Flippa.com is where Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg’s
first domain (FaceMash.com) went up for sale on.
99Designs.com has been featured in a dozen business
magazines and even in 4-Hour Workweek.
SitePoint.com is the first newsletter I personally ever
signed up to. And talking to other online business owners,
it’s one of the first they remember as well. It’s been
around for a long time.
All of them are properties of one Vancouver-entrepreneur…
He got started at age 14, made his first mill*ion by
age 22 and today is the a very savvy netpreneur.
My favorite part (besides the fact that he’s yet another
Vancouver-bred online innovator) is that he builds
communities and web properties, not a “guru” status.
You won’t recognize his name because he’s not trying
to sell you his latest tactics. He and his company simply
employ those tactics and build very successful online brands.
I’m a fan of watching short video interviews about internet business owners.
YouTube, TED etc all have a great collection but there are some really fun ones at StartUpFreedom.com…
It’s all fr*ee and direct access by the way. So you should bookmark the page and subscribe to the email list.
I’m biased as that web property is run by a good friend, Sean Gallagher … an ex- all-star DJ (he opened for Tiesto), web entrepreneur who started an “iTunes-esque” business many years ago WAY before iTunes… and who now spends way too much time surfing in Mexico.
Again, this is all fr*ee stuff.
He has interviews on his site from:
- the owner of Flippa, 99Designs, SitePoint (Matt owns all 3)
- Thril List owner… (2 mill subscribers and 8-figure revenues)
- Yaro Starak is on here
- Anik Singal
- Mike Schwarz … owner of ClubZone.com, the world’s largest nightlife community
- Jeremy Nichele … he’s enjoyed $100k NET months for over 2 years
- and many other great ones, including my own.
PS. Today is final day of me giving away freebie access to Austin Walsh’s video training on all things facebook marketing, particularly on how to use Facebook Pages to your advantage. It’s included as a bonus in my $2000-off retainer. I’m removing the bonus tomorrow morning. Then on Monday I remove the $2000-off price from the 60-day access as well… if interested: http://canadamarketingsummit.ca/go/robtoth?pal=index01
PPS. Watch Sean’s interview with me (check out the link I gave you above)… it will give you a bit of an intro to my background and my philosophies. That might help you decide whether having me on hand for 60-days (from whenever you decide to “start the clock”) is very useful to your goals or not.
Meaning… when you do go to Google, it’s to find
a website or websites that you want to click
through to and LEAVE Google.
You never go to Google to kinda just browse around.
But, as soon as you leave Google… Google can’t
advertise to you anymore. You won’t see their ads.
You’re no longer on their site.
Google’s mission was and is to organize the internet.
Specifically, the information on the internet.
Facebook, instead, organizes social connections.
As Mark Zuckerberg intelligently has said, the most
interesting thing to people… are other people.
So Facebook naturally gets more “face time” from
users than Google on a per user basis…
In fact: from an article posted by Adrianne Jeffries,
Americans spent more time socializing on Facebook
than searching with Google… according to new data
from marketing research firm comScore…. users
spent 41.1 billion minutes on Facebook in August
vs. 39.8 billion minutes on Google.
Now that statistic is a little misleading.
I’ve often been “logged in” to Facebook for hours
while I was working on the other computer. But I
wasn’t actually “active” in my facebook account.
None the less, the reality is more and more active
internet user time is being spent on Facebook to
the point where Google does realize a potential
threat.
Not a “oh my, our business is under siege, who
will save us” threat… but, when it comes to
their advertising dollars, a legitimate threat.
Want some fun reading?
Go Google “Is Google Threatened by Facebook” …
(and also note how quickly you LEAVE Google as
soon as you start clicking those search results).
But here’s the part to really grip…
More of the searches are being done on “human
networks”.
Twitter.
YouTube.
Yahoo Answers.
And, of course, FACEBOOK.
Actual searches.
Again, not to the degree of Google disappearing
anytime soon. That’s not the point though…
the point is there is a continal rise in searching
for results in communities and asking peers.
Of course, these same networks also pull a lot
of SEO weight.
