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?)

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.

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

When the Panda Update happened, one of the biggest  websites affected was HubPages.

If you haven’t been living on planet earth for the last 10 years, HubPages is the Squidoo alternative … where you as a member write information about whatever and try to become part of a community “driven” by “quality”.

I like HubPages… building a hub it’s easier than building a squidoo and it feels more “connected” to the community.

So so far.. all good. The site it’s good. I like it so no problem with that.

The issue is with the main purpose of this type of websites:

The whole idea of many user-content generated  sites before PANDA update was mainly one:

Let’s the users create  a HUGE  AMOUNT OF CONTENT and in what way we bulk the site with heaps of content and somehow eventually we will become an authority site .

The idea of becoming a semi-authority site with million long tail keywords is not new… and the way they monetized this type of site isn’t rocket science: Google Adsense.

The problem with sites like HubPages is one: You can’t be an expert on everything.

And in 2011 you can’t have a REAL authority site that covers from “How to train your cat to do juggle” to “How to choose the right Tax Accountant in difficult times”….

Sorry… it doesn’t work that way..

Google knows it, Paul Edmondson knows it and the world knows it.

So let me repeat it:

You can’t have a multi-topic authority site specially when the people that write on it, (and they are the “main’ asset of hubpages) have ZERO idea about what they are writing about.

Because like in Squidoo times, HubPages has 3 type of users:

1. The user that is just looking for a backlink.

2. The user that think they can make money with Hubpages and really want to try the share-revenue model…

3.  The real writer or member that in fact loves the idea of being part of the community

Maybe I’m crude, may be I’m rude, but I believe 99% of the users in HubPages can be define in these categories….

so when HubPages got hit  the Panda Update slap, many of the users went out to forums, blogs and virtual streets to protest on how unfair Google is.

That’s why I believe the comments from Paul Edmondson about the Panda Update are in fact a bit naive to be honest.

Here are some points Paul makes.

- The drop in traffic has been discouraging for many of our writers. Some have left because they couldn’t raise traffic levels despite being very focused on quality. Google shouldn’t be able to affect other businesses in such a way. We are trying to do everything Google wants but apart from sub-domains, nothing seems to work. Once Panda marks you it seems almost impossible to recover.

My point:  This shows a clear flow with the site.   Why are people leaving?
Does this means the people only WROTE in HubPages for the AdSense revenue… because based on that comment  once the traffic drop, they run away to another system, site or platform….
So what does that say about Hubpages?
Why so many left? And why do they really leave?

Are people blogging just for revenue… or looking to becom part of the HubPages family?

But although the HubPages team realized that many writers where there just to get some quick cents from AdSense…  Paul Edmonson is also right by claiming

- The effect of Panda and the lack of feedback from Google means that this is dampening innovation in ways you can’t imagine. And it’s causing a lot of pain for no good reason. Instead of focusing on growing the business we’ve had to spend the past five months trying to figure out how to recover from Panda.

And that is the way it usually works with Big Google…. many legit companies now hav to spend more time trying to make the Gods happy, instead of finding ways to make their users happy.
Because making God happy and making the end user happy it’s not the same story 

My Take:

I think one of the main problems with HuPpages  was the strategy of really pushing the content grow…..

Pre-Panda, HubPages used to announce contests ALL the time to GROW their hub numbers..
In fact it seems at some stage their only objective was to GROW and by GROW I’m talking about: MORE CONTENT, MORE PAGES.

• The 30 hubs in 30 day challenge… or the 100 hubs in 30 days….

• The “write as many hubs as you can as you can challenge”

• The  “I bet you can’t write 100 hubs in 2 months” challenge.

These used to be strategies that HubPages marketing team didn’t mind allowing.

The reason? BULK the size of the site. Because, hey! the more pages… the larger we are… and the bigger Authority we become!

