Profiting from “The Imminent Death of x” (Insert Social Networking Site)

“All online social networks eventually turn into a swampy mush of spam.” - Hugh Macleod, July 24, 2007

The downfall is already predicted, you see? James O’Neill explains the threat and repeats the question: “Can Twitter survive what is about to happen to it?” Of course, as the The Hacker’s Dictionary explains, people predicted the “imminent death” of the internet too.

Anyway, what’s all this about and how can we cash in?

Hugh, quoted above, points to LinkedIn users moving to Facebook or whatever’s new. Why? To avoid spam. Nova Spivak at Twine.com points out that Twitter is just on the verge of being discovered by millions. What happens when these users don’t know how to turn off all the ads? All the notices?

If people get overwhelmed, they just may stop using Twitter. That’s the concern. Whether this will really happen or not, let’s look at some principles that never change. And move on to the cashing-in part.

Ever notice how some movies or books are a huge hit? But then the sequel is complete trash? Obviously the writer/producer or whoever didn’t have a clue about his formula, his recipe. Some writers or producers make hit after hit. Why? Because they have a great plan, a great formula, a great recipe from the start.

One thing is clear: follow a great peach pie recipe closely and you get peach pie, not apple cobbler.

Want long-term success for your website in today’s internet? You need a clear plan, a good recipe from the start. This seems so obvious, but how many really - I mean really - plan their website the way they should?

Look at George Lucas. How many movies had he watched, how many writing ideas had he consumed before he wrote Star Wars? He knew his stuff. He sketched out 12 movies. Then he started to fill in the blanks. Did it hurt him that he started with story number 4 of 12? Not at all.

Lost and Heroes writers used the same formula. Look at their popularity. What’s to do when the story starts losing interest? Throw in some flash-backs or flash-aheads to keep us guessing.

Network TV may be losing ground to the internet, but movie theater owners probably worry less. At least it seems like they don’t depend as much on ad profit. Theaters show 20 minutes of ads, then get to the main feature. No more interruptions. It’s a recipe that works. If Twitter’s recipe controls the heavy flow of spam that’s inevitably headed its way, Twitter just may be around for awhile too.

Okay, on to the cashing in part here: make sure you advertise/monetize your website with only the best formula. You control the advertising here, not the public.

Back in the day, who would have thought the bright red blinking arrows and buttons would get so many of us pulling out our credit cards to buy some ebook or get some course for $19.95 (or $1995.00)?

Today less and less people respond. In fact, bloggers who only plan to host Google ads to make money: you’re probably just going to stay poor. In 2009, it takes skill to even give information away for free. Why? Because of all the noise on the internet. All the people shouting about their products. Who can you believe?

Those with the real formula knew this long ago. They’re also exploiting what really works now. So what is it? What’s working now?

TIP #1

Find something free that’s caught on big-time. Something a large number of people can’t do without. Then, provide a service around it and charge a fee people will pay for that service. Here’s an example.

Look how fast it’s taken off: 0 to 200K monthly pageviews in about a year! And, the website owner now lives in 90210. As J. Paul Getty, the billionaire oil man, once pointed out: nothing spells success like making your own product.

Many take the easy affiliate path and simply sell products for someone else. That’s okay. You should probably do that too, but do you also have your own product? At least an information product? Do you fear the thought of making your own product? Read on.

TIP #2

Pick a good subject. (See Tip #3 below for how to do this. It’s crucial to your success with Tip #2.)

Write 5 to 10 articles around your subject using the methods in 3 Ways to Write An Article in 20 Minutes. Then, do the research as directed in 7 Ways: Article Research in 10 Minutes.

Congratulations. You’ve written somewhere between 5 and 15 pages. (The 15 pages comes with practice.) For easy delivery, you’ll want to convert this document to Adobe PDF format. You can use a free converter such as CutePDF or PrimoPDF.

(I have both installed, but end up using CutePDF more. PrimoPDF is better for tricky stuff like appending content to an existing PDF.)

Simply paste your pages into Microsoft Word (or use the free word processing software called Open Office). Then print your document to CutePDF or PrimoPDF as a PDF file. This is the ebook you’ll want to give away for free.

Look at your web site’s home page. Somewhere obvious (like the top right corner) you’re going to advertise your ebook. You’ll want to put a sharp-looking picture of your new ebook there too. How to do this? Here’s a free source for ebook cover templates, along with a tutorial for making them.

You need an image editor to do this. If you don’t have PhotoShop (which I use), Gimp is free and it also works really well. Need some help with Gimp? Here’s their tutorial.

What you want near the picture is an email signup form. This form should send people directly to your FeedBurner account. You have one don’t you? I know, they’re having some trouble right now. Yet what they do is really handy. Perhaps a better feed service will step up and give us what we really need.

Anyway, how do you set up this email signup form? Check this out: How to Increase Your FeedBurner Email Subscribers.

Honesty is an attractive quality: be sure to explain to your readers what you’re doing here. Tell them that signing up entitles them to regular feedback from you and that unsubscribing is easy.

Following this tip shouldn’t take more than a day’s work. Yet it boosts blog subscribers. It can also snowball the traffic to (and profits from) your site.

TIP #3

Plan your website/blog, plan your blog articles, plan your ebooks, plan your advertising, plan your empire:

Make your own Personal Product Idea List. It’s a list of…

1. Things you know quite a bit about
2. Problems you’re good at solving
3. Things people ask your advice about the most
4. What you already get paid for
5. Your hobbies
6. Your passions/interest in life
7. Skills are you need to have to do your job

Have your list? Challenge yourself to come up with 100 items on your list here.

Compare your list with lists of what’s popular. For example, How-To articles are hugely popular.

Circle the items on your list that are also on the popular list. This is your Popular Personal Products List.

Use a keyword tool, such as the Google Keyword Tool with each item on the list. Find which ones have fair traffic (at least 1000 searchers each month). Go to Google.com and type your list item into the search box. Are there less than 10 million search results? Good.

Do you see some website names you don’t recognize on the first page of search results? Even better. In fact, put a star by this item. You’ve found a keeper. This subject is worth pursuing.

Fastest Way To Become An Expert On A Topic

Take the time to understand why the internet is probably not your fastest research source.

Find the 5 to 10 best books on your subject at the bookstore. Don’t read them. Just look at the table of contents. See the topics that all the books have in common? These are all the things that should be in your blog, your articles, your ebook, etc, on this subject.

If it’s a subject you know well, maybe you have some unique ideas that are not in the books. Even better. If you don’t know anything out of the ordinary, don’t worry. You’re content will be at least as respectable as the best out there.

Make an outline based on these common items in the tables of contents. This is your plan. Want to start with story #4 like George did? That’s just fine. At least now, you have your plan, your formula.

Repeat this process with as many topics as possible. The more topics, the better chances of your success.

How many topics are possible? Have you ever wondered when your favorite magazine will run out of topics? The answer is: Never. This is encouraging, isn’t it?

This, my friend, is THE recipe, THE formula that works. Sure, some of these steps may take a few hours of your time. Will you be instantly rich? Probably not. Yet over and over again, the diligent internet marketer has seen hundreds of thousands of dollars from a few hours work while using the good formula. Imminent death is not a concern for your website. No, not with you in control.

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