Saturday, July 23, 2005
Latest newsletter ready to go out
Just finished this Sunday's newsletter. This one was a bigger process because I wrote a four-part feature of which the first part will be part of this one. But, of course, that means writing all four parts before dividing it up.
The newsletter will have the following articles:
Just finished this Sunday's newsletter. This one was a bigger process because I wrote a four-part feature of which the first part will be part of this one. But, of course, that means writing all four parts before dividing it up.
The newsletter will have the following articles:
- Part 1 of "Converting Your Visitors to Buyers"
- A review of "Clickin' It Rich" affiliate marketing ebook
- A review of "Turn Your Auction Traffic Into Cash" ebook on how to turn nonwinning bidders on eBay into a profit stream
- An article by marketing expert Michael Campbell on "How Do You Stay Inspired"
If you haven't signed up for the newsletter, check it out at www.onestopwebsupport.com/newsletter-signup.htm
Jeff
Friday, July 22, 2005
What we're doing this for
I just got an email from one of my recent buyers on eBay. She was so thrilled with being able to get my son Jon's Ocean Palm Trees drawing etched in a mirror and shipped to her in Alaska. I didn't find out the whole story behind her excitement, but I assume it went something like this: she grows up in a semi-tropical region and loves the area dearly. Either she or her husband joins the Air Force and gets assigned to, of all places, Alaska. She longs for a reminder of home and goes online. She finds a mirror etched with palm trees and sailboats that reminds her of home and eagerly buys it.
She's told me parts of that, enough for me to guess the rest. But it's a neat feeling being able to bring her the joy she has expressed over finding this mirror. And it's a reminder of why we're doing what we're doing. Sure, we need to make a living and it's a great way to do it. But if we're doing things the way we should (carefully researching what people are looking for and offering exactly what fits their needs) it also brings joy to those we serve.
When I worked full-time for the company that does the etching, we came one time to the last days before Christmas, the days when the buying frenzy dies down as people realize it's too late for something shipped to arrive before Christmas. As we caught our breath from the long hours and hectic work all of us did, one of the production workers commented, "Do you realize how many people have our mirrors under their trees right now? It's been hectic, but all the work we did helped a lot of people get something special for Christmas."
Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it? Behind every sale is a story of making someone happy, solving someone's problem, improving—even in some small way—someone's life. That's why people are looking for what we offer. So offer them something that will do those things for them and you'll make sales—and you'll do more than just make sales. You'll make the world a little better place.
Jeff
I just got an email from one of my recent buyers on eBay. She was so thrilled with being able to get my son Jon's Ocean Palm Trees drawing etched in a mirror and shipped to her in Alaska. I didn't find out the whole story behind her excitement, but I assume it went something like this: she grows up in a semi-tropical region and loves the area dearly. Either she or her husband joins the Air Force and gets assigned to, of all places, Alaska. She longs for a reminder of home and goes online. She finds a mirror etched with palm trees and sailboats that reminds her of home and eagerly buys it.
She's told me parts of that, enough for me to guess the rest. But it's a neat feeling being able to bring her the joy she has expressed over finding this mirror. And it's a reminder of why we're doing what we're doing. Sure, we need to make a living and it's a great way to do it. But if we're doing things the way we should (carefully researching what people are looking for and offering exactly what fits their needs) it also brings joy to those we serve.
When I worked full-time for the company that does the etching, we came one time to the last days before Christmas, the days when the buying frenzy dies down as people realize it's too late for something shipped to arrive before Christmas. As we caught our breath from the long hours and hectic work all of us did, one of the production workers commented, "Do you realize how many people have our mirrors under their trees right now? It's been hectic, but all the work we did helped a lot of people get something special for Christmas."
Kind of puts things in perspective, doesn't it? Behind every sale is a story of making someone happy, solving someone's problem, improving—even in some small way—someone's life. That's why people are looking for what we offer. So offer them something that will do those things for them and you'll make sales—and you'll do more than just make sales. You'll make the world a little better place.
Jeff
Thursday, July 21, 2005
Long hours, little return
It's been a strange week. This blog has been a little hit-and-miss lately due to having projects last late into the night on several nights. Plus, I've been seeing the pile of work that I needed to attend to growing to the point where on several occasions this week I was seriously thinking of putting it on eBay as a mystery auction—"Evil pile of work threatening to destroy my life! Help me restore peace and sanity."
