Twitter Color Wars… Crowd Control 2.0? And more…

If you haven’t seen the hoopla in the past couple weeks about the Twitter color wars… it’s pretty entertaining stuff. As of today, I’m officially on the @VeryGreenTeam.

If you’re not a “twitter-head” as Mashable put it… you probably have no clue what I’m talking about… and to tell you the truth you probably really don’t care either.

What’s the whole Twitter color war thing anyway??

Well… really don’t know yet. From the looks of it… it’s being really pushed by top guys like Gary Vaynerchuk, Ze Frank, and some other dudes big time in social media.

Basically, there are a whole bunch of teams named after different colors (verygreenteam, red, green, yellow, blue, orange, pink, gold, off-white, plaid, fuscia, clear, white, purple, stripe and puce (thanks Mashable for this rundown on the teams!) ZeFrank linked up a new webpage that looks like it’ll be dedicated to the whole Color Wars 2008 thing… this is crazy!! But I like it!!

I got to thinking about this whole color war thing and it goes way beyond just some crazy (and kinda stupid) games on Twitter.

This whole thing is showing in real time how Twitter and other social media can be used to control crowds and build excitement.

Crazy stuff when you think about it…

This is Crowd Control 2.0.

This is cool stuff… but at least so far it’s the good guys using the Twitter crowd for good (i.e. Gary V’s @santagaryvee thing that is basically free Woot… awesome way to further build his brand!)

I know… no one is being controlled… and no one is against their own will (sometimes I think I am though because I’m so addicted to Twitter and Web 2.0)…

… but, think about it like a big ol’ wave at a professional baseball stadium. When crowds are involved… and some outgoing people get creative and want to have some fun… it gets contagious and crowds can be told basically what to do (up to a certain point

Before Web 2.0 (and really… apps like Twitter and Facebook) an online version of the wave (I’m talking real time here… not forwarded emails and stuff) was pretty much impossible because of the time lag and non-interactivity of the crowds.

Now… this whole colorwars thing is showing how crowds of people can interact in real time in creative ways like online roshambo… and if we wanted to… we could create some type of “wave” competition to see which team can (in real time) keep the wave going the longest (I have a few ideas on how we can do this from the technical side).

Wow… more and more the offline world is being replicated by the online world.

Can you imagine the possibilities for companies and brands (big and small) to start grassroots viral competitions like this on these new social media sites to drive traffic and subliminally build their brand at the same time??

Wow!

Ya, it would take some sneaky thinking to get it so it didn’t appear to be coming from a commercial entity… but I can definitely see the possibilities… my mind is spinning right now.

How do you participate in the Twitter Color Wars?

I’ll tell you what. There is only one team in my opinion… the @verygreenteam is the only way to go.

Why?

Green is a pretty cool color. Money is green, trees are green, golf courses are green (at least they should be!), and Gary V. and ZeFrank are leading the charge on the green team.

I met up w/ Gary V. in Orlando in February and chatted w/ him for a while about biz and life (with some other cool people)… he’s an awesome guy and knows his stuff when it comes to building a brand and using social media to spread his good word.

Anyhow, I wrote this post for two reasons… to let ya’ all know about the Twitter ColorWars (for fun)… and to show you how little games like these are real time experiments in Crowd Control 2.0… bringing real time interaction on traditionally offline activities… online.

This is only the start… and us little guys are the ones who will pioneer the advances on the web… while the big guys will continue to be the late adapters.

So… head over and follow me on Twitter… pick your team… and join in on the war!

Popularity: 28% [?]

My 6 part morning routine… most important hour of my day.

It seriously took me a few years to figure this out… but I truly can’t imagine life any other way now.

What is it that has made this huge difference in my life and my successes so far?

Just a simple measly little hour.

You know how your mom always told you that you need a good breakfast to start the day off right? And how the “health gurus” say that breakfast is the most important meal?

Man… I do. If you know me… you know I’m a sports guy. Played baseball all my life (up through college anyway… not anymore , love golf now, and work out almost everyday. When I don’t eat a good meal in the morning the rest of my day is plain shot.

Is that the secret I couldn’t imagine living without?

Lol, nope. But…

Very similar.

The thing I couldn’t live without (or at least function like a productive and creative human being) is my morning routine.

