TED CANTU - "YOU'RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER WEB GURUS...."

"WE'RE GOING TO NEED A BIGGER BOAT" - Roy Scheider - "Jaws" - 1975

Famous words from a famous man. That's the kind of unsettling thing you say to yourself when you know you're screwed. That thought - that sickening feeling comes over you when you know you stepped in over the line and got yourself immersed in an overwhelming feeling of ill.

The same kind of feeling happens when you hire the wrong web guy, marketer or "Gurus". For the record we don't need any more gurus. We have too many of them and they, including myself, are all looking to empty your pockets Mr. Business Owner. Only thing is some of us are actually good... and some of us are slime balls and I have illustrated that fact INTENSELY on this blog and pointed out a few unsavory undesirables. These unloveables are sometimes hard to spot. They come with smiles on their faces.

THE CHALLENGING FACE OF MICHIGAN

Something is seriously wrong when you go through Birmingham, Michigan. At 5PM the only advertising group in the city is done for the day. People go home and the lights go off. This isn't Chicago and I am well aware of that. People go to bed really early around here and its been like that for over a decade. Now that the web has diversified and has gotten smarter a lot of gurus work out of their homes. It is no longer necessary to be part of a big advertising agency. Still.... I find it awkward that the driving force of our economy -- big ticket advertising has taken a permanent dirt nap. I remember the way it used to be.... big advertising agencies staying up all night and delivering high end media to large outlets like radio, and television.

The streets are too quiet and people are too settled in their own ways in Michigan but there is something that is happening under their very noses. The habits of the reading public is changing. So much in fact that there have been recent reports that state that people really would rather get their news off of the web. That means news sites, online magazines and interesting segments that speak to the population in real time.

There are many "experts" out there now that claim to have been part of the dot com movement or key players in the advertising new media boom in the mid 90's. Of course a lot of this is bunk and only a select few were actually admitted into that scene and I am one of them. I worked with the likes of Carlos Segura, Foote Cone, the WWE, and Capital Records. The advertising scene was very selective of who they picked and many of the gurus that you see charging an arm and a leg for their services would never get selected. It is rare that one person would actually learn how to play all of the spots in the advertising environment. In a typical agency situation one person is kept away from the graphics people, the graphics people are separated from the copywriters, the copywriters were kept separate from the sales people and so on. One person would never know what the other department was all about. Every department in the agency had their own culture. This was all before the web and I am pretty sure it is that way today.

Now the rules are blurred. Some people would look upon that as a blessing and others will see it as a curse. Just as online typography ruined many print shops digital video has destroyed a vibrant post house industry. People are able to do this kind of work out of their homes and as a result this creates an influx of more "experts". I have a serious problem with overnight experts because of all the fluf involved. This sort of thing can be tricky to spot on the web. Some websites are complicated and it is difficult to spot where the mistakes are. In any business mistakes, (and the act of allowing them to continue) can be a very costly experience. Paying attention to certain aspects of details becomes critical and making sure that the right pieces fall into play becomes a very important issue. That becomes especially true technical SEO, search engine optimization.

It is easy for some of the mass media companies like phone directories, IT companies, and generic business card / media companies to push the important stuff under the carpet so most of them do. Yet the details of a website construction is so vital to a company. It means the matter of you being found or you being invisible. I see a lot of shoddy sites and many of them come from a large institution that services a large populace. There are many mistakes that are made and I will just illustrate a couple....

A lot of the websites are all living on the same IP address or server. This becomes a problem when it comes to ranking a site to a its full potential. I see a lot of real estate and insurance companies take this route. You could potentially have 300 real estate agents living on one website. The only difference between any of them is that they all have a unique website URL. These are not true websites by definition but web PAGES..... The business owner is at a disadvantage here.

THE TRUTH: Most websites are only optimized up to 40% if they are even optimized at all. Most optimization is the result of an accident. A lot of your websites that are out there are only occupying the top spots of Google, Yahoo and Bing by default. Simply said nobody has ever made a substantial effort to top them. When you optimize a website you can literally jump over them in a matter of two weeks. Some of our best campaigns illustrate this fact very strongly. We have jumped over 39 million web pages in just two weeks because we came on very strong.

Get the low down on SEO and web site optimization by visiting http://www.seowah.com. Once you get there you will see a whole collection of informative articles that explains how the big picture works.

Ted Cantu posted this on Oct. 16, 2012 in Detroit, Michigan and can be found at http://www.tedcantu.com http://www.1seomichigan.com

Ex Advertising Art Director Ted Cantu Gives Back To Metro Detroit Community, Non Profits And The People

Detroit, Michigan – The idea of doing community service may be a turn off to some and others may be confused by it. Popular self help gurus like Oprah, Anthony Robbins and Wayne Dyer often talk about the joys of giving back to the community but few actually do it. Ex advertising art director, Ted Cantu, is doing just that and is giving away free web sites, online marketing and press release assistance to nonprofit groups in Metro Detroit. This idea has also extended to individuals who are committed to doing something productive in the Metro Detroit community.

The idea has spread over a large scale mission to help five hundred causes. The working project is called, Detroit Hope 500 and Cantu has already started to work with local community oriented efforts including entertainment acts such as the Detroit Doors Tribute Band. Getting the word out about this band was important since it helps the Detroit Girls and Boys Club, The Humane Society, and the Ronald McDonald House. Cantu comes from the New York advertising scene and has been working in Metro Detroit since the events of 911.

