Adam: All right We are live
Welcome everybody to Hump Day Hangout episode of 198 We are inching closer and closer to the four-year mark So, we've got a special guest with us today but real quick we're going to give us some good announcements, a little bit of updates and say hello to everyone, and then I will do a little bit of introducing So, real quick, let's see who we got on my far left We've got Chris
How's it going man? Chris: Good Good deal Adam: Good deal Hernan about yourself, are you freezing your ass off in the southern hemisphere? Hernan: Hold on just a minute Just going to drop this key here
I don’t know if you guys can see that, maybe it's the other way around but it says POFU live 2018 That's what- Adam: That's the actual banner that we're going to hang at our [crosstalk 00:00:46] Hernan: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah [inaudible 00:00:48] Bradley: We spared no expense
Hernan: Yeah, I need to scratch the logo right there but yeah I'm super, super excited man I'm super excited for today and for POFU live I'm super excited for what's coming for Semantic Mastery So, yeah
Adam: Awesome Hernan: That's more important than the cold I don’t care about it Adam: Yeah I'll drop the link on there if you haven't yet, please check it out
We're obviously interested in having as many people find out about the live event in October, but it is limited There's only going to be 25 seats We're already getting close to halfway full so don't wait too long to pull the trigger because we're looking like this one's going to get full up Marco, how are you doing? How's the weather? I mean, we got to check in with you How's the weather? Marco: We haven't had any rain for like three days
It's beautiful Adam: [inaudible 00:01:33] Marco: 80 degrees, sunny, hitting the pool That's how it goes in Costa Rica man Adam: Good deal
Bradley, how about you? You're not being blown away or washed away or anything? Bradley: No, it's good for the moment, but yeah and I'm excited to be here guys At POFU live, we're really excited about that I've been working on kind of developing out what I'm going to be training on and also just an aside but there's a method I've been testing in the last three weeks that I shared in the mastermind and actually just drafted the mastermind newsletter installment for next month that the mastermind members will get We sent out a physical newsletter every month to our members Bradley: I'm sharing the process in a written form in the newsletter for what I've been doing, but getting the three pack listings for like I call it sniping three pack listings because it's within 24 hours I'm able to take a brand-new GMB profile and get it to rank in the three pack and it's freaking fabulous
So, I'm going to be talking about some of that at the POFU live event too Mastermind is getting a taste of that now, but I'm going to go much more in the depth on kind of a strategy and method for building an empire of maps sites or maps profiles So, that's part of one of the things I'm going to be talking about at POFU live and you have to be there to hear it Adam: Boom! Good deal Well, I think Hernan's dropping or dropped the link so please check it out
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out Contact us at support@semanticmasterycom We're happy to talk through this, but on that page, you'll find event dates, event details where we're going to be covering other good things like that Marco: Before we- Adam: Yeah, yeah, yeah
Marco: … move on to our VIP, can I just drop a little tease because I'm still- Adam: Go for it Marco: … working on doing away with not having to do anything at all with Google and forcing Google to rank you because they feel left out I mean it's killing … guys if you're an affiliate and if you're in local, it's killing it It's crushing it It's like if I showed you the numbers, you wouldn't believe it because it makes so much money so quick
You guys saw the profile that I posted, right? It's getting like one million viewers, that profile one million monthly, one, one profile, that's the traffic that it's getting one million people Come on man, it's about to go down I'm about to once again turn the SEO world on it's fucking ear and I'm the one that did it Bradley: You heard it here first Adam: Real quick, just saw a question from somebody about the live event
So, I did want to say that it is going to be in DC It's not going to be at a hotel We limited it to 25 plus us and our guest speakers so it's going to be a small group and hotel I'm sure there would've been some hotels maybe a smaller event spaces, but we've gone with a specific event space We're still getting that locked down
So, we're not going to give out the address but it is in DC So, worst case scenario, when you get to your hotel, you're just going to have a short Uber or maybe a walk or ride the train, but it's going to be in the downtown area So, yeah Bradley: Yeah, guys We're going to be trying to stay like right in town and right in the city
Adam and I were actually chatting about that yesterday Just find a spot in town or even outside of the main city that is within Metro … has easy access to Metro which is the basically subway system or whatever for DC, because there's a lot of really nice places you can stay right outside of the city too that are just a short Metro ride in So, I would suggest looking … just go on hotelscom or one of those apps something like that and try to find something close by because we don't have … it's a small enough venue or event for us that we don't have like a block of rooms reserved anywhere Adam: Yeah
Yeah, we're going to be getting Airbnb and going from there Bradley: Right We're getting an Airbnb which is what we typically do By the way, that's a great idea because it's so much cheaper that way too if you can double up with some people Adam: Yeah, and for me, I'd rather stay in an Airbnb than a hotel
I like having a kitchen and all that jazz, having a deck or something So, well without further ado our very important person today is Eric Christopher You might also know him as ERock So, he's been an entrepreneur for well nearly two decades You might know him from several different areas
I'm going to let him talk a little bit about himself after we do the introduction, but I believe Bradley, you first met Eric at the SEO Rockstars, right? Bradley: Well, I met him in person there I've known of ERock or Eric for a long time because he did some training I think he was also a student of Ivan Budimir many years ago and Eric, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but then you ended up collaborating with Ivan on some different projects So, you became kind of a mentor to me as well by proxy because you were with Ivan Ivan, I've said this many, many times publicly but Ivan Budimir had the most influence on my career as a local marketer hands down
So, again, I've got much respect for both Ivan and Eric Adam: Good deal I'm just going to mention this because I think people might know Eric from different places but localbusinessrockstarcom or BizFamous Media Group Then, Eric, can you tell everyone just a little bit about how you got started online, a little bit of your background? I think you could tell it better than any one of us could
Eric: No, I think you could do a better job Adam Adam: All right, here we go Eric: So, yeah, at first I want to say thanks for inviting me on, and I really appreciate it I'm honored that you guys have had me on Congratulations on coming up on four years
That's an impressive feat that a lot of people aren't able to do So, congratulations to you guys on that Bradley, thank you for the kind words So, I got my start … I'll try to keep this as short as I can, because I hope to provide value to your audience as opposed to just talking about me I used to think I didn't matter but it does because now that I've become more influential in the world, really being able to tell your story matters
Eric: So, please if you're out there watching this, don't discount your story because it's how people will ultimately identify with you and decide if they want to do business with you or somebody else with all things being equal So, I got my start years ago when I was in the multi-level marketing industry, right? Like, "MLM, oh my god!" Well, it paid us six figures in revenue over a few years We made a full-time living at it I used to have a strength training business I used to teach people how to work out
