Changing Internet, Changing Marketing
This topic contains 13 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by 
Bruce Hoag 6 years, 9 months ago.
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I was trained years ago to do TOP exercises (Thinking On Paper) and although I use a computer now I still find it helpful to get things out of your mind where you can work on them and then put them back in your mind in a better organized manner.
I am going to share some TOP efforts and results here for comments.
Sean recently sent out some emails about the internet changing and I am convinced he is right. I have been thinking that along with a few million people for months now. What people are marketing to me has changed, the countries I am seeing responses from has changed, winning bids for adwords has changed, even what I am getting fed to me from Youtube has changed.
Sean has offered some suggestions and if I understand correctly he will be offering more to help us deal with the new playing field. In my estimation there is no reason to panic and I think Sean will tell you that too, hopefully he will comment on this thread somewhere. He has already sent out some emails with some funnel ideas with some pricing and ideas that should help anyone be profitable within the new framework.
So why did the internet change?
I guess that would take a five year study and still not cover every reason, but first, the internet has always changed, just go back and look at saved copies of websites from the 90’s if you doubt it and second, the internet reflects life and socially, demographically and financially the world has changed. In fact, I have seen arguments that the world is changing now faster than in history and who could disagree?Amazon, a company that started as a book store, has become a grocery store, a pharmacy and a healthcare provider. Is that enough change for you? If not, they also launch rockets.
It is hard to find a point where a trend starts, but for the sake of example, the Youtube Boycott is as good a place as any to get on this merry-go-round. There were things leading up to it, but this event was a watershed event, meaning we can divide things into B-YB and A-YB Before the Youtube Boycott and After the Youtube Boycott fairly clearly.
Old fashioned, mainstream advertisers were extremely unhappy with Youtube and Google for taking away much of their business and for dictating how they could advertise and how much it would cost to have access to their internet market. They were ready for some push back, they just needed an opportunity.
The presidential election drew some pretty defined battle lines and stirred the pot with a big paddle. Internet activity for this election dwarfed previous elections and campaigns, groups, people, even advertisers and countries were fighting to be heard, to be at the front of the line for views and to get their message across to influence people.
Lots of money and effort went into the internet and it resulted in new channels, new methods and new ways of looking at all things internet. Change can be good, change can be bad, but massive change almost always makes things unstable.
Then comes along The Times doing an article on how that advertisers have little control over where their ads appear and that brand names are appearing with videos that are hate speech, repulsive and shocking. ATT, the British Government, Coke, McDonald’s and a who’s who list of others got on the band wagon for the boycott. Who could blame them? It was free advertising and they appeared to take the high ground. It just might give them some power over Youtube. Advertising agencies loved it, they had to play with Youtube even though it competed with them, this was their time to get even. I can’t say much of the boycott was organized, but the same thoughts in agencies were common. It created a big wave in the pool and lots of people were worried. Panicked even.
Youtube tried to ignore it, then tried to downplay it and finally acted on it. They offered new tools to advertisers, new rules, new logarithms and new censorship. They demonetized some of the big independent players with Youtube channels. Ron Paul, the former representative of Texas and former presidential candidate had a video banned. Others got caught in the new computer implemented rules. A video promoting a fight breast cancer event was banned. Children singing nursery songs were banned. A man teaching how to train your dog to play dead was banned and even marked as terrorist.
It just got crazy.Facebook had their toe in the water, but got pushed into the pool when it was discovered that many of their marketing statistics were false and then just as they were dealing with that scandal, it came out that Russia had paid for many of the questionable ads during the presidential election.
Bing, Yahoo, all the rest, they have felt the heat and suffered from the fall out.
The result is we are now seeing changes to internet platforms intended to give the platforms more control and to bring in more money. This is all about money and the big players lost a chunk of income through these events and changes. They don’t feel they can leave as much to free organic results which competes with paid results and Google is even putting up their own content on their search pages to compete with organic results.
Add to that the heads of these organizations are taking a holier than thou approach to use their platforms to change the world to their image. You are now subject to rules based on their social censorship idea of the day.
But don’t panic. Change like this creates opportunities. You have to be more focused on your outcome and the new rules, not just throw things out there and expect results, be more flexible, more willing to try new things. Also, with more of a pay to play bias, you will have to make your advertising dollars count now more than ever.
