Even if you DIDN’T order CCM, know this…

The most active discussion forum and best instruction in the world in this niche is ALWAYS being offered at OfflineBiz.com. The great people shown below are three of over 10,000 members of OfflineBiz.com waiting to help you inside our active discussion forums. You’ll find the most cutting edge and effective marketing strategies for ANY business inside OfflineBiz.com and you can talk about it with people that make a living helping other businesses!

My last article told you why I thought CONTENT was king and how to rank high in Google search results the right way. This article is my supporting proof to hopefully convince you I’m right.

My title could be a bit less dramatic, sure.  More accurately stated, this article is about the massive changes I see coming in Google search, and while I’m almost certain it will impact Google’s bottom line in a BIG way, I’m much more interested in helping you know what to do about it NOW to be in a great position as it starts to happen. Even if I’m wrong, I’ll have golden advice for you at the end of this article that will make total sense to you (I hope).

Summary:  This article is about how Google search will inevitably change very soon (I predict) and how to benefit from it starting now.

I’ll cover three things:

1. The facts we know
2. The only obvious conclusions I can think of as a result of these facts, and
3. What you can do NOW to position yourself for traffic, wealth, influence and greatness as Google changes.

Not only do I think trends are in play to wipe out a chunk of Google’s cash flow (Billions annually as browser users “mature”), I also think that the famed Google search engine algorithm is in jeopardy of being increasingly irrelevant very soon for billions of search terms.  Even if these observations are well ahead of their time, I’ve got some golden advice for you anyway. If I’m right about the time-line though, I think you’ll be calling me a genius as early as a couple years from now.

Bold predictions perhaps, but see if you can find any holes in my logic.

We know these facts:

• How Google Makes it’s cash: Google generates most of its revenue currently from Ads running via Adwords/Adsense etc.  If you search for “how to build a dog house” you’ll get paid ads mixed in with what Google thinks are the best sites on the web on the subject based on it’s complex and highly secretive ranking algorithm.
• We are starting to ignore ALL ads: The WHOLE WORLD (especially online) is caring less and less about what advertisers have to say about themselves (paid advertising), and they are caring more and more about what other users and independent reviewers have to say. It’s an undeniable trend.
• We (Google users) are getting smarter and we have opinions: Google users will learn soon (and most have already learned) that the “organic” or “unpaid” results on Google are where the true experts and most respected results are. Sure, paid search results are monitored by Google for “quality score”, but it’s still a game of who has the most money and time to put into writing creative ads. The paid ads do not reflect the quality of the business, knowledge of the expert or usefulness of the content behind the ad. In other words, for good reason we as consumers are caring less and less about paid ads even on Google.
• Google wants us to rank content online and WILL increasingly respect our choices: Google recognizes the need to get end users into the game of “ranking” content, providers, businesses, experts and everything else.  This is why Google came up with the +1 system you see everywhere now. Those ranks will inevitably begin to mean more and more over time. How do I know this? Why else would Google allow us to “vote” on virtually every piece of content online if Google plans on ignoring our votes? I think we’ll see some anti-fraud measures added to the +1 system and Google will take the votes increasingly seriously over time. Sure, they may keep their “algorithm”, but just as with Local Search we’ll start to see the customer feedback really driving the ship. The challenge for Google will no longer be tweaking the algorithm, but will become preventing +1 fraud.
• Ignoring consumer preferences and FORCING us toward paid ads would hurt Google: Any unbiased ranking system can not possibly allow “paid” positioning to be confused with “most popular” results. Sure, Google will still run ads, and sure, some people will still click, but who do you trust more if you are buying a book about building a dog house,  1,000 of your voting peers, or a slick ad writer?

The big question:

If I’m right, where are we heading given the above facts that I think are indisputable?

What will Google do as all these trends unfold and the changes begin to effect their bottom line?

