Saturday, July 08, 2006
One Stop Web Support Newsletter #34 On Its Way
The latest issue of One Stop Web Support Newsletter is scheduled to arrive early Sunday morning, July 9. This newsletter contains:
Jeff
The latest issue of One Stop Web Support Newsletter is scheduled to arrive early Sunday morning, July 9. This newsletter contains:
- Featured article—Improving Your Copywriting With Speed Bumps
- Recommended business tool: Rich Schefren's Internet Business Manifesto
- Special guest article by Dave Lovelace—7 Things You Can Learn from Competing e-Bay Auctions
- Success quote by C.S. Lewis
Jeff
Friday, July 07, 2006
Great Time to Be a New Marketer Online
Right now is an amazing time to start your business online. In the last few months, I've seen a number of big-name marketers open their storehouse of knowledge to others for free.
I've had the opportunity to listen to a series of free webinars where a roundtable of experts laid out their insights on starting a business online.
I'm in the middle, right now, of a free series of online videos from a marketer who reveals the exact steps he takes which each business he starts online.
And I just started receiving a series of incredible free reports from a master marketer who has mentored just about every big name marketer in the business at one time or another. (I'll tell you more about these reports later in this post.)
The info all these marketers have shared is priceless. And the fact that they are sharing so much for free makes it a great time to start a business online.
Some are sharing their insights as an appetizer to interest new marketers in paying for individualized coaching from them. Some are sharing because they've already reached their own goals and now have challenged themselves that to help others do the same.
And the marketer whose reports I just started has reached the point where he is pulling out of personal coaching and wants to lay out his insights to a broader audience of business owners. He's about to retreat into training others to carry out his coaching, and will limit it only to an audience of high-paying, well-established offline businesses.
His free reports are too good to miss. Are they nuts and bolts things about keyword density or newsletter frequency? Not at all! They are foundational things that strike right at the heart of every business.
I'll have to admit I'm embarassed to see how many mistakes he describes are present in my business. But I recognize that those mistakes are the very things that have kept my business from growing into something that I feel could run smoothly whenever I feel like taking time off.
After reading it, you might be tempted to dismiss his insights as common sense. But don't—unless your business already has his insights in practice. The things he draws attention to are very easy to recognize once he's said them. But most of the business owners who dismiss his insights as being obvious are limping along because of the exact problems he describes.
I encourage you to check out Rich Schefren's Internet Business Manifesto. The approach to business that he describes is powerful stuff that has made a lot of the big names in marketing successful. And if you take what he says to heart, it can make the same difference in your business. I consider this required reading for anyone starting their business online.
Jeff
Right now is an amazing time to start your business online. In the last few months, I've seen a number of big-name marketers open their storehouse of knowledge to others for free.
I've had the opportunity to listen to a series of free webinars where a roundtable of experts laid out their insights on starting a business online.
I'm in the middle, right now, of a free series of online videos from a marketer who reveals the exact steps he takes which each business he starts online.
And I just started receiving a series of incredible free reports from a master marketer who has mentored just about every big name marketer in the business at one time or another. (I'll tell you more about these reports later in this post.)
The info all these marketers have shared is priceless. And the fact that they are sharing so much for free makes it a great time to start a business online.
Some are sharing their insights as an appetizer to interest new marketers in paying for individualized coaching from them. Some are sharing because they've already reached their own goals and now have challenged themselves that to help others do the same.
And the marketer whose reports I just started has reached the point where he is pulling out of personal coaching and wants to lay out his insights to a broader audience of business owners. He's about to retreat into training others to carry out his coaching, and will limit it only to an audience of high-paying, well-established offline businesses.
His free reports are too good to miss. Are they nuts and bolts things about keyword density or newsletter frequency? Not at all! They are foundational things that strike right at the heart of every business.
I'll have to admit I'm embarassed to see how many mistakes he describes are present in my business. But I recognize that those mistakes are the very things that have kept my business from growing into something that I feel could run smoothly whenever I feel like taking time off.
After reading it, you might be tempted to dismiss his insights as common sense. But don't—unless your business already has his insights in practice. The things he draws attention to are very easy to recognize once he's said them. But most of the business owners who dismiss his insights as being obvious are limping along because of the exact problems he describes.
