Lots of people who've spoken with either Jeffrey or me know how uncomfortable we’re with being called "experts," despite our books and nearly 10 years of focus on marketing optimization. I've stated it before: "Gurus are a dime a dozen on the internet." The problem with taking pundits' advice is that it can end […]
Lots of people who've spoken with either Jeffrey or me know how uncomfortable we’re with being called "experts," despite our books and almost 10 years of focus on marketing optimization. I've stated it before: "Gurus are a dime a dozen on the web." The problem with taking pundits' advice is that it can end up costing those who follow blindly a fortune. I need your help to prevent that.
Don't get me wrong. I believe hardly any of the folks who people consider on the internet experts are acting in bad faith. They tried some tactics, it paid off, and now they want to share them with others. But true experts never achieve any level of certainty without a deeper understanding of all the circumstances contributing to their success. To reach "expert" status in other industries — state, the medical field — it takes well over a decade of experience focused in one specialty. Most cardiologists would be hesitant to give you dermatological advice, as they know it's outside of their domain. It's why Nobel Prize winner Niels Bohr once stated, “An expert is a person who has made all the mistakes that can be made in a very narrow field.”
Sharing your missteps and learning from other people's mistakes is the surest path to on the web success. Are you up to helping your fellow entrepreneurs or future clients?
Have you ever taken bad Web advice from a so-called expert?
The challenge we face as marketers is that there's no solid set of criteria to hang out the shingle and say, "Congratulations! You're a marketer." It can be frightening when clients state they plan to use some very specific tactic before the strategy's been clearly defined. Usually when that happens, if you ask where they got the idea, it's from an "expert" who may have a technical or other background but certainly not a marketing background.
We've all seen designers or developers who are now preaching "expert" search engine marketing advice. While design and code have something to do with search engine optimization, the larger issues are usually marketing-related. The same is true about conversion optimization advice. While conversion has something to do with usability, multivariate testing and web analytics, the larger overarching issue is nearly always marketing (read: persuasion)-related. When our clients have a challenging search-related issue, we refer them to a search marketing firm we trust. Are there really any social media experts yet (although we might be getting there)?
We're looking for these types of stories:
- Did you get blacklisted from a search engine for following bad advice?
- Did you spend a ton of money on a tool no one uses?
- Did you do a "redesign" and get poor results?
- Did you create a "viral" campaign that nobody noticed?
- Did you invest in the latest and coolest Web 2.0 initiative only to see a small return?
How You Can Help + Get Published
We (as in "you and I") are going to publish a free ebook. (No need to kill trees on this as I'm sure it will keep evolving with the Web).
We're not looking to name names or discredit anyone. And of course, sometimes, good advice gets executed poorly. But with your help, we'll take all the stories and distill them into a collection of truisms, then list the horror stories on so-called expert thoughts and freely distribute How to Leverage "OPM" (Other People's Mistakes): Online Advice from People Who've Been There and Done That. If you wish to share a story anonymously, it must be verifiable, so we can keep you anonymous.
Will you share your "expertise" and stories?
If you'd like to be included, tell us your on the web marketing-related stories either as a comment below or in an email to: feedback [at] grokdotcom dot com
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