Entries Tagged 'Infopreneur' ↓

I’m teasing my list about a ‘Google Domination’ program that’s due out on Saturday Friday called the “Authority Site Process“.

One of my readers wrote to say this:

“I am more inclined to believe that if Google wants you there it should be their decision to place you where they select rather than beating the odds to out do them. It may be Old fashioned but to me, honesty is still the best practice.”

The implication, clearly, is that trying to get to the top of Google (or any other search engine) is DISHONEST.

In other words, search engine optimization (SEO) is dishonest.

I don’t think so.

But more compelling is the argument often made that SEO is UNETHICAL.

That’s a more intricately delicate accusation, one not so easily brushed off.

And I enjoy ethical conundrums, especially because of my medical background. Medical ethics is very dogmatic and needs to be due to the nature of issues that require handling. Business ethics, I’ve found, tend to be a lot more loose, individually interpreted, and fuzzy in many instances.

Like the issue of SEO being ethical.

Driven by a profit motive, businesses that practice SEO almost always tend towards the view that any kind of SEO is just a business tool that gives them an advantage, and therefore ethical.

I have thought about it long and hard in the past, and have a viewpoint. See if you agree - or tell me why you don’t.

Ethical Theory - a primer

As far as ethics governs the ‘rightness’ or ‘wrongness’ of an action, there are two schools of thought:

Deontologic Ethics can be distilled down to ‘doing your duty’ or ‘following the rules’ - and that alone determines if an action is right or wrong, NOT the consequences of the action.

Teleological Ethics can be described simply as ‘the ends justify the means’. In other words, whether an action is right or wrong is defined by the good or evil generated by it.

Every Day Examples - case studies

This theory is abstract enough that some readers may miss the point I’m about to make. So I’ll use some daily life examples to make it come alive more graphically and in easy to understand terms.

A soldier on military duty attacks a village. He is acting on the command of his officer. Unfortunately, many innocent civilians in the village are killed in the attack.

The soldier’s action is still ethical. He is obeying a command. Following rules. The consequences of his action do NOT determine the ethicality of it.

It makes sense for deontological ethics to apply in some circumstances such as soldiers on the battlefield. It would be inappropriate for someone under those circumstances to be permitted individual choice as to whether or not to follow orders.

Now take the other example of a man pointing a gun at another one - who is attacking him with a knife!

If the man shoots and kills his attacker, he would not be charged with murder, but only justifiable homicide - because he was saving his own life. The consequences of his action make them ethical.

The same ethical theory would apply to a law officer who shoots down a terrorist about to detonate a bomb in a crowded public place. Taking a life, one of the most serious ‘crimes’, in such circumstances becomes an ethical act.

One of the phrases I coined - and love to use when I get a chance - is this:

“The difference between a surgeon’s scalpel and a murderer’s knife is one of INTENTION.”

A surgeon can ethically perform actions which would put anyone else in jail - because the ‘greater good’ of his patient makes the action ethical.

The Ethics of SEO

But what has this got to do with search engine optimization?

Google (and other search engines) lay down rules.

Playing within these rules, a webmaster can ‘optimize’ a site to rank high on the directory or search engine results pages (SERPs).

This approach is called ‘White Hat SEO’.

It is manipulative. It tries to give a webmaster an advantage over competitors. It does this within the rules.

By deontological theory, white hat SEO is ethical.

Most people accept this and agree with it. But there’s another brand of SEO called ‘grey’ or ‘black’ hat SEO - and that raises furious debate whenever the question of ethics is introduced into a discussion.

Can Black Hat Be Ethical?

Every black hat is not the same!

My good friend, philosopher and guide, Paul Myers, wears a black hat. It is pointy, too. He is among the most honest, straightforward and ethical people I know from my decade of working on Internet marketing. (You can sign up to his newsletter, Talkbiz News - click here)

No, Paul Myers is NOT a black hat SEO guy. He only wears a black hat.

