Intellectual Honesty in Marketing and Life

When I spent a few weeks without updating my Face Book Groups, I was expecting to see their membership reduced probably by a few dozen people. I was pleasantly surprised to see that in all actuality, the groups did grow, if not by much, they were alive and thriving.

I have friends who have groups three and four times the size of mine; and I am happy for them. Hopefully, they are making a lot of money, and helping others at the same time. I could have grown my groups by a lot, if I had used the same principles that I used to create them. But in reality, I am more interested in giving freely to the community. My work schedule could be considered backbreaking; so I do not feel bad about not having breached the thousand members yet.

This morning however, when I visited my groups for a second, I saw that three people had signed off. I was in a hurry, since I was running late for my part time job. “Note to self, Blog about my part time job.”

A few hours later, I started my research, and an idea came to mind.

My last post was about Honesty, and credibility… If you have not read it, please do.

I knew when I wrote that post, that it would be controversial; specially, after I posted another bit of news (this time from a newspaper blogger) to my Face Book Profile. It did generated a lot of views, controversy, and comments.

I dislike conflict, that is my nature. You would say, “yeah right, this guy spent 22 years as a professional Soldier, is a martial artist, at 42, earned the 2d Infantry Division Heavy weight Tae Kwon Do Championship for his belt class, and he says that he hates conflict?” Well, believe it or not, I do.

But I ran with the post. I try to be intellectually honest, and as a blogger, I express my ideas. If you have read some of my posts, by now you know that I emphasize honesty and integrity in business and in life. Yet, when you stick by your guns, speak your mind, and make your beliefs known, people will call you controversial.

I do a lot of work in Civil Rights, and unfortunately, I see the good and the bad in mankind, more often than not, I see the bad; and have to confront it face to face. So, when on my last post I started by exposing how the media here in the United States used the comments of a blogger , a fake one at that (the author of the blog was a fictional character created as an idea for a TV show according to Associated Press), to trash a candidate for Vice President of the Nation, I knew that I would be touching some readers sensitive spot. Yet I ran with it anyway.

So, at this point I tell you today, that as a business person or an entrepreneur, there will be times when you will shake your head. And have doubts about what you are about to do. That my friends, is the time to ask yourself some questions:

1. Is it legal? If not, why are you considering it in the first place?

2. Is it morally right?

3. Who will be affected by my decision?

4. What kind of effect will my business suffer, or enjoy, as a consequence of my actions?

5. How will the image of my business or mine be affected?

6. Will I loose revenue? Will I have to lay off personnel?

7. Is there any other way to achieve my goal without harming anyone?

Intellectual honesty brings rewards as well as not so great consequences; but at the end, to me, it is important that I can look at the guy who is looking back at me when I face a mirror and be satisfied.

One of the hardest things that humans do, is becoming aware of themselves, and the reason it is hard, is because sometimes we do not like what we see. Sometimes we see weakness, or selfishness, or ignorance, or evil. Some of these characteristics, can be changed, but is not that easy.

I equate these traits to an addiction. You cannot change anything in yourself, if you are not aware of it. The alcoholic will not stop binge drinking as long as she or he does not realize that they have a problem. The addict will not quit the habit as long as he or she continues to find excuses for their behavior.

Businesses take the identity and some of the traits of their founders and managers. Why am I saying this? A business will be only as successful as their managers or owners. So, if you want to be a successful entrepreneur, I suggest that you start by analyzing yourself. What are your motivations? Making money? There is nothing wrong with that. Is how you go about making your goals a reality that matters.

Remember the list of questions that I suggested you ask yourself when you are about to make a decision and the butterflies start messing around in your gut? Use the same questions when is time to make a business decision as when is time to make a personal one.

Intellectual honesty does not come cheap or easily, it takes guts, but, as you make it a habit of doing the right thing, it will indeed become easy. That uneasy feeling is what is call a cognitive dissonance, in other words, when your values contradict what you are about to do. Understand that your values are yours alone. Some other people might believe the way you do, but some others will believe otherwise, and there is where controversy starts. There is no way to convince everybody all of the time; and the sooner you come to terms with this reality, the sooner you will achieve peace. As long as you remain honest to yourself, your conscience will be ok.

But, as always there is a but somewhere in there… as a good friend of mine suggests every time we teach, look at yourself in the mirror. Be honest with yourself, find something that you cannot quite put your finger on, and that either cause you to doubt, or straight up makes you feel uncomfortable, and you would like to improve on. Understand where that trait, or habit came from, and figure out a way to modify that behavior, habit, or way of thinking. Make it a point to improve yourself, one day at a time.

Being intellectually honest with yourself, makes it easier to be honest with others as well. And as you portray the image of the honest person, you also portray the image of the honest business person. A lot of people might not agree with what you say or do, but eventually, they will learn to respect you and your business. Personally, I don’t like crooks, and can’t care less what they think of me. As long as I am honest with myself, and in all my dealings, my business will be ok, and so will I.

What values are important for you and for your business? Why? Who taught you those values? Have they changed over the years? Let me know.