I actually think Sean’s idea of being your own platform applies now more than ever. You need somewhere to send people that will get them off of the mainstream internet highway. Somewhere they will keep coming back for information and results. Somewhere you can promote and will have more of a relationship with your clients and prospects, than just renting eyeballs on the internet.
I am not ready to send traffic to my new platform, but I think now more than ever it is important to be working on how you will deal with traffic in parallel or at the same time you are creating content. It may take you longer and more effort to get it right. Things may change pretty dramatically from when you first have your idea to when you make it live and if you don’t keep up you may paint yourself into a corner.
I have one idea that I am counting on developing. This has already got long, if there is interest I will post it later. Sean I am sure will either post here or elsewhere and maybe several places to expand on what he has been saying. It looks pretty certain this is the direction he is going in, new methods for a new internet or some form of that.
Scott Hogue CChH
Follow me in the "Use What You Learn Challenge" as I create a website using what I learn from Sean that is a Platform for my niche:
http://www.threestepstowealth.comThe thread on this group that explains it:
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Scott, great insight . . and you are so right, an evolving internet requires evolving strategies.
There have been HUGE changes just the last few weeks.
You probably know that a few weeks ago facebook changed their algorithm.
Google is changing some parts of their ad algorithm soon.
And that is just the advertised algo changes.
Some folks are saying, well, these are just more changes . . . they’ll come full circle.
I doubt that.
Google and facebook are getting much more sophisticated, and I don’t they are going to go backward – ever.
This means if you are trying to get traffic by posting a few articles online . . .it’s not going to be effective anymore.
if you are getting traffic by buying ads on facebook that aren’t engaging viewers . . they are going to charge you more.
And many other little idisyncracies.
It’s just is.
So what’s the solution?
I believe one solution obviously is that you can get better at buying traffic, or better at using forums and better at getting involved online in ways that organically attract folks to your site.
Another can be to develop your own platform . . but I can tell you experience, it’s not easy, and there are many obstacles!
and there’s one more hidden piece of the puzzle . . and that is your monetization.
If you are selling a $10 product, and no long term funnel, it is just going to get harder and harder to make a profit, if any, because lead costs are going up and up and up.
I believe that there are 2 key monetization models that will drive the bulk of info revenue in the next few years:
1) memberships will continue to be a staple . . they create long term, residual, recurring revenue. They can grow organically. One catch: the cost to get a new member will likely be at or above the revenue for one month – meaning that you won’t be able to advertise and immediately make your money back – but it might take a month or 2 or 3 to make your money back and THEN begin to go into profit.
2) Repackage your training and sell for higher prices. If you are selling a downloadable product for $10 or $100, take the concepts you are teaching and go very deep, and sell instead as a Mastermind or a Coaching Program. Add interaction with you, homework and other deliverables . . . and get people RESULTS and you can charge $2000 instead of $100.
And even with a lower conversion rate, you’ll make more profit at $2000 than at $10 or $100 . . . .
Just a few thoughts on how to adapt, obviously if you have a business that will already withstand the changes, you don’t need to make changes (or do you?!)
But if you are building up from scratch, and you had previously planned to launch something low ticket . . . great, go ahead and launch, low ticket makes a great buyer lead . . .
But in the long run, I believe you will be more satisfied if you build something bigger that you charge more for.
Sean
Do you want to learn how to start a coaching program that stabilizes your income and changes lives? If so, visit http://www.AnyoneCanCoach.com
Sean
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Great insights from Both Bruce and Sean! There is one thing that probably could be said here for those reading it all… Launching a product at a lower price is better than not having anything out there at all because you’re working on getting it worthy of charging more. Sean is right that it makes a great buyer lead. It also helps eliminate procrastination and/or perfection syndrome because you always learn more and better by DOING IT than you can by any other way.
If you're looking for a someone to bounce things off of in the IM world, I'm your guy and I really would love to help you out. Helping others is just who I am!
To Change Your Life Forever check out me out at http://IM-Specialist.com
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Steve,
you are so right . . having a low ticket product is better than none at all.
there are many price points that work well, and just because I take the time to explain how to sell at, say $1000 or $2000 or $35,000 or $100 doesn’t mean that $10 or $200 or $400 doesn’t work.
One big key with a low ticket product is that it makes a GREAT buyer lead.
Imagine if you sold a $10 training on your fe instead of a free subscriber?
THEN took that $10 buyer to a high ticket funnel?
I’m not saying low ticket doesn’t work.
I’m saying it’s probably not going to scale you to the highest levels.
