A HIPPO Internet Marketing Training blog by Corey Creed

In just a couple weeks, everyone will be coming out with their predictions about 2010.  I’m jumping the gun and getting mine out today.  I’ve been thinking a lot about this, so I’m ready early.

I predict that 2010 will be the year of the online Giants! 

The Internet and technology in general will have some major players that will dominate stronger than ever.  Everything else will be much, much smaller.

The two biggest giants are going to be Microsoft and Google.

But they both had excellent years in 2009 and are just now starting to erupt in growth and power.  These two biggest giants and will clash constantly and powerfully.

Interestingly, these two did not start out as enemies. 

Microsoft was the big corporate software company, but they are much much more.  They will be the 2^nd place search engine (with no other real competitors).  They are already putting constant effort into catching up to Google.  What started out as a software company is now a giant in mobile phones, online advertising, video games, browsers, e-mail & more.

Google started out as the friendly “do no evil” company.  But those days are already over.  They are a corporate giant and will try to compete with Microsoft in every way.  Their goals of “Organizing the World’s Information” is only eclipsed by their desire to put ads on all of it.  Seriously, 98% of their revenue is in AdWords.  They are now in software, operating systems, mobile phones, browsers and everything else.

These two giants will spend 2010 clashing, positioning, growing, and acquiring other businesses as fast and powerfully as they can. 

The only other company to come anywhere close is Apple, but they will not (and don’t even want to) gain the market share that Microsoft and Google do.  Apple prefers to have the overpriced hardware and software that feels exclusive and expensive.  (The stuff the “cool kids” want.)

What about online content?

In a physical world dominated by content from News Corp & Disney (ABC), the two online equivalent giants will be Time Warner & Yahoo (if Yahoo can get their act together).

What about Social Media?

It’s official, Facebook and Twitter win.  Which one?  Both!  Will another come along?  Perhaps, but I doubt it.  These two have officially won and will dominate 2010.  It’s hard to imagine another giant gaining the power these two have.

What about Ecommerce?

The Giant is Amazon.  Ebay used to be right there with them.  But they are just plain falling into the toilet.  Amazon is the clear winner and I don’t think there is a 2^nd place.

The 2010 prediction…

None of the above is all that shocking or surprising.  In fact, all of it is already happening.  However, these giants will grow, gain strength, and overpower anyone else that even tried to gain on them.  These companies are strong and will be extremely difficult to topple, especially as the economy starts to improve.

My prediction is that the distance between these giants and anyone else will only grow.

I’ve never been a big fan of testimonials online.
(After all, it seems as if they can be easily faked, right?)

However, every six months or so, I jump into LinkedIn and try to find something worthwhile to do with it. 

Read More

In my last post, I explained that every marketer and business owner should move past just using social media and start thinking about blogging and working on their email newsletter.

Is Blogging Yucky?

Back in November 2007, Jerry Seinfeld said in an interview that the word blog is unattractive. 

You can see the video below. 
(Forward to the time point 6:55 and you can hear what he says.)

It’s so true. 

There is a certain connotation with blogging too. 

Perhaps the political bloggers, teenagers, and other writers caused this, I don’t know.  But I told a friend recently that I attended a “Blog Convention” last year in Vegas and he gave me the strangest look and comment back as if to say: “Ick! How gross!”

So What is Blogging?

So what’s the deal with blogging?  Here’s what you need to know…

A blog is simply a website (or a part of a website) in which content is shown in chronological order.  That’s it.

There’s nothing complicated about it.  There’s nothing creepy or icky about it.  The content can be anything you want.  It’s simply information in date order. 

The most recent thing you write is at the top.  That’s all.

Why Blog?

What makes blogging so valuable is that it is easy.  Once you get setup, writing an entry in a blog is actually easier than writing an email.

It then resides on the Internet virtually forever.  Search engines, social media, other sites, and other people can find it and link to it. 

All this draws attention to the content (and the images and links you place around the content).

What we Teach

In our blogging class, we start by giving everyone their own blank WordPress blog.  We then show you how to use it step by step.  We explain terminology and other pertinent information along the way.

Our next class is November 9, but you can check here to see any other dates.

I hope you take advantage of this opportunity to kick-start your blogging.  I’ve been doing it for several years and it’s still one of my best ways to promote my businesses.

A couple weeks ago, I gave two lectures at Charlotte BarCamp.  The titles were “How to Make Money Online” and “How to Market Anything Online”.

In doing so, one statement seemed to get the most attention.  Heads turned when that I told everyone that if you are just doing Social Media, you are missing out.

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What is the future of the traditional Press Release?

Brandon Uttley gave a fantastic presentation on this very subject at a recent Social Media Breakfast event.

Below is a copy of his slides with his comments listed beneath them.

The Social Pitch: Using Social Media Press Releases To Reach Influencers – Presentation Transcript

