You may already know I support Cardiff City, my local football (soccer) team in Wales.

Yesterday, our biggest rivals, Swansea City, won promotion to the Premier League…

Via the same play-off system we lost out in this time last year.

It hurt.

Despite having, player for player, the best squad in the division we could only finish fourth in the league and were thrashed at home by Reading in the semis, who Swansea duly beat in the final.

Ironically, on the day Swansea secured their place in the same division as Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool and a £90 million windfall…

Cardiff City sacked their manager, Dave Jones, after six years in charge.

We now go into the summer period managerless and with only a handful of players after the end-of-season clear-out.

Hopefully the club owners will bring in a gaffer capable of motivating a new team with fire in their bellies…

Who have a desire to win rather than go missing when it really counts.

Sure, disappointment and even jealousy are negative emotions…

But, you can use them to your advantage.

Negativity and failure can motivate you to do better.

Perhaps you are sick of a business rival continually pulling in more customers than you?

Or a dodgy Internet marketer selling tens of thousands of their latest rehashed “push button” crap… while your quality product struggles to get a second glance?

Or perhaps you are sick of some valueless website outperforming you in Google’s rankings?

Just because you have not succeeded today, it does not mean you never will.

It is okay to feel frustrated, jealous and hurt.

It shows you have passion and an appetite for success…

As long as you channel that negativity into taking positive action to drive your business forward.

Just like I hope Cardiff City will next season.

(image attributed to ardenswayoflife)

For those of you interested in football (soccer) in the UK, you won’t have failed to have noticed a stunning transfer which took place last week. Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy, one of the club’s top players last season, joined his hometown club and the team I support, Cardiff City, on loan for the entire 2010/11 campaign.

It was a transfer that shook the football world and divided opinion, mainly down to should a player of Bellamy’s undoubted ability be “allowed” to join a second-tier side like Cardiff when his talent would be better used at another side in the Premier League?

I don’t want to make this post totally about football but but I have also found the media coverage that surrounded it fascinating and there have been several marketing lessons learned:

1. Be Passionate

I have previously blogged about the importance of passion and I believe you should base your online business around something you are genuinely passionate about to give yourself the best chance of success.

If you know one thing about Craig Bellamy, it’s he is a passionate footballer.

While opinion is divided on him and his temperament often comes into question, nobody will argue that he is a winner, always gives 100 percent for his team and does not stand for fellow players who do not pull their weight.

In football and indeed business, ability alone is not enough in a competitive environment where they are limited places at the top.

You need that added passion, that tireless drive to succeed on your way to the top while others fall by the wayside.

2. Take a Stand

Bellamy is a strong-minded individual who is not afraid to express his opinions.

His out-spoken nature has seen him fall out with more managers and fellow players than perhaps any other Premiership footballer in the history of the game and indeed, at the age of 31, Cardiff City is his ninth professional club.

However, his stance means that everybody in football knows who Craig Bellamy is and managers know what to expect from him when they sign him for their club.

You either love him or hate him. There is no in-between with Bellamy.

But, has his controversial nature affected his career as a professional footballer?

Probably not.

While he only spent one season at a “top four” club – Liverpool during the 2006-07 season – Bellamy has played in the top flight for 10 seasons before joining Cardiff, earning close to £100,000 per week.

There were no shortage of Premiership clubs willing to take him on if his parent club, Manchester City would let them.

Add a touch of the “Bellamy factor” to your online business – speak your mind, stay true to yourself and earn recognition and respect from your fellow peers.

3. Develop a Strong, Personal Brand

Bellamy has one of the strongest personal brands in professional football today.

Sure, he doesn’t sell as many shirts as the likes of David Beckham and Ronaldo but his outspoken nature means everyone in the game will know who he is and have an opinion on him.

If you are to make yourself known in whatever niche you operate in, a strong personal brand is one of the best weapons you can have in your online armoury.

You can brand yourself however you want and work it into all of your marketing material.

Your own personal brand can also be part of what you want your customers to say about you.

Do you want to be known as the “ethical marketer” or “the marketer who says what others are afraid to”?

If you build your personal brand around these statements or beliefs, you can!

4. Marketing… Just… Works…

It is incredible how marketing can affect your perception of a product, or in Bellamy’s case, a player.

He is often portrayed as a loudmouth, a trouble maker and a disruptive influence but in the Welsh media his signing was portrayed as a “homecoming” and Bellamy was the “local boy done good”.

Indeed, the whole city went “Bellamy crazy” and I haven’t seen a player’s signing be marketed more aggressivley, yet so positively.

