Why My Broccoli Casserole Sucks

I’ve been on a rant lately about how changes in AdWords are likely to shift the arenas of potential competitive advantage from keyword wizardly and campaign optimization to a much deeper factor:

Uniqueness

If you haven’t yet, spend an hour reviewing this week’s webinar, the AdWords 2010 Prognostication Call. (Available only in the Ring of Fire, click here to join. And once you’re a member, look out early next week for an interview with Sean D’Souza, explaining exactly how you find your uniqueness, how you develop it, and how you propogate it.)

Today, check out this quote from a NY Times op-ed piece about the demise of Gourmet magazine by Christopher Kimball, the editor of Cook’s Illustrated, bemoaning the “sound bite” web and the democratization of expertise.

The shuttering of Gourmet reminds us that in a click-or-die advertising marketplace, one ruled by a million instant pundits, where an anonymous Twitter comment might be seen to pack more resonance and useful content than an article that reflects a lifetime of experience, experts are not created from the top down but from the bottom up. They can no longer be coronated; their voices have to be deemed essential to the lives of their customers. That leaves, I think, little room for the thoughtful, considered editorial with which Gourmet delighted its readers for almost seven decades.

To survive, those of us who believe that inexperience rarely leads to wisdom need to swim against the tide, better define our brands, prove our worth, ask to be paid for what we do, and refuse to climb aboard this ship of fools, the one where everyone has an equal voice. Google “broccoli casserole” and make the first recipe you find. I guarantee it will be disappointing. The world needs fewer opinions and more thoughtful expertise — the kind that comes from real experience, the hard-won blood-on-the-floor kind. I like my reporters, my pilots, my pundits, my doctors, my teachers and my cooking instructors to have graduated from the school of hard knocks.

In fact, Gourmet did not die because readers fled to Google’s broccoli casserole recipes at the expense of better quality information. The reasons are far more complex than that.

And the author doesn’t realize that what he wants is what everyone wants – real, honestly-won, confident expertise.

The person who clicks your ad or the link in your Tweet is also hoping to find a pro’s advice at the end of it.

So no matter how much time you spend tweaking AdWords or SEO or any of the technical channels, pay 10 times as much attention to the quality of what’s flowing through those channels.

And if you have a good vegan recipe for broccoli casserole, please let me know.

The Point of Travel – Real and Virtual

Here in Paarl, South Africa – the wine country just north of Cape Town.

Staying at my wife’s cousin’s farm, in a location currently vying for “Place Most Likely to Make You Jealous You Don’t Live Here.”

High, rugged mountains on all sides, vinyards just sending out new buds, plum orchards in blossom with intoxicating scent, guava trees practically throwing their excess fruit at you as you pass.

The dinner bottles of Chenin and Sauvignon Blanc, sourced from the very vines you passed during your sunset stroll. Table Mountain in the south western distance, invoking the two oceans that lap against its grassy base and the murmur of limitless horizons and the whiff of Malay spice caravans.

Now that’s why I travel!

Yesterday Nelis (the dad of the farm) and I took our four kids to Cape Town.

We “did” the waterfront, lunch in a tourist trap (the “mopani worms” appetizer for 40 Rand should have tipped us off),Greenmarket Square with its craft and t-shirt stalls; half of Table Mountain (cable car down for maintenance, “so nothing goes wrong,” returned the gift shop proprietor somewhat defensively when we inquired what was wrong with it); Signal Hill, with breathtaking panoramic views (including the new soccer – oops, football – stadium under construction in preparation for the World Cup 2010 mania that has utterly gripped the country; the beach at Camp Bay with its neoprened surfers, wedding parties, and tattooed middle aged ladies playing with their dogs; and the gardens near parliament with their mix of familiar and exotic birds and flowers.

Fun, yes, but secretly I was pining for the farm the entire day. The homey-ness of the well-stocked kitchen, the scuttle of miniature dachshunds and long-haired Weimeraner under our feet, the sense that nearby in every direction nature was turning elemental energy of sun, moisture and decay into the miracle of fruit.

