When Nonsense can Substitute for Fact with Impunity

For most people who know me, they understand that I usually speak my mind. I say what I think, even if it’s not always the politically correct thing to do, but I can’t stand nonsense or bullshit. The Internet is full of nonsense and 80% of the world is made up of morons. This might sound a bit cynical, but hang in there with me; I will get to my point, eventually. That doesn’t leave much room for the other 20%.  If you think you can enter your email address on a website and get a free iPad or some guy in Africa needs you to help him get $82,000,000,000 out of the country because he can’t do it himself, this article is not for you. For the other 20%, please feel free to read on.

Clarence Darrow once said, “The world is made up for the most part of morons and natural tyrants, sure of themselves, strong in their own opinions, never doubting anything.”

Here is the definition of moron from the free dictionary:

Does this sound like anyone you might know? I am betting that it does.

So how come there are so many morons on the planet? At this point I am open to any comments, thoughts or suggestions from the other 20% that can help shed some light.

The second question I have is why do these morons, who hide in the shadows of the Internet, have impunity? There are way too many get rich quick schemes or secret instructions on how to secretly make your billions on the web, make your website #1 in Google or some other nonsensical idea that people buy into it. These people, the 80% I referred to earlier in my article can’t be that stupid, can they? I guess they can, because if they couldn’t, there wouldn’t be any get rich quick scams or wives of ex-generals from Nigeria wanting you, who they do not know, to help them get the container filled with gold out of the country. Oh yea, I forgot to mention you need to help them pay off the security guard at the warehouse, where the gold is stored, and they need some money to get this done first.

I started out wanting to write an article about SEO and SEO companies, so I am not totally sure how I ended up here. Oh, wait a minute, yes I do. I was reading about new SEO tactics on the Internet. This is something I work on every day and read a lot about. There seem to be a whole lot of SEO Experts and gurus who do not have a clue what SEO is about or where to start, but they sure do give a lot of advice. These are the same companies who want to charge you thousands of dollars each month to be your SEO Company. SEO is such an unknown variable, that there is only best guesses on what will get you ranking well with Google. There are no shortcuts, only best practices. So if you consider buying links from other websites or placing hidden text on your website to boost your keywords or some other stupid idea, don’t do it.

Instead of talking about the things to do to get you a #1 ranking on Google, let’s talk about the things not to do in your SEO strategy that will really screw you up or might even get you banned from Google and delisted entirely.

Moronic Mistake #1

Considering search engines, like Google, amount for only 40% of all your website traffic, why spend so much time only on how you rank. Don’t get me wrong, you need to concern yourself with search engines and not ignore them, but do not make them your “be all – end all” for SEO. If my math is correct, that means that 60% of your website traffic is generated from other sources like referrals, social media, email marketing, offline marketing, networking and a few other resources. You have to think of SEO as one big jigsaw puzzle and search engines are only a piece. I will grant you that search engines, especially Google are a big piece of the puzzle but don’t rely on them solely to drive traffic to your website or you will be setting yourself up for failure.

You need to have a fully vetted plan that incorporates every aspect of marketing and involves all mediums that drive traffic for you to your website. Relying only on search engine traffic can be disastrous if an algorithm change is made or one of your biggest competitors makes an aggressive move and knocks you off the front page. Now what? Now you are screwed and you have no backup plan and you’re stuck like a Thanksgiving Day Pig, roasting over an open flame pit with a big red apple in its mouth.

Putting together a successful marketing strategy includes some basic methods starting with:

• A clean and valid email list
• A solid email marketing plan
• A well-managed PPC campaign (Adwords)
• A great blog that is informative and provides value
• A social media presence that is managed

Diversify your traffic sources in such a way it will make you invincible to any technological changes that occur online.

Moronic Mistake #2

Don’t spend every waking hour staring at reports from webmaster tools or some other reporting tool you utilize to monitor the traffic and flow to your website. Don’t get me wrong, stats are great to have and an invaluable tool for understanding the flow of traffic to and from your website and what people do when they are on your website. You need to be able to see stats for what they truly are. Stats are only numbers. A mathematical formula that gives you a small snapshot or window into what is happening on your website at any given point in time or over a specified period of time. They tell a story, just not the whole story. You cannot micromanage or get obsessed by your statistics, because you will find these guide you to making poor decisions based only on your numbers.

Here is an article from our blog that is worth looking at, The Unintentional Traffic Storm from a Kim Kardashian Blog Article. It will help you understand why looking at just web stats and numbers cannot work on its own.

Here is what happens when you base your decisions solely on stats:

• You stop writing articles for people and start writing articles for search engines.
• You begin to over-share your articles and content on social media to see what the extra traffic will bring.
• You make irrational tweaks and changes to your SEO strategy to increase the visitor volume and totally lose sight of the quality of your visitors.

