You know what’s crazy?

The internet.

I’ve always had a fascination with power of words.

Getting people to take out their wallet and give you cash over the internet just because you have good copywriting.

Wow.

But I admit, I was never a good copywriter… let alone a writer.

In fact, I don’t think i ever really “blog” . I just write what I think.

No filter. Stuff just comes out, like verbal diarrhea and somehow i managed to be a pretty good writer.

(I mean, I am writing here, ain’t I?)

Post Gone Viral

A while back, I wrote about how a dentist friend of mine thought about buying an existing local dentist office.

He didn’t know what he was doing (as a business man trying to acquire another business), and I knew NOTHING about the dental busines.

To make ths story short, I used some lean startup / marketing tactics and saved him around $250k. (Well, at least I saved him from making $250k mistake.)

I thought it would resonate with online marketers & entrepreneurs.

But oddly enough, it resonated more with dentists.

In fact, the CEO/Founder of DentalTown.com (it’s like a site for dental people) liked it so much, and ended up tweeting it.

With that tweet, a whole bunch of other dentists started following me.

Next day, a whole SLEW of dentists contacted me… for marketing help.

One dentist offered me $2k to help me do the same work for his 3rd branch in Pennsylvania.

I never saw the guy. I never had to convince him. He just gave me a check.

Why?

• I was THE expert on this topic and he read it thoroughly (he was very interested in every little detail)
• I didn’t have to “explain” or convince, i just showed him what i did
• Social proof – Apparently some dentists emailed him a link to my blog. Instant social proof that I didn’t have to build myself.

Greatest satisfaction?

Knowing that someone actually read my article and thought “hey, i can actually use this in my life.”

(Ok getting a check was pretty cool too. I’m still getting inquiries but man, client work kinda bites … I wonder if there’s an easier way to scale this.)

Marketing Takeaway

1) Get on your keyboard and just write good content.

(or a type writer)

Yes, “SEO” (in the sense of gaming search engines) is dead. Screw SEO.

You might be a better marketer, but 1000+ computer engineers with pH.d’s that work at Google are smarter than you. That i’m certain.

Trying to beat Google at their game is like bringing a knife to a gun machine gun fight.

Can you win? Yeah, probably. Should you try? Maybe not.

2) Don’t try to sell so much. Have a conversation instead.

Yesterday I was walking my dog and two white mormon kids came up to me and started speaking to me in Korean.

I was thinking “Holy shit! White mormons speaking Korean!”.

… then a couple of seconds later, I thought “Holy shit, mormons. RUN!”

They wanted me to share the word of gospel while my dog was laying a fat doo-doo on the sidewalk.

I felt so bad, so I talked to them. (I mean, i did have to wait for my dog to finish).

They were trying to convince me so hard on why I should go to their church.

I told them gently that while I believe in God, I don’t necessarily think going to church is the only way to salvation. And though I grew up Catholic, that I prefer the Buddhist way of enlightenment.

Oh, they looked like they shat in their pants.

Stop selling so hard.

Teach, listen, and have a freakin’ conversation. Like normal humans.

3) Solve someone’s problems

The biggest disservice Silicon Valley (and most of American business “leaders” in general) do to newbie entrepreneurs is telling them to go after your passion.

No offense to anyone but f*ck passion.

If passion equals profits, why are so many damn “passionate” musicians & artists broke?

People get paid to solve PROBLEMS. That’s why brain surgeons get paid millions while janitors get paid nothing.

If you’re an entrepreneur, solve a REAL pain in the ass problem. Then the money will come.

If you’re an affiliate or a lead gen guy, and the only thing you care about is your ROI.. you’re gonna burn sooner or later.

Try to look at it from the perspective of your customer.

They gotta make money in order for you to make money.

Just sayin’.