Karmic Consulting ☻ » KARMA http://karmicconsulting.net Fresh. Karma. Daily. Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:46:01 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.2 en © admin admin An Enlightening Oasis For The Entreprenurial Spirit No No The Law of Unintentional Consequences and Other Odds and Ends http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/06/27/the-law-of-unintentional-consequences-and-other-odds-and-ends/ http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/06/27/the-law-of-unintentional-consequences-and-other-odds-and-ends/#comments Sat, 28 Jun 2008 05:25:58 +0000 ian http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/06/27/the-law-of-unintentional-consequences-and-other-odds-and-ends/ As promised last month, I haven't blogged much on here as of late.  This is actually my first post since May 29th and my traffic figures are starting to show it.  Less of you are stopping by any more….and quite frankly, I don't blame you.  astra.jpgInterestingly, I still get a fair amount of daily traffic on all kinds of combinations of "Craigslist Marketing Strategies", so I checked my analytics earlier this evening to see exactly which of those phrases were worth following up on in upcoming posts or thoughts.  This one sort of stuck out a little bit like a sore thumb.

"craigslist viagra jail"

While it's nice to rank for ANYTHING these days, I'm goign to have to be honest and tell you that I am trying to stay away from all three of those particular keywords these days, so I'm not so sure that turning up on the high side on the search engines there is meeting my short term goals in any profitable or appreciable way.  Although I have been thinking about jumping back on CL in the near future, I'm hoping my viagra days are still a few decades away, and the last time I spent any real time in the hooskow I was 21 and exercising my American right to buy kegs for my underage fraternity brothers at homecoming.  ( I didn't however, shave the neighbors cat as was part of the strange set of charges that followed a homecoming party that got quickly out of hand..:-)

On a side note (as if that wasn't side enough) people amaze me.  I love reading peoples thoughts, ideas, brainstorms, and stream onf conciousness thoughts from around the web.  Nothing is more exciting to me - on some strange visceral level - than getting a simple and slender shred into someone's mindet, and mental machinations as you sort of surf around their world of thoughts, ideas and oddly inspiring minutae.  I'm a fairly wierd dude, and a huge fan of the bizarre… the paranormal pandoras box of wild and  wierd stuff that runs the range from reincarnation research, to OBE's, Near Death Experience research, and all kinds of what I think are pretty fascinating forays into the creative cosmology of this wierd world and our place within it. 

I did some consulting work on a pretty well known project a few months ago, featuring some of the bigger and more well known names in the world of both the Paranormal - AND the Skeptics and Scientists who make a career out of debunking and refuting everything these folks find.  Anyway….I was searching some keywords earlier tonight around some of these various related anamolous phenomena to see how some of the promotion we had done on a few of these topics were "sticking" SEO wise a few months later, and came across this blog which I hadn't seen before - a little blogger blog penned by one Leo McDonald.  Leo has a ton of posts and I started reading a few, just to see what his thoughts were:

In a recent skeptiko podcast by Alex Tsakaris, Dr Rupert Sheldrake talks about the dogmatic skeptics such as Dr.Richard Wiseman. You can check it out here: http://www.skeptiko.com/index.php?id=56 Also I went to the gym yesterday here's what I did Flat bench press 185 pounds for 10 reps, 225 pounds for 5 reps, 4 reps Incline bench press 125 pounds for 10 reps, 145 pounds for 8 reps Flat dumbell press 55 pounds for 8 reps, 8 reps, 7 reps Tricep pushdowns 105 pounds for 10 reps, 115 pounds 10 reps, 10 reps, 8 reps, 7 reps

Paranormal and Life After Death: Dr.Rupert Sheldrake And The Skeptics And My Workout

 The part that really fascinates me about this post was the seamless segue between the paranormal podcast he points out in the first sentence…and THEN the stats on his benchpress figures immediately  thereafter.  I really don't think I've seen someone do that before - and am quite impressed…:-)

Not to be Undone….Leo Pulls off another interesting one here - going from mowing the yard, through a brief discourse on super nintendo and then RIGHT through magnetic fields and varieties of Relgious Experience, which again, is a blending of topics you WON'T see anywhere else but on Leo's blog.  I love it..;-)  If you've got an interest in the supernatural - or super Mario - you can check out Leo in all his magnificence at the link below.

The grass was really long it took a long time but I got it done. I also rack the rest of the grass up.

Recently I have been playing the old super nintendo system with two controllers and 5 games which are

-Super Mario Kart
-Super Mario World
-Mario Paint
-Super Mario All Stars includes super mario 1,2 and 3 also super mario lost levels.
-Pocky and Rocky

Pretty fun games I also like super mario the most.

