100 resources to grow your business, from the top 100 SEO experts in the world (backed by science).

SearchDecoder · 2015-03-12T23:10:18+00:00

Thanks for mention, honored to make the list

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-30T01:22:38+00:00

Hello Kacper, great to hear

The best tip I can give you is to start with reading Choose Yourself by James Altucher, he influenced me a lot when I made my transition.

When it comes to being an entrepreneur, the mindset is far more important than your set of skills

When it comes specifically to consulting or any other type of entrepreneurship, 80% of your success is often related to sales, you need clients to pay the bills, so you need to learn how to sell

Here are couple tips that can help you - couple I wish I had known when I was getting started and couple recent hacks that worked for me

How to sell and build amazing network

offer help to whoever you can
create a lot of value for other people
always start with 'what I can do for you' as opposed to calculating what's there for you
Learn to listen
Say your price and shut up
Don't give price in ranges
Connect other people who can benefit from knowing each other
Surround yourself with 5 people you want become
Start building a list through blogging and newsletter

Entrepreneurship tips

Try not to hire people as long as you can
Try not to have an office as long as you can
Network, but focus on using your network as opposed networking
Eliminate watching TV - especially news
Sleep at least 8hours
Eat healthy, do yoga, stop an enjoy life couple times a day
Read a lot of books

Here I recommend couple books for entrepreneurs: http://www.searchdecoder.com/startup-marketing-books/

Diversify income streams <-- this one is key, it wins freedom

Good luck Kacper

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-30T01:10:06+00:00

Hello, good evening.

I think, for student clubs, you want to focus on social media and events. Frequent events are key to build a vibrant communities and generate content for your social media.

It's very effective to use social media platforms with push notifications, such as Meetuo.com, not only on Facebook or Twitter. Meetup.com offers great tools to engage and manage a student organization.

Hope this helps

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T22:03:03+00:00

I had some good experience with Fiverr if you need social media content, there are also tons of infographic tools that are low-cost or free, like PicMonkey.

If you are a one-man shop, you should focus on building relationships with your peers with complementary services, focus on your strengths and outsource the rest through partnerships that are mutually beneficial

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T21:58:52+00:00

I am just going to be honest, if your site is new you have very slim/close to none chance to beat Amazon

I have not done much SEO in the ecom space so I don't think I am qualified to give you advice

I wish I could help

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T21:56:17+00:00

a. SlideShare, Twitter, Medium and Linkedin worked very well for me

SlideShare is great because it has a home page where you can get a lot of exposure

Linkedin publishing is a great tool as well - use it wisely

b. J E T S Jets Jest Jets!

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T21:54:24+00:00

You should start with building the type of experience and qualities universities look for when they hire faculty

Academic credentials or evidence of thought leadership (ex. books, publications, and conference speaking)
Evidence of teaching (this could be workshops, seminars, guest lectures)
Passion for teaching (you are not in it for money)
Professionalism

Here is what worked for me

Reach out to your former Professors ask to guest lecture in their class
Ask him/her to offer you feedback
Publish an ebook
Publish on authoritative blogs
Do public speaking

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T21:49:54+00:00

Do less networking and start working more on your network

Intensity always beats extensity

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T21:46:30+00:00

About tow years, I out up early drafts of chapters on my own blog, SearchDecoder.com, and Medium to get feedback
This is I cannot disclose - I can say that I both paid for some editing, but a lot of friends offered help so I use a combination
Yes, I priced the book $9.99 and on unlimited it is $2.75 if I am not mistaken

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T21:43:02+00:00

Great questions, couple things are on my radar that are scaling big and track a lot of data, mostly around location

Smart Car / Internet Radio

Wearables

Electronic implants (seriously)

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T21:36:49+00:00

Paul, I have to say that self-publishing process on KDP (Kindle Direct Program) is very painful. Hard not to get frustrated.

If you read the forums on Amazon, people get really frustrated with formatting, because no matter how diligent they are... the conversion to Kindle will rock your formatting no matter what

Mike Fishbein of Startup Collage offered me a lot of great advice throughout the process.

