Israel Rothman - upLog.org

Ah yes, it all starts with a plan:

1. The blog - social media marketing in 2012 starts with a modern website (sometimes referred to as a blog - short for weblog). This website must grow weekly, becoming a more and more popular and a larger and larger online resource. This website must exist as it's own domain, and be owned by you, so that this 'cyber real estate' is owned by you as the business and presence grows. A blog on WordPress.org, or Blogger, or any non-topic-specific behemoth platform will not work for competitive searches - the host must be known for related content for best rankings on competitive searches. The site must be on it's own machine, or a host that is known for well optimized, related content. A virtual server from a company like Hostgator.com is very inexpensive. We offer free hosting on our servers for the first year to offset setup costs with savings. If you have not done so already, it is time to move your website into WordPress, or some other content management system (CMS) which you personally and all of your staff can edit, change, and add to - a website cannot be a static brochure anymore. CPC, CPA and other auction style advertising models have removed all profit from paid search in the long run - because the big players are getting involved, and they are willing to buy the market. Unless you are very heavily capitalized, and have a crack, state of the art marketing team, you cannot compete on an even playing field. Fortunately, content trumps distribution, which is automatic - and those same large players are not known for innovation, controversy, viral popularity, niche popularity, or non-commercial content - and, thus, the value of these are elevated online. A small or start-up company can compete - but not head-to-head, and not on a level playing field financially. Even the largest of companies need to seek out viral and social marketing experts, outside of their normal chain of command, because innovators and forward thinkers are generally not rewarded in large companies.
2. The platform - WordPress has over 60 million blogs, and nobody really knows how many other websites are in WordPress - some say over 200 million sites. This means everything for an interactive website, because the users must be able to use the software. Your visitors will not know why, necessarily; however, if your website (which really needs to be a social media enabled, interactive community) is in WordPress, they will be able to use it. >>more about WordPress here>> (If your users can use your software, and they are compelled to do so, your website will succeed)
3. Strategy considerations - picking a battle that you can win: I often have this discussion with realtors: they all want to come up on 'city state real estate' searches, because those are the most searched for; but have you ever wondered by whom? There are, by some estimates, over 200,000 licensed real estate agents in the US: they all search city state real estate often ...lets see , that is how many per state....the most expensive words you can buy?! One of the problems with Real Estate is that it pays so well that it is hard to get a Realtor to listen to any strategy other than what all the other realtors are doing. I call this "pack mentality". I would equate it to guys who concentrate on metrics and measurements and call them self marketers, when all their decisions are made on main-stream accepted and forensic data. The fallacy is that all this information is worthless when it comes to online marketing: if you do what the 'main-stream' or your peers are all doing, you will fail, from sheer numbers. The true innovators are the ones making real money - and they do not share their secrets until they stop working. In online marketing, following the pack is sure failure: even more risky than trying something new. For most people and companies, innovation is the only solution that MAY work, while following the 'pack' is sure failure. If you are mainstream in real estate, the numbers suggest that you will not be here next year! Online marketing favors the new, the quick, the controversial even, the different. Conventional 'following the leaders' will not work online, for anybody but the leader. Online, it is better to become an expert, than to listen to one. What are you an expert at? Start there. What you know has value online, whatever it is , related or not: and somebody with that same interest needs what you are offering. Make your strategy based on your abilities, interests and assets: if you love what you are doing online, you will do it well, and often; and you will succeed. They all live in houses, take vitamins, buy presents, have health concerns, raise children...there is always something to sell to those that you can reach. Pick the battle that YOU can win.
4. Your profiles, outlets, fans, and links - your social network: I post a good, original article or two per week mostly. We require our clients to post weekly, as this is necessary for any presence with any reach: to maintain the profiles and build the fans. If you cannot, or will not do this; then you need to pay somebody else to do it. I can always find somebody to post for you, and we are training an ever increasing number of people to do this well; we have priced this ongoing weekly posting at $100 per month or more depending on the marketplace, and the qualifications and reach of that blogger. I know of very few business that cannot cash flow such an effort from the leads that are generated from the postings and ever growing social media profiles where the posts are bookmarked, shared, liked, tweeted, etc...we have ongoing clients in almost every industry. Think of it as your entire advertising budget - easier to swallow that way. Here are some good places to post and build profiles, with my notes and demographic research for each: thanks to adage.com for this chart

Thanks also to http://blog.crowdscience.com/2011/09/changing-social-media-demographics-over-50-of-adults-now-use-social-networks/ for these trends:

• MySpace - I barely maintain my MySpace Profile, but being the oldest, it is one of the top ten on Google when somebody Google me sometimes, and, according to the demographics that follow, MySpace it is actually loosing terribly to Facebook unless you are specifically interested in 18-20-year-olds.
• Facebook is a must - we are all there more and more - gaining universal acceptance as a popularity driven social network with controllable levels of access: we have a business endorsement page - and I post my stuff. If you are selling primarily to consumers, I suggest a much more robust viral marketing plan for Facebook - a fan club, thumbs-up tab, viral video, groups, meetings... in many business a full time Facebook marketer is indicated. We are business to business mainly, and I only post my content there, it maintains one slot on Google for my proper name, the company name..I do not get leads from Facebook as a rule, but I do use it to maintain long term personal and business relationships.
• Linkedin.com - Our largest referrer; largest source of clients other than our own site: I have a complete profile and I post to about 25 groups that fit my audience: Linkedin.com has made some changes in the last year that re-ignited the site: I do very well here by just re-posting all my articles here. I highly recommend a strong LinkedIn presence for B2B and for recruiting.
• Google+ - I like the software, and I like the integration with Google mail, calendar, docs and other apps that I use for maintaining my presence. I was able to transfer most of my presence elsewhere in minutes, and my network continues to grow on its own with nothing by my posting my articles to maintain.
• Associated Content - I have been writing here for years. I get lots of traffic and the occasional client from this site. The editor adds no-follow tags, so you will want to post in code or html view, and not use the editor. Pay special attention to the categories: your post will appear there for a short time, and that link is very strong if you are spider-ed during that time. Some of my articles with permanent links to clients have been seen many thousands of times in this one place. A tip: always choose published elsewhere and display purposes only - this avoids their journalistic editors who rarely approve anything, and this makes your articles go live immediately. Another tip: nobody gets through the editors, so my stuff still routinely gets picked up by yahoo news: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/9115503/hooks_industrial_quality_pumps_centrifugal.html (the clients REALLY like that)
• Activerain.com - this site recently sold so they may change things a lot, but this is an excellent site for anybody wanting to sell to Realtors or Lenders: and, if you post in code view, you can get strong links to you from hyper local pages. On the flip side, over 200,00 real estate professionals are doing a very poor job of using this resource properly, resulting in a hyper-local page that is populated by their peers ranking on Google for people searching for their proper name and address - not so good!
• Realtown, Trulia, Realtor.com, Zillow, etc etc etc - many main stream companies have tried to build a network of community blogs funded by advertising dollars from Realtors - one basic common problem: consumers do not like these sites, populated almost entirely by realtor listings and spam; overpriced, non-exclusive...Good to build links from in the right way. If it is done the wrong way, these sites instantly outrank the real estate professionals' target site for his proper name - very bad, and not good for the advertiser. Type in your proper name or company name with city and state into Google - is your TARGET SITE number one?!
• Niche communities and link building with high quality posts - run a search for the terms that you think will feed you traffic - see who ranks. Do they allow posting? Do they allow comments? Do they need guest columnists? Content is king!
• UpLog.org is unique - exclusive to its bloggers: so that a properly optimized upLog.org blog ranks immediately for competitive geographical real estate and other searches, and our client is the only sponsor unless he or she chooses to sell advertising to related businesses on his or her upLog.org blog. At $179 per year with training and support, this is a very inexpensive all encompassing alternative, with high link-authority to get started.

5. About email marketing - I have been appending and mailing out the B2B Home Business Network News .com – business.uplog.org for one year now: I include some recent articles, how-to's, a plug or two for a client..the double opt-in list is over 125,000 now with no unsubscribes. I was curious, so I moved it to my proper name (israelrothman.com) to see how many people actually got it. To my amazement, only one unsubscribe, just enough to know it is working. This form of marketing is very effective: we purchased a couple of scrapers, and setup the PHPlist ope- source list program - if you do not want to do this yourself we can manage and build, setup and format your list: $500 down, $500 month. We can reach, increasingly so, anybody you want to reach, any demographic, any search...we will promise a 100k list within a year for most industries of you use our strategies. such a list can feed almost any business if done well.