But there are folks who use blackhat SEO to gain an advantage in terms of high ranking on search engines, by violating the norms and breaking rules these engines have laid down for fair play.

By deontological ethics, that is unethical.

But what if… let’s take a hypothetical case study.

This guy has discovered a way to prevent cancer. It works. Many thousand people can benefit from the information. He puts it up on a website - and then runs into a problem.

The top 10 (or more) spots on search engines are occupied by websites that employ blackhat SEO to protect their rankings. There is absolutely no way to beat them out - without using blackhat SEO techniques, fighting fire with fire.

What should this webmaster do?

Using blackhat SEO is unethical, by deontology. But by failing to get the life-saving information out to thousands of people who are looking for it, the refusal to use blackhat SEO techniques is ITSELF unethical by teleology - because the consequences of such a choice lead to the death of those people!

What a dilemma to face.

It certainly is possible to make a strong argument for blackhat SEO being ethical in this situation. In fact, if I was feeling particularly argumentative, I might even go so far as to say REFUSING to use blackhat SEO in such a situation is UNETHICAL!

But…

What do YOU think?

I leave that for you to debate with me. Let’s have a spirited discussion about the Ethics of Search Engine Optimization.

And in case you were wondering, there is absolutely NOTHING close to blackhat SEO in my new “Authority Site Process“ program that launches on Saturday. Friday.

I’ve had many beta-testers put the program through the paces, and it has been possible to uniformly replicate and duplicate the results I myself experience at will from following the process.

If you’re interested in hearing about it when I launch, you can either keep up with this blog - or opt-in to my mailing list - click here

But in any case, do chime in on the debate about whether search engine optimization is ethical - or not. Leave a comment and let the sparks fly!

New here? Please pick up your three FREE gifts - click here. Hope you like them. And drop by often!

If you’re wondering what this headline means, you probably didn’t get my email, or didn’t read it, or didn’t sign up for my email list.

Here’s where you can join - if you want to.

Leave your comment addressing the 2 questions I asked in that email, and you could win a copy of “Don’t Get MAD - Get EVEN!”

I’m amazed at how many authors still don’t have blogs. And when they do, how rarely they interact with their audience.

To the layperson, it’s a huge kick to be able to communicate with a well-known author, even one who has written a best-seller.

To the author, it is a never before available opportunity to engage in a dialog with the grassroots reader of his work, to get insight and ideas and feedback that can only help in structuring future work.

There are a few best-selling authors I am able to communicate with reliably. Among them are Seth Godin, Guy Kawasaki and Tim Ferriss. But even in these cases, not through their blog.

And that’s strange - because a blog is such an easy and convenient way of asynchronous two-way communication, one that lets an author connect with his/her audience in a one-to-many style through blog posts, and then extend the conversation one-to-one via comments, or even off-blog.

In my free short report, “How To Write a Book the Smart Way”, I even outlined a plan where an author can use a blog to release a new book in installments.  All along the way, you could be growing an eager reader base who will not only buy the finished book but also become one of a increasing crowd of evangelists who help spread the word.

Mark Joyner recently authored a new ebook. It’s called “The Rise of the Author”. It is available for free download… here.

The ebook reveals some interesting concepts that make you think. And there are some parts where you feel it would be nice to ask the author for more clarification.

What’s nice is that you can - through his blog.

Over the last week, Mark has been personally responding to EVERY comment left by readers of ROTA (Rise of the Author) - and the comments are quite interesting too. Take a look here, and then decide if you want to read the ebook itself (I recommend you try it out).

So, if you’re already an author, why aren’t you using your blog in a similar fashion?

Or if you are, please share how it’s working for you.

And if you aren’t yet an author, but have a blog (or want to) - well, what are you waiting for. As Mark Joyner says in ROTA, the window of opportunity for authors is wide open right now.

But who knows for how long it will stay open?