The relaxed curiosity of my kids, hanging with their English-as-a-second-language cousins just as easily as if they had known each other their whole lives. Working for hours on an apple pie together, serving it golden brown with a latticed top crust, proudly contributing to a farmhouse dinner and receiving praise from the grownups in the form of sighs of pleasure.

The Point of Travel

In The Art of Travel, Alain de Botton reminds us that travel is all about the pursuit of happiness. So is the rest of our lives, I suppose, but travel brings the goal into focus.

Every decision, from where to go, which vehicle to rent, what to order for dinner, whether to camp or indulge in a real bed tonight, is calculated to maximize the pleasure of the trip.

I’m finding that this trip is honing my marketing mind by helping me get back in touch with this raw desire for happiness that, to some extent, drives everything we do.

The Internet is not so much about surfing as it is a round-the-world epic. One minute I’m on a site about a water sports store in Fort Lauderdale, and the next I’m exploring photos of the Natal coastline. Then I teleport to a blog about diving in shark-proof cages, which leads me to a Mozambique government site with data on water temperatures through the seasons. And maybe I wander back to the store to make a purchase, and maybe I don’t.

Like traveling, searching on the Internet is a constant confrontation with the unknown. A never-ending source of curiosity and boredom. A minute-by-minute evaluation of the relationship between my grasping human mind and its environment.

And like traveling, there’s nothing I like better than stopping at the perfect place and resting in the rightness of the fit between desire and fulfillment.

It’s no accident that the places that have “done it” for me on this trip have not been tourist meccas, but authentic expressions of the good will and good taste of good people. This farm; the White House Bed and Breakfast in Grunau, Namibia; my wife’s family’s 200 year old ancestral sheep farm just outside Springbok, South Africa.

The point of travel, it seems to me, is to feel the embrace of homecoming.

While I can’t give you a soft bed with a fluffy comforter, a farm breakfast, or a stroll in the orchards, I hope this site provides you with a taste of hospitality and kindness on your journey.

I thank the road and the farm for reminding me how to greet and treat you, dear reader.

May all your travels lead you home to warmth, love and safety. Feel free to stop by here anytime…

Why the bicycle was (almost) never invented

Last week I was relaxing in Bad Godesberg, Germany, on the banks of the beautiful Rhine river. Recharging before a week of non-stop consulting for a European publishing house.

In the park next to my hotel, I see a toddler circling a fountain on a push bike. No pedals, no training wheels, just two feet alternating on the ground to keep vehicle and child upright and safe. (Something like the photo below, which I grabbed off a site selling the Skuut brand of push bikes.)

Which reminds me about…

The strange history of the bicycle

Da Vinci or a student of his may have sketched one some time in the 15th century. But like his famous flying machine, the bicycle never got off the ground either.

Fast forward four centuries, to 1816, the famous Year without a Summer, when crops were destroyed by really freaky weather. Like snow and ice in Pennsylvania in July and August.

In Europe, crop failures led to starvation and social unrest. One of the most egregious effects was the decimation of the horse population. There simply wasn’t enough oats to keep them alive and healthy.

German inventor Karl Drais put his mind to work to develop a horseless form of transportation. On June 12, 1817, he amazed the public by riding his Laufmaschine ("running machine") from Mannheim to Rheinau, a 118km trip along the banks of the Rhine.

Now, 118 kilometers (75 miles) is a decent afternoon’s ride on my Bianchi hybrid road bike. But imagine going that far on what’s essentially a seated muscle-powered scooter – a two-wheeler with no gears and no pedals – just two feet alternating on the ground to keep the good Herr Professor upright, safe, and motoring.

Why No Pedals?

The really interesting thing about the bicycle’s evolution was how long it took for someone to act on Da Vinci’s inspiration and stick a couple of pedals on the darn thing. I mean, it seems pretty bloody obvious to me that the thing would go faster, with less effort, if you used pedals and a chain. This technology had been around in mills for thousands of years. What was the limiting factor?

The problem, as it turns out, is that no one could conceive of a rider being able to keep their balance without constantly touching down with a foot on one side or the other. Why add pedals when the feet were needing for balance?