I used to be about 20 pounds more muscular than I am today, but my business started to fail because I didn't know how to market So, I decided, "Well, I need to find something I can learn the art of marketing" Eric: So, I started doing multi-level marketing on a part-time basis because all I had to worry about was marketing I didn't have to worry about fulfillment, any of that crap So, we built a multi-thousand person organization the globe and we did it all through like old-school methodology without using any really online strategies, just kind of the good old telephone, but then we started messing around with Google
I started messing around with Google Local I was able to get a local map listing to rank in my geography Still to this day even though it's been over a decade, I'd get an occasional phone call or two every single month for people looking for the actual product So, we were in LegalShield or prepaid legal services They just actually cut us a $14,000 residual income check recently which is really badass
So, anyway, started messing around online stuff Eric: I was like, "How do I do more online stuff?" I just realized after a little while multi-level marketing wasn't going to build me something with equity that I could potentially sell later So, I was like, "You know what, I'm going to start doing some local SEO stuff" So, I bought a course Imagine that, I invested in a course and I was like, "Man, I hope this works
" I was leading an industry that was doing pretty well but I thought I could grow something in the internet marketing space So, I launched a company called Local Business Rockstar and the way I got my start as I went out to some local networking events and I basically connected with a few people I said, "Hey, I'll sit down and offer to help you just kind of with some free stuff" I basically had a carpet cleaning guy that said, "Hey I'll give you my business" So, we decided to optimize six locations in the Phoenix area
Eric: I have no idea if I could actually fulfill So, hopefully that's lesson number one is like ready, fire and then aim So, I basically sold this guy on a four figure monthly deal that I hopefully I could get him local SEO results I was all predicated on the fact that I was going to implement what I was learning in this course So, I could have wound up with just egg on my face really bad but long story short, in about two months, it worked
We rank them We ended up ranking them in multiple locations They stayed with us for six years until they sold their business and that's kind of how I got my start in the industry Then along the way, I ran into Ivan Budimir who had a really cool image optimization hack that they leveraged Eric: Basically, it was pretty cool
It still kind of works to this day just not in the same level, but that's how I got my start So, we started this as kind of like increase our influence I actually got a cease and desist letter from a company that was claiming that we were infringing on their national registered trademark So, that's lesson number two, learn from my mistakes If you're planning on building a successful business, make sure you do a little bit of intellectual property to make sure you protect yourself
So, that's ultimately the genesis of why I created the brand of BizFamous Eric: One, because we were expanding outside the world of local anyway So, we work with some national brands We help one of our clients become the number two bestselling book on all of Amazon for a day across the entire planet Number two book all of the Amazon, not for the category, the entire planet
So, now today, like I write for entrepreneurcom I've written for Huffington Post, Thrive Global, Business, newswirenet and so that's kind of where we're at today Excited to hopefully share some great information with you guys and look forward to launching a couple of information products and software coming soon, a couple softwares maybe
Adam: Nice Yeah and I think this is a good time to for everyone watching if you already had or if you now have questions for Eric, be sure to pop them on to the event page As time allows, we'll relay those over to him Also, on Monday, we're going to be having … you're invited to a webinar We're going to be sending out some emails shortly to find out what Eric's been working on recently which … Do you want to tell people a little bit about this? I think people from our mastermind might already know this, but again, I'll let you describe it
Eric: So, the last few years like again I would discount my story I would really kind of like, "Hey, if I just cut to the meat and just deliver some amazing content like that will make a difference" It does of course, but in today's age my wife has a business called Biztuition and she teaches business owners how to overcome the challenge of infobesity So, I don't know if any of you guys have heard of the word infobesity before, but information overload So, it's like, "Oh my god everybody and their mothers coming into the digital marketing space
There's really no barrier to entry" It's become like … when I first got started like man it was so easy to rank You could do so many different tricks and hacks and tactics and strategies and make things happen overnight Eric: Today, it's just not as easy as it used to be In a way it's good because it gets rid of the people that don't have skills
In a way it's bad because it makes it harder to get started So, during my journey, I was able to help to understand like neuropsychology, how to create influence, because ultimately I knew no matter how good I was at SEO, if I couldn't get and especially it depends on what your objective is If you're doing affiliate marketing, it's not that big a deal to be able to necessarily know how to sell, right? I still think it does because you still need to be able to communicate the value proposition, why someone should buy your affiliate program versus someone else Adam: Definitely Yeah, getting the traffic there is part of the battle
Then you got to convert it Eric: Right That comes back to you influence, how do you create influence So, over the last half decade, I've really invested a lot of my education in developing influence that's why I decided to actively seek out how I was able to get people like Arianna Huffington and invite me to write for Huffington Post Then the folks at Entrepreneur and ultimately which is a really cool store
I don't even know … I think I might have told you this Bradley maybe not but I was actually just on the set of Shark Tank about actually two months today It's my two-month anniversary where I was invited onto the set of Shark Tank and got to interview all the sharks, all the guest sharks and we've had to keep it kind of under wraps just because we signed an NDA until the new season premieres, all that good stuff Eric: So, ultimately what are we doing in the world of marketing, what are we doing in the world of SEO is we're trying to create influence So, the project that I've been working on now for quite some time and that we're finally decided to do like publicly releasing it is how to influence Google to recommend your brand to people who are actively searching for your products and services online So, I'll kind of get into more of that as we get on to the end because I just want to make sure that like I want to ask … hopefully ask or answer questions if anybody has questions or just talk at a little bit of a macro level on like we're kind of SEO and marketing is going
Adam: Cool Well, I mean that's basically what was on my mind So, let's kind of roll into that Where do you see and this is a free-form question and anyone else that feels like chiming in, feel free but Eric, what do you see as you know there's so many sub topics, but between SEO and digital marketing in the next couple of years, what do you see like an area of being that you think people should pay attention to or something that they should know or something like that? I'm always curious of what people see as like a coming trend or what they think is important Eric: Well, I think we're all starting to experience that already with RankBrain