Posted by Leo MacDonald at 1:36 PM 0 comments
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Wednesday, June 11, 2008

In 2005 there was doubt cast on magnetic fields spark religious feelings was published.

Doubt Cast on Theory that Magnetic Fields Spark Religious Feelings: Studies showing that magnetic stimulation of the brain induces spiritual experiences are being questioned by researchers who cannot reproduce key results. We have reported in the past that in a study by Michael Persinger 80% of participants who wore helmets that targeted their temporal lobes with weak magnetic fields, of roughly the same strength as those generated by a computer monitor, felt an unexplained presence in the room. Persinger suggested that magnetism causes bursts of electrical activity in the temporal lobes of the brain, and he linked this to the spiritual experiences.

 

 

]]> http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/06/27/the-law-of-unintentional-consequences-and-other-odds-and-ends/feed/ How to Write Headlines That Get the Click: http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/04/how-to-write-headlines-that-get-the-click-one-simple-tip-guaranteed-to-amp-up-your-respsonse/ http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/04/how-to-write-headlines-that-get-the-click-one-simple-tip-guaranteed-to-amp-up-your-respsonse/#comments Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:21:14 +0000 ian http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/04/how-to-write-headlines-that-get-the-click-one-simple-tip-guaranteed-to-amp-up-your-respsonse%e2%98%bc%e2%98%bc%e2%99%a0/ cnn black president.jpgThis article would probably have been better titled - "what CNN could learn from the National Enquirer".  I came across this story a few minutes ago and it literally JUMPED off the page…but, not for what it said, but what it didn't.

76% of the American Population is ready for a black President.  Ok.  Is that news? Suprising?  Titallating? If you are in the majority - it simply restates the obvious - and what you aleady know…because you are amongst friends on the actuarial chart of ethnocentric identification.  Who cares.

But what do we know about good news headlines? 

If it bleeds…it leads.  You can easily re-frame this headline in a way that would, I dare say to with the proper amount of feigned humility to Sir Ted Turner and the bunch - how about

almost 1 in 4 Americans NOT ready for an African American President

Or..if I was writing it.

24% of Your Neighbors Don't like Black People

Much better for my money.

This is, by a factor of many - a much more compelling story - and would have made a much more popular article, would have gotten FAR more clicks - and generated FAR more water cooler conversation.

And none of these people have obviously watched "24" as President David and Wayne Palmers both did a great job in seasons 1,2, and 5 and for my money, effectively put to bed the idea that race, color or creed plays ANY role in proper presidential protocols.  ( plus they both were in favor of  torture from a utilitarian perspective, which quite frankly, I like in a President - arguably Jack would have gotten NO information in season 3 had he not attached those electrial pliers to Amed's nipples)

We all know 4 people.  And one of those people is a racist.  Could it be you?

]]> http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/04/how-to-write-headlines-that-get-the-click-one-simple-tip-guaranteed-to-amp-up-your-respsonse/feed/ All the SEO You Need to Know in a Sentence ♪§♀ http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/02/all-the-seo-you-need-to-know-in-a-sentence/ http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/02/all-the-seo-you-need-to-know-in-a-sentence/#comments Thu, 03 Apr 2008 04:11:49 +0000 ian http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/02/all-the-seo-you-need-to-know-in-a-sentence/ I love onesentence.org.  There is no better place to find the elegant & artistic expression of eloquence in the scope of a sentence.  The ultimate copywriters hotseat.  No long winded, run on headline - no copycatted subhead.  No bullet points.  Simply a one short shot at grabbing you by the eyeballs - or not.  seo in a sentance.jpgI was going to write another thousand word post on article submissions and SEO - but in deference to the above, I changed my mind. You could read another 18 blogs this week on keyword density and black hole link building.  Or you could simply pass. All the SEO you need to know in a sentence.  Or less.

Re-purpose your content.

You can write an article. 

An article can be submitted to a directory.

An article can be modified a wee bit and submitted as a press release.

An article can be twisted, torqued and mass blasted to 1000 directories shortly thereafter.

An article can be tweaked a tad more & posted and pinged and stumbled on your blog.

An article can be cut in half, and be a two part start to a squidoo lens.

And article can be keyword optmized and be a landing page for your craigslist ad for easy contextual ad clicks.

An article can be part 1 of a seven part E-course.

An article can be page one of your FREE pdf download.

An article can be flipped over, turned twice and become a guest post on someone elses blog.

An article has many lives, and many masters.  And they don't need regression hypnotic therapy to discover who they were in a past life either.  If you are smart, you can turn one single, simple article into a veritable avalanche of incoming eyeballs and opportunity. 10?  A burgeoning business model.  100? you are hiring help.

