Back when I started this site, it was to say something that I thought everyone already knew: with incredible content as a basis, any level of traffic is possible.

You don’t need more money.

You just need to be GREAT, and be seen.

And word will spread.

Think of the last time you sent someone a link to something you thought they just HAD to see. Something about it was so great that something inside compelled you to share it. We don’t just arbitrarily share crappy stuff, because we feel that our taste in things reflects on us.

At least, not consciously, we don’t. But that’s another blog post.

There’s a point of view, however, that believes that being great is in and of itself, enough to make your idea spread. That if you’re really that wonderful, eventually someone will notice. In this world view, there’s no need for silly things like marketing.

Why put your Twitter share button on the page – if you’re that cool, people will put your link on Twitter anyway.

And perhaps that’s valid for people who have the luxury of time.

I disagree with that point of view, and I’ll tell you why in a minute.

First let’s look at the polar opposite to that point of view, that even a mediocre product can make you a millionaire if you play the odds and enough people see it.

You see this sometimes with people who have mediocre blogs and are trying to turn them into viable businesses. They’d rather have a hundred lame blogs with spun content making fifty cents a day, than do (or invest in) the bit of work it takes to get one solid resource to make twice that.

Or you might see this with a large, well-know brand that has an average product.

They want a bigger audience but there’s a perceived lack of resources to make the actual product experience better. So these groups invest heavily in advertising and hope for the best. Walmart comes to mind. I don’t hate them but I remember the shops in my area before Walmart, and they were better in so many ways.

It’s the success of the average, that feeds the idea that helping the mediocre rise to new levels of visibility is why advertising and marketing exist.

That’s a side effect, at best.

Usually, it’s the middle ground.

Because some of us can’t wait for the world to discover us.

Some of us don’t want to hope people will tell their friends about us.

We don’t want to be dismissive, but we know that people who say “build it and they will come” have the resources to build where people will find them.

Or that while our idea is legendary, our site is just… okay.

Or that since we have to wear all the hats, we can’t just sit around creating incredible content all day. And we still make it, just not at the pace of the people who are getting all the attention.

This site, is for those people who have the incredible something, but not the luxury of time to wait to be discovered. Yes, it happens to also work for people who have something crappy that they want to choke the web with carbon copies of – if your definition of “works” is a click instead of a subscriber, or a visit instead of a sale.

The reason I disagree with the notion that if you build it, they will come, is that I have built, many things, many times, a few of them great. And building it and telling no one, doesn’t work.

If you tell even one person, that’s marketing. If you place even one ad, that’s marketing. If you submit to one search engine, build one site map, ask for one link, hand out one business card, go to one meet up, call one person on the phone, that is marketing.

And there’s nothing wrong with marketing, or promoting yourself – if you don’t tell people you exist, no one will know. It’s only a danger when it’s all you talk about, or if it’s done in detriment to others (as in the case of saying things you know are not true, or making promises you doubt you can keep).

But none of it works without wonderful, insightful, passionate, content, products, services, customer service or whatever the “magnificent why” is, that makes customers flock to you.

Some will call it content marketing. Some will say your content IS 50%, 70% or some other percent of your marketing.

Po-tay-toe, Poh-TAT-toe. Point is, make it and make it great. Then, make sure it gets seen.

I’m not an ass kisser. Never will be. If you’re expecting a page full of sucking up, I can save you some time.

This post isn’t about singing Lisa Barone’s professional praises – some things are self evident. But it is about one of the best posts I’ve ever read of hers.

I insist that you go read her Open Letter.

You need a reason? Here’s a quote:

There was an eye-opening article on Inc. Magazine yesterday from Drew Gannon where she (yes, she) writes about the uphill battle women face in tech.

Drew’s piece touches on the Women in Technology Panel (catch it on YouTube) that took place last week where Important Women came together to discuss the power of women and the challenges we still face.

What are some of these challenges?

We’re meek.

We don’t share ideas in meetings.

We routinely discount ourselves.

We’re bad at math, science and other things that require high-level brain thinkings.

We’re responsible for twice as much of the housework than men and three times the childcare.

Dude! I had no idea! I always thought these were personality traits certain people had – like a bad temper or an affinity for collecting life-sized dolls.

Now, I know that some of these conferences that seek to address issues women have mean well, and they do help people.

But as Lisa pointed out, there’s a huge difference between a PERSONALITY flaw, and a GENDER TRAIT. And even if something IS more common in women, the solution isn’t to tie it on like some feedbag of shame. It’s to conquer it like the warriors we are.

I don’t have a problem with people who have problems getting help to solve them. Actually, I’m a HUGE fan of that. But lookit. That picture they’re painting? Doesn’t match up to me.

Meek? Not only will I share an idea in a meeting, if I think I’m right and you give me shit, I will shove it up your nostril until you convince me that I’ve been heard.