If I search my name, my Facebook account shows
up in the listings (makes sense), so does my
Linked-In (which isn’t even setup, I don’t even
know how to log in), and so does my Twitter (which
is basically just an auto post medium for me these
days) … and so does even my Ryze profile (ever
heard of Ryze? It’s ancient. My profile was setup
7 years ago and abandoned 6 years ago).
Are you taking these networks seriously??
- Rob
P.S. If you want to get Austin’s course on all
things Facebook marketing for fr*ee, read my
60-Day coaching offer here. I’m removing the $497
bonus by the end of this week. So a couple of
more days if you want that freebie …
Yesterday, I sent a rant and some propaganda
about Facebook FanPages…
Here are 14 BIG benefits for giving serious
attention to fanpages:
1) Facebook is THE MOST widely accepted social
network. Some of your friends will be on Twitter
or Linked In, or maybe a few out of date types
will still be on MySpace but even most of them also
have a Facebook account. It is by far the largest
web property on the net and certainly the largest,
busiest, fastest growing community.
2) Facebook is the new email. Email was a novelty
at some point. Now everyone has one. Similarly,
500+ mill*ion users are already on facebook.
And it will keep growing. Being on facebook is
becoming a non-negotiable. And having a FAN PAGE
is the most viral way to tap into that community.
3) Your Fan page also doubles as customer support.
It’s easy enough for someone to post a support
issue within your fanpage and the reply you or
your team posts is now available for everyone.
4) Social proof! Sure this actually works against
you when you first launch your fanpage… but
as you grow your audience (fans), a prospect can
see you have 1000, 5000, 20,000+ fans … that’s
built in social proof that indeed others are
paying attention to you and your business.
5) Search results. Go Google “is Google threatened
by Facebook” .. there’s a lot of talk of
increased time spent on facebook and increased
use of it as a search platform. I do the same thing.
I look for service providers by keyword within
facebook… and if I need a service for X and your
fanpage isn’t there, I’m not buying from you.
6) The Facebook Like plugin! Have you seen the
Like (thumbs up) icon? It can be added to your
blogs and pages for immediate exposure to
potentially thousands of users. You see when
someone has a facebook account and clicks the Like
plug-in button from your site, an update is posted
to their wall saying Firstname Lastname Likes “Your
Website Name Here” … but that update is then
published to their home page feed which ALL of
their friends see. So just one “thumbs up” click
could start a snowball of viral growth.
7) Your Fan Page also enjoys viral growth when
a fan mentions you with @_____, or when they
share any of your posts
Email communication. Having a tough time
building an email opt-in list that someone needs
to leave an email+name for?? What if all they
need to do is visit your FanPage, click the “Like”
button at the top and now you can send messages
to all of your fans. So you created a new communication
\channel. Not to mention anytime you post on
your fanpage wall, it will show up for them in
their homepage feed.
9) Traffic… many marketers will make the same
comparisons… a 10,000 Twitter following is
worth LESS than 500 fans on a fanpage. The viral
growth that 500 can give you and the higher
clickthrough rates you get (from a less cluttered
and more meaningful home page feed) makes FanPage
“fans” *MUCH* more valuable than just Twitter followers.
10) Community building: tap into the monster 500
mill community and create your own “Tribe”
11) Local leads gen: though facebook is obviously
international, you’ll find the majority of your
“fans” will be local area users because of how
facebook handles “networks”.
12) Branding: your name gets seen everytime
you (or your staff) leave a post… it publishes
to the “news feed” of your fans. Fantastic
viral exposure.
13) SEO: a backlink to your main site from facebook
ranks you even higher in the engines
14) Analytics: an optimized fan page comes
with a good amount of analytics tools for page
owners. You can really learn a lot about the
interactions and demographics of who is spending
time on your fan page. This bit of “market data”
is VERY valuable if you then apply it to the rest
of your marketing.
To learn more actual tactics of facebook fanpage
marketing, watch Austin Walsh’s video from
Canada Marketing Summit.