1. The Social Pitch Using Social Media Press Releases To Reach In?uencers Presented by: Brandon Uttley
2. Typical Press release
3. Traditional PR Distribution Model In the Beginning PR with press release Journalists Consumers broadcast and print
4. Traditional PR Distribution Model Pay-to-Distribute PR Wire Services Invented PR with press releases More journalists Consumers (and plenty of cash) broadcast and print
5. Where Traditional PR Distribution Model Fails People Stop Relying Solely on Traditional Outlets for News PR with press releases More journalists Consumers turn to (and plenty of cash) broadcast and print social networks, online news sources, friends and blogs in addition to print and broadcast media
6. Modern PR Distribution Model Your PR Content Spreads Through Social Channels Journalists In?uencers Consumers PR with social media release Bloggers and rich social content
7. The Evolution of News Fueled By Social Media Press Releases (SMPRs)
8. PitchEngine www.pitchengine.com
9. Pricing: Build and Share Social Media Releases Create a Social Media Release, host and share it
   Include PR content like videos, audio, images, social links and more
   Share your release with your media contacts via link or email or with thousands of consumers via social sites like Facebook, Twitter and others
   Get tracking (number of views) Cost: FREE (releases expire after 30 days)
10. Pricing Archive All Your Brand’s Releases Keep every release adding Brand Archiving
    Archive every release your brand puts out
    Grab the RSS Feed (provided) for your releases and share with your contacts, clients and social sites or put it on your site’s news page 
    Each time a release is published, it will remain live and available for media and consumers to ?nd, and for you to edit
    Your release is shared on the PitchFeed which is crawled by Google News
    Cost: $35/month ($400/year)
11. Pricing Customized Social Media Newsroom (includes Archiving)
    Host all of your releases in a custom newsroom
    Choose from the headline font color that matches your brand identity
    Give visitors a way to ?nd and follow you on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube and more ? Each time you add a release using PitchEngine, it will be automatically posted to your newsroom
    Link to the newsroom from your website (or your client’s) for easy access to your news content, contact links, etc.
    Cost: $50/month ($550/year)
12. PR was always supposed to be about public relations. We’ve fallen into this idea that all PR is about journalists, and it’s certainly not. Social media enables us to reach real influencers who care about what we have to say – as long as we’re genuine and honest.
    Jason Kintzler Founder, Pitchengine.com
13.  Q&A
14. Thank You!

Every year we take a little break from teaching classes in July/August and in late November/December.

So, we have now posted the final classes for 2009. 

They are…

• Friday, Nov 6 – Taking Clients
• Monday, Nov 9 – Blogging
• Thu/Fri – Dec 10,11 – Google AdWords

If interested, please register soon.

Also, we have now posted our full schedule for 2010. 
You can review it online here or open the printable pdf here.

We’ve been teaching SEO, AdWords, Blogging, and now Social Media Marketing for about two years, now.  It’s been my pleasure to see many students “get it” and do extremely well for their own businesses.

Yet, more and more of my students are wanting to help other businesses.  Internet marketing works well for them and they would like to help other businesses do the same.  They want to “take clients”.

Personally, I’ve been taking clients since early 2003.  My business has grown to the point where I’m not taking any new ones.  (I just do a little consulting.)  But I’ve learned a lot about how to get clients and how to work for clients in a way that is mutually beneficial and profitable.

So…  (drum-roll please)

We’re now adding a new one-day class on Taking Clients.

The first one will be held in two weeks on Friday, November 6.

The price is for this first class will be $149 and we are limiting attendees to only five.  The price will go up after the first one.

Learn more here and register here if interested.

NOTE:  Sorry this post auto-plays the video below.  I have no choice.  MyContent offers no other way.

The New Media Expo was in Las Vegas last weekend.  From what I can tell online, it was a huge success.

In particular, I especially enjoyed this keynote address by Leo Laporte of Tech TV.  In it, he shows where the future of media is heading.

You see, writing in a blog is easy.  In fact, creating video and recording audio is easy too.  So if someone has something interesting to say and does a great job presenting it, how can he (or she) get that content (media) out to more people via the Internet? Read More

Thanks to everyone who organized, volunteered, cooked, presented, and attended BarCamp in Charlotte this weekend.

This one seemed to be as well attended as the one back in January, but most of the people there had not attended back in January.  I would guess about 80 to 90% of the attendees were newcomers.

I was surprised to hear how much of it was talking about Internet marketing and/or Social Media.  Last year it seemed to have more techie subjects and journalists.  (Maybe not.  It just seemed that way to me.)

I attended David Zimmerman’s talk on aggregating social media using RSS.  I also attended a nice discussion led by Dick Carlson on creating webinars.

I did my normal speech on “How to Make Money Online”, but this time I focused on how to do so creating content instead of e-commerce.  I also did a new presentation on “How to Market Anything Online”.  Both seemed to go ok. 

(My blood-sugar got a little low at the end of my first one as I had not eaten all day.  So I got a little crazed.  I spoke faster and louder than I normally do.  Of course, I always get a little excited when I get going in front of an audience.)

I really wanted to attend the sessions Robert Enriquez and Michael Gibbons held, but I couldn’t.  I did have a good time hanging out with David Kyle and Roy Morejon a little.

So what did YOU think of the event?  Anything you especially liked want to mention?  Please leave a comment below.

PS:  Here are some pictures by Cara (last name? I forget) to spark your memory.

If you are in the Charlotte area, you need to check out Charlotte BarCamp tomorrow (Saturday, October 16, 2009).

What is it?  As I wrote last year, it is not held at a bar.  It is simply a large group of people gathering to learn from each other. 

There is no agenda set in advance.  After some brief introductions in the morning, everyone is given a chance to pitch a topic that they would like talk about.  Everyone then votes on which topic people want to hear.

Last year, I spoke.  My topic was “How to Make Money Online”.  I explained that the two main legitimate methods to make money online are to sell something and to create content.  (Both of them became podcasts you can now listen to.)

This year I’m going to speak again.  I may talk again about how to make money online.  But I also want to do something new. 

I’m probably going to talk about how to make MORE money online.  It will give specific ideas on how market online to get more attention and more money.

Oh, and did I mention…

The whole thing is free!

So head over to the official site to get more info. 

When you do, be sure to login and join my group here.