Discount myself? Not routinely, (though some of my pricing needs to be fixed, right now. And my blog is called Free Traffic Tips for goodness sakes.  If it wasn’t for bragging rights to my search results, I’d have razed this site to the ground a long time ago.)

I kick math and science’s ASS. And yours too if you’re ever dumb enough to grab the second PS3 controller when I’m playing a fighting game.

Housework? You’ve got to be kidding me. They have services for that. Yes, I helped rear both my sister’s sets of twins – but that was in equal partnership with her parents and my mother.

My point is, I don’t fit in stereotypes or boxes.

Yes, there are issues I struggle with as a women and a black person in technology.

So? Everyone’s got problems. And the issues were not CAUSED by my womanosity or blackuality.

And that’s the lithmus test.

Anyone remember that ridiculous book The Bell Curve, that used erroneous science to “prove” that the injustices black people faced were caused by their genetics, rather than the result of circumstances? I actually sat and read the book for a college class, and if you know anything about the difference between a causation and a corollary, it’s amazing that it was ever taken seriously by any true scientist.

Making blanket statements about women, then using statistics or factoids to assert gender as the cause, rather than a group of facts that coincide, is just as dumb.

We’ve all seen the insipid McDonald’s commercial wherein a young girl asks her mother, “Where does breakfast come from, mommy”?  Her mother’s answer is downright stupid.

And then there’s McDonald’s commercial reintroducing the McRib Sandwich. I got to thinking what exactly is this gut bomb made of.  I searched and found the following.

Warning: This product is rather gruesome  – so for those of you who have a weak stomach you might not wish to read any further.

Here we go -

The McRib sandwich from McDonald’s is a strange product of the food science world: mystery pork ground and molded to look like fake ribs, served on a starchy white bun and drenched in sauce. The restaurant must recognize the absurdity of this, as they created the “Boneless Pig Farmers Association of America” spoof. Now, they’re running a campaign encouraging customers to enter a video with a “legendary” creation story of the McRib sandwich. Any food that needs a creation story… well… that speaks for itself. The winner will receive $10,000 dollars and a trip to Germany. The fact that McDonald’s is making fun of the nebulous origins of its food is borderline offensive to anyone who would like there to be more transparency in our food chain and supply.

So, without imagining where the McRib came from, we’ll tell you where it actually comes from. It starts at an enormous factory farm. There’s a giant shed with a floor covered in feces, where tens of thousands of pigs will be born without ever having enough space to turn around and most will never see the light of day. It’s important to remember that unlike a chicken, a pig has fairly advanced mental capacities, much like a pet dog. Because these pigs live in such confined space, they can develop bizarre behaviors due to stress. The animals, removed from their mothers shortly after birth, nibble on one another’s tails because they are not allowed to wean. The pig having its tail nibbled is too apathetic to fight or object, but the chewed tails are likely to be infected. The solution? All the pig tails are removed at birth. We’ll spare you a description of the horrific slaughter, where up to 1,100 pigs per hour are killed, according to PETA.

Now, consider the meat itself. Is it really meat from the rib? No. “Primar­ily, it’s shoulder meat,” explains Rob Cannell, director of McDonald’s U.S. supply chain in a 2009 interview. “The McRib is made in large processing plants—lots of stainless steel, a number of production lines, and these long cryogenic freezers. The pork meat is chopped up, then seasoned, then formed into that shape that looks like a rib back. Then we flash-freeze it. The whole process from fresh pork to frozen McRib takes about 45 minutes.

Translation: mechanically separated meat. Remember the pink goo chicken nuggets are made from? This is the pork version. Just check out this photo of the grayish meat inside the “rib patty” snapped by the team at foodfacts.info. The texture looks like something that’s been chewed up and spit out.

Finally, the nutrition info, which of course you can find via McDonald’s website, albeit buried in a PDF. A single McRib sandwich contains 490 calories, 220 calories from fat. The sauce contains high fructose corn syrup. In addition to pork, the “McRib patty” also contains salt, dextrose, citric acid, butylated hydroxyanisole, a synthetic antioxidant used as a preservative that keeps food from interacting with oxygen avoiding degradation and the American Cancer Society recognizes it as a “reasonably anticipated human carcinogen,” and TBHQ, debated as a carcinogen, it’s a synthetic antioxidant that prevents fats and oils from spoiling.

So, the next time you’re hankering for a good and nutritious meal, you might not want to drive on in to McDonald’s.

Today I bring you a short rant in which I reveal some things I secretly HATE but still use to increase my traffic, and thus my subscription rate, and thus my sales, and ultimately, my income.

If you can’t see the player, you can download the audio here.

I’m specifically talking about branding right now. But this could be any aspect of small business – customer service, marketing, social media, newsletters, meetings…

And I believe the answer is, it only matters what you call it if what you’re doing doesn’t match what you’re saying that you’re doing. For example, you can’t call it customer service if you’re listening but not responding.

