How to Become an Online Guru

So You Want to Be an Internet Guru
         By Stu Leventhal - Guru Marketing Tips Editor

You are sure in the right place for learning how the great internet biz pros do it! All over this website you have free advice that not many know about or are doing. This is one of the websites that many, many internet marketers get their talking points from.

But do the self appointed online marketing experts really know what they are doing. Can they implement the tactics detailed here on this guru marketing website? Lots of claims being made online, but who is actually doing well online, the best?

Can you look at a successful website and get ideas for your site? Improvement ideas that you can technically accomplish?

Imagine, for one moment, that a Facebook, YouTube or Twitter star agreed to allow you to post whatever you wanted to post on their successful social media platform for one whole week; a platform which they had spent years to build up to over 1 million followers and fans! Would you be able to get a lot of new clients, orders and build your own fan base?

Really? Because I do not think most business people (owners, managers...) could do anything substantial or very profitable during one whole week of unlimited free posting on a super, social media star's social network.

How do I know this, you might ask? Well, all marketers do free-bee work for their friends and family members. I get asked, like all of us get asked, to assist a friend of a family member or a friend of a good friend, "Just this once, please!"

I agree to post some posts to my followers for them and usually they just get a few responses. You  see when someone is given something for free they do not value it. Earn it and you cherish it!

Your first lesson is that you do not need my 1 million fans or even a hundred thousand followers to make lots of money. I know a lot of professionals that have just 1-3 clients. So if you have a fan base of just two thousand and you are complaining, stop. You certainly should be able to convince two or three folks to hire you, from a list of two thousand good contacts.

i did business from my first 300 followers on LinkedIn...now I have well over 25,000 in my LinkedIn network. But the point is, when I was just starting out on LinkedIn, I talked and got friendly and gave advice and pitched to just a few hundred folks and got hired and made a living.

Here is an example of why I say most people are not serious about their online marketing efforts. You see, one can do a lot of things online for FREE. We do not put a high value on FREE Things, because we think we have nothing to lose if it does not work, after all, it did not cost us any money.

If someone is doing stuff for you online for free, as say, for a favor; you (all of us) will probably not take it very seriously. I once posted some videos (I made the videos too) for a caterer. They were being shared all over cyberspace, because they were funny videos (funny being one of my trademarks).

These videos were designed to offer some special food package, party catering deals to a new nearby town that the caterer wished to expand service into. His company had never delivered that far away before.

To make a long story short; I dropped by the caterer's shop, a few days after publishing his videos, to see how the ads were doing. I already knew the videos were being shared online plenty. [lesson #2, Funny Stuff gets shared the most online] So how many orders was he getting. None!

Now, when I stopped by, the caterer, who was also the owner, was out on a delivery. Someone had called out sick. While waiting, I over heard the receptionist take three calls and say, "No, I am sorry but we do not deliver that far away." Then, she quickly hung up. I should have realized it quicker but by the third call it dawned on me that no one had told her (the receptionist!) that the caterer was trying to expand into that neighboring town.

You see, this was a free-bee not a paying client, so he had nothing invested. Sure he wanted the new vids to work, but if they did not work... nothing lost.

Lesson #3: You have to take seriously everything you venture forth to do online, especially if it concerns your company, customers, products or services. Online things stay online a very long time, often seemingly forever.

In the caterer's situation above, the receptionist thought she was being nice by recommending that these callers contact another caterer that was actually a competitor. She felt bad that these people needed to have their party catered and she could not help them.

Do you see if I did not drop into their shop, she could have been giving away business to a competitor all month or longer, before someone caught the mistake of not having informed her about the new ads going to the nearby town!

Make no mistake about it; me stopping in to see how the videos were doing was no accident. Lesson #4 You have to follow up on everything you try to accomplish online!

So many business people, post things online and others (readers, social and blog site visitors) leave comments that say to me, this person is begging the publisher of this post to pitch their services to them. The comment screams, "I need help with just what you are writing about."

But the original poster does not answer their post comments. You see, their post was made haphazardly. They did not really believe in what they were posting about...not enough to think the post might bring them some business. So they posted, then got distracted and never went back to see how the post was doing. Many times, others commenting swooped in to offer their advice and services to everyone reading the thread.

These people are taking the time to publish stuff and then allowing the business to go to their competition. Lesson #5 You do not have to be the publisher to get the business from the conversation. You just have to prove you are the best, smartest one commenting on the matter at hand.

Listen, you  have all the time in the world to leave a better answer to a problem than the last person's answer. Take your time commenting and win over the folks immersed in the conversation. Remember that if there are just twenty comments that could very well still mean that over a hundred people read that post because not everyone comments on every post they read.

Lesson #6 Try not to get overwhelmed by all that is going on in cyberspace. It is really very simple but usually requires time and commitment. Social Media Sites try not to complicate things. They want to make it as easy as possible so you keep coming back to their platform. You have to set your goals and stay focused on what you wish to gain from participating in arenas online.

Things that are different and fun capture people's attention. They like to share those things that make them laugh or is very original. Lesson #7 Uniqueness is of high value and creativity will get you famous on the net.

Lesson #8 Ignore the negativity! There are lots of bad e-vibes being broadcast digitally. Stay out of those nasty conversations. It is never worth your time.

Take heed of what Francois de La Rochefoucauld said, many years before the internet was even a dream, "Commonplace minds usually condemn what is beyond the reach of their understanding."

Lesson #9 Do not be ashamed to ask for help! The internet is designed to help us find answers, meet new people, learn, teach and collaborate. Woodrow Wilson said, "I not only use all the brains I have, but all that I can borrow."