Stand Out By Using Empty Space
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in HTML, CSS, Design, Strategies
“Empty space? What’s that?” you may ask. “Is it like “dead air” on radio or television? You know, when the sound and picture cuts off on your TV and you’re just sitting there staring at a blank screen?”
No, that’s not empty space. That’s just plain dead air. Dead air is bad. Empty space is good!
There are articles out there on the Internet that describe how to use empty space on your Web site. And the reason they are there is because they contain some valuable data… data you should have when working out the design of your Web pages.
For example, if you want to maximize the headlines on your site, you can use empty space below them or above them. This will make the headlines stand out. And that’s what you want… for them to be noticeable. (Headlines are what pulls the reader “in.”)
You want the font you choose to be easily read, but did you know that you could make it easier to read if you leave some empty space around the text? Don’t fill in that space with a bunch of pictures, graphics and the like. Let it go! :O)
Empty space is actually eye catching. It is like some music that can make you feel the emotion of the creativity.
Have you ever listened to a song where the music suddenly stops and you think the piece is over - then it starts up again with some powerful melody? It’s very effective! The music can even sound louder and more electric as a result.
The same goes for a Web site with text on it. It also applies to ad designs or any design.
The message or offer stands out when surrounded by empty space - or white space you could call it. It draws the eye in to the important part of the page.
If you think just enlarging an image of a graphic will work, well, you might be right. But it can make your page seem amateurish or rough. You may think that will grab someone’s attention… and it very well might. But to just draw the attention to the image with empty space can be even more effective.
The central focus is what you want people to see. You want their attention pulled to your message. And this focus can be made to catch the attention by the use of space. You don’t have to fill every blank spot with images or text. Let them go! :O)
Everything on your page should enhance the main message you are trying to get across. If you have too much information, it can be distracting. If you are selling a product, rather than stuff your Web site full of data, you could possibly make it available in a newsletter or a free report.
Although there are no “set in stone” rules about empty space on a Web page, just use the rule of thumb that you should leave about one fourth of your page empty, letting the main parts stand out.
Keeping your Web site uncluttered and focusing attention on your message will make your site professional and attractive. Your visitors will be impressed… and stay and browse.
It’s not always what you fill the space with but how you don’t fill the space that makes the difference.
. . .
And you? How did and/or do you feel about the empty space on my blog recently? ;-)
—Marcus Hochstadt
The 72-Hour Rule
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Strategies
Do you make lists of things to do? If so, do you carry over to the next day(s) the things you didn’t accomplish the day(s) before? Most of us have things on our list that carry over… on and on and on it goes.
Ever heard of The 72-Hour Rule? I had heard of it a couple years ago from the German Money Coach Bodo Schäfer.
It implies that the longer you postpone something the less likely it is that you’ll actually do it. In other words, when you postpone something for longer than 72 hours, you usually found enough excuses to not do it. Really, it works that way. Sort of a rule of the universe or something… at least you will probably find that it has held true for you in the past.
Think about it. You’ve decided to do something… maybe replace that broken gate in the yard. You write it on a piece of paper and stick it with a magnet on the refrigerator where you can see it every day. And you do see it every day.
But do you get out there and replace the gate? No. In fact that little piece of paper stays there on the door to the fridge for 4 days. It becomes second nature to see the paper there… so second nature that you don’t even “see” it anymore, if you know what I mean.
It’s a bit funny, but I’ve found that the longer you wait to do the action, the longer it takes to actually get around to it. You’ll find you will create more and more excuses for not getting it done.
You might even eventually just take it off the list altogether, figuring the gate actually doesn’t look that bad at all really. ;-)
A friend of mine tells me that she would take all the things that she had been moving forward on her “to-do” list for days and days to a new list of “Things I May Get to Someday if I Think of It” list. Hey, no pressure!
A way to handle this trait of procrastination is to realize the motivation to act upon the idea or stimulation decreases after each hour that passes by. You then ask yourself, “I have to do it anyway, so let’s do it NOW and it’s done.”
I think Internet business matters should be at the top of this list, and you should get in the mindset that you really ARE going to get this thing done (or at least to get started), and no later than within the next 72 hours, no matter what. If you can’t get started right away, put the deadline on your calendar in three days time.
Remember that you may have to do some preparation to actually start on your activity by that date, but determine you are going to do it—for sure—in this 72-hour time frame. Again, the likelihood that you actually do it decreases after each hour as your brain finds more and more excuses and “good reasons” for postponement.
