Not like me
I work a day job in addition to my internet marketing. Everyone I work with is not like me, no one in my town that I know is like me. Everyone seems to be happy with their day job, or more often not happy, but not doing anything about it.
I find myself going to my day job and then coming home and working and everyone else talks about how they go home and do nothing. Its kind of discouraging sometimes, just wish I had someone that I could see in person that wanted to hustle to change their future via online marketing.
I can connect online, but finding people that hustle and are on my level (not very advanced) is hard to do. Ever feel like that?
Gary V on my URL drop down list before Google
Ironic. When I type the letter G into my URL bar in Firefox it gives me some choices in the dropdown. Gary Vaynerchuk often lists first, before Google. Guess I visit his site a lot. 
CauseWorld iphone app
CauseWorld lets you donate money to charity just for taking the time to “check in” while doing your daily activities. You install the app on your iphone or droid and when you go to stores, resturants, etc.. you launch the app. It will check based off of your GPS location if the place you are at is on their list. If it is you can “check in” which is simply clicking a button on yoru phone.
When you check in you get Karma points. Karma points can be donated to the charity of your choice (picking from the ones they offer, and you can suggest your own). When you donate, it tells you exactly what/how much your donation will do. Then the donation is translated in to real world dollars by their sponsors – Currently Citi and Kraft foods.
The store you visit doesn’t pay anything, at least not now. You can go visit stores you might not normally, but I have been using it to just check in at the places I was going anyway.
So how much difference can one person make? So far this morning since I downloaded the app, about 4 hours ago, I have been able to donate 7 times. In total I have donated 3 meals to hungry folks here in the US and have given clean water to 4 people in Sudan for 1 month each. (Helping stop the spread of disease). This has just been in my spare time this morning while going places I was going anyway.
Did I mention the application is free and there is no cost to you? Think you can spend 5 minutes of your day to give a meal to someone?
Horrible ideas breed great ideas
Today Seth Godin put up a wonderful post on his blog about bad ideas and good ideas. He emphasizes the point that you are going to have a lot of bad ideas before you have good ideas. Which also means that overnight success is not going to happen. All good things take time, Rome wasn’t built in a day after all.
When Thomas Edison was inventing the light bulb, it took him over 1000 tries. Someone once asked him about his failures. He said that he didn’t have any failures, but hundreds of ideas that didn’t work. The point is you are going to have lots of ideas that don’t work before you have ideas that do work. So you are going to have to work hard, test, and learn.
Straight No Chaser
One of my favorite singing groups is Straight No Chaser. Since its Christmas time I thought you would like to see the 12 days of Christmas, SNC style.
Why should I link to my link wheel?
At first when I started messing with link wheels I thought that you just made the link wheel and that was it, great rankings and move on. I even made a blog with posts I did for 8 months in advance. Well after the 8 months was up I was getting a whopping 4-5 UV per day from Google. Fail.
Of course I was wrong, because a link wheel is only a tool or a start. Its like your core. You need to link to your link wheel. In the game of SEO its about looking natural. If all of your links are pointing to your main site, Google will know that its not natural. However if you had a site that went viral and everyone linked to it cause it spread by word of mouth, then you would have links showing up all over web 2.0 properties.
People hang out and create pages on places like squidoo, and Google likes links that they feel are from people “casting their vote” for a site. So if you had a viral site you would naturally have links on web 2.0 properties, forums, blogs, etc… People would also naturally link to other web 2.0 sites and not always link to your site. You have to understand that 90 something percent of people can’t tell the difference between paid ads on Google search results and organic. So if they can’t even tell the difference in an ad and not, then they don’t really know that they should link to your site even if it was viral. They would often link to the site that led them to your site instead of your actual site. Basically the average person just doesn’t get a lot of in depth internet/seo stuff. Thus we need to emulate this randomness of people.
So we make a link wheel and we create links to the link wheel. Links from other web 2.0 sites, links from forum sigs, links from blog comments, links from article submission, directory submission, etc…. If you are planning on doing any greayhat/blackhat stuff, then linking that stuff to the link wheel rather then directly can protect your site from harm if google penalizes for the links, but you get the link equity if its not penalized. 
Its a win win. Also if you happen to be able to get a link from a “bad neighborhood” or totally no relevant site you can still pass the juice to your site ultimately, but by filtering it thru your link wheel. I heard someone describe it as “link laundering” lol. Not that I am saying you should go spam your link everywhere, but I have had opportunity on occasion to get a link free that wasn’t really relevant. Trade and different things.
Point really is just to try and emulate the total randomness of people that have no idea what they are doing when it comes to the web, or people that know just enough to be dangerous. If you need some good examples sit down with a friend that knows enough to be dangerous, but no more and ask them to help you work on some project. Research, creating a squidoo page, maybe a website they are intersted in, etc…. Just watch how they surf, what engines they use, what they click, what they think, how they act, how they react to things… I have had the opportunity just from circumstances of my day job to do this a lot. Its VERY VERY enlightening. Then just emulate them. People are random, but thats normal to them. You could also read about peoples world view. I have read some good stuff, but the most recent is Seth Godins All Marketers are Liars – Now renamed All Marketers Tell Stories. Its on itunes and Amazon.
