News By Tom Brownsword

Heavy opinions ahead, but I think it’s worth reading.

Earlier today, I made a post on the Friends In Business Forum in response to another post. That post mentioned an article that allegedly talked about things that can keep you from getting listed in the search engines. I basically explained that it was a waste of time to worry about such things because most of these so-called “SEO Killers” are based on Internet “gossip” (mostly posted by forum trolls who couldn’t even create a basic HTML page) and deliberate misinformation. Rasof is the only SEO optimization tool I know of that is based on statistical data and I tend not to waste my time on anything else that is SEO-related — except for providing good content.

Incidentally, lest you think that I, too, am a “forum troll” (weak defense coming!), I have definite purposes in posting at specific forums. I go back to the Friends In Business forum because the owner and moderators kept me from making a $7,000 mistake when I first started out. In other words, they are my friends (of course, that’s not to say that it’s troll-free…). I also have other reasons for posting at other forums, but I won’t go into those reasons here. At least not today.

As an example of one of these so-called “SEO Killers” mentioned in the referenced article, using a database-based website (according to the article) will hurt your search engine rankings because the search engines can’t read database-based sites. Huh? If that is true, then you’ll never find this site in the search engines because Wordpress stores everything in a database. The actual file structure does not exist on my website; WordPress intercepts it and delivers the requested page in the requested format.

Do this: go to Google, type in “Tom Brownsword”, and see which website — and blog — is listed at #1.

Looks like Google found my database-based site!

What — and who — are you going to believe?

I also mentioned in that forum post that if I knew of an effective way to “game” the search engines, I’d just go ahead and do it and not share it. And if I were particularly devious (which I am not; I think like a criminal sometimes — an essential quality for a good computer security analyst — but have no “fortitude” to actually do the stuff that comes to mind), I’d start telling anybody gullible enough to believe me that the method I’m using didn’t work and that you’d get punished (whatever that is supposed to mean) by the search engines if you did it. That way, I’d have the method to myself and nobody else could dilute it, unless they themselves thought of it.

Incidentally, I am currently testing a system that will allow me to pop a private label article into a web form, click a button, and post the results to the Internet — without there ever being a chance of it being labeled as duplicate content. The whole process (not counting the upload time) will take less than a minute per article (and I can probably make it even faster by… never mind!). I think it will work, but if it does, you can bet your last dollar that I will never tell anybody else. Why should I? That’s what I’m talking about here… That’s what really happens. You don’t share the really good tricks that you discover. In fact, most people might even be tempted to spread word about their experiment — along with a dire warning about how they got banned by Google — talk about misinformation… but it does protect their interests.

If you’re still with me, please check out one more post ("Answer Time" at http://www.jamesbrausch.com/?p=737. Read question number seven (”Is there a new 5 minute marketing test?”) and James Brausch’s answer to it. (You can find his original 5 minute marketing test here if you’re interested in the background to this question). This question was asked — and apparently James hears this one a lot, so he answered it — and then some.

Most people relied on the old Overture tools to do this market research, but Yahoo “killed” those tools back when they purchased Overture — so lots of people seem to be stuck. I finally figured out another way to get that data, but I’ve also figured out that getting hung up on this point is just another in a long list of procrastination steps that I simply must ignore. At this point, I’m more in the “sling mud against the wall until some sticks” mode than anything else… In other words, don’t let a lack of an easy way to test a market become another excuse that keeps you from taking action.

But read more in James’ new post. See where he starts talking about “niches”? I got a bit mad at James a few weeks ago when I used that word in another question session he created until I began to see what he was talking about. This post blew me out of the water because it explains EXACTLY what James is trying to say and why he got a bit perturbed at my question. Lesson learned with skull intact.

Let me now just come out and say the whole point of this rambling post (in blockquotes, if I may…):

The concept of "Niche Marketing" is nothing more than a damn, boldfaced lie meant to keep people like us away from true success while we line the pockets of snake-oil salespeople, otherwise known as shady Internet Marketers.

I’m sure I’ll catch some heat for that one, but that’s OK because I finally figured out the real problem. Let me use Internet Marketing as an example because I think that the shoe fits, and it fits quite well: There will always be people — new people — looking for a way to make an extra dollar or three, and if we believe those hucksters who claim that the competition in the Internet Marketing business is too fierce, we’ll never go after it, effectively killing off the competition before it ever starts. But the real reason they say this is because they are deathly afraid that my offer will be more attractive, so they will do ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING possible to keep me out of the marketplace.

Another point: how many people have successfully started a business in the past six months that caters to the Internet Marketing market? Guess they didn’t get the memo…

Besides, I’m not interested in Internet Marketing; I’m interested in building a lasting asset called an Internet Business. Marketing is only one aspect of that business, so my “offer” is already more attractive. They really are afraid of me, and with good reason.

Another point: we don’t need much of that market to really, truly prosper. Let me explain by using an actual example from another “crowded” market — the promotional specialties industry.

My good friend Dennis Bevers, the best Kaeser and Blair promotional specialty rep in the world (click on that link if you EVER need promotional specialties — Dennis is the absolute BEST) once put it this way. The promotional specialty industry is quite large. I don’t know the exact numbers (Dennis does because it’s his business to know), but I think that sales are, at the low end, worth several hundred million dollars every year. And there are also lots of people selling promotional specialties; competition is HUGE and potential customers have lots of choices (if you don’t believe me, just open your phone book).

Dennis’ take on the situation? He says that he doesn’t need much of that huge market to live well, so he doesn’t worry about “competition” or “overcrowded markets” — he simply focuses on taking care of his customers. In return, that tenny-tiny amount of total market share that he claims (which, if measured in terms of percentage of the total market, would require a LOT of decimal places after the period) keeps him in beer money — and then some. However, hee’s also committed to doing whatever it takes to get the job done. He lives in rural Louisiana and is in his car at least 12 hours on a typical day, driving all over the place to take care of his customers — customers that nobody else is able to take care of like Dennis does. He also has a great company behind him (Kaeser and Blair). All of this combines to make it possible for Dennis to live very well while he serves a crowded market with lots of competition.

So I’m not falling for the “crowded / saturated market” spiel. I don’t need much of the “home business / Internet business / Make Money In Your Underwear At Your Kitchen Table” market to live comfortably, and I’m sure that my message will reach people who, like me, are turned off by those who want me and you to focus on the “South Pole Immigration” niche…

OK, this post wandered a bit, so let me summarize:

1. Go for the jugular. Forget the so-called niche market; there are plenty of other in-duh-viduals who will go after the long tail — OOPS! — long trail of crumbs.

2. You only need a teeny-tiny piece of a multi-billion dollar industry to achieve financial independence.

3. You can, and will, reach people in that multi-billion dollar industry who are being overlooked by everybody else.

4. James Brausch has my permission to beat me about the head and shoulders with a baseball bat the next time I don’t like what he has to say (although I know he never would).

5. I’m going after the Internet Business market!

Stay tuned. Excuse time is over; there *WILL* be a product released this week. If you want to be able to say that you purchased my first product at the 24 hour release price, then subscribe to my RSS feed (to the left) so that you’ll know when it’s available.

And be sure to read my next blog post. I’m going to write down a goal for the world to see (and I promise to never again commit blogicide!).

Don’t let anybody steal your dream and always take anything you read on the Internet with a bit of skepticism (including what you read here).

Thanks for listening (actually, it’s amazing that you made it all the way through!),
Tom