Entrepreneurs-Journey.com

I have no doubt this topic has been discussed on many SEO forums before but I’m going to give my take on it based on what I have experienced.

The “Google Honeymoon” as I call it, is the period 24-48 hours after producing a new web page where it first ranks in the Google search index. In my experience for the next 2-4 weeks the page will rank particularly highly and then drop back to whatever is normal for the website.

When I first publish a new article in this blog I generally receive a first page rank for the keywords in the title and possibly the tagged internal keywords too. Generally if the search term isn’t uber-popular I can hold the number 1, 2 or 3 position for a few weeks and then it drops to somewhere around positions 4-10. Bear in mind this blog has a high PageRank and good authority so it ranks quite well, what is considered normal for your blog or website might be pages 3-10 with a brief stint on the first or second page during the “honeymoon”.

For periods of time I’ve had top three rankings for terms related to the articles I have recently published, including keywords such as Mike Filsaime, Butterfly Marketing and Rich Schefren, clearly keywords that have some competition if not from the guys themselves than other Internet marketers.

You SEO fanatics can correct me if I am wrong but I believe the honeymoon period occurs so Google can collect data on how relevant your pages are for those keywords. If during the honey your pages are clicked often and the visitor hangs around for a while (doesn’t click back and choose another option from the search results) then your drop after the honeymoon isn’t significant. The logic being that your page offers a good answer to the question being asked. If your page doesn’t get many clicks or people don’t stay around then after the honeymoon you can expect your page to drop further in the index.

As I said I’m only speculating on this, but the pattern definitely occurs for me on this blog. It’s certainly fun to watch initially while the honeymoon is on and I’m happy with how well my site ranks in general, but it’s always a bit of a let down when you lose a first position ranking. By being aware of the honeymoon you can at least understand why you might suddenly lose your rankings, though of course it’s foolish to ever believe you can be 100% certain of what Google is doing.

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Duncan Riley emailed me and made a post about two new eBooks by Scott Boulch, one titled The Death of AdSense and the other Life After AdSense both available by handing over the usual name and email opt-in. Duncan doesn’t hand out praise easily, especially when it comes to Internet marketing products, so I was intrigued.

The Death of AdSense

I spent one day on-and-off reading the two ebooks and I must say I was impressed. The first book about why AdSense is not so good anymore was okay. It is basically attempting to prove a point about AdSense but since I already share much of the opinion (although I wouldn’t use as absolute language to state it - but you need absolute language to create controversy and The Death of AdSense certainly succeeded in that regard, which I’m sure Scott Boulch is happy about), it was largely a quick read with some head nodding now and then.

If you are not a regular AdWords user you may learn something that partially explains why AdSense payouts are dropping. Recently AdWords advertisers were given the ability to have different bids for content and for search, meaning that for most advertisers what they pay for content placement dropped a lot (it did for me!). If you want more explanation of how this works, read The Death of AdSense.

I prefer to think of any lost AdSense revenues being a result of Google attempting to ensure they continue to deliver value to their AdWords customers, which are way more important than there AdSense customers, in my opinion. This change to AdWords simply meant that AdWords users pay for quality clicks, and not junk clicks from mass produced spam sites. Anyway, I digress, this is not the point of this post and I’m sure Scott’s eBook will entertain the AdSense debate enough without me dipping back into it. It’s the second book that I really want to discuss, so…

Life After AdSense

The second book, Life After AdSense, I was very impressed with. It covers Scott’s technique which he calls “Click Flipping”, which in a nutshell is using AdWords to send traffic to a landing page which is an opt-in form to a cost-per-action pay-off - in other words, you get paid for lead generation. This is not the first time I have heard lead generation pop-up this year, another well known Internet marketer did a product launch earlier in the year for an elite group course on setting up a lead generation business. Scott really impressed me because he outlined what he does in clear detail and charged nothing for it, so if you want the full spiel download the ebook.

The second ebook is certainly something he could have charged money for although I think he is smart giving it away free because it will reach more people and create more buzz and position him as an expert in this area. My initial reaction was to assume the two books were lead-ins to a product launch of some sorts, which I still think they are, except Scott hasn’t decided what he is going to launch (perhaps) and I believe he is using feedback from these two ebooks to base his decision on how to move forward. Sort of a protracted launch formula, which I like, it’s a good strategy to build some buzz and then refine your product so it closely matches what people want.

