Shortly After Al Gore Invented The Internet…

Shortly after Al Gore invented the internet, uber guru Michael Campbell invented internet marketing.

That’s right. I was never sure who did it, but in a recent email from, you guessed it, Michael Campbell, he reveals how when he told you to do something, he was copied by everyone else. And it’s been going on since 1999.

For example: “in 1999 I told you to focus your sites on product makes and model numbers. In 2001 I told you to go either ahead or behind the retail curve. (It’s called the Long Tail now.)”

Yes, there is complete proof that he developed the concept of making a website that does not focus on just one generic term.

Until 1999, websites only focused on a topic such as “cars.” Then once this dude came around we started seeing the sites about cars expand to include more pages, such as “Toyota Corolla” and “Dodge Viper.” I don’t know how anyone learned about new models of cars prior to Michael Campbell releasing his strategies, because websites only used the term “car” and nothing more specific.

Another example is how his innovative “mininet” idea (which amounts to linking related sites together) has been copied and called many things, including virtual real estate.

‘Start with a generic home page, link it to targeted category pages, which link to highly focused make and model number pages.’ (Which - depending on who you talk to - are now called virtual real estate, spokes and nodes, themeing, silos or pyramids.)

So “virtual real estate” is only applicable to these so-called “mininets?” What about a company like Gawker that owns multiple website properties? (In other words, they own virtual real estate.) I certainly wouldn’t call their website network a “mininet” that can only be attributed to some guru’s ebook.

Moving on…

Building landing pages targeted to items like “xyz phone model” and doing PPC to them is better than bidding on generic terms like “cell phone.” It’s because they’re “buying phrases.” Wow, no one ever would have thought of bidding on terms other than generic ones like cell phone, web host, car, mortgage, etc.

Google should send this guy one hell of a Christmas present for enlightening people to the fact that they can bid on specific phrases. (Surely Google picked up on the idea thanks to him. It’s not like they have any talent working there…)

Campbell’s mininet concept also apparently includes the concept of categorization. He says to link your homepage to broad category pages which then link to specific pages grouped in that category.

Holy crap! Just think how hard it would be to navigate BestBuy.com if they didn’t use Michael’s brilliant concept of “categories.” E-commerce never would have developed!

Not to mention the internet marketers that wouldn’t ever think to use anchor texts that actually apply to the pages. Everyone would still be linking using lists of “link 1″ and “link 2″ etc for all their uncategorized pages.

This man deserves an international holiday!

Just think if you put together this mininet concept with some sleazy Adsense tricks… you’d be a gazillionaire!

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