This morning I received yet another e-mail from some “marketer” or another, promising me the secrets of the guru’s for an unbelievably low price.

Uh-huh.

Amazing how such a large majority of marketers – even some of the most successful ones apparently – can’t seem to spell. Yep, they can dominate the search engines, suck ooodles of cash out of the pockets of hapless surfers, and effortlessly deliver truckloads of back-links to their web sites, without having mastered the basics of grammar.

Guru’s.

With an “apostrophe.”

The apostrophe in this case, denotes possession. As in… “this is the guru’s pen.” The apostrophe “shows” us that “this is the pen belonging to the guru.”

The thing is, these are the people who are supposed to know better. It’s a well-established fact that online, spelling and grammar mistakes severely undermine your credibility. After all, a new visitor does not have a whole heck of a lot upon which to judge whether or not you are a credible authority in your field.

How many really successful business people or companies are you aware of that have blatant spelling mistakes in their promotional copy?

I know that as soon as I see something like “guru’s”, my respect level immediately drops a notch or two. Rightly or wrongly my first thought is…

“How much can you REALLY know about marketing if you can’t master basic English?”

Now I have to be honest here; I’m famous for my thoughts getting ahead of my typing. This will occasionally result in some interesting “word stew.” And everyone makes honest mistakes. But if you’re doing business online in any capacity, you cannot afford to do so. That’s why in addition to using a spell-checker, I have someone review ALL my material (even this is not foolproof, but it does eliminate 99% of errors).

You need to do the same.

If you run a large business, you can delegate the appropriate person to the task. If not, get your spouse / friend / daughter / son to do it. The bottom line is this – get another pair of eyeballs on your material.

You can’t afford to make credibility-demolishing mistakes and expect to become successful with your online business.

Like “guru’s.”

It doesn’t really address some of the really cool ways you can use video to leverage your web site, and its existing content. Since this discussion of video is near and dear to my own heart (I’m eager to find the best – and most efficient – ways to use it on my own site – UltimateFatBurner.com and Real-Customer-Comments.com), I’d like to share with you some of the more exciting avenues I’ve investigated, or am currently investigating.

When I decided I had to tap into the online video craze in late 2008, the first thing I did was to go looking for a “how to” manual; I figured there had to be a smart marketer out there who was already capitalizing on video, and who had documented the entire video-creating process in a manual (frankly, I’m the sort of person who figures if someone has already done it and perfected the process, why waste time doing the same thing yourself? It’s cheaper and more efficient to buy the manual than to learn new software and develop a system on your own).

After some major digging, I finally found both the manual and the marketer. The manual was called “Unleash An Avalanche Of Targeted Pre-Sold Traffic By Recycling Your Articles On You Tube” and it was written by Kevin Riley, an American Internet marketer who makes his home in Japan.

The concept of the manual is pretty self explanatory from the title; take existing material already in place on your web site, convert it into video format, “position it” (with the appropriate keywords and so on), upload it to the big video web sites, and divert “pre-sold” traffic directly back to your web site.

It sounded like a pretty darn good idea, so I thought I would give it a try.

After a little reflection, I decided I had the perfect article for the experiment, “The 7 Day Fat Burner Free Trial Scam & Why You Must Avoid It!” Since this article covers deceptive billing tactics, it would be perfect material to use to further establish the credibility of UltimateFatBurner.com and drive new visitors to the site.

So I bought the manual, and, following the step-by-step process documented therein, created my first video (which has received just under 18,000 views in a year)…

Needless to say, I learned a few things.

Converting a 400 or so word article into a video takes a lot more time than you think. Or at least, I thought. For instance…

• Your article does need to be re-worked somewhat, since you are now “talking” to the viewer. I found my article needed to be modified somewhat to make it seem more conversational and more like a video. I did not want it to seem like I was simply reading an article. I wanted to communicate directly with my viewer.
• When read in a relaxed and conversational tone, my article – complete with additions -  ballooned into almost 7 minutes of audio. If you view my video, you’ll see that still photos accompany the spoken narrative. To keep the viewer entertained, those photos must change every few seconds. That’s a LOT of pictures that need to be sourced, sized, and inserted into your video.