It was only after that particular limited belief was challenged that the modern bicycle could appear – and now small children can learn to stay upright in an afternoon (provided some loving adult is willing to sacrifice their spinal integrity to help).

What Does This Have to Do With Online Marketing?

Nothing, really. I’m just trying to justify a tax write-off for a new bike.

No, silly IRS auditor. That was just a little joke. Not serious at all.

What Does This Have to Do With Online Marketing? Be Serious This Time

OK. Fine.

Inherent in your business (and mine, and everyone’s) are beliefs that limit what we think is possible, based on what’s going on now.

If you’re getting 20 leads a week from AdWords, it’s hard to imagine what 200 leads a week would look like. From your current perspective, it will probably look just like 20, except 10 times more.

But when volume and velocity and quality of traffic increase, lots of things change. Big time.

You can get much pickier about the leads you accept as clients.

You can create hurdles to prescreen and prequalify, and to give you the power and authority in the relationship.

You can create waiting lists to generate the perception of great demand.

You can raise your prices.

You can build your business and hire help, so you get to focus exclusively on the stuff you love and are good at, instead of having to do it all yourself.

You can refer business to your competitors and become the go-to guy or gal for your industry.

If you sell products, you can start to source them at a cheaper rate.

You can negotiate deals with your suppliers.

You can cut out middle men and go straight to the manufacturers.

You can increase your profit margins.

In all cases, you end up making more money while expending less of your life energy (time and emotional angst) to get it.

It All Starts With Traffic

When you understand your market, and what keywords they search for, and what they want when they’re searching, and how to engage them in your ads and landing pages – you start a process that can end with you being the biggest player in your market.

No traffic, no sales.

No traffic, nothing to test and improve.

No traffic, no conversations with customers and no feedback on how to build a better business.

Is Your Business a Stationary Bicycle?

Without enough velocity, any business can feel like a stationary bike. Lots of hard work – good for the soul, right? – but not much movement.

And if you’re a cyclist, you know that you simply can’t describe the exhilaration of a fast downhill on a cool morning, after cranking up the hill via switchbacks and granny gears, to someone who just goes to the gym and pedals a stationary bike for 45 minutes while watching CNN or listening to Lil Wayne on their iPod.

Two completely different universes.

Are you ready for that downhill?

Traffic Surge Starts Tomorrow

Tomorrow, Wednesday 20 May, 2009, is the first day of the long-awaited Traffic Surge telecourse.

Due to my inability to interpret a calendar, the course is not filled. Instead of putting out the required number of promotions in the right time frame, I was busy consulting in Germany (and now I’m up at 4am in NYC, writing this before attending and speaking at a Media Relations Conference all day).

So I just put out a free webinar loaded with great content (watch the replay here), sent one email, and golly gee – it wasn’t enough.

So I can’t say, "Hurry, there’s only one seat left." Actually, there are more like 6 seats left. I can’t use that "extreme scarcity" technique to get you to sign up. (I could lie, I guess, but you’d see right through me. I have no poker face.)

So here’s the real scarcity pitch: the bleepin’ course starts tomorrow! It’s deeper than I’ve ever gone into the mind of the market.

How to combine the insight of an anthropologist with the high-tech savvy of an online marketer.

How to find out – quickly and for free – how big and hungry the market is before committing resources.

How to write ads and craft landing pages that scratch the big itch – and make you the most desirable path to action for your prospects.

So hurry, there’s only ONE SEAT DAY LEFT.

Find out all about Traffic Surge – I’ll bet it’s less expensive than you’re assuming.

Hope you’ll join me for that ride. It feels better than most people can imagine.

Wishing you health, happiness, prosperity, and the wind in your hair,
Howie

Did Susan Boyle water your acorn?

OK, so I’m going to say it: I don’t think Susan Boyle is the world’s greatest singer. (Please don’t hate me.)

She’s good, but if you just heard her karaoke rendition of "I Have a Dream" on the radio, without the drama surrounding her triumph, you probably wouldn’t rush out and search for the album.