Actually let’s tangent onto that. I have an experience to share. One of my affiliates had over 257 sales over the 36 hours.

(That’s what I get for offering 100% commission on a page that converts at 17%. LOL, just kidding. Why I’m deliriously happy about paying out on that is a discussion for another day.)

Anyway, the point is, about 4 emails an hour came in with customer support questions or issues. They were mostly three issues – not getting one of the three confirmation emails with the download, not seeing that the videos were in one of the delivered files, or they had a compliment/question.

Now, when you’re handling an uptick in emails at that rate, you can certainly fall back on the excuse that you’re swamped, especially if you’re doing it yourself. Put it in an autoresponder and you’re covered for a little bit. Most people will be understanding.

Or you can deliver the best possible service you can, and give such a great customer service experience that will leave a memorable impression.

You can send three delivery confirmations instead of one.

You can offer a second way to get the videos.

You can call people on the phone to make sure they got what they needed.

You can send an extra message wishing them a good day when they confirm that they were helped.

It just takes a little extra to make a big difference.

For another example, let’s look at branding. That’s what made me write this article today.

I was reading Do People Really Want a Relationship with a Brand?

Here’s a quote:

In human-land, we don’t have relationships with brands; we have expectations of them.

My Mazda is in the shop right now. And while I don’t think of having a “relationship” with Mazda – my car’s brand – I definitely have expectations of what Mazda as a whole brand should be doing for me.

And in a sense, the article is right.

I don’t want my roofer to spoon me. I expect my friggin roof fixed. Now. Properly the first time. Not cheaply but certainly at a good price.

But that’s still a relationship.

People want relationships with people, of course — and yet, the whole idea of relationships with brands is that these are subconscious connections. No one could care less about a company selling some stuff. But people have died for their passions and hobbies.

Who sells the equipment to enhance their passions? Who creates the material for their hobbies? Companies.

For evidence of brand relationships, watch the documentary “The Corporation” [ official site trailer | full movie on Hulu].

Now, I don’t believe corporations are evil, but skip forward to the part about branding. People describe companies like Coca-Cola with *personalities*. It’s scary that branding is that deeply entrenched, but it’s also interesting that it’s at that level.

I *do* believe smaller companies need to focus on  connecting human to human though – that’s our strength.

You can call it relationship marketing, branding, or hickory-dickory-dock but we need to do it if we want to distinguish ourselves from the next guy. Expectations come from relationships. So do being receptive, responsive and respectful.

Intriguing topic for an article and warrants a lot of discussion. Be sure to read the entire article. The larger topic of the site is talking about branding in human terms, which Is very important to businesses of all sizes.

I hope you had the greatest 4th of July ever, whether you celebrate Independence Day stateside, or if it was just another Sunday.

Yes, here in the USA, we celebrate Independence Day. People talk a lot about freedom and independence. It would take me a lot of detail and back story to tell you why the last time I truly felt free was so long ago. But why I feel independent?

That’s easy. I own my own company.

I don’t just “work for myself” – no dis to the self-employed, as I once counted myself among your ranks. But in many ways, my business is growing beyond that, slowly and steady as she goes. And while I’m personally far, far from being a millionaire, I do know that given full possession of my faculties, a way to communicate and basic survival needs taken care of, I could build another company tomorrow from scratch.

And whether you just enjoy my blog or have all my products, I have you to thank for that. So thank you.

That feeling of knowing I can shape my own destiny, win or fail, is what Independence means to me as an entrepreneur. I’d love to hear what it means to you.

Today’s Topic for “I Don’t Have Time for BS” Wednesdays: What Makes a Search Expert? What Makes ANYONE an Expert?

You may remember a few weeks ago when I said I was planning on writing a guide to how to spot a phony expert. I intended to do it right when I thought of it, but the whole issue struck a nerve with me.

I mean, here it is, the dawn of an age where communication is the most open, immediate and interactive as it has ever been in the world. Despite economic barriers that still exist for some, in relation to even having access to the web, via cell phone or not, this is still an age of unprecedented free flow of information.

With a cell phone, my grandmother in Africa could find out whether the guy who owns the shoe shop she wants to order from in the UK is worth the extra price.

(Yes, my grandma would still buy fashionable shoes in the UK. She is FLY.)

And yet, the question is – would she? Or would she trust “the expert”?

There’s the rub. Who IS the expert? Yeah, I know, they’re everywhere now. If you sneeze, eleven gurus say “bless you”. I get it.

In fact, that’s my point. Everyone I’ve never heard of is a guru now. The fact that I continue to reject that particular title is deemed insane – you’re supposed to be able to make truckloads more money if everyone calls you the Guru.

But I don’t want to be called that in an age where it means nothing – whether I deserve it or not is far beyond the point.

There was a time when if you were called an expert, it meant something.