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Intellectual Honesty 101

Intellectual dis honesty

Freedom of Speech, Responsibility, credibility and Niches

Today I read a news piece that really got me irate: "MSNBC retracts false Palin story; others duped". Yes, I know that my Nation prides itself on our Constitution, and the First Amendment of the Constitution, guarantees our Freedom of Speech. MSNBC confessed today that they went half cocked taking the comments of one blogger, and making it into National News. Remember the story about Governor Sara Palin not knowing that Africa was a Continent? MSNBC explained that they got this rumor and ran with it without verifying it; and it so happens that the comment came from someone who created a fictional character as an idea for a TV show. The blogger does not exist, since it is a fictional character, and of course, the character never worked for the McCain campaign as claimed. The media took pleasure on running pointless stories about topics that had no merit, and forgot to investigate and run the ones that were really important to the American public.

Why am I writing this article that has to do with politics, not for my politics blog, but for my social media marketing blog? The answer is very simple. Our political campaign here in the United States was plagued with rumors, innuendo, half truths, and misdirection. Are not all political campaigns like that? Sure they are. But the point of this article is to highlight the importance of bloggers and social media in this day and age, and the key to your credibility.

Rumors, innuendo, and half truths almost ruin the political campaign of Governor Sara Palin, and caused undue stress to her family. Yes, she is a public figure, but my question is, what gives people the right to write whatever they want on blogs as if it is the truth, without the proper disclaimers?

Yes, we have Freedom of Speech, and Freedom of speech is an incredible power. But, on the words of Peter Parker, AKA Spider Man, “with great power comes great responsibility”.

Now, my point is simple. News outlets acted irresponsibly, when they did not verify their stories before publishing them, and did not published the realy important ones. It wasn’t the first time, and it will not be the last. But that bit of news throws egg on the faces of serious bloggers, and entrepreneurs that publish their blogs as a marketing tool.

Growing up, my father taught me that my word is my bond. As an entrepreneur, it is just as important to ensure that whatever product we endorse, and whatever we publish, is air tight. People will be making decisions based on the information that we publish, and some, will invest serious amounts of money.

Honesty is very important because our words have repercussions. I cringe when I see headlines that say: “I made $75895 in a month and I will show you how how”.

Think about it. If I make so much money, why am I selling you a $4000 weekend with me? I sure as heck would have better things to do to spend my time; and those who brand themselves as philanthropists, would do workshops more affordable.

I publish everything I know for free. I could use a few more millions, but I believe that the more I give, the more I will eventually receive.

No, I am not trying to discredit anyone, nor I am trying to lower your expectations, or ambitions. My goal is to eventually make $10, 000,000,000. So no, I am not lacking ambition. The more money I make, the more people I can help.
What I am trying to drill into you is very simple: HONESTY.
Honesty will do more to improve your credibility than any shenanigan you can pull. False scarcity, incredible claims, false testimonies, I see them in sales letters and landing pages all over.
Learn from others mistakes. MSNBC had to recognize that they didn’t do their job the right way. Neither do many others news networks. But I want to bring you back to your blog, and your business.

Social Media, and Social Media Marketing are a force to be recon with. There are millions of blogs out there. Take pride in your craft, even if you are an aficionado. The bottom line is, that whatever you do, you will reap the benefits from it, or the consequences of your behavior. I have made mistakes in the past, and I bet that so have you. But I can honestly say that I try to verify what I publish.

I want you to succeed, and as you succeed, make sure that you keep a clean image, if nothing else, because that will add to your credibility, and to your bottom line.

What do you think? How important is honesty in business to you? Would you buy something from a crooked business person?

Add me as a friend at Sta.rtup.biz, on FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, follow me on Twitter, StumbleUpon my articles and profile…

Other articles related to business strategy can be found here:

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Honesty... can you really handle it?

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Intellectual Honesty

Military Strategy and Business

What does it get you?



In the two previous posts, we cover the “why” or why does it matter? Why do we really need it? Or is it that we really want it, but can do without? We also covered the “How much does it cost?” factor.



An important factor in deciding whether we can have it or not is as expressed in article number two of this series of three is if we can afford it. If we cannot pay for it without getting behind in other bills, or without putting our financial stability at risk, or without using money that should have gone to pay other bills, or without counting with future income (future income might not arrive), we cannot afford it. It is that simple. And, if we cannot afford it, then, guess what: we will have to wait.



Now, we go into the “What does it get us?” part of our discussion.



When I arrived to the organization I currently work for a few years back, the common wisdom was to pay the print plant for the books that we would use to give to the students of our training program. We also bought two or three boxes of two inches binders, and spent hours poking holes at the books printed so we could place them on the binders, and pass them on. That was a very inefficient use of our time. The rational was, that our organization did not have that much money, so we needed to save. I walked into the print plant and asked how much money were we talking about to have them bind the books, and put a cover to them? They told me about $25 per job. We were spending about $50.00 in binders per job, plus the manpower.From that point on, we quit buying binders, and poking holes, thus saving us money that we redirected toward internal training for our people, and we were able to pass on a professional looking training manual to all our students. It also reduced the last minute stress of preparing the binders, since we now don’t have to.