And yet Ms. Boyle has become an instant sensation. Her performance has been viewed about 100 million times on youtube. You can hardly find a Facebook page without a link to her performance. And the media and blogosphere are having a fabulous time deconstructing Susan and telling us what she means.

And now, so will I.

The Recession and the Rift

This recession has revealed a psychological rift in the world’s consciousness. A lot of people are scared and angry.  They’ve lost their jobs, their businesses, their insurance, and in some cases their self-worth. They feel victimized by events, by elites, and by entities. So they bob up and down, waiting to be rescued by a government or a hale wind or a friend. They hunker down into a form of abdication of self-responsibility because it feels better to be justified in misery than vulnerable in power.

And the interesting thing about this first group is how threatened they are by the second group.

This second group of people may be suffering just as much in real terms as the first group, but they refuse to see themselves as victims. Instead of giving up and waiting for rescue, they are scrapping and hustling and retooling. Starting businesses. Taking risks. Flexing muscles they may not have fully understood or claimed before. In crisis they are making opportunity, and in the process, taking responsibility for making themselves. Tending to the inner landscape, the "Spirit Lake" within.

This second group discovers something amazing about work: that it really isn’t about the money or the power or the status. In other words, not about the external rewards. Those are nice (actually, they’re awesome when received in the right way), but the real reward of work, or entrepreneurship, is the flowering of passion. When we take responsibility for our contributions to this universe, we discover that work truly is, in Khalil Gibran’s words, "love made manifest."

The Acorn Theory of the Soul

A wonderful book, The Soul’s Code, by James Hillman, presents the "acorn theory" of the soul. In Hillman’s understanding, our souls arrive on this planet knowing their destiny, and they do everything they can to give us the experiences – both seemingly good and bad – that prepare us for this destiny.

Yet our big brains often short-circuit the call of the soul, and we wallow in Thoreau’s "quiet desperation" punctuated by weekends and evenings of addiction and distraction.

I have to admit, I don’t know if the acorn theory of the soul is literally true, or just a useful construct. When I’m in such a quandary, I generally settle it by asking myself, "What are the implications – positive and negative – of believing this story?" In the case of the acorn theory, it’s all good. It puts a positive spin on all the pain and suffering and confusion I’ve experienced (it all sensitized me, taught me, and prepared me for this moment, whatever "this moment" turns out to hold and unfold). And it tells me that my life matters. A lot. And that respecting, unpacking, and honoring the quiet voice of my soul is the opposite of self-indulgent; it’s what I’m on this planet to do. It’s my responsibility.

Why Group One Hates Group Two

I was talking with a friend about the importance of having passion in one’s work, and why that seemingly obvious (to me) idea triggers so much rage and cynicism in so many people. "It’s because they don’t have passion," he explained. "So they refuse to believe it can exist in anyone else."

I think that’s partly true. Another part of the truth – of which I was reminded recently by my friend and marketing mentor Perry Marshall – is that they once believed passion and joy was possible, and they no longer do. So the message that life is more than punching a clock and earning our daily bread is a painful reminder of what they’ve lost (or perhaps abandoned and betrayed).

But there’s a third part of the truth: the acorn is still alive inside each of us, however shriveled and starved for nutrients. We may neglect it, ignore it, and tell ourselves it doesn’t exist, but deep down each of us knows we are an extraordinary being here to be, do and experience extraordinary things. And we may respond with rage and fear when someone (like me now ;) lectures about this, but the deepest longing of our being arcs upward and outward at the resonant field created by Susan Boyle. How else to explain the phenomenon of her popularity?

A lot of our acorns got watered by Susan Boyle in the past couple of weeks. Here’s a prayer that those acorns sprout and find purchase in nourishing souls and soils.