In other words…

Even when you factor in that this was my first video, and accord significantly more time to the creation process than would be necessary in subsequent productions, it still turned out to be a major undertaking. If I am really going to be able to leverage the power of video, I’m going to have to be able to use it more efficiently, and create videos much more quickly. After all, I still have to remain focused on the regular day-to-day elements of running an online business; creating new content and so on.

Accordingly, I’m now working on a new video based on my review of the “hCG Protocol” over on UltimateFatBurner.com. This time, instead of sourcing still photos for the video, I’m displaying the text on the screen, so the viewer can read along with the narrative, which will provide an overview of the presented text.

The text will change with the narrative, so there will be plenty of visual stimulation. So far, it has taken much, much less time to put this video together, although it’s tough to tell how well it will be received just yet. I’m hoping to have it finished this week, and will post a link here as soon as I do. That way, you can check it out and share your comments with me.

I really love the “converting articles to videos” concept, but really need a way to do it faster. This may work. We’ll see.

Despite my reservations, I can’t fault Kevin’s manual; I honestly couldn’t have put this video together without it. He really does show you how to orchestrate the entire video creating process – from “story boarding your video”, to sourcing images and audio, to the actual step-by-step process of putting it all together with the Camtasia software. If this – converting articles into videos – is something that interests you, I have no reservations about recommending his publications.

Not anymore. High speed access is now so commonplace, that  video is taking the Internet by storm. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Our love affair with television suggests it. The YouTube phenomenon proves it…

Many people prefer to watch than to read.

Of course, given the nature of the ‘Net, and the way Search Engines process information, text-based material will always be important (that’s not to say you won’t see YouTube videos showing in top 10 keyword searches; frankly, I’ve seen more and more lately).

But how do you leverage video effectively? How do you add it effectively  into your current content mix? And most effectively, how do you actually create videos – especially if you’re not technically  minded and you don’t even have a video camera? (It’s the latter question that I intend to focus on in this article).

These are all questions I’ve been asking myself lately, as I determine how to best create and use video on UltimateFatBurner.com. And while I own a video camera now (although I haven’t yet taken it out of the box), I did not when I tackled my first video.

When it comes to video, you have two options…

1) Use a video camera to record your message, optimize it for the web, and upload it to your web site, and other popular video hosting services like YouTube, Yahoo! Video, Google Video, Vimeo, etc. (If you don’t have a camera there are hundreds of options. Try to select a camera that offers a “one touch upload to YouTube” feature. This will make your life a lot easier – I bought a JVC with this option).

2) Use a series of still photos with an audio track, and combine them together using software (like Camtasia or Windows Movie Maker) into video format. This is the format I used when I made my first video which you can view here. Although it’s a little more work than simply recording yourself in front of a camera, I think it’s probably the best option for a newbie video-creator.

Why?

Well, your background images will provide constantly changing visual stimulation, which can have a lot to do with visitors actually sticking around to watch your video. Speaking in front of a camera may be easier from a technical point of view, but there’s a real knack to communicating effectively via camera, and keeping your visitor glued to the screen. I was pretty sure this wasn’t the way I wanted to go… at least initially.

If you decide to go this route, you’ll need a few things…

1) A microphone: For my first project, I used a cheap mic I purchased at Staples, but I wasn’t really pleased with the sound quality, so I upgraded to a Samson Recording/Podcasting pack.

2) Audio software: I use the free Audacity software, which seems to work well enough for my needs.

3) Software: I managed to snag a copy of Camtasia 3 from  Techsmith – they were offering V3 of the software available for free, with a significant discount to upgrade to the newest version. Alas, this offer no longer seems to be valid, but you can still download a 30-day free trial of the software if you like. As previously mentioned, Windows MovieMaker is also an option; if you’re running Windows, it’s likely already on your computer.

If the idea of purchasing or having to learn the intricacies of a new piece of software is unappealing to you, there are low-tech options. Ganesh and the guys over at Article Video Robot have a option that allows you to convert articles (or any text based information you like) into videos – really, really, easily.

This service has been marketed fairly aggressively lately, so I signed up for the free trial to give it a “go.” I’ll have to say that although I think the service is pretty decent and the customer support is superb (I sent tech support an e-mail and received a response in an hour) I wasn’t able to create the sort of video I had in mind.

