Tonight is the first of the presidential debates.  And in these, there will be approximately zero point zero zero percent of actual substance.  It will be nothing but carefully crafted talking points with one purpose: hit the marketing message of said campaign.

As a marketer, I have a little bit of a different take on politics.  And if you’re a marketer, there is much to learn from this.

I watch in wonder as the marketing machines in either campaign spin their craft.  I am in awe of their precision and downright marketing brilliance.  But as a citizen knowing the inside joke, I worry for us.

Nothing will ever change because people do not vote based on substance.  They think they do but they don’t.  And politicians on both sides know it.

It’s not substance that wins.  It’s marketing.  And make no mistake, these guys have surrounded themselves with a marketing machine.

This is why the average person cannot ascend to national office.  Only the wealthy and connected can.

There are 3 types of people they have to worry about.  The people who are voting for Obama no matter what.  The people who are voting for Romney no matter what.  And the very tiny percentage that will make their decision in the coming weeks.  At this point, it is those yet undecided voters that will sway it one way or another.

And yes, the number of people who will vote for Obama no matter what Romney does, is about 47%.  And no matter what he does, he will never convince them to switch teams.  And the more he tries, the more angry he will make them.  They are indoctrinated.  They would sooner switch religions.

So Romney is right.  To worry about that segment is a waste of his limited resources that he cannot afford.  From a strategic point of view it is idiotic to worry about that 47%.

If you owned a hamburger joint, would you market to Vegetarians?  Of course you would treat them with the same care and respect if they came into your restaurant.  Maybe you have salads.  But spending hard earned marketing dollars to get them into your restaurant would be pretty dumb, right?

But the Democrats used this marketing opportunity to do to him what that side must.  Paint him as an uncaring bad guy who hates the middle class.  Grrr, where’s my pitchfork?

Because the campaigns know that people will vote the way they buy.  We buy from  companies we have a deep affinity with.  We buy from those we know, like and trust.  We make buying (and voting) decisions on emotion and justify it with logic.  And often, that logic can be just plain wrong.

Ever buy something you really wanted even though you know you shouldn’t?  I have.    Then later you give your wife a cockamamie host of reasons that you concocted together but they only make her angrier at you.

That’s marketing 101 and that’s how the campaigns do it.  Talking about what they will really do if elected, aka substance, is suicide for either party.  What they do is work up the raw emotions.  They get you to know, like and trust them while firebombing the other guy so you feel the opposite about him.

You will rarely hear them actually tell the truth.  And when they do it gets twisted like what happened to the 47% Romney comment.

Or you hear the occasional brain vomit from Biden, God love him.  He’s a classic.

He recently said the middle class has been buried the last four years.  Duh, of course they have.  Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that out.  Paging Captain obvious.

But the other side, who was up in arms that Obama would dare to take Romney out of context, is now running gleefully with it.  Hypocrisy anyone?  Nah… it’s ok when it’s our guy.

Building rapport with you so you know, like and trust them is all that matters and all they do.  Its all they have to do.

People vote for who they like.  That’s why a guy gets elected because he seems like someone you can have a beer with.  Or he speaks real pretty so he must be smart.  All business is nothing more than a popularity contest.  And the coolest kid wins that.

This is basic psychology used in marketing every day to get you to buy things from milk to iphones.  And it’s used to get you to vote.

You will never hear the candidates say something unscripted.  They will spend more time attacking the other than anything else.  It is why you will hear them speak in absolute evils.

“If you elect him, Stalin will rise from the grave and then dig up Carl Marx and Adolf Hitler to turn this country into a Communist nation where everyone is trying to take your guns and money.”

Or…

“If you elect him, all the rich people will join forces to take your house and health care and make you work in a factory in China for $2 a week.”

This is all they will do from now until then.  And no matter who is elected, they will both do crappy things that are short sighted and generally bad for the country.  Because you don’t win elections based on what you accomplish.  You win based on good old fashioned marketing.

If we were smart, we wouldn’t allow these rich lawyers and corporate raiders to debate.  We would get a bunch of top economists to just work it out.  But that would just be boring.  We need the red meat.

So guess what Americans… guess who’s fault it is that we have a corrupt government that doesn’t work?  Nope, it’s not the other guys fault.  It’s your fault.  It’s my fault.  It’s our fault.

