ScottHallett.com

So, in other posts I talked about not compromising creativity and quality when writing your articles or blog posts.  But SEO does have to factor in a bit.

Suppose you are writing about the best tasting corn dog ever.

You could title your article “A Chance Encounter at the Texas State Fair”.  This might be a great article or post that your reader will totally enjoy - but what kind of results will that get you in terms of search results.

Even if it’s the best article, if no one can find it, will it matter?

The bottom line, as far as SEO is concerned, is that the keywords that people use in their search requests matter and Google will do its part to deliver what it thinks are the best results of that search.

If you want to write about the best tasting corn dog, you might do well to title your article or post “The Best Tasting Corndog Ever”

If you want your article or post to generate targeted traffic in regards to this search phrase, then this only makes sense.

You have to get into the minds of the people you are trying to reach by finding out what they are trying to find – and *EXACTLY* how they go about doing it.

It is imperative that you get a good keyword research tool (I can recommend one later) and use that to cross reference what sites Google delivers.

Make this an ongoing part of your overall SEO strategy.

Google is constantly changing the way it does things and just having a keyword dense article is not the best approach anymore.  And I personally believe that for long term positive branding of you, your product or service – you shouldn’t compromise quality just to get search results.

But you have to use your head and approach it in a kind of hybrid approach.

Often times just identifying the problem or solution the end user has or is trying to resolve is probably the best way to craft your article.

The last thing I want you to think about is watching the overall results that your post or article brings.  Tweaking things (especially titles) to see if your results change may do some good as well.  If a single title change brings in more visitors, then you know just how important this aspect of article writing can be.

As an experiment, write an article based solely on who you want to bring in.  After obtaining initial results, change it up and see how your results may change.

This kind of information can completely change your entire marketing initiative for the better.

I hope this helps.

More to come…

No one can make you serve customers well.

That’s because great service is a choice.

Harvey Mackay, tells a wonderful story about a cab driver that proved this point.

He was waiting in line for a ride at the airport. When a cab pulled up, the first thing Harvey noticed was that the taxi was polished to a bright shine. Smartly dressed in a white shirt, black tie, and freshly pressed black slacks, the cab driver jumped out and rounded the car to open the back passenger door for Harvey .

He handed my friend a laminated card and said: ‘I’m Wally, your driver.. While I’m loading your bags in the trunk I’d like you to read my mission statement.’

Taken aback, Harvey read the card.

It said: Wally’s Mission Statement:
To get my customers to their destination in the quickest, safest and cheapest way possible in a friendly environment.

This blew Harvey away. Especially when he noticed that the inside of the cab matched the outside. Spotlessly clean!

As he slid behind the wheel, Wally said, ‘Would you like a cup of coffee? I have a thermos of regular and one of decaf.’

My friend said jokingly, ‘No, I’d prefer a soft drink.’

Wally smiled and said, ‘No problem. I have a cooler up front with regular and Diet Coke, water and orange juice.’

Almost stuttering, Harvey said, ‘I’ll take a Diet Coke.’

Handing him his drink, Wally said, ‘If you’d like something to read, I have The Wall Street Journal, Time, Sports Illustrated and USA Today.’

As they were pulling away, Wally handed my friend another laminated card,  ‘These are the stations I get and the music they play, if you’d like to listen to the radio.’

And as if that weren’t enough, Wally told Harvey that he had the air conditioning on and asked if the temperature was comfortable for him.

Then he advised Harvey of the best route to his destination for that time of day. He also let him know that he’d be happy to chat and tell him about some of the sights or, if Harvey preferred, to leave him with his own thoughts.

‘Tell me, Wally,’ my amazed friend asked the driver, ‘have you always served customers like this?’

Wally smiled into the rear view mirror. ‘No, not always. In fact, it’s only been in the last two years. My first five years driving, I spent most of my time complaining like all the rest of the cabbies do. Then I heard on the radio one day that if you get up in the morning expecting to have a bad day, you’ll rarely disappoint yourself. He said, ‘Stop complaining!  Differentiate yourself from your competition. Don’t be a duck. Be an eagle. Ducks quack and complain. Eagles soar above the crowd.”

