Archive for category: Technology

In the last post, we talked about the main passive income streams that are being utilized today. As part of the post, I briefly talked about fractal patterns being the secret to the B quadrant and big business.

Since that post, I’ve been thinking about how quickly I went through that description. I’ve felt I didn’t do it much justice. 

So, let’s get a little into what fractal patterns or fractals actually are. And, even more importantly, how the apply to internet based business so we can use them to grow your passive income.

The Basics

So a fractal is defined as… 

a curve or geometric figure, each part of which has the same statistical character as the whole. Fractals are useful in modeling structures (such as eroded coastlines or snowflakes) in which similar patterns recur at progressively smaller scales, and in describing partly random or chaotic phenomena such as crystal growth, fluid turbulence, and galaxy formation.

Here’s a few examples:

I reiterated this in the last post by talking about how we see these patterns everywhere. One example is with giant sequoias. These trees interweave their roots with each other so that no one particular tree supports the weight of itself. They’re tied to the mesh of these roots. It’s because of this that the trees are able to grow huge in size.

In this example, the tree itself is a node where the root system connects the tree to others by acting as branches of a larger organism – a larger system, the forest.

As you can see in the image below, branches connect nodes to each other. Tree A has roots which are intertwined with roots of trees B and C. They, in turn, have their roots interlaced with all the others of the forest.

They are part of a larger system.

Forms of Systems

So if trees are nodes in a forest, and a forest is system, what else can a system take the form of?

Well, if we understand the word system as “a set of things working together as parts of a mechanism or an interconnecting network”, we can think of a city as a system. And just like we’re part of that system, we have systems that are part of us (circulatory, lymph, nervous, etc.).

That said, where we and forests consist of natural systems, a city is a form of a designed system.

Designed systems are systems which we as people have designed. And one such system is the internet. A fractal system built on servers (nodes) and communication wires (branches).

How the Internet Changed the Game of Commerce

Before the internet, the only systems that existed which transported information were owned by large corporations. These included newspaper, TV, and radio companies. Since the big companies owned them, they were in control of the information which they transmitted. To this day, this is how these networks generally work.

However, due to the internet growing up and becoming the behemoth it has become, they’re having to compete with the open flow of data and commerce. And since they seem to not change how they do things, they’re losing quite a bit of money and influence. In the last 15 years, a lot of people have stopped reading newspapers, watching network TV, and listening to the radio.

As business owners ourselves, we can capitalize on this change of interest and focus. To do that, we can go where the eyeballs have gone – search engines and social media.

Leveraging Internet Commerce Today

At one point, about 10 years ago, there wasn’t nearly as much competition on the web for these eyeballs. Not only that, but the way that sites were indexed on Google and how posts were shared on Facebook was completely different. If you knew how to do SEO properly, you could rank fairly well on Google, and if you posted regularly on Facebook, you’d get plenty of exposure.

Unfortunately, that’s not how it works today. Organic growth through posting has dwindled to 5% (if not lower) and there’s way too many people to compete with on search engines. 

So the question is, how do you use these particular systems/networks to get your business noticed these days? 

Well, unfortunately (or fortunately?) through ads on social media and search engines.

Remember that Facebook (and the internet for that matter) is based on fractal patterns. So what works for you on a small scale with a handful of clients can be advertised to those who share the same demographics.

However, paying to play in ads isn’t something they think they have a budget for. But, what they’re not seeing is the opportunity they’re missing. 

The reason you would WANT to post ads is that you can specifically market to the people in your niche. The more money that is spent, the more likely Facebook’s algorithm will figure out who exactly you’re looking for. For example, with America Multi-Sport we’ve been placing ads for years now every week. That’s plenty of time for Facebook’s system to know who you want to get in front of.

Of course, the algorithm can only do so much. You still have to create copy that creates a desire to take action.

Action Steps

I hope this gives you a little perspective on what fractals are and how they’re used to create passive income. 

Remember, even though I shared the idea of using the Facebook network as a system to make use of with ads, you can use others as well. 

In fact you can use your own! 

One of the books I’m reading called The Power of Who talks about how knowing just a few people will launch you to wherever you want to go. We each have a handful of people in our lives who are highly connected themselves. It’s your job to figure out who those people are and how you can leverage (notice I didn’t say use) them to get where you want to go.

Sure this method is a bit more manual and slower. But you actually have control of who your message is being delivered to.