We always hear a lot of buzz around mobile, how apps are changing the way of business, and seeing a ton of money move into the mobile sector. But have you ever really thought about how you spend time using your phone?

Here is an infographic from SMS Marketing company Tatango that illustrates exactly how people are using their smart phones:

It’s not uncommon for people to reach out to me and say things like “Internet marketing doesn’t work” or “it’s all a bunch of snake oil.. what gives?”. This is primarily because the term “marketing” has been so watered down by people who can’t articulate well (or don’t want to articulate well) what marketing is because it gives them a perceived upper hand in their relationship with clients.

I absolutely loathe that stance and want to help you cut through the crap.

Marketing, simply put, is the ability to find people who are genuinely interested in your product (because they have a need or an interest) and your product or service solves that need or inner desire.

Seriously folks, it’s that simple to understand.. If you walked into a room and asked everyone “who’s hungry?”, the people who raised there hands would be your interested individuals. If you were then able to either provide actual food, or at least link them to someone who could make the food and fulfill their core need then you were just an effective marketer.

Seems pretty easy right? Now what’s different with internet marketing and why it has such a bad reputation…

What’s Different

Internet marketing is slightly different because the value chain feels less tangible to a lot of people than a traditional business. What I mean by this is that, for many people, understanding the process of acquiring leads and creating customers in a virtual space is daunting, foreign and hard to conceptualize at first. But here are the key differences that should help you relate traditional business models to internet ones:

1. Just like brick and mortar, you need leads to make your business work.

What’s different: Leads come in the form of Names, Emails and/or Phone Numbers instead of literally walking through your door

2. You need something to sell your customer a product or service to make money

What’s different: Customers online have a much lower attention span, as a result of this you need to have a stack of continually higher margin items to offer them immediately after they purchase to maximize your revenue. This is known as an up-sell, or moving them “through the funnel”.

3. Customers want and need information from you to stay interested in being your customer.

What’s different: A brick and mortar business has to try and hire in-person sales people who try and be helpful to your customers while practicing ABC (Always Be Closing). Online you can use different ways of tracking and automated content strategies to tailor the experience of every customer in a way that you can test. This means you can have a known close rate and give your customers a consistently high level of value.

Why It’s Seen As Snake Oil

I’ve worked with some of the biggest names in the Internet Marketing space who have claimed huge numbers and it became apparent pretty quickly that most people at the top stretch their numbers to fit what they think people want to hear.

The messed up part? It works – as a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You see, these types of people typically succeed by selling the dream instead of solving any actual problems. They will talk your ear off about how much “value” their customers see in their offerings, but once you understand the industry it doesn’t take long to see that the average customer is more of an info product junkie than a true entrepreneur.

It’s no wonder so many real businesses are turned off by Internet Marketing when that is the lay of the land.

Have you had any poor experiences with Internet Marketing? Let me know – I’d be happy to point you in a quality direction or help answer your questions.

People often ask me how I got started in the world of Internet Marketing and how I came to go from a broke high school smart ass, to making 60k over 2 months (legally), broke again and now living what I truly believe is the new American dream. I work from home as a consultant, blog about the things that interest me most and I am able to spend time with a startup I am truly passionate about. A good friend of mine, Brandon Na of Seattle Organic SEO invited me to tell the story live last night on his radio show so I thought I’d share it with you.

We go over how I hustled more money as a kid, got started early in technology and how you can make the most of your lifestyle situation.

What’s stopping you from building the business you really want to build? Let me know in the comments.

This video shows how breathtaking HDR (High Dynamic Range) video footage can make things look. This footage of a Chapel built in 1796 over in Poland almost looks like a video game because the cameras are able to give better than realistic lighting. What do you think of HDR video? Would you like to see movies filmed in this format or do you think it is gimmicky like a lot of the 3D televisions?

If you are interested, here is the behind the scenes footage as well:

Via Gizmodo

It is that time of year where most people in the world decide to make a  new years resolution, generally in an almost off the cuff way such as “I would like to be in better shape”, or “I would like to quit smoking”. The problem with this is that they are often fleeting internal half-truths that 99% people know they can’t (or don’t REALLY REALLY want to) follow through with. The problem with this is that most of us think of these resolutions in the way of “it would be nice if (I could stop smoking)” instead of the more realistic and motivating “If I don’t (stop smoking) this year I am going to die”.

For me new years is a very reflective time since my birthday falls on December 30th (New Years Eve, Eve) and it offers up an opportunity to really take a step back and see where my current trajectory is headed in life, and see if that parallels with the core values I have for myself and with what I want to accomplish before I am buried 6ft under. That may be a somewhat dark way to look at it but the reality is that we are only here for a blink of an eye and it is incredibly important to me that the day I am no longer here that people’s lives have been affected in a positive way due to things I have set in motion.