Since I already have the necessary software and tools, and have mastered the most intense part of the software learning curve, I’m going to stay the course with Camtasia.  Nonetheless, it costs nothing to sign up for the free trial of the Article Video Robot – go ahead and do so and make your own judgment call (one suggestion; record your own voice over and do not use the computer voices provided by the service… you’ll see what I mean).

Of course, the biggest issue I had when I began my first video project was finding a complete “A-B-C, here’s how to create your own video” tutorial in a step by step format . I have WAY too much to do (and no inclination) to spend ages trying to learn the complexities of a new piece of software. It’s always easier and more cost effective if you can find a tutorial-type document that will walk you through the entire process.

After some digging, I finally found exactly what I needed in Kevin Riley’s Video Creation products (which documents the video creation process using the Camtasia software).

I’ve purchased about 3 of them in total (my first video was created following the process outlined in his books) and I would recommend any of them to anyone looking for a step-by-step, easy to understand documented means to create your first video.

So here’s the process I’d suggest if you would like to try the hands-on video creation process.

1) Download the free trial of Camtasia (I’ll explain why in a minute).

2) Download the free Audacity audio software.

3) Buy a cheap microphone from your local office supply store (Office Place, Staples, etc).

4) Purchase one of Kevin Riley’s video creation products. Kevin uses the Camtasia software in his video creation demonstrations, which is why I suggested you download the software. Use the free trial to create a video or two, and then, once you’re familiar with the process, switch to the free Windows Movie Maker (most video / movie creating software is similar, so you should be able to make the jump from applications fairly seamlessly). Or, you can purchase the full version of Camtasia, if you like.

Whatever you decide, I highly recommend you make an investment into a product that will show you how to create your video properly. There’s a lot more to creating a great video than the technical aspect. Your video will need to be story-boarded, optimized, and properly distributed. Kevin’s products show you how to do all this and more – I’ve actually found them much more helpful than the several books I’ve bought from Amazon on the subject.

I’ll be talking more about leveraging video effectively in the near future.

Good luck!

That said, let me explain why you should avoid using PLR articles on your web site if at all possible. Yes, I’m well aware that there are plenty of gurus who recommend using private label rights to beef up your site’s inventory of content. I don’t happen to agree with them.

At all.

And that’s even if you take the time to re-write them in your own words (usually the one stipulation made by the gurus who recommend this strategy), which most people simply don’t do.

There are several reasons why…

1) Excellent content rules the day: If you’re using a content-based web site to attract Search Engine traffic, build your credibility and effectively monetize your audience, PLR articles won’t do the trick. Today, providing generic, standard, readily-accessible content material is not going to establish you in your visitor’s mind. And it certainly will not establish you as a leader in your niche.

And I can guarantee you won’t find any revolutionary or particularly insightful information in any PLR package you buy. Certainly not at the $3-$12 per article price.

I know. I’ve actually bought numerous private label rights articles over the years thinking I could perhaps leverage the content somehow. Nope. Nien. Nyet. Nada.

Sure, it’s adequate, I agree. But comparing PLR articles to properly researched, insightful material of your own is like comparing a meal at a 5-star restaurant to a Swanson meat pie.  Sure, the meat pie tastes fine, is easy to prepare, and covers most of your immediate nutritional needs. But your guests aren’t exactly going to be crooning about your culinary skills. Nor are they going to beat a path to your door the next time you offer, “c’mon over for supper!”

To repeat, “adequate” just ain’t gonna “cut it.”

So why bother?

If you don’t have the time to create quality content of your own, you’re better off to wait until you do, or get into a different business.

I’m serious.

I’d rather have a small, slow-growing web site packed with unique, quality content than a large one based on PLR articles, syndicated material, and what have you.

2) Duplicated contented is not a credibility builder: As a little experiment, a few weeks ago I bought a PLR package of articles from a reliable source. I then copied and pasted the first couple of sentences of the first article directly into Google’s search box, pressed “Search”…

And “whammo!”

Dozens of results.

Plenty of folks had bought the same package I did, and posted the articles, word-for-word, on their web sites. Now I realize most folks are not going to know the posted PLR material is not unique to your web site. But it’s not something I’d be willing to risk.

