Internet Marketing Smarts.com

I’ve been making money online in one capacity or another for over 10 years. One of my main industries is work at home. This is a great sector to be in because it’s very profitable and everyone wants to work at home. But it has its dark side as well. Scam artist prey on work at home seekers. In fact, yours truly has been scammed numerous times and it’s how I got in the industry. I wanted to help people avoid getting scammed and help them work at home.

But people that come to my site may not know that, even though we make it clear that other trusted resources like Businessweek.com have vouched for us. Sometimes despite our best efforts, we’re just lumped with all the other jerks trying to part hard working people of their money. So with that said, On occasion I receive venomous emails and a few blog comments where people are making all sorts of accusations about my character and sites.

It always amazes me what people will say over email. In the real world I’m certain that 90% of them are passive aggressive in their every day lives. But the Internet seems to embolden folks. My good friend Ja from FightInsight.com use to refer to these people as "email thugs". They’re all tough online but I’m pretty certain if they saw me in person and faced with a 6′4", 200+ lbs black man, their tone might be a little different. In any event as human being it’s easy to get offended by the things people email us or post.

Hate, The Golden Opportunity.
But I soon learned to turn the tide in my favor. Instead of getting mad and sending hateful emails or comments back. I actually examined what their objections and feelings were. Why you may ask? After all, they’re being jerks and irrational. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t believe in that nonsense mantra that the customer is always right. Because they’re not. But as I got enmeshed in the industry I started realizing that these people were venting frustration based on all the crap that was out there. They had a heighten sensitivity to any work at home site because of their past experiences.

I gained this insight because I actually took the time to digest the negative email or blog comment in an objective way. Of course it was hard at first because the attacks felt so personal. But it wasn’t me they were attacking it was just a reflection of their frustration and pain.

So when I realized that, I would dissect their comments and turn it around on them. So for instance if they claimed that I was promoting scams. I would make it clear that our site was heavily sponsored by advertisers that we didn’t hand pick but was served automatically by an outside vendor. Then I would provide them with the urls of specific articles and sections on my sites where I handpicked quality work at home opportunities and where I provided scam prevention tips. Basically all I was doing was using their objections to my benefit by sending them quality content that was obviously passively monetized with some affiliate links but more importantly I gave them what they were looking for!

The Internet is a different place then it was in the early 90’s when I got started. It’s all about providing the users relevancy and what they want. We can thank Google for that and we should. It’s made surfing the web a better experience for everyone.

The Big Pay Back!
The result of being proactive with negative emails and comments is the acquisition of a customer or visitor who now trusts you. I have found that the most venomous haters will be your biggest cheerleader when you take the time to help them. These folks will sing your praises at the top of the mountain which in this case is forums or sending emails to others. Because they’re known as being so tough on others, when people read glowing comments from them they follow like sheep and are more likely to now trust your site and you. This equates to more money, subscribers and visitors.

The Steps
So let’s do a quick recap of the steps.

1. Read venomous email or blog comment.

Most bloggers or web site owners will file negative emails or comments in their special folder known as the trash bin. Don’t be so hasty. Sometimes the comments are beyond repair so it’s fine to do it in those situations. But first follow the step below before deleting a comment or email.

2. Fight the urge to pimp smack the offender.

Seriously, just calm down and walk away if necessary. Now come back and pick apart their email to see what the real objections are. Ignore the personal attacks.

3. Zone in on the comments where you can be proactive and provide solutions or validation via content on your site.

For instance if they say that you’re not providing information on x widget or service. Hunt down the exact page where x widget is found and send it to them in the email.

4. Take the higher ground.

I don’t care how nasty an email is (unless it’s about your momma), I try to respond very professionally assuming I was able to achieve step 1. I always thank them in the email for providing me the opportunity to help them and I express my apology for whatever they’re feeling. I’m not saying I’m sorry for something I did wrong because in most cases I didn’t. I’m basically saying I’m sorry that they feel a certain way and I’ll try to help them through it as best as I can.

5. Get back to work.

That’s pretty much it folks. I’ve had almost 90% success following these steps. People that went in there calling me all types of names come back and say how happy they are that they found my sites and talked to me. So trust me it does work.

So stop being so sensitive. Turn lemons into lemonade.

Disclaimer: The steps above won’t work if you’re a scammer, have questionable business practices or are evil.

Cheers!

Many virgin bloggers face two issues when they first venture into blogging. The first, is lack of content inspiration and the second is getting comments on your blog posts. We’ll cover writer’s block on another post. Today I’d like to help you with the comment aspect. Having a new blog with no comments is like buying and driving a brand new range rover and no one to show it off to! What’s the point?

Okay, it’s not exactly the same thing. With blogging you should be writing because you’re passionate about what you’re blogging about. So that a lack of acknowledgment will not dissuade you from pursing your writing. Although this is important, the whole point of web 2.0 and blogging is the idea of a community and interaction. I don’t know about you but a community of 1 "ain’t" much of a community to me.  So what’s a newbie to do about getting more comments?

There are some obvious things you’ve probably read such as: Write good content, Get Your SEO skills up,  Be a celebrity and blog about nonsense. But that may not always be practical or even available to all bloggers. So here are some other ways to get more comments to you your blog.

1. Write incomplete articles.

As human beings we’re all pretty much trained to create an ending for any of the stories we tell.  That’s the whole point of telling a good story, right? That may be great when you’re reading a bed time story to junior. But (more…)