And now a couple items of business…

Announcement: Zero-Cost Web Clinic on Getting Traffic to Your Site

How do you find profitable online markets? How do you start getting affordable and qualified traffic to your site? How do you jump online without risking everything? If you already have an online business, how do you find the people looking for what you’ve got? This stuff is really important, so I’m making it ultra-convenient for you. Two web clinics, you choose the one most convenient for you: Wednesday, May 6, at 1pm and 8pm EDT. Sign up for this zero-cost web clinic here: http://askhowie.com/traffic-surge-web-clinic/

Reminder: The Keyword Spying Web Clinic

It happens on Monday, April 27 at 8pm EDT. Spaces still available, and if you register you also get the recording later. Register here: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/577359970 Wishing you health, happiness and prosperity, Howie

A Non-Entrepreneurial Slap of Reality

My buddy Peter Bregman just wrote a commentary for CNN.com advising people to embrace the recession as a chance to reconfigure their careers in line with their passions.

The interesting thing about this article turns out not to be the article, but the comments by CNN readers. Some are wildly favorable, and the ones that aren’t are downright hostile.

For example:

"Someone throw this guys off of the roof of Harvard Business School. People are starving to death looking for work and they’re supposed to find their inner child?"

"You are a jerk and should keep your trap shut until you learn a thing or three about hard work."

"Is the author’s passion in life to write stupid articles? Or does he do this for the money? I’m guessing he wrote this to get a paycheck."

"I think it’s great when people with high paying jobs and a big savings account tell us not to worry. Bite me, Peter."

"This is (nearly) the stupidest article I have ever read on a news website. CNN is supposedly a news network, not kumbayah, feel good, ideological bs. Work isn’t necessarily fun, which is why it is called work."

And those are the nice ones… ;)

The response is so polarizing, it’s like people are responding to two completely different articles. Other responses thank Peter for his inspiring words. Several readers say that this philosophy is backed up by their own experience.

Why the Anger?

So what’s going on? Why are so many folks so resistant and angry at the idea that work can be soul-fulfilling?

My guess is, folks who read my blog will resonate with Peter’s message. If only because you’ve seen that it’s possible to make a good living online. Whether you sell industrial equipment or massage or coaching or travel advice or radio-controlled toys or juggling equipment, you don’t think that entrepreneurship is simply "pie in the sky" positive talk by delusional ex-hippies or meaningless advice from the wealthy to the impoverished.

We’re entering a new phase in human history. The internet is part of it. The unsustainability of our assault on our planet is part of it. A stirring of the soul – a wave of common recognition that life is more than molecules and atoms – is part of it.

And saying it ain’t so ain’t gonna make it not so.

Ironically, the commenters who decry Peter’s lack of "realism" are the ones with their heads in the sand, in my opinion. They’re looking at the world saying, "This isn’t how things should be." Rather than looking at what is and asking, "What’s the opportunity here?"

Those of us who’ve been bitten by the entrepreneurial bug know that we humans can dream a reality into being. And that if we don’t, we’re abdicating our responsibility by colluding with the consensus reality that seeks to minimize and disempower us. That wants us to be good little consumers and not passionate seekers and boat-rockers.

Of course, entrepreneurs are not the only ones who understand this powerful and esoteric truth. But we’re the ones who get to test it out in the world of molecules and atoms. And when we succeed, our advice is sought by others who want to follow in our footsteps, and scorned by those who don’t dare to hope of a better world ("Bite me, Peter").

My mentor and good friend Perry Marshall writes in defense of entrepreneurs on a regular basis (his latest post is a particularly eloquent and inspiring example). I confess, sometimes I’ve felt that he goes overboard in seeing "anti-entrepreneur" sentiment almost everywhere. But wading through the anger and nastiness (and outright threats) that cover up the fear of the abandoned, I’m reconsidering.

It’s important to recognize that the irrational anger is simply misplaced and projected fear. The fear is understandable. So don’t think that I’m looking down on those caught in its grip. When I’m afraid, nothing anyone says or does matters. The fear projects its own rules upon reality, and anyone who tells me the monster isn’t real is just trying to get me killed. Hence my anger. It’s self-preservation.

Tentative Takeaways

So what’s the takeaway here? I’m not sure. Here are a few contenders:

1. If you’re an entrepreneur, realize that no matter what happens to the economy, you’ll be in a better position than almost anyone to land on your feet. (See my post from yesterday on the 8 Magic Words of marketing.)