Thanksgiving is about food. Cooking and eating delicious Thanksgiving turkey, pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes, and tasty desserts.

It’s also about peace and tranquility, a part of America’s history - and a whole lot more.

And it’s a lot of fun -

• as you pull out ancestral Thanksgiving recipes and hit the stoves and ovens, blithely unconcerned if we’re actually breaking the law!
• as you plan Thanksgiving dinner, and then survive one with our families!
• as you guzzle beer and wine, then face the consequences!

If you’re vegetarian, you’ll celebrate in a slightly different style - with maybe Tofurky and other eco-Thanksgiving recipes as your reference guides, like this or this.

Or maybe you’re looking to do something different this year?

Try these 10 alternatives to a Thanksgiving turkey meal, or check out some more ‘Next Gen’ ideas for Thanksgiving - or simply cater it all out… no sweat!

Or just get outdoors.

No matter what your preference or style, don’t miss out reading about these 10 ways to MASTER Thanksgiving.

And check out some “Thanksgiving Fun Facts”

• The preliminary estimate of turkeys raised in the United States in 2007 is 272 million.
• The forecast for U.S. cranberry production in 2007 is 690 million pounds.
• It is common for U.S. astronauts who spend Thanksgiving in space to celebrate with a rehydrated turkey dinner.

More fun facts on Thanksgiving here

Happy Turkey Day

With the MMO-IM arena buzzing about “Attention Age” (thanks to Rich Schefren), I thought it would be profitable to slipstream on his efforts to share an attention age message - with a difference.

It’s a short blog post I did at the Infopreneur Blog about grabbing the attention of A-list bloggers like Darren Rowse, or Brian Clark, or Maki, or Yaro Starak, or Andy Beard, or John Chow.

Take a look. You might be able to use some of them - very profitably!

The Economics of Attention - 7 Ways To Snag An A-List Blogger

Today morning, I read this article titled “How Did I Double My Subscribers In a Week” by Caroline Middlebrook.

She’s fast becoming one of my favorite writers and bloggers, because she’s open, generous and frank about her data and results - not (yet?) having felt the urge or need to fudge facts and figures to fit an ‘image’, like most MMO-IM bloggers do!

Caroline, I think what you’re doing and sharing is AWESOME.

Just one thing I’d offer as a suggestion - get the ORDER right.

First, you get either a ‘marketing’ or a ’selling process’ set up, tested, tweaked and if not maximized, at least working consistently well… and then ramp up traffic to the process.

If you throw a million visitors at a non-converting process, you’re literally throwing away a lot of value. For instance, if you got 16 RSS subscribers from 335 visitors off Yaro’s blog (a ‘conversion rate’ of 4.9%), and worked on improving that to, say 20%, you’d get five times more value from the same traffic - and a proportionate rise from even bigger surges.

And reading Yaro’s article, I noticed something that might account for the lower conversion - this quote: “She hasn’t made a dime at it yet, but she hasn’t actually attempted monetization yet either. What she is doing is totally dedicating herself to growing her blog and so far she’s on the right track.”

The first bit is a direct quote from your own blog. And most ‘make money’ bloggers will ignore your excellent advice and content for just that reason - “Oh, it doesn’t work - after all, she doesn’t make money doing it!”

Reminds me of what Steve Pelzer says: “Never let them see you bleed!”

You write: “All in all, I have had over 22,000 visitors in 11 days”

With a well honed conversion process, you *might* have 2,200+ extra RSS subscribers instead of 250 - though the 250 is nothing to sneeze at.

On my new ‘Infopreneur Blog‘, I’m conducting a whole bunch of social media experiments.

In the last week, I have got 1,222 unique visitors (without using my in-house list, JV partners or paid traffic) and I have 20 RSS feed subscribers and 1 email subscribers - a miserable 1.6% conversion.

It’s why improving conversion rates will be the prime focus of my work BEFORE driving more traffic - because without the conversion working better, the traffic is less valuable.

