Many people think that the internet makes everyone’s life easier. It is easier to shop on the internet because a zillion companies are competing to get you the same product at an even lower price, or with better shipping terms. But, the internet has put many bookstores out of business, and put many couriers out of business. The way we function in today’s society has completely been changed by the internet.
The internet keeps changing
The way the internet is used today is drastically different from how it was used five or ten years ago. As an internet marketer, I have to be very quick to adapt to and learn new marketing methodologies on the internet.
One world — one market
But, the fact is, that the internet makes the world, one small market place. The problem with that, is that if you are not in the top three in the planet in your market niche, you will not stand out, and probably won’t do well. On the other hand, if you have a physical location and also use the internet to strengthen your marketing, then you have the geographic advantage of being in a particular place. A hardware store in Maine, can’t compete with a hardware store in Los Angeles assuming that you aren’t going to buy the actual hardware online — and most people don’t buy heavy things online for obvious reasons.
Google makes the rules
Google sets the rules for who will do well in its kingdom. The rules are very interesting in fact. In the old days, you could have a site, do a little SEO, and you would show up well. Now, you have to do the SEO, perhaps some adwords pay-per-click, but you really need social media to do really well. My traffic would probably be less than half without social media. So, Google in essence is forcing you to become a master of social media if you want to do well.
The rules don’t favor the rich
I was beginning to think that without a huge budget, you couldn’t do well on Google. With more maturity and experience, I’m seeing that this is completely not the case. It is skill that Google rewards, not money. If you have money, you can hire a social media company that can get you all the accounts that the experts say you should have. You can get a Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, a blog, and a few others as well. They can get you followers too. A social media company can charge you anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand a month. But, the one thing a social media company can’t do, generally, is to use the social media mediums in the way that Google respects.
What does Google like
I used a lot of social media PPC. Google didn’t reward me at all for the Twitter clicks I got from PPC. The rewards came from organic clicks from twitter which were real, and resulted in longer visits to my site, and visits to more than one page per visit. I realized, that it wasn’t about budget. It was about making the system work. Google doesn’t care how many followers you have. They like the fact that you are on your blog and your twitter daily, and manually make new connections, interact with them, publish quality materials and get retweeted.
Anyone can tweet on twitter, but how many can get retweeted?
Anyone can make dumb interactions on twitter, but how many can get others to interact back and not ignore them?
Anyone can buy followers on twitter, but how many can get over a thousand relevant followers who are active?
Google understands that it is easy to buy followers. They understand that it is easy to tweet. They understand what is easy and what takes skill. Google is here to basically say that they reward you for doing what is hard, and for taking action on a daily basis rather than creating a site and letting it rot! Google rewards you for your skill and your efforts, and not for your ability to spend lots of money on services. Google is fair, Google is just. But, does Google and the internet (Google is the internet, or the internet god from my point of view) make it easier for startups?
In my opinion, the internet makes startups harder because you are competing with the entire world, and they know more than you do. On the other hand, if you are smart, and take the trouble to learn, you can outsmart those other dummies, and believe me, most of them really are dummies, and be in the big leagues in less than a decade. All if takes is really hard work, and refining your analytical thinking skills. Doing well on the internet is directly proportional to how you communicate and how analytical you are! Good luck!
Oh, and don’t forget to pray to the Google gods.
To please the regular non-internet God who we call God, he likes hard work, honesty and tithing. So, give to the Red Cross and a few homeless shelters to get on God’s good list. And to get on the Google God’s good list, interact more on Twitter and figure out how to get retweeted and clicked on.
