By: Ted Cantu
Submitted: 2008-09-30 11:15:09 | Word Count: 1035
I left SEO ladies and gentlemen. I have no further use for it. In fact, I have completely lost respect for everything that it stood for, (that is, if it ever stood for anything!). The reason why I am so against it is because everybody and their next door neighbor is professing TOP GOOGLE RANKINGS!
SEO, (Search Engine Optimization) has been reduced to a red hot, under the radar, right as rain business to an absolute travesty. It has been brought down many pegs into a mundane way to make a quick buck. Being an SEO now registers somewhere between toilet technician, (also known as plumber) and mortgage expert, (see, real estate genius for hire).
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This used to be a great profession but now I find myself lost with the whole thing. A lot of this has to do with the fact that there are so many people in this game and doing things poorly. I also may add that the wide amount of people I see in this game are doing a lot of the same expected things. The SEO’s I have a serious question of doubt with lies with the ones who do three jobs at once.
I’m sure you have seen them. I run into a whole gaggle of these types in business breakfast meetings. They are the ones who prepare taxes, run real estate and then do search engine optimization on the side. The initial obsession with getting to the top of the search engines has spun wildly out of control. Now everyone is on this bizarre tech bandwagon looking for a few handouts and some kudos.
Its like the Wild West again these days and the small retail and medium sized businesses has been turned into the Badlands. Its real, “Shoot Em’ Up “ out there. It’s difficult to see who is taking this whole gambit seriously if at all.
SEO, on the whole, has really lost its scope.
CHANGING GEARS AND MOVING FORWARD
I’m not complaining though. When you get right down to it we live in some pretty exciting times. Now you can get your company listed in 32 minutes on the search engines if you got a keen mind and some imagination. That has got to be uplifting for somebody!
I got into a bit of flack with my own inner circle of professionals and friends lately and maybe for good reason. You see, I sort of dumped all of my coaching groups that I participated in and left them for a higher sense of reality. I stopped listening to a lot of the rhetoric that I was listening to from the “experts”. You know the ones I mean. These are the guys who have built their fortune through incorporating a ton of affiliates throughout the country to sell their own, “internet marketing secrets”.
Leaving this herd was the best decision I could have made. It allowed me to get my head up above the ocean of crap that is out there and get to what’s real – my own sanity. I was searching for new environments and for new challenges and to create some new history. When food critic Anthony Bourdain did this he was hailed a ground breaking hero. In my own circle I found that my trusted associates stopped associating with me and not returning my calls or email messages.
Snobs.
Who needs them, I said. Let them wallow in the thick of the night while they fret over their high pay per click bills and lose countless hours of precious sleep. I was on the right path because I was forging something out of nothing and cultivating my own new brand of customer.
That doesn’t make me a bad person does it?
THE POWER OF PRE SELLING THROUGH WEB 2.0 ENVIRONMENTS
The first thing I realized was that reaching people through web video was not only a major critical decision for me – it was mandatory. You see I hated talking on the phone to lukewarm prospects and cold fish. This eliminated some very troublesome problems in my marketing. It allowed me to say whatever I wanted to say without interruption and it freed up my time.
I did not have to worry about skipping out any important parts. I was able to say everything I wanted to. I could record my marketing messages and know that they would reach my intended audience. This was a great relief to me.
Using Web 2.0 technology helped my campaigns stay on track with my audience. I did not have to worry about added expense such as direct mail, word of mouth and the dreaded webinar services. You could lose your shirt in webinar costs. I know I did. I wanted something more powerful that I could control without having to fork out tremendous amounts of service fees.
Getting a solid grip on search engine behavior was always a top goal of mine. But I wanted the ease of automation to help carry my company to a new – low stress – high pre selling environment. And that has helped carry my company to a new playing field.
Harnessing the power of Web 2.O is a very powerful way to make an impact with your audience. I stopped counting bots and pay per clicks and hoping that my web pages were being seen by the right people. I made it a priority to connect to the right group of people by making some deliberate choices. I made it a necessity to put myself in front of online niche markets.
Try a couple of new combinations and let this go to work for you too. This can make a whole new world of difference for you. You have to let yourself experiment with the boundaries to see what is possible. You may be surprised and find yourself tapping into a whole new network of people. This can help propel your business to extraordinary levels.
Instead of listening to the local crackpot SEO – take your marketing seriously and forge ahead. You don’t have to be a certified search engine optimization expert, (SEO) but you do have to have a little bit of an imagination and some guts.
Carry on!
Author Resource:-
Ted Cantu runs i-Cantu Media LTD which is a Web 2.0 Video studio located in Farmington Hills, Michigan. You can find him at, http://www.1seomichigan.com Download his FREE, “Marketing Kit For Troubling Times.