But funny wise I never received emails with topics like:

“improve your hubs challenge”
“rate the best hub challenge”
“become a real expert challenge”r
Instead all the challenges and policies where aimed to “CREATE MORE HUBS”.

So what is HubPages doing now… well, in their own words:

- We did everything, removed duplicate content, deleted some low quality content; we even cleaned up grammatical errors. Some things work some don’t, for no apparent reason. There seems to be a random element operating in Panda.

The problem obviously is that this was done AFTER Panda and not before… and usually when you make God Angry it’s difficult to revert his decision…

So what’s the future of Hubpages?

I still believe in HubPages, and in fact I believe it provides some value.

The community is strong and the authority Hubbers (is that the way to call them?) really provide some value and they seem to love the site.

I also think Paul Edmondson it’s brave enough to speak out and face what the industry thinks and hates of Google.
Google Updates and algorithm changes that although are done for “the greater good” it seems to affect real companies with real people trying to provide quality… while some autoblogs created in 7 minutes are still on top of the Google search results after more than 3 years.

But thmost important points that Paul seem to bring to the conversation are the last 2 points ZdNet Article:

- The Panda effect has been so large on some companies that if you knew they were going to be hit by Panda, you could make a lot of money in the stock market.

- Google’s Blogger has been unaffected by Panda. [This means nothing was done to improve quality of content and Blogger hosts a huge number of spam sites because it’s so easy to automate the publishing of spam websites.

Gosh Paul… you are so right. I think this is vital to remember: We can’t forget that Google is a Profit company. And at the end of the day they have to take care of their business. Their business is to make revenue from Adwords… if a content generated site outranks a “proper” site for “Tax Accountant Texas”  the algorithm looks dumb in the eyes of Google clients… and Google clients are the ones that pay the bills.

Regardless my thoughts in this tiny blog… not a lot will change. Slaps will always come and gone. Mayday, Panda, call it anything you want… the next slap is getting closer and for sure at the end of the day us, the users, the webmaster have ZERO input in what Google decides to do.

Oh… god… Gabriel is becoming an Internet Marketer… noooooooo , don’t do it… keep it just as an SEO consultant… please don’t become another self-proclaimed internet marketer! Welll…. sorry guys but I have done it again, this time launching my second product SEO Bandidos.

This product it’s not going to be ideal for the Australian Market… but trust me, In the USA… I’m a god! (lol) [I'm huge in Japan 2]

SEO Bandidos: Stealing traffic from the Spanish Market. (Great Title… and I looooooove the cover)

If you don’t know by now, my first language is Spanish, Although my last name is French… anyway, the idea of the product is pretty clear: Using SEO in the Spanish Market can really, really bring you some big cash. 2 Years ago I started the idea of experimenting with spanish sites, and I quickly realized that the market was just waiting for someone to setup simple funnel sites and capture all the traffic that was waiting to go somewhere.

Recently someone ask me why am I creating information products… and the answer is simple: I love to educate and I really enjoy training fellow SEO consultants and internet marketers in experimenting in different areas/industries and with new systems and strategies.

Google is not a desert… and the internet industry is never static. Things are always moving, and that’s why adapting and learning new systems is the only way to stay on top of the game .

If you want to check SEO Bandidos Feel free to click on my amazing product below. Support the ninja family – But it today (lol)

I was just following some backtracks and I found that someone linked to my social media page… claiming that “SEO guys” are simply Social media haters.

I find hate as a bit “strong word”… I don’t hate Social Media… In fact Social Media has been great for my business…  thanks to social media I have manged to get over 12 new SEO clients in the last 5 months… so not bad.

But regardless what I think social media, it’s important to understand very clear facts… that’s why I want to reveal some figures and data from my own sites.

Before becoming an SEO professional , I was just one more internet marketer… building sites and earning from affiliates, direct marketing, adsense, clickbank.. you name it.

These sites relay on ONE thing…organic traffic.