Moronic Mistake #3

Thinking more content equals more visitors.

Here is the big misconception:

• More Content = More pages show up in search
• More pages show up = More traffic to your website
• More Traffic = More inquiries
• More inquiries = More orders
• More orders = More money

EEEEEEHHHHHRRRRRRRR… That’s me pulling the emergency brake doing 120MPH on I-95 at 2am after a 12 pack of Old Milwaukee. It all sounds great in theory….. But it doesn’t work.

Posting a blog article on your website is not about rewriting the same crappy slop you call an article and have been reposting for the last 6 months but just rewording it to hide the fact that it is the same worthless piece of crap it was originally.

The assumptions above assume you’re not writing extraordinary content on a daily basis, which most people are incapable of. No matter how well you convey your message in an article, this would mean that you are thinking up new, relevant articles to write, which will include extraordinary content that people will have an interest in reading on a daily basis and then taking the time to write, edit and post them on your website. I would venture to guess you might be able to pull this off for a couple of weeks before you crack open that bottle of Jack Daniels and start writing crappy, uninteresting and mediocre articles all over again.

The bottom line:  Write extraordinary articles. Publish articles that make a difference, are thought provoking and that matter. You need to be different, controversial and provide a reason for people to read what you write. Educate people on the important things you care about. Give them value for free and don’t expect anything in return. I guarantee if you write from your heart and put the effort in to share what moves you; people will find and follow you as well as search engines.

Moronic Mistake #4

Thinking you’re smarter than everyone else is a huge miscalculation on your part. Let’s look at Google for one moment. Do you really think that the new, brilliant idea you just pulled out of your ass, to get to the first page on Google, wasn’t thought about by the programmers at Google a few years ago? Don’t be fooled by the SEO Guru who tells you he found a backdoor and can get you in the first position on Google, for any keyword you want, in a few weeks for a colossal amount of cash. This is nothing more than bullshit.

A large percentage of SEO companies sell snake oil. They sell you a dream. A dream that takes time. A dream that cost money, every month. They slowly walk you through your dream of great wealth and allowing you to be #1. Remember in the beginning of this article I spoke about the free iPad in exchange for your email address. You can now go ahead and put this in the same category. Now I am not saying that every single SEO company is on a mission to scam you, because that would be like me saying all email marketing companies are spammers, and I would never do that. It’s all about doing your homework. If you don’t have the time or interest in working on your own websites SEO, there are plenty of good companies who can help you get to wherever it is you want to go. Just choose wisely.

Don’t try and shortcut the system. Shortcuts will only cause you pain down the road and any minor gains you might make for a few weeks will come back to kick you in the ass at some point in time in the future.

SEO leaves you no other rational choice but to approach it from an ethical perspective. Work for the long term. Build an excellent resource that people can trust and count on. Great quality content that educates and helps others will come back to repay you down the road. Write content for people not for search engines.

Moronic Mistake #5

Think about next year, not tomorrow. You can’t think short term when it comes to website optimization and SEO. Most people look for immediate gratification. They want to see an instantaneous result for the specific work they just completed. We all like instant gratification, but you need to think for the long term.

Look at it this way; you want that banana split and double fudge chocolate cake for desert which will taste so unbelievably awesome right now. You decide to skip your morning run because you’re tired at that moment and want the extra 45 minutes of sleep. You put off writing your term paper because you want to go to a party and drink with your buddies because you deserve it right now.

Are you getting the picture?

That is instant gratification. Instant gratification is not a good thing for the long term. If you pass on the desert and always make time for your morning run and complete your term paper on time, you are planning for your future. I can guarantee you a year down the road you will be a much happier, healthier and wealthier person, if you think long term. Stay on the path for tomorrow and forget about today. Put your time and effort into developing great content for your website. Write your blog articles for people, not search engines.

Moronic Conclusion

Make it your mission to become an irreplaceable resource for your website visitors. Be a valuable asset they can rely on for quality information. Make your blog a two-way conversation. Encourage questioning the norm and debate. There are always three sides to every story and you should always be interested in hearing each and every side.

This article is just a small piece of a much larger puzzle. Putting the puzzle together takes time. Fitting all of the pieces is not an easy task. It takes patience and ingenuity to find new things to write about and digging deep to make it your mission to help your readers understand what you are trying to convey.  You should fully immerse yourself and get involved in building a truly inestimable asset. Provide an invaluable resource that your readers cannot live without and you will be on your way to tomorrow.

Don’t be part of the 80%. Think intelligently about your plan and work towards building something special and useful. Make a difference.