2. If you’re doing well these days, keep your mouth shut. Most people will not celebrate your good fortune.

3. Don’t give advice to anyone who doesn’t ask for it. Heck, who doesn’t beg for it. The only people you’ll be able to influence are the When Harry Met Sally Crowd: the ones who look at you and say, "I’ll have what she’s having." Not the ones who envy your money, but the spirit you bring to your work and life.

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think. Unless you want to throw me off a roof…

Howie’s Marketing Self-Assessment Tool

Save the dates: February 23 and March 2, 2009, from 10-11am EST, for a two-part telecourse on AdWords Checkmate. Learn an advanced technique for doubling CTR and conversion rate – even (heck, especially) in highly competitive markets. Check it out…

The nice thing about a website is how easy it is to change.

The hard thing about a life is how hard it is to change. And how easy for that change not to stick.

So when I change – when I grow as a person, lose some fears, embrace new beliefs, etc. – I want to make sure my environment reflects and supports those positive changes. Including my website.

You see, when people contact me for coaching, or consulting, or to attend a workshop, what they know (or think they know) about me comes from my marketing material. The book (AdWords For Dummies, for those of you who are here accidentally and have no idea who I am), the website, my contributions to blogs and interviews and other products and so on.

I don’t want to broadcast an outdated message and attract clients who won’t be in sync with my current reality.

Some of the stuff I’ve done is just out there, and can’t be put back in the bottle. You can see all the iterations of my first site, howieconnect.com, on the WayBack Machine at archive.org. Like snapshots from a childhood, there are versions that make me laugh, cringe, crow in pride, and shake my head in amazement in how far I’ve come.

There’s nothing wrong with improvement – in fact, I always take solace in the fact that when I create a new web page, it’s the worst it will ever be at the beginning. Improvement is inevitable if I ask for feedback and pay attention to it.

But just as I update my resume and wallet snapshots of my kids, I want to make sure that my website represents my current reality. Not just the details, but the heart of my business.

So today I’d like to share with you just a few questions I’ll be using over the next several weeks as I update and upgrade my marketing messages at askhowie.

Website "Marketing Makeover" Queries

Is this page telling the truth? Is it still technically accurate? Is it missing anything?

Is there anything misleading on this page?

Am I focusing more on my own needs or the needs of my prospects and clients? In other words, is this page motivated by service or selfishness?

Am I speaking with confidence? Do I deeply believe my own claims?

If someone just reads this page and doesn’t convert, are they still better off than when they started? (Thanks to my coach Christian Mickelsen for that insight.)

Does this page try to get the sale by appealing primarily to the "lower self" of the reader, or to their better nature? In other words, does it elevate or suppress consciousness?

Am I teaching a technique that, when applied, supports or raises the standards of my client’s industry?

Does this page sound like me today? If I wrote it today for the first time, what would be different?

Not the same as split testing

This process is not a scientific march to higher conversions. It’s not a technical fix to a poorly performing site.

Instead, it’s an acknowledgment of my personal discovery that my business is a projection of my self. A trailing indicator of the person I keep becoming.

And the Queries listed above are my queries, not necessarily yours. They reflect my own journey – into greater self-confidence and away from marketing "trips and tricks" that sometimes substituted for true connection during my business odyssey.

I’m sure I’m missing some pretty important questions. But I trust that the ones I’ve listed will move me and my website in the right direction.

So my question to you is – what are your big queries to ensure your marketing is in sync with your being?

Please post to comments, if you’re inspired to share. Otherwise, feel free to make this an internal process (or to ignore it completely and go on with your day;).

What do visitors to your website really want?

We human beings are wonderfully distractable. One second we’re working away at our desk, next second we’re feverishly searching Google for the name of that actress who played opposite what’s-his-name in that movie about the stuff…

Today we’re obsessing over LCD TVs, and tomorrow we’re checking out weathersealing. Day after that, scented candles. We lurch from desire to desire with no predictability, it seems.

Well, the externals of what we’re searching for may change, but the essence of the search remains constant, and has done so for tens of thousands of years.