For the other course that we teach, we used to pass on a manual that we never did cover during the class, and a few handouts. We used to spend about $400.00 in binders, and printing; plus the manpower to put everything together.



I made a master DVD with the manual, a few other regulations, and the flyers that we usually printed and placed inside the binders. Total cost? The cost of a spool of DVD-R, and someone recording them. A lot easier than poking holes on papers and trying to place them in binders, and a lot cheaper.


“What does it get you?” A more professional look? A cheaper product? Think outside the box. I saved my organization thousands of dollars in training materials, and used the money to diversify our people’s training, thus having more prepared and professional employees, improving the quality of training that we provide, and eliminating the stress of hours of boring manual labor.



What does it get you? Remember the previous question? “How much does it cost?” Sometimes, just knowing how much something cost is not enough to make an intelligent decision.
The final output might be the determinant factor in whether you are really saving money or not. Here is a more mundane example:



I criticized my wife for buying every movie that came out! Yeap, you know it, I was wrong… patiently, she explained to me that if we were to take all three children living at home at the time to the movies, that would be about $25.00, plus fuel, plus, pop corn, plus drinks, that would be a grand total of about $50.00 plus the aggravation of three kids arguing with each other. She spends less than $15.00 at Walmart, and the kids can watch the movie at their convenience, by thus actually saving money, and eliminating the aggravation. My wife is a heck of a lot better manager than I am.




You get the point. Sometimes you just need a fresh perspective. Challenge the usual paradigm. If what you are paying for does not produce a more professional output, or at least reduces stress and aggravation, is it worthy?



If you are counting on future revenue in order to get those decorations for your office, will the money not be better used by applying it toward your bills? If you think that by skipping a step or two you are saving money, are you presenting a professional appearance to your customers?


Think about it: Why does it matter? How much does it cost? What does it get us?


Again, think about your previous experiences. Has this article given you new ideas? The way you do business, could you use new ideas? Can you change the way you do certain things in your day to day operations that would save you money, and improve your output? Share your ideas with us…


Add me as a friend at Sta.rtup.biz, on FaceBook, MySpace, LinkedIn, follow me on Twitter, StumbleUpon my articles and profile…


Read part one of Military Strategy and Business here.


Read Part two here.

Marketing on Budget.

Military strategy and business management

Why does it matter? How much does it cost? What does it get us?



I had the opportunity to be at a meeting on Friday. Under normal circumstances, I dislike meetings, but this one was a bit different; it provided the opportunity to network, the guest speaker was a distinguished military leader, and he was to provide some information that would be important, if I was to forecast the future. Every manager is a fortune teller, every CEO is supposed to be gifted with the capabilities to pierce the veil of secrecy if the fates. Those who don’t, are destined to mediocrity, and failure.
All along, this military leader keep reminding us the mantra used by him to change the paradigm of day to day business.


See, the United States Military is like the hydra of many heads. Each head has a brain, that contrary to popular belief, it is used on a regular basis, and each head has an enormous amount of authority. But, like with every major enterprise, when you have many heads at the helm, little is accomplish, unless you standardize procedures.
That is why this meeting was important to me. It is at times of war that you realize, very quickly, what will work and what will not. What works in peace time might not be as efficient during war, and will probably fail royally.



So he told us the story of how the military obtained money for different projects, and how, some sections of the military where very well trained, but their infrastructure was deplorable, think 21st century military, housed planning, and working from World War II era buildings; and some areas of the same military were just not as well trained, but their infrastructure was futuristic, and majestic. Obviously, there needed to be a change if the military was to continue providing a service of excellence.



The change needed, was a change in the state of mind of the decision makers; or, train each individual head of the hydra to think alike, within the same principles.
Why does it matter? How much does it cost? What does it get us?
And that new paradigm, has literally transformed the U. S. Military in the course of a few short years.



Why is this important to you as an entrepreneur, Social media marketing expert, expert search engine optimization manager, Internet marketing director, program manager, service manager, etc?Simple, lets start with the first question, and I will use the other two as the topic for the next two posts of this blog.


Why is it needed?


Do you remember William Tell? Or are you too young to know of the Archer who was forced to shoot an apple from the head of his son?


If you are an American who has never being overseas, and suddenly I drop you at the port of Ashueibah (I know that the spelling of this name is probably wrong, but trust me, it does exist), and then tell you: “your mission is to prepare the area for the arrival of 25,000 people, and about 15000 vehicles, combat systems (some of those top secret), weapons, explosives, computers, pencils, notebooks, printers, bullets, kitchen appliances, soccer balls, weight sets, Bowflex systems, rifles, school supplies, water purification technology, generators, and who knows what else… notice the disparity in the classes of supplies, facilities needed to house or store each individual class, and personnel needs to be able to do it efficiently… you are dropped there with a friend of yours, no money, no food, no map, just your wits.