“There are a lot of people who have great ideas in Metro Detroit. Many of them are cash poor and cannot extend the vision to help people because of expenses associated with online marketing. That is why this program exists. It doesn’t cost the nonprofit group anything. It is here to assist them to help people and causes in need in the city of Detroit.” says Ted Cantu. The areas of concentration include things like free websites, social media assistance, press releases, digital web video and more. The Detroit Hope 500 project is hoping to accommodate many different industries and causes that will help clothe the homeless, raise funds to assist with paying for heat and light bills during the winter months. Cantu will be looking for causes in need and will be assisting them with future online marketing efforts. About Detroit Hope 500:

Detroit Hope 500 offers resources for business owners such as search engine optimization, web video, press releases, social media, coupon promotion, viral marketing assistance and free customer generating tools.

Contact Information: 1SEOMichigan.com Press Officer Tel: 248-631-9211

THE DOWN AND DIRTY SEO REPORT

THE DOWN AND DIRTY SEO REPORT THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING PRESENT – CREATING ONLINE PRESENCE What Is – THE TIPPING POINT?

What is the correct number of web pages to have on your website? Believe it or not most professional websites I run into have only 5-10 pages. You see this sort of thing happen with a lot with websites designed and sold by IT, phone companies, telecom groups and from template companies. I have found this number to be incredibly limiting.

One thing that makes a world of difference in SEO, (search engine optimization) is an abundance of pages. We like to see our clients shoot for over 1,000 pages. The ideal number of web pages should be roughly 5,000 – 10,000. New business opportunities seem to appear when a client gets that kind of web presence. We are looking at roughly 10,000 keyword phrases and combinations.

What this can mean for a business can be quite incredible. We have seen brick and mortar businesses actually expand in size and grow into multiple locations. In an age where so many businesses are closing up and shutting their doors for good our clients are expanding.

The key for this type of expansion is directly related to the number of relevant keywords and pages. This expands the amount of reach on the search engines and connects to more people.

What Does This Mean For Web Traffic? When you start creating large website page installations on the web incredible things can happen. Your organic web traffic can grow substantially. A 10,000 page website can pull in 6.2 million viewers in on an annual basis. This type of web traffic can occur without the additional purchase of pay per click advertising and adwords. We first noticed that websites that had over a 1,000+ pages seemed to attract more web traffic on a daily basis. This was attracting a substantial amount of business as well. We noticed this when we did the famous Windsor Beauty Supply website with over 20 product lines. Once these categories and products were all optimized we noticed a steady traffic of 1,000 people coming to the website daily. We continued to add more pages to it and growing the site out.

We have taken that same experience and have applied it to other industries. The results were equally substantial which prompted our clients to grow their stores out and move their brand across the State of Michigan and across the country. Right now we have franchises that are building retail stores in other states and cities. We have done this for the following:

* Edenz Hydro * Organic America * Sterling Dental * Windsor Beauty … and more.

Now we are looking to do that again for more companies. That is the kind of growth we specialize in. Our SEO services are not for everyone. To get this type of result one has to invest a sizeable amount to cover the amount of keywords as well as cities and states. The results are based on the amount of reach a company is willing to invest. It takes time to build websites in this manner and there are a lot of details that need to go into these pages. This can be very time consuming. We are writing for two different audiences – the SEO search engine bots and the human eye. There has to be enough search engine optimization throughout the pages to attract Google, Yahoo and Bing. That means you have to have a lot of pages with the right types of keyword phrases in them.

DID YOU KNOW: Most websites stuff too many of the wrong keywords in them – and search engines will never index them properly? (That’s going to cost you business) DID YOU KNOW: Most websites are not formatted the right way and that search engine crawlers actually SKIP RIGHT OVER THEM? They will never be included in the search engine results.

** This takes time and money to build. ** We do not barter. ** We do not trade. ** If you cannot meet the basic requirements we cannot do business.

TO BE CONTINUED

Posted by Ted Cantu - you can find more about him at http://www.1seomichigan.com and he publishes webpages, press releases and more... He makes real revenue for real companies.

SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE MISSED JOYS OF BEING LEGALLY DEAD

DETROIT, MICHIGAN – Before the age of Facebook, (aie that sounds so formal) I actually enjoyed being MIA and written off this mortal coil. Let me explain. There are certain people I never intend on seeing again as I have progressed through this lifetime. Be it failed relationships, family, or even old bosses. There was a time where I was literally untraceable and invisible. But now I am exposed and my life is an open book for whomever wants to view it. I’m on display.

There was a quiet lull in time where it was peaceful and serene. All of the fighting, bickering and bad memories of fighting were fading. You know in most states if a person is missing for more than seven years that person is declared legally dead. It happens more often than you think. For a brief while, roughly 20+ years, I was one of those people. But then with the oncoming rush of Social Media we are once again exposed to raw wounds, moronic attacks and senseless nights. Why? Because you and I are once again in the public eye. I moved around a lot in my life and cranked up the jerk factor - I met a lot of undesirable jerks.