I encourage you to check out Rich Schefren's Internet Business Manifesto. The approach to business that he describes is powerful stuff that has made a lot of the big names in marketing successful. And if you take what he says to heart, it can make the same difference in your business. I consider this required reading for anyone starting their business online.
Jeff
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Are You Cooking Up Success for Your Online Business?
There really are no one-size-fits-all solutions to our Internet marketing needs. Each situation is unique and requires unique perspective.
I'm not trying to make Internet marketing seem like all is hopeless for the new marketer, though. The problem is that we often look for magic recipes for success. We look for things outside ourselves that will work 100% of the time for anyone in every situation.
The truth is that there is no such recipe. Certainly, there are techniques that have a proven track record of success, but even they need to be applied intelligently in concert with other techniques. Just doing one proven technique will not guarantee success.
I like to compare Internet marketing to cooking and the success of marketers to my wife and me.
I can handle myself adequately in the kitchen. I'm never going to starve from lack of ability to cook. I can follow a recipe and have it turn out. I can fix a limited number of favorite foods from my bachelor days long ago. I can even do some simple experiments to create an occasional new dish (although my kids still razz me about some of my more notable failed experiments from their younger years).
My wife, on the other hand, is a maestro in the kitchen. She's always looking for new recipes to try and pulls them off flawlessly. But more than that, she can take a recipe and improve on it as she makes it. She knows the ins and outs of cooking expertly enough that she can look at a recipe and use it not as something to slavishly follow, but as an inspiration for further creativity.
She substitutes freely in ingredients and amounts to create something entirely different, suited perfectly to our tastes. Sometimes, the final result bears little resemblance to the recipe with which she started. But it is excellent nonetheless.
Internet marketing is the same way. When you slavishly follow techniques that you read, you can get good results. But the real art of marketing comes when you can take the techniques you've learned and improvise with them, like my wife does with cooking.
Now, what she does didn't come naturally to her. She draws from years of experience and experimentation. She started by slavishly following recipes, like I do. But the more she learned, the greater her skill grew. And she didn't just read about cooking; she did it.
And that's the way you can become a successful marketer—not by merely reading about it, but by doing it. You won't succeed on the basis of how many facts about marketing you know or how many techniques you can copy. You learn by trying and finding out what works in your specific situation and then experimenting further to come up with even better results.
And as you learn, your skill grows not just steadily, but exponentially. But you have to get in there and do it. Chefs are not made in an easy chair, curled up with a recipe book. They're made in the kitchen. In the same way, marketers are not made by collecting ebooks on marketing; they're made by putting what they've learned into practice.
Jeff
There really are no one-size-fits-all solutions to our Internet marketing needs. Each situation is unique and requires unique perspective.
I'm not trying to make Internet marketing seem like all is hopeless for the new marketer, though. The problem is that we often look for magic recipes for success. We look for things outside ourselves that will work 100% of the time for anyone in every situation.
The truth is that there is no such recipe. Certainly, there are techniques that have a proven track record of success, but even they need to be applied intelligently in concert with other techniques. Just doing one proven technique will not guarantee success.
I like to compare Internet marketing to cooking and the success of marketers to my wife and me.
I can handle myself adequately in the kitchen. I'm never going to starve from lack of ability to cook. I can follow a recipe and have it turn out. I can fix a limited number of favorite foods from my bachelor days long ago. I can even do some simple experiments to create an occasional new dish (although my kids still razz me about some of my more notable failed experiments from their younger years).
My wife, on the other hand, is a maestro in the kitchen. She's always looking for new recipes to try and pulls them off flawlessly. But more than that, she can take a recipe and improve on it as she makes it. She knows the ins and outs of cooking expertly enough that she can look at a recipe and use it not as something to slavishly follow, but as an inspiration for further creativity.
She substitutes freely in ingredients and amounts to create something entirely different, suited perfectly to our tastes. Sometimes, the final result bears little resemblance to the recipe with which she started. But it is excellent nonetheless.
Internet marketing is the same way. When you slavishly follow techniques that you read, you can get good results. But the real art of marketing comes when you can take the techniques you've learned and improvise with them, like my wife does with cooking.
Now, what she does didn't come naturally to her. She draws from years of experience and experimentation. She started by slavishly following recipes, like I do. But the more she learned, the greater her skill grew. And she didn't just read about cooking; she did it.
