Own The Game And Win It

How You Can Own The Game And Win It

Little BIG search engines, Champions, Evangelists, Wee Willie Keeler, Playing Ball And Winning The Game…

If you want to know where this idea came from and see the discussion that started it you might want to read this thread: http://preneurpal.com/forums/topic/do-you-tap-into-a-steady-stream-of-traffic/

This is part of what I have got out of Sean’s training.

I am not saying he endorses this and Sean is welcome to correct me where I get off track, but this is what I am thinking after I process what I have learned here and in Sean’s past training.

Life is like a game, you have rules, you have winners and losers…

In your online business, whose game are you playing? Yours or theirs? If you are playing their game they set the rules and they can take their ball home and leave you standing alone in the field. I can tell you from experience that isn’t a good feeling.

If you are playing your game, you get to set the rules and the game is yours. You own it.

The big idea here is that we are chasing prospects in an ever changing world of rules, logarithms, social media outlets, competition and even changing devices-just look at the mobile revolution, if your website isn’t mobile friendly now, you don’t make page rank on search engines. Did you decide that? Did anyone ask you about that change in search ranking? When did you get to vote on changing that?
Right.
Me neither.

The truth is the big companies that control so many of the eyes and ears on the internet and what they see and hear are not interested in you, they are interested in their company and their profits. To them people like you are a dime a dozen.

I don’t think they are necessarily evil or out to get you, you just don’t register on their radar.

The search engines, the big keyword ad companies, the big video sharing giants, the online course companies, the social media giants all have one thing in common: when you play with them, you are playing their game with their rules and their ball. They call the shots and they play to win.

They write the script, pick the actors and shoot the movie. If you want to be in the movie you have to be lucky enough to be picked, follow their script and act how they want, when they want and then be seen by only those they decide to show the movie you are in to. What is even worse is you have to pay to play. Pay in money or pay in blood, sweat and tears to make unique content, constantly do search engine optimization and track the keywords you pay to market.

So the big idea is:

What if instead of searching, seeking, chasing after prospects, they sought us out?

What if we could build it and they would come?

What if you could be your own search engine? What if you could be your own social media platform? What if you could be your own online university? What if you could be your own Champion and Champion your own cause? Be your own Evangelist?

Then you would own the game. Think about that for a minute.

The Little Big Search Engine

You can’t out search engine, the established search engines across the entire internet and you can’t out search engine, the search engines on every word, topic and subject, but it just might be possible to take enough of the big search engine’s share of traffic on what specifically applies to your niche to fulfill what you want to do on the internet and direct that traffic to your business.

You could be the little search engine on the internet, but the BIG search engine for your topic.

I used the example of Badger and Blade on the internet in the original thread to show one real example of being “the little BIG search engine.”

https://www.badgerandblade.com/forum/

They have over 79,000 members, over 9 million posts, over 39,000 items for view in their media gallery.

AND GET THIS: The members put most of that content on that website!

The members did most of the building of the platform. Sound familiar?

And they enjoyed it! No one paid them, no one threatened them, they did it because they enjoyed doing it.

If I want to know anything about shaving, anything: blades, razors, soap, history, brands, reviews, superstitions, contests, stories, metallurgy, restoration, old advertising, beards and mustaches, father-son traditions, even women’s shaving for my wife I go there and search for it. The BIG search engines can’t compete and just get in the way. It is easier to search on Badger and Blade for shaving information once you find them than to search on any of the BIG search engines for anything related to shaving.

The BIG search engines are big on the internet, but when you go to the world of shaving, they are small, Badger and Blade is the BIG dog when it comes to search and content on shaving.

Don’t feel overwhelmed. You don’t need 79,000 members or 9 million posts to have all of the traffic you need to blow up your business.

Sean talks about 30 or 40 paying members to start a basic membership. Leverage that to 150 or 200 and you have a very nice living and income every month no matter what rules the internet companies change or even if you do or don’t work that month. You built the membership, put the content up and signed up the members. Now it is only maintenance work to keep it growing and going. If you don’t put content up this month, then don’t worry, the members will. You still need to make appearances, but it is not a one man or one woman show anymore.

So the idea is build it and they will come (after you promote it enough for it to be known as the “go to” place)

And you could even use search engines to do that, along with any other way you can be found and get your message out on the internet, search engines, article directories, social media, ads and cross marketing, anything that gets the message out.

Take a lesson from Wee Willie Keeler

Keep your eye clear and Hit ’em where they ain’t–Wee Willie

Wee Willie played for the New York Giants starting in 1892. Wee Willie Keeler has the highest career at bat-per-strikeout ratio in MLB history.

They still teach his batting strategy today: Look, See, Focus and Hit ’em where they ain’t.

Hit the big search engines where they ain’t. First off, the big search engines are search engines, they don’t have content. If you want content you have to leave the search engine.

You can make a website that has a search function and content for your niche. Do that and you just hit ’em where they ain’t.

Try adding content to a search engine. You can’t. They don’t have content. Search engines don’t do content, they aren’t content engines.

What about interaction? How much do you interact with your search engine?
Ask questions and they answer you or you post answers to questions and they appear on the homepage?
How much interaction? Try ZERO, that would be pretty close.

Make a forum where people can ask questions, answer questions and participate, in other words interact and add content and you just hit ’em where they ain’t again-and with content and interaction it is a two for! You hit a double!

Search engines are not personal or into relationships. Oh they know all about you, but it is a one way street. When is the last time a search engine sent you an email wanting to know if you were finding what you were looking for and if they could help you achieve your goals?
Never?
Same with me.

Build a relationship with the people coming to your website and searching for information and help and you just hit ’em where they ain’t again.

