Make Money Online With Snowboardjohn

You’ve probably seen the youtube video of extremely gay Britney Spears fan “Chris Crocker” crying his eyeballs out and looking like a nut job while he defends Britney’s super poor performance at the recent VMA’s.

And I’m sure many people watching him have simply assumed that this new “internet thing” allows people to get instant celebrity status - and - give people who would never get any air time the opportunity to get in front of the nation.

This is a GROSS misconception. And it reflects an EXTREME ignorance of society at large about the internet.

First of all, let me educate you about a “life reality”. And that is to get noticed by more than a few people, you have to be noticed by SOME people. To get noticed by a LARGE amount of people, a BIG amount of people must already know who you are. To get noticed by tens of millions, millions must already follow you. (OR you must have access to someone who HAS a following and will promote you).

Chris Crocker spent SEVERAL YEARS building a fan base of followers on the internet. He produced content RELIGIOUSLY, and experimented with different shot angles, story lines, and emotional appeals. He might LOOK like a nut job (and personally his stuff isn’t my cup of tea), but he’ is one hard working, intelligent, calculated mofo. For real.

His earlier video’s often involved his Grandmother, and him doing little skits and stuff:

His style was fairly outrageous then, as it is now. But he cycled through subject matters until he hit something which worked well for him.

My reason for bringing this to your attention though is to get you to understand that creating a FOLLOWING is the hard and important work. Once the following is big enough, you’ll get traction, and good things will follow.

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(The extremely flawed Alexa stats for whatever they are worth)

It’s weird to think that since August 11, my blog seems to have gotten picked up so quickly by so many sources at once.

I haven’t spent any money on advertising either - and - all my traffic is referral traffic. Not SEO traffic. (I love traffic that doesn’t come from search engines btw).

Anyway, I want to spend a little bit a of time talking about practical business promotion. And the beauty of using the “internet” as a business building tool.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people who read my blog want to become “pro bloggers”, so, I’m going to use blog promotion as my reference point. But for those advanced entrepreneurs who read my blog, please keep in mind that blog promotion is really just a metaphor for “word of mouth” PR. And that my discussion is really about PR, not just about blog promotion.

All Business Promotion Is Imperfect

When I wrote about whoring out my headlines yesterday, I wasn’t just trying to be cute. I really do see things that way.

A lot of the topics I write about do NOT fit my market/message match perfectly. Far from it. I try and stay as close to my main message as possible - but - the fact is to get talked about (or linked to) you need to do certain things which don’t fit the main core of the message you want to get out.

For example, I write about Godaddy news events so that I can trackback to BobParsons Godaddy blog. His readers demographic is one that I target, so I want his readers to become MY READERS over time.

Here’s an incomplete list of things I do that’s worked so far, which I recommend:

• Report on current headlines that relate to your market. You might not be a news center (or want to be one) but the reality is, more people will reference you more frequently if you talk about the changes to your industry. Extra points if you can discuss the changes intelligently.
• Challenge commonly accepted dogma. While being a potential minefield, challenging dogma can be very successful if you’re very knowledgeable about your topic, and are able to present your challenge logically with references that people will accept as legitimate.
• Mix up your content production into different Media Channels. Nothing is more boring than having Rice and Beans for dinner every day of the week. Using different media (like video, audio and so on) allows people’s brain to be stimulated in different ways. It’s different strokes for different folks. (And PDF’s are easy to create and make your readers feel like they’re getting an ebook for free).
• Don’t stray too much into your personal interests. I know a lot of business owners (and blog owners) think that personal touch means “opinion on reality TV show I’m interested in”. It doesn’t mean that at all - unless the reality TV show is specifically about your market, they don’t want to know. Use personal interests in brief references to build a persona that seems real, like “I watched America’s Next Top Model Last Night, damn I’m lame because I love that show… anyway…” and go no further than that. Running polls about off topic things is pointless and ruins an opportunity to increase the relationship people COULD HAVE HAD with you and your blog (or business).

I notice people use a lot of laziness in their thinking. They allow themselves to get away with too much “because it’s a reflection of their ideals”. Listen, business is unforgiving as hell. You need to be making the most of every opportunity you have. Being harsh on yourself and your decisions.

Everything above the fold (AND below the fold) of your website needs to have a SPECIFIC REASON for being there. If it doesn’t have a valid reason, then your opportunity cost is ENORMOUS.

People write to me and complain “Why do your speak so negatively about the social media buttons at the bottom of each post? They’re tiny anyway, and I think people like them. You’re so mean. Stop being so mean about this stuff!”

Listen, I speak the way I do because I speak from experience.

Take a look at someone like Darren from Pro Blogger and you’ll notice he doesn’t waste a SINGLE ACTION on his blog. Sure he uses some social media buttons - but only TWO OF THEM. And guess what? I don’t have a single doubt in my mind he has a Digg button and a del.ico.us button because HE KNOWS AND HAS TESTED that these are the only two services his readers use. And his market of “pro blogger” are the MOST LIKELY market to be using social media - and these are the ONLY TWO he uses. Have you thought about that?

Every opportunity you squander because you accept lazy decision making to affect your business or blog, DAMAGES your ability to become more successful than you already are.

Just Say Thank You

I try and send thank you notes to every single person who links to me or mentions me - even if they don’t like or agree with what I’ve written.

Maki from DoshDosh wrote about this recently.

Sure it takes time, sure you won’t get back to everyone immediately. But try and get back to everyone EVENTUALLY. People like to feel appreciated, so appreciate them. It’ll come back to you.

And on that note, I would say be careful about being inflammatory. Sure I do it to a degree, but I’ve been marketing and promoting for a good few years now.

I read a woman the other day who was all up about “how I’ve got such a big ego” etc. etc. - however - I don’t try and be this way, I write like I speak. I’m confident, not cocky, and there’s a difference. The difference is that: if you’re confident you don’t have to force the cockiness - it just comes naturally lol

Part 2 to come…

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Do you think having a $10k Home Office is a neccessary part of being an entrepreneur?

If you do, then Joe Blaze may help you see the light…

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If I were to try and become a famous rockstar (arguably the hardest thing in the world to become) here’s what I would do:

1. Find the SMALLEST town where people who are likely to appreciate my music hang out. (Or perhaps the smallest website community where people who are likely to appreciate my style of music hang out).

2. Get in front of that community and say something like “I’ll probably never be be known outside of this crowd, so I hope you like how I play” and then…

3. Play my damn hardest for those people as if they are the sole decider’s of the fate of my career (which they probably are).

4. Turn those people into raving fans (who hopefully talk about me with their friends and other people).

5. Don’t think beyond the crowd on front of me, no matter how small it may be.

6. Be happy even if only one person is listening (or even if no one is listening, and play for my own enjoyment).

Interesting note: I actually read “The Dirt” the story of Motley Crue, and you know what I discovered: those guys were rockstars before they were famous.

It’s just that no one knew it yet, besides them.

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This is a 2 page PDF report I wrote last night after coming into contact with some people that reminded me that what I find common sense, other people need to work on.

Get the Regular Guy Guide here

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