How long will it take you to write that article?  

]]> http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/02/all-the-seo-you-need-to-know-in-a-sentence/feed/ The Lazy Man's Guide to Writing Effective Link Bait http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/01/the-lazy-mans-guide-to-writing-effective-link-bait-exploit-the-egocentric-urge/ http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/01/the-lazy-mans-guide-to-writing-effective-link-bait-exploit-the-egocentric-urge/#comments Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:38:35 +0000 ian http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/01/the-lazy-mans-guide-to-writing-effective-link-bait-exploit-the-egocentric-urge/ The Lazy Man's Guide to Writing Effective Link Bait:  Exploit the Egocentric Urge

(photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/95572727@N00/2366980580/)

 spider monkey.jpgI've made a few posts on here about writing good link bait, some a bit tongue in cheek, and others I think a pretty good overview of some effective ways to get your name up on the marquee a bit faster than waiting around for the guy with a crane for sale.  Quite simply, link bait, for those of you who haven't been hit by the Wiley coyote two ton rock of web 2.0 terminology, is essentially the process of premeditated, purposeful and strategic content creation that is designed, ostensibly, to drive boatloads of backsides and lots of incoming links, to your site, service or offer.  Iran's president Ahmadinejad is a great link baiter for example.  Unfortunately, he isn't a blogger, but if he was, he'd probably be making a killing on adsense or the Travelocity affiliate program on CJ.   Saying things like the holocaust never happened, publicly celebrating Iran's status as a nuclear superpower, and actively recruiting Jack Bauer from 24 to join the Iranian Qud Force are all great examples of great link baiting strategies when you are a world leader, even if you haven't yet opened your first blogger account.   

With this in mind, I've always been a big believer in using controversy, and confrontation in my own link baiting efforts.  And it does work.  Just like the Bush axis of evil speech set off the ticking timing bombs above, getting your head into peoples underpants tends to cause a bit of ripple effect and lots of sideline screaming…and squirming.  But you know what?  It's tiring.  And draining.  And after a while, it stops being fun. 

The good news is, there IS a better way. Especially if you are in the vast but silent majority of people trying to make a living online, but NOT in the proverbially pushed SEO space.   It's not as sexy, but it's less taxing on your time, and your spirit.  And it's EASY.  It doesn’t' require a lot of heavy thinking, duplicitous strategy, or pot stirring when the soup is already smooth and ready to serve. 

 Simply be NICE.  And endearingly complementary.  Flattery can indeed get you everywhere.  Find things you like and point them out.  Find the VERY biggest fish in your little sea….and saturate them with fish food:  a good old fashioned EGO stroke of infinite imagination and hyperbolic praise.  I don't care what market you are in…this WILL work, and work fast.  On this blog – I have very little extraordinary, laudatory sort of language for my peers.  But I can tell you this without any shred of doubt, EVERY person, site, product or service that I have mentioned in a blog post, every plugin that I have praised, every blog that I have cited as good, every one way link I have offered to others, as is illuminated from my very own and often obsessed upon analytics, has been followed by a visit, or two, or more – and about half of these have sent a thank you email for the mention.  And if you look back at some of these posts…NONE have been premeditated for this purpose. Simply offhanded commentary on things I like, and enjoy using in my own business.   

How would you do this in your own business?  Very simple.  Go make a list of the most influential writers or movers and shakers in your market – I don't care if its arts and crafts, a small tourista web site on a local resort (of which I have several and have used this strategy VERY successfully) or you are in the large and stormy sea of internet marketing megalomania. You can take a reasonably new blog, and by simply letting someone know how INFLUENTIAL they have been on your mindset, your thinking, or your ambitions, that person is going to be dancing and prancing to show off the praise on his (or her) own blog.  Let's look at an example.  Let's say you like MY blog and were to write something like this on yours: 

Ian never ceases to amaze me with his uncanny insights.  It's unusual for someone so devastatingly handsome to be so smart.  In many ways, I would say that reading Ian's blog has changed my life – I have a skip in my step, a gleam in my eye and find renewed faith in my fellow man every time I read his pithy, yet transformative prose.  If I am to be blessed with a first borne son, I will undoubtedly name him Ian. 

Or even something like this –

 If Ian was a Scientologist, he'd probably be a Thetan, or whatever Tom Cruise is - only higher up.  Not only has he taught me how to spam diet offers on Craigslist, he has also shown me how to be a man – and these are lessons I will carry close to my heart, and keyboard always.

 I would link to either one of these posts for sure. I'm going to be honest with you – even though I just wrote them, I'm still feeling pretty good about what you said. 