There was a time when if someone said you were an expert, they meant that they read that one of your peers with a pristine reputation for moral integrity, honesty, a fellow expert with a proven track record, had called you an expert, and that they trusted that person so much that they automatically transferred that title to you.

There was a time.

I don’t mean in the last 90s. I’m talking mid ’08/ late ’07 – eons in Web time, I know, but humor me.

As recently as a year ago the word expert had a very defined parameter. one didn’t throw around the word lightly.

Let me be clear here.

I’m not picking on the person who is just starting their online career and has realized that compared to the business owners in their community whose leads are drying up, that their 250 targeted Twitter followers is a group that has value.

If you’re charging your lookie-loo neighbors a couple of hundred bucks to teach them how to use Twitter, more power to you. In fact, anyone who isn’t going around calling themselves an expert with no factual basis is okay with me.

The issue I have now is that the way the word “expert” is being used has changed dramatically in reference, but not in conversational usage.

Meaning, a person calling themselves an expert no longer distinguishes a person who, say, knows everything there is to know about golf, who has the track record to prove it, from the person who has just played more holes than you have.

The new “compared to the lay person, I’m an expert” culture is rampant particularly in social media.

Which would be perfectly okay if it were stated – understood even – that the person who is supposedly an expert is only one under those strict circumstances. But it’s not.

It’s a social lie of the highest order and it’s screwing up business for everyone including them.

I’m not going to sit here and lie, and say that the only reason I’m concerned about the spread of the un-expert is that I want to protect you from harm, dear reader. I admit I’m somewhat of a bleeding heart and that IS part of the peril. But a good part of this is self-interest.

I’m sick and tired of cleaning up after the so-called expert. It used to be enough that I could perform traffic miracles. Now I have to un-do utter catastrophes first.

I’m too old for that shit.

So it seems like a good idea to attack the issue at its source. And that is the ability of the false expert to self-stamp oneself as such and not be run out of their respective vocation at the end of a virtual sword.

I’m hoping we don’t need to bring dueling into the age of the Web, but a slap across the face with a still-warm glove seems befitting such an offense.

Because the word Expert has been pillaged.

It USED to refer to a rare person who was at the top of their game.

A person who didn’t just study a topic, but was a thought leader.

A person who didn’t just teach about a subject, but did what they were teaching you, who exploited their own techniques for personal gain – because they *gasp* WORKED.

An expert used to be who hadn’t just used the technology but had tested it on themselves, who was a pioneer, who helped shape the industry, who knew the insiders.

Someone who could prove their knowledge about what it is they know, who could answer questions about it off the top of their heads.

In the same way a good mechanic isn’t a good mechanic if they have to consult a text book about a typical oil change, nor should a good expert be dodging a direct, basic question about their area of expertise.

We’ll come back to how to actually spot the phonies in a bit though. First, I want you to understand that I was never fully in support of the Gurufication of information that existed back in the days of yore, either.

Admittedly, there was a bit of elitism to the “Expertization” of a person lo those many months ago.

You had to pay your dues and it was a pain in the ass.

If you hadn’t spoken at a conference, there were some that didn’t take you seriously.

Others felt the calling card was that you had written a book that could be ordered on Amazon and shipped to your house in a box, even if that meant that at press time your information was so old and outdated as to be ridiculous.

Still more felt that until you put together a $1000 package and sold a certain number of them … or drove a certain car … or had a certain type of house…

The point is, to some people you weren’t an expert unless you also pretended to have a certain type of expertise, a certain amount of money. THAT nonsense we can get into another day, I’m just saying, the days of the expert, proper, weren’t perfect.

But those days were changing. It got so, as in the rest of the IT world information publishing borders on, what you knew and your ability to duplicate results from what you knew, were collectively more important than who you knew or what car you drove.

And even without those changes, those days were better than this.

“Oh, what’s the harm, Tinu” say some of my friends.

“What’s the big deal if that loser says they’re an authority on that topic. THey aren’t even your competitors. You don’t even move in that circle. You wouldn’t get out of bed for twice the money they make from the little scams they’re running.”

It does do harm though.

It does matter.

And those of us who are knowledgeable just sort of sitting back and laughing about it isn’t helping. Some of my peers even think “Well, if those folks are dumb enough to fall for it, imagine how much you can charge them when they come crawling to you.”

Which is even scarier, to me.

Let me reassert before I continue, once again, that I’m not an angel.

There’s no future in frontin’, I’m not perfect by any stretch. But there are limits to what I’ll do to make a buck.

And if you’ve been following me for more than a week, you know good and well that I need all the help getting to sleep at night. So I’m sure as hell not going to be kept up by a moral dilemma.

To me?

It’s not even a dilemma – I can’t sit around here and say nothing when it’s becoming a part of the web culture for people not just to screw up, but to purposely set out to harm people, and get away with it..

I’ve screwed up before. There are screw-ups I’ve been a part of that weren’t entirely my fault that I still try to clean up after, two and three years after they take place. I’ve got a couple of debts I want to pay back even though I’m not legally obligated to lift a single finger to help.

