Chip Wilson's Blog

Humans are social creatures. We are wired to share all kinds of information and to learn from each other through a never-ending process of “Social Syndication”.

Our decision making process places a high degree of relevance and trust in the knowledge, opinions and feedback from those we consider to be our “social peers”. It is fundamental to our survival strategy. Because our self-preservation instincts are so strong, our reliance on social validation dominates even our most trivial decisions. It is why word of mouth has always been the most effective form of advertising.

How is this Important to Online Business?

This aspect of human psychology has been a driving force behind the rise of Social Media and the proliferation of “social validation” and bookmarking sites such as Digg, Delicious, and Reddit. [...]

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Success leaves clues.  From sports to politics to business, the people who make it to the top are diverse, but share one quality.  They are persons of action.

Sure, some of them enjoy the benefits of natural intelligence, talent or beauty.  Others are well educated and/or connected.  But history is littered with the bodies of people who, in spite of all their apparent advantages, amounted to nothing – solely for lack of action.

In the end, the ability to act supersedes raw intelligence, talent, and even connections in determining your success.  Even though this concept seems quite simple, the truth is that few people truly excel at generating results.  The good news is that taking action is a learned behavior and a habit which every one of us can develop.   [...]

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The average American is bombarded with messages of consumerism throughout the day.  A recent study by ADWEEK indicated that the average American is exposed to over 70 minutes of commercial/promotional content on TV alone every day – that’s over 7% of our waking time each day!  It doesn’t even include messages from radio, the Internet and print media. These messages have initiated a massive transfer of wealth and liberty out of the hands of individuals and into the control of Institutions.

A 2008 YouTube video titled “Please Buy More Stuff” provides a commentary on these messages. [...]

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A common misperception persists among many internet marketers that the key to generating valuable, high converting traffic is to cast a wide net by targeting hundreds, or even thousands, of keywords.  Use any of the “spying” tools out there to analyze your competitions’ sites and you’ll see it for yourself.

Just last week while brainstorming with my mastermind group, we came up with a theory about why this was happening, why it is the wrong strategy to follow today, and how an alternative approach should yield better results.  [...]

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In network marketing and direct sales, some of your best prospects are individuals researching various opportunities in the industry.  There are numerous reasons why you may choose to target them.  First, they may not be having a good experience in their current business and could be looking for a change.  It’s also possible that they’re not involved in any business yet, and may be receptive to your opportunity even if they are researching another.  Perhaps they are just looking for tools or training that you can provide which will help them even if they don’t join your business.

You need to be able to find and talk to all of these people.  One of the most effective ways to do this is by using campaigns with keyword specific capture pages.  However, in doing so, you must approach these prospects with class and be non-intrusive. You want to make sure that your ad, your opt-in page, and your videos or other content all pertain to the keyword your prospect is researching.  Use relevant information to lead them down a rabbit hole which ends up at your website and with them in your follow up campaign.  [...]

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Anyone interested in succeeding with a basic marketing plan needs to consider how the elements of their plan are designed to most effectively target the appropriate audience in order to generate a specific result.  This includes both your message and your choice of media.  To cut through the noise, the messages you use need to be one-of-a-kind. The effectiveness of any campaign is also correlated to the quality of your list and the effectiveness of your offer in the context of that list.  You need to understand how they are likely to think about your product and what will motivates them to buy. [...]

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Consider the idea of “Personal Economy.”

What does this term mean to you?

Many would jump to the conclusion that it revolves around being your own boss, bringing in huge sums of money per month, etc.  I’m not going to discount that kind of thinking entirely, but there is a lot more that goes along with it, which I’ll address in a second. [...]

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If you wish to market anything online, you will need to figure out how to let people find your online presence.  That generally happens when a prospect conducts a search.

This is the first in a series of articles designed to help marketers master the various forms of search marketing.  In order to effectively use any tool, you first need to understand how it works.

With that in mind, this first article will explain the foundation on which search marketing is built – the search engines, why they exist and how they function. [...]

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In 1880, P.T. Barnum published his book “The Art of Money Getting.” In it he states that “the road to wealth is as plain as the road to the mill. It consists simply in expending less than we earn.” A profound statement that still rings true today. We are all aware that accumulating debt is not the way to wealth and freedom. So, why do we continue to live above of our income? Barnum answers this as well “The real comforts of life cost but a small portion of what most of us can earn, it is the eyes of others and not our own eyes which ruin us.” It seems that in our society, it is more important to be seen to have money than it is to actually have it. [...]

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Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you are aware by now that social media is no longer a fad, but a tactic. What may have been a novelty for a while has now evolved into one of the most effective, and also most challenging, methods to market your business and brand yourself online.

What makes these media so powerful? Word-of-mouth. Just like a conversation over the picket fence, it’s more reliable than an ad, more personal and friendly than a pitch, and, like the coconut telegraph, has the ability to spread like wildfire with virtually no effort once the first seed is planted.

What does this mean for online marketers? If you don’t have a social media presence, you can bet your competitors do.  Now would be a good time to create one.   Not only are more people relying on multiple social networks and peer recommendations to make decisions about how they spend both their money and their time, search engines are starting to integrate social data into their results.  If you aren’t controlling the conversation about your niche (or even your self), you are opening yourself up for a rude awakening.

Take the time to figure out how social media fits into your marketing mix.  Plug into a some folks who can really help you figure it out, like Kary Rogney and his Tribe.  Build your own Tribe, for that matter.  Also realize the dark side of the equation – with social and real-time data becoming more and more integrated into regular search results, negative word-of-mouth can, and will, spread faster than you ever though possible.

Be proactive about starting conversations and engaging others, even (especially) when they have a difference of opinion.  Listening to what they have to say and respond with respect, or you will leave the fate of yourself and your online reputation in the hands of fate – never an optimal strategy.

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