I decided to stop working on these type of sites in December 2009…  so more than 12 months now…. well, something curious still happens: I still make money from that sites, in fact Google pays my mortgage thanks to adsense, and Clickbank pays my Snow holidays each year. Mmmm not bad if you consider I don’t need any “followers” or “friends” or tweets to earn that income.

Now… with social media, clearly you can get tons and tons of traffic… but let’s think for 2 seconds what type of traffic is social media and what that means in your website and business.

Social media can only be applied in certain industries.

If you are a funeral director… Social Media it’s not going to bring you customers.

mmmm what tweeting “We have a great new offer… die with someone else and get a discount” ? Or … “Download my free report, 5 things to do before you die”?

I don’t think so.

Social media usually works for people that are trying to sell their own services or position themselves as experts by building their own brand… and that’s great. (hey… that’s why I do with this blog). But the problem is when we pretend that social media is PERFECT for all type of industries.

B2B businesses don’t use social media to generate sales… they use organic traffic…. you don’t re-mortgage your house thanks via twitter.. you find what you are looking for by gooooogling .

Obviously the next step is the ROI… the return of investment… and this is a b*tch to determine with Social Media.  And this is not just me, Silly-Gabriel talking about it… this is in fact a well known FACT for any advertising agency, but obviously the return of investment is clear when we deal with top brands like Dell, Apple, Xbox… then we all talk about the amazing power of social media to build BRAND… but what about just to produce proper, easy results for small business owners. Because this blog is mainly about “us” … the “real people” and not the big corporations that celebrate the great results of their facebook campaign after spending 1 million dollars in the last financial year.

What about the ROI for the small business owner?

When is the small business owner going to see a financial return for the Social Media campaign?

And the reason I’m asking this is because I can see the ROI for my SEO customers… i can see exactly how many extra bookings they get, or clients they close after jumping from position 12th for position number 2 in Google.

Can anyone show me some data where social media can beat a ROI over RANKING? Over organic traffic? ….  <—- open question to my readers.

The other problem of Social Media obviously is the short time of the traffic you obtain. So you work towards getting viral content, or you pray to the gods that your friends will re-tweet your message so many times that you will get thousands and thousands of readers…  but then traffic fades and that’s why you have to do it all again.

With SEO traffic is long term.

Look at my passive income example… my adsense sites still get 1000 – 2000 unique visitors per month, when the last link build was 2 years ago and the last content added was 3 years ago… I don’t touch the sites, I don’t even look at them… and thanks to the magic of ranking… my sites keep producing income.

Or let’s look at this blog. Will my regular readers will come back if I decided not to write anymore? May be not….

but what about the guys that find me via longtail or after looking for SEO consultant ? Well.. that traffic will still tick… day and night, regardless of my posts or activity in this blog.

Obviously I may be wrong.

I know many of my social marketers.. will tell me how wrong I am… and how little I know about social marketing. Yep.. you are right, look at me , I don’t even have 1 follower in Twitter… but the point it’s like in my post about why Facebook pages suck… is that we need to realize who we are and that we only have certain time in our life to market our website, products and services.

Social Media is a long term plan that so far I don’t know when you realize your “plan” has achieve a certain success.

How many twitter followers represent more sales?

How many friends represent more customers?

I don’t know. What I know it’s that small businesses owners can TRACK the success of any SEO strategy ten times better than any social media strategy.

And may be it’s just not me… may be the marketing officers of top companies are also struggling to understand the so-called amazing powers of social media.. A recent study by Bazaarvoice and the CMO Club  found that the exact impact of social media tactics evade the grasp of CMOs.

- 53% are unsure about their return on Twitter

-50% are unable to assess the value of LinkedIn or industry blogs

More specifically however, roughly 15% believe there is no ROI associated with Twitter and just over 10% cannot glean ROI from LinkedIn or Facebook.

Mm interesting.

The Social Media Success Stories.