Some people call it fancy names like “the hour of power” (cough… cough… Tony Robbins), “morning mind ritual”… but for me it’s just a routine that I’ve noticed when I do it… I’m productive, clear minded, positive, and get a ton of stuff done.

When I don’t do it… I stray off course easily, have a tough time getting focused in the first place, and have a plain ol’ attitude that isn’t really all that positive.

So, for me… this simple hour I call my morning routine is really just like that “eat a good breakfast” saying (actually, eating a good breakfast is part of my routine too). It starts the day off right and really sets the stage for what the rest of the day will be like.

So, what’s a part of my morning routine?

For a few years I would go in and out of having a steady morning routine. Sometimes I would get up early thinking that was the key (it really isn’t for me)… sometimes I would try to meditate for a while… sometimes I would just write out a little plan for the day.

None of these things really worked for me so I could stick with it every single day.

But, a little while back I simplified it. Before then I was trying to be too rigid with my routine and it just wasn’t working well for me.

So, I sat down and started to log the things that produced GOOD results for me… and the things that produced BAD results for me in the mornings to make me more productive and happy.

The Good:

• Meditating for 5-10 minutes – Nothing too heavy. Just clearing the mind for a few minutes really got me so I could think clearly and focus right away.
• Exercise – Once again… nothing too heavy. Get the blood pumping a bit and get some oxygen in the blood. This is where I come up with some of my best thoughts.
• Eat a good breakfast - This is huge for me… really gives my body the fuel it needs to start things off right. When I don’t eat a good breakfast I’m toast for the rest of the day.
• Drink a glass of cold water and pop the vitamins
• Read for 10-15 minutes… usually something that inspires me to start the day
• Write out my top priorities for the day

The Bad:

• Getting more than 8 hours of sleep – I love my sleep… but when I get more than 8 hours it just seems like I’m tired the whole day. 7 hours is great… but right at 8 hours is perfect for me… no more.
• Reading my email before 9am – The first thing I used to do was get up, turn on the computer… and read the email as I was eating a bowl of cereal. Man, I found out that this really shot to hell my morning… and made me extremely unproductive.
• Getting on twitter before 9am - I love my twitter… but it’s so addictive that it is a huge productivity killer that I just can’t check it until after I’ve done my morning routine anymore. (hey, if you’re not following me… do it… you know you should!)
• Not creating a plan for the day and making priorities – If you’d ask my wife… I’m not a guy who normally likes to plan things to the hilt. But… when it comes to business and being productive… I’ve found out that not planning out things really is a killer to getting stuff done. Not planning = wasting away the day (only takes 5 minutes… if you’re not… DO IT!).

So, I basically kept the things that are GOOD for my productivity, happiness, and sanity… and got rid of the things that are BAD for my productivity, happiness, and sanity.

Sounds simple huh?

Here’s my morning routine

1. Wake up, shake off the cob webs and go have a glass of clean, cold water... and pop some multi-vitamins. The water helps to wake me up and hydrates my body for the rest of the day.
2. Do about 20 minutes of light exercise just to get my blood pumping. This one is huge for me. When I don’t do this… my productivity is crap for the rest of the day. Nothing fancy… do some sit ups, push ups, walk outside/run in place inside, jumping jacks… whatever. Just something to get my blood pumping… not necessarily to sweat. This exercise is more to get my mind working right… not to build muscles.
3. Eat a good breakfast. Whether it be a bowl of raisin bran with a banana, scrambled eggs, omlet, oatmeal, etc. I just need something healthy in my gut or I’m a slug for the rest of the day.
4. A bit of meditation… like 5-10 minutes. I know, I know… meditation huh? Man, I used to be weirded out by that word too and thought it was only for people who wore purple robes and had shaved heads. But, when I started to do it… I realized that this stuff really works. You don’t have to do anything fancy… just sit in a quiet place… close your eyes… relax… and try to think about nothing for a while. Clear your mind. Maybe visualize your goals and the awesome stuff you’ll be doing that day. Works like a charm.
5. Read for 10-15 minutes. After I clear my mind I like to read for a few minutes. Usually it’s the latest book I bought from Borders (business, motivation, marketing, etc.). For me, this little time of reading helps me to get my brain to focus on things and to get my creativity juices flowing.
6. Write out a quick snapshot of how I’d like the day to go w/ priorities. This is key for me. I look through my journal and see what projects I have on my plate, what I accomplished and didn’t accomplish the day before, what I need to do today to accomplish my goals… and what things are highest on my list of priorities. Simple. Now I know what I’m going to do today and have something to measure my actual results against. Without measurement you can never get better.