Year-End Checkup

So now that the year 2010 is officially behind us, what do I currently have going on in my life that were significant and/or have just started that are going to change my life in dramatic ways?

Graduated from WSU, moved to Seattle

The first major lifestyle change in my life this past year was graduating from Washington State University, this marks the first time I have been at a point where I really don’t know if I will ever be in a traditional school setting again as a student. WSU certainly delivered a rounded “college experience” and for anyone who has gone to school there, we will all bleed a little Crimson for the rest of our lives. It simply can not be helped.

Moving to Seattle was also somewhat abrupt but has been a great experience so far. I live in a nice building that is safe and reasonably located to my priorities. While the move to Seattle specifically was for the job at Apex Learning (more on that in a second), it has been an extremely beneficial experience in general.

Apex Learning – http://apexlearning.com

In October I was hired at Apex for my first “real job” on paper after getting my degree. Apex builds, sells and supports digital curriculum for 9-12th grade institutions. My position with this is officially titled an “Associate Account Manager” but has proven to be a beneficial asset in terms of getting some quality time with SalesForce.com (and even breaking it for 20 minutes hehe) and to work in a return sales capacity. While this isn’t extremely correlated to what I want to do career wise, they make a good product, provide a good service and both the company as well as myself benefit from the relationship by making a difference.

(40 hours/week)

MyBigGive – http://mybiggive.com

The age old “hobby” of mine has rolled over it’s 1 year mark, which shortly there after called for a major face-lift, back-end overhaul and doing as much revenue for charity within 3 weeks as it had done in the preceding 365 days. I feel like we finally have a grip on what customers are looking to get out of a platform like this and are busily building out the feature set (at a much faster rate than before) and are in talks with some pretty huge partners that I think you are going to enjoy hearing about if they come to fruition.

(20 hours/week)

Free SEO Report – http://freeSEOreport.com

This is a particularly exciting (and incredibly recent) opportunity that I have been included in on. Ironically I wrote a review of this service about a week ago as part of a contest to win an iPad but was hired the next day for business development instead (who says blogging can’t pay?!). I have been brought on for business development and to work closely with the properties owners Shoemoney Media Group, primarily with Jeremy Schoemaker and Tigh Buckles. I am very excited about the possibilities with this property and seeing what spending as many hours as I can with this talented team to shake things up in the Search Engine Optimization (SEO)  arena.

(20 hours/week)

The College Startup – http://thecollegestartup.com

Here is an area I admit I haven’t paid nearly enough attention to, and that as a lot to do with the major changes above. I have put some time and money into trying to make TCS easier to read and while my content has been sparse I hope at least a few of you found it useful. If any of you can think of things you would to see from this blog in the future (more regular posts for instance?) please feel free to let me know in the comments, and if you are interested in doing a guest post please just e-mail me at contact [at] mybiggive [dot] com

(5 hours/week)

Total 2011 weekly work hour projection: 85 hours/week

Personal Life

I haven’t blended my personal life into this blog very many times because it has been primarily for people interested in what kind of shenanigans I am getting into business wise and my thoughts in general about high-level business trends. However, with this many projects in the fire I wanted to address it really quickly.

As cliche as it is, I would really like to get into better physical condition. This doesn’t mean I am looking to run a marathon (even at my peak, I have never wanted to run more than I have to). However, I would like to return to about 3 years ago composition wise. I have been reading Tim Ferris’s new book during the holidays and I am quite intrigued by his methods. I will be reporting back on the results if they are anything worth noting. Having physical health is a direct correlation to mental health, and with the kind of schedule I plan on having for 2011 that is going to be more important now than ever.

What can you reflect on about 2010 as we land feet first into 2011?

This past Friday I was fortunate enough to go to Tulio in downtown Seattle for dinner and I can’t stop talking about how amazing it is to all of my friends. If you live in the Seattle area and are looking for a very nice meal, atmosphere and service this place is certainly a solid choice. I personally had their rib-eye with some red wine and their 9-pound porter.

If you are looking to take a nice date out, have a special occasion you want to celebrate or just enjoy top notch service and amazing food then you should definitely check out Tulio! One of the cooler things though (for the nerds like me) was booking our reservation with OpenTable. This is available both through a website and an App that lets you go back and edit your reservation if you need. It allows you to select how many people are in your party and pick time frames available which is great! Often times I have found phone reservations to be spotty, difficult to get through or a general lack of consistency in phone based customer service for reservations. Based on the service in Tulio I am sure it would have been great but being able to just use an app and get it booked early in the morning is great!

Information:

1100 5th Ave
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 624-5500

http://www.tulio.com

Given my new found location here in Seattle, WA I felt like I needed to dive in head first to try some “Pho” since so many people just couldn’t stop talking about it! What better time to try out a new food than in the presence of people who eat it regularly and know what they ordering? As you may or may not know, John Chow used to live in Vancouver, B.C. where he would regularly meet with readers for what he called “Dot com Pho”.