Obviously I know they are cases like the cool Old Spice Campaign, that saw a a 2700% increase in Twitter followers, 800% increase in Facebook fan page visits and 300% increase in traffic to the brand website… and their sales tripled , bringing amazing profits. Ok… great. I get it… so social media works… but it works if you can hire a NFL star and put your ad around the US in prime time TV….  –> that’s not the kind of social media I’m talking about.

I’m not taking about social media.. for us.. the non 1 million dollar marketing budget people.

It’s facebook the new Google?

The fact it’s that social media can’t beat SEO… and advertisers know it… otherwise ask yourself… how many companies pay for adwords vs facebook ads?

the reality is that Facebook empire… may still be growing but any business model of any social media platform it’s weak compared to the Direct-organic traffic – search engine model of google. It you don’t believe me… don’t forget the last round of financing that Facebook got this year…  the more users, the more expenses and not exactly more advertisers.

Off course you will find users, experts, business owners and consumers that believe that social media is meant to exist as a marketing tool to connect with customers and potential customers in a real and meaningful way… in a human way…  not the gold, ice Google organic way.

Regardless what you think…

Obviously not considering Social Media it’s silly… but in the real world we can’t really do everything we want to do. Today I wanted to go and buy a Ducati motorbike but then I realized that I still had a mortgage and my wife-the-nurse will kill me first. So we can’t all do everything we want. We need to consider time, energy and resources.

So if you are the CEO of Coca-Cola and have 25 million dollars in marketing budget… I bet social media is the right track for you.

If you are a small business, just starting and need to get your first customers arriving to your site… then … sorry SEO still the King….

Now please comment and re-tweet this post. Come on… be nice… I mean.. be social!

Once upon a time, there was a small business owner who lived in a small virtual forest . Whenever the he went out, the small business owner wore a red riding cloak, so everyone in the village called her Little Small Business Owner.

One morning, Little Red Small Business Owner asked her Business Coach if she could go and try to increase her website ranking…as it had been awhile since they’d seen each on top of Google

“That’s a good idea,” her mother said. So they packed a nice “website” of keywords and content for Little Red Small Business to take to her grandmother.

When the website was ready, the Little Red Small Business Owner on her red cloak and kissed her business coach goodbye.

“Remember, go straight to your grandma house and achieve your desired  Googles Ranking” her mother cautioned. “Don’t dawdle along the way and please don’t talk to Internet Gurus! The woods are dangerous and many of them are bloody scammers”

“Don’t worry, mommy,” said Little Red Small Business Owner, “I’ll be careful.”

But when Little Red Small Business Owner noticed some lovely Internet Marketing Blogs in the woods, she forgot her promise to her mother. She picked a few articles and read a few blogs that talked about “how to dominate google” in 30 days or less“…. and while she was reading all these crappy blogs, she didn’t notice a dark shadow approaching out of the forest behind her…

Suddenly, the internet Guru appeared beside her.

“What are you doing out here, little business owner?” the Internet Guru asked in a voice as friendly as he could muster.

“I’m on my way to see my Ranking Increase in Google” Little Red Small Business Owner replied.

Then she realized how late she was and quickly excused herself, rushing down the path of backlinking straight to her Grandma’s house.

The “Internet Guru”, in the meantime, took a shortcut…

The “Internet Guru”, a little out of breath from running, arrived at Grandma’s and knocked lightly at the door.

“Oh thank goodness dear! Come in, come in! I was worried sick that something had happened to you while trying to achieve Ranking,” said Grandma thinking that the knock was her lovely small business owner.

The “Internet guru” let himself in. Poor Granny did not have time to say another word, before the “Internet Guru” gobbled her up with stupid sales pages and amazing-fake testimonials!
(what a bastard!)

The “Internet Guru” let out a satisfied burp, and then poked through Granny’s blogs to find a post that he liked. He added a stupid Certified Guarantee, and for good measure, dabbed some of Granny’s best sales letters.

A few minutes later, Little Red Small Business knocked on the door. The “Internet Guru” jumped into bed and pulled the covers over his nose. “Who is it?” he called in a cackly voice.