For those of you that are more hardcore SEO folks and really that's just Google's fancy branded way of saying artificial intelligence, virtual reality So, ultimately like that's the path where it's going and a lot of the practices of traditional SEO are slowly being phased out in my opinion by Google and other search engines Other search engines will probably hopefully catch up someday or they'll get acquired by Google which Mozilla did, but it's going to progress to where in my opinion like my big prognostication, not that it's really like epically like insightful but Google's been … ever since it started it was easy to kind of gain the whole link industry, right? Basically, I remember when I was able to rank back in the day local internet marketing we were ranked number five nationally in the United States for it We were outranking Yodel which at the time was like a $253 million company Eric: At the time, it was just me, myself and I out ranking them
All we did was just kind of like the exact match anchor text back links You do that today, you're toast So, Google is slowly shifting its emphasis away from anything that can really be manipulated or orchestrated, and it's moving more into the realm of artificial intelligence based on signals that it's getting from users I just see that in the next 5, 10 years of it I don't know if Google will ever get completely away from links
I think they still use links as a way to kind of connect the dots in its algorithm, but ultimately like and maybe you guys are seeing this or maybe you guys want to interject your thoughts on this as a group of fellow experts of how much have you seen over the last couple of years where backlinks are becoming less and less as a ranking factor and you're seeing user metrics becoming more and more important in terms of results Bradley: I absolutely 100% agree with that One of the things that we've seen especially in the last year alone is how you can rank almost entirely with just engagement signals We proved that with YouTube videos That's kind of been known for quite some time but now even so with especially since the mobile first index took over which was just last month in July
With our local GMB Pro methods and what we teach in that course and we're also developing a done-for-you service for that right now That's exactly what we're doing We're speaking directly to the mobile first algorithm with or giving it signals and activity which then Google serves to users and gives exposure to that business to mobile users that are in close proximity that are doing any sort of related type of search Whether we're showing in rank trackers or not, it doesn't make any difference We're still getting exposure and activity engagement from mobile device users again whether ranked tracker show it ranking or not
It's independent or regardless of ranking Bradley: The only way to explain that is because it's Google going more and more towards engagement and user signals as opposed to like what Eric just said which was backlinks and some of the old more traditional stuff It's been quite incredible to see the kind of results that we're able to get with an absence of backlinks We're not even needing to use backlinks A lot of times what we're using for backlinks now are other Google properties
We're using Drive Stacks or Google Drive files and folders and such to backlink Obviously press releases are still my preferred backlinking method at the moment and in just content syndication which usually has an attribution link that points back to the original source Those are pretty much the only three link voting methods we really teach and it works Eric: Oh and I'm just so glad you talked about syndicating content Today, actually I don't even know if I've actually shared this really kind of publicly, but I'm going to totally dispel the whole myth of the duplicate content penalty
Bradley: Oh god please do, because you know how many times we have to answer that question right here on Hump Day Hangouts Eric: Can I do a quick screen share and I'll actually show you an example? Bradley: Please Adam: Yeah, let's do it Bradley: Please Eric: All right
Let me open up a new incognito window here All right So, hopefully I can just remember this off the top of my head because this wasn't necessarily on my agenda So, how to treat infobesity Okay, how to treat information overload in three simple steps, right? So, it's ranking number one
This is my wife who wrote the article who's a successful entrepreneur in her own right You can see here I'll just kind of highlight some of this So, if you've ever been on blah, blah, blah, blah So, I'm going to cut and copy that and then I'm going to come here and do another search The search query is … Oh I know what it is
Infobesity epidemic, right? So, the only thing different is the title Everything else is exactly the same Eric: Now I'm not sitting here saying that you can like replicate these results because one of this is on Huffington Post The other article is on Entrepreneur, right? So, super high authority trustworthy websites, but basically just by changing the title only, we were still able to rank number one and again that's not super competitive keywords It's not like weight loss or anything like that
So, for those of you that are going to sit there and be like, "Ooh" Like in a more competitive marketplace, sure it may be harder to rank but it's not being penalized, that's my whole point So, hopefully that dispels that myth [crosstalk 00:22:40] Bradley: That's because it's on a different domain, right? That's the thing People say duplicate content and duplicate content does exist but that's typically when it's on the same domain
If you have the same article posted on a domain like for example that's how tags guys can get you into trouble with WordPress sites, because if you have a unique tag on a blog post, then WordPress by default will create a tag page If you have those set to index, then Google … the tag page will index and the tag page looks … it's the when you click on the tag archive page for that particular tag, if it's a singular tag that's only been attached to one blog post, that tag URL will be an exact replica of the post itself Depending on the theme, sometimes it'll be a snippet but most of the time, it'll be the entire article, the entire post The only difference is the URL Bradley: Everything else will be the exact same and that can cause duplicate content penalties or issues for a site if you don't know how to use tags
Either set your tags to no index or make sure that you're using more common tags that occur on more than one post, and that way when the tag archive page gets pulled up, it's like a blog index page It shows all of the posts that contain that or have that same tag So, that wouldn't be duplicate content, but when you have a singular tag, it can be So, again, that's where duplicate content issues come up not on different domains Otherwise, press releases wouldn't work and that's typically … by the way, Eric that's what usually what we use as the go-to example for duplicate content because press releases we all know work incredibly well and it's the same damn article getting picked up by 300, 400, 500 different syndication partners
Eric: Yeah, we're huge fans of press releases as well One of the ways actually we ended up working together with Ivan beyond the initial course was he ended up going and doing some work with a news release company called newswirenet which is still a super powerful way to be able to get good links on there I think that they still charge for access to it, but it's a great solid platform in addition to some of the other resources that I know you guys make available to your community So, even though I don't get a chance watching every Hump Day Hangout, I do sneak in every once in a while to smile [crosstalk 00:24:55]
Bradley: Lurk in the background Eric: Cyberstalking, right? Adam: It's good It's always nice to hear that It's funny we talk to a lot of people and I mean I think all of us do the same You've got shows or podcasts you listen to