That’s it. Simple stuff huh?

But, once I started to do this little hour (give or take a few minutes) morning routine… my productivity and happiness shot up.

I can almost guarantee you that your morning ritual is probably a bit different than mine… and it should be. But, the key is to figure out what you do when you have a very productive and happy day… what you do when you don’t have a productive and happy day…

… and get rid of the stuff that drags you down and fit the things that help you start the day off right into a morning ritual.

The key to making your morning ritual stick

Really, your morning ritual will stick only when you have truly banished the things that drag you down in the morning out of your routine. Until then, it will be tough to stick to it because your results will be inconsistent.

So, every single day you should write down what has a positive effect on your productivity and happiness… and what has a negative effect. Then, every day… work on replacing a bad activity with a good activity… and do this every single day until your morning routine is second nature… and you wonder what the heck you would do if you didn’t have this routine in place.

Try it out… let me know how it goes.

Hey, do you have a morning routine that works for you? What is it? Leave a comment below.

Popularity: 32% [?]

Free PR Every Day?? An Awesome Free Publicity Service You Need 2 Join…

PR is one of my favorite ways to spread the word about anything and everything I’m doing (and my clients too .

I’ve been using free PR to gain local and national attention for my clients products and services for a few years now… and it’s not really as hard as most people think.

Why?

Well… think about it for a sec. How many online and offline publications are out there?

Let’s see: (these are approximations according to sources on the net)

• Newspapers – 1,500 (source)
• Magazines – 7,000
• TV Talk and News Shows – 1,884 (source)
  
• Radio Stations – 12,600 (source)
• Internet Media – 100 Millio+ blogs, thousands of targeted news sites, and on and on…

That’s about 23,000 different media sources just in the U.S. (not including the internet only media) that are looking for interesting information to send out to their audience on a regular basis. Of course, some of these sources send out constant streams of information (CNN, Fox News, etc.), while others publish every month/week/daily, etc.

I don’t even want to begin to find out how many news/information pieces are published every single day through all 5 forms of media… it’s crazy to even think about it.

What do all of these media and writers have in common?

All media... whether it be the New York Times or Joe Schmo blogger… are looking for a constant stream of interesting topics to write about… and relevant people and experts to interview as sources.

If you don’t put yourself out there to be the one giving the writers and media the interview… or even providing the content yourself by writing an article for them… SOMEONE ELSE WILL!

Why am I on this PR diatribe?

Simple, what if you could get reporters and writers for publications both huge (New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, etc.) and small actually coming to you every day for information for their articles?

Pretty cool huh?

How about if this is totally free?

Even cooler huh?

Well, my buddy Peter Shankman (a PR expert and industry insider) set up this awesome free PR service called www.HelpAReporter.com that gives you free PR leads… and reporters free sources for their stories.

This thing has been taking off like crazy and almost 500 more people subscribed to this services which is as simple as it gets. Peter just launched it a few days back and there’s already almost 3,000 people on the list getting these free PR leads.

1. You head over to www.helpareporter.com and fill in the very brief email submit form.
2. Every day Peter gets queries from top reporters and writers and he sends them out in batches to you every day… sometimes twice a day.
3. You find the stories that you can provide information for… respond directly to the reporter… and get free PR if the writer/reporter likes what you have to say.

Simple as that.

There is a service out there that is similar to this one… but it costs something like $99/month for the same damn thing.

My review on the www.helpareporter.com service

To tell you the truth, I think any marketer or PR person would frankly be kinda stupid not to subscribe to this list. It’s free PR leads from high quality publications (the big ones… this isn’t just rinky dink local newspapers).

When I first subscribed to it (once again… it’s free!) I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from it. Afterall, it is free.

But, the first email I got had something like 3 or 4 leads from writers from publications like New York Newsday, Good Housekeeping, and another couple pretty darn well known publications. And, one of the articles a writer was putting together perfectly matched up with one of my clients.

Anyhow, head over to www.helpareporter.com and learn more about this free service… and please… join for free. You’ll be glad you did.