I have to be serious here for a moment. There are some girlfriends that I never want to hear from again. And in an age of more choice, (more music, literature, and endless religions) I have become a bigger degree of my former self. With that comes new responsibilities and stronger divisions of old, decaying relationships. I used to wake up with a sense of relief that I would never have to watch another Monty Python or Alfred Hitchcock film or eat certain foods again. Now I live in constant fear that I will run into one of these lunatics again on social media or worse be tracked down and confronted in person. So instead of waking up carefree I now wake up with the morbid dread that I will once again get contacted by one of them. I have nothing to say to these women. Or any old co-workers – some of them can be totally creepy too. It is a shame as I get older and move from state to state I have forgotten a lot of their first and last names I only remember faces. That being said – everything else about my life whether it’s professional or personal is on the web. Anyone with a mouse can read up on me.

I am no longer legally dead. But I am declared alive. Recently I was contacted by people from the 4th grade which in itself was quite alarming and strange. It was a pleasant experience for the most part but also a bit creepy. I had forgotten some of these people though my many incarnations, travels and experiences. As weird as it may sound – dead was better.

The funny thing is that before social media silence said it all. I didn’t have to do a thing. There was never a postcard from me or a phone call, an email, text message… or even a single letter. They have nothing on me in a court room. I can hardly be called a stalker because by definition stalkers have to be somewhat responsible and show up at some point. That’s what they do.

Getting contacted by someone from my past creeps me out. A relationship that’s gone dead is like a dead body. Being asked to pump fresh blood into a dead, bloated corpse is not healthy. It’s not advised and it is nothing I really care to do. Would you?

PSYCHOTIC EX-GIRLFRIENDS, FREAKY CO-WORKERS, AND MLM PEOPLE I have a huge plethora of unlikeable people in my past. I am sure you do too. I never thought for a minute I would have to ever see or hear from any of them again. But alas…. Social media is here. And these freaks can send me feel good messages, happy bacon messages and paranoid Jesus fantasies with the click of a mouse. NO THANK YOU.

REAL VICTIMS HAVE MORE TO WORRY ABOUT THAN I DO Let’s face it Social Media is really a bad thing. There are people who are hiding from abusive partners and fear for their children’s lives. They have to worry constantly on a more serious level than I do. They often leave in the middle of the night of have to live in their cars. I am nowhere near that sort of seriousness. People tend to prey on each other for weird reasons.

Then there are enemies. You know. Ass bags. I have those too just like anyone. The door is always open at my house for a good fight. I will fight you. And you know who you are. I will fight you. If you dare.

There are people whom I still hate. There are people who still hate me. Be it legally or otherwise and now we can actually see one another for what we are and where we are with addresses and private phone numbers exposed. Instead of peppering one another with feel good messages about bacon, Seth Godin and other goofy shit I will leave that door open to a good old fashioned fist battle. Because I am not afraid of a bloody nose, I’ve already been to jail and I am no stranger to a court room.

Social media can be a dangerous place. Too much personal information is available now. The world has definitely become a smaller place and this can be seen our grocery aisles, websites and the television programming that exists today. Richie and Potsie have left the coop long time ago and now we are entertained by serial killers on the Arts channel and Chicago Mafia Wives. We live in truly dangerous times because now the scumbags of the world can actually inspire one another in their heinous ways. This is evident recently with Columbine which later was repackaged and sold back to the media as the Dark Knight Killings and then once again as a lone psycho from Columbus, Ohio.

CYBER BULLYING People are weird. I figured that one out a long time ago. Trying to understand them or their twisted motives is a serious study and people go to school for it. One thing parents can be sure of. This sort of behavior is going to continue in some form or another.

Counter action is best recommended. If you are being bullied there is a simple way you can get access to private information.

1. Check I.P addresses that come into your websites

2. Report any weird behavior to Facebook and have them blocked

3. Report people to the authorities. There are actions you can take to block someone from having Internet and phone access.

4. Report people to the FBI

5. Report bad business to your local district attorneys office

6. Buy a gun, (a last resort but maybe the first choice for some of you)

Usually you can stop these people before they get too far. The FBI thing really freaks most of these people out. I have had my life threatened on Linked In, and my personal email – people are WEIRD. The best thing you can do is stay calm and offer to collect all of their correspondence and give it to the proper authorities.

GMAIL PROTECTION Get a gmail account. Gmail remembers everything. I can go into my Gmail and find emails from past clients turned psychotic if I ever need to get hauled into a court room. I keep backups of everything. Google owns Gmail and they do an excellent job of remembering every email that is sent out and that is going to mean everything to you. Especially in a court room. I can’t stress this enough. For your own protection get yourself a Gmail account. They never throw any mail away and this tool is free. Now, not everyone is going to go completely sideways on you. But there are a few every now and then. So you should get ready for it. People are strange --- that’s what Jim Morrison once said and he was right.

… he has been legally dead for years. I mean REALLY dead. But you’re not. You are here and now. SO that means that you should protect yourself in the here and now.

CANTU WAS LEGALLY DEAD FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS… but has resurfaced among the living thanks in part to Facebook, the WWW, and other social media sources. He is the author of online marketing books on Amazon.com and lives in Detroit, MI – honest… look it up.

COMPLETE DENTAL MARKETING - PLUG AND PLAY SYSTEMS - PROVEN ON GOOGLE

I have done campaigns in over 80+ industries and have pulled an astounding amount of keyword results on Google. I have done this in Dentistry in some very high competition areas. But before I get started in all that let me tell you what I'm doing with this post.