His image was beamed onto the walls of Cardiff Castle on Friday night and over £400,000 in ticket and merchandise sales were made in the 24 hours after he signed.

Genuine scarcity was evident when the club ran of number “3′s” and letter “Y’s” to adorn the back of replica shirts (“Bellamy 39″ became “Bellam 3″ for those who couldn’t wait) and the last few tickets for his debut against Doncaster Rovers sold out on Saturday morning – undoubtedly ramping up the desire for them even more.

The club were quick to stock further Bellamy-related merchandise in the shop and even had a DVD of his debut match and goal within hours of the final whistle.

Amazing stuff from start to finish…

5. Jealousy is Rife

Wherever there is success, jealousy is never far behind.

In my opinion, there has been some laughable, negative reporting in the predominantly “English” media around Bellamy signing for Welsh club Cardiff, including:

“After all their financial troubles, how can Cardiff afford Bellamy?”

Bellamy signing for Cardiff, despite his estimated wage of almost £100,000 per week, raised eyebrows. But did it ever occur to the reporters, such as this agenda-lead clown, Cardiff may only be contributing to a small percentage of his wages while cash-rich parent club Manchester City pick up the majority of the bill?

However, this jealousy has acted as positve marketing for the club and I believe it has further cemented the bond between Cardiff fans and Bellamy.

His arrival has created a real “them and us” mentality which, while has always been at the club in terms of Welsh vs English, has not been seen on this scale in the 15 years I have supported them.

If your online business becomes successful and you “dare” to talk about it or have the “nerve” to enjoy the money that comes with success, prepare for the fall out from small minded, jealous people who will claim it’s “unfair”, that you have “scammed” or somehow “cheated” to become successful or that you are “showing off”.

6. Help Those Lower Down the Food Chain

Bellamy’s arrival at Cardiff certainly falls into this category.

He was arguably one of the Premier League’s best players last season and has now dropped down a division to play for a team which fell at the final hurdle last season, losing in the play-off final.

If he takes Cardiff up this season, he will be a legend among Cardiff fans for eternity.

This is something you should look to achieve in your own online business and have a long-term interest in the success of your prospects.

If you can help other people become successful, then it will be repaid multiple times over – they will become long-term customers and even future JV partners as they align themselves with you.

If you don’t think you are at a stage where you can help out other people in your niche then you are mistaken.

You only need to be one step ahead of somebody else to teach them and if you have knowledge and passion about your niche, you will already be in a perfect position to pass on some of your expertise.

7. It’s Not Just About the Money

Finally, you shouldn’t lose sight of the reasons you are running an online business.

I suspect it is because you hate your job, you are fed up of struggling to pay the bills but most importantly of all, want to create a better life for you and your family.

Of course, more money is one of the biggest benefits of working online but it’s not the be all and end all…

Freedom, no stressful commutes, not being told what to do and spending more time with those who mean the most to you are all huge reasons why people decide to quit their 9-5s and set up an online business.

Family and loved ones seems to be a point missed in a lot of reporting about Bellamy’s transfer.

During the press conference to announce his signing, he confessed he had left home at 15 to embark on a career as a professional footballer and was now looking forward to being able to spend more time with his young family.

Bellamy could have arguably moved to any of the top clubs in Europe and picked up yet another mega signing on fee but he put his family first and chose a lower level of football in order to be closer to them.

I think that speaks volumes about him as a person, regardless of how he is portrayed in the media.

Summary

While this post was written a little tongue-in-cheek, the marketing principles described can be applied to Craig Bellamy’s transfer to Cardiff City. If you have any comments to make on the transfer or have any further marketing additions to the list, please add them in the comments below!

It’s been a week since I returned home from Wembley Stadium, having watched my beloved Cardiff City lose to Blackpool in what was possibly the biggest match of the club’s history.

Victory would have propelled the Bluebirds into the Premier League where they could have mixed it with the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool on a weekly basis – they even took the lead twice but still managed to lose 3-2.

As I trudged back to the supporter’s bus after the final whistle, my mind clouded by alcohol and disappointment, I thought the experience would make a great blog post.

There are more similarities between internet marketing and supporting Cardiff City than you may think – here are five of them:

1. People Will Laugh at You (Until You Become Successful!)

When I was in school during the early to mid 1990s, Cardiff City were a shocking football team that yo-yoed between the bottom two divisions every season in front of 1,500 crowds. In those days we classed the likes of Brentford, who would usually turn us over at our antiquated Ninian Park stadium, as a “big club”.