And that's the way you can become a successful marketer—not by merely reading about it, but by doing it. You won't succeed on the basis of how many facts about marketing you know or how many techniques you can copy. You learn by trying and finding out what works in your specific situation and then experimenting further to come up with even better results.
And as you learn, your skill grows not just steadily, but exponentially. But you have to get in there and do it. Chefs are not made in an easy chair, curled up with a recipe book. They're made in the kitchen. In the same way, marketers are not made by collecting ebooks on marketing; they're made by putting what they've learned into practice.
Jeff
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Why Blue Isn't Always Blue
Another lesson I learned from the big redo of my client's has to do with color in design. Now, I'll readily admit I don't have the best ability at designing the look and feel of a site. But I did my research and felt that I had made a big improvement over the old, pastel look and feel of the old design.
I found information on what colors are best to convey what feelings, studied sites that sell similar types of products and came up with a color scheme of blue and silver for the site. I was proud of the new color scheme, my client loved it. Everything was good—so I thought.
My client hired my web designer and freelance artist son, Jon, to design a new logo and I asked him to assess the new site design with his artistic eye as well. Overall, he liked the design, but when it came to the color scheme...
"Umm, Dad?"
"Yes?"
"Why'd you choose that color of blue?"
I explained the research I had found on how blue conveys a sense of reliability and quality. I described how I was using it to impart a sense of trust and excellence perfectly suited for our semi-upscale products.
He replied, "I understand what you're trying to do, but that shade of blue doesn't do that." (I had picked the most basic, browser-safe blue available.) "The blue you chose is more of a kid's party blue, not the refined and dignified blue you're after."
He showed me a mockup of the home page that he had done with a more subdued blue replacing the bright blue I had chosen. And I had to admit that the difference in feel was amazing. And when I went back to the sites whose color schemes had inspired mine, I was surprised to find that the shade of blue they use was very similar to the color Jon had recommended.
So blue isn't necessarily blue. At least, just because a research article says that the color blue has a certain psychological effect, it doesn't necessarily mean that EVERY shade of blue will have that effect.
I've changed the color scheme to the shade of blue Jon recommended and am very pleased with the results. But it goes to show that there are no one-size-fits all solutions to problems. Research that boils complicated matters down into a simple list is probably incomplete. And it's always best to take all the variables of a situation into consideration when you make decisions instead of just applying a one-size-fits-all answer.
And, of course, never try to do it all yourself. Turn to an expert when you need specialized info on a matter.
Jeff
Another lesson I learned from the big redo of my client's has to do with color in design. Now, I'll readily admit I don't have the best ability at designing the look and feel of a site. But I did my research and felt that I had made a big improvement over the old, pastel look and feel of the old design.
I found information on what colors are best to convey what feelings, studied sites that sell similar types of products and came up with a color scheme of blue and silver for the site. I was proud of the new color scheme, my client loved it. Everything was good—so I thought.
My client hired my web designer and freelance artist son, Jon, to design a new logo and I asked him to assess the new site design with his artistic eye as well. Overall, he liked the design, but when it came to the color scheme...
"Umm, Dad?"
"Yes?"
"Why'd you choose that color of blue?"
I explained the research I had found on how blue conveys a sense of reliability and quality. I described how I was using it to impart a sense of trust and excellence perfectly suited for our semi-upscale products.
He replied, "I understand what you're trying to do, but that shade of blue doesn't do that." (I had picked the most basic, browser-safe blue available.) "The blue you chose is more of a kid's party blue, not the refined and dignified blue you're after."
He showed me a mockup of the home page that he had done with a more subdued blue replacing the bright blue I had chosen. And I had to admit that the difference in feel was amazing. And when I went back to the sites whose color schemes had inspired mine, I was surprised to find that the shade of blue they use was very similar to the color Jon had recommended.
So blue isn't necessarily blue. At least, just because a research article says that the color blue has a certain psychological effect, it doesn't necessarily mean that EVERY shade of blue will have that effect.
I've changed the color scheme to the shade of blue Jon recommended and am very pleased with the results. But it goes to show that there are no one-size-fits all solutions to problems. Research that boils complicated matters down into a simple list is probably incomplete. And it's always best to take all the variables of a situation into consideration when you make decisions instead of just applying a one-size-fits-all answer.
And, of course, never try to do it all yourself. Turn to an expert when you need specialized info on a matter.
Jeff
© 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Jeff Baas, One Stop Web Support
