New Rules for Success

Plan, plot, strategize. -Tupac Shakur.   If you understand and anticipate the changes that are coming you can ride the waves like a surfer. If you fail to understand that you're in an ocean you'll just get wiped out. The rules have changed, again. Don't worry, they'll change again before long, but now is a great time to take advantage of this plateau of normalcy if you will. You have time if you act now and take action by snatching your success from the cold dead hands of failure.

Here are the new rules for success:

Resonance is the new relevance. Content is King? No, content is GOLD. -Don't forget the golden rule. He who holds the gold makes all the rules. Internet users want more than what's relevant, they want what resonates with them on a personal and intimate level. It's no longer about the mathematical approach of highly sophisticated keyword optimization schemes. It's all about alchemy. That is creating GOLD. As a freelance writer, blogger, internet marketer or whatever you call yourself you have to understand that today gold is worth approximately $1700/ounce. How many ounces of gold could you buy with the money your content generated in 2012? 1, 2, 3, 5+, 10+, 100+? Remember, YOUR content is just like gold:

• It's a fundamental "element" of the internet.
• It's value increases as you remove impurities and fillers from it.
• It can be reused recycled and re-purposed over and over again.

SEO now stands for Sexy Entertaining Outrageous. Did you hear the story of the new Linux powered machine gun? Seriously. I don't care what side of the gun rights debate you're on you have to admit this sounds cool. Who wouldn't want to read more about this new open-sourced-software machine gun technology? Google understands this and I predict they will continue to send their dangerous SEO animals like Panda and Penguin to scare off the BLAND in favor of high quality content that's packed with FLAVOR. How to make your content more sexy, entertaining, and outrageous?

1. Get off the sidelines when it's controversial ie GAME time. I wish I could tell you how stupid your updates on twitter look when there's an amazingly huge international story trending. Here you are posting "5 ways to build back links." Who do you think want's to read that BS, now?
2. Have fun with celebrities and politicians. No, I'm not talking about trying to be the next Alex Jones. I'm talking about being smart about it and exploiting opportunities. This is both an art and a science. Let your conscious be your guide and your personality show off your style. Remember, risk nothing gain, NOTHING. Getting a check is the new politically correct.

Successful online entrepreneurs are the new "Gangsters". Ask 50Cent if you think I'm joking. What was one of the most successful business that Curtis Jackson aka 50Cent owned in 2012? Oh yeah it was his blog. Ask yourself this, why would a multi-platinum rapper want to be a blogger? Because making money online is a scam? No. Complacency is the new enemy. Terrorists living in caves or trailer parks are the least of your worries. In order to be successful you have to declare WAR ON COMPLACENCY. This is when you accomplish something and then rest on your laurels. You take a "break" and let your momentum die down. BIG MISTAKE. How to overcome complacency? > Strike the iron while it's HOT. When you finally get a successful response to an email campaign or a blog post. Don't leave it at that. Keep your buzz going by complimenting the original content with new updates, sequels, and fresh spins. Connect with trending topics, current events, and personality for best results. > Fail forward. Accept the fact that you will get TEN no's for every ONE yes. Focus on the ONE yes. The NINE no's are like cars you drive by in rush hour traffic, keep moving. Remember, it's a numbers game getting emotional is lame. Don't be a jerk just do the work. Collaborators are the new friends. Friends are considered extremely precious valuable resources to people but in the end they actually return very little. You may find yourself at a difficult crossroads where the momentum of your success is moving you east and your friends are headed west.

No doubt about it Al Cowlings should be in the hall of fame for #1 best friend of all time.

Your friends don't have to take it to this extreme level but, if all you can get them to do is watch sports or go out and get drunk you probably need to "de-friend them". How to optimize your friendships? > Challenge your friends to join you as "co-conspirators" in your secret plans for success.

If they opt out demote them to associate status instantly. What value does your "best friend" have if you can't even count on them to re-tweet a freaking blog post?

> The Adam Sandler / Rob Schneider strategy.

This is what I call friendship. Adam made tons of big movies and every single one his buddy Rob get's a role. No matter how small the part is Rob is always there to not only help his friend but he KILLS it. Eventually, Rob got his own featured movies. Ask your friend to play that "role" in order to add a new dimension of value for your audience. Use them for case studies, product evaluations, experiments, on site reports, goofy cameos, or whatever you feel will resonate with your audience.

Planning is the new dreaming. Shout out to Penelope Trunk for bringing this up. Be careful about "dreams" they can turn into nightmares. Remember, dreams are what pimps like Iceberg Slim sell to prostitutes. Entrepreneurs like to talk about marketing psychology but they need to understand basic GAME THEORY. Don't be a sucker. Realize that most people will never do anything except talk about everything. This includes YOU. How to optimize planing?

1. Get a plan.
2. NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER let a day go by without completing the most important tasks on your plan.

Procrastinating is the new hating. Doing nothing is the most effective poison to your dreams of success. It's even more powerful than the "Spike 80DF" that some Alabama fan used to kill the ancient oak trees on Auburn University's campus. When you procrastinate:

• You don't feel like your making any mistakes so you just sit there.
• You don't feel like you're causing any harm so you just sit there.

Just like a blogger frog sitting in water not realizing the temperature is slowly increasing until it's past the boiling point. You won't know you're a failure until life has passed you by. Some people claim they have haters but the real question is, ARE YOU ONE? WHO is making YOU do NOTHING? PS: Don't worry about trying to be the KING focus on the gold. The King is the paranoid idiot trying to implement censorship laws like SOPA and PIPA. Let him worry about Guy Fawkes. :)