ScottHallett.com

It’s a losing game.

Well kind of…  Actually SEO is very important, but for this post what I am talking about is compromising the integrity of your content just for Google.

The Internet landscape is a polluted wasteland of millions of people writing content, not for people, but for Google’s search algorithms.

Google constantly changes its algorithms, and trying to keep up with them seems to be a losing battle.  I think the only people who really know what’s going on are the people behind closed doors at Google Labs.

If you are in it for real results over the long haul, here is the simple alternative:

Don’t write for Google’s search algorithms.  Write for people.

Write for the target demographic for which you are trying to reach – in a way those people want to be communicated with.  And deliver content of such quality that your product or service will be rewarded with a loyal following – naturally.

By the way, this is how true viral marketing happens…  Getting others to rave about you, your service or product on *their* terms based solely on their positive experience with you (not for something that was in it for them).

Google has some of the brightest minds working for them and they know best how to deliver quality content to *their* target audience – users of their search engine.

I would say this is Google’s number one objective, and they have the market cornered and are getting better everyday.

Focus on the relationship between you and your customer, and let Google do what it does best.

Those who try to take advantage of the Google machine this way will come and go, but the ones who stay are the ones who build up a brand by providing quality information geared towards the audience they choose to serve.

If you write for your demographic alone, I can’t help but to think you will always be on Google’s good side.

Now, I know the title to this post is called “Forget about SEO”, and I didn’t mean that completely.  As a marketer, you still need to focus on streamlining your content to the subject matter at hand and SEO will always factor into that.

The point is DO NOT write exclusively for Google at the cost of personal service to those you are trying to reach.  Long term success is not just about search results.

Good Luck!

What is the first thing you need to learn?

It is the difference between income that is earned the old fashion way, and income obtained the passive way.

When I was younger, I was told (and believed) the best thing I could do was to learn a skill – like fixing a computer or preparing a tax statement – the kind of skill that can get you a job, a job where you can apply that skill to earn a wage.

I did that and it has taken care of me.  So all in all it was sound advice.  But there is a better way to make money that I have learned from the direct experience of being in the rat race.

The problem is that in order to receive money, even if it is $100 and hour, you will have to trade a unit of work for it – and you will eventually run out of hours in the day that you can trade.  Additionally any wage worth working for may take a significant part of a lifetime to obtain the education, skills and experience to make.

And even then, in order to make more money, you need to either increase your wage or work more hours.

Ultimately you will work yourself out of free time and end up trading all that you really have to give.

And what is it you are really giving up?  It is time – which is a non-renewable resource.  We only have a set number of hours on this planet, and for most people it is spent either working or sleeping.

As you get older, it becomes very apparent why one would want to break out of this cycle.

Savvy entrepreneurs know that the way out is not by working for a wage, but rather creating an investment vehicle that works for them while they are lounging on the beach in Hawaii.

Of course, it is easier said than done and can take a long time to be successful (if you are successful at all).

But don’t let this deter you, at any point in your life.

If you could go back to school and learn to invest wisely or create some investment vehicle -or- learn a trade, like plumbing or fixing a computer that required you to use that skill set to earn money, what would you rather do?

Well that good thing is that you don’t have to go back to school – you can start now and you can even capitalize on whatever skills you have learned along the way to create some type of intellectual property to earn you passive income.

From this point forward think about the different ways that passive income is obtained, and what skills are required that will allow you to create and/or invest in those vehicles that will provide regular returns on one-time investment.

What’s your magic number?  What would you need to earn in order quit your job?

Well, the first step is to decide that it is possible for you (or anyone, at any age or any skill set) to take the first step and learn what is possible.  And if it helps, start small.

Who knows, maybe 3- 6 months from now, you might just have little operation bringing in an exta $500 a month – would it be worth the initial investment in “YOU” in regards to learning?

Only you can answer that, but it is the start.