Then it's funny sometimes to have people on like, "Oh yeah, I've been listening this off and on for years" Like, "Wow, okay Hey, good" Well- Marco: Yeah Just some of our beginners don't get mixed up back on the backlinking thing
Traditional or old-school backlinking is what we're differentiating We're not saying that that Google doesn't look at links because everything that the latest distance graph algorithm update did was talk about links, but it talked about what Bradley and Eric mentioned which is it measures activity on the link It measures relevance on the link and it measures trust and authority Again, you guys have heard me say this it takes place on the source of the link and on where the link is directed So, it takes a look at both and it takes everything that's linking to that
So, it's not that links are obsolete, it's now the way that Google is looking at links and the value that Google is placing on links that are untrusted and authoritative websites Marco: I'm not talking about third party metrics of course I'm not talking about trustful or I'm not talking about the domain authority None of that garbage Everything is out the window
Only Google knows what Google measures but we know generally what it measures, because we have the math We have the math on the patent We have everything that they say about the patent and what they're looking at So, I'm glad that this is being brought up and that we're differentiating, right? Link building still works, but you have to go further out You have to go out and into tiered link building
I don't want to get into that because that's higher level, but again, ART, activity, relevance, trust and authority That's what you need to be looking at when you're looking at links going to your website and going from your website to wherever That's where you have to be really careful and pick into the links that you're getting Adam: Definitely Eric: Yeah, one of the biggest mistakes that I think I see a lot of people make is that they don't emphasize link building in the natural order of things
That's something that I'll be talking about in greater detail in the webinar on Monday and why you … because I've always looked and this is going back years ago, but I've always looked at Google from a perspective of Google is a girl If you haven’t heard anybody else say that, I'm telling you now Google is a girl She loves to dance All right She wants to know that she can trust you
She's going to basically give you favor if you're more popular than not So, Google's a girl and you have to basically influence her to want to date you and then hopefully end up marrying you Adam: This is a great analogy I've actually somehow never heard this Eric: You've never heard this before? Oh my God! Adam: I haven’t
Have you guys? I literally haven’t Bradley: Yes Accordingly woman, yeah Eric: So, if you move too quick, you're going to get the slap So, I can go on into this whole … like I've had arguments with girls who are like, "No, Google is a man
" and they're done I'm like, "Okay, you're right Google is a girl" So, the whole point of influencing Google is if you do things in the right order and the way that Google wants it and if you're smart about it, you can do some of the black hat things that can basically … that are like the dirty stuff It's like I'm public
In public, we do the white hat stuff When we're in the bedroom, we want to do some of the black hat stuff, the naughty stuff, right? So, the key is, how do you get that progress in the right order? That's a great analogy for I'm going to talk about in the training If you go out on the first date and even if you get to go back and you do get to go back to the house on the first date and you get in the bedroom room, you better watch out when doing the super kinky stuff because then like that girl's going to kick out Eric: We all know that's common sense and Google's the same way So, I think one of the biggest mistakes that people are making is not looking at it from a kind of like a 30,000 foot view of how the progression would look
So, we get caught up in tactics and there's amazing amount of cool tactics that are out there, but it needs to blend in with an overall strategy, and that's one of the things that I appreciate about you guys is that you test off and then the tactic … there's a lot of people doing like single variable testing type stuff in the marketing world and that's great, but again as a tactic it works, but what it's not accounting for is dependencies Just because something works in a single variable test in it of itself doesn't mean when it's combined with two other algorithmic factors, it's going to have the same effect Bradley: Right Eric: Right? I don't want to get on any specifics on this because there's a lot of smarter people with scientific backgrounds than me I just know if I do the things that I think that Google is looking for and you talked about like Google Drive Stacks
I'll I'm putting it out there I'll argue with anybody but I would consider myself to be the godfather of custom my maps I was able to get a custom my maps to rank on my own No one taught it to me I discovered it purely on accident just by testing stuff out and it was back in the day when you could get do follow links, you could put exact match anchor text in it
Unbelievable, right? I didn't share it with anybody for years until actually the first SEO Rockstars that I shared it with, and then after that, another group who was supposed to be secret but it ended up getting out Eric: I'm sure there's other people might have discovered it too, but I was doing that stuff back in 2011 Why? Because I knew … Hey, here's a good example If you look at Google as like a bunch of sisters, well hey, if you do things and you're super nice to one of the sisters, is the other sister going to like you too? "Oh, he's so handsome He's so nice
He's so gentlemanly He does such nice things and says nice things" So, Google loves its own properties We were using Google for different properties years ago like over half a decade ago before I would call it a little bit more commonplace Adam: Got you
Eric: So, my whole focus is like that whole Wayne Gretzky thing if you're familiar with Wayne Gretzky It's like good players know where the puck is The great players know where the puck is going and right now the thing that I want to train on and talk about like on the session on Monday is where's the puck going to be going and how can you position your business to take advantage of that so that you can be ahead, literally a lot ahead of other people that are in the space, because that's what it's going to take I'm also making another prediction My other big prognostication is that if all you do is SEO, you're going to struggle to grow a big business if you're trying to build an agency
Bradley: Well, SEO is kind of encompassed like we use that kind of more like a overall encompassing term now, because to be effective in SEO, you need to do content marketing You need to know about content marketing and social media and engagement and PPC and PR marketing and reputation There's so many components now to being an SEO It's not just search engine optimization anymore, right? Eric: Yeah I mean I 100% agree
I actually have an article, I'm sure it's probably still there Adam: Real quick while you're looking for that, I'm the timekeeper today So, we got to wrap this up in a minute or two, but while you're looking for that Eric, I just want to let everyone know if you got any questions for Eric, go ahead pop them on the event page I know there's a little bit of a delay and then in a minute or two, we're going to hop over and we'll start going through [crosstalk 00:33:24] questions Bradley: Well start on questions
I do want to expand this very briefly on what Eric was saying about the Wayne Gretzky analogy and where the puck is going to be like where is it going That's kind of what we're trying to accomplish with POFU Live guys is really identify where some people's business should be going and where it should be heading in order to position That's what … POFU Live, position to fuck you, it's all about positioning So, that's entirely what the event is going to be about is how to position your business to be in a really good place to scale with all the changes coming I'm sorry