But there’s a huge difference between wanting to help survivors of an accident you had a part in causing and purposely plowing full speed into a school bus with your head tilted back to finish your beer.

My point is, more often than not, these nut jobs are doing their dirty deeds On Purpose.

And the only reason I don’t name names in public is because I believe in the goodness in people and that sometimes good people do desperate things that they consider borderline, in order to get ahead.

I used to be one of those people who thought you were supposed to choose between honesty and making money. First I chose the money – I was in my early 20s and much dumber than I am now.

Then I met genuine, kind people who had mountains of cash and none of the stress I had in my life.

So I chose again. And when I chose honesty, and the willingness to be broke if I couldn’t make money other way helped me find out that I didn’t have to choose.

So what am I saying? What is the point of all this long-winded drivel?

That I believe we should come together and share guidelines on what to check before you buy something from someone online, especially services. I believe we should blog about the blatant fraud going on in our respective industries and, when necessary, challenge it.

Of course, not viciously, and not with assumptions – just because a person only has 100 Facebook friends does not mean that person isn’t a Facebook expert. For all you know those 100 people are all CEOs or Millionaires or only family and friends.

At the same time, we’ve got to get beyond this idea that having 5000 friends on Facebook automatically makes you the expert. That’s just insane.

Under the right circumstances, you can even get 1,o00,000 people to sign up for something that’s free and doesn’t require a credit card number, provided you can find that many people interested in it. Just get in their path, and offer them something of equal or greater value, for signing up.

(There’s your free traffic tip for the day.)

But getting back to it – why do I care?

The same reason I always have, money. The easier it is for me to make, the faster I can make more of it.

Okay seriously, now. I’m gonna put myself out here a little bit and speak from the heart.

I founded this site to keep people from getting ripped off. That’s what used to happen when information wasn’t out in the open.

There was less to pay attention to and higher stakes if you screwed up – if you were going to shop online, the majority of us checked thoroughly, if only to avoid the scrutiny of those who were sure just the act of using a credit card online would get us ripped off.

Now maybe there’s so much information, we’re listening to the first person who gets our attention. Perhaps, maybe, we’re getting a little lazy with our research — or maybe the new information is burying the access points to how to do the research, I don’t know.

Could be that the new people online just don’t know any better than to trust people who SAY they are experts, because in the offline world, you can’t just SAY you’re a doctor. Maybe the credentials are assumed.

Anyway, as the start to my pledge, my next post is going to be about how you can spot a phony in fields you may not be familiar with that I am.

I think that’s also part of the problems – I have no idea how to tell the difference between an okay Lincoln town car service and an excellent one, so I always go with whatever is linked from whichever travel site I’m making my reservations on.

So for search, social media, and website promotion experts, I’ll tell you what to look for and who, as far as I know, knows what they’re talking about. We’ll start with guidelines for search next, since that’s what the theme of the week is.

If you have some guidelines, leave me the link, or send me a tweet. Maybe we can put up a master list some place, or find a way to start some kind of association with an independent evaluation body made up of consumers through Get Satisfaction or something like it.

So if you have ideas about that, let me know too. It’s high time that integrity made a comeback around here – don’t you think?

By the time this is published, it will indeed be my birthday on the East coast, where I’m currently located.

And I definitely wanted to take some time out to celebrate that, so I’m planning on not working at all tomorrow. Yay me!

What does that have to do with you? At some point in one of these videos I tell you exactly what you can do on my birthday to make me smile.  

Okay, seriously though, what this has to do with you is that every year, on my birthday, I’ve sent out a special newsletter, blog post, birthday gift to all my pals, something.

This year I’ve decided to be naked. 

Yeah, that’s drama, and kinda hype-y. But I bet you want to know what it means, doncha? 

If you don’t, you can always just leave.

.

.

.

Still there, huh? Thought so.

What it means this year is that I’m going to, right now, for the first time, give a video peek into the stats of my site. Not  a picture of last year’s stats.

Not a screenshot of last week’s stats. 

My web site stats for 2009, from the first three months of the year that I wasn’t promoting… and a look at the dramatic difference it made when I am actually well enough to promote this year. 

Where does nakedness come in? That’s how it makes me feel, totally exposed. But I’m comfortable being this open with you.

Of course, I can’t give it all up – I’m not THAT easy, LOL!

The one thing I didn’t share, that I’m only telling folks signed up to Traffic Reality is what links send me traffic. It’s surprising information that I also keep close to my chest.

But I show

• what keyword phrases send me traffic, and how much,
• what kind of traffic Google has sent me this month, 
• exactly how many unique visitors I’ve had this month, and,
• how my traffic tripled about two days into turning my promotion machine up from low to medium.

I’ll also point out how you can tell that this isn’t Bot traffic – at least 89% of my traffic is from real human people looking at my site.