That hit me right between the eyes,’ said Wally. ‘That was really talking about me. I was always quacking and complaining, so I decided to change my attitude and become an eagle. I looked around at the other cabs and their drivers.. The cabs were dirty, the drivers were unfriendly, and the customers were unhappy. So I decided to make some changes. I put in a few at a time. When my customers responded well, I did more.’

‘I take it that has paid off for you,’ Harvey said.

‘It sure has,’ Wally replied. ‘My first year as an eagle, I doubled my income from the previous year. This year I’ll probably quadruple it.

You were lucky to get me today. I don’t sit at cabstands anymore. My customers call me for appointments on my cell phone or leave a message on my answering machine. If I can’t pick them up myself, I get a reliable cabbie friend to do it and I take a piece of the action.’

Wally was phenomenal. He was running a limo service out of a Yellow Cab.  I’ve probably told that story to more than fifty cab drivers over the years, and only two took the idea and ran with it. Whenever I go to their cities, I give them a call. The rest of the drivers quacked like ducks and told me all the reasons they couldn’t do any of what I was suggesting.

Wally the Cab Driver made a different choice. He decided to stop quacking like ducks and start soaring like eagles..

How about us?

So, we all know that you can create some serious traffic from the online video sites such as YouTube, Google Video, Vimeo and Revver.

(If you didnt, now you do)

Unfortunately many people think in terms of quantity not quality.

I think that if people think they can somehow maximize search returns by attempting to cover a multitude of tags and topics - they will get better returns and visits to their site.

I think that doing this, instead of putting out quality content, can ultimately hurt your brand.

Think about this:  Would you rather have one single video with superior qaulity, or a bunch of tastless uncreative videos that cover a multitude of slighly varied topics and tags?

In terms of Virality and positive association with your brand - what would provide better returns in the long run.

I would rather have just one video - and make it professional grade.  Make it something worth sharing, worth bookmarking, worth telling their friends about, worth following the associated link back to your site in order to find out more.

I think this is the better path to long term success and positive branding.

By no means do I suggest making one video.  Rather, make one video at a time and make each one your very best.

Just something to think about.

Become a YouTube Rock Star, not a public access nobody!

Leverage.

It’s a word I learned from Robert G. Allen

Basically, it means your ability to move a lot – or make a lot happen with little effort.

It’s crucial to understand how leverage works in business, and just how important it is.

Example:

If you have a mailing list of 5 people, then you have no leverage.
If you have a mailing list of 25,000 people, then you have leverage.
If you have a mailing list of 125,000 people, then you have MASSIVE leverage.

Here’s another example:

If you have a website that generates 5 hits a months, you have no leverage.
If you have a website that generates 25,000 hits a months, then you have leverage.
If you have a website that generates 125,000 hits a months, then you have MASSIVE leverage.

If those 125,000 people are targeted to what you sell and are ready to pay $$$, well - you know…

You see where I am going with this?

Now, obviously money is the best form of leverage, but I didn’t want to come out with that one first.

If you have $100,000 in cold hard cash lying around, you have some serious leverage.  And its universal leverage – you can do just about anything with it.  You can invest it immediately and see immediate returns from it.  This is why they say the rich get richer.  And it is why the rich who get richer do so at an exponential level.

But these are not the only types of leverage.  You may not have a list of people you can take advantage of.

Instead you may have a Rolodex full of rain-makers who love you and are willing to help you out.

Or you may just have one person who has a lot of leverage that can help you out.  If you have the ability to work with someone else who has leverage – then you ultimately have the same leverage.  Here is an example.  Suppose you have an uncle that has a storefront that gets about 3000 people a day.  If he allows you to promote your product or service in that storefront for free – or for a significantly smaller commission than he would normally charge, then you are set!

Are you starting to see how all of this works?

Two things for you to think about:

1. Think of all the types of leverage that there is out there in the business world, and how they can be applied.
2. Think of ways that you can start to harness leverage so that when you need to apply it – you will have it.

One great business idea and the leverage to get the traction it needs to move - then that may be all you need to make it.

If you start now, maybe in a year or two it will be the difference between success and failure in your entrepreneurial endeavor.

Always be thinking about these two things.

The best forms of leverage may take a long time to build – so even if you don’t have a product or service, start building your leverage now.

This is why entrepreneurs network.

This is why people do joint ventures.

Start building your leverage now!