Very few people at school would openly admit to supporting their local team and those that did were ridiculed. That was until flamboyant chairman Sam Hammam became involved and the cash flowed like a running tap.

Millions of pounds were spent on the likes of Graham Kavanagh and Peter Thorne. We beat Leeds United, then sat proudly at the top of the Premiership, in the FA Cup in 2002 and then won promotion from the second division to the first (renamed League One and the Championship when Coca Cola took over sponsorship duties) in 2003. In 2008 the club defied the odds to reach the FA Cup Final.

This season Cardiff enjoyed an average attendance of over 20,000 as we came within 90 minutes of top flight football and took almost 40,000 “fans” to Wembley Stadium.

The same thing will happen to you when you let slip that you “dare” want to try and improve your life through making money online.

You will be laughed at by your family and friends who, despite their lack of experience in this field, will try to convince you it will never work and that it’s all a scam.

That is, until you start to make some money, then a lot of money. Then you quit your job because it “gets in the way”. Then you move into a bigger house and buy a faster car.

Nobody is laughing now (except you) and suddenly everyone is showing an interest in what you do

2. Everything Feels Like an Uphill Battle

Having watched Cardiff City for the past 15 years I don’t think I have ever once sat through a whole match and thought “that was easy” at the end – even if the scoreline suggested a comfortable victory.

For example, why on earth, in 15 years of watching the team, can we not defend corners if our lives depended on it? Regardless of what season I watched, no matter who played for us in goal, defence and whoever was in charge at the time, there would be a massive panic among both supporters and players alike every time the opposition were given a corner.

Also, what is so hard about defending a lead until the final whistle? I have lost count of the times we have snatched a draw from the jaws of victory because the opposition scored four, five, six or more minutes into added time.

Even a goalkeeper scored against us on Boxing Day in 2008 for goodness sakes…

Then there’s the off-the-field problems. Going bust. Not going bust. Being taken over. Not being taken over. The likes of Rick Wright, Samesh Kumar, Sam Hammam and Peter Ridsdale being involved at board room level.

Oh yes, we certainly attract them…

You will find you are often swimming against the tide or fighting fires at the very least when you become involved in internet marketing. It’s not the routine home victory over the bottom-of-the-table side you thought it would be.

You need to learn technical stuff, like installing blogs, a bit of coding, maybe some graphic design – or pay someone to take it off your hands. Then there’s content creation, lead generation and marketing.

Yes, you have to actually know about “marketing” to be an internet marketer – the sales don’t make themselves.

Your biggest enemy as an internet marketer is time – there simply are not enough hours in the day to get everything done by yourself.

3. Sparkling Facilities Do Not Equal Success

For years Cardiff managers have blamed a lack of on-field success on inadequate training facilities. It’s not enough to just have an empty field to practice on for today’s professionals, or so the management would have you believe.

But then the team were allowed to train at the world-class Celtic Manor resort just 15 minutes away from the stadium and guess what – success still wasn’t forthcoming.

It’s hardly a football-haven at Blackpool and they mustered up enough to beat us at Wembley and claim their position in the Premiership.

A swanky training ground does not an ambitious and hungry football team make.

You may now have all the kit to kick-start your internet marketing career. Your blog, complete with all the Web 2.0 bells and whistles has been set up. You have your autoresponder and professionally written follow up sequence. You have slaved over a product and spent thousands of dollars on a copywriter.

Now it’s time to sit back and count the cash as it rolls in. Right? RIGHT?

If only – a professional online image is only half the battle.

You need to get out there and hustle, the online equivalent of training outside in the rain on a muddy pitch. Make connections, forge JV partnerships and get your name and product out there using any online method you can.

4. Glory Hunting is Rife

As you may have guessed from my first comparison, hardly anybody supported Cardiff City at school.

Back in the early 1990s, scores of young lads with jumpers for goalposts were idolising the likes of Ryan Giggs, Eric Cantona and Robbie Fowler. I doubt they’d ever heard of Phil Stant, Cohen Griffith or Jason Perry.

Even before the Premiership was anything like the money-laden circus it has become now, the football-mad kids at school all supported the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool. There were even more Leeds supporters in my year than Cardiff. In South Wales! Unbelievable.

Things haven’t progressed much since I was in school. Your average “armchair” fan has no interest in actually “going” to the football.

They’d rather just sit at home and support whoever is top of the league.

It’s the same in internet marketing. The majority of folks trying to make money online will be drawn to the “guru’s” and worship them with celebrity status.

They will not be interested in how you managed to make your first $1, $100 or even $1,000 online. They want to earn millions and they want to earn it yesterday.

