Pay For Performance Has Changed
You know the business world is being turned on its head, even the old terms have a new meaning. This is not new, I’ve talked about this before, but today it’s become more real and in your face. Today it’s called pay for performance, the old name was called, “commission”. You got paid a commission for your performance, of what you sold. Today you get paid for something you do, not what you sold.
Businesses rely on transactions, the old way meant something was sold, a product or service was exchanged for money. Today, money is changing, it’s not hard cash that get’s exchanged, it can be as simple as a barter. It can be a new form of payment, pay with a Tweet, pay with finishing a mission on Empire Avenue, it’s no longer cash as we know it. What we used to call it a favor, is now a new kind of transaction. Today, merely referring someone reaps a reward. Your business now has to find ways to embrace these new transactions….and they aren’t that new, we’ve been doing them most of our lives, they now have a new reward. And I haven’t mentioned Bitcoin yet : )
How do you define pay for performance today, the old way, or the new social way? What do you believe to be the new social currency?
The Internet’s Own Boy – Aaron Swartz
Just finished watching “The Internet’s Own Boy – the story of Aaron Swartz” – not only was the government wrong, it was morally unjust, I’m still angry, I’m heart-broken and concerned about our future, a future that rely’s on government. They don’t always have your interest’s in mind. I’m concerned from the perspective of who we elect to office, and the power they use. I have always had a dislike for those who run for office, mostly because I believe their motive(s) is about money & control, not about making our communities and the world a better place. There are a great many injustices in the world, most from the lack of voter turn out, the lack of voters elects the wrong people to office. Voting is more important today than it has ever been, not voting merely guarantee’s we will continue to have more situation’s Aaron found himself fighting. He didn’t run to Russia, although he should have, he was steadfast, he didn’t hide, he stood for what he believed was right. I suggest we all should take his fight and example. What do you stand for, and are you willing to die for it?
The Future Of Business – The NEW Attention Shift
The modem was screeching, trying to make that handshake with another modem, if I could just connect to that modem, I could get the information I need. I had a book with pages of phone numbers for most of the BBS’s out on there in the world, they published books with theme as well. You could download drivers and programs, it was great fun, but it took forever on a 300 or 2400 Baud modem. The days of dialing into a BBS (Bulletin Board System) to get information are behind us, and when the Internet came along, most of these software packages built modules / add-on’s to connect a BBS to the NET. Eventually, that call into a BBS became an Internet connection at faster speeds of a modem, the world changed in one fleeting moment. You remember don’t you, when you had to send email via FidoNet, use a program to download a package of all your messages from the week before. That’s right, it used to take days, even weeks to get a response via email on a BBS. The more games, and or information you had available on your BBS, the more attention, the more visitors. There were almost no GURUS & EXPERTS, just people with some experience, and they were willing to help you for free, for the most part.
While the BBS world was quietly doing it’s thing, TV, Radio & Newspaper’s garnered almost all the attention, in some markets they still do. You didn’t hear about GURUS & EXPERTS that much because those medium’s were closely guarded. Not open, not free. To advertise, to get the word out, the mainstream media was the most effective way. Until the Internet.
The Internet changed the game, suddenly the attention shifted, and then attention game had no rules, no watch dogs, it was wide open, it was free…..for now. Out of nowhere the GURUS & EXPERTS appeared, suddenly there were more authorities on everything than you could imagine. I’ve often said, everyone knows something about something, but no one knows everything about everything. The narcissists would argue that point.
Blogging became the mode of communication, you could write about anything, it is a writers dream, a painters favorite kind of canvas. Blogs had the attention until a bigger beast appeared, Social Networks, and the attention shifted once again. These Social Networks are shifting as I write, a new shift, they want you, all of us to Blog on their network, on their channel, because they want content. Why? They want to win the attention war. It matters not how you access the social networks, it only matters that your attention shifts.
I find it puzzling that many would rather blog on Social Networks than their own Blog. Giving away traffic to the Social Networks, when the Social Networks should be driving traffic to the Blog…..funny how it gets turned around.
Personally, I would rather be the owner a Blog, and use Social Networks as tools to drive customers, readers, viewers back to my home-base, my Blog. Most Social Networks and other mainstream media sites want you to make their site your home-base, they want to be your homepage when you open a browser, much like the Industrial Age of control. They want your attention, they want to control your attention, but so do you the Blogger.
If you give away viewers, readers, and buyers, and traffic….you lose. Big business wins again, they got you to shift your attention, and the attention of those that were paying attention to you. Giving away your followers eyeballs means they make the money, not you, defeating the purpose you ventured in to.
Guard your fans, protect your followers, they truly are valuable, to you, and most definitely to big business. Think about where you put your content, you and only you can control it. There is an attention shift taking place, no matter how easy it might seem, don’t be fooled into giving it to groups and organizations that want to take it from you. Build YOUR platform, your home-base, that’s the only way to survive this attention-getting war.
