Shoemoney - Skills To Pay The Bills

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How I learned about TRUE marketing from a 4 year old Thai girl Posted: 08 May 2013 05:00 AM PDT Sawadee Khrab (Hello in Thai) Greetings from Bangkok. If you've never been to Bangkok before, it's hot as shit. 100+ degrees with 70%+ humidity every day. Oh yes, quite fun. I've been here for about a week now, and it's quite an amazing place. You can pretty much do whatever the hell you want to do. Stop your car in the middle of the freeway because you feel like it? Sure! Park your car diagonally because you just saw a street food vendor that you GOTTA try at even though there are cars whizzing by 20-30 MPH literally inches away from your parked car? Sure! Get onto a bus that doesn't stop all the way (i.e. rolling stop) and hop on hoping that you'd make it into a bus? Sure! Get a pad thai noodles for a buck, drink beer on the street, and go partying at RCA (Royal City Avenue) with thousands people with zero police security whatsoever while people are throwing water at your face (during songkran) and hot girls are dancing all over the stage? Sure! It's the wild wild west here, ladies and gentleman. If you're libertarian or republican who believe in zero or little government, come to Thailand. Trust me, after here, you will appreciate bureaucracy and big ass governments. As an entrepreneur and marketer, even though all this stuff is quite fascinating (since I am a tourist here), this isn't what's most exciting. To me, there are three striking things about Bangkok.   1) It is definitely an up and coming city. You'll notice quite a lot of economic progress going on here. Lots of constructions for new buildings, bridges, freeways, and other public works. You can easily find new high rise development next to a row of old dilapidated houses built in. gawd who knows when. Wouldn’t be surprised if in decade or so, Bangkok becomes a world class city like NYC, Tokyo, or London.   2) Entrepreneurship thrives. Of course, a street food cart business what most of us (especially those of you reading this blog) find exciting, but for people living on couple of dollars a day and with limited skills, selling food as business is not a bad opportunity. Most people here aren't looking for handouts and government welfare checks. They take responsibility for their lives and start businesses, even if they are meager food carts. Even though the competition is stiff, entrepreneurship is thriving here. Take my host family in Thailand for example. As a graduate student in US studying English and MBA, she saw a need in US – that hiring skilled nannies cost a lot and because of the differential in the various monetary systems around the world, bringing aupairs internationally would be more cost effective. The host family in US would literally save thousands over the course of the contract and that the aupair nanny gets to have American education, improve and hone their English skills, and of course, a job. A win-win situation. So she started an aupair agency and now her thriving business is expanding internationally and into different niches like study abroad programs now that she's become a pro in international visa applications.   3) Street vendors are awesome marketers. Let me elaborate. If you go to Khao San road (where lots of American and European backpackers go), you'll notice insanely stiff competition among the vendors for tourists' dollars. During songkran (Thai new year) and people are celebrating by chugging water in your face and splattering your face in flour, not only are the tourists out.. but the vendors are also out in droves. Of course, this means insane competition from each other. Good for consumers, not so great for the merchants. One striking thing I noticed was how one girl (she was no more than 4-6 years old) got to DOMINATE the ½ block radius she was on. She didn't sell anything earth shattering: water bottles and cold drinks. But she did manage to draw a HUGE crowd of customers around here while her adult competitors were just doing mediocre. So how she dominate? She got on top of a table and SCREAMED her lungs out. Sure, you can make the argument that a cute little girl trying to sell for her parents is about the cutest thing you can experience as a tourist…. Or that this isn't really marketing, but she definitely was telling the world what she had to offer. The sight of her showing so much passion and enthusiasm for what she was doing was mesmerizing. One thing came to my mind: why don't I do that? As marketers and entrepreneurs, we spend hours, days, weeks, and even months learning about the latest marketing trends, SEO/PPC tactics, inbound marketing ideas, etc etc. But how many of us can actually say that we have the BALLS to get up in front of people and tell them what we have to offer instead of hiding behind a computer screen and hoping that someone would buy our stuff? Yes, not many. Getting on top of a tree and telling the world what you have to offer – you might say it’s so primitive, but you can’t deny – it is effective. Next time, you see a fully grown man screaming "for sale", don't blame him. He probably just read this post. Looking for an SEO service that won’t get you banned?

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ProBlogger: Affiliate Marketing: Cult or Cash Cow?