After reading Life After AdSense I must admit I would love to sit down with Scott and watch as he puts his system into place, some 1-on-1 time with this guy would be great. The only thing I felt I was lacking after reading the book was a practical example. A video that shows how he sets up everything including the landing pages, the AdWords campaigns and how he selects the CPA programs he promotes, would be a great start and no doubt given enough time he will provide something like this.

Is Click Flipping The Next Craze?

I’m not sure if I was just very “sold” on the whole click flipping idea, but overall it did seem quite easy, although I probably shouldn’t comment until I try it. Scott’s formula for making money makes a lot of sense and I’m eager to learn more about cost-per-lead and cost-per-action monetization. Scott presents a nice and simple breakdown of the Internet business “food chain”, which I really appreciated and was nodding my head in agreement the whole time (I’m a whale!). It clearly explained where everything fits in and I agree, his position is enviable. My criteria for an Internet business pretty much lines up with his, however he has executed it and I’m still working towards it.

Click flipping has some significant potential. I don’t like that it relies on AdWords for traffic, but that’s certainly a selling point too and of course strictly speaking you don’t have to use AdWords with CPA monetization, you can use any traffic generation strategy, just as Scott mentions. AdWords is instantaneous and reasonably stable and affordable (for the moment), and as long as you do your time optimizing your keywords and your landing page elements, success is almost guaranteed - again I want to try it myself before saying anything more about how effective it might be since I have no proof or experience.

What is great about click flipping, and what worries me, is that there is no barrier to entry. Based on what Scott describes the only potential barrier is knowledge - how to optimize AdWords and landing pages. Every single other business idea I have been excited about (distracted more likely!) includes some component that slows you down - whether it’s getting an eBook written, or developing content or attracting search traffic or researching a niche, or hiring people, or getting software developed etc etc - all amount to barriers. It’s because of these barriers that I have not run off and started every single business idea that’s come way, and I’m thankful for it otherwise I’d be no where (you gotta focus remember!). With click flipping you just need AdWords, an account with a CPA provider and a landing page. Only the landing page development presents any real time delay and it’s not a big thing - landing pages can be popped out pretty quickly once you have your basic template done.

Most business models promoted by Internet marketing gurus will only work for a handful of people who execute well. The knowledge as we all know, is not enough, and putting things into practice is what counts. Click Flipping seems almost too easy to action, which will see a lot of people give it a go and I suspect Scott feels that there are enough niches out there to satisfy all the people who decide to follow him into this business area. I hope that’s the case, it would be a great thing if nearly everyone who tries Click Flipping starts earning six figures - that would really be a success story and in that case, yes, I think Click Flipping would be the next Internet business craze. The signs are good but I’ll withhold judgement until I start earning six figures from it.

In my case this business idea goes on the backburner but sits atop as one of the most compelling future business models I’d like to try out post-BetterEdit and maybe even post blogging (or in tandem with). It will be interesting to see how other people go with it so please let me know if you give it a go or already make money from it. For the time being I’ll sit back and absorb everything Scott throws at us, which I hope is on par in terms of quality, based on what he has released so far. Thanks Scott!

Yaro Starak
Eager to flip some clicks

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I’ve been thinking lately about starting another Internet business. I’m not actually going to (right now), but I was considering my future and also what I might do hypothetically if today I decided to dedicate myself to a new project.

Over the past years of running an Internet business and studying information marketing and strategic business development I’ve come to realize there are some important things I would not do again - some pitfalls I would avoid right from the get go if possible. I suggest if you are just about to start your own Internet business or are at the early stages of developing your plan, that you heed my advice and avoid these Internet business pitfalls.

1. Don’t start a business teaching how to make money online.

This is the number one rule. Unless you are currently making millions online using innovative techniques and you have plenty of built up credibility and contacts to leverage for testimonials and endorsements, you won’t succeed teaching how to make money online. There are too many Internet marketing gurus already and the marketplace is saturated. The only way to differentiate yourself is through personality and social proof, and only well established marketers who already have had Internet business success stand a chance.