We have created marketing results that have ranked #1 on Google and have pulled in sales. We have done this for high end services in Lumineers, Invisalign and more... More than that we have published press releases that have been picked up and distributed in CBS Money Watch, USA Today and more. I am not telling you this to brag but just to prove a point that our marketing "stuff" has what it takes to transform a business up to 30% in increased revenue.

I am busy doing other things these days. For one many of you know that I am spearheading some powerful websites in the Hydroponics industry and have been creating some impressive Google rankings in this industry. I am also doing medical publishing and have had our articles and press releases get picked up in niche publications and boutique websites all across America. Whew... I have been busy.

As I sit here and write this I have a fortune in my hard drive. I have websites and press releases that I am going to in turn hand over to dental offices for a fee. This is going to be a hands off process for me and plug and play for the new owner. Simply said I am going to hand over the keys for a proven system that has pulled in results and have gained considerable search engine attention.

I am still going to market this industry with new websites, fresh graphics and new writings from time to time but I am taking a break. In the meantime, I am going to sell these attention getting systems to the right dentists.

Call me direct for more info - 248-631-9211

Posted by Ted Cantu - 248-631-9211 - I can be found at http://www.tedcantu.com http://www.1seomichigan.com

TIME TO ROCK THE WEB There has been a lot of unnecessary drama here on ROCK THE WEB and not enough video. I apologize for that and I need to get a little more freeform. For laughs and giggles I threw on an old real estate SEO video I made eons ago for your enjoyment.

What I really want to talk about now is some SEO, search engine optimization news and the utter shambles I see going on in the Hydroponics Industry. This is a freeform industry that has sprouted up over the last few years and has kicked up some serious momentum in Michigan.

The reason why I say its freeform is because there doesn't seem to be any rules. The websites in this industry come in lots of wild shapes and sizes. Most of them are not optimized and some of them are downright spammy. This is dangerous for many reasons. The ones I have seen with hidden text and white on white text and backgrounds run the risk of being blacklisted. In 2012, it still amazes me that people tend to do this and expect to move volumes of products.

... To me that is suicide!! Yet, people have the tendency to do that. It is downright crazy.

EVERYONE IS WATCHING Most websites top off at about 10 pages unless you are talking about shopping carts. When it comes to shopping carts this number can become a lot more serious. They can range anywhere from 100 pages to 1000+. This has always been an area of concern to me. I do not believe that is the heart of the website. I am more interested in landing pages, sub-domains and how to branch the site out more so that it is more search engine friendly.

I ran into the book, "Outsmarting Google" last summer and was intrigued with the idea of the "Nuclear Football" website. The company name is "First Page Sage" and they are based out of New York City. The website works like this... Basically they are utilizing up to 400,000 keywords in the website and are creating a floodgate of web traffic. These types of websites are amazing. This translates into an abundance of 6 million web traffic hits a year not to mention a considerable amount of business for the clients.

These sites are able to be found for a variety of keyword phrases that are not location distinctive. In other words if someone is looking for a hydroponic shop they do not have to add their city or state into the search phrase. They are simply known for, "Hydroponic Nutrients" instead of "Hydroponic nutrients Michigan". This can make a big difference when it comes to getting the right type of attention.

Most websites aren't willing to make that sort of commitment or dedication to getting real attention on the web. It comes with a hefty price tag. Once the website is built it can be used to pull in more sales and more revenue. That is the beauty of creating these behemoth websites in the first place. There is a serious pay off but you have to be willing to commit as a business owner.

Ted Cantu works in SEO, search engine optimization and can be found at http://www.1seomichigan.com

End Of The Gurus Rule - The Inept Shall Not Inherit The Earth !!

2003 was the absolute shit year for the "GURUS". I never heard of a gurus before, never wanted to. Never needed one. Didn't know what one was to be used for if I should have ever have encountered one. Then voila... they all fell out of the Post 911 sky. I eventually found them... or they found me.

 In either case I wrote about a few of them here on this blog and have gone to court over it a few times... But listen up you numbskulls... I will not protect people who commit credit card fraud. I also will not lie for you in front of city or State officials.

 If we cross paths for what ever reason and those reasons are not sound I will not lie for you. Now... it gets even uglier. 2003 brought on a lot of hope and lot of turmoil but ultimately it brought on a lot of fear.  

RISE OF THE AFFILIATE GENERATION... COLLAPSE OF THE BOARDROOM
This is a terrible way to make money. I want to take this time to get absolutely clear about this. I get approached to sell all sorts of garbage with 2 tier pay out systems, promised checks and car rentals... or leased cars, ( makes no difference to me) and I think all that stuff is pure horseshit. There is a very SPECIFIC reason why I never liked MLM, and affiliate marketing because it attracts the inept. The unkooth and the artistically declined.


 The "media" people that it attracts ensures that these under privileged gold seekers have never spent time in a real board room or in a post production house. They do not come from any kind of advertising background and worse... they have a subversive work ethic.... or rather the work ethic is missing or damaged. They are horrible leaders and 90% of the ones Ive come across cannot sell.... anything. It attracts the worst people. Kind hearted but dumb. They have good intentions and that is good I suppose from a friendly point of view. But my point of view tells me that I must make money. I understand good intentions.... Mussolini had good intentions too you know.

