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

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…)

So here we go…. The Secret of Succeed as an SEO professional is....
Why people like me make it in this industry and other ones fail?
What some people start doing SEO and then they move to web design… or to PPC… or the facebook.
Why not they stick with SEO?

Just 12 months ago I was competing vs 15 other guys… now only 4 … and 300 new ones the other left… quit… said Good-bye or became logo designers (joke)

Why?
I ask myself… why?
If this seems to be a huge industry with HUGE potential… why are people not succeeding?

The reason is one:
They don’t provide value.

The secret to Maximizing your Succeed…. is one: ADD VALUE to your Market.
Give people more than they expect. And they will want to continue the relation you built with them.
OVER DELIVER and they will love you.

Simple!
But not for lazy people.
Simple!
But not for the ones that one quick bucks.

Although we can over complicate what SEO is all about and mention things like conversion, strategy, contextual link building, internal link building… the normal people out there they just one simple thing: Results.

Yesterday 3 people from another SEO company started to work with me.. and today I want to reveal why:
They are sick of paying without any clear understanding of what they are getting.

Call it SEO packages, SEO for a Year, SEO deals, SEO consultants or SEO revamp strategies…. the end user, the business owner wants one thing: To increase profits.
mmm that’s all.

If you manage to do that… regardless of Page Rank… regardless of social media, amount of links, facebook friends, or number of pages indexed…. they will love you.

The details about SEO are only important for us…. for the SEO geeks, but for the result of the world, SEO it’s not important.

Let me put it clear: They can’t care less about what SEO is …. the just want one thing: To improve their business.

For many of my customers before they arrive to my door: SEO was in the same category of PAIN and frustration.
In the same way as my TAX issues where in the same horrible category.

My super-star accountant solved that issue. Now Tax is not fun, but it’s not an issue any more. (Although I hate to pay Tax…. but at least I don’t need to loose sleep thinking about it).

So if anyone out there working in this industry can remove the FRUSTRATION related to SEO by bringing some value, then success is clear and easy to achieve.

Make it complicate, make it difficult, make it long and impossible to understand and then it becomes just another freaking process that brings nothing to the business owner.

Yesterday I was called another  “Troll” in the SEO industry. (that I guess many times I  deserve – so fair enough)

Yesterday someone asked me for my credentials…

And I though for a few seconds…

what are MY   credentials as an SEO professional?

Dam… wait… I don’t have any credentials… do I ?

May be my credentials of any SEO professional has to be the valueI have provided to your customers, the REAL economical results I have brought to the web owners I have worked with.

Clearly it’s not as romantic as a badge, or being a feature commenter in an SEO community…. but value is the new currency.

Value doesn’t always look good in your website sidebar or in your ego…

But regardless what people think… change people’s businesses and help people to succeed and then, really THEN…. you don’t have to care about marketing your services ever again:

People will find you – Trust me! I’m a troll! I know what I’m talking about! 

Making Money Online… oh God… it’s Gabriel going to become another Blogger telling us HOW TO MAKE MONEY ONLINE?

Before you get ready to destroy me, read the whole post… because today I’m going to tell you the truth about making serious money from home… [Gab's daily rant!)

The first point to understand is this:

There are 3 type of individuals that try to make a living online....

1) The Followers

2) The complainers

3) The real entrepreneurs

THE FOLLOWERS

The followers are usually guys that read John Chow or do something like the "30 day challenge" and usually subscribe to a tribe. They usually have a guru, or mentor and they read every day blogs like Shoemoney ,  and believe that by "blogging about what they love" ONE DAY, ONE DAY... they make money.

They usually also believe that content is king and that if you really, really, really love what you do... traffic will come and they will be one day rich thanks to their WordPress blog.

They also like the idea of "being part of something" and they usually announce to the world that they are "going to make it" and they are the first once to book a trip to the next conference of Internet Marketers...

Online you can find them because they post threats in forums like:

My Path to $1 per day per site... look how I build 100 sites in 1 year.

Or they usually announce their strategies after reading an ebook that gives them a clear blueprint of what to do to achieve success.

They love to dream... and when they do they do it big.

But more than dreaming they love to share their dreams with other dreamers.

So this is the kind of people that will fill seminars and will join every single membership site you can find.

They usually spend more money than what they make... and after 10 or 12 months they announce the industry is full of scammer and that nobody is really making money online.

And then ... they quit.

THE COMPLAINERS

I love this type because the complainer usually was a follower and then when he failed to make money online, he became a grumpy old fart... 

They usually spend their time telling the world that making money online it's NOT EASY and that it TAKES YEARS to do so.

If you ever sell an infoproduct they are the first ones to point the finger and you and ask you "Why are you selling any info product related to online marketing... if "We all know" that making money online is just a scam"

The complainer will never make money online and usually they have been burned before, so they really, really hate anyone that claims some type of success.

Their rage, anger and personal misery prevents them from TAKING action and they usually spend their time complaining about the new hype of claiming that X or Y product online is in fact a scam.