They will lap up every promo email they receive and spend thousands on products which don’t live up to the hype.

This does not mean all is lost. When you first start out you will have to fight tooth and nail for every subscriber, every customer.

But, as your success grows people will be drawn to you more because you are real, accessible and have battled through the frustrations most newcomers face.

5. I Wouldn’t Have It Any Other Way

There’s something strangely masochistic about supporting Cardiff City. I can’t even say I “enjoy” going to watch them.

Well, not very often anyway. An afternoon at the stadium is often a frustrating and disappointing experience with the occasional delirious high thrown in for good measure.

I don’t know how many times I have returned home mentally exhausted after watching a game.

But, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I am proud to say I have watched Cardiff battle their way through the divisions and I go because I care.

I also care about what I do on my blog.

I don’t mind the “struggle” for recognition and to make money online. I don’t mind the late nights, the constant battle against the clock and the complete lack of any sort of safety net.

But what’s the alternative to supporting Cardiff City and running an online business?

Not doing it?

No thanks…

Alas, it was not meant to be.

I joined 40,000 or so other Cardiff City fans at Wembley Stadium on Saturday 22 May hoping to win a place in the Premier League next season.

But, despite taking the lead twice against Blackpool, we ended up losing 3-2.

I invested £230 on a brand new Sanyo VPC CS1 video camera, reportedly the world’s slimmest video camera and recorded the below footage in glorious high definition.

The video is just a bit of fun to give you a glimpse in what we got up to on the day.

Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Did you watch the match or did you attend?

Please leave all of your comments below!

Wow! What a night that was…

I don’t think I have experienced more highs and lows, a sense of massive disappointment only to be replaced by that of hope and overwhelming elation all in the space of two and a half hours.

I am of course talking about the Football League Championship play-offs.

The second-tier competition which is more lucrative than even the Champions League and worth an estimated £90 million to the winner

I’m not going to make this a boring post about how the play-offs work but my team, Cardiff City beat Leicester City on penalties to reach the play-off final held at the famous Wembley Stadium where they will face Blackpool.

The winner earns a lucrative promotion to the Premier League and can rub shoulders with the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

Last night, I didn’t think we’d make it as Cardiff managed to throw away a 2-0 aggregate lead and were losing 3-2 with time running out.

I was even planning some sort of sombre blog post about why supporting a “nearly team” such as Cardiff is a lot like trying to make it in online business (I’ll save that one for the future!)

But, we found a third goal to level the score and with no further goals after extra time, only a penalty shoot-out would decide who would go to Wembley.

They scored. We scored.

They scored. We scored.

They scored. We scored.

The standard of penalty taking under such immense pressure was outstanding until Leicester took their fourth penalty.

Their player, some guy called Yann Kermorgant who I had never heard of before, tried to be too clever and gave the Cardiff goalkeeper an easy save.

We scored our fourth penalty and Cardiff keeper David Marshall saved superbly from Leicester’s final effort from the spot to seal a 4-3 victory in the shoot-out.

Delirium ensued and was followed by a half-hearted pitch invasion which seems to be flavour of the month around football gounds this May and topped off with a couple of streakers.

In all and I know it’s a cliche, it was a match that had everything – ups, downs, hope, fear, anxiety, jubilation and of course… penalties:

Click here to view the embedded video.

I know the video is poor but the penalties were taken at the opposite end of the field to where I stood.

I just hope the forthcoming iPhone 4G has a zoom feature. Either that, or I’ll have to invest in a Flip or something similar.

Any suggestions, put them in the comments below!

Last weekend I witnessed a peaceful protest by fans of Cardiff City FC after their late victory against Doncaster Rovers. They were protesting against chairman Peter Ridsdale, who they believe took money from them under false pretences and has been hiding the true financial situation of the club for too long.

As a season ticket holder myself, I don’t want to get into the heavy politics which surround the football club but what I want to demonstrate in this post is the importance of being as open and transparent as possible with your customers.

If you are not and attempt sneaky, underhand tactics with your customers in your own online business such as:

• Not allowing them to opt out of your mailing list
• Not giving them a fair refund when they ask for one
• Trying to force them into a continuity program without their knowing

… then your name will soon become “mud” on the internet.

Ridsdale’s name is now just that (some would argue not for the first time) after suggesting any funds raised from an early season ticket purchase initiative during December would be given to manager Dave Jones to sign new players.

Around £3 million was raised during a month when money is always tight but instead of playing staff reinforcements, the money now looks like it will be spent on an unpaid tax bill.

