While I have been making my
living as an online marketer and consultant since 1995, before that my
professional life revolved around beating the casinos at their own game. My game of choice back then was blackjack. As anyone who has ever ventured inside a
casino knows, the gaming halls are better protected than NORAD. Between the eye-in-the-sky and trained
personnel on and off the casino floor, most people would be hard pressed to
devise a system that could take money from them on a regular basis. In fact, if you ask any pitboss, he or she
will tell you that they welcome system players with open arms. Why?
Simply because most systems don’t work.
And those that do, well let’s just say that the casinos don’t like it
when you do to them what they do to everyone else.
So, how did I manage to make
my living month in and month out for better than twenty years right under the
very noses of a virtual army of people who were paid to prevent me from doing
just that? It boiled down to just four
things:
- Having a game plan that worked both on paper and in the real world.
- Hitting them where they weren’t looking.
- Developing a team that was committed to playing the game over the long haul.
- Hiring a captain who would be tasked with organizing, training and managing the team.
The other thing that
separates the pros from the amateurs is a little thing called commitment. While amateurs only look at the results in
front of them, a professional is only concerned with long term gains and
losses. What this meant in realtime was
that as the play progressed over days and weeks, accurate records were kept and
adjustments were made to optimize every player’s earning potential. Everyone on the team was trained and tested
on a regular basis. Due to such factors
as joint bankroll, every player was able to wager higher amounts without
incurring the risk of depleting their bankroll and going bust. While we didn’t win every time we played, we
never had a losing month. And we never,
ever, lost an entire bankroll.
Exciting stuff right? Sure, but what does all of the above have to
do with online marketing? You see, the
same principles that worked in the green felt jungle can also be employed in
cyberspace. From a mathematical
standpoint, online marketing is nothing more than a game that if played
properly can result in a profitable outcome.
In fact, there have been a number of online marketing professionals who
have been accused of “Gaming” the Internet, by employing Black Hat tactics designed
to unfairly favor their clients. (It
would come as no surprise to any casino professional that where there is money,
there are cheaters.)
The problem with black hat
tactics is that once detected, not only do the professionals that employ them incur
the wrath of the search engine operators, so do all their clients. Besides, just as with blackjack, you don’t
have to cheat them to beat them. All it
takes is a mathematically sound system, accurate tracking and playing consistency
to come out ahead. Plus, just as with
professional card counting, utilizing team tactics online actually accentuates
the gains that any individual can hope to achieve.
How can team work pay
dividends? In any number of ways. First of all, you have to understand that
modern Search Engine Optimization (SEO) takes into consideration a number of
factors, such as blogs, social networks, reviews, recommendations, videos and
the frequency and quality of content updates.
All of these factors can be favorably enhanced by using the buddy
system. For instance, I will review your
site if you will review mine. You can
like me on the social networking scene and I can do the same for you. These are tactics which can be employed by
virtually anybody. Even from a
motivational factor, having someone holding you accountable to continuing to
publish regular updates is in itself invaluable. But if you want to really play with the big
boys, you need to take your game to the pro level. The only way to do that is hire a pro,
someone knows the game, plays it full time, has the resources to stay ahead of
the competition and can organize and manage a team.
A professional online
marketer not only has the experience to keep a team on track, he or she also
has the knowledge, resources and time to
advise, train, and manage a group of
busy businesspeople. A pro will take the
time to keep up to date and can reach out to other professionals to see what’s
down the road. The web never sleeps and
as a result by the time most laymen have gotten a bead on something that is of
value to their marketing mix, it is usually too late to fully exploit it. Plus, there is the daunting task of
organizing a team, which is not for the faint of heart.
The best online tiger team team
ideally consists of businesspeople who work the opposite side of the same
street. Excellent collaborations can be
made between service providers and contractors.
Home remodelers work well with plumbers, electricians, roofers, home
inspectors and other subcontractors.
Advertising agencies are a good fit for marketing firms, website
designers, printers, sign makers and videographers.
Once the nucleus of a team is
formed, the next step is to get everyone to agree on a regularly scheduled
face-to-face meeting on at least a monthly basis. While a lot of what goes on in team play can
be handled remotely, such tasks as training and review need to be done
live. Anyone who can’t commit to taking
60-90 minutes out of their busy schedule every 30 days should be left on the sidelines. The first rule of team play is that, “There
is no “I” in “T-E-A-M. This translates
to everyone committing the same amount of time to the effort. If you don’t play, you won’t get paid.
Rule number two is, there is
only one team captain and everyone must follow the leader. The greatest system in the world will do you
no good if everyone isn’t using it. More
money is made in Las Vegas
from weekend warrior card counters then from greenhorn players, simply because
they don’t stick to the plan. They start
to let their emotions take control. They
are no longer driving the bus.
Online, this translates into
momentum gained or lost. If you are supposed to post a review for your
teammates in the next few days, then that’s what needs to be done. If everyone else on the team posts a review
on your site and you don’t post one on theirs, then you aren’t holding up your
end of the deal. Moreover, by doing so
you are showing a lack of respect for everyone else on the team. This is the surest way of being removed from
a team that I have seen. A team can’t
afford slackers.
While using a team approach
can be one of the best ways to take your Internet prowess to the top level, it
can also be one of the most daunting.
You see, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, either on the gaming
tables or on the Internet. Just like you
can’t get a little bit pregnant, you also can’t be on a team if you aren’t
prepared to do your part, pull your weight and listen to the coach. That’s one of the reasons that more people
don’t take advantage of this winning technique.
It’s just like card counting. Virtually anyone can learn how to count
cards. But most people don’t. Why? All I can tell you from twenty plus years of
professional play is that most people are either too undisciplined or too lazy
to learn a winning system. As I used to
say back in my casino days, “We thank all of you players for keeping the lights
burning for us winners.”
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