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Charlie
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 11:25 am
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| AllanGardyne wrote: | | Phil Tanny wrote: |
Now try to imagine Allan making his living off of sales to that handful of us who regularly visit the forum. |
I shudder at the thought. |
So do I...
| Quote: | Fortunately, I don't rely on this forum to pay the groceries.  ( |
Do you still get the seafood flown in from the old country, or is it just a rumour? 
| Phil Tanny wrote: | | A perception of quality seems to depend to a degree upon some sense of scarcity, and info scarcity is really an endangered species, thanks to our own relentless efforts. |
I'm not quite sure what you're saying here...
Personally, the more content that is created, the more I am reminded of "quality" due to it's absence (or at least it's scarcity). The fact that more is published does not alter the perception of quality in what I am looking for, just makes all our jobs as searchers harder.
Just my opinion,
Charlie.
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Dominique
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 11:33 am
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| Phil Tanny wrote: |
My sense is that if we want to keep up with an accelerating tide of history, on and off the Net, we have to learn how to live in a state of ongoing unsettling disatisfaction.
That sounds like a negative message, and if change slows down or stops, then it is.
But if change continues and accelerates, then learning how to make peace with an increasingly insecure psychological environment seems like a constructive useful skill. |
Reminds me of a monsterboard-ad that ran for a while in Holland. Don't know if it was a global thing, so don't know if you got exposed to it.
Starts with seeing two babies.
One peacefully asleep, one crying and obviously angry.
Then it changes to x years later, and the angry baby turns into Bill Gates.
The message is: Stay Angry. Change your career. Go to monsterboard.nl
In which "stay angry" could as well be "learn how to live in a state of ongoing unsettling dissatisfaction."
But the latter would probably not have been as successful
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Phil Tanny
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 12:39 pm
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Hi there Charlie,
| Charlie wrote: | | Personally, the more content that is created, the more I am reminded of "quality" due to it's absence (or at least it's scarcity). |
OK, I hear that. Yes, as the overall quanity of content grows, the ratio of quality to junk declines. So, in that sense, quality could be said to be scarce, relative to the whole market.
I was looking at it like this. If there is only one good site on squirrels, I will value that specific site highly, because it's my only source of info.
If there are 150 good sites on squirrels, then each of these sites takes on less importance in my outlook.
When every single person on earth has a good squirrel site, containing much the same info, then it seems the competition shifts to arenas other than my content vs. your content.
Watcha think?
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Phil Tanny
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 12:43 pm
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| Dominique wrote: | | In which "stay angry" could as well be "learn how to live in a state of ongoing unsettling dissatisfaction." But the latter would probably not have been as successful |
Ha! You're right!
I'm not sure exactly, but my guess is the right attitude involves embracing opposites.
"Be happy staying angry!" perhaps.
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robertb
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2005 1:50 pm
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| Phil Tanny wrote: |
My sense is that newbies will grasp the model shifts more quickly than the experts, because most experts become psychological and financial captives of whatever they have succeeded with in the past.
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I see what you're saying, but I'm not so sure about that.
Most newbies never amount to much in this business because they are too quick to jump ship from one method and pick up another, without fully giving the first the benefit of the doubt. While experts have the financial means and view of the land to see the changes in advance and the capital to make a shift.
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Declan OReilly
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 3:00 am
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| Phil Tanny wrote: | When every single person on earth has a good squirrel site, containing much the same info, then it seems the competition shifts to arenas other than my content vs. your content.
Watcha think? |
Thats where the marketing machine comes in.
As surfers become more discerning its up to us as marketers to 'package' the product to their desires.
When you walk down the shampoo isle in the supermarket what makes you choose one brand of shampoo over another? They all do the same thing but marketers will have us believe that their brand of shampoo will result in an ****** experience in the shower!
The same applies for marketing squirrel sites. Although the quality of content may be similar to the other 4.99 billion sites its the perceived '***' of one site which draws people to it and not the others.
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Phil Tanny
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 12:56 pm
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| Quote: | | experts have the financial means and view of the land to see the changes in advance and the capital to make a shift. |
If we look at the commercialization of the Net, we'll see a history where the little guys did the pioneering, but then the big guys came along and used their capital to jump in after the fact and dominate. The little guys had the vision, the big guys had the bucks. The big guys can be good at innovating within an existing paradigm, but it usually takes outsiders to create a new paradigm.
Nature has a solution here. Kids. New people who aren't part of the established order are always being created, and this preserves the culture's ability to make concept leaps. The Net is still dominated by the under 30 set because most of us older folks were already waist deep in some other industry at the time the Net went commercial.
What we're seeing now is this same under 30 set morphing in to the over 40 set, and becoming psychologically and financially attached to the paradigm they pioneered.
Get to work on those babies guys and gals, we're gonna need'em.
| Declan OReilly wrote: | | When you walk down the shampoo isle in the supermarket what makes you choose one brand of shampoo over another? |
I love your analogy Declan, that's perfect! Thanks for translating my abstract sermonage in to a simple clear example.
So, how does a site owner respond to being just one more brand of shampoo on the shelf?