If Ridsdale was up front about the club’s financial plight in the first instance then I expect City’s loyal fans would have still bought their tickets anyway – it’s the way he goes about things which riles people the most.

Despite a heavy police presence at the Cardiff City Stadium, I managed to take some footage of the protest – take heed of the feelings of Cardiff City’s customers and make sure your business does not become the online equivalent of Peter Ridsdale…

Warning! The last five seconds of the video contains very graphic language. If you are offended by that sort of thing, don’t watch it all the way through to the end!

Another Cardiff City match, another “official opening” it seems. First we had the very first match at the new stadium involving two sets of “Legends” and then it was the official opening of the new stadium with an exhibition against Scottish giants Celtic.

But, Saturday was the “real” opening as far as I am concerned. The very first league match played at the new stadium would always go down as an historic event and the team were aware of the magnitude of the whole situation. Newly promoted Scunthorpe United provided the opposition, such that it was, and were swept aside 4-0 by the Bluebirds on the day.

Cardiff didn’t even need to get out of second gear against a pretty woeful United side who arguably came for a draw but had no back-up plan when they fell a couple of goals behind. New £4 million signing Michael Chopra scored twice, Jay Bothroyd got in on the act as well and Peter Whittingham converted from the penalty spot in second half stoppage time.

I filmed the penalty which was taken in front of us at the Canton Stand end:

It was a great start to the season against the sort of team we would have lost 1-0 to a couple of years ago but the Bluebirds will face much tougher opposition than what Nigel Adkins’ team had to offer.

Despite attending the Cardiff City Legends match a few weeks ago and the club also playing a friendly against non league Chasetown, last night’s match against Celtic was deemed the “official” opening of the new Cardiff City Stadium. A crowd of 15,000 turned up to watch the Bluebirds in their new home and while the support was fantastic, the football on offer was not. It was typical pre-season fare with neither side offering a great deal and the match finished 0-0.

It was the first time I had seen our new signings in action. Central defender Anthony “Steven’s Cousin” Gerrard looks set to continue where the departed Roger Johnson left while ex-Motherwell full back Paul Quinn looks solid enough. Former Celtic goalkeeper David Marshall could turn out to be an excellent piece of business and he pulled off some good saves in their first half as the Scottish side dominated.

Central midfield still appears to be a major problem. Neither Joe Ledley nor Stephen McPhail played particularly well and unless at least one new signing is made, it will be another season of frustration in the middle of the pitch. Chris Burke did well down the wing after coming on as a second half substitute while both Paul Parry and Peter Whittingham showed more interest in the game than they have done in a long time.

Striker Jay Bothroyd was awarded the sponsor’s Man of the Match and at times he looked lively. He can be a real force in the Championship when he’s in the mood and is going to be a key to the team’s success this season.

It’s Valencia next at the new stadium on Saturday 1 August, though what side they will put out remains to be seen!

I was one of just under 5,000 “proper” Cardiff City fans who attended the first ever match at the new stadium on Saturday 4 July – an All Star match featuring teams managed by Eddie May and Lennie Lawrence. Even though the occasion wasn’t that fantastic, it was a great opportunity to get a first glimpse of the new stadium and to watch a match in our shiny new seats in the Canton Stand. For what it’s worth, Lennie’s team won 3-1 and Graham Kavanagh opened the scoring with a memorable goal worthy of being the first to be scored at City’s new home.

It was an opportunity to see some (very) old faces pull on a City shirt again, with the likes of Jason Perry, Carl Dale, Andy Legg, Nathan Blake, Leo Fortune-West, Kevin Nugent and Cohen Griffith lining up. It was quite surprising to see Danny Gabbidon start the match, but after being injured for the past two years, perhaps West Ham thought he needed the match practice.

Notable absences were iconic striker Phil Stant, FA Cup penalty saving hero Mark Grew and arguably one of the most under-rated City players of the late 1990s, Tony Philliskirk.

While the first half was quite entertaining, it all went downhill after the referee blew for half-time. After grimacing my way through a disgusting pint of Fosters at an extorionate £3.40, the second half descended into farce. The “better” players were all replaced by the older contingent and “celebrities”.

Professional Cardiffians such as Jamie Baulch, Jason Mohammed, Nicky Piper and two idiots from Dirty Sanchez were given the opportunity to indulge themselves much to the indifference of the crowd.

At least it was only a fiver to get in.

One spectator was sharp enough to capture Kavanagh’s goal on video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Here are some photos taken during and after the match. I managed to snap John Williams’ goal to make it 3-1, scoring past the hapless stand-in goalkeeper and club director Steve Borley.