Make it sustainable
Here’s a potentially controversial subject. Your opinion in the comments is eagerly encouraged.
To wit: A fellow said he’d reached astronomical numbers in his daily web traffic, and he was very happy about this. But he would not tell us where to find these wonderful sites he had created (there are, apparently, more than one). He would not reveal URLs because:
“- People copying my niche
- People copying my content
- People copying easy keyword phrases I rank for which I’ve discovered from years of gaining specialized knowledge on my niche
…… ”
I responded swiftly, and far too emotionally. This whole situation seems wrong, wrong, wrong to me. But I must not assume others feel the same way. I should look at things more objectively.
There are, after all, swarms of deluded people, spammers, cyber criminals, blackhat operators, and page sculpting creeps who are seeking to game the system however they can. The interactive web lays itself wide open to their shenanigans. And if you’ve worked hard creating content, it’s a burn when someone steals it.
And I know pride of keyword discovery can be enormous. The search engines churn along in a ineffable cloud of unknowing, one that every would-be superhero wants to pierce. Success with keywords can be directly translatable into big cash and big renown.
Especially if your methods can be easily replicated, you probably suspect from the get-go that anyone could do what you’re doing. You know your ideas will probably be stolen. And once it is out of your hands, your system will go to work for the thief, returning the same benefits to the criminal as to you. The bad guy’s easy ride enrages you.
What you’re overlooking, though, is your audience’s intelligence. A person who launches online businesses based in such easily-replicated system-gaming techniques is loudly demonstrating their lack of respect for the individual souls who make up their market. They are happily making lotsa bucks from faceless masses. They’re using an industrial/corporate model; one in which sensitivity to the individual customer makes no sense.
The internet model, though, does an about face (pun sort of intended). Its technology and venues allow building your client base with utmost individual attention. Specific targeting is easy. Connect with a few key people and watch your network bloom. End up with a tailor-made, ready-and-willing opt-in list who will remain loyal for a long time.
When you build a list with care and passion, you bond with your market for the duration. When you game the system, you rent your market, short term.
It’s as if you invented and then tried to hold the patent on dancing the rumba. All of a sudden, there are a zillion rumba teachers, making money off your invention.
The smart rumba inventor is thrilled to death that the invention has received such popular approval, and encourages teachers and students of the dance form wherever they may appear. The deluded rumba inventor is offended, and wants to keep the rumba for himself only.
I’ve tried to look at all this sympathetically, understanding the stresses and strains that many an internet marketer will undergo. But in the end, I’ve failed to produce a conclusion any different from my original gut reaction.
Building an internet basis for business that’s founded in manipulative structures and techniques is going to be problematic.
Building an internet basis for business that’s founded in sincerely helping people is going to be sustainably successful.
Anonymity is a bore and frustration online. We want to know and do business with real people. We want to trust you, but we won’t do so unless you provide good reason. And without our trust, you are faceless. But worse, you can be replicated.
Do you want to establish a business that’s respected for being helpful, that has a steady and reliable clientèle, that will thrive despite the creeps who would rip you off? The only way to do that is through being true to yourself while deeply respecting your public. Then you need not bury your treasures for fear of losing them; instead, you trust and create and share, finding your riches in the largesses of these three.
Such a long post! Yet there’s more to say. You say it for me, in the comments …
