I started by going to Google and typing in his name.  I scrolled down a bit and saw his site: http://www.justinbiebermusic.com/ and clicked on that.  I kept looking for his Disney or Nickelodeon affiliation and couldn’t find any.  I clicked on his video to watch him and hear him sing.  I thought, “This is a cute kid with a decent voice.  I see why all the girls like him, but why is he so DARN CRAZY WILD popular?”

Okay, so he’s not from one of the kid factories: Disney or Nickelodeon.  His mom and dad aren’t rock stars.  His uncle isn’t Simon Cowell…hmmm?  Well, here’s the story in a nutshell.  His mom thought he was cute and talented and I guess encouraged him to put videos of himself on YouTube.  He became a YouTube sensation.  Some music peeps saw him and decided he should be looked at more closely.  He got a manager who thought he was talented and then they went to work to try and get a record deal.  Somewhere along this journey, the doors slammed in his face over and over again.  The manager and Justin were told that since he wasn’t already known through Disney and/or Nick that he wouldn’t “catch on”.  Finally, Usher thought he was worth a shot and thus a star was born.  (I think there are a lot more famous people and details to this story, but you get the pictures!)

Anyway, the point is his manager saw something in him – his appeal through social media – which makes him a star like no other.   A little nobody kid from Canada used YouTube to launch himself to the top of the food chain and now he stays on top by using his Twitter account to connect with his fans?  That is true genius if you ask me.

Besides this, he’s been on David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and The View in the past few weeks and he is quite charming.  He’s a true salesman.  He knows what the people and his fans want and he gives it to them.

I think we can all learn a little something from Justin Bieber here.  Being on top takes work and it takes talent and it takes dedication.  I checked his twitter activity today and he seems to really connect with fans pretty often.  And I’m sure he has publicity folks helping him actually update his status, but he is in touch with his age bracket and he understands how to use the right technology to stay connected and to keep sales up.

Justin Bieber has broken the mold.  He wasn’t a Mouseketeer or a hit on Nick, he was an average kid with a nice voice who knew what he wanted, went for and got it.  And for those of you who don’t think social media is going to “catch on”, you should probably busy yourself by reorganizing your 8-tracks or perhaps by hanging out with all of those recording studio managers who slammed the door in Justin Bieber’s face because it’s going to be a long wait.

1)      Clear mission:  This sounds like business-talk and it is.  Most good business people will tell you that you must have a clear mission and set of goals before you embark on a successful business.  Why should a website be any different?  Before starting a website, ask yourself, “What is it that I’m trying to accomplish?”  If the answer is “Make Money” you need to start over.  All businesses want to make money.  You must dig deeper and determine how you will make money.  What is going to drive people to your site and why?  What will keep people coming back to your site?  If your main mission is to make money, you will fail because even if you get people to your site, you won’t keep them and they won’t come back.  They’ll see through your tactics.  You have to offer something of value.  For example, say you found an affiliate that pays you 70% for all referrals.  Sounds great, right?  You sign up and start selling the product.  Have you tried the product?  Have you researched and made sure it doesn’t turn people’s urine purple?  Seriously, you need to be the expert on that product.  Obviously with 70% return, you’ll have a lot of competition and you have to stand out from the crowd.  You become the expert and people will come to you.  Your mission here is to become the expert on said affiliate product.  The result will probably be that you will “make money”.

2)      Market that Puppy:  Blog, Tweet and By All Means Tell People You Are Out There!:  One of my favorite lines is from Field of Dreams where they say over and over, “If you build it they will come!”  Well, if we all had an all-star ghost baseball team lined up ready to play for us that might be true, but for those of us trying to make our way ahead of millions of other sites, it’s going to take a little more work.  You must let people know that you are there.  Some of the easiest ways to do that is by social marketing yourself.  Signing up for twitter probably takes 90 seconds and that’s while you’re getting yourself another cup of coffee.  Seriously, sign up, write a profile, and add a link to your page.  Find some friends.  If you start following people and you are a legitimate person or business, chances are they will follow you too.  If you start tweeting about things that make sense, are important to people and are interesting, more people will following you, you’ll get retweeted and things will actually start to roll in your favor.

Also you need to blog.  If you don’t have a blog on your own site there are plenty of places you can set up shop for free, like blogger.com.  If you have a blog, make sure to register it on business specific sites, and sites like technorati.com.  Also, go out and start commenting on other people’s blogs.  Make a name for yourself.  Marketing is a huge topic, but you get the idea.

3)      Clean code: I’m going to get a little “techie” on you.  The more valid your code is and the more direct, concise and easy it is to read, the better.  Why does anyone care what my site looks like on the backside, it works and looks good! ?  Well, the less cumbersome your code is on the backside, the easier it is for the bots (Googlebot especially) to find and properly index your site.  Less tags and code on the backside make it easier for your keywords to be spotted and keyword density to be noted.  Also, the pages will load more quickly and bandwidth will be saved.  I highly recommend a tableless design with a separate css page.  Sometimes this last step is easier said than done, but if you start cleaning up your code, Google (and others) will reward you for it.  I’ve personally optimized two sites with the same area of focus, one with clean code and one without (I did not build the one without  – I tried my best to make it better though).  Even though the site with the not-so-good code had more backlinks, exposure and a blog, the site with the squeaky clean code actually ended up at the top of the natural search results.  Go figure!

A combination of all three of the above must haves will keep people coming back to your site and help your popularity.  You must realize that true results require a lot of hard work and dedication.  This doesn’t happen overnight.  Anyone who tells you they can get you to the top in seven days is either lying or is utilizing “black hat” or inappropriate techniques to help your rank and in the end you will be penalized.  Google will find sites that don’t play by the rules.  I think this list is actually just common sense.  Have a business plan, market yourself and do it well.  Easy!

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…