Just go to the CanadaMarketingSummit.ca site and
click Austin’s name to access his video or
here’s a direct link:
P.S. If you want to learn all the why’s and how’s
of Facebook fanpage marketing, Austin’s one of
the best and most qualified teachers. His client
base includes Mark Victor Hansen (of Chicken Soup
for the Soul) and many others. You can still
grab his full facebook marketing video membership
for $497 from that video link site. OR, you can
get that for fr*ee as part of the limited “Genie
60-Day Retainer” opp I setup … I had a lot of
requests during the Summit for “coaching” so this
is my $2000-off priced solution: http://www.27am.com/cms_austin2
P.P.S. If you don’t want to learn how and why
to setup fanpages but you’d like one done for
you, write back. I have team members who can get this done.
60 Minutes recently held an interview with one
of my role models: Eminem.
“Whoa, Rob! Role model? Really?? Every lyric he
has is offensive!”
I say role model because I see “Eminem” as the
character that Marshall Mathers created. Much
like Borat is stupid, offensive and not real. Or
the Rich Jerk is a fake entity. Or Stewie the evil
genius baby on Family Guy. Or “The Genie” for
that matter.
They are characters.
Created for entertainment value.
What I respect about Eminem is his tenacity and
his absolute undeniable skill in his art: writing.
He has some of the wittiest and most creative
lyrics you’ll find in any artist (regardless of
musical genre).
I’m a FAN of witty writing, and a FAN of those
peoples who fight against all odds and become successes…
therefore, I’m an Eminem FAN.
Here’s the interview so you can watch it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCbtvBEPPs8
>>> YOUR FANS. YOUR TRIBE.
Eminem, of course, has MANY fans. Something
you’d expect from a celebrity.
And while YOU don’t necessarily have the same
clout, you too have “fans”… the loyal email
subscribers, your blog readers, your customers…
Seth Godin calls it a Tribe.
(Here’s a great video presentation, 17 minutes
long, from Seth…
http://www.ted.com/talks/seth_godin_on_the_tribes_we_lead.html ).
“Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass
marketing and revived a human social unit from
the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas
and values, tribes give ordinary people with the
power to lead and make big change. He urges
us to do so.” – TED
Seth is a smart man.
Probably worth heeding his advice.
Which brings me to a cocky 18-year-old named
Austin Walsh.
Because you need a home-base to gather your “tribe”,
communicate with it and have it virally grow to
spread your message.
… Even if that message is simply the value of
your service/product and the ideals and mission
behind it all.
And one of the simplest, most viral, and most
popular “tribe” building venues is a Facebook FanPage.
Facebook calls it fans. Seth calls it Tribes. I
would call it an Audience. You can name it whatever…
the point is the same, you MUST be taking advantage
of technologies like a Facebook FanPage to pull
together your own fanbase.
And since Facebook is by far the most readily
used and often visited social network, it’s where
the largest majority of your own “fans” (including
ones you’ve never communicated with) are.
Watch Austin Walsh’s talk about “marketing with
Facebook FanPages” for fr*ee, and direct access
here:
http://www.27am.com/cms_austin1
>>> Austin’s CMS 2010 “Facebook FanPages” Video
Membership for FR*EE…
Austin’s presentation is high energy and
useful-nugget filled.
And if you want access to the one time flat fee
video membership offer he made for Summit
attendees, the order link is still live at that
same page.
However…
If you’d like it for FR*EE… here’s the alternate
link for you
http://www.27am.com/cms_austin2
That’s a $2000-off priced “Genie 60-Day Retainer”…
basically me working with you for 60-days (from
whenever you say go, so day 1 doesn’t have to
be today).
Austin’s FanPages course is so important to business
marketing, I’m including it for fr*ee. But both
of these are limited quantity… only 8 of 12
new clients get the bonus and only 12 new clients
total are being brought on at this price.
If it’s a fit and you’re ready to work with me
for what calculates to about $50/week when you
consider the $497 bonus… then head over to that
second link I just gave you and reserve 1 of the
Retainer “me working with you on YOUR business and
inc*ome goals” time blocks.
If not, enjoy your videos and best of continued
success to you!
Regardless, over the next few days, the bonus
and the $2000-off pricing will be closed down.
P.S. “You better lose yourself, in the moment,
you own it, you better never let it go… you’ve
only get one shot, do not miss your chace to blow,
cause opp*ortunity comes once in a lifetime.”
- Eminem
Email communication. Having a tough time