Some of Google’s options once this loss of ad revenue scenario plays out (these are my theories only):

• Start charging us a pay per use/membership fee to use Google (not likely)
• Stop allowing us to vote on content and hope we’ll trust their super secret ranking algorithm forever instead – while also hoping that we’ll accidentally continue to click on and respond to paid ads (this option would almost certainly lead to Google being replaced by a better search engine that allows and respects our votes)
• Google will find a way to snap up experts, top content producers etc. like they snap up small companies now and find ways to cash in on their content. Don’t think they’ll do it? That’s how they run YouTube now with “invitation only” revenue sharing. It won’t be Adsense either – that’s already “uncool” in most corners (and fewer of us will be clicking ads remember?)
• Get a govt. bailout because they are too big to fail (joke)

Regardless of whether or not it plays out exactly like I’m betting it will the following advice is pure gold:

• Create great content and post it all over the place online. Content will clearly RULE both short term and long term online. Any SEO tricks, built in a week websites, set-it-and-forget-it marketing efforts etc. will all DRY UP and be useless at an increasingly faster pace.
• Actively seek the votes and support of your audience as you crank out high quality, low cost (or free) content.
• Monitor your influence and take steps to increase it.
• Engage with your audience. Be in constant conversation. Ask for tangible feedback and support from them.

What if you are not an expert at anything yet? Tap into this trend anyway by helping other true experts capture and share their great content online. I’m always looking for creative people with creative ideas that will expand my reach online and I’m willing to reward their efforts. I’m not the only one in that position either!

You’ll also find many “clueless” experts and content rich businesses in the world that could use help getting into position for the shifts that are happening. Convince them that content is king and then help them get it out there to their eager audience.

Author: Jim Cockrum+

Here’s how:

Post the best content that other respected experts in the same niche willingly link to from their highly regarded sites.  Any other “shortcut”, trick, strategy etc. will ultimately fail you and possibly get your site punished in the ranking or banned.  Creating content that you could ultimately care less about is a waste of your time. Build something real instead.

Any questions?

GET THE AUDIO VERSION HERE

The story behind this book:

I was approached by a major publisher nearly one year ago (the “For Dummies” publisher – Wiley and Sons) and they asked me to write a book about how to START or GROW a business (or spread and idea, a cause, an organization etc.) using free and virtually free marketing ideas.

After nearly a year of hard work on this book I think you’ll love what I’ve come up with.

Hit store shelves Fall 2011.

Thanks Paul Hobart for sending this pic of his 3 1/2 yr old starting her biz career early!

What made me qualified to write this?

From the perspective of the publisher I’d achieved something that many others would like to accomplish. I’d grown multiple successful and creative online businesses…and had done it WITHOUT ever needing to invest a wad of cash. In the rare instances where I did spend any money it was either on inventory that would quickly sell for very nice profits, or it was nominal expenses like $5 for a video, or $30 to have a long audio transcribed into writing etc.

I’ve been a ravenous consumer of effective and “Free Marketing” concepts for over 25 years.

Michael Markuson's daughter explaining some of the finer points to him...

From here forward I’m considering the self appointed title of:  “World’s Foremost Expert on Free Marketing Ideas”.    You like it?   ;0)

Seriously though – the book is CRAMMED with my best ideas and the first few dozen reviews are all RAVING.   It’s so stuffed with great ideas that they asked me to shorten it but I refused. Since they initially asked if I had 100 ideas to fill such a book and I agreed…I decided to deliver those 100+ ideas on MY terms.

The final product is the best ideas from my nearly decade of success online. It’s not a cover to cover type of book though. Whether you have five minutes or six hours to spend with this book I hope you’ll walk away inspired (that was my goal).

I can sniff out winning ideas like a bomb sniffing dog on caffeine. It’s a gift and a curse, but I tried to capture that way of thinking and put it all into a single book.

Click the book image or visit 101freemarketing.com for more info.

Want to see the reviews from readers? Click Here for Amazon’s Reader Reviews Page

Tearing up the charts! It’s a #1 Top Seller Worldwide!

Can you help spread the word?

Finally, here’s my invitation to you to help spread the word about this book. I also explain where the proceeds are going (I’m not keeping them).  You’ll also see a video of my wife, kids and I seeing the book for the first time ever just a few days before it hit store shelves – it was a fun family moment!

Be Sure to buy more than just one copy!!

o   Booster seat for toddlers
o   Have any business minded friends? They’ll love you!
o   Have non-business minded friends with insomnia? They’ll love you too!
o   Christmas isn’t that far off!
o   Sell them on eBay? (or Amazon) and get most if not all of your money back? (the book is still at pre-launch pricing temporarily but that WILL change soon.)

Have a question? Leave a comment and someone will help you out.

I just interviewed Valerie VanBooven about how she’s used Google Places to drive amazing leads and traffic to her own business and websites as well as how she’s profited tremendously by doing the same thing for over 100 grateful clients. The full audio is below for you to enjoy!

You can also download the full MP3 using this link.

The full transcript of the call will be posted here as well asap.

