I was worried when I heard Lindsay Lohan was hospitalized.
I thought she was really upset when she realized she couldn’t have me after reading my post at http://mrfire.blogspot.com/2005/11/why-lindsay-lohan-wants-me-bad-or-how.html a while back.
I’m relieved she is now out of the hospital.
I think she should consider starting an Internet business and working from home for a while.
I want to show her my new office. It’s finally done. The books are up on custom built wooden shelves. My computer is running with two monitors working. The floor is cleaned. The trash is removed. Organization now rules. It took two months to get here, but the job is done.
Now the really hard part begins —
Keeping the office clean and organized.
When Lindsay is feeling better, I’ll invite her to stop by.
I’m sure she’ll be impressed.
She may be inspired too. For example, she could throw up a website like www.milliondollarhomepage.com or www.TrumpingAlex.com
But what she could do instead of selling pixels to a blank page is put a photo of herself on the site, and then sell pixel ads on it.
Who wouldn’t want to spend a buck a pixel to own a piece of Lindsay?
The search engines would surely log anything with her name on it. And knowing that the site would get traffic, people (like me) would easily agree to pay for pixel ads on her photographed body.
I think it’s a good idea, anyway.
But you can improve on it.
What do you think?
Ao Akua,
joe
www.mrfire.com
PS — I just came across a new ebook that Lindsay and you will want —101 Ways to Turn Content into Money by the great Marcia Yudkin. I looked through it and found some terrific ideas I hadn’t heard of before. And the links and resources in it are priceless. See http://tinyurl.com/e3ctp I’m sure you’ll find at least a dozen money making ideas you could put to use minutes after you read it. I may tell Lindsay Lohan about this when I see her…
What is the answer to the question I posed here on January 1st —
Give up?
A few people took wild guesses, but no one got it on the nose. So let me finally reveal what I was covertly doing that day.
I’m new to blogs. I began one after hearing SEO expert Brad Fallon www.bradfallon.com speak.
One of the first things I did was issue a news release at www.prwebdirect.com It was soft news, about an Internet skeptic (ah, Joe Vitale) who starts his first blog.
Who cares, right?
Still, the release was seen by 30,000 people.
And 1,000 people instantly rushed to this blog.
Not bad.
But like any good American, I wanted more.
On January 1, 2006, I was poking around the stats on my blog. I noticed a lot of people were coming here after searching for something I had written about, such as Chartreuse liquor or Agatha Christie.
That got me thinking about the idea of packing my next blog post with the top 15 most current search terms. So here’s what I did —
I went to Zeitgeist at Google www.google.com/press/zeitgeist.html There I found a list of the latest search terms, as seen below:
1. mta strike
2. john spencer
3. jibjab
4. king kong
5. dr. phil
6. ny1
7. naomi watts
8. howard stern
9. rachel mcadams
10. west wing
11. 40 year old virgin
12. uma thurman
13. winter solstice
14. scarlett johansson
15. intelligent design
My next step was to write a post using as many of those key words as possible, but just once. I assumed the search engines would pick up my blog because of the embedded popular search terms, and that people searching on those terms would sometimes end up here.
So my question — What do King Kong, Dr. Phil, Howard Stern, and a 40 year old virgin have in common? — was simply designed to get search engines to notice me. Obviously, what Kong and the others had in common is they were on the Zeitgeist hot list.
I had no idea if this plan would work, but I figured it was worth a shot.
You may have guessed that was what I was up to. If so, good for you. You get a gold star on your forehead. (Take a look. It’s there right now.)
But few people guessed my deeper strategy.
Keep reading —
I made sure I planted that same Jan. 1st blog post with links to my sites.
You’ll note www.mrfire.com mentioned, as well as a link to my Executive Mentoring Program at http://www.joe-vitale-executive-mentoring.com/info.html
In short, my Hypnotic SEO Strategy is this:
1. Search engines will inventory my blog because it’s now loaded with currently hot search terms.
2. Complete strangers will find my blog because they are searching for what is mentioned within it.
3. Some of these complete strangers will now go to my links. With luck, a few will buy something, or apply for my mentoring program, or at least sign up for my free ezine.
Whether this pays off or not is up for debate. Since it only took an hour or less to create the blog entry that could lead to sales, I think it’s worth the tiny effort.
Ultimately, you’ll always have better results making an offer to people on your own list, who already know you. That’s a given.
But in the brave new world of blog marketing, it’s wise to experiment.
After all, you don’t have to be rich or famous to try this strategy.
All you have to be is willing and take action.
My monkey agrees.
Ao Akua,
Joe
Author, The Attractor Factor : 5 Easy Steps for Creating Wealth
(or Anything Else) from the Inside Out
www.mrfire.com
PS – My friend “fun diva” Christy Hoffman took a brilliant spin off of my Jan 1 post. She wrote me and said: “I blogged your entry on MY blog & gave my web site name too (www.christyHoffman.com is my blog) to see if I get any traffic.” You’ll note she commented on my Jan. 1 post on my blog, using hot search key words and also giving her website. Wise woman.
