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When I fist started blogging just about two years ago on www.joshwhitford.com I had no real idea on what I was going to talk about. I love business and I love marketing and eventually that became the theme of the posts I continued to write.

In the beginning I figured I would learn how to rank for keywords and then continue to do so. One of the first keywords I targeted was the term Unconventional Marketing. I thought the term was just what I was looking for as my starting point and target audience.

I eventually ranked for the term after trying for a couple of months and now I continue to hold the first spot in Google roughly two years later. For the record, I got most of my link love by changing the title on my site to the Unconventional Marketing Blog and then people continually linking to my site with that description. Pretty easy huh?

I recall when I showed up #1 for the first time. I wrote a post talking about being #1 for the term and how proud I was. Then a thoughtful commenter showed up and told me how my term sucked because according to all major sites, the term gets little or no traffic to speak of. Way to rain on my parade, right?

So I shuck it off and continued without much thought.

A few months later someone emailed through my site asking for me to develop a marketing plan and help them execute it for them. The deal turned out being a solid 5 figures and low and behold they found me through the term Unconventional Marketing. Crazy.

Not only was that one deal a success, but I have had 3 deals in the 5 figures result from that one search term… So much for no search traffic, huh?

What is the point of all of this rambling? Simple. Just because someone comes and rains on your parade about something you worked hard to get doesn’t mean that you should take what they say as fact or the law.

It also means keywords and search terms that get “little” or “no” traffic to speak of can result in large deals.

So many people get hung up on the numbers, how many people visit, how many page views, how many this, how many that and so on. Really the numbers are deceiving and can be manipulated pretty easily to give people what they want… more numbers. Instead, focus on what will help you reach your goal. Will 5 buyers get you closer to your goal? You bet. Can you find 5 buyers out of 10 visitors? You bet.

Before you think about keywords and how “little” traffic they get according to whatever source, realize that until you actually rank for the term, you’ll never know. I can tell you that people search and click on Unconventional Marketing about 3-4 times a day or 1,200 times a year. But out of those 1,200 visitors I’ve made a fair chunk of change. Get the point?

Try whatever you can and see the results for yourself. What if I had given up on the idea of unconventional marketing because some naysayers analyzed and determined I was wrong? What have you given up on because of others’ opinions? What do you think would be fun to try just for the sake of trying?

What is Unconventional Marketing?

Doing what the majority doesn’t and getting results…

Why is community important to your success?

Having a community is like having the ultimate support group. Rarely do any of us go through life without the help of others. Building a community around you is vital to increasing your ROI and success with each new endeavor.

What do I mean by building a community? I mean giving your time, talent or treasure to help others. The secret to success is giving. The more you give the more successful you’ll become, I guarantee it. Now that we are approaching the Holiday Season, charity and giving are in the air and almost become second nature to most. This is the same feeling and approach you should have with building your community.

Going out of your way to help another person with an idea, link, promotion or an extra hand will eventually fill your community cup to overflowing. This can’t be faked. People know when you do something out of sincerity versus trying to gain something from them. Take the time out of each day to do something for someone else and see what happens. Pretty soon you’ll notice that people will be doing the same for you.

For example, a friend of mine just released a band new Beer Review Blog (bigbeerblog.com). The site barely has a half-dozen posts, but it is already racking up a dozen or so comments per post. Not bad for a band new site. The thing to notice here is the fact that Allyn has built/joined a community of like-minded individuals online. This has made the launch of his new site a success very quickly. A community can help your reach your goals much quicker.

Another example with community that I love is the ability to trade/barter with people you know. When starting a new business the best thing you can do is keep your cost down. I have had to worry about this with the launch of my new hotel booking site (whosgotroom.com). I was able to build the majority of the site in its current form for under a grand. This was only possible because of the community relationships I had built.

For all of these reasons I decided this week to set up a Facebook Fan Page called Friends of Griz and Vic. The community that has sprung up around these two Internet Marketers has been amazing. They have had tons of positive impact on many people’s lives. I for one quit my job and made a successful living practicing what these two preached.

I set up the Friends of Griz and Vic page to help others find each other and support each other for all of their latest needs or projects. The table is open for any ideas on better things we can do to enable one another in our own pursuits. Obviously, I don’t expect all of you to know who Griz or Vic are, but if you want to join a pretty awesome community online, here’s your chance.

So come, and build a community around yourself and give back to others. All it takes is a little time.

Are you ready for some football, football, football? Or, how about some commercials, commercials, commercials? At least that seems to be the thing most people talk about around the Super Bowl.

As we ramp up for the Big Game of the year people have already begun talking about the commercials associated with the Super Bowl. The theme of this year’s advertisers is to save money while still generating a buzz. At 3 million dollars per 30-second slot, hardly anyone can blame them. I now introduce to you a brand new marketing idea for the Super Bowl. The 1 second Super Bowl commercial.

Miller High Life had no problem coming up with a series of 1 second ads. They will air on local stations throughout the Super Bowl show. Miller has to go the route of local TV because Anheuser Busch is the official liquor sponsor of Super Bowl 43. If you go to 1secondad.com (granted you’re over 21), you can check out the series of commercials. Each commercial run by Miller High Life will roughly cost them about $300,000. Now they can develop their ads to be the most effective, use their site to see which one people like watching the most and save a ton of money with buzz and creative advertising.

Not to be outdone, other companies have jumped on the same short commercial bandwagon such as Federal Express and General Motors with their own 3 second ads. The motto of less is more is carrying through on more and more market segments. Soon our lives will consist of 1- and 3-second interruptions vs. the 30-second to 1-minute interruptions we are accustomed to. It is about time. These advertisers realized they don’t have to pummel us with long ads to get their points across. Studies have been shown that people who use TiVo and DVRs get the same branding effect as people who sit and watch the whole commercial.

How much money would an advertising company save by running 5-second commercials vs. full-length ones? How many more channels and stations could they advertise on running campaigns like that? How much less annoying would commercials be if they were micro commercials? I have a feeling that the Hulu.coms of the world are on to something with their limited interruptions and product-placement advertising models.

What’s your advertising model like? Do you interrupt people or engage them? The advertising world is changing, quickly.

Click here to watch Josh Whitford’s 1 second Super Bowl commercial.

If you haven’t already seen the original post on how to Develop A Story In Order To Sell More Products, I recommend you do that before reading/listening any further.

I sound like a little kid in the video, ha. I have to laugh at myself sometimes. Oh well.

Thanks for taking part in my little case study. Leave your dissatisfied comments below.

Of course somewhere in the world you will probably be able to find one of these knives. I just don’t know where. I also don’ t want to be selling a product that is illegal in most of the countries/states my visitors come from. The real brand name of the knife is Min Sheng so good luck if you do find one somewhere.

Andrew from Mixery.com was kind enough to share a video of Seth Godin Tribes he (his friend) was able to record. It is a bit on the longer side of 70+ minutes, but I would highly recommend watching and analyzing what Seth is trying to describe in creating a tribe of people and ideas. Powerful message especially from a marketing point of view.

Mixergy has more videos and MP3s for startups.