John recently moved to the Seattle/Bellevue area and so I figured I would hit him up for suggestions, and he ultimately just setup an American Dot com Pho near me so that it was super convenient. We went to this little place called “Pho Bac” which looked pretty haggard from the outside and had minimal everything on the inside.. all the potential of a disaster OR an amazing place. Luckily, this ended up being a very delicious experience!

I just had the round steak pho, which was teased by John as being “too safe” and “not adventurous” but I’ll take that for now until I have a better feeling for what I like. But based on everyone’s feedback I think I will be hard pressed to find Pho that is terrible. I recommend anyone in the Seattle area give this place a try even though it looks like a dive, but be sure to bring cash!

For those who are interested in a little video, feel free to check out the weekly post from John about Dot com Pho here.

Phobac : 1240 S Jackson Street, Seattle, WA 98144

I have been missing in action for the last few weeks because my life has been a whirl wind and if any of you are following me on Twitter you are already aware that I have been busily moving from the Skagit Valley area down to Seattle and started a new position with Apex Learning. This new position, while certainly adding a lot more to my plate will not be taking away from my key focal points with projects online and I completely plan on delivering content and services for all of you guys!

Apex Learning

Some of you may be wondering, “Who the heck is Apex Learning?”. Apex Learning (in a nut shell) offers a suite of digital curriculum for grades 9-12. They are in a hyper-growth stage and have been on a hiring spree to manage the growth, which in my opinion can lead to the most interesting culture within a company.

Apex was originally founded by Paul Allen and had their first “real” funding come from Vulcan (a Paul Allen VC firm). The company has had a sorted past trying to find it’s footing within the industry and figuring out how the secondary education market works from a business perspective. While they are a digital/technology based company, make sure you don’t call them a technology company. In the words of management, “Apex is an education company that uses technology as a mode of transportation.” This distinction is interesting because it highlights the type of culture that the company employs to define who they are with their audience, educational institutions.

Why the move?

I was at a point in my life that called for a change, and a graduation of sorts in responsibility. Now that I am done with Washington State University and have been expanding my network, I was looking to throw myself into a larger base of people that share my interests and skill sets. Working with Apex Learning helps me accomplish my geographical goals, stabilize personal revenues (still not taking a paycheck from a number of my projects to reinvest as much as possible into growing them as an asset), network with like minded people, and to better understand corporate structure.

Sorry I have been gone so long, I hope to be back to a regular schedule asap!

As entrepreneurs, we can often relate our business passions to that of our lives with a significant other. We put so much effort into things we like to try and see them succeed and grow into something truly amazing. Today I was listening to my iTunes when @MichaelBuble’s song came on ” Just Haven’t Met You Yet” and I couldn’t help but draw the similarities between an entrepreneurs quest to build something amazing and the human desire to find someone you love to spend your life with.

“I promise you kid, I give so much more than I get”

Starting a business isn’t easy at all – in fact I can say without a doubt that starting not one, but two businesses so far it has been the most challenging thing in my life. Every time you decide to put yourself on the line financially, emotionally, and mentally you run a huge risk of being hurt, battered and depending on the level of risk you might even feel broken by the end. But what entrepreneurs see is amazing OPPORTUNITY that makes the risk all worth it. If you aren’t this person out of your circle of friends, chances are that you know at least one or two who seem not only willing, but EAGER to do this kind of thing.

But what is incredibly important about entrepreneurs like us is that we are willing to take that risk. No risk, no reward.. this saying has always been true and always will be. I know that I wake up every morning and ask myself “Why am I doing this? Why am I putting all my chips on the table to try and do this?”. But every day I keep working at it because I know deep down I am far from satisfied with the status quo – I want to build something truly amazing.

As I mentioned in my HasOffers open house post, I had the chance to meet Jeremy Schoemaker (better known as “Shoemoney”) which was a little different experience than I had anticipated.

First thing’s first: Online persona and Offline persona are usually two different things.

Shoemoney is a pretty damn genuine guy, and he doesn’t dance around the fact that his persona online is out to polarize popular opinion. What happens when you polarize an audience? You get debate, traffic and page views; in a word “genius”. Additionally, while Shoemoney knows that he is a idolized in the Affiliate Marketing / Blogging space to the point of minor rockstar-dom he can keep his cool and bullshit with everyone else.. because at the end of the day he is just another guy enjoying a little Captain Morgans.

The Shoemoney Team

I have been lucky enough to deal with the Shoemoney team before meeting them in person (@ddn @tighb @shoemoney primarily) and found that they take a no-nonsense approach to projects, people and business. In person wasn’t much different and I really hope that I have an opportunity to work with them again.

Have any of you met Shoemoney or his team? If so, what did you think?

http://www.shoemoney.com