Well, that happened to me in 2003.


What would you do besides crawling to a corner, assuming the fetal position, and cry like a baby?


Bring back William Tell… will you?


What would have happened to Mr.Tell’s son if good ole Bill would have being blindfolded, spun around, and ordered to soot? His son would probably have died, or the arrow would have being wasted, since Mr. Tell could not possibly find his target.


It is the same with your blog, website, business, marketing project, career, life, marriage, etc.
You should have a clear picture of what you want to achieve, and why does it matter.
Having a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, and why does it matter, gives you the perspective needed to prioritize, and work more efficiently. Why does it matter where I place my ads on my blog? Why does it matter if I hire an expert search engine optimization professional, or not; why does it matter if I spend my entire budget on part “B” of my project or not?






Answer that question, and you will be ready to begin, and yet, if it really does not matter… why are you doing it anyway? That if the mentality that you need to posses, in order to sort through the cluster of seemingly unrelated tasks that you face day to day, and not crawl into a dark closet, assume the fetal position, and cry like a baby. That mental attitude, will give you a more concise list of tasks to accomplish, in order to accomplish the mission, and be successful.


Tell me what you think, what principles do you use to keep you focused?


Again, think about your previous experiences. Has this article given you new ideas? The way you do business, could you use new ideas? Can you change the way you do certain things in your day to day operations that would save you money, and improve your output? Share your ideas with us…

Add me as a friend on FaceBook, MySpace, follow me on Twitter, StumbleUpon my articles and profile, and Sta.rtup.biz…






Read other related articles:

Reasons for my absence
Money Matters
Marketing on a Budget

Herding cats, easier than getting organized

Herding Cats, organizing yourself…



Social Media Marketing 101 is the title of this blog, and obviously enough, the main topic. Someone once said: “If you want something done, give it to someone busy”. I want to find he who said that and choke him or her, since it seems that everybody wants to give me something to do.

Don’t take me wrong, while being depended upon is a royal pain in you know where, it just means that you are good at what you do, and that you are needed; but there is a limit.

If we continue accepting task, after task, we will never have a life, we will grow resentment, and soon, our lives will be so unmanageable, that we might want to scream. Social media has significantly contributed to the increase in our work load.

So, here is to mental sanity:


1. STOP. Make a list of everything that you do on a daily basis, I suggest you use a spreadsheet.



2. In column number 2, in one word write down why (i.e. “recreation“, “family”, “friendship“, “work“, “school“, “social media”, “no clue“) and yes, I know that no clue is two words. TIP: consider the fact that if you have no clue of why you are doing what you are doing, is time to knock it off and drop that from our schedule.

3. Sort the list by those words that you used to describe your tasks. Put all that fall within the heading of “work” together, same with “recreation”, “friendship”, etc.

4. Now that you have several lists, assign each task from every class a priority: A, B, or C. You either have to do it now or today, it can wait until tomorrow, or, who cares if it gets done.

5. Every day, you should establish a specific time frame for “Work”, time for your “family“, “study or school”, “part time job” could be growing a business, or expanding your network (social media), and some “recreation”. Balance your life. Make sure that you do those tasks on each category marked “A”. If there is time, do “B”, and if there is still time, then and only then, do “C”. Do not let one category interfere with the time of the other, specially, if the one bleeding and preventing you from achieving your goals is either “friends”, “social media”, etc.



Remember that you need to work for a living, and that your family needs you. But lets keep perspective. A needy relative, that can take care of himself or herself if push comes to shove, needs to learn just that, that you are not their personal slave, that will empower them to become self reliant. That is a good thing. “Give someone a fish, and you fed them dinner, teach a man to fish, and you fed them for the rest of their life”.

Social media can be an unruly master, or a 500 lbs gorilla how many of those plants are you going to send on FaceBook? How many groups are you going to belong to? The “underwater basket weaving club” can do without your presence, so feel free to press “IGNORE” on silly things like that. I do not need to know when you go to the bathroom through Twitter, or “when you got drunk or had sex last” on FaceBook, or MySpace.

Remember: Social Media is being used by 21st Century corporations to check you out when you apply for a job, so, the pictures of you drunk like a skunk, are not cute, or, the pictures of yourself or your girlfriend seating in the bathroom doing number two, are not only embarrassing, but disgusting. So, you are no longer in a fraternity or a sorority, you are an adult; and if you belong to one, remember that those days are only a phase, and you will be forced to deal with whatever dumb things you did.

By facing these simple tasks, you will tame that big monkey that prevents you from being productive.

What other ways of taming the 500 lbs gorilla can you think of? Share them in our comments section.

Feel free to add me to your list of friends on StumbleUpon, FaceBook, and/or follow me on Twitter.

Reason for my absence

I haven’t being as actively involved lately and for about a month now, I have only made regular posts to my political blog.

Those of you who follow me regularly, know that I have being a Soldier in the American Army and am proud of it, since I have served and served well. I have being able to make a difference in the world and have being there when history is in the making. I have saved countless lives and help improve the quality of many with education and technology.