 I didnt expect people to get arrested in all of this era of greed. I had no idea this country would succumb to an era of greed. It only makes sense though since we are in a recession. Its not just the Internet marketers that are getting pounced on in the courts but people that violate the trust of the people and get tangled up with the SEC or both. The investment fraud scene is rampant. So is the mortgage scene out in Birmingham, Michigan where I am on a first name basis with these criminals. Did I mention the child molesters? I ran into those guys too in an MLM in Michigan. All of these wonderful screw ups are clearly documented on the web. You can look them up and see for yourself. As we move into 2013 it is going to mark the end of a really strange and tormented era for MLM and affiliate marketing.

These glofied ponzi schemes, ( I haven't even mentioned those yet....) really speak of group of people who just don't get it. I am talking about the fundamentals of basic marketing, getting real client participation and creating distribution... without the gimmicks.. but on the street. Also I am talking about marketing without the MBA, (no books or academics here...) but real life scenarios. I got into a real street fight with some real low life suckers recently centered around - "Web Traffic". I won the fight of course but I want to show you something.

Did your version of web traffic look anything like this? Of course it didn't.

Because this screen shot is one of MY WEBSITES. Notice that spike. This was a page one website before there were any traffic to it. I had to pump people through it to get them to notice. All of this fighting I am talking about centered around really lame strategies such as posting to Amazon.com and building backlinks, using a magic widget to get traffic to your WordPress blog and other forgettable tactics.

These traffic spikes encouraged sales and made them happen. This was not the result of recruiting people in your warm network and doing mantras. Thats what infuriates me most about the affiliate mindset. They are so lazy.

The thing I find most terrifying is that this particular website is a page 1, top ranking website. The organic traffic on it is horrible. This is on Google and people are purposely side stepping it. The situation started to improve once we drove people to the site. These people were highly targeted and were on the lookout for the kinds of services that this website offered.

This took a lot of time to figure out. My main concern here is that even though a website is on page 1 it doesnt automatically mean that this website will be popular and have web traffic. Nobody seems to care about that or be even the slightest bit concerned. Im the life guard who spotted the great white shark in this case.... the public is off playing beach ball and are oblivious. And by beach ball I am really talking about affiliate programs and 2 tier payouts.

The guy who makes $2 dollars a day for life could care less. He wants his check. Do not misunderstand me. He is not my customer. The wholesale guy who is losing his ass on the other hand cares a big deal and he is the one who wants to sit me down one on one to see how he can stop the bleeding. He cares a great deal. There is no mistaking that.
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 THE AFFILIATE MARKETER - THE WOLF IN PIGS CLOTHING

This is why I am adamant about not letting them into my circle. I certainly do not want them to come near my money or deal with my personal clients. Affiliate minded people are weak minded and think that aesthetically life is easy. They often, (more often than not)  misquote the bible, (any version) often... to get their weak minded opinions across. They talk about teamwork a lot. But in actuality they are little more than micro ponzi schemes in action.

 It was said that who ever controls web traffic will rule the world for the next five years. Believe it. I didnt learn this from any of you gurus out there. You can all go back to waxing your carrots now.

Posted by Ted Cantu - THE KING OF WEB TRAFFIC MEDIA - Detroit, Michigan 2012

Media Gone Haywire - Fall Of The Gurus

FULL MEDIA COLLAPSE - IS IN FULL SWING !!!
Swing you sinners - your day is about done. Back in 2003, the online world was pretty much inflated with half truths and best guesses. Today it is basically the same thing but the only thing different is that we know that some techniques flat out don't work. But in 2003 I remember the online climate to being even more annoying than it is today. Back then there were plenty of people who pontificated over the joys of early retirement. I'm talking about people in their early 20's claiming they never had to work again. In 2012 we don't see a whole lot of these people. The way there were going to retire from the working world was through affiliate programs and lots of cheapie MLM and gimmicky type programs. In 2012 those people did not swing the banner of financially free and instead opted to sit inside a pup tent on Wall Street doing the "Occupation." Different times.

After 2003, the economy took some wild dips and turns and people lost their fortunes. The housing market did some wild stunts too and there were a ton of mortgage people, (some of them right here in West Bloomfield, Michigan) who marched off to prison for a nice extended stay. I was a bit surprised at this as more investigations came into view. Then the house market faced another interesting challenge as people left the State of Michigan in massive droves. The Detroit Free Press had a headline that read - "Mass Exodus".

In 2008 the scene in Chicago was very disturbing. I holed up in a hotel near Broadway and Clark and watched as people jumped off the brown line every hour holding suitcases. This continued long into the night. You will never hear about this in mainstream media because the message there is that things are shuffling along quite nicely. I was intrigued with these young people jumping off the train platform with suitcases in hand in search of a better life. Some estimate that 480,000+ people left Metro Detroit that year never to return.

As the optimism slipped from the MLM and affiliate world something else happened. A score of people lost their securities licenses and went to jail. I came across a list of people who are banned from ever dealing with the financial world again. Its on the web and the number of people who mishandled investor dollars is overwhelming. It has to number in the 1000's. Its right there clear as crystal and black and white. SO many crooks -- so little time. Do your due dilligence and look them up it is quite overwhelming.