And hey, let’s face it; it’s pretty cheesy.

3) Possible Search Engine (SE) issues: To date, I am not aware of any ranking penalties being applied to web sites making liberal use of private label rights articles. But it’s not improbable that the SEs could at any time start querying their databases for duplicate content and sites that are based heavily upon it, and begin applying a ranking penalty.

Think about it; the more likely a site is to be based on PLR material and duplicated content, the less likely it is going to be a genuine authority site. Ergo, the less likely it is going to effectively address a visitor’s search query.

Bada-bing, bada-boom. Say good-bye to your rankings.

So a big thumbs-down on PLR articles altogether?

Well, I’d agree that using PLR articles sparingly and re-writing them in your own words is unlikely to be detrimental to your web site and your business. However, I’d have to ask why you’d want to even bother investing time in this – how much longer would it take to write your own, unique, “one-off” articles, anyway?

Give ‘em a miss. That’s my recommendation.

The C-T-P-M acronym was, to my knowledge anyway, first coined by my old boss, Ken Evoy of SiteSell.com. It very concisely “verbalizes” one of the most effective means of building a successful, long term online business.

C-Content: Create high-value, in demand content relative to your niche. Do the appropriate keyword research to come up with a list of highly profitable keywords (i.e., keywords that have a high demand – plenty of searches performed – and relatively little supply – a small number of sites coming up for these terms). Create quality content targeting these specific keywords.

T-Traffic: Such content, especially when it is based on sound keyword research, brings targeted, qualified visitors to your web site.

PREsell: Once the visitors arrive, your exceptionally high quality content material establishes your credibility and builds a bond of trust, so that you may now PREsell those visitors…

M-Monetize: Introduce your PREsold visitors to your various offerings, depending on your monetization models. This can include your own products, products you’re affiliated with, your eBay auctions, your Adsense ads, etc, etc.

Explained so simply, you may be thinking… “well, DUH! I’m using that same strategy myself.”

Yep. You may be using C-T-P-M yourself without even knowing it. My UltimateFatBurner.com is a C-T-P-M site, although I’d never heard of the concept when I began the site.

Nonetheless, the true beauty of C-T-P-M is that it makes it easy to determine what it is you should be doing, at any given stage in the online business building process. You’d be surprised how may newbie marketers skip the C-T-P and move directly to “M”. Yep, they are focused on how they are going to monetize their site’s traffic… long before it has any traffic.

Until you have a steady, daily stream of  visitors your site will earn you exactly ZERO, so all efforts searching out the ideal affiliate partnerships are a complete and total waste of your time.

Another common mistake is to focus on traffic building strategies (i.e., the “T” element) before the site in question has enough content to warrant driving traffic to it.

I’m a huge fan of the C-T-P-M process. In my opinion, using it as a guideline is the best option for the majority of individuals who are looking to generate revenue from the Internet.

Why? Let’s address the reasons…

• The C-T-P-M process is sound, plays by the rules, and will yield success if you stick with it. It allows you to build a resource which you have the opportunity to sell later if you like (over the years, I’ve had numerous 6-figure offers for my UltimateFatBurner.com web site).
• The C-T-P-M process is a practical, longer term approach to building a business. Why is this beneficial? Because unless you happen to have a background in advertising, business, or marketing you’re going to need to learn the “online marketing ropes.” And there’s a lot to learn. Building a business slowly allows you to learn as you go. Smart strategy. You’ll make less mistakes, and waste less money.
• The C-T-P-M process keeps you focused. When every guru in the world is offering some way to turn your computer into a magical cash magnet, C-T-P-M keeps you on the right track. Online, it’s easy to get caught up evaluating the merits of various money making schemes, and it’s easy to succumb to “paralysis by analysis.” Yep, you’ll be so overwhelmed by the options, you won’t be able to decide which path is the right one.
• The C-T-P-M process is cost effective. Let’s face it; if you want to drive traffic to your web site, you need to either pay for it (which can be expensive, depending on your niche) or have the Search Engines send it to you for free.

The C-T-P-M process is also the process followed by user’s of  SiteSell.com’s popular Site Build It! software. If you’re interested in learning more about C-T-P-M, and how you can put it to work for your own online business, click here!