I got it locked on you What were you about to show? Eric: No, I was just going to show an article that I wrote I think it's from almost … Oh it was updated 2017 This is before they kicked everybody off the Huffington Post platform Actually the original article was almost three years ago
I was sitting there talking about how like SEO is changing and like usability is and this is a software that helps you to measure heat maps and usability on sites I was talking about this stuff three years ago as far as like where stuff was going So, I'm just sharing this with you because one of the things that I hope to do in the training coming up is show you how to create influence and you guys are watching this right now You guys should be like just hanging on these guys' arms and be on their coattails because what they subtly have done with you, I should get rid of this, is they over the last four years have exhibited and have been eating their dog food not just by like learning SEO tactics and strategies but by building a community Eric: Before you could do certain things that would allow you to get clients and you could do some out each type stuff and that some of that stuff still works, but it's just a lot harder, right? So, one of the big takeaways that you're going to want to do and my wife talks about this a lot is that if you really want to grow a successful business of any kind, you're going to want to create a community
I know that's like, "Oh, that's not magical" It's tough, right? So, it goes back to like, "Hey these guys have been doing this for four years to be able to build a momentum, to be able to like continue to go through that" One of the things that I'm going to teach on the training on Monday is if you're brand new or you feel like you don't have a lot of experience in terms of like getting clients or building a successful business, one of the things I'm going to talk to you about is how to coattail off of other people's authority to build your authority so that you can take your business to the next level Eric: Why am I showing you articles that I've written for Huffington Post and for Entrepreneur and why am I talking about the fact that I have pictures of me with Mark Cuban and Lori Greiner because I'm leveraging their authority By default, if you respect those people, hopefully you respect me too hopefully as a result
Hopefully you respect me that the fact that I'm here with the Semantic Mastery team hopefully imparting some minor wisdom to those of you that are participating, and so, I'll show you how you can leverage that step by step to help you get where you want to go Then I'm also going to as we're … because we kind of need to wrap this up, right? Adam: Yeah, just move into the Q&A Yeah, if there's anything else to- Eric: [crosstalk 00:36:49] Q&A and then I'll highlight what I was going to talk about a little bit at the end kind of like what the big sexy is, right? I'm to show you some- Bradley: [inaudible 00:36:57] Go ahead Eric: I'm going to show you something that's going to get Google that want to take you to bed Bradley: What I'm going to question … So, I'm going to grab the screen, lock it on and then we'll jump into that
Just take a few minutes because we don't have that many anyways Eric: Well, that's too bad for them because I love engagement Bradley: Well, it must be that everybody just enthralled So, Sam's up first Adam: Yeah, several good comments on Google being a girl though
So, yeah, I think I'm not the only one that hadn't heard of that or that agrees Bradley: That's funny So, Sam's up first He says, "I'm starting a new money site on an aged domain The domain has backlinks pointing to old pages
Do you recommend trying to recapture the power from those links by redirecting to a new page or something or is that not really necessary? Thanks" Yeah, you can Well, it depends Sam If you are rebuilding on an old domain that was relevant like it was in the same category, it might be worth recreating those pages Even if you set them to no index, still recreating those pages
So, go to the Wayback Machine archiveorg and pull up snapshots of the site in its previous state If it was relevant, I would say go ahead and recreate those pages and just set them to no index, but then you can … because then all those inbound links pointing to those pages, that original content, it's likely that those links won't be taken down if discovered by webmasters where those links exist, because it'll still be linking to that original content or what it was originally linking to I mean, but then you can always put a contextual link from that page to that inner page to wherever you want to push the juice to Bradley: That's a great way to do it, but otherwise, yeah you could just create a redirect, but just remember that it's likely that redirect or the link from the original source of the inbound links could be edited out if a webmaster catches it, sees that it's not pointing to what it was intended to point to Also, if it wasn't relevant content, then if you're redirecting inbound links that was pointing to something that wasn't relevant, then that could actually end up causing you harm
So, there's a lot of different factors you have to take into consideration there, but absolutely, if it was relevant, I would say recreate the pages That's pretty powerful I would just set them to no index What do you guys say? Eric: I would agree I think that it's challenging to answer that question without more context
Bradley: Right Eric: We're just basically making a best guess It's like saying, "Hey doctor, my stomach hurts Can you tell me you if I should take this medicine?" It's like … but I would say that overall the philosophical answer that you just gave would be spot on Bradley: Right
Next designed2framework "Hi, I have a few questions Nobody ever talks about the actual close of clients I did not close clients ever but this is the aim Okay
Because I'm going for rank and rent videos, do you have a contract template for that? I just want to put my details, client's details, amount and that's it" Well, yeah, you can, but I mean for like rank and rent video, I mean guys, Marco and I both talked about this often Contracts are not something I typically work on It depends on the size and scope of the project Typically much larger projects do require contract either from the person that hired me or from me to protect me and my effort
It's either one or the other, but typically for most stuff like rank and rent videos, that's a small enough engagement with a client, a small enough commitment that I don't work on contracts I just work on it month to month It's like, "Look, this is how much it's going to cost Bradley: If it's producing results, you're going to be happy to pay me If it's not producing results, you should be able to cancel or stop paying me
" That's it That's why I've always worked that way unless a contract was required, because of the particular circumstances, but for the most part, I do everything on a month to month, because again, I know I can produce results As long as I'm producing results, they should be happy to pay me If I don't produce results, they should be able to walk away Just the same as if I decide that I don't like working with that client for whatever reason, I should be able to walk away
If I was in a contract, I might not be able to leave either So, again for rank and rent videos, don't overcomplicate shit You start bringing contracts out for rank and rent video stuff, you're going to lose a lot of potential closes because people don't like contracts, right? Somebody else want to comment on for the next one Eric: I'll interject here So, one, if you ever decide that you do want to implement some sort of agreement on a long term basis, number one, don't use the word contract because again like Bradley said that people don’t like the word contracts