Along with that whole fiasco you can imagine the age of the "Web Gurus" has taken some considerable hits. When you start to do a research on some of these monkeys you will find some sheer ugliness on the web. Everything from flat out credit card fraud to phony fly by night "offices" run out of P.O. boxes and other un-savoriness. The worst, (as if that is not bad enough) includes a full roster of horrendous web skills and bonus areas of expertise including child molestation. It appears that there really is no need for extensive background checks on these dirt bags when it comes to working with the unsuspecting MLM-esque public. On one hand these guys do not really deserve to be put on a pedestal by any means. They certainly did not put their time in the halls of marketing or advertising, (think real places like FCB, Doner and Young and Rubicam) but are instead self appointed masters of the obvious.

I'VE BEEN ASKED TO LEAVE COACHING GROUPS BECAUSE OF EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE
My big pet peeve on web traffic programs that I have purchased over the years centers on a common problem. Most of these things simply do not work. There are a lot of hoops you have to jump through to get to the - massive traffic - end of things. The average person is not going to bother doing any of this of course because it involves real work. And real work to most people is a big pain in the ass.

I usually get to the end of one of these big "traffic" programs only to find that the last chapter lacks the critical criteria for online success. One of these guys lives in Commerce Township, MI and actually asked me if I wanted my money back at a marketing show. He pulled me aside and basically told me his program was garbage to a seasoned web guy, ( like me) and asked if I wanted to get my money back. I had another situation where I purchased some Ebooks and signed up for a coaching program and once the gurus heard that I was "The Ted Cantu" he freaked out and called me directly and said I was not welcomed in his club... Why? I asked....

He said that I was too advanced and would not benefit from the club. These guys always spout the same nugget of ignorance and blurt out that you must build a blog for "Extensive web traffic" which is complete hogwash. Sure on a technical standpoint Blogger blogs carry a high PR ranking thanks to being owned by Google but that does not mean that it can deliver high streams of online traffic. That is the case no matter how many you build. The blog thing is confusing for most MLM, retailers and traditional business people. This is due to the fact that it takes time to build them and it is overwhelming. The same can be said for Wordpress and Typepad.... Traffic does not come from blogs. If anything that clutter up the web sphere. There are a lot of crappy blogs out there. The poorly written ones are not traffic ones anymore than the well written ones. This is a big misconception. Anytime that a gurus tells you that you must build a blog first throw it in the garbage..... I test everything and when it comes to web traffic you will want to do something... a little better.

Ahhh.. The Media Collapse?
There is a HUGE media collapse right now. This is both terrifying and exciting at the same time. Its really terrifying for the guys who do traditional media such as phone books and IT companies. These guys might be able to produce large infrastructures of poorly optimized websites and other online clutter but they are not marketers. In addition to that you have the SEO websites which can actualy get you very little web traffic, (yes it is true) unless you have them properly postiioned on the web and even then the traffic can be slow. Newspapers continue to fold and limit their distribution leaving many advertisers less places to get the word out. Now the fun begins....

Look I rant on this stuff a lot so I will have write this in installments but bare with me....

I was in NYC a few years back and I ran into some marketing shmo. That is what I call them in the professional ring because they are a dime a dozen. You got good ones and you get your lemons. Then you got the hustlers who run in between the companies and play hopscotch and really know how to make money. Now, let me get back to the shmo. He busts into this large conference table and announces that he has taken $3,000 of the companies dollars and with true genius like alchemy has magically created 34 click through. People applauded him and hailed his online prowess and I'm thinking -- "Holy Cow! -- fire that guy !! Fast.. before he eats your lunch and mine! He is going to destroy us all".

The Dot Com thing happend around 911. It always makes me laugh when Michigan people say they can recall it fondly. I laugh becuase it didn't really affect them one way or the other. This sort of financial abuse and the mismanagement of funds - courtesy of venture capitalists happend more in California, Chicago and in New York City, (where it happened a lot). The tech wave never really came down hard in the Michigan area because they were so resistant to change for the first 5 tech waves, (multimedia, CD-Roms, and so on and so forth... ). Now let me tell you how this relates to what is happening today. The exact same thing is occuring in the area of online media buying, (think impressions).....

A purchase of $2,500 will get your website logo plastered on 45,000 impressions or user screens in the geo target of your choice. The funky thing is that you will only get 35 click thru's on it. Sound familiar? The big boys in the telecom industry is delivering this sort of thing and it is just as terrible as what was offered 10 years ago during the dot "bomb" era -- sorry for the pun.

Yes there is a better way... and its not by buying text links, building Google blogs, or getting these impressions.

RISE OF THE NARCISSIST
People are stubborn and are very self centered. This is the age of the narcissist and let me add that we are living in the Golden Age. Everything has been pared down to the barest niche and you cannot get away from it. This means that peoples attention is scattered even more than before. You cannot put this in traditional media terms such as network television when we had only three networks to choose from. Now we have 900 channels and satellite radio and a gazillion websites and blogs. When it comes to social media that attention gets spread even further. Worse, the very people you may be trying to reach might only be reading and watching their own media like on Facebook for example.

These are really playgrounds for the lonely.... It is going to be incredibly hard to reach these introverted people. Getting 35 people out of a focussed media blast of 45,000 is still terrible results. This is especially true after ten years. Facebook generates millions on ads but I am looking for sales conversions and getting the phone to ring. I don't want people to just "Like" me. That is not going to get the job done or put food on the table. There has to be a real monetary exchange happening for me to lock onto.