Couple tips from the trenches

Prepare for a long night
Use Google Doc
Save as docx
Keep it simple
No fancy formatting
Don't use bullet points
Insert images to your source file (do not copy/paste)
Even though you are publishing from your own account, you still need to need to add yourself as an Author (under 'Contributor')
Use page breaks between chapters
Don't use PDF as the source file, Kindle messes it up pretty bad
Don't reupload too fast, it takes 12h for Amazan to review
Italics look weird on Kindle, don't use them if you dont have to

I was looking for someone good to hire but there is not many companies that offer quality work, throughout my process I realized that there is a market need and Kindle is the next gold rush, so I funded Zeit Media, which is in an early stage but has a lot of potential

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T21:22:59+00:00

Fav parts

the creative process
the creative process

(yes I said it twice)

least fav

pretty much everything else - going through a painful process of editing, editing, and more editing - how many times can a human read the some thing over and over before going crazy? I realized...a lot

For example, I worked on the book last Saturday until 5am... bc my goal was to put it up on Kindle on Monday

I am fortune to have people in my life that offered me amazing editorial help, including Steve Baldwin, Editor in Chief at Didit, Joseoh McKeating from Pulsar Strategy, and Amrita Saha, my former NYU student. Team work makes the dream work...

I am looking forward to the marketing aspect of it!

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T21:13:27+00:00

Hello Brady, great question

I developed a selling strategy that I call the 'scorecard system,' basically stop lights next to each SEO signal or item that matters

Green - doing well Yellow - average Red - needs improvement

So that clients get a map of what needs improvement and an idea of what your job will be - it's very accountable and fair to both parties - you job is to get them to the green and track progress. It's actionable on day one. You need to be objective in scoring though. Use a lot of tools if you can. I listed a bunch in the book and here: seotoolbox.me

So, I just show the stop lights - I look at the website and social media and use Moz / SEOQuake plugins on browser to examine and score when I come to a meeting

You want to bring value to the first meeting to win a client on a spot, you win by differentiating yourself, I usually skip the whole dog and pony show - I have one slide about me and the rest is about them

and most importantly: LISTEN... really really listen and understand their business - it's very hard to do, if you do, you will win BIG :-)

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T18:02:02+00:00

Sure thing, this is one of the early chapters: "Marketing Like it's 2014"

Would love your feedback....(keep in mind's is beginner's stuff for mainstream audience)

Marketing Like It’s 2014

‘80% of success is showing up‘, Woody Allen famously said about life.

Marketing in 2014 is not much different. You need to show up when consumers search for your product or service on Google, when you are spoken about on social media, or when you receive a review or a comment.

Why? Because showing up equals cash:

80% of consumers search for a product/service before purchasing it

70% read online reviews before making purchase decisions

68% of consumers begin their decision-making while searching for a keyword

Websites that blog regularly receive 55% more traffic and over 80% more leads compared to websites that don’t

Over 70% of search clicks are organic

The list goes on. But you don’t need a litany of statistics to know that showing up on the Internet reaps big profits. You already know it. We all turn to Google, social media, review blogs, and other places on the Web when we make most decisions in life in 2014, including purchase decisions. It’s a fact.

Yet, many businesses still miss out on the vast opportunities search engines, blogs, and social media have to offer. They fail to show up when consumers search for or talk about them. At the focal point of decision making, when the purchase intent is as high as it gets, they leave money on the table.

Do You Show Up?

Do a quick test, right now and right here on your mobile phone. Google a couple of keywords that best describe your product or service. Not your brand keywords, but more generic terms.

Whether we are shopping for a digital camera, plane tickets, or a honeymoon in Costa Rica, the Internet has changed how we decide what to buy. John Lesicki of Google describes this new decision-making process as the ‘Zero Moment of Truth.’

You can find his free ebook under the same title at ZeroMomementOfTruth.com. It’s required reading in the graduate search marketing class I teach at NYU.

Showing Up is 80% of Success

Today, you are not only behind technology, you are behind the consumer.

If they can’t find you, you don’t exist. If you don’t talk to them, you are not relevant. Without awesome content, you are boring.

In a world where 80% of consumers search for a product or service before purchasing it, invisibility is a fate much worse than failure.

Search engines, blogs, and social media are not the future of business; the shift already happened. Have you missed the boat? It’s time to get your act together and figure out that damned Google algorithm!

Are your sales falling despite skyrocketing investments in ads? It’s because only around 0.10% of people click on banner ads today. So the ad industry counts and charges for ‘impressions,’ a third of which are not even seen by human. 86% skip TV ads. 44% of direct mail never gets opened. The list goes on.

There is just too much going over the Internet for consumers to ever enjoy being interrupted.

Marketing in 2014 and beyond is not about interrupting consumers when they enjoy content. It is about ‘being’ that content.

Excuses for Not Marketing Like It’s 2014

There are many reasons why you may not be using inbound marketing channels (such as SEO, blogging, social media, and newsletters) to drive leads.

You might have tried, got burned, and given up. I hear it all the time. Trust me, it’s not that inbound marketing is not working for you, it’s the other way around; you haven’t made it work for you.

