Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

Think You Can't Succeed Online?
After a couple of days being laid up by newly acquired allergies (since when do allergies develop at the age of 52?) and trips to see relatives off to China and a son back to college, I'm back at it.

One thing to pass on today. If you've ever gotten discouraged by less success than you expected online, check out this free Internet success report from marketing expert Jim Edwards.

It's more than just "you-can-do-it" rah-rah. It gets to the heart of what usually blocks us from experiencing the success we seek. You'll find the link to the report in his August 21 blog entry. Jeff

Leveraging What You Have
Let's say you've come to the end of the line with your online business. You're out of money and out of time to make it work. What do you do?

You have two options. You can pick out the things that are working best in it and focus your energy on building on those successes. You can focus on getting more out of those things that have proven successful. You can apply what's working well in those areas to improving others that lag behind.

Your second option is to latch on to some totally new product, tool, or promotional strategy you've never tried before. You can gamble that something you have no idea how to work with, something you have to learn as you go, will be the instant home run you've never been able to hit by any other means.

When I put it that way, the choice sounds pretty obvious. But I've seen the vast majority of business owners who, when faced with this situation, almost invariably jump at door number 2.

Why is that? It's every bit as dumb as in those horror movies where the vulnerable young woman discovers a psychopathic killer in the house. What does she do? She immediately runs up the stairs, into her room, and into a closet that makes the killer's job of trapping her a cinch.

Yet when we as business owners see that psychopathic killer of business failure approaching, what's our first inclination? Exactly, WE RUN UP THE STAIRS! We trust our entire business, our entire dream, to succeeding at something we have no idea how to do.

Unconsciously, we look at our struggles as being because of us. We overlook the things we've created that really work well. The fact that there are more things that don't work convince us that we cannot trust ourselves to reverse course.

So instead of incorporating what works into improving other parts of our business, we turn to something outside of ourselves. We give up and trust something we have no experience with to save us—ALL ON ITS OWN.

But there are no products, tools, or strategies that will save us on their own. Success lies in our unique knowledge and experience guiding the way we use them.

If you latch on to something totally unfamiliar as a last gasp attempt, you double your chance of failure. Not only do you still have to make that new whatever work, but you have to learn about it—from scratch—as you try.

That's about as dumb and leading a homicidal maniac upstairs to trap you in your closet.

If you're facing a crisis in your business, don't look for some product, tool, or strategy outside of your experience to rescue you. Your best chance is to focus on what's working and build it stronger and wider and deeper. Never run into the closet.
Jeff

Getting Cash Out of Trash
Do you throw your ink-jet cartridges away? You shouldn't. You can get cash for them. Granted, it's only $1-$4 per cartridge, but it's a lot better than just tossing them in your trash to become a fixture in your local landfill.

Now this only works for original, manufacturer ink-jet cartridges, not for cartridges you have refilled or bought from some company that refills and resells them. They have to have the original manufacturer label (Canon, Lexmark, HP, etc.) on them.

But if you print a lot, like I do, it can add up to $20-$30 over a couple of months. Oh, and you can help raise money for a favorite charity, such as a church, a school, or another nonprofit, raise money by having them put out the word to their members to donate used ink-jet cartridges for them to send on for recycling.

If you'd like to sign up get some cash through this recycling effort (or if your favorite organization would like to raise money this way), just go to http://www.onestopwebsupport.com/freerecycling. You'll be able to make a little cash and keep cartridges out of the landfills.
Jeff

77 Ways to Increase Your Traffic
Looking for ways to increase traffic to your site? I found a free report in which Associate Programs founder Allan Gardyne gives tips on the 77 ways that he's found to do just that.

Just don't try to do them all at once. Go through the report and mark all the traffic-generating strategies you currently do. Then mark all the ones you don't do that sound interesting to you.

Look at each one you already do and think of ways you could do it better. Pick out three you feel you could make the biggest improvement in quickly. Then pick out three of the most promising ones that you don't already do.

Following? Good. You now have whittled the 77 possibilities down to 6. From those 6, choose one. That's right, just one. Set the other five aside and pursue that one traffic-building strategy. Don't get distracted. Don't set it aside to dabble in one of the others. Don't do it as quickly and halfheartedly as you can so you can move along to the others.

Do that one traffic-generating strategy completely, from beginning to end. Focus all your effort on that one until you get it rolling smoothly.

Then pick another one and do the same thing with it.

The problem most of us have when it comes to building traffic is that we flit from one thing to another. We never really put enough effort into any one thing to make it effective. Have you ever seen the performers who balance dozens of plates each spinning atop a stick?

We often try to pull that trick off with our marketing. But it never works. Why? You ever notice what that plate-spinner does? He starts one plate and sticks with it until it's going well on its own and doesn't need his attention anymore. Then and only then he starts the next.

That's the key. If we set that plate on top of the stick and give it a rushed spin as we walk away, you know what's going to happen, don't you? CRASH!

That's why it's essential for you to narrow down these traffic-generating ideas. You need to stick with one until it doesn't need your attention. Then you're ready to move on to the next.

Enjoy this free report. It's got a lot of great ideas in it. But use those ideas to build your traffic sensibly and patiently. Don't fall into the trap of thinking you have to have all 77 of them done yesterday. I so hate the sound of businesses, and their owners, going CRASH.
Jeff