Internet Events, Facebook Advertising, Internet Marketing and SEO

I usually don’t talk about my “other” life on this blog, but most of my hard core followers know that half my week I am a chiropractor in La Jolla California. After all that is how I got started in internet marketing over 10 years ago. I have always been the internet marketer for Seaside Chiropractic.

With the recession, the demands on our marketing have been much stronger than usual, so we have had to kick it up a notch or two. In fact, it is time to get some more fingers on the keyboard besides mine. The things that have always worked for us still work, but maybe not quite as well, and we are in hard core testing mode. If you live in San Diego, you will see all kinds of crazy things coming out of our office as testing. Just for the record, chair yoga as a lead gen method does not work well, LOL, one of last weeks tests. I bet from this blog post I will get a ton more opt ins. If you fill it out, I am not going to send you the video, becuase we know you are not the target market 🙂

I have been pulling in all my favorite creative minds to come up with some new ideas to test, Ad Hustler has done some great work that we are testing, Dan Ryan the expert in lead gen has been working on things, and Roseanna (famous from the googling images for Roseanna0 has been firing away as well as myself. By the way I am constantly amazed when clients call me to try to market something for them how quickly they give up. I know to figure something that will work well will most likely take months, and months of testing to find a home run.

I obviously have more ideas than I have time to test, so today for the first time I had a job interview for a social media marketer. I never would have thought of hiring someone for this, since I am one!

It was one of the funnest job interviews I have ever had. In case you don’t know my history on this, I am about the most bad ass job interviewers in the world. If you imagine me interviewing people, you are totally wrong. Unless you have been there, you could never imagine what it is like. I actually get fan letters from people who have been to my interviews years later talking about how it was the turning point of their life.

Tonight was totally different. It was a completely different crowd than a normal chiropractic office group interview. It was mostly guys. They didn’t smile much. It reminded me of talking to groups at internet conferences. They were pretty intense. They knew social media, and used it. Some of them were working on it constantly. The funny thing was how different their daily experiences were. One woman spends her day on youtube and myspace, helping to promote bands. Another guy, is doing a lot of text advertising, another guy has a funny tshirt site. By text I mean, building up text message lists, the way I build email lists. Another one is building twitter friends like crazy to build his t-shirt business.

So we had a great group discussion on the subject of social media for small businesses.

We got to one point, and I asked them, how many of you have facebook accounts? Everyone.

Then asked them how many have twitter accounts? 10 out of the 12.

I paused, realizing the historicalness of the moment, then with a grin, asked them,

“How many twitter followers do you have?”

It was an odd moment, because I think to all of us we realized how odd the moment was.

Here was  verifiable statistically measurable method of evaluating these social media applicants.

One had 300, another 1,000, and so on, then one girl had 12,000 followers.

Then I asked them the tough question, what is your ratio?

Most of them were pretty close to one to one.

When I got to the girl, she was following like 40 people, and had 12,000 followers.

It turned out she had modeling shots in her bikini.

Somehow it always seems to come down to that. LOL

I also asked them how many of them had looked me up online?

All of them said they had.

I asked them what they knew about me.

None of them had found this blog, or the other stuff about me online.

Let’s see if any of them find it now. 🙂

This is a short post, only for those of us who were at Domain Fest in Santa Monica and got sick.

I reached out to Heff through one of the playmates I know.

I set up a yahoo group, only for those of us who were at Domain Fest to discuss whatever.

I know some of us are still having some problems as a result of getting sick, and this is simply

a place where people can share any info they want to.

If you were one of the attendees, just send me an email to dk (at) purposeinc.com

I just came across this on Wikipedia, attributed to Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee’s son.

It is just lovely.

Brandon died when he was 28, his father at age 32.

Time to get busy 🙂

Well, I would say this: when you move down the road towards mastery of the martial arts—and you know, you are constantly moving down that road—you end up coming up against these barriers inside yourself that will attempt to stop you from continuing to pursue the mastery of the martial arts. And these barriers are such things as when you come up against your own limitations, when you come up against the limitations of your will, your ability, your natural ability, your courage, how you deal with success—and failure as well, for that matter. And as you overcome each one of these barriers, you end up learning something about yourself. And sometimes, the things you learn about yourself can, to the individual, seem to convey a certain spiritual sense along with them.

…It’s funny, every time you come up against a true barrier to your progress, you are a child again. And it’s a very interesting experience to be reduced, once again, to the level of knowing nothing about what you’re doing. I think there’s a lot of room for learning and growth when that happens—if you face it head on and don’t choose to say, “Ah, screw that! I’m going to do something else!”