This is where radio gets it wrong too because there is no way to get a handle on who is accessing this media. Media noise is running rampant in this modern age. There are too many people screaming for attention. There are even more people looking to cut out being advertised to which makes things even more difficult. The message from this new generation is that they simply, "Anti Money" and Im they number in the millions. They are anti-corporate, they are anti capitalist and they hate advertisements. Don't forget that there part of the Occuptation of Wall Street movement insisted that people just stop buying stuff. The idea for this is absurd but that was the message that these people wanted to spread globally. It was ridiculous but they hate advertisements.

So how do you reach these sour apples? Is it worth it? Do they have money to spend or do they spend their days rummaging through thrift stores? The car companies think you have to grab the young attention through the help of MTV. But these people have very low self opinion and do not care about things like car ownership.

**** IN CLOSING ****

The web is becoming a more congested place to get the word out. When it comes to making serious money on the web and attracting wealth for yourself and your clients you have to study how money moves on the web. Gone are the days of 2003 when you could afford to be sloppy, lucky and have a little faith that everything would work out in the end. Most people do not realize it but their websites are pulling in a lot of zeros when it comes to web traffic even if they are a top ranking site on Google. It is not enough to float a company or to bring them real business.

The gurus tries to tell you differently and that his affiliate programs are the way to go. That level of business thinking and the people that it attracts are like sewer rats. They are the lowest common denominator and focus on the top grab. I hate MLM's and I will admit that to you. I think it is a waste of time -- especially when you have to support other people.

The web is becoming too real of thing to rely on gimmicks. That is especially true if you are trying to run a substantial company, corporation and want to reach real cash paying customers.

In 2012 -- there is no time for gimmicks.

More to come....

Ted Cantu spits out the truth, and actually works in the media field instead of teaching mere theories, (and unlike many of these gurus phonies actually worked in advertising and marketing.)

Go figure...

Who Is A Gurus? And Who Isn’t? Now You Can Call Them Out

Hey chicken little. There really is a way you can find out who is good at Internet Marketing and who isn’t. This always blows my mind on how many retail store owners, doctors, and professional businesses that don’t know this. You can find out how many links a website has and how well it is constructed. I have documented this to death on my websites.

This is going to save you a considerable amount of sweat, toil and worry when you want to find out the truth about your competitors and the slothful gurus who are busy trying to pounding your door down. This is something that a lot of these so called, “Online Marketing Geniuses” lack. I have seen the best of these high profilers flop like a dead fish on this one and the truth should be so obvious.

Check Your Links
Is someone telling you how much traffic they are getting lately? Do these numbers seem inflated and out of touch with reality. No worries. They are. But here is a simple thing you can do with your website in question. Go to GOOGLE and type in…. links www.yourwebsite.com into the search window and hit search. If the number comes back as 14 or 42 links run for your life. The guy who is trying to get your approval on his manly genius is a full time bullshit artist. It is hard to get 8,000 daily hits with a paltry number of website links. It just doesn’t happen.

The other thing you can do is look at a site like – www.SeoCentro.Com. Now pop your website address into the MetaTag Analyzer and see how the search engines really see your site? Most of the “gurus” sites that I have looked at with a microscope comes up unbelievably popular. We are looking at a 37% optimized website. Usually these guys stick to the golden rule book of web site schlock and droll out the routine 5 pages. Sometimes they get aggressive and bang out 10 pages. Here is the clincher. The most overlooked item in these websites are sitemaps for some weird reason. This is a very common thing to screw up and the IT companies seem to neglect this item the most. This is why I feel sorry for real estate and insurance companies so much. You know the sites I am talking about. This is the kind of “website” where they have 500 agents all living on the same server. So dumb. But don’t get me started on this…..

The bottom line here is that getting a phenomenal steady stream of traffic at this level is incredibly hard if not impossible. I actually think it is hard to get substantial numbers from one traffic source even if it is a major search engine such as Google or Yahoo and so on.

GURUS ARE LAZY -- (EXCEPT WHEN THEY STEAL YOUR DOUGH)
A lot of the gurus out there flat out steal your money. I have had this happen to me and it has happened to many people. There are a lot of overnight experts on the web these days and many of them have not survived long sufficiently enough to make it to the Facebook wave. Web gurus fade out and fall apart like discarded porn stars. We are living in the age of the Internet and there have been 6 major generations of new media in the last 20 years. It is not just the gurus that have fallen out of favor with the rest of the human race but also high tech website companies and media providers, (think digital video editing houses).

The worst of these vermin seem to thrive in Facebook. This type of marketing is very easy to do and many of them have ads and are popping up as the flavor of the day. The underlying myth that connects them all is quick wealth or the perception of wealth. But take a good look at the websites that they are creating and also take a good look at the results they are supposedly getting. There is usually a mismatch.
In my quest for someone who is a knowledgeable web traffic genius has been an unfruitful one. I have found this to be an elusive beast. I haven’t met one yet. Part of the problem here is that I do not have the full faith that web traffic exists in a popular search engine. I believe now that the full force of web traffic exists in a particular brand or even a cult brand, or big box store. This is where people gravitate to first before anywhere else. That is why creating a blog and expecting people to flock to it is a waste of time for the business owner. The web has become a very frenetic and impatient place and people are scrambling and literally stepping over one another to get what they want. In short, people are selfish and will go straight to what they want. That means immediate satisfaction.