6. About robo-calling or voice broadcasting - again we have been dong this regularly for about a year off and on: it is an effective and easy to generate traffic and even deals - we provide a trial to 1000 numbers that we scrape from key word search or SIC code for $50, and provide the vocie-over if needed, and the list afterward to track results with follow up. 7. Reputation Management - you do not manage your reputation, somebody else will:

8. Google places, Google maps, local search - all the major search engines have a local area - you must have properly optimized profiles there: if you do not want to do it, got to UBL.org and pay them $30 to do an ok job, or hire one of us at upLog.org to do it well for you (using their service as a tool) for $100

Costs and time frames - other than your time, there are some costs:

Hosting - 5-10$ per month or more depending on size Website - our $599 custom WordPress works well for most. It must be on its own or related server account if you want it to rank for tall, for instance, real estate, and other competitive searches. (we include virtual server for 120/year, first year is free) Uplog.org exclusive blog for your area or topic: $179/yr - this provides the roar of all of US - translates into very strong link authority to rank instantly for almost any search (note: this only works if you follow instructions!) Instant traffic and all of us looking back at your first visitor created better lead capture - this is a good DYI solution for somebody who is willing to learn, and who has a small budget, or even needs to earn a living doing what we do. Marketing, posing, commenting, +1ng, liking tweeting, following etc...this takes about two or three hours per week for the novice, about 15 minutes for a professional, and needs to be done weekly: do it yourself, or pay one of our professionals 100 per month (this option includes the upLog.org exclusive agency blog) Mass emailing, robo-calling, farming and list building - again, do it yourself in about 10 hours per week, or we will do it all for you for $500 in advance and report to you monthly... Or just buy it all in a discounted social media marketing bundle at UpLog.org! You can even buy your own white label version of upLog.org! Original article is here:

2012 Social Media Marketing Guide Planning Checklist and 2011 Stats

Thanks to http://sdhammika.blogspot.com/2010/09/hillel-and-buddhism.html for this picture comparing the Rabbi to Buddah from http://thinkexist.com/quotes/rabbi_hillel/ thank you very much:

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am not for others, what am I? And if not now, when?”

Lets break this down in terms of social media:

1. “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? " Bookmark, subscribe to, thumbs-up, tweet,+1, like and other wise promote yourself.
2. " If I am not for others, what am I?" If you only read your own stuff you are a one dimensional personality: share the best of what you read, hear, tweet, stumble upon, like or otherwise benefit from already screened and previewed by you with your unique perspective.
3. "And if not now, when?” never ask when again. If it is on your mind, when is always now, ASAP, in this, the fastest moving world ever.

More from http://sdhammika.blogspot.com/2010/09/hillel-and-buddhism.html:

"Like the Buddha and Greek philosophers, Hillel taught the Golden Rule well before the time of Jesus. When asked to recite the Torah while standing on one foot, Hillel stood on one foot and said, “That which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow. That is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary; go and learn.” He is also known as the author of two popular sayings: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And when I am for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?” Although not a Buddhist, Hillel had teachings (such as the above) and a calm demeanor that was very Dhamma-like. The exhortation to love peace emanated from Hillel’s most characteristic traits - from that meekness and mildness which had become proverbial, as is seen from the saying: “Let a man be always humble and patient like Hillel, and not passionate like Shammai” (Shab. 31a; Ab.R.N.xv). Hille’s gentleness and patience are illustrated in an anecdote which relates how two men made a wager on the question whether Hillel could be made angry. Though they questioned him and made insulting allusions to his Babylonian origin, they were unsuccessful in their attempt. Hillel often debated with Shammai and on several issues, Hillel demonstrated a more open and compassionate mind: Admission to Torah study. The House of Shammai believed only worthy students should be admitted to study Torah. The House Hillel believed that Torah may be taught to anyone, in the expectation that they will repent and become worthy. Hillel wanted Judaism to be open to converts and Shammai wanted the faith open only to those born into the ethnicity and religion. Judaism tended to be more accepting of Shammai on this issue. In general, the House of Shammai’s positions were stricter than those of the House of Hillel. On the few occasions when the opposite was true, the House of Hillel would sometimes later recant their position; similarly, though there are no records of the House of Shammai as a whole changing its stance, a few individuals from it are recorded as deserting a small number of the more stringent opinions of their school, in favour of the viewpoint of the House of Hillel. http://www.dhammawiki.com/."

Here is another pretty harsh but very true quote from Hillel: “He who refuses to learn deserves extinction.” ouch!

In 2012 be aware of these things according to nobody else but me, but still true:

• You have a voice
• So does everyone else
• You have a reputation
• So does everyone else
• It is one world
• There are no secrets
• Nobody gets away with anything anymore
• The book of life is being written
• Be humble
• Wake up
• Learn
• survive.