“It’s me, Little Red Small Business owner”

“Oh how lovely! Do come in, my dear, welcome to my website” croaked the “Internet Guru”

When Little Red Small Business owner entered the little cottage, she could scarcely recognize her Grandmother.

“Grandmother! Your blog sounds so amazing, your blog posts are so incredible… but it seems your own website doesn’t even ranks in Google… is everything ok? – she asked.

“Oh, I just have touch of a cold, that’s why my blog doesn’t rank at all” squeaked the “Internet Guru” adding a cough at the end to prove the point.

“But Grandmother! Why do you claim to rank for a useless longtail that nobody searches for,” said Little Red Small Business owner as she edged closer to the bed.

“The longer the longtail, the more valuable the visitors is to my site replied the “Internet Guru”.

“But Grandmother! What lack of Google Backlinks you have,” said .

“Backlinks are overated no a days… specially when you have the secret Google code that I have,” replied the “Internet Guru”

“But Grandmother! What big fees you charge” said Little Red Small Business owner” her voice quivering slightly.

“The better to screw you up and rip you off my dear,” roared the “Internet Guru” and he leap out of the web and began to chase the Little Red Small Business owner with stupid claims and emails.

Almost too late, Little Red Small Business owner realized that the person in the web was not her Grandmother, but a:
stupid-wanna-be-internet-marketer-so-called-SEO-expert-looking-for-a quick-$-for-his-useless-services.

She ran across the room and through the door, shouting, “Help! Internet Guru”!” as loudly as she could.

A Internet Ninja who was chopping logs nearby heard her cry and ran towards the web as fast as he could.

He grabbed the “Internet Guru” and made him spit out the poor Grandmother who was a bit frazzled by the whole experience, but still in one piece.

“Oh Grandma, I was so scared!” sobbed Little Red Riding Hood, “I’ll never speak to bloody “Internet Gurus” or dawdle in the internet forest again.”

“There, there, child. You’ve learned an important lesson:

99% of Internet Marketers Don’t make one penny, they pretend they make tons of money and they are just waiting in the forest to screw small business owners up – said the lovely grandmother.

Thank goodness you shouted loud enough for this kind Internet Ninja to hear you!”

The Internet Ninja knocked out the “Internet Guru” and carried him deep into the forest where he wouldn’t bother people any longer.

Lesson to be learned: If you want google rankings… stay away from Internet Marketers blogs.
Listen to your grandma and find yourself on kick ass Internet Ninja to protect you from those b*st*rds !

Enjoy!

So where is the money? I guess they say the money is in the list… the money is in the contacts… so that’s why today I want to talk about Aweber. If you are a super-ultra-duper Internet Marketer you already have aweber, but if you are new in this jungle-internet-marketing-game , then this is going to be a good post for you to check.

Aweber is simply a contact solution web based system, where you can have your visitors, clients, friends, subscribe to your “list”.

In theory it works like any subscription/newsletter system.. but in the case of Aweber you can setup an autoresponder system. So in that way you can automate the system

So instead of writing silly boring content… let me post these 2 videos that explain things way better.

How To send an email with Aweber

and How to Schedule an Email with Aweber (this is my favorite feature)

So if you want to check how Aweber works, fill the form below and give it a go.

One thing that every Internet Marketer, Small Business, SEO wannabe or Web marketing Expert desires is a lot of traffic coming to their website. Some decent traffic can lead to making some decent money.. right? but a lot of targeted traffic (instead of random traffic) can lead to even more money. This is why a lot of Internet marketers do all they can to increase traffic to their websites. So How do they get traffic? Below are 10 basic ways to increase website traffic.

