The Internet Marketing & Seo Malta Guy

In Malta the legal age of entering a Casino is 25 (if you are Maltese), if you are a foreigner the legal age is 18.  My friend Gerban from Holland is in Malta and he’s also a poker enthusiast and we decided to go at the Westin Dragonara for a €10 + €1 tournament on Monday.  The tournament structure was unlimited rebuys for the first hour and 1 addon before the 1st break.

Players were trying to stack up early and since it was unlimited rebuys, things got crazy, a bunch of all ins with mediocre hands and sick calls to booth.  I played tight for the first 30mins or so, took my time to scout the table.  It didn’t take long to seperate the good players from the fish and the smart from the reckless.

After the first break I won a couple of good pots which allowed me to play for another 2.5 hours.  Didn’t get much cards, made a couple of steals and the people on the table where chatty so I didn’t get bored at all, actually it was great fun.  I played for over 3 hours, survived until the last 2 tables and didn’t get any of the €700+ prize money. Bummer.

After I got kicked out Gerban suggested we play some BlackJack which I never did before although I do know quite a bit about the game.  Gerban went over some basic strategy rules, like not going crazy when the dealer has a 4 because it’s hard to defend, how and when should I split pairs and Aces and so forth.  We sat on a table I put out €40 and the minimum unit was €5 which apparently is quite cheap compared to foreign casinos.

I lost the first two hands in a heartbeat, that’s €10 down.  The next hand, I got a BlackJack which pays 3 to 1 on your money. Nice.  I won a couple more in a row and when I had €50 in chips I decided to double the bet, since I was playing with the house’s money.

This is the same strategy I use in business.  I allocate a certain amount of money for a project, then instead of taking the initial earnings and put them in my pocket, I keep re-investing the money I make from the project into the project and make the money work for me.  It’s a basic leveraging strategy we call Boot Strapping.

I walked out with €120 euros, getting back the €21 euros I lost in poker and then some.  Not retiring on my winnings yet but it was definitely great fun.

I’ll be back

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Status Quo – noun

The existing order of things; present customs, practices, and power relations

Everyday I see more and more the problems with companies who try to push the status quo in an ever changing world. The economy is constantly changing, the way we do business and interact is constantly changing but still I see companies who fear change. Companies still pay thousands of dollars to market on TV and magazines without even looking into Internet Marketing.  Companies still pay thousands of dollars on flights for meetings that could’ve been knocked out in 30 minutes with an online video conversation.

Sales are down, employees are unhappy, production is slowing down, quality of work gets lower and lower. The Board of Directors are screaming at the CEO to produce more results, the CEO yells at the managers that their teams aren’t producing enough work, the employees feel unappreciated and rebel against their managers or quit, the managers of different departments start blaming each other.

Take a deep breath. Doing more of what we did before is not always the answer, actually it rarely is. What happened to the 90′s buzzword “thinking outside the box?” What happened to creative leadership? Why are we marketing the same products to the same people and expecting different results? Why are we pushing away instead of promoting the employee with new ideas?

Change and leadership shouldn’t come just from managers, they are too busy taking shit from their superiors as well as their employees. Management and leadership used to be synonymous, but not anymore.

I am positive that YOU can think of 3 ways on improving your business or the company you work for.  I am pretty sure you don’t even have to think, you already know the 3 ways.  The real question is, what are you doing about it? Are you doing what you should be doing or you afraid of standing out?

Raise your hand, speak up, make allies, stop whining about doom and gloom to your colleagues and start talking some sense into them. Get together in positive unity, you’ll find strength in numbers.

No matter what job position you are in, YOU can lead the way! YOU must lead the way!

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In the seo game a lot of people seo’s who haven’t been in the search engine game long talk as if they are afraid of Google.  They are scared of getting penalised for this and for that as if Google is out to get them (I actually heard this from 2 different Malta Seo’s this week).  The real truth is that Google needs you.   Yes you heard me right, Google needs YOU. It needs your content.  

Google’s main income course come through paid ads known as AdWords. They are ads that website owners pay to get listed in the search engines.  Most of you already know this of course however a lot do not consider the fact that without the free listings, they aren’t able to offer paid listings.  Every page that Google index is increasing the potential amount of ads shown, therefore it is in their best interest to index your content.

It is in their interest though to index the most relevant content for their ads to show in.  Bad search results means less searches (because people might get frustrated if they don’t find the results they need and try another search engine) and less searches mean less money. So make your content as relevant as possible.

Stop worrying about Google trying to get you, they will only do that if you don’t play by the rules.  If you don’t know all the rules such as what keyword density to use do not worry, think about the intent of your page.  If the intension is malicious, google will penalize you otherwise they will let it slide.  SEO is not about the rankings, SEO is about creating good quality pages and links.  The search engine rankings are a freebie from Google as a way to thank you for creating good quality content that they can show their client’s ads in. It’s that simple. They need you to create a lot of these pages. They want you to.

What are you waiting for? Go write a new page now.

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Forgive me father for I have sinned, it’s been over a month since my last blog post.  A lot of things happened this month, some good while other where bad.  In fact it’s safe to say, I had one of the worst months in my life, both personally and professionally.

A deal which I had with one of my partners turned out sour, he was not the man I believed he was and turned out to be more greedy and un-appreciative than I could ever imagined.  I knew this could happen on a lot of levels, but I didn’t act quickly enough so ultimately I blame myself for what happened.  I had a pet snake for a long time and once I didn’t handle it correctly and it bit me.  I couldn’t get angry at the snake, cos that’s what snakes do, It was my fault I wasn’t careful as I should have been.

Someone very close to me almost went out of business and it took a lot of energy to help that person get back on track and gain focus.  It was especially hard since I was going through a lot of turmoil myself however it was good to stop me from sulking and feel sorry for myself and power through.  I’m happy to say that this person’s business is now and track and I feel proud and happy that now they’re bigger and better than ever.

The same goes for me, this hard month was probably the best thing that could have happened to me both personally and professionally.  On some level I got over confident about my success and I lost focus.  I wasn’t working as hard as I know I could’ve and I got complacent.  The same thing happens to a lot of successful people, including businessmen, performers and athletes.  

Mike Tyson lost the championship belt not because Buster Douglas was a better athlete, Mike Tyson got complacent and didn’t train hard enough because he thought he was the best in the world and no one could beat him.  He wasn’t hungry for the title anymore.

Lesson learned.

It’s the worse thing that could’ve happened but it’s also the best thing.  Instead of just working I had the time to stop what I was doing and go back to the drawing board.

I want to thank all readers who kept visiting the site and messaging me to write more.  You guys Rox!! I will not let you down.

I’m gonna close of this somewhat personal post with a quote from the movie Balboa.

The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!

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Really what is it? Lately I’ve been getting confused every time someone asks me that question.  Am I am Web Developer, a Team Leader, a Web Designer, an Internet Marketer, an SEO (no not a “Social Media Guru”), a worker bee by day and an Entrepreneur by night? Heck I am all of these things, more than 1 on a given day.

What is a Job Title? Do you give it to yourself or is it given to you by the company you work for?  Is the job title you gave yourself more important than the job title your company has given you?  Does it make you feel important? Does your Job Title allow you to be creative and explore new ideas or does it slow you down and confine you in your box? Does it make you feel safe? Does it make you stay away from doing jobs “you aren’t supposed to do?” No that’s not my job I am a __________.  Have you started working harder with your new job title or did it make you lazy? How long are you keeping this one before you move on to the next?

That’s something I want you to think about ….

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