We have low attention spans.  We are more interested in what Snooki does than what our politicians are really doing when no one is looking.

We care about what the big group which we have an affinity for tells us we should care about.  People like to belong.  We seek the comfort of larger groups who can, if they are sneaky politicians, manipulate us.  Good marketers know this and they know how to use it to their advantage.

We care about catching someone in a lie.  We want to see mangled bodies on the side of the road by an accident.  We want to boo someone.  We want blood.

The only way this government will run right is when we stop allowing ourselves to be marketed to and start thinking for ourselves.  When people who think they know the issues stop listening to the fake media and start digging deeper.  Look at the issues from a higher vantage point then the typical talking points.

Fixing this economy and the greater world is not as easy as either side makes it sound.  Hard decisions need to be made.   And everyone… everyone is going to feel the pain if the politicians acted appropriately.  Which they won’t because they don’t have to.  Only important thing is the next campaign cycle.

But until we stop acting like sheep and falling for the complex marketing psychology and become a more thoughtful and, quite frankly, less oblivious society, things will never change.

Bahhhhhhh!

By the way, I am not supporting either candidate here.  I think I defended and picked on them both equally.

In actuality I’m not picking on either of them.  I am picking on you.  Now go unplug yourself from the matrix and use your own brain.  Question everything no matter how much you like someone.  Be skeptical.  Listen to the other side.  And stop watching Snooki!!!

Can’t get good at copy writing?  Tried and failed too many times?  Exhausted all possibilities to the point of even the most optimistic of optimists in the world telling you to pack it in?  Choice number two is to get with a great copy writer.

That’s it.  Just two choices.  Write your own copy or get someone else who can.

When you are starting out trying to make money online or in any business venture, the place to start is selling.  In the beginning sales is more important than anything you can do.

That may mean selling your product.  It may mean selling yourself to people who can help you sell your product.  It may mean selling yourself to possible business partners.  But one way or another, nothing else happens in business until the sale is made.

And to sell, you need to be good at creating marketing messages.  Otherwise known as copywriting.

Now, I believe anyone and everyone can become a great copywriter.  But the first step is to just get good at writing.

There are two secrets to becoming an ever improving better writer.  They are:

1: Write
2: Read

Not necessarily in that order.  And yes, it’s that simple.

And the more of the above two you do, the better you will become.

My wife is what I call an uber reader.  She doesn’t just read.  She devours books faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.

I have to often force myself to read.  It may take me weeks of focused and forced effort to get through one book.  She can start and finish a book in the same night.

She also writes in her journal all the time.  She reads.  She writes.  And she is darn good and always getting better.  She could actually write professionally if she wanted to.

Here’s 4 steps to becoming a better writer and making a little extra pocket change while you’re at it:

1: Start a blog.  Doesn’t matter whether it is self hosted (like mine: www.mikebrooksonline.com or something hosted on a blog site like mikebrooksonline.tumblr.com.  But if you do not self host it, I recommend Tumblr.com because it will work best with step number 4)

2:  Read every single day.  Read news, books, listen to audios, podcasts, forums, etc.  Devour information on you topic.  Set aside at least thirty minutes a day to read.

3:  Start writing.  Write every day as soon as you finish step number 1.  Write about your tightly targeted niche and speak to your audience.  Don’t try and be everything to everyone or you will be nothing to no-one.  For example, my audience is people who want to work from home and make money online.  This means I only write about things that matter to them.

4: In strategic spots on your blog, place some affiliate offers, Adsense, CPA offers where you can get a commission when people take an action or click something.  This is a whole other topic that I will dive into in another blog post.  You actually don’t need to worry about this until you get a lot of traffic.  And to get a lot of traffic, you have to first write and post a lot of great articles which is why this is the last step.

Even if no one ever reads your blog, just the exercise will make you a much better writer.  But I promise, if you keep it up, people will start find you.  Of course, a little strategic help by broadcasting this on Social Media, doing your SEO right and being active within your niche’s community will help drive eyeballs to your blog.

Study other copywriters carefully and watch what they do to persuade and sell.  Add these elements into your own writing and you will be amazed at the possibilities.

Over time, you will see your skills become better and better.  And you may just make some money while you’re at it.

Want to make money online (or in any other business for that matter)?  Get good at copy writing. 

Can’t get good at copy writing?  Tried and failed too many times?  Exhausted all possibilities to the point of even the most optimistic of optimists in the world telling you to pack it in?  Choice number two is to get with a great copy writer.