Agreements are a lot better, sound a lot nicer Again, it goes back to the context It depends on what you're charging for and what the work is going to be required for you to actually implement So, if you're working with like a five figure monthly client and you're going to have to front-load a bunch of work on the front end to try to recoup a positive investment on the back end, then it might seem worthy to you to be able to put together some sort of agreement Eric: We talk about a lot with our students about how to close clients and just how to position everything, but if you're doing stuff for like a minor amount of money, a few hundred dollars or a low four figure deal, I work in the same vein as Bradley as that we typically will say to any brand new client like, "Hey, everything is month to month
We asked for a 90-day commitment so that you can see how effective this is and then based on the progress that we make, will determine if we continue to move forward Eric: I can even offer you a way to be able to lock a long-term deal if you like, but everything that we do is based around that we'll have the freedom to leave" Even if we are in an agreement with a company and they decide they want to leave, we're not going try to take them to court or any bullshit like that We're just going to let them go, but there is a value if the dollar amount is worth it to get that on paper that they made a longer-term commitment because there'll be a lot less likely to cancel Again, that's totally based on context
Bradley: That's right Marco, you want to comment on that? Marco: No, because I'm with you No contracts unless the company is so big that their legal requires it I'm going through that now It's why I hate contracts because it's been dragging on
They know they want to work They already agreed They said yes but now legal it's going to my attorney, it's going to theirs, then it comes back to mine and then it just drags on I'm spending money It's just stupid because just let me do what the fuck I do and get out of the way
I mean that's how I treat it If that's not good enough, if you can't get out of the way and you're not going to get out of the way, then just leave me alone I don't want any part of it Bradley: Here you go So, how do you charge clients? What about recurring payments? Do you send PayPal requests, get the client's credit card or some sort? I do almost all of my clients I just put them on PayPal
I know I'd pay a shit ton on PayPal fees It's ridiculous I could spend less on fees if I used like my own merchant account I get all that but I like the ease and convenience of PayPal I've run my business that way ever since I opened it
So, basically, I send an invoice for any one off services like setup fees and that kind of thing, but then I send PayPal subscription link which I just go right into PayPal, generate a new subscription button, set the terms and then it spits out a link and then I just send it via email That's typically how I charge all my clients and I get paid It works I have some clients that actually send me paper checks in the mail every month, believe it or not I still have clients that do that, but for the most part, whenever I can, I try to get everybody on a PayPal subscription because then I know it's done and it's just an automatic withdrawal, okay? Bradley: How do you sign clients? Do you signature online software? No
Most the time because I'm not doing contracts, I don't need signatures So, I don't do that What I do is I send a proposal via email that's in PDF form So, I draft a proposal I typically just do that in Google Docs and then I save it as a PDF and I send that as a proposal
Then if they agree to the proposal, then all I do is send them … and all I need is a positive reply via email in other words saying yes I agree via email When they agree, then I say, "Okay, I'm going to send you the payment links" Again, if it's a one-off or like for setup fees or whatever, then I'll send them a PayPal invoice If it's for a subscription or recurring service, then I send them a PayPal subscription link So, again, I don't need signature software
If I do need something signed, then typically I just send a contract or an agreement or whatever it may be via Scan It In and send it to him via email They'll sign it and scan it back and send it back to me, okay? Adam: Real quick too and I think that's totally fine and I wouldn't go out of your way whoever is asking this to add another expense, but something I've really been using a lot, I think Hernan has been using it too, is the AppSumo Briefcase They keep adding stuff It's AppSumo, right? They've got a ton of the stuff and they've got a billing app I think it's called literally Billy app, but that's pretty slick when you can hook up to different banks
You can issue invoices so people could pay by card or PayPal or different methods So, anyways, if you're into that, it's like a flat monthly fee for all the apps they have in the Briefcase and it's like 50 bucks a month or something So, if you're going to use it anyways, there's some extra I guess utility you could get out of that Marco: A word of warning if I can Sorry, ERock
Eric: No, go ahead Marco: Not start working until you've got that scratch in your account man You can get burned So, make sure you got that money because that's the yes A yes on paper is useless until you got that money then you can start working
Eric: Hallelujah! I was just going to share the same thing Don't ever, ever, ever work on invoice, do work upfront and if you guys want, we could talk about it in the training on Monday if anybody cares, but you absolutely should get it Get everybody to pay you up front You should get people to pay you on a recurring basis so that you can make more … this is one of the things that I'll tell clients Like, "Hey, one you don't want us to where we're have to like pause work on your account and then have to spend time trying to make sure that we're getting paid because then we're wasting time not getting any results, meaning you have to wait on you getting more paychecks and more customers for your business
Eric: Two is … and I totally forgot where my momentum was going on this Oh, you can also make more intelligent decisions like right there Adam is like, "Hey go pick up Briefcase" Well, if you don't know when checks are coming in or when stuffs going to get paid and you don't have recurring revenue, then you don't know how much you can really spend and budget for different expenses every single month Then, three, if you ever decide that you want to grow a business and an agency and you ever want to sell it for later, a bigger business that might want to acquire your agency is going to want to see that all of them are on automatic payment too Eric: So, really if you have clients that are like, "Well, I don't want to get on automatic payment
" It's not that they don't want to get on automatic payment, it's that they don't trust you to be on automatic payment or because they had a really bad experience before and that's all stuff that you should have addressed before you're even getting close to like getting married or going out on the date with the client All the objections should have been done so they have no problem They should want to pay you on autopayment every month Bradley: Good advice All right
I've got to run through this length This was very long So, by the way, designed2framework only because we didn't have a lot of questions Am I answering all these? Typically, we ask guys to limit your questions in one post to like one or two questions only because otherwise that's not fair to everybody else, okay? So, how do I talk to clients? I talk to them either on the phone or if I need to create a presentation like have them online I typically send them a join
me link because that's easy for them Typically Skype, it depends on what kind of industry you're targeting, but I deal with a lot of contractors so a lot of contractors aren't on Skype They don't understand how to use Google Hangouts So, trying to get people on to conferences and stuff like that is typically very difficult That's why I just use the phone
I also do a lot ton of video email stuff So, a lot of times I'm able to convey my messages through sending an email with a video attached or an embedded video or what looks like an embedded video so that all we need to do is chat via email or on the phone if that makes sense, okay? Marco: I love this question WhatsApp, don't ever give him the phone number You'll get calls at 3:00 in the morning because their rankings drop one spot Don't ever do that
