New Picks From Frank Julian

http://www.freedomroadtrading.com

Posted by Cantu on Dec. 6, 2007

Internet Marketing Secrets Podcast

Click here to get your own player.



Cantu gives you the best of online internet marketing, direct marketing secrets, podcasting and blogging advise and much more. There are some great software reviews on here.....

Posted by Cantu on Oct. 27, 2007

MLM Online Marketers Kick Me In The Gut

"I'm setting up my retirement in six months!"
"I'm getting my second dream home in 8 months"
"I'm only doing this because my husband is a millionaire and I'm bored"

I hear it all.

And the more I hear the more amazed I am. Not that this type of talk is not amazing. Far from it. In fact I find the whole report very fascinating. But you see, I am a web guy first and foremost whether I like it or not. I can see right through these MLM sites. I know for a fact they hardly rank in their geo centric market place, (and I include real estate sites in this category).

I can read the code. And that is something you never want to fool around with from an SEO standpoint. They can tell when you are covering up or bluffing.

Still, I am amazed that these groups can get any action off of their sites whatsoever. I have come across some really BAD ones that are crammed with javascript and flash, (things that bots cannot even read when they index your site). I have seen a lot of poorly constructed sites that have no sign up window or explain the site very poorly from a search engine perspective. The keywords are great but they are often stuffed into the meta tag with no sense of what is right or wrong. I find this approach very terrifying.

THE BROCHURE SITES
Most of these sites are there for one reason only. They are there to show others how great they can be. They are selling the dream. And by the way that is one thing that you can sell over and over again even if you have nothing else to sell. Although its getting a bit tough to sell it these days with the ongoing war and humbling job scene. The "lifestyle" isn't enough to motivate as much as it could in the early 2000's.

I am baffled how people can buy into these business opportunities and get these sites that attract little traffic. Then when you add the number of restrictions that the individual has when it comes to marketing their products it gets even more unsettling. So for the most part because of the rules of whatever MLM group they are in these sites do nothing but sit out there. Sometimes people stumble upon them but this is becoming rare lately.

If too many of these sites show up in one area Google does a dance and these sites disappear overnight. The Jagger Dance of last summer proved that.

So who is fooling who here? It takes a lot to get noticed online and to remain visible. These sites just do not have what it takes.

Posted by Cantu on Oct. 26, 2007 at 10:52 PM

Free Copywriting Secrets - Channel

I still get confused looks when I tell people I am a copywriter. Straight away we get into converstations about intellectual property and other things. I am often asked to create patents on logos and secure trademarks for all sorts of things.....

But COPYWRITING is different than obtaining a copyright.

This is salesmanship in print. Nothing more. This is a grandiose way of selling ones goods. And sadly its a dying art in some circles. But you need effective sales copy to drive traffic and sales and make your offers more compelling.

Now to make things simple we put all of these clips in one easy to find location.....

http://youtube.com/profile?user=tedcantu1

Enjoy!

Cantu posted this on Oct. 24, 2007 at 9:31 AM

Seth Godin's Theories Come To Life

RETHINKING THE IDEA VIRUS

The other day I was looking for my copy of "The Idea Virus". I had read this thing a couple of years ago. I was put off to an extent because some of the ideas were pretty advanced. I was convinced that I had to hook up with a programming super genius to make some of these creations really take off.

The concept behind this book of course was to create something powerful -- a virus if you will. This virus would pick up momentum and create a powerful windfall of profits. In this ideal situation the customers would do all the talking for you and in a sense take care of your advertising. Your services would then be the "talk of the town" and your name would jump from one consumer to the next.

Word of mouth taken to a whole new level.....

I never had faith in the ol' fashion "Word of Mouth" on its own. I always felt it needed a little help. Godin talks about an amazing service that works on cell phones. Where you find something cool you want to experience like a museum or a restaurant and you get it on your phone. When you go to tell someone else about it you just point your phone to another phone and it points that person to download the software so they can experience this service. He called that "working in the smooth".

IS VIRAL MARKETING PERFECTED?
I always had a fascination with Viral Marketing due to the fact that it was a pretty powerful concept. There wasn't a whole lot happening with off the shelf software at the time to support it. I liked the idea of having a piece of media that would fish around online and promote your company at the same time. For the most part that is happening with blogging and podcasting.

On another level there is something that you may want to look into. Ebook marketing is old and done to an extent. There are many better advanced strategies and techniques that seem a bit more appealing. But to take ebook marketing to the level where Seth takes it is an tempting possibility. There is a lot of room here for growth.

http://www.marketingtips.com is a great web site to check out. It is Corey Rudl's company. Rudl was the cutting edge Internet genius of the late 90's. His answer to ebook marketing really holds the Godin vision close.

The answer is Ebook Pro.... a virtual ebook that you can capture viewers contact information before they even try to open it. This is a very powerful strategy. When you consider that you can get a lot of these out there in circulation.

The ebook is tied into a database for you online. Before your prospect can view the downloaded ebook they must give you their contact information before the book will open. You in turn then can view the database to see who has signed in. This is a very clever way to trap customer information. When I found this software and its sneaky approach I was reminded of what Seth said about, "Working in the smooth". That is to say in order for anyone to participate in this process the end user would have to find that experience relatively easy.

I was relieved to see these new technologies becoming more easier to use. Viral Marketing is getting to a very unique place in our culture where the market can pick up your marketing messages and distribute them.

We weren't quite there 24 months ago. I know because I called several firms and tried to get some Viral Marketing created. Back then I got a big run around and insufficient answers.

Now I can do it. And you can do it too.