Someone sent me a reciprocal link exchange request for a site in an obvious “under construction” state. It was a web site definitely NOT ready for links.

I’m at a bit of a loss as to why this happens so much.

Are those who are new to building an online business so bombarded by the “it’s critical to build links” message that they are losing sight of valuable perspective? I’m not being facetious here. It’s an honest question.

I’m not arguing that link building is not important, far from it (I wrote a fairly lengthy post on that topic just recently). But link building is a useless, time wasting venture if you undertake it before you are ready to do so. You simply won’t get the quality links you need to make an impact with the Search Engines. Quality, authoritative sites are not going to link to an unfinished resource. Quality directories won’t list you in their databases. Yes, I’m sure you can some links – from mediocre blogs, directories, web sites and what not. But here’s the thing…

The ROI (Return On Investment) for the amount of time it takes you to acquire these links is minuscule. Until you build your site into the sort of resource it needs to be in order to be considered an authority in your niche or subject, your time is better served accomplishing this task. And really, what good is it to drive visitor traffic to an incomplete web site? If nothing else, it damages your credibility when visitors can’t find what they need.

So create the complete resource first. Look for links only when you’re ready.

And when is that?

The answer to that question is completely dependent on your business, theme, or niche. To use the same example from my Link Building Fundamentals post, I’ve only recently started to build links to Real-Customer-Comments.com, a site I started back in 2007.

Since this site is basically a Web 2.0 visitor feedback site, it made sense to wait until there were enough visitor comments to make it worthwhile to promote as a destination. What kind of value does a visitor get by visiting a feedback site that doesn’t have any feedback? Now, with almost 200 featured products and 2,000 visitor comments, it makes sense to build links.

What about this web site, No-BS-Marketing?

Well, it will probably be a year or so before this site contains enough material to be considered an authoritative resource. Of course, this site is an indulgence of my Internet Marketing passion, and not a full time job. If I devoted more time to it, I could probably cut that time in half. In the meantime, I’ve made sure to have the basics covered.

For example, since this site is based on the WordPress platform, I’ve had my developers install a couple of crucial plugins….

1) The Google Analytics plugin: This tool allows me to use the amazing  Google Analytics software (if you’re using regular HTML, you can simply cut and paste a chunk of code into your pages). Incidentally, this also ensures Google knows all about No-BS-Marketing.com.

2) The Google XML Sitemaps plugin: I can submit the xml-formatted sitemap generated by this software directly to Google by making use of some of the options they offer in their Webmaster Tools. This plugin also submits updates to MSN, ASK, and Yahoo!, which pretty much covers all the bases.

Now, all I plan to do is sit back and work on the content until here’s enough meat here to make it worthwhile to actively work on building some in-pointing links. Remember too, the more your site becomes a credible, authoritative resource, the more likely you are to have webmasters link to it unbidden, simply to enhance the experience of their own visitors.

So please… take a link building chill pill. If your site is “under construction,” you should not be wasting time looking for links. You should be focused on building content. Period.

That’s OK. You CAN write great content. More importantly, you HAVE to. Sure, there are options for outsourcing content creation. For example, you can hire a writer from Elance or Guru.com, publish syndicated material on your web site, or buy PLR (Private Label Rights) articles. You can even use public domain material.

While these are acceptable supplementary sources of content (although I am not a fan of any of them and I will discuss why in another post), they can only be that; supplementary. You have to be the one to communicate your knowledge, your passion and your personality directly to your visitor, and your customer.

Of course, if you’re running a huge company, you have people who can do this for you. If you’re a stay-at-home mom, a senior, or a recently laid off employee looking to the Internet as a source of income you have to do it yourself.

Like I do. So…

The million dollar question is, “how do I write to communicate?”

Good question. Here’s my top tips for communicating effectively on the web…

1) Start writing now: Seriously. As with everything else, practice makes perfect. The more you write, the better you get at it.

2) Turn off the T.V. and read more: Refamiliarize yourself with books, and put the boob-tube on hiatus. As you read, be cognizant of the flow of the words, and how they work together.