I have always being an innovator and so, early this year, I decided that it was time to join the 21st century by submerging myself in the social media experience and, unknown to me yet, the Web 2.0 phenomenon.

So, I started by researching the field. I found John Chow, and after reading his book, I decided to create a blog. As many of you will know, when you first start, you do not really have a clear picture of what or why you are doing what you are doing.

I found Technorati, and of course, the giants My Space and Face Book. I was skittish about My Space because of all the hoopla, but, since I have being in regions of the world where there was no guarantee that I would survive, why not? I got my account.

Late Spring, while reading John Chow.com, I found out about Brian Campbell, the man who in my opinion revolutionized the Social Media Experience by attempting and achieving earnings of $10,000.00 in 37 days. John Chow, said, that when someone “tries a gimmick of this magnitude, he either succeeds or fails”. It was going to be a good way to learn from someone who was doing what he was suggesting, and a great way to learn step by step what to do. So, Brian exhorted (wisely, I might add) all to become his fan on Face Book, and to follow him on Twitter, and to copy his strategy, thus, teaching by example, and helping countless others succeed along the way.

Over the years, my experience have taught me that the best way to learn is by teaching; that the best way to succeed is by reaching to others and bring them with you, and that the measure of your success is proportional to the amount of people you help along the way. Brian epitomizes these principles, so I started my websites: “Social Media Marketing 101”, and “Today’s Realistic Solutions”; my social media blog: “SocialMediaMarketing 101.blogspot.com”, and, my political blog: “Thinkingamerican.blogtownhall.com”. I must warn you, my political blog might turn some of you off, since I am highly opinionated, and have no problem expressing my opinions. That is why I keep my political life separate from my business life.

Following Brian’s advise, I created two Face Book groups: “Social Media Marketing 101” and “Mercadeo Social 101 en Face Book”. Soon, I was burned out translating from English to Spanish, since I have a full time job, and a part time job, while working towards my college degree. It gets pretty hectic every once in a while.

One thing that brightens my day, is when writing for the Business Forum, and for Helium.com. Helium specially, allows me the flexibility to write about anything that comes to mind, and find a niche to publish it in. That fact has rewarded me with several stories featured on their front page. I have also developed a fairly good following on my political blog.

One thing that has helped my budget is that I try not to sign for anything where I have to pay ahead of time, or there is a monthly fee, Brian’s “Social Media Marketing System” being an exception, since he keeps a decent forum, and there are a number of fellow Brian students, who collaborate and help each other.

The issue here, and the purpose for this post, is to give my loyal readers a reason for my absence, and why I am doing what I am doing.

Every so often, I believe that you should stand back and watch your work, re evaluate your goals, and the path that you are following to achieve them if you must. Otherwise, you are taking the risk of getting lost in the forest that is life.

Remember, it is hard to put the arrow in the center of the bulls eye target, if you are blindfolded , and cannot see your target.

In the Army, we have a way to express this perspective, where we plan for the 50 meters target, the hundred meters target, and the 200 hundred meters target. The 50 meters target is what you can actually almost touch, from now until 90 days from now. That is almost happening as we chat; and is important to keep it in mind because otherwise, you will forget a detail or two that can mean the difference between success or failure.

The hundred meters target is your longer range planning. That usually includes 90 days to a year from now. Why is that important, we have time to react.

That is just it. When the only thing that you do is reacting to what life throws your way, you really do not control your life, life controls you. What would you like to achieve during the course of the year? By knowing that, you can start modifying your 50 meters target, in such a way where you are actually achieving successive small steps toward your 100 meters target. It is those small victories that transform into a chain of events that brings you closer to successes.

Now, it is time to look at where you want to be five years from now. What is the definition of insanity? Keep doing the same thing over and over, while expecting a different result? Look back to five years ago. If you can say today, that things have not really changed for you, and you have not really improved your quality of life, and have not achieve ever increasing levels of what you could call success, chances are, five years from now, you will be in the same spot you are now, doing the same thing and growing resentful, angrier, and frustrated.

So, lets recap, shall we?

Number one: establish your 50 meters target, write it down, and work toward achieving those goals every day.

Number two: establish your 100 meters target, or what you want to achieve (or need to achieve) in three months to a year from now. Modify your 50 meters target so you actually work towards your 100 meters target every day.

Number three: establish your 200 meters target. This time, review your 100 meters targets, and modify them accordingly, so they become steps on the road to your 200 meters target. Don’t forget to modify your 50 meters target accordingly.

And there you have it, that is how the American Army plans their missions and succeed at attaining their main goals.

There are many other ways to do Goal Setting. These techniques have work for me. Which do you like? Which do you prefer? Why? Let me know. Your comments are always appreciated.

Free search engine optimization tip of the day

Over deliver and you will be a star. Your free search engine optimization tip for today is simple. Over deliver, over deliver, over deliver. Social media owes it’s popularity to the fact that people is tired of the inhuman touch. The human being is a social creature. We enjoy each other’s company, and as long as we are comfortable, we are happy in the company of friends. Web site marketing or social media marketing will only make you successful if you remember that you work for one person only, your reader.