You've seen Google Places. Now learn how to drive traffic and leads to any business or website with it!

Valerie has mastered the science of getting traffic for websites and businesses by tapping into the huge potential of Google Places and she’s put together a comprehensive video course that makes anyone a MASTER of Google Places (Google maps etc.) in very short order. About two hours of time is all you’ll need to get a full education!

Valerie VanBooven of LocalPlaceProfit.com: A Google Places traffic generation expert!

It’s a known fact that Google is very secretive about the algorithm they use to rank websites in their search engines as well as on Google Places, but there are plenty of clues (and relatively little competition) when it comes to Google Places. This presents a HUGE opportunity to those of us that are paying attention. In the free interview that I’ll be conducting expect Valerie to share the most valuable tips and strategies from her comprehensive video training course sold only at LocalPlaceProfit.com. I asked Valerie for an exclusive “behind the scenes” look at her course so I could share it with you.

Here a link to two sample videos from her fantastic video course. Remember, the interview audio will be posted right here as well as on OfflineBiz.com asap after Wed. Members of OfflineBiz.com will also be glad to hear that Valerie has agreed to be a moderator on the OfflineBiz site if anyone has questions about Google Places or about how she runs her business.

Have a question for Valerie about Google places or driving traffic? Leave your questions or comments by clicking the comment button at the top of this post. You know I only bring you the best of the best training, so go ahead and order Valerie’s video training now.

Have you ever watched a young kid play with a door? Most kids find doors (the bigger the better) fascinating.

Open, close, open, close, open, close…

What makes them so fascinating?

I have a theory – see if you agree:

Even as kids we love to see big things move with only a tiny effort required. There’s a powerful feeling that comes from it.

That business principle can make you rich.

“Leverage” is quickly becoming one of my all time favorite words in business.

Leverage (my definition): Gaining significant advantage by creatively choosing the right tool, strategy or partner for the job and then applying minimal effort to achieve substantial results.

Kids just get it…minimal effort…big results (that’s why they whine).

I’ve come to realize that the greatest business opportunities available to me are NOT the opportunities that I strive to pursue on my own by brute force and individual effort. That approach is like chopping down a tree with my bare hands.

Instead I seek out opportunities to apply a small effort to the right tool (or idea) at the right time in order to propel my business forward exponentially. Better yet, I find other people that have the skills that I lack and then put them to work (in partnership) building something that benefits everyone involved.

A story is told about the legendary entrepreneur Henry Ford that drives home this lesson VERY well. While being interviewed, a reporter was attempting to corner Mr. Ford by asking him a series of highly technical questions. Mr. Ford quickly found his answers to each question by picking up the phone and asking his most qualified partners and employees for assistance. He told the reporter, “I don’t need to know all of the answers to run a successful company. I have people around me to answer these questions so I can concentrate on steering the ship.”

I would argue that the best leaders (presidents, CEOs, pastors, Mayors etc.) are not the people that are full of vast amounts of education, training and personal knowledge that they continually draw from to make decisions. Instead, it’s the leader that has the best “team” that is best suited to lead.

Want some modern examples of leverage from my business?

• A very recent example. OfflineBizCards.com just launched. It’s a new website of mine that didn’t cost me a dime to build or a minute of my time to launch…but it’s providing a great service to my customers, and it’s making me money. David Frey built the site entirely for me and GAVE it to me. Why? Because my large customer base at OfflineBiz.com NEEDED a service like this to help them grow their businesses. David is leveraging his relationship with me and offering a valuable service to my large OfflineBiz.com customer base. I benefit by getting a percentage, and my customers benefit by getting a great leverage tool of their own. All parties involved are applying leverage in this scenario.
• Any given day I can drop an email to any or all of the tens of thousands of people that have opted to receive my educational and informational email messages. I sell things too – but only things that I fully stand behind because I know they are potent, relevant, and fairly priced. I’m using email as an email powertool (perhaps the BEST business leverage tool ever invented)
• If my newsletter and membership websites were based entirely on MY personal knowledge of business they’d be far less useful (borderline useless), but instead I pull in partners and customers that “get it” and together we build a community based on relationships and combined knowledge. Now that’s something worth paying attention to!
• I love “ebooks” because of how easy they are to leverage. Customers can order (with the push of a button) and instantly get access to the book – even if it’s something I wrote a couple years ago. I applied effort once, and achieved massive ongoing results. That’s leverage.
• This blog article (writing ANYTHING online actually) is a tool of leverage. Years after I’ve written it, it will still be working for me…drawing people to my site, my brand, my products etc.