I’m not saying it’s not possible to be the next Internet marketing guru, but if you do decide to chase that goal you are facing stiff competition and a very jaded consumer. It’s won’t be easy to prove that you are different or any better than the other thousands out there proclaiming to have the next guaranteed formula for success online.

The same goes for bloggers too - don’t try and teach how to make money blogging unless you already make good money from it and can teach something new and different from the many other bloggers out there teaching how to make money from blogging. Earning your first $100 AdSense cheque does not qualify you as an expert. Sure you no doubt have some value to contribute, but if you want to base your business around your skill you better be really good at it or at least be very honest with what you are proclaiming to be or to offer.

2. Choose non-Internet related niches

This is not a hard rule but you will definitely make your life easier if you choose a niche that isn’t Internet related. Like point one, if people already do it online chances are the market is saturated. The markets that have untapped potential are those were the existing offline successful businesses don’t leverage the web…yet…or the opportunity lies in taking an offline business model and enhancing it by using the web as a distribution method or marketing channel.

If you come across a high-demand offline business model that has yet to be marketed online you can jump in and be first to market and establish yourself as the online expert. The best part - your prospects won’t have already been bombarded by online marketing techniques so even the most basic marketing efforts will likely result in tremendous rewards simply because you are first in to a virgin marketplace. These markets are not jaded from over exposure to Internet marketing so you don’t face as much sceptical resistance.

Of course if you do pick non-Internet related niches there better be a reason you can succeed at it. You need to be leveraging your strengths and for some of us (me included) it’s often difficult to find strengths that are not Internet related. Which leads me to point three…

3. Don’t focus on making money

In the past I’ve confused the enjoyment gained from building a business with the rush of making money. If the only thing you look forward to about your business is the money you will make or currently earn, it won’t last. It won’t last because you will only succeed until a better competitor enters the market and takes your money away (and takes your enjoyment as a result) or your business won’t grow because you are not actually leveraging anything you are good at. Making money is not a skill - it’s an outcome as a result of a skill.

You must base your business on two factors - market potential (a hungry consumer) and your strengths. If you don’t do this you will fail, or at best be mediocre.

4. Don’t enter a tiny market

One major pitfall is finding a hungry market but then realizing it’s tiny. There is nothing worse than fighting with competitors for the small handful of customers available. You can try and stick it out and hope you will be the last business standing or be bought out by one of your competitors (or the other way round) but this is not the best premise to be in business for. Be wary of fooling yourself that the market will grow and your business will grow along with it. That might happen, but don’t struggle for too long living for tomorrow’s growth potential if it’s not really there.

5. Watch out for tiny margins

Equally dangerous as a tiny market are tiny margins. If you study pricing and market differentiation you will learn all about premium pricing and discount volume pricing. I’ve discussed pricing and perception points before and no doubt your pricing structure will be one of the most difficult areas to formulate as you go into business. It’s a sticking point for me that I tend to develop and change over time, as hazardous as that may be (see this article for my pricing story).

The one pitfall you have to watch out for is basing a business on a margin that is tight or misunderstood. Ultimately you don’t know how much a margin you can make until you start selling something, so don’t plan too heavily upon making a specific margin, plan for variations. Long term efficiencies and changes to your market positioning can help increase your margins, but there are no guarantees. Early on be especially wary of margins as you will have an inclination to blow a lot of money on marketing and if you marketing costs outweigh your margins, and you can’t sustain your business growth without the marketing, you don’t have a formula for success. Creative marketing can help you through this of course, but just make sure the numbers eventually go to positive given a spread of potential margins (standard deviation anyone? - I can’t believe I’m thinking of my old business statistics class - I hated that subject).

6. Look for leverage points

If you want big time success and explosive business growth you need to find points of leverage. You won’t be successful on any grand scale without leverage because your output will be limited to how much you can do yourself.

Leverage can be a way of using the marketplace to magnify the size of your business (for example many to many business models or user generated content) or through joint ventures or host beneficiary relationships. Leverage is about thinking beyond a solo-mentality and finding ways to use other resources to meet your goals quickly.

