Business is a funny thing. Or at least I think it is. Perhaps it isn’t business that is funny at all but rather the people in businesses. I digress.

I am a firm believer when trying to get ahead of the competition to always bark up, not down. If I had a 30% hold on my market and my competitor has 60%, I would do all I could to get them to acknowledge and talk about me and my company.

If I am the larger of the two companies in a niche, I do everything I can to pretend I am the only business in the niche. When asked a question about the competition in this situation, I would reply with: “I haven’t heard of them, are they any good?” Nothing gets under people’s skin more than being willfully ignored and neglected.

What are some ways to get the bigger business talking about you?

1. Make big innovations – such is the case with Bing in the search world. Bing turned the ship and started attacking Google on its flanks for market share. Do you like how Google was forced to copy Bing’s image results page? That didn’t take long, not to mention the number of other areas Google was forced to make changes.

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt on Friday said that Microsoft’s Bing search engine was the company’s main threat, not Facebook or Apple.

That is a pretty bold statement to even be mentioning the competition. If I were Eric, which I’m not, I wouldn’t utter Bing unless it was accompanied by a damning statement. Eric, in essence, validated and acknowledged what Bing was doing was not only successful but encouraging them to attack the flanks.

2. Constantly promoting your successes – If you are a smaller business trying to garner the attention of the bigger guys, one way to ensure this is to constantly update your successes no matter how small they are. Thanks to Jason Calacanis for this tip. When he started WebBlogs Inc. (which sold for A LOT of $) they would announce every new feature, widget, setting option and so on like it was the world’s greatest invention since sliced bread.

Nothing gets under people’s skin more than being told everyday about something new your competition is doing to kick your ass in the market. This is the look at me play, and it works very well. If their eyes are on you and the things that you are doing, their progress and drive gets a little slower and slower trying to out-smart you and your team.

How do you avoid talking about the competition?

1. Deflection through humor – If your competition is big enough that you can’t pretend they don’t exist, then deflect the comment with a humorous statement such as:

Person 1: What do you think of competition’s new widget?

You: Their new widget? I haven’t had time to look at it. I barely have enough time to let my dog outside.

2. Outdo them – Like a good magician, present the audience with a cooler, shinier object for them to be fascinated with. The key to pulling this off is being totally excited about that new thing you are talking about.

Person 1: What do you think of competition’s new widget?

You: We’ve been doing that for a year and it works great, but we are releasing our Beta 3.1 doohickey that will make their widget look like a whiffle bat at a Major League game. And here is why….

Conclusion:

Business is just as much mental as it is anything else. If you are fortunate enough to not have any competition to worry about, you are either the only game in town or in a pretty exclusive niche, to which I wish you the best. If, on the other hand, you are in a pool filled with sharks, it’s time to become a dolphin. (P.S. I am the king of horrible analogies.) Nevertheless, you know what I mean. Aim hit and deflect the ankle biters. Plus, have fun doing it.

Photo Cred *http://barkingdogmc.com

I was going to publish an earth-shattering post that would revolutionize online marketing through unconventional techniques, but I thought I would put that on hold. Instead, I’ll share with everyone that this blog is now #1 on Google (GOOG) for the keyword term Unconventional Marketing and Unconventional marketing Blog. Here is the pic.

Over the past month or two I have been floating between #2 and #3 depending on the day and weather, apparently. Now my goals are honing in on some other marketing terms as well as my name and Josh Blog. I never knew before blogging that there was another Josh Whitford in this world, but there is. And not only that, but he is an author and professor, thus holding the #1 spot for our names. In time. As far as the other terms go, I am slowly beginning to pick off the less searched for marketing terms and using those as the blog’s foundation before conquering others larger terms.

I have been developing SEO skills over the last two months as I questioned how to rank #1 for selected terms. What I have found is that ranking for keywords is pretty easy and straight forward, but depending on the terms can take a lot of time and effort to achieve. I hope to build up the skills and continue to use that to benefit this blog and those around me. If you are wondering where I learned about SEO here are the blogs you should visit. There are many more out there but these are the most legit I have found.

• Make Money Online (Vic)
• Make Money Online (Grizzly)
• How to Make Money Online for Beginners
• Learn. Rank. Dominate

As a way of celebrating, I will offer 200 Entrecredits to the first 20 people to leave a comment on this post. If you don’t have Entrecard, I will offer up a free link on my blog roll instead. I will send the credits to the email you use in posting your comments.

*Note: This was not a paid review nor are the links affiliate links. I am supporting Marcus and his product because I feel that both are of great value.

About two months ago, Marcus Hochstadt from the blog Internet Business Guide For First Class Progress asked if I would review a new product he was about to launch. Marcus sells and promotes tutorial videos and other helpful products for people who are new to making money online. So, onwards and upwards.

The home study course, International Market & Keyword Research, was designed by Marcus to help people understand how to properly find and select keyword marketing. If you have ever tried your luck at Google Adwords without putting much thought into it, you have probably spent a fair amount of money doing it. It would not be hard in the least to drop $1,000 on Adwords and not even get a measurable return from it. Marcus aimed to solve the issue of wasting money on Adword campaigns and did a good job.

What you will find is a step-by-step process for targeting the exact audience you are seeking with the exact keywords necessary to net the biggest conversions. Marcus laid everything out in a well thought out manner that will allow even the most novice Adword users to understand completely. I have used Adsense and Adwords before and was blown away by how the course guided me through the whole process. I have to admit, while watching the tutorial, I did some reverse research to look up the kind of content I wanted to provide on another blog in order to net the most per click off the Adsense ads running on that site. After finding the keywords that paid the most, it was a matter of researching which keywords in that category received the most clicks. Just using that information will pay for the series all by itself in no time at all.

I would not promote a product unless I felt it would benefit people, but also benefit people for a reasonable price. Marcus has informed me that he will be running a 72-hour special of the same International Market & Keyword Research home study course for $35. After the 72 hours, it will jump to $100. If you remember from my post the other day when I mention waiting before purchasing anything online, I would do the same here. Although I wouldn’t wait more than 72 hours, because the price will go up considerably after that. I can tell you that this course will pay for itself in a short timeframe either by saving you money that could have been wasted on Adword campaigns or by using knowledge and research techniques to promote targeted content on your blog to earn the most possible from your Adsense ads. I saw a significant jump in Adsense revenue on another one of our blogs by triggering those specific keywords.

Give it some thought and analyze if earning greater revenue from Adsense of saving money on Adwords is the thing you are looking for. If it is, I would invest in this tutorial.