That’s it.  Just two choices.  Write your own copy or get someone else who can.

When you are starting out trying to make money online or in any business venture, the place to start is selling.  In the beginning sales is more important than anything you can do. 

That may mean selling your product.  It may mean selling yourself to people who can help you sell your product.  It may mean selling yourself to possible business partners.  But one way or another, nothing else happens in business until the sale is made.

And to sell, you need to be good at creating marketing messages.  Otherwise known as copywriting.

Now, I believe anyone and everyone can become a great copywriter.  But the first step is to just get good at writing.

There are two secrets to becoming an ever improving better writer.  They are:

1: Write

2: Read

Not necessarily in that order.  And yes, it’s that simple.

And the more of the above two you do, the better you will become.

My wife is what I call an uber reader.  She doesn’t just read.  She devours books faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.

I have to often force myself to read.  It may take me weeks of focused and forced effort to get through one book.  She can start and finish a book in the same night.

She also writes in her journal all the time.  She reads.  She writes.  And she is darn good and always getting better.  She could actually write professionally if she wanted to.

Here’s 4 steps to becoming a better writer and making a little extra pocket change while you’re at it:

1: Start a blog.  Doesn’t matter whether it is self hosted (like mine: www.mikebrooksonline.com or something hosted on a blog site like mikebrooksonline.tumblr.com.  But if you do not self host it, I recommend Tumblr.com because it will work best with step number 4)

2:  Read every single day.  Read news, books, listen to audios, podcasts, forums, etc.  Devour information on you topic.  Set aside at least thirty minutes a day to read. 

3:  Start writing.  Write every day as soon as you finish step number 1.  Write about your tightly targeted niche and speak to your audience.  Don’t try and be everything to everyone or you will be nothing to no-one.  For example, my audience is people who want to work from home and make money online.  This means I only write about things that matter to them.

4: In strategic spots on your blog, place some affiliate offers, Adsense, CPA offers where you can get a commission when people take an action or click something.  This is a whole other topic that I will dive into in another blog post.  You actually don’t need to worry about this until you get a lot of traffic.  And to get a lot of traffic, you have to first write and post a lot of great articles which is why this is the last step.

Even if no one ever reads your blog, just the exercise will make you a much better writer.  But I promise, if you keep it up, people will start find you.  Of course, a little strategic help by broadcasting this on Social Media, doing your SEO right and being active within your niche’s community will help drive eyeballs to your blog.

Study other copywriters carefully and watch what they do to persuade and sell.  Add these elements into your own writing and you will be amazed at the possibilities.

Over time, you will see your skills become better and better.  And you may just make some money while you’re at it.

Recently I became affiliate manager for a company called Job Crusher, (AKA Crusher Productions), (AKA Eric Louviere and Bill McIntosh).

So first off, those reading who may not know what an affiliate manager is, we are responsible for recruiting other marketers to promote our products as well as finding products to promote as an affiliate ourselves.  This is now my new full time gig.  In addition to my other full time gigs.

Job Crusher was founded in 2006 when my friend, partner and mentor Eric Louviere registered the domain name.  He has been a full-time Internet marketer ever since, made a lot of money online and turned the company into a powerhouse.  Bill McIntosh came into the picture a short time ago and has been his partner ever since.

The company has outgrown Eric and Bill’s ability to manage all the many things and work on recruiting affiliates.  So in order to take the company to the next level, they knew they needed someone to take this job over.  So they recruited me to run the affiliate program.

Of course this is a huge honor for me as well and huge challenge.  I have been in the Internet Marketing world for many years now.  I run a successful off-line consulting business as well selling my own products online.  I’m able to make a full-time living at this.  However the affiliate manager position is a whole new thing for me.

I’ve dealt with affiliates on a very small scale.  But never on this level.  It’s fun, exciting and a new challenge.  And I love a challenge!

As I get to put on the ‘white belt’ again and be a newbie, I thought I would keep a diary here on my blog.  Thought it might help others to share what I go through as an affiliate manager for one of the top companies in the Internet marketing niche.

One of the things that I love to do more than anything else is to teach and help people.  I’ve been that way ever since I was a little kid.  I just enjoy teaching.

For many years I taught martial arts.  Even owned my own school.  I still do teach it when the chance arises.