But low ticket is a great place to start . . . but then leverage up quickly, don’t get stuck in it.
And again, did I say this before 🙂 – a low ticket product is a great buyer lead.
My own list is about 80% or so buyers . . not freebie leads 🙂
Continue to build and grow . . . but move with the times.
I believe everyone should be creating a product a month or so.
So each month can be a different price tag.
And you can have both a low ticket AND a high ticket
Sean
Do you want to learn how to start a coaching program that stabilizes your income and changes lives? If so, visit http://www.AnyoneCanCoach.com
Sean
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Many years ago, I read that no one really predicts how people will use technology. For example, you may recall (or read) that Bill Gates said something along the lines of no one ever needing more than 64 MB of memory. (Something like that.)
Now couple that with the well-known psychological principle that “you get the behavior that you reinforce.”
Google, Facebook, and all other platforms want you to behave a certain way. To that end, they use their algorithms in order to reinforce a particular behavior.
Because they don’t disclose what those algorithms are, users are left to figure out how to get what they want. What they want usually conflicts with what the platforms want; but since users don’t own the platforms, they eventually start to figure out the game they have to play in order to get those, and that works for awhile until the platforms change their algorithms again.
I said it elsewhere, but I’ll say it again: If you want to make the platforms work for you, then you have to align your agenda with theirs. You won’t make money by fighting with Google or complaining about Facebook. Instead, you have to figure out how to use their platform the way they want you to and use it in that way as a means to achieve your goals.
All platforms want to make money. That doesn’t mean that you have to buy anything from them. It only means that you have to do the things that they want you to. If you do that, then other people will get the experience that they want on those platforms and those with the money to buy their products will be drawn to them as well. And because you’re doing what you should, the platforms will reward you.
Bruce Hoag PhD
The Internet Marketing Psychologist
The Mindful Writer - for deep and persuasive copy
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We will be okay
I am older hate change and learning new stuff BUT
in order to success I got to change that – so reckon everything is Figure-outable.
Rober -
Something that I think most people have missed is that Google, Facebook, YouTube – all platforms, for that matter – have agendas that are different from those of IM-ers or anyone else who is trying to monetize their space.
Perhaps it can be thought of like this: In the UK, they speak of working at “cross-purposes.” It means that people who are working together are doing it for different reasons, and so their methods don’t contribute to the success of the other. Instead of cooperating, they’re competing.
That’s what’s happening on the Internet. I don’t think I’ve ever read that anywhere.
What you see are marketers trying to second-guess what these large platforms will do next. Then these same marketers react to the changes.
A better approach is to align your agenda with theirs.
Instead of trying to understand what they’re doing so that you can adapt, pursue their agenda.
For example, what has Google said all along is it’s goal, it’s agenda, if you prefer?
Haven’t they always said that they want those who use their browser to get the best possible experience the first time? Haven’t they said that they don’t want people to have to keep searching because they can’t find what they want?
What has been the response of marketers?
Not to help Google give people the best possible experience, but to get traffic so that they could be first on the results page.
How did they do that?
First it was keyword stuffing. Then it was keywords. Then it was long-tail keywords and LSIs. Cloaking was another one. Cloaking is a kind of online bait-and-switch. Hidden words was another way people tried to get traffic. If you ever watch the Google Hangouts with John Mueller, you really get an insight into all the tricks that people try.
And that’s what they are: Tricks.
What would happen if marketers stopped trying to second-guess the how of the platforms and instead focused on their why?
What would you do differently if you knew that your success depended on making Google, or Facebook, or YouTube more successful?
Zig Ziglar famously said that, “If you help enough other people get what they want, then you can have what you want.”
Yet, the only people that I see marketers really trying to help is themselves via their customers.
What I don’t see is those same marketers trying to cooperate with the platforms.
Instead, I see a lot of whining and complaining about what those platforms are doing.
It tells me immediately that many of those who use them still don’t get it.
Bruce Hoag PhD
The Internet Marketing Psychologist
The Mindful Writer - for deep and persuasive copy5 users thanked author for this post.
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Bruce
yes, I think you have great insight on this . . . and that’s the trend . . the googles and facebooks are going to FORCE folks to comply with best engagement practices . . or just not show their pages!
One thing I learned from my article marketing days is that you CAN convert profitably by sending folks to content . . and in fact, we’ve seen advertisers do that in the last few years, especially at facebook, sending folks to content or videos, then a gentle CTA at the end . . .