I’m sure most of you remember this time last year that I was physically unable to work and couldn’t promote my site…  But the traffic kept coming, because of the way I have set up my sites.

That was shocking to some people, that you could keep having traffic for months or up to a year without manually promoting your site every day, with no spammy software, and no virtual assistants.

But if you think that was a shocker, wait until you see what it looks like after a day or so of me just doing a BIT of promotion. This is not full strength, now. 

Meaning none of this traffic is from JVs or affiliates, StumbleUpon, Digg, press releases, podcasting, video sites, link campaigns or any offline promotion .

This is just from search, blogging an average of twice a week, RSS traffic, one article published, a few Tweets, two newsletters sent, and very light auto-pilot promotion on Facebook.

Here’s the first video where I do a quick overview – look in the upper right corner at the time – this video was recorded live and just published a few minutes ago. You can see the time changing in my taskbar in the upper right – it matches up with the video, this video is unedited.

You may want to view it full screen for the full effect. Or you can see the first stats video here if you’re reading via the feed, or as this is republished on Facebook.

And here’s the continuation in the second video. Again, notice the time. The only reason there’s even a break is due to Jing Pro’s 5 minute limit per video.

Again, you may want to view this full screen for the full effect. Or you can see the second stats video here if you’re reading via the feed, or as this is republished on Facebook and other sites.

Now, why am I showing you how much traffic I get to this site?

1. Because it’s the one thing web site promotion professionals and marketers Will Not do whether they know what they’re doing or not, because the results are so often taken out of context. 

   For example, the amount of visitors I got to this site this month pales in comparison to traffic I’ve generated for clients and for some of my other sites.

   However, given that the majority of people online have absolutely no interest in a site about web site traffic? It’s pretty darn good.For the average online business person or marketer, it would be phenomenal.
    

2. To show you that those results are possible for everyone.

   You’ve heard my story, most likely. If not, go to the Evergreen Traffic sales page and read it. The bottom line is, yeah I’m an expert at this, but the methods I use are easily boiled down from rocket science into steps anyone can follow.
    

3. For me. To give myself a much needed pat on the back for still having “it”, 11 years after my very first website went online. 
    
4. To get you to give Traffic Reality a try.

Traffic Reality is my new membership site. Well, it’s my new, old membership site. I set it up to show people how to get better traffic results to their site back in 2006 and had to take it down. 

This year, with help from friends, I put it back up. If you’ve heard of Evergreen Traffic, in which I showed three simple traffic techniques and showed you how to combine them to multiply their effects, then you’re familiar with my concept of blending different traffic methods into a system in order to magnify their effect. 

For example, search marketing and article marketing can go well together if implemented properly. Try shortcuts or mis-judge how to blend them, and you’re courting disaster. 

In Traffic Reality, I

1. start you off with one traffic method, and teach it to you in bite-sized pieces,
2. show you how to put it on auto-pilot or semi-auto-pilot, then,
3. add another traffic stream. 

By the end of the second week of implementing the steps you see your first incremental traffic increase. The next month I teach you how to maintain those resuls while simultaneously increasing your traffic with another method, broken down into about a dozen of lessons, sharing literally hundreds of traffic tips, methods, techniques and sources.

So essentially, it’s Evergreen on steroids, split down into pill size. 

These are the exact same tactics I use to promote my sites. And a site like this one is in a difficult spot – almost every business is at least twice as easy to generate traffic for than mine is.

Until my birthday ends, the price special that expired last week is on. So, if you want to get into Traffic Reality at a 20% discount price that you’ll be locked into forever, you want to join today.

Oh yeah, all members can also sign up for the affiliate program. It’ll be a while before we introduce it to Clickbank – they have to approve the site and everything, it’s not like with a product. 

Current members, look for an incredible bonus at the end of each week of lessons for the next 9 weeks. One hint: if you’ve seen all the main pages of the site, you already know what it is.

I’ll be back with more birthday madness later on in the day.

I think I have The Plague. Or something that feels like it. 

But I can’t sleep. And I had to tell you about the latest craziness. 

Twice today, I’ve gotten the Social Threat.

Oh, this hasn’t happened to you yet?

It’s been happening to me a lot since I somehow made it on the top 50 of the Facebook Elite User list.

(My thoughts about all these lists? Story for another day.)

 Here’s how this scam works.

The Laughable Add Me Or Else! Scam

1- A person who assumes they’re doing you a favor by offering, sends you a friend request.

2- If you don’t friend them back in 0.314 seconds, they send you a “friendly” reminder.

3- Then, if you don’t still don’t friend them immediately, they “threaten” you.

“I’m not going to read your articles / buy your CD if you don’t friend me back.” or “You know you’re going to drop on the Facebook Elite list if you don’t keep your friend list active, and with my powerful network of 18 people, you need me!”

