey Norman during months (even year) have been complaining about how overseas online shops are KILLING the Australian Economy and how the lack of GST in imported products is an unfair advantage to Australian retailers.

That’s why when Harvey normal launched Harvey Norman Direct Imports everyone was extremely surprised. Harvey Norman opening  an online shop selling goods to Australians from overseas…

in Gizmodo words

Harvey Norman will use its global operations to launch this direct imports concept, which will allow Australian customers to purchase games directly from Harvey Norman Ireland, GST free and at the lowest prices currently available in Australia.

Harvey Norman’s European suppliers have provided Harvey Norman Direct Imports with hundreds of game titles on line, which are available for immediate shipping.

So as expected in the day of HarveyNormalImports the Australian market flooded the site, hitting a record traffic of over 170.000 unique visitors.

In any terms, 170.000 visitors in 1 day it’s a CRAZY number. Insane traffic. Amazing PR campaign… right?

Well, this is the funny part: Amount of games sold after the first 170.000 visitors? 200.

200 games sold in 24 hours. So each 850 visitors the site sold 1 game. Mmm not great Harvey!

And my theory behind this is simple: You can’t buy gamers loyalty . You see, we all care about getting cheaper products, that’s clear.. but sometimes Cheap is not all.

Sometimes we want to buy from a brand we like… from a company we love.

Because us, consumers, buyers, we are not just online looking for a quick bargain… in many cases we engage with companies that have worked PRETTY DAM HARD to build a relationship with us.

Companies that have HEART, passion, commitment.

Harvey Normal store is just the tantrum of a rich boy trying to protest against GST.

His online store will fail mainly because he or any of his BRILLIANT MANAGERS have no idea of Games and I bet he doesn’t even know the difference between an Xbox and a PS3 .

And gamers know that. That’s why online stores like www.dungeoncrawl.com.au work, because they ARE gamers. Because they know the games, because they expect new games to be launched and then they celebrate with their customers the release of a new game.

It doesn’t matter their SEO strategy, or how many millions they want to trow away in PPC or how expensive their PR agency… at the end of the day THEY WILL FAIL, because nobody feels LOYALTY towards Rich kids… nobody feels loyalty towards sites that are “just to make a quick buck”.

It’s 2012 now… and now, us, the credit card holders have the option to buy from the most exciting stores, brands and products around. Everyone want’s our business.. and a cheaper price is NOT ENOUGH.

Success online is not so easy Mr Harvey Norman…  ask Mr Godin otherwise

 

]]> http://www.internetninja.com.au/harvey-norman-direct-imports-a-predictable-failure/feed/ 4 http://www.internetninja.com.au/flyingsolo-hacked-by-santa/ http://www.internetninja.com.au/flyingsolo-hacked-by-santa/#comments Wed, 21 Dec 2011 23:40:18 +0000 Gabriel Machuret http://www.internetninja.com.au/?p=964

It’s amazing that the Security Admin at FlyingSolo didn’t realized that Santa, well… hacked the site yesterday.

To all of my FlyingSolo Friends: Happy Xmas
If you are a small business in Australia, and you haven’t heard of Flying Solo… go on… join us at http://www.flyingsolo.com.au

]]> http://www.internetninja.com.au/flyingsolo-hacked-by-santa/feed/ 1 http://www.internetninja.com.au/time-for-a-break-end-of-2011-is-here-for-me/ http://www.internetninja.com.au/time-for-a-break-end-of-2011-is-here-for-me/#comments Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:54:59 +0000 Gabriel Machuret http://www.internetninja.com.au/?p=955

So I’m taking a small break for 6 weeks. No more SEO chat. No more talking about links and about ranking. No more talking about what “really works” .

Instead time to go to the beach, watch Sebastian in Tennis lessons (my 6 year old … next Australian Champion) and take Dominic (my 2 year old son) to our local swimming pool.

Time to read more amazing books that has nothing to do with Google.

Time to learn about different things.

Time to have breakfast with Elmo at Seaworld (in a few weeks)

Time to build niche sites that In fact I like.

Time to go back scuba diving.

Time to blog for fun and not to create buzz….

Time to watch amazing Interviews at Mixergy.

Time to spend more time in SEO for Kids .

Time to re-launch SEO course with my own videos and my Southamerican accent

Time to say no to new customers and hello and thanks again to existing customers.

Time to learn to play golf properly. (I’m still trying…)

 

 

]]> http://www.internetninja.com.au/time-for-a-break-end-of-2011-is-here-for-me/feed/ 4 http://www.internetninja.com.au/how-to-get-page-rank-5-in-less-than-2-months/ http://www.internetninja.com.au/how-to-get-page-rank-5-in-less-than-2-months/#comments Tue, 08 Nov 2011 06:11:52 +0000 Gabriel Machuret http://www.internetninja.com.au/?p=947

The importance of Google PR from Google…

“PageRank reflects our view of the importance of web pages by considering more than 500 million variables and 2 billion terms. Pages that we believe are important pages receive a higher PageRank and are more likely to appear at the top of the search results.

PageRank also considers the importance of each page that casts a vote, as votes from some pages are considered to have greater value, thus giving the linked page greater value. We have always taken a pragmatic approach to help improve search quality and create useful products, and our technology uses the collective intelligence of the web to determine a page’s importance.” Source.

OK.. so it really sounds complex.

but wait… can you get a page rank 5 in less than 2 months.

Oh yes you can. You just need a VISA CARD.

Ready?

Let’s do it.

• Go to Snap domains…

• Find domain names that are going to expire.

• Find a nice domain name close to expiration date.

• Find a domain name with Page Rank 6 or 7…. (do your homework I’m not going to tell you how.)

• Pay $60-70 to capture the domain name. (or may be more)

• Get the domain name.

• Get a new  hosting.

• Replicate the site… replicate it 100% so the humble owner will not noticed that in fact you capture the site and now you own an “authority” site.

then…

• easy, add your link in the footer. Something like “powered by my crappy site”

Easy. Sad. But Easy.

Now what?

Wait.

Yes. Wait.

go and get a coke.

(or a coffee)

then chill…

wait for the next Google PageRank update.

Voila! you have a Page rank 5 if you are lucky. (Page rank 4 if you are unlucky)

So what now?

I guess time to buy balloons and beer! Time to celebrate! Your site is now a page rank 5 and I guess you are a happy camper and are ready to impress the world about how important your site is

BECAUSE your site is NOW really important  =)

 

Lesson to be learned:  I still find amazing Google makes tells users that PageRank takes in consideration “500 million variables” when in reality anyone with a Visa Card buying pre-owned domain names with PageRank can increase PageRank to any other site. SEO companies know that. Internet Marketers now that. Domain name brokers now that.

So if PageRank is about “important sites”… why it’s so easy to manipulate? I wonder…

]]> http://www.internetninja.com.au/how-to-get-page-rank-5-in-less-than-2-months/feed/ 8