Popularity: 17% [?]

SEO is a waste of time… What?? This proves it’s not!

Man, I was checking the stats for one of my own websites as a routine that I have every Monday… and I saw something pretty damn crazy on there that I wanted to share.

One of the sites I run is a real estate investing website that focuses on helping new and struggling investors begin investing the RIGHT WAY. As you probably know, I’m a very part time real estate investor and invest in multi-unit real estate. So, I pass on what I know and help my readers sift through the crap that is on the net and find the truly actionable, truthful, honest, unbiased, and up to date information and resources that will help them succeed… not just line the pockets of gurus.

(sorry… I’ll get off my soapbox for a sec

Anyhow, back to the SEO story…

Okay, I was checking out my stats today and was expecting to see the main search terms referring traffic to be a ton of long-tail terms that I optimize my site and each post for. Hey, that’s what I’ve been focusing on because the generic search term “real estate investing” is one of the more competitive search terms out there… truthfully… I really think it would be a waste of my time to concentrate a ton on ranking high for that search term.

Well…

I come to find that over the past week or so I have been pulling a bunch of traffic from the search term “real estate investing” from Google.

So, like any curious internet entrepreneur would do… I headed over to Google to see what I was ranked for that term.

I couldn’t believe my eyes!

Here’s a screen shot of the actual Google search. (my site is www.thereibrain.com)

The term “real estate investing” is a huge search term w/ over 30 million competing pages and has been dominated by Creonline and REIclub for probably the past 5 years at least. Those two sites have been around since the late 90′s and early 00′s… so Google likes that they’ve been around for a while.

But…

My site just passed the 1.5 year mark a little while back (might be closer to 2 years… don’t remember) and has been doing very well in a ton of long-tail search terms that I have optimized the content for.

How the Sites Been Doing Recently…

The past 6 months The REI Brain has been growing pretty damn well. Traffic has almost doubled every month since January and I attribute that to my highly targeted articles… and the use of social media as of late.

But… up until I noticed my #3 ranking in Google for real estate investing… I haven’t touched higher than the 3rd page for that same search term.

I don’t keep up on the Google algorythim changes a whole lot… I feel that if you put out a ton of awesome content… give the readers awesome value for their time… that other bloggers and websites will link to your site because of the content… and Google will love it for that reason.

Google’s whole aim is to provide the user (one doing the search) with the best quality experience.

This includes:

• The most relevant and timely organic search results
• The most relevant and useful ads
• The results that Google feels will help the reader best answer their question

When you concentrate on #1, providing awesome and timely content… then #2 optimizing it for the search engines… you’ll win.

How did I get this high ranking in such a competitive search term?

Well… to tell you the truth… I can start naming off the ninja techniques I’ve been doing recently…

… or I could tell you the truth and say, “I really don’t know why… maybe a new Google algo”.

All kidding aside, there are some reasons that Google would even consider my site as a top 10 site for real estate investing.

Here are my thoughts…

1. Truly, my site is an awesome resource and is updated on a consistent basis. It sets out to truly help people rather than to make me a ton of money. Google likes that sort of thing.
2. Lately, I‘ve been writing some posts that have been getting linked to a lot on the blog… which would trickle down to the root domain (the root domain is the highly ranked page). Good content = incoming links = Google salivating over your content.
3. I optimized my internal link structure in January using some cool wordpress plugins like the alinks plugin
4. I started using social media big time in January to get the word out about the site.  People gravitate toward genuine content… and social media makes it easy for people to reward good work.  (I’ll write a post later on about how to do this…)

I want to give this a few weeks or a month or two to season on Google.  If it’s around next month at this time… I’ll feel confident that I should continue doing what I’ve been doing to get the word out about my content.

Just an FYI… this is all 100% white hat stuff.  No tricks… just giving awesome content… using simple on page optimization… using social media… and implementing some great internal linking (which I still have a ton I need to do) to make the entire site a bit more sticky and to get people and search engines to do deeper in to the site.

Easy as that.  Give people what they want… be of value, not a spammer w/ a motive… and the search results will find you.

I’ll keep you updated on the status of this ranking and let you know exactly what I’ve done (both on page and off) to get my websites (and my clients websites) where they are.

Popularity: 20% [?]