But there are other considerations in web site marketing. You cannot satisfy your customer’s need if the search engines cannot find you. How can we help the search engines so they can help us help our customers?

It helps if we know what our customers want. What exactly is our customer looking for? How does the customer find what they are looking for? This is elementary; they go into a search engine, and type a few words related to what they are looking for. They will type something like: Colorado Springs. But that is way too generic. They will soon realize that here are thousands of links to follow, so they have to refine their search, so they enter “Colorado Springs Museums”. That narrows the field, and makes it a bit more manageable. So, lets say that the customer wants to find an art museum. So, he or she types: Colorado Springs art museums. Bingo, that zeroes in on what they want, and they are happy. I do not want to sound patronizing, but those words that the customer used to find the art museums in Colorado Springs, those are key words; and you need to know what key words your future customer will use to so you can provide them for them.

Here is another free search engine optimization tip: use a keyword tracker, Google has one, or you can go to http://freekeywords.wordtracker.com and enter the generic key word you want. This word tracker will tell you how many times that word was used last month, and will give you specific phrases, and how many times they were used. Here is a suggestion: the word “marketing” was search 3820 times when I researched it. That is too much; it is too generic. Find a phrase that was searched about 100 times. That is the phrase that you will need to build or write your web site, blog, or article about, and make sure that you use that phrase on the meta tags, tags, title of the article, title of your website, or blog, and of course, you use it on your article.

That key word or phrase is what the customer is looking for; so it is your job to provide as much information as you can on that topic. That means: RESEARCH IT.

Now, here is another free search engine optimization secret: since you used the key word so many times, the search engine ranks your article, web site, blog, whatever, highly relevant for that particular key word, and hopefully, you will break the top 10 or 20.

So, here is one benefit of over delivering in your web site, when you give your customer what he or she wants, you are, at the same time, giving the search engines robots or spiders what they want. You have in fact become a partner in providing a quality product for your customers.

Also, make sure that you do not use black hat search engine optimization techniques.

This next paragraph is an example of what not to do, see if you can figure out why:

“People engaged in web site marketing, in their futile efforts to rank high on the search engines, often try to use not so innocent tricks. One that I saw not to long ago, and it really sucks, was to include Monica Lewinsky’s name and bill in the same paragraph, and since you already saw the word suck before, it should give you an idea of the intent of the paragraph, specially since we are in the middle of the presidential campaign.”

Please do not do that, it is offensive to your customers. You are trying to trick them, which means, that when they visit your site, they will leave in disgust.

If you use black hat search engine optimization techniques, whether you do them for free, or you pay someone, I suggest you stop. When the search engines find out, they will ban you.

Again, let me know your opinion, and fell free to contribute, comment at will, feel free to subscribe to our blog, or visit often.

Celebrate life.

Two money making ideas, or how to make more money

Everybody wants to make money¸ everybody is selling something, or joining the next best affiliate program, or talking social media, or Internet marketing. So the question now is, how do I weed out what works and what does not?

I sent a note to my FaceBook group about a business opportunity, which by the way, has the potential of making tons of money, and immediately, I received four affiliate offers on my inbox.

There are a lot of people that will graciously give you tips ant try to help you by telling you that their program is the best; and you know what? They might be right; and then, they might not. I am convinced that a majority of those who send you their promotions are: trying to make money, and not trying to swindle you.

Here is the bottom line. You want to make money online? The best two ways of doing it are:

1. Affiliate marketing. You either sell your own product, or, if you are not that good at writing, public speaking, or just talking for the sake of talking, sell someone else’s stuff. Nothing wrong with that, as long as it is a good product.

2. Provide content, and sell advertising.

I prefer the second way of making money. It allows me to express my many opinions, help others by answering honestly, and frees me to find the next best thing.

I can tell you that I have being called “a great teacher”, twenty two years of Army experience, teaching everything from survival, to how to read a map, and lately, cultural awareness, tend to make you good at what you do; and when you spend as much time as I have teaching, and some of the things that you teach, if you teach it incorrectly, can cost someone’s life, you better take it seriously. A blog is hardly that exciting, but again, if you are going to teach, is best if you have something to teach.

You can create a blog, like this one, or why not, an e-zine. But, if you are like me, you get bored with articles that are designed to just sell you stuff. So, the first and best tip that I have for you is to respect your readers enough to let them know when you are selling something.

I have read dozens of free books on how to write copy, or sales letters. I don’t know who came up with those names. To me, copy is what you make on a copy machine, and copyright is what you apply for and pay so nobody plagiarizes you. But, it annoys me beyond belief when I see sales letters with testimonies, some of them legit, some out of someone’s mind (read between the lines on this one), trying to tell me that if I do not jump now and buy whatever it is, I will be missing the opportunity.

So, the bottom line again, respect your reader, and provide them with something useful, like CONTENT.