Or, “I’m going to tell such-and-such guru who I’m best friends with that you’re not a good person”, or my favorite, ”I’m going to ruin your reputation if you don’t add me!”

Now, what have we learned about social media, class?

That the word social is the critical, pivoting point, yes?

What’s social about threatening someone into responding to you?

What’s worse – the two times this happened this morning on Facebook were by two people I  had intended to add during my regular weekly mass update.

And what they said to me is what caused me to not just delete but BLOCK them. They made a threat to me that is the equivalent of slapping someone holding a bat when you’re otherwise unarmed.

Here’s the more obvious logic flaw to this tactic: Only a Desperate Loser Would Threaten Someone Into a Connection, and Anyone Who’d Cave is Worthless to Your Network Anyway.

Tell your friends.

That’s 90% of the key to social media. Everyone thinks it’s harder than that.

No, these are just new tools to do an old thing. And yeah, you need a pal like  Michelle, Liz, Rodney, Mr. Joyner, Sherman, Trish, or Laura to hold your hand through the details, but once you know the guiding principles, you’re set. If you don’t get what creates popularity, get a consultant who is actually popular, not just on a list that says they are, to show you.

Or just remember this free tip:

If you’re hanging around with the in-crowd, people think you’re part of the in-crowd.

So how do you get into the in-crowd? Get next to a person who is part of the in-crowd.

And remember that just being a part of that in-crowd person’s network isn’t enough. It’s finding someone willing to formally introduce good people to their contacts, instead of hoarding them like stolen treasure.

Now, when you meet a person like this online, and you want them to do for you, this is why it’s important to know about them, to research them, and not to add people willy nilly from some list you find and try to bully them into adding you.

You have to know who you’re talking to, what they might like or be interested in. I don’t need people to add me to their network of 18 friends on Facebook. Chances are that if I need to know them, or I know someone who does. You don’t bait a fish with a rotten old shoe.

And even if you do find something to ethically bribe someone with, you have to understand that still might not get you in.

This in-crowd is in BECAUSE it’s selective. If I know someone who is a marketing genius millionaire, and he’s always helping me out with stuff, I’m not going to introduce him to the guy I know who has a reputation for having never paid a single affiliate. I will only link him with the best people, no matter what it costs me personally.

So you want to put your best foot forward. Because when I’m displeased?

I have a big mouth and  a bigger audience – on demand. I can get coverage on the top online sites in 24 hours if I want, and no one will know it was me if I don’t want them to.

If I want 100,000 or 1 million people to know you suck – or to change their mind about a previous instance where you sucked, I can. I have those kinds of connections, and even without them, I have that kind of influence – that’s why you want someone like me in your network.

It sounds vain and self-centered. Because it is. I’ve earned the right to be arrogant about this.

But it’s also true (and relevant to knowing what the person threatened me with, shortly).

Threatening people doesn’t work. Because even if you were a legitimate threat, they’d rather lose their career and have to start over than lose their connections, and not be able to start over at all.

Which is why when someone says to me, “I’m going to tell my 100 subscribers that you’re a mean person and all those hundreds of stories about how nice you’ve been aren’t true.” I have to laugh, and I only have a powerful voice. Someone who has actual power would not laugh at all. They’d just crush you with their bat, just in case, like you were a roach. And keep stepping.

If you know people doing this foolishness under some phony expert’s advice, please tell them to stop, especially if they’re doing it to you.

Because I don’t know about you? But I don’t owe anyone anything.

As always, please be aware that the free audios will NOT be studio quality. We’ve been told there’s an echo at about 15 minutes in, for 2 minutes, but that you can still hear me okay. Unfortunately I can’t correct this on the fly, still not well enough to do all the manuvering involved.

MP3 File

So here we are, we somehow made it to 2009. I checked and all my limbs are intact and in working order.

Pretty much, anyway.

Today, I wanted to start the New Year with what may well become the tradition of this site and the newsletter: more frequent audio updates.

In this rebirrth of the Free Traffic Tips Minicast:

* What's New with Me
* What's New with Traffic Generation – the answer is going to be a huge surprise to some of you.
* A Query About What's New With You

We'll Have a Poll up you can vote on with the top answers to one of the questions in this audio — we're going to be asking YOU to help decide the direction of the year.

What secrets do you want me to spill? What do you want to learn? Or do you just need a routine to help you put all of this into practice?

Answer the question in the podcast and you could win a prize- we're giving one for my favorite answer, the first answer, and every fifth answer.

The catch is – you won't know until the comments are published…

If you haven’t read the first part, you may view this post in a different tone than it is intended. Please read Part 1 of the Marketing Tweetroveries first.

While we’re on the topic of social media, no, I’m not part of the team upset at Guy’s Twitter Twool post or the one on How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter. I’ve been asked about this several times, and not answered. Well, here’s my answer:

Guy and I have had a few conversations and I believe he’s a good guy who was just answering questions people asked him, honestly. Not that he needs me to defend him. He’s probably too busy to even realize there was a controversy over it. Again, people are asking my opinion, and I’m tired of answering the same question individually.