Unfortunately for those visions of joining my son Jon in the area of mystery auctions, I actually needed the notes and ebooks that made up my pile. And who in their right mind would buy a pile of work from someone else? (Although, if Jon could successfully sell his shadow on eBay a couple of weeks ago...)
Well, at any rate, instead of selling the ominously growing pile, I managed to cut it down to size today. However, getting an out-of-control backlog of filing and reading out of the way may help assuage that nagging sense of being overwhelmed for the time being, but it sure doesn't pay any bills.
Even the billable work I did today was organizational in nature, cleaning up a client's link databases. But that, at least, DOES pay the bills, for which I am grateful.
Jeff
It's been a strange week. This blog has been a little hit-and-miss lately due to having projects last late into the night on several nights. Plus, I've been seeing the pile of work that I needed to attend to growing to the point where on several occasions this week I was seriously thinking of putting it on eBay as a mystery auction—"Evil pile of work threatening to destroy my life! Help me restore peace and sanity."
Unfortunately for those visions of joining my son Jon in the area of mystery auctions, I actually needed the notes and ebooks that made up my pile. And who in their right mind would buy a pile of work from someone else? (Although, if Jon could successfully sell his shadow on eBay a couple of weeks ago...)
Well, at any rate, instead of selling the ominously growing pile, I managed to cut it down to size today. However, getting an out-of-control backlog of filing and reading out of the way may help assuage that nagging sense of being overwhelmed for the time being, but it sure doesn't pay any bills.
Even the billable work I did today was organizational in nature, cleaning up a client's link databases. But that, at least, DOES pay the bills, for which I am grateful.
Jeff
Tuesday, July 19, 2005
Harrumppph
I spent the last couple of hours trying to clean my client's opt-in list to avoid the record number of bounces that came back from our last newsletter. The list is of businesses who have signed up to receive information about having my client drop ship his products directly from his business to their customers. After wading through all the dead e-mail addresses, I feel a little curmudgeonly. And the mysteries I found while trying to come up with working email addresses for those missing in action leaves me bewildered. So I have a few questions.
We humans are not always that logical of creatures. Enthusiasm for a better life leads us to take the first, dramatic steps of preparing a new business, but then fear holds us back from venturing beyond those first steps.
But that's the challenge: to step beyond the confines of our fear of failure (or is it actually fear of success?) that keep us from reaching or goals.
Jeff
I spent the last couple of hours trying to clean my client's opt-in list to avoid the record number of bounces that came back from our last newsletter. The list is of businesses who have signed up to receive information about having my client drop ship his products directly from his business to their customers. After wading through all the dead e-mail addresses, I feel a little curmudgeonly. And the mysteries I found while trying to come up with working email addresses for those missing in action leaves me bewildered. So I have a few questions.
Why would a person sign up to receive information via email and then block
any responses so they never get the info they requested?
Why would a person create a special email account strictly for dealing with
suppliers (such as suppliers @ genericdomain.com or sourcing @
genericdomain.com) and then delete it so that their suppliers no longer have a
working address for them?
And why would a person buy a domain name, line themselves up with dozens of
suppliers, and then never build a site?
But then again, why would a person buy a domain name in the year 2000 and,
five years later, have a beautiful home page with links to two dozen pages that
have never been built, and a grand total of one product featured on his
site?
We humans are not always that logical of creatures. Enthusiasm for a better life leads us to take the first, dramatic steps of preparing a new business, but then fear holds us back from venturing beyond those first steps.
But that's the challenge: to step beyond the confines of our fear of failure (or is it actually fear of success?) that keep us from reaching or goals.
Jeff
Monday, July 18, 2005
Favorite free keyword links
Much of my week has focused on keyword research, so let's look at some of my favorite links for them, specifically, sites that let you see what people are searching for.
Wordtracker
Hey, wait a minute, Wordtracker isn't free! Granted, access to the main Wordtracker database requires a subscription, but there are worthwhile things you can get from the site without paying a cent.
Check out their top keywords report on the main page. It shows you the top 10 current keywords. Or you can click on a link to expand that to 30 keywords. And if 30 keywords aren't enough for you, you can sign up to receive weekly email reports of the top 500 keywords, split between the top keywords for the past 48 hours and the top keywords over the past two months. Great for feeling the pulse of the most searched terms!