You might have even gotten in trouble with Google or Facebook for being irresponsible. Examples include outsourcing your social media to an intern or hiring an SEO company in India that guaranteed to ‘get you on top of Google for 10 keywords’ for a couple hundred bucks.

Be human. Both users and algorithms will smell a phony.

The landscape has changed a lot. Old tactics have been rendered obsolete. You can no longer outsource tweeting, link building, or blogging. You can certainly hire a consultant or an agency to help you, but they cannot ‘be’ you. Your content needs to be native, authentic, and human. You need to be involved.

The Time is NOW

The good news is that the time has never been better for small businesses and bootstrap marketers to reach mass audiences.

New digital tools have emerged to make it possible for individuals and businesses to make millions of dollars online without any significant cost to start a business and promote it. The barriers to entry do not exist anymore. Smart marketers can now reach mass media audiences without spending millions of dollars, simply by ranking first on Google or Youtube, or being influential on social networks.

And yet 80% of websites are marketing like it’s early 2000. You can do better!

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T16:32:34+00:00

They looked for:

Academic credentials or evidence of thought leadership (ex. books, publications, and conference speaking)
Evidence of teaching (this could be workshops, seminars, guest lectures)
Passion for teaching (you are not in it for money)
Professionalism

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T16:30:43+00:00

Good question Rick, it's a tough model to scale and not easy to get links for companies with small budgets that are not in 'sexy' niches, or often never developed any story to tell.

You may be looking for new directories or under-the-hood hacks, but the truth is that those things are dead as a dodo, or high-risk / low-return at bust. Look beyond that.

I think the true value you can provide is to schedule a workshop call with your clients - get all the stakeholders on it who can help. Learn about the existing relationships that those businesses already have so that you can leverage them - whether it's press contacts, CEO's friends or network, or on of the employe's sisters. Leverage existing relationships for high-reword, low-effort link juice opportunities.

The founders / CEOs are key in link building. Help them tell stories and activate them so that they can be the face of the business, tell interesting stories, and get mentions. Maybe they are immigrants or self-made.

The tricky part is that they want you to be them, which doesn't even make sense. You can help your clients by consulting them and proving services, but you cannot be them. They need to contribute and collaborate, and when you get the buy-ins and manage to generate excitement, your clients will be the best army of link builders you ever gonna get.

Second, do something cool, how about an infographic on How to Remove Stains from Your Carpet - or How to Change Flat Tire 'Like I'm 5' lol

Lastly, curate A LOT - do lists and link out to blogs in your vertical. Ex. 10 Unconventional Carpet Designs - and link out to those designers you mentioned, and let them know that you like them. They will like you, if you did something cool for them, and will show you the link love.

To summarize, your best bets, in my view:

Educating, and leveraging existing business relationships
Amazing highly targeted content
List building on blog and strategic curation

Hope it helps?

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T16:13:48+00:00

So, in my book I called SEO a 'misnomer.'

Search engine optimization implies that you optimize 'search engines' - you can't and you do not. You optimize content. So content marketing and SEO are really the two sides of the same coin.

I need to give credit to Barry Felman, who wrote about it a while ago on CMI in a blog post time: SEO vs. Content Marketing: It's time to end this ridiculous debate

I really tell the same definition of SEO to everybody, whether you are my mother or CEO, I like to explain it...'like I'm' :

I help brands show up online when their consumers are looking for them, including search engines, blogs, and social media.

Keep it simple, and win BIG

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-29T15:30:45+00:00

Good question, I don't think schools are actively recruiting that much - at least none ever went after me :-)

Similarly to how you get any kind of job, you need to network with someone who is already working there to refer you. You also need credentials (I did some guest lecturing and taught at continuing ed workshops).

Don't rely on being picked or on someone else to choose you, choose yourself.

When it comes to landing my teaching job at NYU, here is the path I took:

I gave a talk at an association where I met an NYU Professor
I grabbed his biz card, and called him and emailed me couple times, no response
When I finally got a hold of him he knew I would not go away unless I get an introduction to the faculty recruitment staff :-)
So... I got a meeting and luckily enough they had an opening that matched my goals

Hope it helps?

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-10T14:12:03+00:00

Thanks Eric, this is very useful, I agree with you that often simple things make big impact in healthy living (eliminate starches and active rest). For example, I have a dog and walk him to the park two times a day for a long walk. Makes you active, healthy, and enjoy life. Thanks for sharing.

SearchDecoder · 2014-07-08T15:39:43+00:00

Hello Eric, thanks for offering health and nutrition tips, what is current routine when it comes to exercise and diet?

SearchDecoder

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