So here’s more of my opinion.

The articles he wrote are for people who are marketing to other people like them, who judge other people based on stuff like follower numbers and who they know. And the truth is, to the crowd he was talking about attracting, perception of those things matter. If you’re marketing to marketers, that’s what they look at.

I was a bit dismayed with the way the situation was handled by most folks on either side of the resulting feud on Twitter last week, especially since there was a much more important issue regarding truth and social media in the news that week that most people laughed about, then forgot about.

When this one came up, I kept largely silent on the matter for two reasons.

First, I was watching the prevailing perception that it’s somehow wrong to make money or to be interested in making money.

Now, as someone on the fringes of this crowd I don’t know if they were being tongue-in-cheek, or if they aren’t aware of how they come across and don’t mean it that way.

I can only say what it looked like to me from the outside looking in.

How I view it as someone who has been actively looking to link people who need freelance work to people who are hiring freelancers.

How I view it as someone who hires people who do what some of them do.

In either case, I appreciate them being authentic, but I’ll admit to being… saddened by what I see as a negative attitude towards wealth, or even financial stability. I just plain don’t think it’s wrong to have money, pursue wealth, or be in business for yourself.

Are there ethical ways to do it? Yes. Should those be the way we follow? Of course.

But the spirit of much of the ribbing, jesting and sometimes, flat-out meanness that I witnessed, wasn’t tinged with discussion of ethics. It read, intentionally or not, as an objection to capitalism, period.

In talking one on one to some people, I found that there was an anti-business attitude, even among freelancers. Not anti-bad-marketing. Anti-business.

Among a crowd made partially of freelancers and entrepreneurs.

No wonder so many folks are broke and the economy is a mess if we think the companies that serve us, hire us, or that we create, are evil just by virtue of wanting to make a profit.

That’s what business is, people. The world doesn’t run on cheese.

The other reason I hadn’t said anything while this was hot was that the timing coincided with the death of a really close friend. I’ll get into that more later in a post where I hope we’ll discuss how I’m doing and how you’re doing.

From what I saw, the fighting got a little vicious and there were some mean exchanges, as well as some unfortunate things said, and actions taken that have permanent consequences some may be deeply ashamed of later.

But I know how I react when I feel I’m being attacked, so I’m not judging anyone on either side. Not that anyone in the situation needs or desires my (dis)approval. This post isn’t for them, it’s for you.

Having said that, I also don’t think @ABigVictory, or her opinions about what Guy said regarding Twitter, should be “muzzled”, particularly after her update. I don’t even think that kind of thing is possible.

At the end of the day, whatever happened between her and Guy as a result is really between them.

Of course, I don’t think people who share her opinions should be called names either, the nicest of which would be “a social media elitist”, the worst I’ll tell you in a minute.

What I want to know first is; when did it become okay to call people names and accuse them of things we wouldn’t say if we weren’t eye to eye?

No matter how big or small a person’s business is, it’s wrong to try and disparage them over a difference of opinion, no matter how passionate you are about it. Even if they did something immoral or illegal there are avenues for that. I’m not against using your site as a platform to protest someone else’s actions.

Just let it be known that bickering is an immediate unsubscribe for me. I’ve been guilty of it myself, and I’ve learned from that, to the point that I won’t stay around to witness it amongst others.

The takeaway point of that is that I’m not alone.

As more people come to the realization that they control what they consume, how they spend their day, and the mood it puts them in, they’ll continue to refrain from participating in bickering – or witnessing it.

There are better ways to deal with a situation than calling people who have helped more people than either claims in public, a “douche” or a “bitch”.

Again, I’m in no position to judge, and I’m not specifically condemning anyone. But since you’re asking, yes, that’s my opinion. And yes, I’ve defended myself with name-calling before, yes in business settings.

And I’ve always regretted it. The best thing I’ve ever done for my business, my life even, is learn how to keep my temper under control.

As far as Twitter goes, and using it for business, I fall somewhere between the two of them. I think it’s fine to talk business on Twitter to people who have indicated that they want to talk business.

I believe that as long as I treat other people the way I would hope they’d treat me on Twitter, everything will be fine.

That includes letting me know that they’re someone I can outsource work to – I personally feel I shouldn’t have to hunt further than your profile to find out what you do and where to hire you. Or how to refer you to people.

Because you know what? I won’t. Most people won’t even go that far.

And since none of us owns Twitter, seems to me that everyone gets to have their opinion about what Twitter is about.

As long as we keep the realization that these are just Opinions – they are only rules to the people who agree with them, who group themselves into sub-communities within Twitter.

Next Twitter posts will be about how I help people’s businesses using Twitter, how Twitter helps me, and how Twitter can help your business Without doing traditional marketing.