Content Marketing Is A Scam!
When we don’t fully understand something, or we fear the thing, we give it a name to justify our rational towards it. There is no secret to content marketing, or content, it is just that, content…. with a message, and most of it is geared to selling something. As much as we all say, “I don’t like selling”, that’s what we do every day, in our conversations, and in our blog content, we’re either selling ideas, or products and services, but we are always selling. We all want conversion on some level, whether it’s views, traffic to a site, or for someone to buy what you’re selling.
Whatever it is you’re sharing, on your blog, on social networks, you are selling, you’re marketing….you either want click’s on your shared content, or they’re going to be asked to buy something on the other side. So let’s knock off the fancy names and just tell the story, stop hiding behind something to help you have a clear conscience. Most people hate being sold, so we change the game, we give selling a new name, content marketing. You’re not fooling anyone, you’ve just created a new revenue stream of lies.
Whatever content you’re going to share, tell the story, tell it well, believe in it, own it, but don’t make it something it’s not. Content marketing is a scam.
The Future Of Business – Is Now Being Taught By Mainstream
Remember back in 1994 when the big boom happened, and then the big bust! A funny thing has been happening lately, and it appears to be picking up speed, especially in the main stream. Now this may seem like old news, or you might even think, well DUH! I wrote a long while back I wrote a 2 part article that, everyone will eventually be an affiliate marketer of something, and part 2 is here – the future of business is an online business, and it’s easier than ever for anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection to beat the big guys. If you haven’t considered starting an online business, ask yourself one thing, how long will you be working at your current job (if not self-employed), even if you are forced into retirement, you’re probably going to need to continue generating revenue somehow.
Let’s say you’re 50 an older, what will you do if you suddenly find yourself out of work? This isn’t fear mongering, it’s real, and it’s becoming more and more common each passing day, are you prepared, is it even on your radar.
This morning I received an email from a firm pimping a series of eCommerce Tutorials to build an online store, this is the list in the email:
– Build a product catalog
– Create a shopping cart
– Manage product options
– Add checkout
– Learn about payments
– Compare gateways
– Learn about shipping
– Learn about hosting
Anyway, you get the idea. I would suggest these are not the items most people want to know how to do when just getting started, at least they shouldn’t be. Mostly because, and I’m generalizing so don’t get all out joint. Most people struggle more with what business to start, and want some kind of assurance the thing will make money and succeed. But those topics may help you, they aren’t the place to start in my humble opinion.
I like to do my grocery shopping early in the day, like 6AM early…not because I like mornings, but I like it when the store is dead slow : ) I happen to go down the magazine isle, I noticed a rag with big bold letters, and it said,”Step By Step – How To Setup An Online Business 2014″, this is a mainstream well know magazine to boot! Yes I opened it up and started to review it. Now, considering that I make my living online, I’m often curious about how mainstream views this Internet online business thingy, and I was also curious about what they were teaching. I don’t have the time and frankly I’m not convinced you sit here and read it all if I wrote it, but let’s just cover some points anyway.
The magazine broke it down into four areas, Planning, Building, Selling, and Marketing. I’m not going to go into details, there’s just far too many topics to cover for a blog post.
PLANNING
The Planning sub-section heading was, Start The Right Business and had 13 sub-topics from going into business to finding money. I have to admit I was surprised how much they covered, and how much I actually have used over the years teaching clients and in my workshops. One area that caught my attention was called, “Why An Internet Business”. You probably have your own reason’s but, the biggest reason is, you can reach billions of buyers from your bedroom, or wherever you want to work from.
BUILDING
This also had 13 sub-sections from finding a home for your business to creating an app for your business, the main heading was titled, “Create The Right Website”. This section was mostly about the technical stuff, should you use WordPress, where to host your site, good web design, registering domain names, getting your site written, video & sound, and creating an app for mobile devices.
SELLING
Maximise Your Sales is the main Title for some 14 sub-sections. How to set up on eBay to making money from your own Amazon shop.
MARKETING
The sub Title, “Find New Customers”, I’ll admit everyone wants to know the answer, but most don’t want to do the work. This topic has 24 sub-sections, I told you there was lots of work, from an introduction to marketing to making your business thrive.
MY POINT
The reason I mention these two situations is because a new NORMAL has revealed itself, the second industrial age is now real, the second industrial age is you doing business online, we’re talking about it more, it’s being written about in almost all the mainstream magazines, and it has been taught online forever, the business landscape has changed! For years you have seen magazines convincing you to go into business for yourself (Bricks & Mortar), today, it’s about going into business for yourself online (Clicks & Pages). Where are you in this journey? If you need more information, the first thing to do is, sign-up for my Future Of Business updates on the right side bar, then take some time to read my blog, I’ve shared about this and much more.
Remember, the future of business is online!