3) K.I.S.S.: Yep, “Keep It Simple, Stupid” applies here too! Most people read at a grade 6-8 level. So you really don’t need to concern yourself with constructing long, intricately crafted sentences. All you need to do is get your point across effectively. That’s it, that’s all. Don’t try to impress people with your prose.

4) Read your material aloud: This is an easy way to isolate and identify any potential rough spots in your copy.

5) Keep your sentences short: Like this one. And the one directly preceding it. If there’s a common newbie writing issue it’s tying multiple streams of thought together with the word “and.” In fact, anytime you use the word “and” ask yourself – does it really need to be here? Can I simply end this sentence, and start a new one? Or do the two points really need to be tied together? This is something I always try to be aware of myself, since I’m prone to using lengthy sentences if I don’t remain focused.

6) Have a “bookworm” friend review your material: You’ve probably have at least one  friend who loves to read. It’s time to strain that friendship to the breaking point. Ask him/her to review your material, and provide feedback.

7) Learn from the best: Paul Myers is the author of the TalkBiz newsletter. Jack Forde is a professional copywriter who publishes the “CopyWriter’s Roundtable.” I highly recommend you subscribe to both these publications. They contain superb content (of course), but more importantly, they are exceptionally well-written. Both of these guys are masters of using, short, impact-laden sentences. Kind of like the opposite of the one I’m writing now.

Read, absorb, and pay close attention to how these guys do it.

Get a little help: There are some great – even free -resources that can help you hone your skills. I highly recommend Ken Evoy’s free Make Your Content PRESell! (In the spirit of full disclosure, I’m proud to say I did play a small role in putting this document together). Download and read it now!

9) Try some dictation: When you speak, it’s likely you have no problems communcating with friends, collegues, and prospective customers. Try dictating your content, and then transcribe it.

10) Use lists when appropriate: You can get around having to worry about perfect sentence structure by providing some of your material in list format.

11) Speak TO your visitor/prospective customer: Try to imagine talking directly to the person who is reading your words. Do not speak “at” them. Instead, imagine them sitting right there, just on the other side of the computer monitor, hanging on to your every word. Write almost as if you are involved in a conversation.

12) Don’t be afraid to show some personality: Online, you’ll find a lot of material that is delivered without any “personality” at all (there are some rare occasions where this is appropriate, of course). It’s easy to differentiate yourself from your competitors by letting some of your true self shine through.

13) Have your material re-written: It could be that writing is not your thing. You are, however, still the best person to communicate the core of your message. You may just need someone to massage it, grammatically. You can find folks at Elance or Guru.com who can do this for you. It should be pretty affordable; if the copywriter does not need to do any research, but simply re-write your material, it’s a relatively straightforward task.

One last word of advice… don’t give up! Writing is an acquired skill. YOU can write to communicate effectively. And that’s all you need to do. Very few of us have the skill set required to craft the next great novel. And that’s OK… we don’t need to.

You CAN do this.

Sadly, very few of these folks are using their lists to build rapport, or to “give something back” to their customers. So many of the newsletters I read contain absolutely no material of merit. There are a few exceptions, of course, but so many contain nothing but blatant “pitches” for one product or another.

Someone told these folks…

“The money is in the list!”

… and they followed it out to the extreme.

Sure, I am subscribed to many lists as a result of some purchase or another. So yes, that qualifies me as …

• Being receptive to a certain type message.
• Being open to purchasing online.
• Having some disposable income.

However, the folks who e-mail me constantly with marketing messages are missing a couple of things.

First of all, the fact that I bought something from you does not instantly establish your credibility with me. Often a sale is a result of an affiliate’s recommendation. Sure, that affiliate partner does transfer some of the trust s/he has established to the merchant in question, but as far as I’m concerned, that’s not the end of the story. Now YOU need to demonstrate your credibility to me.

Second, how seriously do you think I take your promotions when I receive several every week? I have absolutely no problem with being introduced to great products when I know the promoter presenting them is doing so in a genuine effort to address my needs. But when I’m bombarded with promotions on an almost daily basis, it’s hard to believe this is the case. After all, you haven’t taken any time to get to know me, and you have absolutely no idea what my needs are!

Third, when you promote every product under the sun, your recommendations quickly lose impact. They become meaningless and impotent.

Fourth, I get tired of being regarded as nothing more than a potential meal ticket.