We reduce ourselves at a certain point in our lives to kind of solely pursuing things that we already know how to do. You know, because you don’t want to have that experience of not knowing what you’re doing and being an amateur again. And I think that’s rather unfortunate. It’s so much more interesting and usually illuminating to put yourself in a situation where you don’t know what’s going to happen, than to do something again that you already know essentially what the outcome will be within three or four points either way.

– Brandon Lee

I just had an email conversation this morning with two different guys I really trust about product launches.

One of them is one of the most famous SEO’s and Affiliate marketers in the world, and the other runs a well known Affiliate Company.

You guys see big companies do product launches all the time.

You see Apple create this huge buzz, and then start selling a phone that has people lining up all night for.

You see a new concert come to town, where people go into a frenzy for weeks before hand.

Even the super bowl works this way.

It is much more exciting, than just doing the day in day out routine we have.

You can sell anything that way from a new toaster, to an affiliate product that isn’t even yours.

This also ties in with another fundamental thing happening on the internet that I think about every day.

Traffic is becoming more and more expensive to get. The cost of clicks has gone up and there is more competition to get to the top of Google for a phrase.

So what the smart money is doing, myself included, is building email lists. Once you have someone hit your site, get their email, and then you can communicate with them again for free. You only paid for them the first time they got there.

Again, big business has known this for decades, that is why they want you to fill out warranty, and registration cards with your address and email on them.

So the master of doing this online is Jeff Walker.

All the big shots in info marketing learned from Jeff first. He has been doing online product launches for over 15 years.

Last year I was so blown away by Jeffs marketing that I spent my own cold hard cash on Jeffs product.

The funny thing was that before I even bought the product, I copied his marketing and did an extra $30k in sales over a couple of weeks.

I can’t recommend enough you study his marketing, even if you don’t buy his product.

You can see Jeff’s marketing here.

If you don’t watch it quickly, and follow along fast it will all be taken down.

Jeff only sells his product once or twice a year, and once he takes the marketing materials down, (which will be in a few days),

they will never be put up again. Check it out.

P.S. The current Product Launch Formula marketing piece is on Launch Disasters.

There is always some hot item in the internet world. Recently it was Acai, and now it is Penny Auctions.

When a friend of mine first put one up and I saw it, it felt like I was gambling. When I asked about it, he assured me that they were totally legal.

One of my good friends asked his attorney to write us an article about them.

I hope you find his opinion insightful. It is totally the attorneys opinion and not mine.

Legal Aspects of Penny Auctions

Penny auction websites are popping up by the dozen. Is it safe to get in on the action, or are these “entertainment shopping” sites too risky for owners and bidders alike? Here is an overview of penny auction sites and their standing under various state and federal laws.

Mixed Messages: Credit Card Processors and the BBB

The penny auction (PA) business is raising eyebrows. Some people regard penny auction sites as gambling havens that will inevitably be shut down. In fact, PayPal is denying service to certain penny auction sites, perhaps overzealously protecting themselves from charges of violating the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. Other merchant card processors, such as Authorize.net, may also be getting cold feet as the penny auction action heats up.

At the same time, it’s not unheard of for a penny auction site to earn the Better Business Bureau’s seal of approval, and merchant processors such as FirstData and Amazon Check Out have provided solid service for a number of penny auction business owners. Processors that consider a PA site to be high-risk can protect themselves from excessive chargebacks by requiring a security deposit or having the site owner keep a rolling reserve of about 10%.

Most of the online penny auction establishments seem to operate by the letter of the law and will find ways to stay in service. Securing written permission from a credit card processor, even before the website is launched, can be a proactive way of ensuring that service is not denied.

Are Penny Auctions Legal? States Weigh In

Do penny auction websites really constitute online gambling? While state laws are murky, the penny auction sites seem to be in the clear. PAs are operating out of California, Georgia, Illinois, New Jersey, and a number of other states.

As of 2010, online gambling has been expressly legalized in New Jersey. In other U.S. states, gambling has not necessarily been legalized, but that probably doesn’t even matter when penny auctions are concerned. That’s because they don’t count as gambling; they just don’t involve enough chance.

In California and most other states, a game is considered a game of chance if it’s “dominated by chance.” Being dominated by chance is different from being determined entirely by chance, and that helps to bolster the argument that the websites are legal under state law. After all, people do not bid randomly on auction items; they bid strategically. The process isn’t comparable to blindly pulling a slot machine lever or participating in a random jackpot drawing.

Another type of relevant state law concerns the penny auction bids. Since these go to the website and not to the other bidders, they are not technically part of a bet. This protects users from being charged with illegal gambling. Of course, if a website were operated unethically, it could draw more bids out of participants. This could be achieved by populating the site with bots or having an employee use phony accounts.