Once you ping the person – or comment on their blog – or push the positive commentary out into the blogosphere otherwise…the law of intended consequences DOES come back to bear.  There is an old saying in the direct response business about the art of testimonials and to paraphrase, it goes something like this:  "let them say it for you".  It's much easier to sell when your customers sing your praises. Plus you don't have to puff your chest out quite as far about your product.  Let them do it for you.  It's the very same thing here…and if you say it strongly enough, your message will get it out.

 The key is, and I mean this sincerely for a moment….just breathe in, and pay homage to what you love.  Everyone loves to hear their own name. And not only at band camp.  If you can make other people feel good about themselves, you have the key three quarters of the way through the door…you just need to turn the knob.  This applies to every market online that has a social community, meme or fabric in place. Interestingly enough – I spent a few hours last night reading the blog of a very famous American philosopher who has spent the last 25 years of his life studying the destruction of the human ego through meditation and Buddhist spiritual practice.  Do you know what his blog posts are primarily comprised of?  Other people's letters to HIM about how much his books have transformed THEIR lives.  None of us lose our ego. Ever.  Its part of the human condition and learning how to appeal to its very nature in your business relationships is a huge part of being smart – and successful.  You can be genuine, sincere and simultaneously a bit self promoting as well.  There is nothing wrong with this, and you may even make some friends to boot. 

]]> http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/04/01/the-lazy-mans-guide-to-writing-effective-link-bait-exploit-the-egocentric-urge/feed/ How To Generate Free Publicity: The Art of Everpresent Ideas http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/03/27/how-to-generate-free-publicity-the-art-of-everpresent-ideas/ http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/03/27/how-to-generate-free-publicity-the-art-of-everpresent-ideas/#comments Fri, 28 Mar 2008 01:51:45 +0000 ian http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/03/27/how-to-generate-free-publicity-the-art-of-everpresent-ideas/ I came across a great little publicity primer on Stumbleupon tonight that I thought was well worth sharing.  It's amazing to me that what so many people try to pass off as startling, amazing and ingenious new "techniques" for making money online, writing link bait, reputation management and the like are almost always restating the obvious, if not very simply, co-opting someone elses work.  publicity pillow.jpgSo I found it just a touch ironic that after reading a 17 page paid guide on "HOW TO GENERATE 5000 BACKLINKS IN XYZ AMOUNT OF DAYS" I "stumbled" across this aptly named free guide on how to give your reputation management efforts a kick in the pants - which was written and sourced primarily in the early 1990's ( when most of us were still only surfing the net primarily for the porn) and predates just about every million dollar product launch du jour that will aim to take credit for the strategies therein. The point is simply this:  Ideas are everyhere.  The stuff that worked then, works now.  It's just called different names.  Link bait is simply a web 2.0 take on taking a pro-active position in getting your name out on the marquee.  Read through this little, simple text document and you will see the powerful ideas that big name bloggers and "product launch specialists" are selling as some sort of divinely touched or inspired wisdom.  It's not.  Hell - even I wrote a post on the 7 laws of link bait - and people emailed to tell me how smart I am.  And they would be right…;-)  But only because I have the sense to regurgitate good ideas - I come up with very few of my own.  Notice all of the key points made here - use contests, surveys, write controversial press releases, interview a celebrity, use humor, etc - it's the VERY same stuff that makes up the bones of a good niche blog, a good you tube video, and culminates in a good fat bank account as well.  This is the stuff you NEED to master if you really want to get rich online - it is an aquired skill that ANYONE can master with a little bit of skill and a whole lot of practice - and can be applied to EVERY niche, bar none. 

]]> http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/03/27/how-to-generate-free-publicity-the-art-of-everpresent-ideas/feed/ How often are the Search Engines Crawling Your Blog? http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/02/25/how-often-are-the-search-engines-crawling-your-blog-install-this-free-plugin-and-find-out/ http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/02/25/how-often-are-the-search-engines-crawling-your-blog-install-this-free-plugin-and-find-out/#comments Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:29:40 +0000 ian http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/02/25/how-often-are-the-search-engines-crawling-your-blog-install-this-free-plugin-and-find-out/ line blog.jpgVery promising new Wordpress plugin for tracking search engine  activity while crawling your internal pages, seems to have some fun bells and whistles you won't get from analytics alone - will give you all kinds of data that "might" give you a bit more of a window into which pages/links/and external sites are giving you more bang for your "buck" than might be visible in how most people interact with Google analytics.  Times, rates, frequencies, etc - all from your WP admin panel…check it out, it's free and you can find it at the link below:  ( I did)

With the advent of Google Analytics and other JavaScript based solutions a lot of webmasters have lost the ability to easily analyse log files to see how search engines are interacting with their site. Google Webmaster Central offers a nice graphing feature so you can see the crawl trends but there is no way to access meaningful data. Studying crawl rate is hugely important because it helps you find out which pages are trusted most by the search engines (especially Google). The more Google trusts a page the greater the frequency it will re-visit that page. If you build a few deep links and see your crawl rate for the target page suddenly increase you can be confident that the links are highly trusted and that you should try to get some more.Today we are releasing a plugin for Wordpress that allows you to track crawl activity for MSN, Yahoo & Google from your dashboard.