On a completely unrelated note, that blog has already made $400 - from members who paid to observe and learn from the process I’m using to promote and monetize it.

The biggest lesson I’ve learned is, while doing a ‘for profit’ venture, to plan revenue and profit models first BEFORE even starting the project - and then testing small before rolling out big.

I go through this in greater detail in the series of posts, “How To Launch a New Blog in 2 Weeks”

All this data you’re sharing so willingly is worth GOLD to anyone who already has a monetization process for a blog or website. The niggling question that keeps popping up in my mind every time I read your posts is… “Why isn’t she making money with this?”

By all rationale, you should. You know that, anyway, though, don’t you? I sent you a direct message on Twitter about it. Let me know what you think.

In the meantime, please keep sharing these wonderful posts - I’m finding them very helpful

A few days back, I wrote a short list of 17 tips a beginner can use to get traffic surges from the social networking site StumbleUpon.

17 POWER Tips For StumbleUpon Beginners

The article itself was promoted using the tips it shared - and in 48 hours, over 700 people had read it!

Not surprisingly, there were questions asked about some tips - and they prompted me to write a more detailed account explaining things better and in depth.

The result -

How To Get MORE StumbleUpon Traffic - A Guide For Beginners… And Experts

Hope you find them helpful.

Dena tagged me - by asking me 5 questions someone had asked her, and which she answered on her blog.

Having just decided today to embark on a ‘November Social Media Challenge’ to boost traffic to my brand new Infopreneur Blog, I thought this would make a nice beginning… so here are my answers:

1. How long have you been blogging?

Off and on since 2003. More regularly from 2005.

2. What inspired you to start a blog and who are your mentors?

The growing popularity of blogs in 2004.

3. Are You trying to make money online, or just doing it for fun?

Both. I have a lot of fun doing what I do online. Incidentally, it also makes me a lot of money!

4. Tell me 3 things you LOVE about being online.

- the interaction with wonderful folks around the globe
- the flexibility of working on stuff whenever you find time
- the freedom to explore interests and satisfy curiosity without feeling self-conscious or worrying about what others will think

5. Tell me 3 things you STRUGGLE with in the online world.

- trying to fit in all that I want to do into the limited time available
- technology glitches (they still happen)
- email… both overload and its growing unreliability and delivery problems

Ok, those are short answers to Dena’s 5 questions. But it doesn’t end there.

I now should post a comment on Dena’s blog. She will come by, see my responses and maybe comment on them.

In addition, I get to pick 5 other bloggers and invite them to join in by answering these same questions… and then tagging a few other bloggers in their turn.

To fit the theme of the ‘Social Media Challenge’ I posted on Twitter - and here are the folks I’m tagging…

1. Te-ge Bramhall runs the Stumble Upon Comments blog.

2. Alice Seba who is an Internet marketing sweetie

3. Caroline Middlebrook whom I hope will find this right up her alley, as she taught me a lot about the need for a blog commenting strategy.

4. Justin Kownacki, another ‘Twitter friend’ who has a refreshingly interesting voice to his blog.

5. Marina Martin because I think she’ll enjoy answering these 5 questions! And she volunteered too on Twitter.

TAG… you’re it, folks!

Don’t forget to comment on my blog - so I can drop by and check your answers. And thanks for taking the time!

If you search on Google for “Make $100 a Day“, you’ll find thousands of results. And that’s because many people want to make $100 a day.

It’s also why a new ebook just launched through the collective efforts of a team of writers from “The Internet Marketing Inner Circle” is taking the I.M. marketplace by storm. The ebook is called “20 Ways To Make $100 a Day Part-Time On The Internet”.

The ebook reveals twenty different step by step plans or blueprints detailing how an average Joe or Jane can create a steady, sustainable cash stream working online, part-time. And every chapter is written by a person who actually uses such plans in their online business every day.