Penny Auctions and Federal Law

Penny auctions are relatively new to the United States, and they haven’t been outlawed under federal law. Gambling is not expressly prohibited online either, although a 2006 law, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, prohibits banks from transferring funds to gambling websites. Thus, if penny auctions do become declared a form of gambling, the websites may have trouble routing funds from users’ financial institutions.

The Federal Trade Commission and other branches of the federal government are presently concerned only with fraudulent penny auction websites. They have responded to several reports of unethical websites that deceive customers with shill bids.

The Jury Is Out

Although the auction sites remain legal for now, their opponents remain in an uproar. What can opponents say? They argue that users pay a fee but receive nothing of value. That’s why penny auction sites are now touting themselves as a form of “entertainment shopping”: with each bidding right purchased, they would say, the user also gets a bit of a thrill.

As more disgruntled users file complaints, the new auction business model is likely to catch the eyes of legislators. In addition, many well known industry players have already gotten in on the action…specifically those who were tied to the “Acai” berry fiasco that prompted the FTC Guidelines in 2009.  Still, PA site owners who follow the law, keep a tidy paper trail, and treat their bidders properly should have clear skies ahead. Meanwhile, potential consumers should carefully research a penny auction site’s reputation and its terms before deciding to get in on the action.

Aaron M. Kelly, Esq.

The Kelly Law Firm, L.L.C.

13430 N. Scottsdale Road, Suite 106

Scottsdale, Arizona 85254

Licensed in Arizona and Michigan

Looking back on 7th grade math class, I remember Tina Rotta, and I remember these little circles being drawn on the board being called Ven Diagrams. All of a sudden I got the concept of how things can connect to things that connect to things.

It became part of a running joke with my friend Mark and I and the cast of Different Stroked, until Dana Plato died. We had Dana show up at a 50’s party I had, and also we would deliver pizza to Jeff Bridges when I worked at Numero Uno pizza.

Cirque du Soleil does this. They brought together all of the best parts of life, art, music, dance, beauty, sex, hot chicks, acrobatics, and even half pipes! The craziest moment of Cirque for me was the final song of Love the first time I saw it, when this angry, disabled older woman was standing there fists clenched, crying her eyes out, singing along, as if it was still 1971. Cirque can be that powerful.

As a chiropractor and an athlete I am in love with the bodies, the motion, and the limits they push themselves past.

So imagine my sheer job, when at the Purpose Inc. XY7 poker tournament at Affiliate Summit, Angel Djambazov introduces me to this quiet, tough and tender looking Russion guy named Vlad. Then Angel says, “He’s in charge of Cirque de Soleil’s e-commerce, and has been asked to bring new marketing innovation to Cirque”

I almost peed in my pants in jealousy.

To me the internet is communication. What a wonderful thing to talk to the world about, Cirque du Soleil.

Vlad has an amazing past, across many continents and countries, but doesn’t want me to brag about him, so I will keep it to that. 🙂

He is the perfect guy for the job at Cirque.

Then after Vlad Vervelsky got knocked out, he quietly asks me if I know anyone who would like to go see O with him right now. I was about 2 seconds of leaving my own poker tournament to go with him, but figured that probably would not work out too well! So instead I grabbed some of the crew who were watching the game, and off they went to see O while the boys played poker.

Imagine going from sitting there watching poker for 6 hours, to being taken to one of the biggest shows in Vegas, by the a bigshot from Cirque’s marketing!

So Vlad added some real extra sparkle to the tournament.

To switch over to a different universe, I grew up in Sun Valle, on the edge of L.A.’s San Fernando Valley, auto wrecking capital of the world. Full of stray dogs, gangs, and empty lots full of fun stuff to blow up or play with in the days before the word toxic dump was invented! Growing up I thought we were rich because our neighborhood was so much nicer than the bad parts of Sun Valley. Later I realize were plain old middle class. After the end of the Jackson 5, and before Michael Jackson became famous, Tito Jackson moved in on our street. I was a little kid, and he was a pop star, so I wouldn’t say we hung out and spun records together, but he would smile and wave, and say hi, every time we parted from our mid street football game.

I then fell in love with Michael Jacksons music. The one section in ABC, “What I neeeeeeed…” is still for me one of the greatest moments of art of all time.

So imagine how tripply excited I was when Vlad said that Cirque is coming out with a Michael Jackson Cirque De Soleil.

My wife and I have seen every Cirqu in Vegas now, except Zumanity, and have even seen some of the traveling tent Cirques.

It is crazy how the world keeps intersecting in and out of all of my different worlds.