Wordpress Crawl Rate Tracker Plugin

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]]> http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/02/25/how-often-are-the-search-engines-crawling-your-blog-install-this-free-plugin-and-find-out/feed/ The Death of Arbitrage is Upon Us…..Yahoo Closes the Door on Iffy Traffic http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/02/16/the-death-of-arbitrage-is-upon-usyahoo-closes-the-door-on-iffy-traffic/ http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/02/16/the-death-of-arbitrage-is-upon-usyahoo-closes-the-door-on-iffy-traffic/#comments Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:03:29 +0000 ian http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/02/16/the-death-of-arbitrage-is-upon-usyahoo-closes-the-door-on-iffy-traffic/ A final death knell to the once big buck game of "playing the spread" on ad buys across the PPC channels.   Was a popular and very easy way to make money a few years ago, although for the past year or so felt like heavy lifting and no longer very worthwhile ( although I'm sure people have still done phenomenally well). TAROT 1.jpg It appears as if Yahoo - right now, will no longer be accepting artibraged traffic - ie - you will no longer be able to send cheap google clicks at their higher paying counterparts on parked, or simple contextual ad sites that serve no purpose other than to convert a high enough percentage of the visitors to cover your ad spend - plus, plus, plus..:-)  A great resource across the board on lots of other internet marketing news can be found at the link below as well.

Yahoo Kills Domain Arbitrage: Fallout for Google, OthersTuesday, February 12th, 2008Yahoo will stop allowing arbitrage as of this Friday, will affect other major companies as well.AdvertisementIn a major move sure to have ramifications across the online advertising industry, Yahoo (YHOO) has told its advertising partners that it will no longer accept “arbitraged” traffic as of this Friday. Here’s a look at what this means for domainers and even the revenue of big online advertising companies.Arbitrage ExplainedClick arbitrage involves buying an ad click at a low price and the traffic to a page of ads with high-priced ads. For example, you may bid 5 cents for a click at Google and earn 25 cents per visitor clicking on your ads.Who does (did) it?Everyone from individual domainers to big companies such as Marchex (MCHX) and NameMedia. Individuals did it through parking companies such as Parked.com and HitFarm (sometimes using sneaky tricks on the latter). (Other parking companies, such as Sedo, expressly forbade arbitrage.) I’ve heard stories about people quitting their jobs because they were making so much money with arbitrage. Generally speaking, this arbitrage has been from traffic at Google and Microsoft sent to Yahoo ads.

Domain Name Wire » News » Yahoo Kills Domain Arbitrage: Fallout for Google, Others - The Domain Industry's News Source

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]]> http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/02/16/the-death-of-arbitrage-is-upon-usyahoo-closes-the-door-on-iffy-traffic/feed/ Continuing Education or Information Overload? http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/02/02/continuing-education-or-information-overload/ http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/02/02/continuing-education-or-information-overload/#comments Sun, 03 Feb 2008 02:43:37 +0000 ian http://karmicconsulting.net/2008/02/02/continuing-education-or-information-overload/ A good post from lifehacker on how to retain more of what you read…staying relevant, informed and on top of the game is only a slender shred up the abyss from being awash in information overload and swimming in a sea of confused analysis paralysis. How to avoid? Here are a few good pointers to light the way. ( I recommend more morning cartoons as well..
clipped from lifehacker.com

books_among_us.jpgWith an overwhelming amount of information you read online everyday, how do you keep it all inside? Perhaps you need to really focus on what's important. Trim down the fat. Ignore the unimportant parts. To keep what you've read in lasting memory, implement what you have learned—more than once. Allocate your most productive time to reading to give your full attention to learning what's in print. Acknowledge visual cues, such as bold text, as they highlight the more important parts of the articles. Take notes on articles that you feel are most important, and then read, recite, and review all at the same time. If you need to refer to the material later, make sure to bookmark the page so that it's easily accessible when you need it next. How do you absorb everything you've read online? Share your best tactics in the comments.
  blog it

 

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