It is ok to place ads on your blog. Just look to the left of this article and you will see ads; or read between the articles, and you see more ads intended to have you click on them. I make money when you do. And, if Google is reading this, please note that I have not asked readers to click on them.

So, spend some time often enough, researching your topics, so you can provide useful and up to date info to your readers.

Read many blogs, and make yourself useful. What do I mean by that? Contribute to their readers by commenting on their articles. Make it a legitimate contribution. Share your ideas. Become a regular. Once you have done this, email the blog creators, maybe they will be willing to add a back link to your blog. Back links will help you gain “authority”. The search engines will see that as a sign that you actually know what you are talking about. Your ranking will improve. Make sure that you understand that they, the bloggers, are not obligated to place your link on their blogs. It is not personal, it is just business.

And, of course, make sure that you grow your list of contacts, and potential customers.

This takes time. Be patient. Rome was not built in a day.

It is called social media for a reason; you need to cultivate friendships. The more friends you make, the more possible customers you get.

We talked about content, research, back links, and your list. If you follow these tips, you will make money, eventually.

Let me know what you think. I am always open to new ideas, and contributions.

Social Media Marketing and how to waste your money in SEO

Lets face it, Social Media Marketing is a growing phenomenon, and here at social media marketing 101, we try to help you with business ideas, relevant topics, how to, and how not to succeed on Internet Marketing.

With Billions of websites in the web, competition for the number one spot in the search engines is fierce. Those who can achieve the coveted top ten places per specified keyword have the potential of making millions of dollars. This fact has created an entire new industry, Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Optimization can make you a millionaire, or rob you of your hard earned money.

The main purpose of SEO is simple enough: to be showcased in the top spots by the search engines for a particular key word or phrase. How to do it, is as clear as muddy water, and like in the Old West, the Snake Oil salesmen are a dime a dozen. Inbound links is one way to get there.

When your credibility as a blogger, or as a subject matter expert is well recognized by all, people will quote you as a source on their own blogs, or websites; or they will just simply cut and paste your article, links and all, and pt it on their website or blog. That is an inbound link. When search engines comb the net indexing websites, they find those inbound links to your site and think: hmmmm, there is a lot of people linking to this site, content should be good, let me place it high; and your page rank increases.

When your buddy and you place each other’s links on their respective web sites, a reciprocal link is formed. You have two links pointed at each other. It is not hard to figure out that you are doing me a favor and I am returning the favor. Google does not assign that much value to those links. They are not bad, but not great.

Unless you work for Google as a programmer, or you are a world class psychic, you will not know exactly how to place high on the search engines.

Those ads that you see promising #1 Google Ranking in days, might be the proverbial Snake Oil chuck wagon. Since what many of these businesses do is to collect hundreds or thousands of domains, and create thousands of web pages, in which, for a price, they will place the link to your website. Those are called link farms. When search engines find you there, they tend to penalize you by not counting your links (you just wasted your money) of by blocking their indexing robots from going through your site.

It is believed that in some occasions, when the same URL appears many times within a single web page, it is counted only as one, thus defeating the purpose of commenting many times in particular blogs, or web pages.

So, since I have just given so many bad news, let me give you some middle of the ground news: do try to contact the webmaster or admin of popular blogs, offer them to write an article for them. If it is well written, and offers promise, and they publish it with your links, chances are, those will give you a lot of inbound links; and the best part, it is free.

Talk to me, tell me your opinion, and money-making suggestions, readers will thank you.

Five not so secret keys to marketing

A lot of people talk about marketing, they want to develop a marketing business, they talk social media marketing, multi level marketing, and truth be told, many do not have the least idea of what marketing implies. Lets bounce five ideas that might give you a leg up and kick-start your business.

First things first: lets talk about your level of commitment to your product. Are you convinced that it is the best product available? What does that has to do with marketing? I am a firm believer that your integrity has to come first. I cannot advertise a product that I cannot honestly say it works, or has the true potential to work. As so, I am truly passionate about what I do, and the passion can be felt in my writing, in my speeches, and in everything I do. You would be surprised at the difference that commitment makes in an advertising campaign.

Number two: how is your support system? Who is your partner, and what kind of ideas he or she brings to the table? Are they zapping your energy with negativity? They need to be as committed to the product as you are. Their passion should complement yours.
Third: make sure that you give 100% effort to your customer, or whatever it is that you are marketing. A half-baked idea, or a lacking ad campaign will produce just that, mediocre results.

Fourth: do the absolute best job that you can do for every customer. Your fame will multiply, and you will get what others envy: repeat customers, and true referrals. If your product is good, you have the passion, and your firm exemplifies ethics, values, and an emphasis in customer service, you will have no problem later on, since your customers will give you the greatest compliment of them all: referrals.

And fifth: not everybody knows everything. So when you have doubts, talk to your loyal friends. If you are a good friend, the relationships that you have cultivated, will be there for you. Ask, and when your friends ask for suggestions, you be there for them too. In that way, it is a mutual benefit relationship.
Do this, and you will prosper.