Top 50 at Lycos
Another useful (and fun) keyword watch is at Lycos. It gives you the top 50 keywords for the previous week, along with info on whether each keyword is rising or falling. And they provide informative and entertaining commentary on trend they see developing. Fun reading and insightful.
Yahoo! Buzz
Similarly, Yahoo has been building the same type of mix of most popular keywords and trend commentary that Lycos' Top 50 has long been known for, and does a great job. And—oh, yes—major player Yahoo!'s share of the search traffic certainly makes it of far greater interest to web marketers than little sister Lycos. Sorry, Lycos.
Google Zeitgeist
And if we're going to talk about major players in the search world, we can't fail to mention the Google Zeitgeist. After all, Google is still the 500 pound gorilla of search. Now if only they'd couple their keyword information with the type of revealing commentary that Lycos and Yahoo! feature.
Jeeves IQ
Ask.com's Jeeves IQ (Jeeves Interesting Queries) also gives you keyword information, but is pretty limited compared to the others. I'd go with the others first.
Shopping.com Consumer Demand Index
Want to know what products people are looking for? Then check out Shopping.com's Consumer Demand Index. They tell you the top search queries for the previous week, compare those to the week before, and also spotlight some additional keyword lists that they feel represent signigicant trends.
Yahoo! Shopping—What's Selling Now
I'm undecided whether to mention this one. (Well, having mentioned it, I guess I'm not undecided anymore.) It doesn't help you see what's searched for the most, but it provides a real-time look at what's actually selling in Yahoo! Stores right now. It has some uses for brainstorming.
eBay Hot Items Report
And if eBay is any part of your business, you'll want to check the eBay Hot Items Report. It won't highlight individual products, but gives you an excellent view of which categories are experiencing demand that outstrips the supply.
Jeff
Much of my week has focused on keyword research, so let's look at some of my favorite links for them, specifically, sites that let you see what people are searching for.
Wordtracker
Hey, wait a minute, Wordtracker isn't free! Granted, access to the main Wordtracker database requires a subscription, but there are worthwhile things you can get from the site without paying a cent.
Check out their top keywords report on the main page. It shows you the top 10 current keywords. Or you can click on a link to expand that to 30 keywords. And if 30 keywords aren't enough for you, you can sign up to receive weekly email reports of the top 500 keywords, split between the top keywords for the past 48 hours and the top keywords over the past two months. Great for feeling the pulse of the most searched terms!
Top 50 at Lycos
Another useful (and fun) keyword watch is at Lycos. It gives you the top 50 keywords for the previous week, along with info on whether each keyword is rising or falling. And they provide informative and entertaining commentary on trend they see developing. Fun reading and insightful.
Yahoo! Buzz
Similarly, Yahoo has been building the same type of mix of most popular keywords and trend commentary that Lycos' Top 50 has long been known for, and does a great job. And—oh, yes—major player Yahoo!'s share of the search traffic certainly makes it of far greater interest to web marketers than little sister Lycos. Sorry, Lycos.
Google Zeitgeist
And if we're going to talk about major players in the search world, we can't fail to mention the Google Zeitgeist. After all, Google is still the 500 pound gorilla of search. Now if only they'd couple their keyword information with the type of revealing commentary that Lycos and Yahoo! feature.
Jeeves IQ
Ask.com's Jeeves IQ (Jeeves Interesting Queries) also gives you keyword information, but is pretty limited compared to the others. I'd go with the others first.
Shopping.com Consumer Demand Index
Want to know what products people are looking for? Then check out Shopping.com's Consumer Demand Index. They tell you the top search queries for the previous week, compare those to the week before, and also spotlight some additional keyword lists that they feel represent signigicant trends.
Yahoo! Shopping—What's Selling Now
I'm undecided whether to mention this one. (Well, having mentioned it, I guess I'm not undecided anymore.) It doesn't help you see what's searched for the most, but it provides a real-time look at what's actually selling in Yahoo! Stores right now. It has some uses for brainstorming.
eBay Hot Items Report
And if eBay is any part of your business, you'll want to check the eBay Hot Items Report. It won't highlight individual products, but gives you an excellent view of which categories are experiencing demand that outstrips the supply.
Jeff
© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Jeff Baas, One Stop Web Support