And you can do similar things to compete with the social media giants, the ad companies, video sharing giants and all the rest.

There are so many holes in these internet giant’s game that you can spend all day long doing a Wee Willie and hitting them where they ain’t.

Sean tells how he built his business by asking people on his list what they wanted to learn (by asking them what they were struggling with) and then he taught that. What online education company or online university ever asked you how they should run their business and what you needed them to teach?

Bam!

You do that and you just hit ’em where they ain’t again!

As I said, I don’t pretend to speak for Sean, but I can tell you what I am getting from his teaching and ideas and what I think he is saying. I invite Sean to correct me where I get it wrong.

Sean is talking platform. A platform in the most basic physical term of the word and used as we are interested in, is the structure that supports the speaker. I think of the old “railroad run” presidency campaigns where the candidate stopped at every city along the railroad track to make a speech and they had a platform for the candidate to speak from. Sometimes it was the back of the caboose!

The platform raised the candidate above the audience and all of the other people speaking in the crowd.

The platform literally supported the candidate. Without the platform the candidate could not have gotten their message out.

All a platform has to do is get the speaker in front of a crowd and above the noise on the street. It doesn’t have to be the biggest search engine on the internet. It doesn’t have to be a big wood and banner stage. It can even be the tail end of a caboose.

You probably can’t make a leading search engine from scratch, but you could put together your version of the tail end of a caboose!

I am saying the equivalent of a stage or platform for the internet is the big search engines, the big video sharing sites, the big social media companies and if you are here, then you know the rest.

Without a platform we can’t rise above the crowd. Without a platform we can’t be heard above all of the voices on the street.

On your own platform you can be your own Evangelist and Champion your cause and your niche.

I think if anything is true in this internet business, you are interested in your business, your success and your ability to help others more than anyone else or any other company. You should be your own Evangelist and the Champion of your own cause, on your platform, instead of using only other platforms and supporting their businesses with your hard earned cash and content you worked hard to make.

Here is the problem with the internet platforms, we don’t control them, we don’t make the rules and although they do raise you above the crowds on the street, there is another crowd on the platform.

It isn’t enough to get on a platform, you have to rise above the crowd that is on the platform.

If you aren’t on the first page of search results and even in the top two or three results, then the crowd on the platform has pushed you to the back of the stage.

But what if you owned your own platform. It wouldn’t be as big as the internet giants, but it could be targeted to just you and your niche. I would rather have 100% of my platform working for me in my niche than .000001% of someone else’s platform working for me scattered and unfocused across the internet.

If you were in health and fitness, then you wouldn’t care if the people in hot dog eating competitions didn’t come to your platform. You just want interested people that are looking for help in health and fitness to be able to gather around your platform. Don’t pay in time or money to market cars to ten year old video gamers playing race car games online.

Here is another way to say it. We search for prospects the way we do it now. Big search engines and social media companies don’t search for prospects, the prospects come to them.

Once you have built your platform and have sent enough traffic to it that it reaches a critical mass, then people will seek you out, instead of you having to seek people out.

How would it change your business and your life if people sought you out for information and your help? Think about that for a minute.

Where do people seek out information and help? On platforms where that information and help rises above the crowd and the noise of the street so the seeker can see and hear what they are searching for.

Would you rather have a general surgeon or a doctor that is a general practitioner do your brain surgery or a brain surgeon? You probably want the specialist. If you had a choice to search with a general search engine for help on your topic or a search engine that specializes in your topic, who would you pick if you had the choice?

The platform that is successfully focused on the subject and promoted is a beacon on the internet for that topic or niche.

Here is one last random question: How much would a three month banner ad cost you on the website that is the leading place people interested in your niche go for information?

The answer is, if your website is the leading place people go for information on that niche, it won’t cost you anything!

We are seeing Sean build a platform here. This platform probably has elements you won’t need, but it is great that we are seeing them all and how they work so we can pick and choose in our business.

I am sold on the platform idea, in fact, I was doing something a little similar on one of my websites and it was working. I had audio samples of a number of things I do and a number of downloads to explain problems and solutions for things I do. People started sending people to that website for that content and answers. Locally it became the “go to” place for the problems in my niche. It is my best website and only a crude version of what Sean is teaching and doing here.

I am going to step up and be brave. I am going to dismantle one of my websites and redo it as a platform like I believe Sean is talking about.

You could easily argue that any website is a platform, but in reality there are platforms and then there are platforms. Newport Baptist Church Bulletin (just made that up, maybe there isn’t one) might be a website and a platform, but it isn’t your favorite search engine or your favorite social media outlet or Badger and Blade when it comes to shaving.

No, I don’t think I am recreating a Giant Search Engine, just something that has the moving parts and functions of something like a Google or a Facebook or even this group or a Badger and Blade and is focused and tailored for the people I want to reach and help.

I am going to give you the internet address so you can look at it now and follow along as I change it if you like.

http://www.threestepstowealth.com

I will invite you to make comments and suggestions, but just keep in mind that I have an idea of where I am going and if I don’t follow your suggestion, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like it or it is not a good idea, it just might not fit in for me and the vision of where I am going.

So here you are seeing Sean do a platform for his target market and people in a wide range of niches.

You can also see someone taking what they learned and are learning from that and working on converting those ideas into a platform for their own target market and niche.

You can see this training being applied in one niche and look over my shoulder.

You can help me do this and learn in the process.

It is a lot to do, I have other things in my life I have to juggle, it will take some time, but it will hopefully be something that works and I control and no one can take it away from my by changing the rules of the game. It will be my game.

You know you can’t leave a Giant search engine to your children when you leave this world, no one person even owns the big ones, but a website that is a platform, that you can leave.

Best to all,

Scott Hogue CChH