Emotionally, I want to endlessly tweak my shampoo formula (the content on my site) in search of perfection. Intellectually, I wonder if should bulk order some generic shampoo, and put most of my investment in to SEO, graphic design for *** appeal etc.
I really have no idea, thus an interest in this thread.
Thanks!
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Charlie
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 1:35 pm
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| Phil Tanny wrote: | | When every single person on earth has a good squirrel site, containing much the same info, then it seems the competition shifts to arenas other than my content vs. your content. |
I think there might be more nuts in Florida, so your squirrels have an advantage.
But you surely don't expect everyone would make a quality site about quirrels (even if they could). Thankfully, there isn't much money in squirrels, so people tend to focus more on quality content than SE spam, even when their passion for squirrels gets the better of them.
| Quote: | | "Be happy staying angry!" perhaps. |
I prefer...
"Be happy living in a state of ongoing unsettling dissatisfaction."
When people start looking satisfied, things stop improving. Progress relies on unfulfilled expectations (and disagreement) to fuel the action.
| Declan OReilly wrote: | | When you walk down the shampoo isle in the supermarket what makes you choose one brand of shampoo over another? |
Well personally, I buy what I always buy. I thought everyone did...
But then again, I don't need much these days. Hair today, gone tomorrow, so to speak...
I blame Sitesell, but I'm not alone... it happens to the best of them!
(Actually, most of mine fell out long before I'd even heard of Ken & Co - but I can't admit that, as it ruins the story.)
Cheers,
Charlie.
P.S. | Quote: | | Get to work on those babies guys and gals, we're gonna need'em. |
Sort of "go forth and multiply", you mean?
I blame the parents...
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Declan OReilly
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 1:57 pm
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| Phil Tanny wrote: | | I really have no idea, thus an interest in this thread... |
Phil, your post reminds me of a book one time called "The Tipping Point". Its basic thrust was about 'pioneeers' in all areas of life who who create trends. These people are usually outside the mainstream, on the fringes. They are the people who create the REAL paradigm shifts.
Eventually all good ideas move from the fringes to the mainstream. Either they sell out or the rest of us catch up. The question is how to be stay true and not sell out?
Do we want to serve pap to the masses or do we want to be pioneers?
Marketing is like a conversation.
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Phil Tanny
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 3:10 pm
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Charlie, your post had me laughing out loud. I declare
thee the official QuipMaster!
| Charlie wrote: | I think there might be more nuts in
Florida, so your squirrels have an advantage.
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Aha! I found it, my edge! I'm nuts, and that's good!
| Charlie wrote: | Progress relies on unfulfilled
expectations (and disagreement) to fuel the action. |
Amidst the hilarity Charlie hits a serious point bulls eye.
This is a really interesting point, imo.
Progress depends on unhappiness. Wow, think about that.
This is the industry we're in. The consumer culture we
serve as affiliate marketers is about convincing people they
need something they don't already have.
We tell ourselves that our buying and selling is about
creating happiness, but really the process depends on
creating unhappiness.
Who you are, and what you have, is inadequate. You and your
life is not good enough, it has to be improved. Buy my
stuff, and it will solve the problem. Until the release of
my next product of course.
This consumer culture paradigm is a dead end street because,
by design, it can never deliver the bottom line it promises,
happiness. If you sell me a product that really does make
me happy, I don't need to buy any more products, end of
game.
My nature sites are fueled by a vague glimmer of partial
understanding that what Life has provided us is, by itself,
good enough. Assuming food, shelter and a reasonably
healthy body, what we need to be happy is already there.
Trillions of dollars of economic activity is feverishly
engagaed in trying to stimulate us and distract us from
ourselves. All this noise is dulling our senses, and is the
chief obstacle keeping us from becoming alert and awake
enough to observe that say for example, baby squirrels,
which fall out of trees for free, are actually far more
entertaining than Nintendo.
We're driving around like crazy looking at life through the
dirty windshield of our distracted minds, and wondering why
we never quite arrive at a place that is sufficiently
beautiful. So we drive ever faster, because somebody told
us that the place we're looking for can be found on the
other side of the next order form.
If we want a truly revolutionary paradigm shift, we might
stop and clean the windshield.
And then we might discover that where ever we happened to be
parked at the moment is actually quite interesting, now that
we can see it.
If we used the Net for cleaning windshields, instead of for
selling the next false consumer culture promise, imagine
what might happen.
Millions of people might find their happiness inside of
themselves, and in their immediate surroundings. Now we
don't need to spend quite so many trillions producing glitzy
gizmos, and all that economic power could be redirected to
helping folks who have problems larger than the
psychological. Thus less fear in the world, thus less wars,
thus more economic power liberated for something
constructive, etc.
So, this either reaches for the heart of what our affiliate
marketing world is all about, or it's completely off topic.
You tell me.
| Quote: | Do we want to serve pap to the masses or do we want
to be pioneers? |
Another way to phrase the question might be, what kind of
pioneers do we want to be?
Being business pioneers is more attainable, because it
involves working within the existing paradigm. Deliver the
same stuff a bit more efficiently than somebody else. Feed
the grazing cattle penned up within the walls of the
paradigm.