Posted by Cantu on Oct. 2007 at 10:39 PM

Rebel Marketing – The True Essence Of Van Halen

VAN HALEN REUNITES

Last night Van Halen came to the Joe Louis Arena. It was the first time that lead singer David Lee Roth joined up with the band in the last 20 years. Ironically, the last time I saw Van Halen play was in 1984 at the D.C. Capital Center. So I reunited with the band as well. I never had any inclination to see the band with Sammy Hagar.

For me the true sound, intention and meaning of this band had a lot to do with
David Lee Roth.

DLR was responsible for a lot of the early bands overall look. In a recent book he was quoted as saying, “We tried our best to look like the way the music sounded.” Roth had a hand in just about everything that the band produced. He took an active role over the way they dressed and also the way their videos looked.

Even the lyrics were different when the original band was together. Eddie Van Halen later said he wanted simpler lyrics that ANYONE could write. So he went to employ the verbal wit of Bon Jovi’s lyricist.

Never Waiting For Permission

Van Halen really set a lot new rules in the world of Rock and Roll. After getting into the Whiskey A Go Go in LA they reworked a new sound in the world of Rock Music. Eddie added an extra pick up on his guitar. He also hollowed out a cavity behind the pick ups on the fret board to give it an echo sound. In addition to jabbing the fret board to make the musical notes triple in tone he took the liberty of boiling his guitar strings. This added more spring to the strings and loosened up the coils. This allowed Ed to create a unique sound that spawned a lot of copycats.

The 80’s brought on a lot of rip off type bands that captured some of Eddies musicianship. Record execs pushed this type of sound and the Metal bands that came later numbered in the 100’s. A lot of these bands had staying power. Some of them got signed and many more did not.

The original Van Halen only made 6 albums. But those six releases stood the test of time. Musically speaking they didn’t really age. They still sound just as fresh as they did when they were released. The combination of David Lee Roth, (the showman as well as the loudmouth show off), Eddie Van Halen, (musical innovator) Alex Van Halen, (master of the drum kit) and Michael Anthony, (incredible rhythm section and back up vocalist) was a powerhouse.

Warner Brothers held them under an exclusive contract.

Not bad for an underground band. They became the role model that all other rock bands tried to emulate. The interesting thing about this was that they never got permission from the record industry to do what they did as a group.

A lot of the songs they did were not really radio friendly. In the age of Disco and punk rock Van Halen made their debut. The arena rock show venue was reinvented. The stage shows with confetti and pyrotechnics went against the grain of what was deemed typical in rock music. In a lot of ways it alienated even the most hard core hippy generation. They were rebellious and dangerous and to some extent they inspired fear. You would see the VH logo spray painted on buildings or engraved on high school desks everywhere. Even if you didn’t know who the band was the logo quickly became something of an underground icon.

It was music for the fans.

The Format Is Still Valid

Here it is in 2007 and that format these four created is still a valid art form and money maker. Their recent tour is creating a windfall of profits coast to coast. VH will be performing right up to the very end of the year.

Rock radio eventually gave in and gave them airtime. As the band progressed they were taken seriously and considered classic rock. But when they first emerged they were competing against dinosaur bands like Led Zeppelin and The Who. They were the new kids on the block and even as late as 1980 you rarely heard them on the radio. The record sales and the band’s popularity were for the most part all fan driven.

They would tour every year and were creating their own history in arenas. MTV wasn’t very supportive. You would think there would be more interaction with such a super group. There was an occasional video now and then, “Unchained” comes to mind. But when VH released Ray Orbison’s classic, “Pretty Woman” the video was actually banned from airplay.

This made me and other kids my age even more fascinated with the band. So the only way we could experience them was through Circus Magazine and buying the albums and listening to them. The US Festival in Califorina in 1983 was a big moment for the band. They actually parachuted out of an airplane to arrive on the stage. It was a big deal.

When the classic, “1984” album was released everyone gave them credit. VH had a handful of videos to support the album, “Hot For Teacher”, “Jump”, and “Panama”. MTV and Friday Night Videos gave them lots of airplay and radio stations kicked in. Radio stations were promoting the new tour when they came to play large sports arenas. The long climb to the top paid off. Van Halen was a household word.

Kicking The Doors Down

Breaking format and tradition in a corporate environment is typically frowned upon. In most cases the smart ones are singled out of a job situation and belittled by peers. The danger of this is that the innovative one is seen as a threat to the group. The problem usually falls into two categories.

Either the ground breaker is going to become so unique and talented
that he will eventually leave the firm.

Or he may ask for more money

Jealousy is bound to ensue by fellow coworkers. Many of these just do enough work to look busy and not get fired. They could be leeching on the company for insurance reasons or are just too lazy to go out and look for something better.

In a corporate model the idea of being an innovator or a rebel is asking for trouble. There will be lots of backstabbing, arguments, and political mud slinging. There will be meetings behind closed doors and plenty of mind games.

Life becomes hell for the enlightened one. They eventually quit the company and form their own. It is interesting to see these types get so much abuse in a corporate situation. Now this is not always the case. Sometimes these innovators are rewarded.

Usually what happens is that the emerging innovator is seen as “the enemy” because he is going against the norm. Most people want to get out of the company by 5. The innovator wants to do great things for the company and will often stay later – becoming the job. These people are often misunderstood and the norm is to ridicule this person or alienate him.

I am saying that there is nothing wrong with being a rebel innovator. It is how bands like Van Halen are created. It is how the light bulb was invented. Its why we drive SUV’s and Hummers now instead of going to work each day in a horse and buggy.

We need rebels in this country.

Posted by Ted Cantu on Oct. 21, 2007 at 10:01 AM