Link to your link wheels. If it seems like a logical link structre, don’t do it. If it seems like a random un logical link structure, thats the ticket, run with it. Not to say you don’t need a plan, but generally be creative.
Link Wheel Basics
Given that I have only been in the niche of online development persay since 2007 I am still learning a ton. I have done ok in search ranking, but it was hit or miss. I have seen a lot more about link wheels lately, but it took me a while to wrap my head around it. So here is what I got, see what you think.
Basically you need a lot of links, and good quality ones, to get your site to rank. A link wheel is kind of like an outline for your linking strategy. Its a simple visual that illustrates the point of having your site link profile like an actual wheel on a bike. Where your site is the middle of the wheel and all the spokes are links pointing into your site.
However with link wheels you want to have multiple layers of links. The way link work is that when one page, links to another, then that page links to another, then that page links to you – you get a little bit of link equity from all those pages. Its like the link juice starts on the first page and then flows to each page and eventually to you, and thru your site on to the sites you link to.
So by creating a link wheel you create a set of site that link directly to your site, then sites that link to your first layer of links, then site that link to your second layer of links. You can take it as far as you like, but you get the point. Here is an illustration of a simple editable link wheel template that I use (click to enlarge):
If you want to use this you can download it here.
A lot of what value a link has, is dependent upon its trustrank. The short story is new sites don’t have much or any, but established sites do. So a super easy way to do your link wheel is by using web 2.0 properties such as squidoo, quizilla, wordpress.com, blogspot etc… These sites already have high trust and you can create free pages on them.
Having some sites link directly to your main site, and some to other link wheel sites etc… The point here is to make it look natural. Not every site on the planet is going to link directly to you. Google knows this. But by linking indirectly you still push link equity to your site, while remaining natural.
In an ideal world you would get linked to because you have great content and everyone thinks you the best. With a properly done link wheel, you can make it look like everyone really thinks you are the best. Not leaving a foot print is the goal.
Here is another example which I got from a friend. Its a bit more complex, and is also a great starting point for what sites to create pages on.
The Secret 2.0 – Where its at in 2010
Complements of Gary Vaynerchuk:
Smokin Awesome.
Thanks gary.
Getting motivated aside from books
There are many great books that can help you to get motivated and do something, what about other options though? I mean I don’t really have the time to sit down and read a book in the morning when I need some kick start motivation or when I am a slumping in the afternoon. I find that reading certain blogs help me.
Blogs that are either self help/learning style, like Seth Godins or blogs of other people that are successful in the market place. Energy is contageous, both positive and negative. So reading blogs of people that are successful in the market place lets me pick up on some of their energy. Then I channel it into my work and I get more done. Adding in learning style to the energy lets me pickup new insights and always grow.
Some of the blogs I like to read are:
Opt in Opt out – Seth Godin – Disagree
While I haven’t really posted here about much of anything Seth Godin I am a huge advocate. He has many great books, including one of my favorite The Dip. He also shares daily insight on his blog, most of which is priceless and spot on.
However I have to disagree with his recent post on Opt in and Opt out. I see his point of view, however it seems that his premise would suggest that the government get to decide what is Opt in and what is Opt out. This is a scary thought and is certainly dangerous. He said he would make organ doning opt out, I disagree. I want the choice. He said he would make smart financial choices opt out. I disagree, I want the choice. Making smart financial decisions an Opt out environment (such as requiring everyone to put money into 401K) would certainly keep the ignorant and stupid people from leaving themselves with out a retirement, it would also take away a choice. It would also give a false sense of security. One were people said “well I don’t need to plan for retirement, I am following the government mandated plan”. Which would make the lazy people think they were safe. It would also likely lead people to Believe that they are entitled to a secure financial future because they didn’t opt out. They would then expect the socialist government to pick up the slack if something didn’t work out and cover their retirement. Look at Social Security, it was supposed to do just that, although people can’t easily opt out, and its failing/failed.
I am generally for less government control, as I don’t need the government telling me what to do. I need to get off my lazy rear end and learn and research myself and live responsibly. Aside from that, when the government or anyone else sets a public standard for something and makes it opt out, people that don’t opt out feel that they are entitled to the alleged benefits of that program and then get mad if things don’t work out.
In a nut shell people need to be responsible and take care of themselves. I am for organ donors, but I am not for making it mandatory. I am for seat belts, but it shouldn’t be a law. I am for motorcyclists wearing helmets, but it shouldn’t be a law. They are very unwise if they do not, but they should be allowed to take their life in their hands if they want to. I am not for drunk driving, cause that is allowing someone to take some else’s lives in their own hands.
While some of his principles are generally good, it largely would result in the removal of freedom and choice. Which ultimately lands us in a communist country if you go far enough. Next thing you know your in the group thats inferior and you have to mark your self and then Hitler orders you killed. Bit extreme, but it could wind up as our kids real world.
Oh, and bacon should always be opt out. Sorry Seth thats just the way I feel. lol
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