Don't ever give them your phone number, ever Bradley: Yup Also, just think about buying a virtual phone number I don't know because I'm in the US so I don't understand some of the probably challenges that you're facing, but you could use something like vumber I love vumber
com I use that very specifically for phone numbers for some of my companies You can use vumber as far as I know with international numbers so that you can originate calls from within the US even though you're doing it from an international phone number So, I would look into something like that, finding a phone service Last- Eric: Another resource that you can look at that I think offers something as a freemium is Dialpad and then you just go from there
Bradley: All right So, the last part of this In VLS, you said it's better to target local clients, and he's talking about video lead gen system guys, clients in my local area but I live outside the US and I want to target US clients because my area has shitty payments I will need 30 clients to get some return In the US, I can lay down five clients and have a business
Can I still go for that? Yeah, that's fine Listen, I just talked about specifically I'm telling people that are just getting started that it's often easier for you to land the clients that are in your local area because that gives you something in common with them as opposed to reaching out from across the country or from out of town or from across the globe and trying to sell them on something When you have something in common with somebody, it builds … that's like instant rapport Bradley: So, being able to contact people that are in your local area essentially your backyard You can say, "Oh, hey, I live in the same town
I'm a local guy" That helps to close sales I found that to be something that helps closing especially when you're first getting started, but that doesn't mean you can't sell remotely or provide services in the US It doesn't mean that at all It just might … that's the only reason why I was saying that
What I recommend that you do is niche down So, focus on one particular industry or vertical and do that Bradley: Instead of like targeting one area and multiple businesses within one area, I would target one business type and cover more locations, because that way you become educated and you learn the vocabulary of that industry, you know what their pain points are, you get to know the keywords, you get to know the traffic, where the traffic comes from, all that kind of stuff and you become an expert marketer in a particular industry It's much easier to scale a business that way guys than it is to have to relearn or start from scratch with every new business type that you take on as a client because you don't know their industry Does that make sense? Adam: [inaudible 00:52:59] Bradley: Okay
We're going to move on PeterfromPoland What is the best way I can incorporate a comment section in my website? I don’t use comment apps very much anymore on any other websites but I've always obviously turn off WordPress comments They suck, but I've used the Disqus app or Disqus, D-I-S-Q-U-S I think it is as a plugin That seems to work well just because it connects through various social media and stuff like that, but that that's the only one I ever use
Anybody else have any suggestions? Eric: Live Fire is a good one that you can use or depending on what your objective is, you could even potentially … Well, I guess it depends on what you're trying to use, but if you're like trying to sell something and you want social proof, you can use Facebook comments too Bradley: There you go All right, we got to wrap up here in a minute So, I'm going to run through Nigel's question guys I think we're going to have to stop it at that, but I think most of the rest are just comments
So, I think we'll be okay Wow! Nice Greg I'll plus one Adam: Awesome Greg Send me back man
Bradley: I will plus on that Google's a girl and that's her She's attractive All right So, good day gents, working on my POFU
Awesome Nigel, he says, best software to blur images to cover sensitive info I mean I just use Snagit They have a blur function Adam: Snagit, it's awesome
Chris: Snagit Bradley: Yup Snagit is cheap It's inexpensive It works
So, best advice on how to close or at least not offend a referral client with lots of influence but unrealistic on … how to close or at least not offend a referral client with lots of influence but unrealistic or just ignorant of cost of services I want to rank for every term Google first position for HVAC and Google Go easy Marco The referring party is a dear friend and I actually believe I can help him and in pitching in social ordeals to start Okay, so I just went through this with a client referral from somebody that I highly respect
He referred a potential client to me and I spent literally about eight hours doing a complete digital presence audit for this company I generated multiple reports, multiple videos explaining what I saw, where I saw opportunity because this guy spends $20,000 a month on AdWords alone So, it was a really big client for me So, I spent literally eight hours doing all this work generating reports and audits and all that and in creating a proposal and sending it to him Bradley: Because it was a client referral from somebody that I really respect, I don't come in with high numbers and then plan on negotiating
When I have a client referral, I come in with my best price that's it There is no room for negotiation The only thing that could be negotiated on is potentially terms, not pricing When I come in with a client referral, I give my best price It's the rock bottom price and so I did that
I spent all this time and the guy came back with an absolutely insulting counter proposal I was pissed but fortunately I bit my tongue and I handled it with some tact very diplomatically When he sent back the counter proposal, I replied to him with a very short email that just said, "Thank you for your counter proposal I must say what you proposed was unreasonable for the amount of work that you're requesting, so therefore I'm going to pass on this project I wish you and your business much success
" That was it I walked away from it Bradley: That's how you do it Nigel Be in a position of fuck you Be in a position of power where you control the negotiation
In other words, come in with your best offer, if they come back with a stupid counter proposal, walk away Just do it with some tact Leave the door open for them to contact you because the moral of this story guys, just to let you know, was about three weeks past from the time that I sent that email saying exactly what I just mentioned and guess what, I started getting text messages and emails from the guy asking me to reinitiate the conversation So, I did and I ended up meeting with him two weeks ago for coffee to meet him face to face Guess what? He signed the original proposal that I sent out
Bradley: It's one of my biggest clients that I've landed and this was just two weeks ago No shit and it was because I was willing to walk away from that It left him thinking about it for three weeks, and eventually he came back and said, "No, I really want to work with you Okay, let's go ahead and proceed with the original proposal" So, I got everything that I wanted out of that just from being able to walk away
So, I highly recommend that you do that Like you just very diplomatically say, "I'm sorry but this is not a project I want to pursue any further because some of the things that you're requesting are unreasonable" and say, "I wish you and your business much success" So, what do you guys have to say about that? I know we got to wrap-up but that was a great question Eric: I'll interject a few thoughts
One, the guy's lucky you didn't come back and say, "Hey, I'll work with you now but the price went up 20% because you didn’t like the first offer" So, there's one thing The other thing is that you could have potentially … obviously you landed the contract Like I talk about some different pricing strategies depending on your competency and I'll just kind of give this as like a freebie thing We can go into more detail on it because like my Monday training is going to be very much geared on like how to close clients and how to sell services because we have a lot of respect from that