Fifth, and most importantly; if you’re not going to provide me with something of value, I will tire of the aggressive marketing. I will stop reading your newsletter, and eventually, I will unsubscribe.

It’s a simple and fundamental tenet of marketing online…

Give, THEN Take.

Give. In the form of high value, useful information. Which, I might add, further establishes your credibility and builds a bond with your subscriber.

Once you’ve done that, only THEN can you…

Take, by presenting me with high value, relevant, in-context recommendations, for which you earn a commission.

This is how you do it.

It ain’t rocket science.

Want to see how its done? Check out Paul Myers’ (from TalkBiz) newsletter and follow his example.

Seriously.

This is the most important lesson to learn for anyone interested in building and effectively monetizing a mailing list.

Or does it?

When I went to school, getting a 70% grade on an exam was considered “good.” It was, as far as “levels” of good went, pretty average. A 90% grade on the other hand, was considered exceptional.

These days, the fact that providing “good” content is a critical element of online success is no secret.

But is “good” really enough?

Fact is, this isn’t 1999  anymore, and there isn’t a lot of low hanging fruit left to be picked. Chances are, whatever niche your business is in, it will already be facing well-established competitors.

“Good” content is simply no longer enough to differentiate you from your competitors, or others within your niche (It is, after all, easy enough to populate any web site with good content. You can buy PLR (private label rights) articles, outsource your articles to experts at Guru or Elance, or even write your own).

These days, what makes the grade is exceptional content. What constitutes exceptional?

Well written and researched material. Delivered in a friendly, personal, and passionate manner (it is your business after all… don’t be afraid to let your passion shine through!). A unique perspective never hurts either, if you can deliver one.

Too many web sites seem to be using PLR articles and newsfeeds as their primary source of content. Like T.V. dinners, which taste OK and provide adequate nourishment, such tactics will cover the “content” basics. But they won’t inspire your visitors, create raving fans of your products, or motivate anyone to return for more.

Good content is becoming commonplace. Exceptional content, on the other hand, remains rare.

Herein therefore, lies your key to success… in any niche!

Is it marketing acumen? A huge opt in list? Numerous joint venture partners? A keen hand at the fine art of SEO? (Search Engine Optimization).  Efficient utilization of social media tactics?

Nope. It’s none of these. It’s trust.  Or more definitively, the establishing of trust between you and your audience. It is, without a doubt, the most important element in building a successful online business.

That’s more the case today than ever; not only is money tight, but the number of people offering an “instant Internet cash riches” solution for “just $39.99″ has exploded. Whose offer is genuine? Who knows?

Without trust, your business is doomed. As an affiliate, for instance, your product recommendations will not be heeded. Selling your own product? You’ll fare no better. Monetizing via advertising? Visitors will not return to your site, and they won’t click on your in context ads while reading your material.

So what really is “trust” when it comes to the Internet? And how do you build it? The answer?…

It’s addressing the best interests of your customers/visitors. It’s ensuring their needs are first and foremost in priority, and not your need to generate revenue.

Practically, it’s knowing your products, your audience and their needs and being completely up front and truthful about everything. Believe me, this is still relatively rare on the Net, and doing so will immediately differentiate you from your competitors, regardless of your niche.

On my UltimateFatBurner.com supplement review web site, for instance, that means deconstructing product claims, and revealing the supporting science (or lack therof) behind each product’s ingredients.

The majority of my competitors do not do this; instead they wax lyrical on almost everything, and earn huge commissions on referred sales. In the short term, they make tons of money; in the long term, they jeopardize their business, as none of their visitors will ever heed a recommendation again.

Some might argue that there is an almost unlimited customer base online, and you can alienate a large percentage of people without doing damage to your business.

I disagree.

Not only is such practice morally and ethically bankrupt, but you’d be surprised at the damage a couple of jilted customers can do by posting negative comments at various forums and blogs. Bad word of mouth can spread like wildfire online.

Building trust means that your visitors will heed your recommendations if and when you make them. It takes longer and  it’s more work, but it’s immensely satisfying. And, in today’s tough economy, where money is tight and everyone and his or her dog is offering you the opportunity to get really rich, really quick, it’s trust that separates the successful from the failures.