The beauty of film, as with any art form, is that we can adapt a piece to our own life, no matter if the two lack surface similarities.

Thinking about one of my all time favorite movies, Goodfellas, much of film rings on parallel with Internet marketing to me.

“As far back as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to be a gangster.” - Henry Hill

I can’t say as far back as I remember I wanted to be an Internet markter, because the word “Internet” didn’t even become a part of my vocabulary until I was in high school.  However, as long as I can remember I always wanted to be a writer, and that is the skill set that spawned my current career. I remeber writing my first short story in first grade, and continued to do so throughout my grade school days and into college.

“After awhile, it got to be all normal. None of it seemed like crime. It was more like Henry was enterprising, and that he and the guys were making a few bucks hustling, while all the other guys were sitting on their asses, waiting for handouts. Our husbands weren’t brain surgeons, they were blue-collar guys. The only way they could make extra money, real extra money, was to go out and cut a few corners.” - Karren Hill

Internet marketers that make money get attacked. They get attacked by other Internet marketers, they get attacked by marketing media, and they get attacked by old school marketers. 

Why?

Because they are enterprising, and while others rest on their laurals, the successful Internet marketers find ways to reinvent the way we look at search and social media. In this case many of our best marketers are brilliant, however they do bring with them a blue collar work ethic.

“Now the guy’s got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy’s gotta come up with Paulie’s money every week no matter what. Business bad? Fuck you, pay me. Oh, you had a fire? Fuck you, pay me. Place got hit by lightning huh? Fuck you, pay me.” - Henry Hill

Our Paulie is Google.

And everyday we partner with him.

We pay for adwords, we sign up for Gmail, we download Google Chrome.

The more data we let Google collect, the more media they control, the more we are going to be paying in the end.

“Sure, mom, I settle down with a nice girl every night, then I’m free the next morning.” - Tommy DeVito

This is the mindset you need to have when running your own sites. Don’t get married to them. Build them, work them ,and don’t be afraid to tear them down. 

This mentality needs to switch off the second you work on client projects.

“You know, we always called each other goodfellas. Like, you’d say to somebody: ‘You’re gonna like this guy; he’s all right. He’s a goodfella. He’s one of us.’ You understand? We were goodfellas, wiseguys.” - Henry Hill

We love our titles in this game.

SEO.

Social Media Marketer.

Affiliate Marketer.

In the end we all run the same game,we look to make money off people utilizing the web.

“If you’re part of a crew, nobody ever tells you that they’re going to kill you, doesn’t happen that way. There weren’t any arguments or curses like in the movies. See, your murders come with smiles, they come as your friends, the people who’ve cared for you all of your life. And they always seem to come at a time that you’re at your weakest and most in need of their help.” - Henry Hill

When you get deindexed no one tells you. That’s not the way it happens. Google just pulls the trigger, and … BANG you’re losing money.

“Paulie may have moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didn’t have to move for anybody.” - Henry Hill

How it feels after you have been deindexed by the Big G, or try to have any other communication with them for that fact.