PPS – The above picture is from the hit TV show 24. It’s the most hypnotic television show I’ve ever seen. It’s more riveting than watching Britney Spears dance naked. And since many people will be typing the show name, or Jack Bauer, or Kiefer Sutherland, in their search engines over the weeks ahead, I wanted to mention them here to — you guessed it — get my blog noticed. Heh heh heh.
I’m beginning this new year with a blog entry designed to accomplish something specific. I’m not going to tell you what. I’m going to let you guess. But I assure you, there’s a strategy of intelligent design at work here.
Can you guess what it is?
Here’s a clue –
What do King Kong, Dr. Phil, Howard Stern, and a 40 year old virgin have in common?
You’re welcome to post your comments, or to just think about the question on your own. I’ll give you the answer in a day or two.
I bet even Uma Thurman would like this one.
Stay tuned for the answer….
Ao Akua,
PS — The picture above is from my 52nd birthday on December 29, 2005. A friend gave me the personalized gift bag, which was pretty cool. But the bag also contained gifts, which was even better. Behind my left shoulder is a framed “Ode to Joe.” It was given to me by the staff of my Executive Mentoring Program. http://www.joe-vitale-executive-mentoring.com/info.html Wish you could have been here.
PPS – Have you figured out the secret strategy behind this post yet? You don’t have to be a fan of The West Wing to get it. And the winter solstice and jibjab have only a little to do with it.
A few posts ago http://mrfire.blogspot.com/2005/12/why-does-santa-give.html I mentioned that people were sending me gifts but without cards or notes or any identification to know who sent them to me.
Well, it turns out that in almost every case it was a mistake.
It wasn’t a mistake that I got the gifts, but that the cards weren’t included.
For example —
The person who sent me the Ipod Nano (which I truly love) was Paul Bauer of www.DreamsAlive.com Apple was supposed to include a card from him with the product.
They forgot.
And the person who sent me the monkey (pictured above left) was Charles Lewis, my webmaster for www.mrfire.com and www.HypnoticMarketingInc.com Sharper Image www.sharperimage.com was supposed to include a card from him with the “Amazing ‘Alive’ Chimpanzee.”
They, too, forgot.
Obviously, this is a marketing mistake.
Big businesses keep forgetting that their entire service needs to be flawless for people to be happy and return to do more business. Screw up a few times and people will wander away. Forgetting to include gift cards isn’t a tragic mistake, but it’s still a mistake.
Even my monkey knows that.
Ao Akua,
joe
PS – My birthday was yesterday (12-29). Many people came from far and wide to celebrate it, to bring gifts, to give hugs, and to share in my 52nd celebration. If you’re interested, I’ll post a picture or two. And if you’re not interested, I’ll still post them.
I’m almost done reading one of the best books I’ve seen in far too long: The Google Story by David Vise and Mark Malseed. It reveals the inside scoop on the hottest business, media and technology success of our time.
I’m fascinated by Google. I love their tool and use it, probably like you, every day. I’ve been longing to read a book explaining how this company got started. I could only imagine the wizards behind it.
Well, what I imagined isn’t anywhere near as good as the truth.
The story is about two guys with a mission to change the world. Their prime directive seems to be “Challenge the impossible.” (That’s similiar to my own “Dare Something Worthy.”)
And their motto is “Don’t be evil.”
Side note: Hypnotherapists and NLP language masters like to claim that your subconscious mind doesn’t respond to negatives, which would mean the motto “Don’t Be Evil” actually is telling you to be evil. I’ve never agreed with that theory. Google’s motto proves that your mind most certainly knows a negative when it sees one. Google is not evil. See my article on this aspect of hidden communication at https://www.mrfire.com/article-archives/new-articles/do-not-read-this.html )
Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page focused on creating an index of the planet, not on making money. (That’s a clue to how to make money.) As a result of their passion and wisdom, they attracted people willing to invest in them, even before there was an actual company to invest in. Andy Bechtolsheim wrote them a check for $100,000 — without a contract, agreement, or even a handshake. He saw the value of their search engine idea and wanted to support it.
And the founders are today billionaires.
The story gets juicer. Google used word of mouth advertising to get attention. They wanted to focus on building something so valuable to people that people would spread the word about it. (There’s another clue to how to attract money.) They fueled this campaign with requests to “tell a friend” and so forth. And this was when Google had 5 employees and “only” 1,000,000 people a day were using it.
The Google Story is packed with great insights and stories. It’s a quick and easy read. Includes photos, too. I found the material about Google making ads relevant to searches to be enlightening. As long as the ads were relevant, people welcomed them.
I also liked hearing about Googleplex, and how people enjoy their work there, are fun loving, and are fed well by a cook who makes his food with love.
If you’re at all interested in passion, money, and the story behind the story, get and read The Google Story.
Remember – “Don’t be evil.”
Ao Akua,
joe
www.mrfire.com
PS – The section revealing 23 Google Search Tips was worth the price of the book.