#1 Articles – One of the most popular ways to increase website traffic is writing and submitting articles to article directories. These article directories allow users to add links back to their website when they publish an article. The more articles you have published at these article directories, the more traffic you can get. It helps to submit your articles to the top article directories, and off course to produce QUALITY (not rubbish) to inspire people to click back to your site. Want to learn more about Article Marketing? Check my FREEBIES … I’m giving away the best Article Marketing Guide in the Market.

#2 Social Bookmarking - The use of social bookmarking sites can also help to increase website traffic. There are a lot of popular, high traffic social bookmarking sites that allow users to submit and share their content and favorite websites. If you bookmark some high quality content from your website and allow it to be shared among others, someone may find your content and share it with their friends or even add it to their favorites and soon you will have a lot of people sharing your stuff increasing traffic to your website. Example: Get your site in the 1st page of StumbleUpon and you will be getting thousands and thousands of visitors in just 5 minutes. Targeted Traffic? Mmm not really… but at least you will be getting some traffic. (how well it will convert is a different story)

#3 Press Releases – Writing and submitting a press release is similar to publishing an article on an article directory. The only difference is that with press releases, the content is more geared towards news about products, services, etc. With articles, they are often more informational and discuss all kinds of topics. In any case, by having press releases published on the many press release websites available, you get the chance to show to the world what you have to offer and include a link back to your website. As with articles, you can get an increase of traffic from having your press releases published.
The beauty of this strategy is that you NEVER REALLY know who will pick it up… so keep in mind that a good press release with a good “news” content, can generate unlimited amount of traffic for the years to come.

#4 Forums – There are many forums online in which you can register for free and join in on the discussions being made. You can get a lot of free traffic if you were to register on forums in your niche that allowed a link to your website in the signature. Every time you make a post, you would also be showing your signature which included a link back to your website. The more people see your signature, the more traffic you can have.
Now; Be smart. Do it properly. Become an authority in the forum and traffic will flow to your site.

#5 Ads - If you want to increase your website traffic, you can easily purchase advertising on different websites and forums. You could purchase different types of ads such as text links and banners. Once your ads are placed, you will get traffic. Now you have to make sure that the site you chose to purchase advertising on gets a decent amount of traffic first or else you may be disappointed. It is important you have a clear budget and understand the quality of the traffic you are buying.
Many “SEO experts” hate paid ads. I love ads.. specially if they are from not very famous sites with healthy traffic willing to click on my amazing-banner or ad..

#6 Search Engines – mmmm remember SEO??? What the heck is SEO Gabriel?  If you can get your site ranked in the search engines for some keywords related to your site, you can get some DIVINE traffic especially if the keyword phrases get a lot of searches and IT HAS TO DO WITH YOUR INDUSTRY. So if you want to increase your website traffic and ranking … mmmm READ all this blog, join SEO course…  and then contact me   if you have any questions

#7 Question and Answer Sites – A lot of people are unaware of the traffic that you can get just by making use of question and answer sites. These sites are those that allow users to ask and answer questions. There are quite a few of them that will allow you to leave a link back to your website in the answer if it helps answer the question of the “asker”. If you were to go to a popular question and answer site such as Yahoo Answers and answer questions in your niche leaving a link back to your website in your answer, you can get a decent amount of traffic. This system can take some time.. and I personally don’t use it because I don’t like the idea of pretending to be an expert in topics that I’m not… but is for sure a valid way of getting traffic.

#8 Blog Commenting – If you go to high traffic blogs in your niche and make some genuine comments, you can get some traffic. When you go to leave a comment on a blog, in most cases you are allowed to include a link back to your website.
When your comment is published on this high traffic blog, people can read your comment and if they like what you have to say, they may visit your website. Blog commenting can be a really good way to increase website traffic although it does involve having a good strategy. (be smart where you comment and how you comment)

Want a backlink from this site? Make a smart comment right HERE, add your URL and voila !