For them success is only possible by scamming people and they are proud of being the virtual cops of the internet.

I really love this type of clowns, mainly because they are similar to any extremist organization... they have labeled the whole Internet Marketing community with 2, 3 or 4 adjectives and they are usually natural born trolls . They remind me of fat people that hate gym freaks. (you know the type?)

The main problem with complainers is that they don't bring ANYTHING to the table... and they blame the society and the internet marketing professionals as "the reason why everything is rotten in the Internet Marketing Industry".

Obviously for them the idea of Making money online fast is impossible and they ever hear about anyone claiming that they are making a serious amount of money online, they are going to be the 1st group to point their finger and call you a lier.

THE REAL ENTREPRENEUR

The Real entrepreneur is working while you read this post, and it's also working while you are watching X-Factor or the biggest Looser. The online entrepreneur stopped watching TV and instead listen to audios, reads courses, seminars and takes action.

They understand that failure is not an option and that dreaming may be nice, but you can't follow others people footprint or path.

Instead of buying, they are selling. Instead of following they are pitching... instead of making numbers about how much money they are going to make when they MAKE IT, instead... they are busy MAKING IT.

The difference between the dream and the entrepreneur is one: ACTION.

The real people that make money online are not the people that spend all their time preaching about "how to make it"... instead they are too busy to waste time with facebook, twitter, or trying to convert the dreamers and the complainers about the REAL way of finding success in their online business.

The Real online entrepreneur has one goal, one fuel and one obsession: Success.

Failure is not a dam option. Failure is such a scary option, we do everything in our power to change our reality, our life, and create our success.
But this is not just new-age Tony Robbins kind of crappy theory, the answer to make money online is one:
WORK!
WORK DAM hard! and by dam hard means using your brain harder than the other people around...
Working longer hours creating amazing products and services instead of playing mini-games online or checking the status of your friends in facebook.

Who cares about facebook?
Who cares about if your score online in a minigame is level 40?
Who cares if you spend all the time in the same freaking forum or commenting in the same stupid blogs...

if at the end of the day: YOU ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING TO GUARANTEE YOUR OWN SUCCESS IN LIFe

Want to know if you are dealing with the REAL DEAL?

Ask them what they eat for dinner 2 nights ago.
[ They have no idea - but they can tell you in what project they where working ]

Ask them what show airs tomorrow at 7:30am and 7:30 pm
[ They don't watch TV , instead they are working at 7:30 am and YES... also at 7:30 pm]

Ask them who are the latest celebrities.
[ NO Idea, but they can tell you the founders of WikePedia, Groupoin, 37Signals, ask them about REAL people ]

Ask them how many hours they work per day, per week, per year…
[they work more than any normal worker in the world... and may be that's why they make more than any dreamer and complainer in the world ]

Ask them if failure is an option, ask them what’s the latest excuse for not making it.
[Failure is only an option if speeds up the success process]

Ask them how badly they want their own success?
[How badly you want air when you are underwater]
And then listen to their answers…
Because funny wise, you seem to learn more from people that love to succeed instead of dreamers that just follow the crowd and complainers that love to send me hate email

are you ready to listen?

For 1 week… yes. For 1 week I just decided not to check ranking, not to do backlink reports, not to look at what my customers competition was doing,  not to read what SEO gurus was doing… in fact I just decided to do one thing: Unplug myself.

No internet.

Bye bye SEO. I’m quitting…. I’m leaving you…

7 days without you Mr SEO.

Yep….no internet. No connection. No blogging…. just 1 week when Google doesn’t freaking rule my world.

You see 1 week ago, I was falling apart, to many links, to many SEO packages running, to many sites, to many people asking me:

Why is my site not ranking 1st after just 3 days?

So I needed to leave, I need to proof to myself that the SEO world runs without me and explain to my customers that their sites will survive without the SEO Ninja behind. (at least for 7 days)

So I I went back to the basics… went back to try understand why I become an SEO professional in the 1st place:

I decided to do this, to build my business so I could work from home, so spend time with my family, so I could build something GREAT and  escape from the mediocrity of a 9 to 5 job….

I went into this business to become the BEST m*th*rF*ck*r you could find/hire or contact to help you improve your business.

But funny wise, I forgot that concept along the way…

I forgot that behind all the links, posts, articles, my main objective was BIGGER than any type of ranking, link strategy or stupid page rank update.. I decided to work in the SEO industry to have FUN, to enjoy my work… so that’s why I had to ditch everything and go back to that place.

FUNLAND.

So what did I do for 1 week?

Everything expect Internet related crap.

And it was AMAZING.

The proof is in the pudding

Do you see the fun factor in the photos?
Well the cool thing is… rankings didn’t matter, and while skying with my kids nobody ask me how many backlinks my site had! (funny wise normal people just don’t care about SEO or internet marketing… they care about WAY MORE IMPORTANT THINGS like skying, having nice warm lunch and spending sometime building amazing snow men.