And remember – even if you don’t have a product, you always need to be building the brand of “You”!

Ciao,
- Scott

Not too long ago a little movie came out, you may have heard of it.

It was called “The Secret”

It kind of took the world by storm and became a little phenomenon in its own right…

This was a basic introduction to a small subset of one of the general laws of metaphysics called the “Law of Attraction”.

Its basic premise is that you attract (or manifest) into your experience that which you focus (think or visualize) on.

The Secret brought to the general population a sort of “Metaphysics 101” on just one of its most fundamental (but major) laws.

Does it work?

Yes and No.

In the simplest way I can describe, it works in that our internal state of affairs (karma) will be manifested outward for a greater purpose than to just grant the wishes of our egos.

It doesn’t work in the very simple way it has been communicated to the masses – which is just by thinking about a thing will bring that thing into ones experience.

At least this is not how it works for me.

The Law of Attraction (LOA) is *not* a new concept to many people.

I would describe myself as having been a believer in, and practicing student (I say that loosely) of, some of the more practical aspects of metaphysics since about the mid to late 80’s – when I was in my mid-teens.

I was brought into this mysterious world when I was at the library looking for books on psychology.

(Note: I was looking for books on psychology because I believed, even at that time, that understanding/mastery of the mind to be one of the most important skills one can have.  So, in a way, even before coming to learn about this field called “metaphysics” I was unknowingly looking for it)

If you know the Dewey Decimal System, you know that books on psychology are placed right next to books on “Parapsychology” which was the term given to this field of pseudo science.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parapsychology

As I wandered into this section, I was floored at the books and topics available to me.

For some reason, I felt that I had uncovered some hidden treasure trove of the all the collected secret wisdom of the ages.  I devoured everything I could get my hands on.

As this was prior to the Internet, my only access to this information was the library.  But I soon ended up on all kinds of esoteric mailing lists and started receiving catalogs of the most bizarre books and manuals.

As I mentioned, this was in the mid to late 80’s – and due to the weirdness of it all, I didn’t share my new found interest with anyone.  It became a hidden pursuit that I have had till this day.

I felt like some sort of “in the closet” sorcerers apprentice.

I had covered at least learning about all the great mystery traditions:
(Alchemy, Theosophy, Rosicrucianism, Hermeticism, Kabbalah, etc…)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_mystery_tradition

I started to learn about the eastern religions and philosophies:
(Bhuddism, Zen, Hinduism)

I gathered every bit of channeled material and NDE (Near Death Experiences) I could get my hands on.

I started to see the light of eternal Enlightenment as the common thread between all that I read…

For me it was all very highly seductive

I had (and still have) a burning desire to see how all of this could fit together into a cohesive model that I could apply to my own life.  And as a Christian, I also needed to see how this fit together with the mystical aspects of my own faith.  It is something that I still very passionate about to this day.

Well, I won’t go into it all – but you can get serious information overload.  And since, by the very nature of it, dealing with things outside of the realm of verifiable science – and with things that can corrupt your mind or even your very soul – it can get dark and scary pretty fast.

I backed off of anything that wasn’t directly related to how the mind/thinking related to our outward experience.  And since I was a Christian, I had to be careful of what I chose to read, do and believe in.

So, back to the thread topic.  Does the LOA work.  Yes.  But it can take lifetimes to understand and apply effectively in ones life.  I am still learning and am only beginning to see how my thoughts affect my life and how the seeds I planted yesterday take root today, and can see the vision of what they will be tomorrow.

As I mentioned, not in the way The Secret has shared it with the world, but rather by knowing that my thoughts have had a direct impact on my outer world and in how I experience it – a Definite Yes!

There is no question to this.

In the past years, I am re-focusing on what I believe to be the most important thing: how our mind and consciousness are our real realities and how by working with that which animates them can improve ones experience.

I have learned wonderful things in how all of this works.  And if you are serious about it, its time to learn not what The Secret teaches, but some of the fundamental truths of how, not just our thinking, but EVERYTHING that is in our sub-conscious makeup makes up our outward experience.

I want to share what I have found with anyone who wants to listen.  I will do so via this blog in future posts to come.

But that’s it for now – be sure to subscribe to the blog via the RSS feed icon on the top.