One of the plans is to create an information product and sell it online. It’s a method I’ve used often very successfully, and here’s a brief outline of my process.

#1 - Look for a demand. My favorite method is to watch discussions on forums, esp. the most frequently asked questions (ones that keep getting repeated, and to which the answers are incomplete or complicated)

#2 - Assess credentials and expertise. In essence, this boils down to answering this question - “Am I an expert on this topic? Can I answer the question or solve the problem based on what I know or have experienced? If not, can I find someone who can, and get them to help me with it?” If the answer to this question is “No”, I will abandon the project!

Obviously, there’s a lot more to niche research - and that’s one of the first detailed blueprints in the “20 Ways To Make $100 a Day Online” collection.

#3 - Test the market. I have a responsive list, so I often ask them if they might find this topic interesting to learn about. You could also ask on forums, sample a group via email or PM, or run a survey buying traffic on PPC search engines.

#4 - Research. Do searches on Google. Research various online sources. Borrow a book from the library. Rarely, buy a competing info-product to see what ‘angle’ the author takes, or to learn any new ‘tricks’ I’ve missed hearing about. As I focus on things I’m an expert at, and am constantly keeping up to date with my niches, this is anyway something I’d be doing.

#5 - I will register a domain name, outsource any graphic work, and begin crafting the sales letter. By now I have a fair idea of what the ‘pain points’ are of the target audience and what my proposed solution has to offer. Often, the copy flows easily. Rarely, not - and then, I look into why, and very likely it is because the research is incomplete. So I go back and do it again.

#6 - Start to create the product. Draft an outline. For complex or long products, chart out a timeline by which each element should be completed. Begin writing (or recording) to meet the schedule. By doing this step AFTER writing the sales letter, I make sure the product actually covers all issues promised in the sales message.

Now, infoproduct creation is not very complex or difficult, but it has an art and process to it. And in one of the blueprints in “20 Ways To Make $100 a Day Online” the exact steps are described in a way even a beginner can take and put to use.

#7 - Get reviews and testimonials. Online discussion forums are the best place for getting quick, reliable, valuable feedback on IM related (and often even other) reports or ebooks.

#8 - The next steps are: Formatting, proof reading, setting up order pages and download links, sprucing up the sales letter and testing it for conversion. Then, usually, a mailing to my list followed by announcements to affiliates and JV partners.

This is a ‘typical’ process. There are tweaks and nuances to it that require a longer explanation like what is offered in “20 Ways To Make $100 a Day Part-Time On The Internet“.

But the more important discussion is about WHY you want to make $100 a day.

Your passion and purpose may be unique, but it should be powerful. That’s why, to prove this point, I’ve started a special 24-hour fundraising event to help build a library for children in a developing nation, to be constructed by the “Room to Read“, a non-profit that is working in partnership with Litliberation.org to implement a series of literacy programs in the U.S. and outside.

You too can join in this special event, and stretch your imagination and skills to try and raise $100 in the next 24 hours - so you and 99 others can help us reach the ambitious target of $10,000 which is needed to build a library.

Read more details about this event here - and I hope you’ll join us.

Related Links:

“20 Ways To Make $100 a Day Part-Time On The Internet”

The Internet Marketing Inner Circle

How To Easily Multiply Your $100 A Day

Make $100 A Day

Branding: A Good Way To Drive Website Traffic

You CAN Make $100 Per Day Online Using Public Domain Content

Make $100 a Day - Starting Today!

An Online Fairy Tale of $100 A Day…

Can YOU Make $100 A Day Online? Here Are 20 Ways!

The Power of Teleseminars

How to get from....

to…

Today, an exciting new ebook is launching that will rock the Internet marketing world - or at least a part of it.

The catchy title, that describes exactly what’s inside, is:

“20 Ways To Make $100 a Day Online”

Go on - check it out.

And if you can’t afford it, but would like me to buy you a copy, leave a comment explaining why I should - and I just might do it!