So after my week of Google detox… I’m back and today is my post Number #100…. and I’m pumped to inject new life in this blog.
I’m planning to post more about SEO articles, case studies and more information that may inspire other SEO junkies to keep trying, to keep improving, to keep having fun.

I hope the next 100 post have the same cool readers that this tiny blog already have.

It has been pretty cool blogging for the last 18 months and I believe the next 18 months will be even better. Thanks for reading

Before I start let me clarify that I’m NOT DRUNK at this exact moment… so bare with me in this random, weird and strange post.

Today I’m in Melbourne… the cultural capital of Australia. Lovely city, a bit cold, a bit weird, a bit to busy for me.

It’s a weird, I have been away from home for less than 2 days and I already miss my 2 young ratbags, my home office, my wife and my dog. (pretty sad huh?)

Anyway, Melbourne has help me a bit to put things in a different perspective.

As many of you know I live in a very small town and I work mainly from home.

I usually never meet my customers and I like it that way. My job can be done from any place in the world and I believe that gives me some type of objectivity . I’m not linked to any Company, any “business tendency” and even the fact that I my first language is not English, (but Spanish) gives me a bit of a different perspective.

But some times, like any other person… I seem to mainly focus on on the same things.

In my case with SEO, it seems in the last months it has been all about the links.

Links, links, links, links and more more LINKS

But today I realized that may be…it’s not JUST ABOUT THE LINKS.

That’s why  today I want to talk about things that make me tick… things that ROCK.

Things that simply go away from “the normal, boring, conventional stuff we see every day” … things that are unique, so unique, we feel like telling someone about it… things so unique we think “that’s freaking cool I want and I really want to share it with someone”.

Because the idea of being freaking cool can be also taken to the concept of SEO.

Let me explain this:

I went for a walk 1 hour ago…  (at 9:00 pm) , and during my walk… I saw over 10.000 “normal” things… normal cars, normal shops, normal people, normal signs, normal buses, normal trams, normal dogs, normal walls… but then I saw 2 AMAZING things:

A Tram-Restaurant… and a Rock and Roll Rabbit.

The Tram Restaurant it’s simply a beautiful idea: You can have dinner in a classic tram, while going around the city of Melbourne. The tram looks lovely inside, and while everyone runs crazy trying to escape from traffic… the people in the tram are in fact enjoying the traffic. They actually pay to be inside the traffic – like a perfect bubble, surrounded by charm and some type of magic.
The thing that made me think: That’s a freaking cool idea was … people INSIDE the tram were happy… happy while the whole city surrounding them where just miserable and stressed out.

I loved the idea.

Then I saw a young guy, dressed like a Rabbit… yep… full Bugs Bunny Type Custom… playing the electric Guitar.

I had some difficulty getting close… he had over 100 to 200 people surrounding him, clapping… in the middle of the freezing night, while he has playing Guns and Roses dressed as a Rabbit.

I heard people behind me saying…

- Look! Look! There he is Again! The Rock Rabbit! I love the Rock Rabbit…

When I stopped to look around, I saw 200 people amazed, happy… enjoying the fact that there was a rock rabbit, in the middle of the city, in front of them, rocking with an electric guitar.

Now: Don’t get me wrong…. I know what you are thinking.

“What’s the BIG DEAL”?????

It’s just a guy with a Rabbit suit!!!!

But in this case, it was a Rabbit playing guitar in the place you less expected to meet a Rabbit playing guitar.

(you get my point?)

.

.

.

this made me think about this site… with 99 post so far…

I really want to be like the people in the tram… or like the Rock Bunny…. I really want to achieve for my own site, and for my own customers,  the same feeling that people around the rock bunny experienced, the smiles, the surprise, that “cool factor”.

I have this weird theory that if you achieve the cool factor… SEO then becomes less important.

If your site rocks… screw google.

Really. screw google…

Actually let me put it in better words

F*ck google

F*ck Google if your site Rocks and your readers freaking love you.

If you put your heart and soul in your content, in your own strategy, in your marketing …

if you really are that guy in a bunny suit playing in the middle of the night and making people (your visitors) happy…
then you achieved the final objective.

.

.

I know many times I talk about links, budget, strategy, and I refer to SEO as a War… but may be this time, just for tonight, it’s important to understand that SEO it’s just one small piece the puzzle.

The important thing is to me remarkable , to be that Purple cow that Seth Godin talks so much…
Because may be , just may be … if you achieve to be excellent in what you do….
then may be Mr Google will also realize you are freaking rule  

what do you think?  are you the shinny elegant tram in the middle of the traffic? or just another person stuck in the traffic?

I’m so proud.. and so happy….so I will keep this ultra-ultra short.

I have worked a bit hard to get this idea running… but after taking the decision I now know it’s a fantastic idea and I’m sure I will achieve my objective.

Well here it is: SEO for kids

Just click on the link and visit the site, watch the video (AND POST A COMMENT – BE NICE!)