I honestly don’t think there are really 4 or 5 billion people out there. I honestly think the number is more like 10,000.

Just enough that I haven’t met everyone yet, but small enough that everyone I ever meet seems to already be connected to me.

I’ve talked a lot lately about some of the hurdles of affiliate marketing, and have been trying to understand what is happening in there, who can be trusted, and what exactly is going on. I came across an amazing story, called Four Easy Ways to get Sued as a direct response marketer. (Just scroll down about half way down the page.)

It tells the story of the supposed herbal male enhancement pill. I loved the commercials with the 50’s feel, and the guy with the big smile, and the sexy yet accessable women who hovered around this innocent guy. Really amazing marketing. Made me want to eat the stuff as breakfast cereal! Well according to the article, it turns out the stuff was a scam (not surprising), and that the guy selling it went to jail! Holy crap!

The article goes on to say that the guy went to jail, not for selling a crap product, but for continuing to bill people who got tricked into billing.

I was recently talking to a very famous ex-blackhat marketer, about ethics over a Chipotle burrito. We both agreed that the biggest criteria we had in selling something was, in addition to it being legal, that it actually told the consumer what they were getting, and the terms in obvious language. Look, if you want to buy a giant yellow whistle that you think will bring space aliens down to earth, that is you and the advertisers prerogative. But if the advertiser guarantees it will work, it better, and if the advertiser says he will bill you $49 for three months, then it better not be four.

There are other tips in there obviously written by a direct response veteran who has been in the trenches.

I also got drawn into the article on media buys. This is a newer subject for me that I am studying up on.

The more I dig into this industry the more fun and interesting it gets.

It has been an interesting few weeks helping a little with the marketing of Amish’s magic bullet.

If you have been following me I got introduced to the “info marketers” last spring, when I followed Shoemoney to Frank Kern’s event in San Diego.

Now, any of you who know me, know that I spent a lot of time, money, and effort the past 4 years learning every facet of internet business that I can.

I’ve gotten to meet with Execs at facebook, work on building a server that could handle 2,000 requests per second because it needed to, got written up by Matt Cutts on his blog, been made fun of by Danny Sullivan in front of 2,000 people at pubcon, thrown poker tournaments, been the playboy mansion twice, (third time this thursday at Domain fest!), driven Matt Mullenweg to Dim Sum, been mentioned in lots of press, Spoken at Affiliate Summit, Pubcon, etc., made my own exclusive invite only kinda conference, got known for Video marketing, and on and on and on.

I have set out to experience every nook and cranny of the internet business world, and when I was trained enough have now set off on a few new cool ventures. The new main one, that no one knows about,  is still going to be top secret for a little while longer.

Amish just gave me the opportunity to market to the toughest group in the world, internet marketers. I know a lot of my crowd are CEO’s, finance guys, etc. but all of us sell and market.

What cracks me up is how we as a group market to millions and millions of people a day. Each one of us at a minimum reaches thousands of people a day with our marketing message.

The crazy ass funny thing about me is I love people to market to me.

I love reading good emails. I love seeing good T.V. commercials. In fact I actually often enjoy commercials more than the shows.

Amish, did get thousands of dollars of sign ups through my links. I honestly am not too concerned whether I get the money or not,

but I did get a hell of an experience about info marketing.

One of the really cool things about it, is how personal it is. When I sent out each email, it has my name at the end of it. If you liked the email, you either smiled, signed up, unsubscribed, or just deleted.

I think the hardest part on the recipients are those people who are friends or fans, who just hated the emails.

In fact Scott Richter, the father of affiliate marketing, just sent me an email basically saying he thought my emails were irritating. I love Scott and I know he likes me too. 🙂

I also was talking to the two heads of another big affiliate company at Affiliate Summit, who realized who I was. One of them was saying out loud to me, “I don’t know why I never unsubscribe from your emails?”

I once heard Howard Stern say something to the effect that, “They don’t turn off because they don’t want to miss what is going to happen next”.

I never go negative. Well, almost never. 😉

A lot of people who like to maintain a public presence in our internet business world like to go negative to cause a stir. I don’t.

I just enjoy helping others connect, helping others make their lives better, and laughing my fucking ass off. 🙂

It is tough for the reader to want to be part of that, but also hate marketing messages if I send them.

I think I made it hard on a few people because they had the stress of wanting to see what will happen next,

next event, next conference, next party, or fun video, but also didn’t want to see the sales emails.

Well, thank you to those who signed up for Amish’s thing. Good luck, work hard on it, and ask for

my help if you need it. And for the rest of you, thanks for hitting the delete key, instead of the unsubscribe. 🙂

I honest to god, love the crap out of everyone who reads this, between 5k and 20k people each posting,

and really, really, really am enjoying this run!