Marketing on a Budget

A successful marketing plan doesn't have to include an athletic superstar, prime-time placement, state-of-the-art computer graphics or a massive budget. Being resourceful and smart can be just as effective.

Business promotion doesn't have to cost a fortune. Often, it's the personal touch that seals the deal. Here are ideas gathered from marketing experts to help you make the most of a slim marketing budget:


Use Press Release Power

You might not realize it, but reporters sometimes need you as much as you need them. The key to getting their attention is coming up with a newsworthy item that is concisely written.

* Peg your release to real events, such as fundraising drives or a new service your business offers. Don't be witty to amuse yourself the idea must have a concrete purpose.

* If you can't figure out why your company might be newsworthy, ask your friends what they find interesting about your company.

* You can also utilize your built-in research tool your customers. If you have an offbeat idea, bounce it off them or have them fill out a short questionnaire. Ask them why they use your business.


Think Differently

Concoct an event to draw media coverage. For instance, a Japanese restaurant could create the world's largest sushi roll and advertise its record-breaking "sushi queue."

Put A Face On It

Placing your photograph on your business card creates a personal relationship, even if they don't know you. Not only will people remember your name, they'll remember your face.


Print The Praise

If someone says, "You do a great job," say, "Thanks, very much, that means an awful lot to me. I would appreciate it if you would write a testimonial letter." Then make the testimonial part of your promotional package.


Borrow A Message

When you see an article on a subject that might interest your clients, send them a photocopy with a note that says, "I thought you might be interested in this." You're making a personal connection with a client and associating yourself with the authority quoted in the article in the process.


Think Outside The Box

You don't have to outspend your competition, you just have to outthink them. Some examples: Buy a billboard ad every other month for a year. Chances are, the billboard won't be replaced on the off months, so you'll get more exposure at no extra cost.

This concept also relates to how you run your business: Always try to figure out how to give your customers something they can't find elsewhere, such as a children's play area at a restaurant.

Try The Old Faithfuls

Don't dismiss time-honored solutions that increase your company's community profile, such as sponsoring a charity event or outfitting a local little league team. You'll get your name out there, and that's what counts.

10 Marketing Tips

1. Print your best small ad on a postcard and mail it to prospects in your targeted market. People read postcards when the message is brief. A small ad on a postcard can drive a high volume of traffic to your web site and generate a flood of sales leads for a very small cost.

2. No single marketing effort works all the time for every business, so rotate several marketing tactics and vary your approach. Your customers tune out after awhile if you toot only one note. Not only that, YOU get bored. Marketing can be fun, so take advantage of the thousands of opportunities available for communicating your value to customers. But don't be arbitrary about your selection of a variety of marketing ploys. Plan carefully. Get feedback from customers and adapt your efforts accordingly.

3. Use buddy marketing or social media marketing to promote your business. For example, if you send out brochures, you could include a leaflet and/or business card of another business, which had agreed to do the same for you. This gives you the chance to reach a whole new pool of potential customers.

4. Answer Your Phone Differently. Try announcing a special offer when you answer the phone. For example you could say, "Good morning, this is Ann Marie with Check It Out; ask me about my special marketing offer." The caller is compelled to ask about the offer. Sure, many companies have recorded messages that play when you're tied up in a queue, but who do you know that has a live message? I certainly haven't heard of anyone. Make sure your offer is aggressive and increase your caller's urgency by including a not-so-distant expiration date.

5. Stick It! Use stickers, stamps and handwritten notes on all of your direct mail efforts and day-to-day business mail. Remember, when you put a sticker or handwritten message on the outside of an envelope, it has the impact of a miniature billboard. People read it first; however, the message should be short and concise so it can be read in less than 10 seconds.

6. Send A Second Offer To Your Customers Immediately After They've Purchased Your customer just purchased a sweater from your clothing shop. Send a handwritten note to your customer thanking them for their business and informing them that upon their return with "this note" they may take advantage of a private offer, such as 20% off their next purchase. To create urgency, remember to include an expiration date.

7. Newsletters. Did you know it costs six times more to make a sale to a new customer than to an existing one? You can use newsletters to focus your marketing on past customers. Keep costs down by sacrificing frequency and high production values. If printed newsletters are too expensive, consider an e-mail newsletter sent to people who subscribe at your Web site.

8. Seminars/ open house. Hosting an event is a great way to gain face time with key customers and prospects as well as get your company name circulating. With the right programming, you'll be rewarded with a nice turnout and media coverage. If it's a seminar, limit the attendance and charge a fee. A fee gives the impression of value. Free often connotes, whether intended or not, that attendees will have to endure a sales pitch.

9. Bartering. This is an excellent tool to promote your business and get others to use your product and services. You can trade your product for advertising space or for another company's product or service. This is especially helpful when two companies on limited budgets can exchange their services.

10. Mail Outs. Enclose your brochure, ad, flyer etc. in all your outgoing mail. It doesn't cost any additional postage and you'll be surprised at who could use what you're offering.