Although not strictly leverage by definition, just the act of taking on outsourcers or employees to increase your output is a great start and is the path to a leverage mentality, which leads me to point seven…

7. Avoid self-employment thinking

Most people who leave a day job to start a business begin with a self-employment model. This means you create a job for yourself and add all the other responsibilities that come with business ownership, and lose the benefits that come from employment at a company (remember this article? - Do You Want to Run Your Own Business?). This is fine as a starting point (although you can avoid it from day one) but you must learn to start thinking about business building, which means separating yourself from roles that don’t build your business.

The biggest culprit to blame for self employment thinking is cash flow, or lack of it, since most new businesses have limited financial resources and as such the owner must do everything since they can’t afford to bring in other people. It’s important when deciding what business to start that you see how it is possible for you to stop doing the day-to-day business fulfillment roles (delivery of services/products, support, sales, etc) in the future. If you can’t automate, outsource, or hire people to do these roles, then you don’t have a business model, you have a job model.

8. Be aware of your own limitations

As sad as it might sound, most of us are only truly good at a few things. We can be sufficient at many things, but generally each of us only have a few gifts that can translate into business success. Before starting a business make sure you know what your talents are and how they translate into skills you can use to build a business.

Most of the things I do every day to manage my business leverage skills I have that I would call sufficient. I’m not great at them but I can spend some time and get the job done. This includes things like writing copy, technical jobs like server management, software installation and basic graphic design. Then there are other jobs I do that are routine, areas where you really can’t excel at, they just need to be done and I have to do it.

All of these activities take me away from what I should be doing - leveraging my time on the high value activities that use my talents - things like writing this article now. It’s taken me a while to realize that an important goal in my business is to set up systems and people to do the things that for me are largely a waste of time. These activities are important still - my business wouldn’t succeed without them being completed - but they don’t leverage my talents and I need to have people with talents in those areas handle them.

Don’t worry if right now you are not sure what your talents are but be aware that your goal eventually is to distinguish what you are exceptionally good at and stop doing what you are not good at. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you are the best at everything because A) it’s not true and B) this will lead to solo-minded thinking, which I’ve already mentioned will stifle your business growth.

Yaro Starak
Leveraging Coffee Shops

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If you sent me any email over the past 24-48 hours and you require a response please resend your email again.

The longer version…

During the server move I have been doing this week I made a boo-boo. I won’t go into the boring technical details but as a result of what I did over a 24 hour period my server sent out one email to me almost every second.

This is what I woke up to during my email check yesterday morning:

Yes, I had over 40,000 emails. The problem was that within that 40,000+ email there were about 30 or so real emails I needed to keep.

My plan was to log in and somehow delete the mail I didn’t want and leave just what I wanted. Obviously wading through 40,000 email manually was not going to be a short job so I wanted to use a server shortcut somehow and delete most of the junk server messages I didn’t need all at once. Even after a trip down memory lane going back to my university days playing with SSH access to my server and using the PINE email program I just couldn’t do it. There were too many emails and the server was chugging along trying to work through them.

In the end the server did a delete routine at the end of the day and moved most of the mail into an old messages folder automatically. The result of this is that I could access my current mail but I lost everything over the past 24-48 hours. I know at least 20 or so real emails were lost because I was able to scan the headers of them early yesterday, including a few emails I would like to see again.

The DNS re-delegation for the server move is still not quite over yet either so my domains and email are not quite working right so you may get a bounced mail message. If that is the case please try again tomorrow.

If you sent me any mail over the past 24-48 hours and you require a response please resend your email again.

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For any entrepreneurs in Brisbane, there will be another entrepreneurs meetup on the 1st of October. Anyone is welcome to come along, regardless of which stage your business is currently at, provided that you are not only looking to recruit people into your pyramid business scheme.

WHEN: 3pm Sunday 1 October
WHERE: The Coffee Club, 209 Boundary St, West End (corner of Vulture St and Boundary St)

While I am in Canada, Bel is organising the events in Brisbane (anyone for a Toronto entrepreneurs meetup?). Please send her an email (belphd AT gmail DOT com) to RSVP so she knows who is coming and can book a large enough table.

It is a casual gathering with no agenda, just an opportunity to meet and trade stories with people who have similar interests and lifestyles.

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