Much Love,

dk

My wife sent this to my staff today.

As any of you know, no matter how important the thing, I always find humor in it.Don’t worry, I am actually quite fit, but about a bajillion pounds overweight.

So yes, time for high protein, and low cookies.

I have a great wife. LOL

Hello All,

I have permission from Dave to send you all this e-mail. Hahaha

I have extreme concerns about his weight. If his weight continue to go up…he is at risk for serious diseases…and may get to a point of no return.

He needs to lose weight starting immediately.

He needs to go down on on average 2 pounds a week initially. As he is losing weight, it will gradually be about 1 pound a week.

In order to lose 2 pounds a week, he needs to be in deficit 7000 calories per week. That is his caloric intake per day needs to be about 2000 at his current weight.

I need your assistance in achieving this. From experience, I know that the higher protein diets will help him lose weight…because it will fill him up…without taking in too many calories…it will boring (yawn) and he will not feel like eating.

Examples of good lunches for him are the Chicken dish/Pilaf dish from Trader Joe’s that he has gotten recently.

At Bahia..perhaps a bowl of ground chicken/ground beef…with some salsas to spice it up.

At Chipotle…a bowl of ground chicken/beef…some lettuce and vegetables…corn and salsas

PLEASE NO MORE PIZZA/THAI FOOD/CHINESE FOOD…I know that these are exciting meals for everyone…but I don’t want Dave to die….you will all be out of a job if that happens!!!!!!!!

Love you all…and thank you in your assitance…the goal is not to starve the guy…rather the contrary…have him eat all the protein he wants….minus all the fun acoutraments…..

AND NO COOKIES….Taaaaaaaaaaake those out of his hand…even his mouth if he dares take a bite.

Ad Hustler did a great job posting his funny observations about affiliate summit.

I want to post a few observations of my own.

I had two very different experiences with networks and a thousand bucks.

One of them was quite fun. I went to talk business with Revenue Wire, after my friend Jim Banks suggested they might have a solution for something I was working with. They asked for my card, and I told them I don’t even have any. They wrote my name and email on one of their business cards. The next day I got a call that I had won a $1,000 in some drawing, I was unaware of.  At first I thought it was a practical joke, but then I realized it wasn’t. I showed up with Jonathan Volk and Ryan Grey.

Now here is the important part of the story. Revenue Wire said they were going to give me $1,000. I showed up. They gave me $1,000.

Not only was it fantastic, fun to win, and made Revenue Wire look like rock stars, but they did what they told me they were going to do.

Revenue Wire is going to get lots of great press, respect, appreciation, and marketing from me etc. because of this simple action.

Let’s compare it now with another story, of Network X, whose name I will withhold.

I don’t want to slam on Network X, but instead tell the story as an example of the simplicity of good business ethics.

We had a transaction a few months back, for which they were to give me $2,000. They agreed the money was to be paid by a certain date. They paid $1,000 of it. They did not pay the other $1,000. They then said the money would be paid by a certain date. That date came and went and still they had not paid the $1,000.

Then I asked the person in charge of the network for the $1,000, and they said they could probably get it to me that day. The next day, I did not have the money. After the show when I asked for the $1,000 they said, that they needed to pay blank and blank to keep the business alive and I was a lower priority.

I told them this was not acceptable and they could just pay me $100 a month. The answer was, we will just pay you when we can pay you.

Oddly enough I also ran into some money guys during the show, who are offering money to affiliates who need financing.  We had a great talk about the affiliate industry, the level of honesty industry wide, and ways they could help.

Right now big business money is trying to find its way into the affiliate industry. I keep hearing, but no first hand information, that the government is looking at the industry and making decisions about regulations.

The difference between the two stories is simply this.

Revenue Wire said they would pay me $1,000 and 15 minutes later, they paid me $1,000 in cash.
Network X said they would pay me $1,000, and then they didn’t, and don’t seem to be interested in doing so.

I have been in business for over 20 years.

Although the start was very bumpy, I have lived by my word. Yes I have made mistakes, and yes I do make mistakes, and yes I will in the future. But if I promise something, I will move heaven and earth to accomplish it, or if I fail I will work sunrise till after sundown to make up for it. That simple.

If you conduct business that way, people will trust you.

I remember once trust being defined as saying you would do something, and then doing that. If you do that enough times, people trust you. If you do something different than you say you will then trust is lost.

I am becoming more active in the affiliate industry, and there are organizations that have really gained my trust, simply by doing  what they said they would.

The network who said they would pay me $1,000, and then didn’t lost my trust.

It is that simple.