Soundbytes from Oz: Perry Marshall's Trip Around the World

September 1, 2004

From the Hyatt Regency in Coolum, Australia

Dear Friend & Subscriber,

Yes, this really is 'down under' and there really
are Kangaroos roaming around all over the place. In
Australia, when you say 'Hey look, I just saw a kangaroo!'
it's kind of like being in the US and saying 'Guess
what, I just saw a cow!'

So to Aussies, this is nothing to write home
about. But for everyone else, here's the kangaroo that
was hanging out on the patio behind our condo this
afternoon:

http://www.tannah.net/photos/perrykangaroo.jpg

Australia really is a splendid place. And the
Hyatt Coolum is a fantastic location to hold a seminar.
Every single speaker is world class in his respective
discipline and the attendees are in for a real treat.

Hey, do you remember a song from 20 years ago called
'Pac Man Fever'?

Well today I discovered that my friend Mike Stewart,
who is here to tape the X10 seminar, played keyboards on
that song. Sold a couple million records and got famous.
Today I got to do a VH1-esque postmortem on Mike's music
career, which spanned five or six months of unmitigated
rock & roll glory.

So what's Mike doing now? Mike's is the man behind
www.internetaudioguy.com. Plus he's doing web consulting
with local businesses in Atlanta, with some very interesting
Google stories lately.

The biggest untapped opportunity in Google right now is
*local* ad placement. Google is capable of serving local ads
only to people in your city, state or metro area. Well if you
search for 'storm windows' in Atlanta, you'll discover
there aren't very many locally targeted ads. And if you
sell storm windows, most of your local competitors don't have
the beginning of a clue that it's possible to get customers
on Google.

What most Google advertisers don't know is that
locally targeted ads often get exceptionally high click thru
rates. Mike's got one customer who spends only 15 cents
per click, has spent only $400 this year on advertising,
and has literally gotten several hundred thousand dollars
of business from these ads, no joke.

There usually isn't a lot of traffic, but the traffic
you get is quite good. The ROI on the available visitors
can be insanely high.

So consider this: Right now there are Yellow Pages
reps and radio reps and newspaper reps, pounding the pavement,
soliciting local businesses. And there are lots of web design
firms trying to sell web design as well. But if you're a web
designer or marketing consultant, you can undoubtedly bring
local businesses new customers for a pennies on the dollar
compared to all those ad reps.

The key to marketing these capabilities is: Sell Results,
Not Procedures. Sell them new customers, not advertising media.

The Internet: Revenge of the Geeks

'Ever since the beginning, Perry knew he was different
from all the other boys and girls.'

Perry was a geek.

Perry was a walking disaster in basketball and couldn't
get a girlfriend to save his life. Remember that song
called 'She Blinded Me with Science'? Same vintage as
Pac Man Fever.

Well I related to that song. I knew that I *could*
be blinded with science. Easily. Problem was, there was
no 'she' who was trying to blind me with science in the
first place. (Not until Laura came along, anyway.)
So I only related to half of the song.

Now it occurs to me that most of my customers
are geeks, too. Guys and gals that flunked out of sports
and spent a lot of time in detention.

Somehow I don't think that the folks who get my emails
are ex-homecoming queens and student council presidents.

No, this is where the geeks and the people voted 'least
likely to succeed' congregate. Guys and girls who have ugly
yearbook pictures and who were outcasts in school because they
could remember odd facts like the capital of Norway.

Today Internet is Revenge of the Misfits. The shoe
is on the other foot now, my friends. All the pretty boys
and their material girls can keep kissing up to the boss,
but the entrepreneurial cowboys and cowgirls are quietly
creating cult followings, catering to strange markets
and occupying fascinating little niches.

For example, a few months ago I met a guy who sells a
business where people paint glow in the dark stars on peoples'
bedroom ceilings. Strangest thing I ever heard of,
but apparently it's growing like gangbusters.

That's not a high school valedictorian type of business.

That's a 'Breakfast Club' business.

Seriously, that's what the web is really like. And
I'd like to give you something else to think about.

I've been to a dozen different countries on six
continents, cities all over the world. From
Sao Paulo Brazil to Changchun China, from Hannover
Germany to Johannesburg and Brisbane.

And you know what?

All big cities look basically the same. With
globalization happening at breakneck speed, they're
looking more and more the same with each passing year.

That's all well and good, but the more equal we all
are, the more we need to find a tribe that we can belong
to that's different from our neighbors. The more we
are like our neighbors, the more we eat at the same
McDonalds and live in the same apartment complex, the
more we want to create a new sense of identity in something
unique.

The web is the easiest place for people to find that
tribe, that niche, that tiny community of like-minded
people.

So always remember, especially on the web, that you're
NOT looking for everyone. You're just looking for folks
who totally and completely relate to you on a specific
topic, passion or concern.

What do you call a niche that's so narrow that you
have to comb the entire world just to find a few hundred
interested people? I didn't have a name for it, so I
invented one: 'nanoniche.'

Nanoniches are very small, so narrow and spread so thin
that only occasionally do people even get together in
person. Our audience here at the X10 seminar is a nanoniche,
a mere 150 people who are hugging the edge of the curve.

Simon Chen, the organizer, has collected the pre-
conference calls for our seminar - all fresh, hot
material - and is giving it away. More info at
http://x10InfoMarketingSeminar.com

Stay tuned for more soundbytes in coming days...

Cheers, Mate!

Perry Marshall

Click here for the next installment, "The World's Most Dangerous Continent"