POWERFUL URLS AS OPPOSED TO POPULAR SEARCH ENGINES
Whenever I see someone pontificating over the greatness of DMOZ I want to hurl. This is a seriously outdated technique and no longer belongs in a chapter of relevant techniques. The other flawed approach is to build a blog. Yet, I see these techniques pop up in garbage books about web traffic. There is too much regurgitation going on in popular web site books. A lot of these rags are written by jaded college professors with near sighted notions on what life is like on the “outside”. I tend to not gravitate through someone who is living “vicariously” through me in the first place.

A lot of website books are garbage.

So what I am telling you is to take a good look at high traffic URL’s as opposed to a website search engine such as Google. Recently Google+ took some hits as being the hip thing to use. Google also pulled the plug on Knol, which was an alternative approach to a blog/Squidoo. These things popped up in the Google algorithm but I don’t think they were major traffic pullers. Someone looking for ATV parts is going to go on Google shopping or Ebay as opposed to spending any time on my knol or blog post.

The traffic stream that is going through an ATV parts review site URL is going to have much more traffic pulling power than anything I can create. It has life and an existing search activity. Don’t believe me? Look at Groupon and Netflix. These companies leave their lead generation coupons on 24/7 through a variety of websites most notably www.Foodnetwork.com and that is interesting to me.

Why more retail, professional and medical businesses don’t pay attention to this is beyond me.

Enough yammering…. I have to get back to work.

You false gurus out there read this blog obviously. I hope you’re taking notes.

Written by CANTU - March 15, 2012 DETROIT - "I'm a genius too y'know...!!"

ANTI SOCIAL MARKETING -- IS THIS THE TIME?

If you want a little sanity consider a little "Anti Social Marketing". I did a check on Google and there are 110,000,000 pages dedicated to this strange but important phenom. Let's be practical here... There are a lot of people I never want to see again. There are some people I want to keep in my profit funnel. Who stays on the good list and who goes on the naugty list is up to me... not Google.

GOOGLE+ - ALAS, OUR PROBLEMS BEGIN....
Google assumes way too much when it comes to social marketing. I personally cannot stand Google+ because it lets everybody who has ever sent me an email into my personal space. These can be people who wrote me out of the blue to ask me a question one time. These can also be people who spammed me. These are not endearing souls. You don't add people into your rolodex who dialed you on the phone by accident do you? You don't add wrong numbers into your speed dial. Why does Google automatically assume that you would want these undesireables into your personal space?

I get guys from India who write me every week offering to sell me SEO services. I am an SEO. Why would I want to buy SEO services? It makes no sense. Worse, I do not want these people getting access to pictures of my wife and kid. I definately do not want them trolling me on LinkedIn. This is not an Irish Pub. This is my life. If I don't want you to be part of it believe me I will go way out of my way to ensure that you will not get in.

LINKEDIN - ANOTHER AREA TO AVOID....
If I wanted to change religions, get into a new MLM, or flat out make myself miserable I would sign up with LinkedIn. Every week without fail I have to go into my linkedin profile and kick people out. People get into my contact list as professional business contacts at first. Then they slowly turn into a gut wrenching pain in the ass. They pontificate their religious views upon me and ask me if I am going to be saved? I got that taken care of. I will deal with God. Not you. Me. God. You are not invited to be part of that conversation. Go save your own soul.

If you're not all about business you are not getting in. If you are trying to crack the lottery I am not your guy. Go get yourself a lottery ticket. I have nothing to offer you. And take me off your contact list I will not be offended.

MOTOR CITY CONNECT - THE FUN NEVER STOPS
I cannot stand Motor City Connect. This is based out of Detroit. I have no idea how I got sucked into this sucker trap. In the early days of social media I had the usual cast of suspects trying to ensnare me into their social media sites. I must of signed up. Maybe I was just trying to be nice and play along so I would stop getting harrassing emails. Problem. The people who join this sites are employees and it is not necessarily a B2B site. These are people who work out of their homes and call themselves business owners.

This is not for me.

Up until recently there was no way to quit this group. They finally added a quit button on their website and I was more than happy. Yes, I said more than happy -- to quit this ridiculous website.

ANTI SOCIAL MARKETING IS NOT A BAD THING....
I learned how to say no to some social media sites. This goes for private sites and certain social groups that meet for self serving purposes. If it is going to waste my time I do not want to attend either online or in real time. If you give me a hard time about it we are going to have major problems. When emails fail to remind you to knock it off you can expect a phone call. I have called up people on my LinkedIn profile and have point blank asked them... "Who Are You?". If you are going to stare at pictures of my family on the web in the privacy of your own office or home I have every right to ask that question.

If you are that lonely -- and many of you are. You can go elsewhere. I do not wish to communicate with you.

If you already have my phone number and email that is usually good enough. If for whatever reason you refuse to answer my calls and emails I will not grant you permission to come after me on social media. That is common sense. You have every reason to feel offended.

I could care less !!!


CANTU is based in Metro Detroit. He has fans, enemies and successful clients all across the globe. You can find more of him at http://www.tedcantu.com