After all, Google is a new method, but search has been the human pastime since we got those fabulous opposable thumbs. What do we do all day? We walk around trying to get stuff. More stuff, better stuff, newer stuff, bigger stuff, smaller stuff, cooler stuff, more environmentally friendly stuff; it’s all stuff. And not just material stuff; emotional stuff as well: experiences, feelings, and so on.

Why are we so programmed to search and collect? Because we all want the same thing: to feel good about ourselves.

And here’s the thing: we’ll give almost anything to get there. We’ll submit to peer pressure, eat junk food, listen to pounding music, spend more than we can afford on luxuries and trinkets, and put others down.

So no matter what keyword your visitor searched to find your site, they want to feel good about themselves. They want to feel clever, in control, in the know, and special.

If you can make your visitors feel good, you’ve already done 90% of the sales job.

The following 16-minute video is just fabulous. A great story, funny and sweet and inspiring. And a wonderful reminder of the one motivation that underlies all our other ones. Enjoy!

Irony Rears its Ironic Head

From the “unintentional irony” department, comes this Google ad that showed up next to my gmail:

I haven’t taken the time to visit the site, but would you trust them? :)

And why are they throwing away money on AdWords?

Let the consumer of marketing education beware, and be aware of “Do as I say, not as I do” marketing…

What Should I Sell?

A reader wonders:

I recently bought ‘Adwords for Dummies‘ and I really enjoy it. Now my problem is trying to figure out a product to sell. Any hints on how to find products to sell?

My response: First, thanks for your kind words about the book. You should feel free to write a nice amazon review for it :) Now, let me gently criticize the thought process that produced the question:

That’s backwards thinking.

The world is so full of products and services, unless you live naked in the woods (or at the beach, which I don’t recommend), you’re tripping over things to sell all day long. Right here, in my home office (OK, my wife’s home office, but she’s sleeping and I like her artwork better than mine, and I have to step over the dog to get to my office), I see binders, jewelry, postcards, battery chargers, matches, keys, picture frames, organic rice milk, window blinds, etc. etc. etc. Somebody is making money selling every one of those things – else they wouldn’t exist.

Instead of looking for products to sell, look for markets to serve. Focus on needs and desires and pains and longings. People will buy things that they think will improve their lives.

Every purchase I’ve ever made has been an act of hope in a better future. Every purchase, from the bananas at Trader Joes to the Prius at the Toyota dealership to the 2 by 12 planks at Home Depot that I turned into raised garden beds. Toothpaste. Shaving cream. Bass guitar lessons for my son.

Every purchase is motivated by a desire to increase pleasure and decrease pain. When you focus on a particular market – a group of people who share some meaningful characteristics – and get to know what they deeply want to have and what they want to get rid of and what they want to avoid, then you’ll know what to sell to them.

And you won’t have to wonder.

Now, if you want to use AdWords, certain realities come into play, which you can get from the book. Like, who’s looking for it, and how much can you make from selling it compared to the cost of an AdWords click. Some products are not well suited for AdWords.

But don’t start with products. Don’t even start with media. Start with people, and figure out how to serve them.

Khalil Gibran wrote, "Work is love made manifest." If your business is an expression of love of a group of people, and a sincere desire to improve their lives, then you are on the easy path to success.

Glenn Livingston – Howie Jacobson AdWords Interview

Glenn Livingston and I spent about an hour on the phone yesterday, chewing the fat about AdWords and online marketing in general. We talk about:

• my Official AdWords For Dummies Official AdWords checklist – including Glenn’s improvement
• Glenn’s AdWords journal – how he uses an ongoing word document to get a birds-eye view of long-running campaigns
• Glenn’s extremely clever process for choosing a great ad headline before he even buys a domain name or sets up a web site
• the famous person Glenn sat next to in homeroom
• how to improve your content network results with site-targeting and CPM bidding
• when you should NOT split test your ads

Although Glenn was interviewing me, I spent about half the time asking him stuff. He’s brilliant at breaking down systems into their key parts, and streamlining processes to make them easier, cheaper, and more effective. Talking with Glenn is like reading "Zen and the Art of AdWords Maintenance."

Download the interview – free – from Glenn’s site:

The Glenn Livingston – Howie Jacobson AdWords Interview