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Affiliate Marketing: Cult or Cash Cow? Posted: 07 May 2013 08:44 AM PDT This is a guest post from communications and marketing consultant Brook McCarthy. Image courtesy of Federico Stevanin / FreeDigitalPhotos.ne When I was a young hippie, I accidentally joined a cult. I was a student of religious studies at the time and believed I was merely observing, until one morning, when I found myself at 5am, chanting to a giant image of the guru in a group. Normally, nobody gets me up at 5am. As cults go, they were lovely people. There was the small matter of the group being accused of the 1978 Sydney Hilton bombing but, when all is said and done, I have very fond memories of my time in the cult.For some years now, I've been following a particular woman online. I wasn't a committed devotee, just an observer. Last year, I considered doing her online business course but was overawed by the price. I moved on. The buzz begins A year later, the buzz began again. Three different online personalities, of whom I consider myself a card-carrying devotee, all began spruiking this course. They offered gifts of their own e-books and courses, one-to-one consultations and the promise of being 'in the know' to further encourage purchase. The price was the same, but a year had passed so I'd had time to get used to it. Each affiliate promised this course would bring clarity, a well-trod path to business success, and digital kinship which, as an online marketing professional, is sacrosanct. All the video tutorials on the web cannot add up to the loving support of a well-informed, well-connected community eager to help a member out. Digital kinship And so deciding to take the course came down to choosing which affiliate offered the best bunch of incentive gifts. I chose to give my affiliate money to the person who offered more community – a small, private Facebook group with additional weekly teleseminars where my questions would have a chance of being answered. I'm not a natural joiner. Apart from my brief cult phrase, I struggle to fit in with a sports team or mother's group, a church group or political affiliation. But I am swayed by the opinions of those I respect. And therein lies the power of affiliate marketing, the smartest evolution of marketing since Seth Godin coined 'permission marketing'. As businesses develop tribes whose leader they respect, these leaders introduce others to their tribe. The tribe gains another resource to learn from, the leader gains respect for having introduced another valuable leader, and the tribe of the introduced leader grows. Watching their bank account swell, the business leader finally sees how their endless blog posts, emails, tweets, updates and promotions have paid off, the joiner taps into curated information, education and online kinship, and the affiliate needs only market to the networkers, not the network. Power to the people We need word-of-mouth to make sense of the world. Curating and interpreting information begins in infancy with our parents, and continues throughout school and college. For all its algorithmic updates, Google cannot deliver quality information curated especially for us. Increasingly, we rely on tribe leaders to present, curate and interpret information for us. We no longer seek open access to more information, but leaders whose opinions we respect and closed, exclusive communities with a limited amount of quality information that is relevant, useful and valuable. Hitching your reputation Becoming involved in affiliate marketing means hitching our professional reputation to another's. As a business owner with a tribe, our value is our relevance and usefulness to our tribe. Reputation is both our key asset and tradable commodity, should we choose it. Reputation is slow to build and easy to destroy. A leader's reputation and earning ability diminishes with each poorly-thought out email campaign or dodgy affiliate program they promote and they must rely on aggressive list-building strategies to keep growing their tribe as people demonstrate distrust by unsubscribing. Cults with money Image by unknown photographer, licensed under Creative Commons Whatever reservations you have against cults, you may transfer to affiliate marketing. Whether you deem the financial incentive of affiliate marketing clearer and cleaner or murky and self-interested depends on you. Crowds have power. There's no lonelier position than when you feel you're the only person who doesn't believe someone is wonderful. You begin to doubt your judgment when you're the lone wolf apart from the pack. But we have eyes, ears and wallets. We are all active participants in online cults when we subscribe to a business's updates and eagerly read what they have to say. So keep your eyes and ears open and consider the following: 1.    Reputation is slow to build and quick to destroy You've spent years carefully cultivating a tribe, forging relationships with other bloggers and business owners and growing your social media following, so don't throw it away with one poorly-researched, hasty affiliate promotion. 2.    Personality is important As bloggers whose success relies heavily on interacting with our followers, you know personality is important so always consider whether the personality you'll be promoting will resonate with your tribe. Sometimes people's personalities grow on you, something they grate you into shreds. 3.    Be wary if don't need to buy or try beforehand  You have integrity, right? So demand the same from the business owner who wants you to sell their stuff. You cannot recommend something if you haven't tried it. You may point to others' recommendations and testimonials, but be wary of whether these are paid for in cash or kind. Don't gamble on this – you need to know what you're recommending.  4.    Expect resources  Even those who write for a living need a boost from time to time in how they articulate the benefits of others. We coach clients in how to refer others to us and ask specific questions in order to secure a good testimonial, so you can expect that the business you're an affiliate of gives you lots of copy you can use to send to your list. This should be well written. And no, exclamation marks don't equal fabulousness. 5.    Keep it small When we overwhelm people with resources, information and directives, they become overwhelmed and confused. And confused people don't buy. Hopefully, you are working on your own products and so you want to pace your affiliate promotions so that they don't conflict. Don't become 'that guy' who only emails with affiliate links. Become known as the leader who only promotes a choice selection of quality products that sing to your tribe, while reinforcing your status for discernment. 6.    Consider upping the community ante People don't purchase e-courses and e-programs because they are looking for information. They purchase because they are looking for guidance, handholding, feedback and support from a community. Consider whether you can add extra value to your affiliate promotions by creating your own community to support people through the program. You don't need to be a rah-rah cheer squad, but you do need to show you have your tribe's best interests at heart. How do you choose the right affiliate program for your reputation?   Brook McCarthy is a writer and online marketing strategist specialising in the health and wellbeing sector. Download her 'Authentic Marketing Manifesto' for us poor souls concerned with being natural, ethical, and inspirational, as well as effective. Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger Affiliate Marketing: Cult or Cash Cow?

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