Being content pioneers is a lot more interesting. You're
out on the frontier of the paradigm prairie, wind in your
face, looking over the next hill. There might not be too
many customers out on the frontier yet, but if you happen to
arrive just before the rest of the settlers, you might hit
it big.
As always, thank for the conversations guys. So, be nutty,
and make it ***. I'm taking notes.
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Declan OReilly
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 3:45 pm
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| Phil Tanny wrote: | | All this noise is dulling our senses, and is the chief obstacle keeping us from becoming alert and awake enough to observe that say for example, baby squirrels, which fall out of trees for free, are actually far more entertaining than Nintendo. |
Food for thought...
Must be the squirrel consciousness that makes me want to hoard these little nuggets of wisdom that drop out of nowhere.
Maybe I just haven't realised that we are living in a post scarcity society.
Or maybe we need to make things simpler like a McDonalds menu.
McSquirrel Sandwich anyone?
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Phil Tanny
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2005 4:13 pm
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| Declan OReilly wrote: | | post scarcity society. |
Great phrase, sums it up nicely.
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AllanGardyne
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 3:37 am
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| Phil Tanny wrote: | | So, how does a site owner respond to being just one more brand of shampoo on the shelf? |
Perhaps fairly soon we'll have to respond to even huger challenges.
I imagine the Internet and TV will morph and merge so that it's difficult to see where one ends and the other begins.
We're remarkably fortunate to be living at a time in which we can earn a living using plain text email newsletters and scrappy little websites. Make the most of it!
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AllanGardyne
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 4:14 am
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| Phil Tanny wrote: |
So, how does a site owner respond to being just one more brand of shampoo on the shelf? |
Purely by coincidence, I just came across an article by AdSense guru Perry Marshall in which he answers that question. He says...
| Quote: |
...long term, you need to become a value added affiliate.
But really, it goes still deeper than that. If you want to insulate yourself from competition, you need to have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that clearly shows why people should do business with you over anyone and everyone else. And your USP needs to be based on a combination of things that are, collectively, difficult for others to quickly and easily replicate. |
I think what Perry says is so important it's worth writing out on a sticky note and pasting it on your monitor. It's likely to be more important than whatever info it hides.
You'll appreciate his point more if you read the whole article:
http://www.perrymarshall.com/google/outrage.htm
(By the way, his article is an excellent example of how some people receive wonderful free publicity by writing intelligent articles that other people link to.)
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Charlie
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2005 10:27 am
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Hey Phil - we must be doing something right. There's still more than two of us...
| Phil Tanny wrote: | | Progress depends on unhappiness. Wow, think about that. |
| Quote: | We tell ourselves that our buying and selling is about
creating happiness, but really the process depends on
creating unhappiness. |
I think it depends on the fundamental optimism in people, too. Without this, the unhappiness wouldn't yield the right results.
| Quote: | And then we might discover that where ever we happened to be
parked at the moment is actually quite interesting, now that
we can see it. |
That's the problem most people have. They prioritise "a desire for materialistic self improvement" at the expense of "a reluctance to appreciate how good things already are".
| Declan OReilly wrote: | | Marketing is like a conversation. |
So what exactly are you saying...
| Quote: | Or maybe we need to make things simpler like a McDonalds menu.
McSquirrel Sandwich anyone? |
Would you like fries with that?
| AllanGardyne wrote: | | I imagine the Internet and TV will morph and merge so that it's difficult to see where one ends and the other begins. |
Try surfing with graphics switched off. That old test isn't really valid anymore, but I still love to do it.
No ActiveX, no Java (I said Java NOT Javascript), no graphics - so what exactly are you saying, Mr Publisher? Ouch.
| Quote: | | We're remarkably fortunate to be living at a time in which we can earn a living using plain text email newsletters and scrappy little websites. Make the most of it! |
I hope that much as the death of paper books has been exaggerated, so has the death of text-based web sites - (s)crappy or otherwise.
Paper books still sell like crazy (with the right review and the right cover), so hopefully the fundamental quest for info will see off the multi-pronged attack from the bandwidth-eating, dialup-killing multi media mavericks.
| Perry Marshall c/o our Allan wrote: | | ...long term, you need to become a value added affiliate. |
That's a good way of describing the opposite of a thin affiliate. "Thick" doesn't convey the right message, somehow...
| Quote: | | But really, it goes still deeper than that. If you want to insulate yourself from competition, you need to have a USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that clearly shows why people should do business with you over anyone and everyone else. And your USP needs to be based on a combination of things that are, collectively, difficult for others to quickly and easily replicate. |
Perhaps, as an affiliate, USP should stand for Unique Serving Proposition...
(It's fun making those up. You could build a business on it!)
This all ties in with "voice" (of which there are several unique varieties round here). Paul Myers once talked about "building your own tribe" of followers who like not just what you say, but how you say it. Focus on them... and nuts to the rest...
Just ask any squirrel.
Cheers,
Charlie.
P.S. | Quote: | | I think what Perry says is so important it's worth writing out on a sticky note and pasting it on your monitor. It's likely to be more important than whatever info it hides. |
Oh, you're wasted on affiliate marketing. Ever thought of writing for a living?
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