As soon as I can get my thoughts straight I will start to lay it out…

Until then, take care…

What does Expanded Consciousness mean?

For most people the spectrum of conscious awareness is very small.

Think about this – a child (or an adult) that sits in front of a TV and becomes mesmerized has a very limited span of awareness.  By focusing his/her attention on a single point (the TV), he/she is excluding the awareness of other things (from one’s immediate physical surroundings and other mental activity).

This is why we as humans love to be entertained.  It allows us to drown out everything else that may force us to become aware of the things we would rather not have to deal with.

Smaller consciousness = easily amused, but lives life without much control (responding to subconscious programming)

To expand ones conscious means to be able to be simultaneously aware of more.  Not just more of what is around us, but (more importantly) more of what is happening at the mental level.

It also means to broaden the gap between the normal awakened mind and the closed off subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind is where our demons live.  It is where we store those programs and conditions that drive us.

Think of it this way.  The relationship of our conscious mind (everyday awareness or top level thoughts and experiences) and our subconscious mind (memories, beliefs, the things we suppress and repress) has been likened to an iceberg.  An iceberg only has 10% exposed above the water (what we can see and deal with), and 90% lies beneath the water (what we can’t directly see or deal with).

To further help illustrate:  A person who has had any negative or traumatic experiences such as being bitten by a dog or being made fun of as a child has developed negative associations to protect them from the same type of future harm.  As an adult, this person lives controlled by these conditions.  Whenever a person sees a dog, they become fearful and feel the need to leave the situation.  They may not know consciously why.  They just do.  This is living by reactive conditioning that they have no control over.

This is why one would want to expand their consciousness.

The more conscious awareness you have, the more prone you will be to living a life under conscious control.

You can easily eliminate the haunting past conditioning that quietly eats you up inside or drives you to do the things you really don’t want to do such as uncontrollably acting out your addictions and compulsions.

You can do this because as these conditions become exposed you can easily eliminate them by dealing with them face to face (in the Light of Consciousness as the mystics say).

The smaller your consciousness is, the more likely you will miss out on all this life has to offer.

Liken this to having an annoying itch that you can’t seem to scratch while walking through the most beautiful garden in the world – you will not be able to appreciate all that the garden has to offer because this tiny little nagging itch monopolizes all of your (narrow) attention.

To have an expanded consciousness means you are more “conscious” of what was once sub conscious, as well as what is all around you.

To have an expanded consciousness means you are more likely to be pro-active and less likely to be re-active.  Those who are re-active are operating based on past conditioning.

Expanded consciousness = not re-acting to programming, more at peace, more aware of surroundings and internal conditions (and exercising control over them).

And most importantly, metaphysically speaking, any deep seated beliefs can prevent you from all the “having, being and doing” that you want in life.  In order to maximize and quicken the LOA (law of attraction) it is imperative to clean out all that is blocking you from what you are trying to attract into your life.

Let’s take the iceberg analogy and change it up.  Visualize now an iceberg that is 50% above water and 50% below water.  You can see how the once repressed memory of a dog bite has controlled you and you can now over rule that condition with better logic.

With this new image – do you see why you would want to expand your consciousness?

So how do you expand your consciousness?

The simple answer is meditation and practicing the art of mindfulness.  Both of these, if practiced everyday, will have a profound and positive impact on your life.

But understand it can take a long time get the hang of it.  The more you practice and commit yourself to it, the faster you will see results.

Also be prepared for some house cleaning.   Just like cleaning out your closet or weed filled garden can be messy at first – so is cleaning out your subconscious mind.

This post completely over-simplifies a topic of immense complexity and one of the most daring endeavors a human being can undertake.  But we have to start somewhere and I wanted to introduce the basic concepts to those who may be unfamiliar with the role it can play in their life.

It takes complete dedication on your part and may even require the help of those above you (spiritually speaking).

But know this – nothing could be more worth the effort!

Stay tuned for more posts about meditation and other techniques such a releasing and hypnosis – and most importantly prayer to start the process.

- Ciao

One of the biggest things you see people doing in the home business arena is trying to get in the face of the people they are trying ot pawn their wares off to…

A better approach for all involved:

Put yourself out there in a way that “those who are looking for what you have to offer” will find you.

Zero strain on all

More to come…

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!