I don't like coming in with just one yes or no offer What I'll typically do is I will offer two different packages if you will and it's either a really high flat monthly fee or a reduced monthly fee and some sort of percentage of revenue or profits Guess what they take 95% of the time? Bradley: Offer B Eric: They take the flat monthly fee because they're so scared you know what the hell you're doing that you're going to take their future money and their future revenue Either way, now it's which one am I going to get, right? So, you have to be conscientious that if you're going to offer like a performance package, that you've got all your legal stuff in place because you're going but it's kind of the really the dummy offer
You really aren't wanting them to get that You just want them to buy your bigger price point package that gets people to want to spend more money with you, because when you offer something of like here's my four grand a month deal or here's my three grand a month and I want it like 10% of any additional revenue above your base revenue, one, you're telling them I really know I can get you results and two, they'll be again so scared that you're going to take future revenue from their table and from their kids' mouths that they'll pay you more monthly because they don't want to have to worry about it and now they're like, "Which one am I going to pick?" Bradley: It's a great strategy Marco: Yeah, I really like that What I would only add to that client has unreasonable expectations They want to rank for every Google term first position organic three pack
They want everything Well, go to AdWords and put together some kind of presentation on what people are paying for Adwords in HVAC in the location and show them what the monthly cost would be just for Adwords, don’t put in there With the proper budget, we can absolutely go after this and this is what it would cost plus your management fee of course or what we could do and this is when you hit them, because I love that ERock alternative You give me a flat monthly fee or you give me a lower fee plus percentage, but first show them how unrealistic and ignorant they're being to want every first position that you could possibly get in Google for 500 bucks a month Fuck that
Eric: Yeah Here's my favorite thing is always use analogies and put it back on their business So, if it's they're an HVAC, say, "Great Here's what I want" Go to their website and be like, "Hey I want an AC tune-up
I want a new A/C I want heating services I want whatever else that they offer and I want it all done for the cost of one service" Bradley: Yeah Eric: Is that something that you would be willing to do for me if I was your customer? Bradley: Right
Eric: You know what they're going to say? "Well, hell no" So, why would you ask me to do the very same thing that you wouldn't do for me How am I supposed to do that? A great book everybody should read is never split the difference It's called Never Split The Difference Fantastic book
Everybody who wants to improve their negotiating skills should do it, should read that book, but just put it back on them Just turn around and try to get them to see themselves in your shoes and why their request is unreasonable so you don't have to tell them they're being unreasonable They'll come to their own conclusion and they can't argue against themselves If they don't come to that conclusion, do what Bradley said, run screaming into the forest Bradley: That's it
All right I'm going to very quickly because we got to go We're already two minutes over guys Last Nigel says, lastly any premade marketing materials for SERP space or MGYB? Also, is there an affiliate program for SM? I think on our next quarterly planning, we're going to be developing out some sales materials guys for people that want to resell our services for MGYB or whatever So, that's something we've talked about
It just wasn't in our current like we didn't have the bandwidth currently for it, but it is something we are planning to be able to provide you guys especially because of the local GMB Pro stuff guys Bradley: I personally have been working on developing a sales strategy for that service alone and also like lead development autoresponder emails and all of that like a whole on sales and marketing approach for local GMB pro services So, that's something That's probably going to be one of the very first things that we launch as like affiliate collateral or assets that you guys will be able to use to go out and resell GMB pro services, okay? Last thing, ERock, I think you had something you wanted to mention? Eric: Yeah, I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that they're invited to participate in the free training class that I'll be having next Monday 4:00 pm
Eastern One of the things that we're going to be doing is inviting you guys to learn what I believe is a critical component for the future of SEO or just marketing in general is we talked about influence So, I'll just show you one thing that I can show you guys publicly, but if someone is in the area and looking for this specific chiropractor, does anything stand out on the page when people type in the term chiropractor port s, anything stand out or stick out or looks unusual to you guys? Bradley: Go ahead and reveal it because I'm not going to answer I already know the answer Eric: All right
So, as I continue to type, what do you guys notice that sticks out, out of the blue? So, basically we have discovered a proven way, consistently systematic way to influence Google's autosuggest results not in multiple ways to do it and so instead of people going and looking for a diversity of results, they come to this page here and they're overwhelmed with the branded page of results It's made a huge impact on this chiropractor's business and every business that we've done it Bradley beta tested this, was able to get some amazing results for some of his clients I think he said one of your clients that you went through this with said turn off the leads and handle it Bradley: One of my roofing clients, yeah
Eric: Right? So, I'm going to go into like a free training on how to how to sell SEO services, how to brand your business, how to become a thought leader for helping you to get clients and then I'm going to invite you to learn how to actually influence Google I call it G hypnosis, how to hypnotize Google to recommend this company's products and services for people that are looking for that solution or looking for those products and services that'll solve their problems So, I'm honored Bradley that you would offer to invite your students and your following to participate in that I hope it's going to be a fantastically fun event and we'll show you how to undress Google Bradley: That's it
So, guys, last I saw a question say … somebody was asking about being able to come to that webinar Yeah, just if you're subscribed to any of our email list guys, you're going to be getting emails from us over the next … between now and Monday inviting you to the webinar So, just be on the lookout for that, okay? So, listen, hey thank ERock so much for being here man We really appreciate you coming on and spending an hour with us We're really looking forward to hosting you for the webinar on Monday as well
Eric: Awesome Thank you gentlemen Marco: Adam says thanks by the way He's got internal noise on his end so he cannot mute For me, thanks a ton man
I learned a whole bunch today I hope the rest you did too Eric: Awesome Hey, I appreciate that coming from you sir Your reputation precedes you as well
Bradley: So does his mouth Eric: Yeah I want to see where the one million profile is Bradley: All right guys, thanks everybody for being here We'll see you all later
Oh, by the way, mastermind webinar tomorrow for those of you in the mastermind We got a lot to go over so be there All right guys, see you
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