For whatever reason I get a lot of personal satisfaction from teaching and helping others.  No doubt this is why many people get into Internet Marketing themselves.  Maybe you got into it for this very reason.  I know every time I learn something new, I just cannot resist the urge to teach it.  Which probably has a lot to do why I create information products so much.

Anyway, just a quick post today to update everyone on my new position with Job Crusher.  And to let you know I will be posting every now and then to share what’s happening, what I learn and just any old insights that might pop into my head.

And if you’ve got an info product in the IM niche, please reach out to me.

This is a video called “Never, Ever Give Up.  Arthur’s Inspirational Transformation!”.  It has gone viral and for good reason.  Any time you think you can’t, you should watch this.

Here’s the thing, there are countless others out there with handicapps, misfortune, hurdles, road blocks.  Some are real, some are in our own minds.  Whatever the obstacle, it can be overcome.

I don’t care if you don’t even have arms and legs.  Go Google Nick Vujicic.

There’s never an excuse.  Unless your dead, there’s just no excuse.

Your altitude is defined by your attitude.  If you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right.

So get up, be inspired and go get things done!

Here’s the link to learn more about the program: InternetWealthDojo.com

This 9 minute video shows you how to blog comment to build up your SEO and shows you how to use Google Reader to make life much easier.

If you are in any kind of business you should be using a webinar system.  Webinars sell, period.

Webinars are the best way to build strong rapport and bonding with your customers and prospects that will allow you to have a long and lasting relationships.

Click Here To Get Your Free Trial Of GVO

Here’s a couple videos I recorded for you to show you a little ‘under the hood’ view of GVO.  The first one shows you the affiliate (MLM) opportunity.  And it’s a great one!

The second video shows you how to host your first conference.  Very easy!

Video #1 – Make Money With GVO

Video #2 – Basic How To Host A GVO Webinar

Click Here To Get Your Free Trial Of GVO

We used to run contests in my offline business and they had profound impact.  Contests grew our business like crazy.

Want to cut through all the noise and grow your list fast?  Run a contest.

Contest Burner is the new software that automates the process with powerful simplicity.  I put two videos together to show you exactly what it does and how easy it is to implement.

After you watch the videos, make sure to check out Contest Burner by
Click Here To Get Contest Burner.

Video #1 – What Contest Burner does

[See post to watch Flash video]
Video #2 – Look under the hood of Contest Burner

[See post to watch Flash video]

After you watch the videos, make sure to check out Contest Burner by
Click Here To Get Contest Burner.

The funny part is, the guy who gave this advice had given the wrong answer. He totally mis-read the question. So the other readers were annoyed but I thought it was a gem.

As you’re working your SEO strategy, one thing you may already be doing is PINGing your sites, videos, blog posts, etc.

This alerts the world that you’ve added some new content out onto the web. Ideally, you get the search engines crawling your content and indexing your site.

A tool I’ve used online is Pingler.com. I enter my info in and hit the button and blamo… Internet beware.

Well, this dude on the forum pointed out that WordPress can actually do this for you auto-magically. All you do is enter the same sites Pingler.com uses into your ‘Writing’ settings and you’re done.

I’ve made a little instructional video to show you how I did it.

[See post to watch Flash video]

UPDATE: Please take note of the comment by Ryan Parenti below.  He’s recommending cbnet Ping Optimizer.  I looked into this and it looks solid.  As long as you do not publish and then continually update your post, either method will work fine.   Either way, you still must add all the ping sites into the area I show you above.

Friends of mine run a haunted maze here in CT each year. I always lend them a hand and do security for them. All that means is I get to dress in black, walk the maze and scare the boogers out of people.

It’s pretty darn fun. I put a little behind the scenes video footage together for you, complete with a scream reel.

The last few minutes you won’t be able to see anything because it was pitch black but you can hear the fun.

[See post to watch Flash video]

Because I was dresses completely in black, literally head to toe, no one could see me until I was right on top of them. It was pretty funny some of the responses.

Now if you’re a regular reader of this blog you know I recommend Blip.Tv to convert your video into Flash FLV for free. Well, they’ve gone and gotten rid of that feature. So now I am embedding the Blip.Tv video directly, (since I uploaded it there anyway). Complete with their ads and all.

So I’ll keep you posted on whether I find an FLV conversion process that’s free, easy and works right.