Sean
Do you want to learn how to start a coaching program that stabilizes your income and changes lives? If so, visit http://www.AnyoneCanCoach.com
Sean
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Bruce- Like Sean said…you have some great insights. But I want to add another point. Marketers by nature tend to do what they do to benefit themselves instead of who they are supposed to be ‘serving’ and as you’ve noted the changes in algorithms is attempting to change that (and is actually doing a fair job at it). But you’re also right that Google has always been outspoken that their mission is to get their ‘customer’ the best experience they can.
So…what I’ve attempted to do (and has worked fairly well for me to date) is to do exactly what you said by also trying to produce a good experience for Google’s searchers and if it is done right it benefits me at the same time. The way I’ve done that is by figuring out what their searchers want by spending time doing a specific type of keyword research and then creating what is needed to get those searchers exactly what they want. The result is that I end up sort of ‘gaming’ the system and end up on top of the search engine results pages and that benefits the searchers and me at the same time.
So I guess what I’m saying is that you’re right…when I pursue Google’s agenda (good experience for the searcher) I benefit at the same time. It doesn’t really have to be an either or deal. I can benefit. Google benefits. The searcher benefits. And it all starts by doing exactly what your post said…focus on the why of the platform you are using and everyone benefits.
Thanks again Bruce.
SteveIf you're looking for a someone to bounce things off of in the IM world, I'm your guy and I really would love to help you out. Helping others is just who I am!
To Change Your Life Forever check out me out at http://IM-Specialist.com
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Steve
I would agree with you about pursuing a strategy that benefits google and benefits your reader.
And my belief is that when we genuinely create content that benefits the user . . . that’s usually in line with what google etc are looking for . .
But I also believe that with so many folks attempting to “game” the system
and the presence of advertising . . on which google makes a profit and it skews the concept of google only wanting what’s best for the reader (because the advertising often isn’t)
so then we have to factor that in as well.
Sean
Do you want to learn how to start a coaching program that stabilizes your income and changes lives? If so, visit http://www.AnyoneCanCoach.com
Sean
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Sean is right…Google doesn’t care about YOU…Google cares about Google’s bottom line. But it all then goes back to a couple things.
If you create content that benefits your readers, Google will rank you and you’ll benefit along with your readers. And…even though Google might have ads that show up ahead of your organic search engine your readers will see YOUR content as better IF and ONLY IF you also employ good copy skills (which includes a great headline). If you spend enough time making sure the headline of your content is compelling, engaging and invokes curiosity or something else to get the searcher to want to read more, you’ll end up getting as many or more clicks than Google’s ad customer. And then, as you get more clicks your ranking increases even more.
I know, I know, I know, it’s a long-term type ‘game’ but it does pay off if you keep at it.If you're looking for a someone to bounce things off of in the IM world, I'm your guy and I really would love to help you out. Helping others is just who I am!
To Change Your Life Forever check out me out at http://IM-Specialist.com
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One of the things that I think holds true with google is they like to see content, content that is read, and content that is linked to.
What would happen if you started writing one blog post a day, linking to it in facebook or linkedin, and sending it to everyone you know, posting it on facebook and linkedin, and google + – ??
Sean
Do you want to learn how to start a coaching program that stabilizes your income and changes lives? If so, visit http://www.AnyoneCanCoach.com
Sean
2 users thanked author for this post.
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There’s another development on the cards with Google. It’s called the “double-snippet.”
At the moment, Google places one snippet at the top along with its ads. That may change. They may start using two snippets.
When you have one snippet after another plus some ads, then the first “result” may be on page two.
Content marketers are starting to give advice on how to increase your chances of being included in one of the snippets, but what I see changing is the way that Google search works altogether.
I don’t know what that will look like, but it seems to me that marketers are going to have to find another way to get people to their sites apart from Google.
One way – and this has been around for awhile – is to focus on a different platform.
You could use LinkedIn, or Quora, or Twitter, or Reddit, or a host of others – bypassing Google altogether.
The thing you have to remember is that each platform is different. That means that what works on Google may not and probably won’t work on any other platform. But unless the others start crowding out the results with snippets or ads, then you may have a better chance of being seen on them.
Another thing worth remembering is that to some extent, your friends or followers on those other platforms are warmer leads than those who find you in a search.
Thoughts anyone?
Bruce Hoag PhD
The Internet Marketing Psychologist
The Mindful Writer - for deep and persuasive copy1 user thanked author for this post.
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