What upLog.org social media advertising agency is all about..wmv

Life is a never ending lesson in humility: DOGS ARE BORN WITH THESE NATURAL GENETIC TRAITS:

• Character
• loyalty,
• love,
• honesty,
• authenticity, or genuineness
• fierce courage: they protect their own

All automatic for a dog, yet so rare in humans. Here is why:

1. We are humbled coming into the world, small, weak, helpless, at the mercy of our surroundings.
2. As we grow, we develop more and more influence over our surroundings ( something a dog cannot do)
3. As our power grows, it expands faster than our maturity, faster than our humility. We are proud of the power that we have from of our parents hard work, and the gift of being human and alive.
4. When we are young we think we know so much more than our parents, they are so old, and fussy and outdated.
5. We are modern, young, quick, unencumbered - what a bummer to be them.
6. Then something does not work out as we planned, and the first chink appears in our armor, perhaps we are not completely perfect.
7. We dust ourselves off, get back up, and go back to work, beginning to establish what a dog is born with, consistency and character, singleness of purpose.
8. We get to feeling really good again, get a little cocky..then: BLAM, something really bad, irreparable happens: now we are angry and depressed.
9. Then we are inspired by someone who has done more with less, and we get up again, and get back to work, humbled now that we are obviously not perfect nor better than anybody else.
10. The next challenge, we are ready: with confidence, and character, and a knowledge that we can face the future.

Unfortunately, we are not naturally strong, brave, honest, forthcoming, loyal or giving: we must learn to be all those things. A 2 year old, who never has his hands slapped, is being setup for failure, or early death, or drug addiction, or worse. It is life's hardest times that make us worthwhile, and strong: it is in these times that we are offered the option to rise to the potential of being all that a human can be, ad to make ourselves proud of whom we are. And, unlike a dog, it does not come naturally: it must be learned, learned and earned and cannot be given. I honestly believe that a 2 year old without discipline, remains a monkey. Where am I going with this? Consider technology, and your learning curve: I was humbled by being the last holdout on the car-lot to not have a cell phone, what a fool! I was also the oldest salesperson to not be a manager. That was very humbling for me.; especially so because I was always a top salesperson, and it was my fault. I expect that you have a cell phone now, and a computer, and an Internet connection..but let me ask you a few questions:

• How long will you hide your head in the sand and act like the work of media and advertising has not changed
• How long will you resist social media technology and the reach that it gives those who use it.
• How long will you complain about your income, then refuse to do anything about it?
• Will you still be in the same business or have the same job then?
• Who will YOU blame it on?!

I did not have the luxury of ever being perfect: one leg is shorter than the other, and I was very short until after high school. I did not have time to be angry, or even afraid: orphaned at 11, foster homes and group homes until I became an emancipated minor at 17: I was too busy dealing to complain, and everybody else looked to me like Ozzie and Harriet. And I never realized how many opportunities that simple truth kept me from because people passed judgement on that being a qualification..not knowing that somebody could be from that background and still be OK; and me being too straight not to tell them (duh!). The main stream was never likely for me, for many reasons; and there are no handouts, entitlement programs, or bleeding heart media to help out an underprivileged Jew - thank god- people just do not think of us that way for some reason. And all of this is perfectly fine, because of the wonderful god given gifts that I own, just like a junkyard dog who survives: god gave me everything that I needed in the beginning: like a grand experiment: all I had to do was to stop resisting it, and to discover his plan for my life.. Some things never change: join me:

2012 Rothman Guide for Social Media Marketing

In this, the third consecutive living Rothman Guide E-book, we will provide and solicit tips and advice for expanding your web presence by way of modern social media marketing techniques, and intentional organic search and social media traffic. A preview of topics we will discuss, and solicit feedback on in the coming year 2012:

• Now that you have a website, and profiles that nobody sees or links to.....
• How to write advertorial - blogging to two or more audiences at the same time
• Modern distribution and syndication - where is the cheese?
• Media Merge - the trends that will shape the future, and where it is going.
• Modern Media is different - how you can actually become a media for your target market.
• Local strategy, online malls, bulletin boards, community links, maps, free ads and blogs...

And...whatever we come up with...suggestions? Please share: Past Rothman Guide living e-books are still live:: The 2010 Rothman Guide to Website Development 2011 Rothman Guide to Social Media Guerrilla Marketing Agency