How are you using “leverage” in your business? How else have you observed others using it? Have a question or comment about any of this? Click the comment button above to see what others have to say, and leave your own ideas as well.

I predict…

In 2011 those that hold this new currency will thrive, while those that do not will increasingly struggle.

See if you can figure out what the new currency is…it’s a bit of a challenge I have for you.

This currency is far more powerful and available than any previous currency used by businesses or individuals ever before.

In the coming years businesses and individuals will either be rendered irrelevant by a lack of this currency, or they will thrive if they have an abundance of this currency in their possession. Numerous examples of this effect are all around us already.

Some facts about this new currency…

• it is more stable than the dollar, the euro, the yen or gold.
• it is invisible but easy to recognize when you see it.
• it can’t be used to purchase anything, but those who have it lack for nothing.
• it can be invested for nearly unimaginable returns.
• if used incorrectly even just one time it can virtually vanish overnight.

Those possessing an adequate amount of this currency will have doors open to them regardless of how much traditional currency they do or don’t possess.

Your race, age, gender, location, and education have nothing to do with your ability to obtain this currency.

Traditional education gives you no advantage in obtaining this currency.

Traditional currencies cannot be converted into this new currency using any reliable methods.

Right now many people have a great deal of this currency but are not using it for any meaningful purpose.

Have you guessed what the new currency is yet?

After many guesses in the comments section I’m revealing what my take is on the “new currency”. Don’t read on unless you want to know my answer!

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The currency, if you haven’t figured it out yet, is “influence”.

Why is “influence” going to be such a big deal from now on?

It’s a world where a 10-year-old like my son has a YouTube account with videos that have over 100,000 viewers, and where college students have followings of millions of fans because of some simple software concept they launched from their dorm room. It’s an economy that allows tiny niche market experts to have thousands of readers because they write words that appeal to their eager fan base spread around the world.

In all cases these “influential” people have a stockpile of currency that could carefully be converted at any point in two real “money”, but even real money can’t get them the full benefit of the currency they now hold.

Take craigslist.com for example. It’s one of the most visited websites on the planet, it’s not pretty by any means, and there’s no charge to use it for 99% of users. Craigslist has been valued as being worth billions of dollars, but they’ve chosen not to sell and not to accept advertising (for now). Is this crazy? Are they just holding out? Or is it just that they understand something about the stability of the new currency called “influence”?

Craigslist has a massive mailing list of loyal followers that they could use to move virtual mountains if they so chose to. Is that better than having money? In an age when virtually all currency is unstable I’d say that it is worth holding on to.

How can you tap into this “new currency”?

If you aren’t in the habit of “creating content” you need to start doing it. All influential success stories start with audio, video, or written content on a topic that has appeal to their target audience. Content can be ebooks, articles, blog posts, useful or helpful facebook posts or twitter posts etc.

While you are creating your content on your blog, website, youtube, facebook etc. keep one rule in mind. Give people more than they expect and then give some more before you ever ask for anything in return.

Online the “influential” will increasingly be those that are best at “giving” more than they take while earning loyalty. If you can do that there will be no need to “spread the word” because your audience will do that for you…and your “new currency” net worth will explode.

One way to establish influence QUICKLY is to partner with other influential people in a win/win/win way. Make sure you make them look good, and help out their audience while also expanding your email list. For example, I’ve had people GIVE me 100% original special reports (very well written an informational) about topics of interest to my readers. This report had my name on the cover as the author and all they asked was that I give (or sell) the report to my mailing list. In exchange they have a reference to their blog or mailing list inside the report. That’s an example of a win/win/win that grows the influence of someone seeking more of it.

In order to tap into your influence potential you’ll need a way to communicate with your following. This is best done via email, but growing your connections via SMS (text), facebook fan pages, traditional addresses, twitter, etc. will all remain important in measuring the extent of your influence.

Those of you that guessed “time”: This is a very creative guess, but we all have a limited amount of that resource in order to do what we’ve been put here to do!

Those of you that guessed “relationships”: I like this guess, but the term “influence” hits the nail on the head a bit better.

Thanks for the creative cooperation guys -lots of great answers! By no means is this anything other than MY OPINION and an attempt to let you in on the way I think, but there are some GREAT ANSWERS below. I’m floored by the response really. Check out the comments!