#9 Social Networking Sites – There are many social networking sites online. You can use these sites to network with others and also take advantage of the features these sites have. With some of the sites, there are several ways to show what you have to offer and get people to visit your website. They may allow you to post a blog, include a link back to your website, share your content with others, post videos, post photos,etc… …

#10 Quality Content (Link baiting): One of the best and most natural ways to increase website traffic is by having quality content on your website. People love quality and will automatically link to and share your website among others if they like what they see. There are SMART ways of creating viral links specially with content and I believe the BEST way to create link is via content.

Link Build Definition: Link (1) bait (or linkbait) refers to anything on a website that encourages links from other websites. It can include content, online tools, downloads, or anything else that another site owner might find compelling enough to link to. Link bait is important because most search engines use backlinks  as a major factor in determining ranking.

Example of link Baiting…

I usually hate to talk about my success in the internet marketing world… but this time… I’m ready for a lovely rant.

It seems that “the nation” of the Internet, consider every single internet marketing product as … “oh my god, not another scam”.

The funny thing is that 95% of that people that are fast to point their fingers to the “scams”… usually don’t make money online, and have very little idea of how to REALLY make money online.

Once people see a “sales letter” or a “click now”  “BUY NOW” or a “one time offer” they quickly go running to forums crying… “Oh my god… be careful I just saw a SCAM”.

And that’ss why…. my friends…….. that’s why people will never learn.

Internet Marketing Products, from video courses to software, from Reports to ebooks… are what they are:  PRODUCTS… and these products are usually being SOLD by Internet Marketers… by people that understand how people buy and why people buy.

Internet Marketing is related to one thing : SALES.

So why are you so scared of people selling you stuff?

You go out there and buy Poison-Coca Cola every day and eat crap burgers in McDonalds but you don’t complain… but once someone tries to sell you INFORMATION , you see to start crying scared of people “scamming you”.

Do you really think that every single Internet Marketing Product is a SCAM?

Come on… wake up…

But before you write a comment, telling me how WRONG I AM… let me clarify some points.

Off course there are many “dodgy people out there”… but at the end of the day you need to understand one thing: There is no Bible about making money online. There is no one university or a title that Teaches you Internet Marketing, Online Revenue Strategies or even SEO…
because at the end of the day there is not even a legal authority that can actually provide you with advice and help regarding online business generation.

So if you don’t invest money in LEARNING… if you don’t take your BUSINESS SERIOUS … how are you going to achieve the traffic and the income from your online venture?

Last year I spend over 5K in courses, materials, software, reports and tutorials. Before you scream…. let me tell you: $5000 is nothing compared to the amount of prodcuts I wanted to buy…

Was the 5K worth the investment? You bet.

Why? Thanks to what I learned I have recovered my money at least 20 times…. yep… you do the maths.

That’s why every month I make more money than the month before… because I invest in my own development. I invest money in Learning from people that have achieved success in different areas in the online marketing world.

So what’s the lesson to learn?

Be smart… try to learn as much as possible from every single point of view.

SEO is great… but is not the only theory / strategy or system out there.

I love SEO… but I’m not stupid… if SEO stop working in 10, 12 years… I Need to have a plan B.

So what’s your PLAN B?

I seriously believe, that If you really want to win in this  game you need to learn as much as possible…. go out there and learn about viral marketing, ppc, ppv, CPA offers, landing pages, affiliate marketing, social media, list building, copy writing, and conventional offline marketing.

If a product can TEACH YOU something NEW… my advise is BUY IT

You are the only one that is in charge of your own training and learning. The less you learn… the more your competition learns and BELIEVE ME, one day they will be ahead of you.

So next time you claim that a product is a SCAM… do the research… investigate a bit more… and ask yourself this:

Why If I could Learn just 1 thing that could increase my business?
What if I could open my mind to a new possibility of traffic, income, revenue and customers?

But hey… may be I’m wrong… may be Internet Marketers are just a gang of horrible people, living in caves, making plans to take the world… and in the process, steal the numbers of your credit card.

Rant off. Going to bed. Enjoy

mmm what’s next? the Internet is Evil also?