I am a Sikh and I am not a terrorist! (Rio Hotel and Casino – You Suck)

Posted by Ricky on Feb 23rd, 2010 | 17 comments

“My name is Khan and I am not a terrorist” – these were the words that continuously came out of Shahrukh Khan’s mouth in the critically acclaimed file “My name is Khan”. he plays the role of an autistic Muslim who gets lumped in with all the other terrorists because his name happened to be “Khan”. Sikhs too have had the misfortune of being placed in the same category as all the “terrorists” because of the ignorance of a few and the herd mentality of others.

Having been in the states for over 35 years – for the most part I have been sheltered and removed from the hatred and racism and racial profiling but every now and then – something little happens that goes to show you that we honestly have not learned or progressed as we would be led to believe. You might be asking what brings this on? What does this have to do with Internet/Affiliate Marketing?

Well it was at one of these conferences that set the wheels in motion which inevitably came to rear it’s ugly head today. At precisely 5:16 P.M. this fine Tuesday evening that I get a call from the 702 area code which you all know as Las Vegas. The call was from a detective who was conducting research on behalf of the amazingly, awesome, wonderfully accommodating, Rio Casino (I am certain you can sense my sarcasm in this).

It so happens that their security cameras caught a turbaned individual (me), “pacing” the casino floor and stopping to enter data into a “hand-held device”. Hmm – let me think for a moment – I am at a marketing conference where every single individual has an iPhone, Blackberry, Palm and I happened to be pacing, mapping and entering data – go figure. This is worst than the random check at the airport.

To the detectives credit – he was very pleasant to talk to and knew very well who the “Sikhs” were and what they stood for and he was just doing his job. However, the Rio Casino – I am sorry but you Suck! You have lost a paying customer who is in Vegas at the very least 2-3 times a year and for them to single out a turbaned individual like this – well it is flat out ridiculous. Unfortunately for you Rio – this is not one story that will stay in Vegas!

I call on my fellow marketers to tweet, retweet and retweet once more for good measure so they can at least start to understand and perhaps educate themselves on who we are and not make assumptions based on a person wearing a turban and carrying a Blackberry.

Why Google Buzz Is What You Want as an Affiliate Marketer

Posted by Ricky on Feb 18th, 2010 | no comments

If you’re running an affiliate marketing business, you’ve got a brand new, exciting tool for your marketing toolbox. It’s Google Buzz. If you combine Google Buzz with SEO techniques for targeting your niche markets, you are going to have yourself a tool so powerful that soon enough it will become a better affiliate marketing tool than Facebook and Twitter.

Why would Google Buzz be on the verge, already, of affiliate marketing outreach domination? There are a few different, combined reasons:

1. Google IS the search engine industry, which drives all affiliate marketing success. Google is utterly dominant even over Yahoo, and Bing will have a long way to go to take any significant market share away from it, too. If Google has an Buzz to rival Yahoo’s Buzz Up (and that’s exactly what it is), people are going to swarm to it because it carries the Google brand.

2. Anybody with a G-mail account was automatically placed into an Buzz account. G-mail is growing into a preferred e-mail account because of its superior organizational capabilities and because when you sign up for a G-mail account you instantly get ready access to creating a vast array of other new, free Google accounts such as an iGoogle customizable homepage, Google Documents, Google Labs (where you’ll also find some hot affiliate marketing tools), and Picasa online photo sharing.

3. All new smart phone clients with an Android automatically get set up with a G-mail account.

Now, that last detail alone is a very powerful thing for affiliate marketers today. Even if you are not one of those people who have a seemingly biological attachment to your smart phone, every single day more of your customers and prospects join the ranks of them. They are always on their Internet-capable 3G smart phones, and they want to see the latest “Buzz”.

What you can do in addition to signing up for a G-mail account and start networking with your fellow G-mailers is to start monitoring which people are Buzzing about a product that falls within one of your niche markets. Since many of these people are going to be Buzzing from their smart phones, they may be out and about actually seeing and touching products similar to those that you sell. Also, this means that you have 24-hour access to people, since they have made their Internet portable. Busy 3g-savvy professionals and young 20-something wives who go shopping and constantly refer to their phone can now be instantly accessed by you. No need to wait for them to get home and have some free time on the Internet on their computer. You can now nail them while they are on the go.

It’s simple enough: you find those people who are Buzzing about things that indicate to you that they are a good prospect. You just request a connection with them and then offer them a “free trial offer” or “free sample” of the very thing that they are excitedly iBuzzing about right now. They might even place an order right then and there from their phone!

In any event, you can start tracking those using Google Buzz to become active in finding a whole new set of niche market prospects. Then you can make a direct connection and BAM! Affiliate marketers’ hog heaven.