More on this to come…

So, to sum up this very first rule of entrepreneurship:

• Earned income:  Wage based or salaried work.
• Passive income:  Income received on a continual basis without having to work directly for it.

Quick note:  There is actually a difference between residual and passive income, but for the sake of this post, what I am referring to is income received on a (semi-)regular basis without being directly involved in each transaction.

Here is an easy way to get high quality backlinks to your site:

As you know, in the world of Internet Marketing, quality backlinks are extremely important.

One way to get a lot of them is to create a blog theme and share it with the world.

Go to any blog, look at the footer area of any page and you will see something to the effect of:

“Theme by Acme Corp”

This will be a non “no-follow” reference back to the site of the developer.

So create a theme, spend time on it and make it nice and make it worth having!  Find out what makes a quality theme (.css and html compliance, sturdy .css layouts, quality graphics, modularity and the ability to change from an integrated control panel).

All this is easier than you think if you apply some entrepreneurial tactics (which I will go over in another post).

My advice on this: don’t try to mass produce a bunch low quality, crappy and similar themes in a futile hope to put more out there in order to get more back…

It would be better to create one high quality rock star theme that a lot of people would *want* to have and go out of their way to download and install.

Share that theme at WordPress, and if it’s good quality, then others will want to use it.

To constantly improve on it, in the readme.txt of the theme, ask for feedback and bug-reports and let them know you would be happy to add enhancements, fix bugs and make improvements.

This goes back to quality over quantity in order to stand out in a crowd…

You will be successful with this tactic if your goal is to make a quality template that is worth having and having a genuine desire to share your creation with others regardless of whether or not any backlinks will be generated.  This is an example of selfless giving and, if done with the proper intentions, all involved will be rewarded.

Good luck.

This is something that I will do with this site, and write about the process as well as any backlinks I get from it.

Be on the lookout!

Cheers!

What is our purpose?

I think this is one of the greatest questions that one can ask in life.  And not just to ask it, but to actually seek out the answer to it.

We come to this place deaf, dumb and blind as to what our purpose is.  We have no universally acceptable answer in this regard.  Yet it is a question that has been asked since the dawn of time, continues to be asked to this day and will probably continue to be asked long after we have moved on.

The fact that we don’t know, and have not yet found out, tells us something very important about it.

We can say one thing for sure: “We are not exactly sure what our purpose is.”  Many have and will continue to argue about this and as you can imagine, the answers are as diferent as the people who have pondered this topic.

The reason for this is that the answers could never be universally justified by each and every intellect out there.  Intellects will always be individual.  Absolute truth could never reside in such a place as an individual mind – which is subject to ones personal conditioning.

The reason for a lack of a universally acceptable answer is because the answer to this question comes from a place beyond our intellects – a place that most never bother to go, a place that most don’t even believe exists.

Due to the fact that we don’t know and that we want to know, I personally believe that part of our purpose is to determine what our purpose is.

And I believe that the only way to find this answer is to go beyond the limitations of what our minds and intellects can do – and go to the place where truth is constant and shared between all beings.

I believe that we are called to take on the grand adventure to rise above those parts of ourselves that have limitations to the place where we are at one with the all of creation.

I believe it is here where we find out who we are and why we are here.

The catch is that the truth of this will never come in a way that works in a way the intellect is used to.  I do not believe the answer will come in the form of knowledge that can be assimilated by the mind.  Rather, I believe it to be a state of being where you are at one with the absolute truth of the universe.

This is why those who operate entirely from a point of intellect will never understand, nor come to the universal truth of, things that are beyond it.

This is what every great Saint and Sage has pointed to.

These are the brave individuals who have taken the inner journey and found that the greatest liberation and the greatest joy comes from within - and only from within.

No one can take you there, no one else can be responsible for your liberation; they can only point the way, they can only help you to find it within yourself.

No one can claim ownership of the truth or the path to it.  Only you are the gateway to it.

It is up to each individual to take the step.

It’s easy, and we will learn how to take that step right here and now…