Longer projects can be divided up into steps and you can schedule that first step in 72 hours. Then once the first step is done, ensure you get the second step started in 72 hours, and so on.
You really can break the procrastination habit. It just takes a little planning, fortitude, discipline, and the courage to form the opposite habit. ;-)
—Marcus Hochstadt
16 CommentsPermalink Tags: habits, procrastination, self-motivation
Finding Your Profitable Market
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business, Marketing, Product Creation, Strategies
When in search for a product or service to sell online (or off, for that matter), you must take some steps to get the perfect market (or some call it niche) that will have a high desirability in today’s marketplace. The public must want it! :-)
Normally, you’d research the supply and demand of a market first, then locate the product that market is demanding specifically. But let’s take a look at starting with the product first.
So how do you find that perfect thing to sell in your Internet business endeavors? There are many workshops that offer advice and recommendations, but it’s really you that has to come up with an answer. It’s crucial to find something that will give you a good chance at success.
First, get a list of products or services that are potential items you would like to market. Each thing on your list should be something you have some knowledge about… Don’t try and sell ski boots when you have never been skiing or have even looked at a ski boot. Of course, if you absolutely LOVE ski boots, you can always learn all about them! :-)
That brings up the other point… and one brought up by almost every seminar ever given on the subject—find something you love! When you are going to be spending hours and hours of your days (and sometimes nights) setting up your Internet business, working on building traffic and getting things moving, and this for the next 3-5 years, you better enjoy what you are doing.
So… the items you put on your list should be products or services that reflect specific skills or aptitude you have, hobbies you are interested in, or things you know a lot about. You can add items that you have a high interest in learning, too. Just don’t make the runway for takeoff too long by needing to devote a lot of study to the subject first.
The idea is to leverage and improve your strengths, not your weaknesses.
Break down your list into three sections. First, list all the things you enjoy doing, such as baking, drawing, traveling, etc. Then list all the things you are good at doing… which could also overlap the first list. Now list your unique skills, perhaps playing the piano, computer programming or the like. And finally, list all the things that you have a lot of knowledge about.
Work out for each thing on your list what could be a product or service entailing the action involved with each one. This will at least give you some ideas—maybe really interesting and unique ideas at that!
Let’s say you came up with a product to sell such as fishing equipment. Some folks feel more comfortable to narrow the product/market down to something less competitive and more specific than “fishing equipment.” Perhaps you could just sell reels, lines or rods. Now you will need to find out if there is a market for this product. You instinctively know that there is, but research it anyway.
Find out how many out there will be your competition (or possible future partners). How much demand is there for the product? And is that demand high enough to sustain a business? Is it just too low, go back up a step or two until the demand number gets exciting. And ask yourself how you could create something unique—something that could be a Unique Selling Proposition that would make you stand out from the competitive crowd?
Turning your product or content rich Web site into a profitable Internet business venture is really doable if you are doing something you love, you are selling a product that is in high demand, and you stand out from the crowd in what you offer. You’ll have fun running your business every day, and will know how to handle customers’ questions effectively.
What an adventure!
—Marcus Hochstadt
9 CommentsPermalink Tags: internet business, market research, Product Creation
Competition Vs. Joint Venture
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Marketing, Strategies
Here’s a new look at your future Internet business endeavors. Think in terms of “if you can’t beat them, join them.” Rather than compete with other similar Internet businesses, you can join them as partners, escalating your business more than you ever imagined. :-)
In other words, Internet business doesn’t have to be about being “better than the competition” but can be about doing some business together and therefore growing together.
As an Internet business owner, you are likely searching out ways to increase your reach within your market, breaking down barriers and rocketing your revenues. And of course, you want to do this in a short amount of time!
In recent years, so many Internet businesses have united to augment their survival odds. It becomes necessary, I suppose, with many small businesses failing (or quitting) within the first five years.
So you hear more and more through various means that work-at-home parents and entrepreneurs have been looking into the possibility of working together with those who were competitors, thus becoming more successful in their endeavors.
Yes, many marketplaces these days are highly competitive. Of that there is no doubt. But when you look long and hard, you can find ways of overcoming. That’s why I wanted to include this topic for you to read about Competition Versus Joint Venture. It’s something to consider in your Internet business.
Taking part in a joint venture is basically teaming up with others (one person, a group or a business entity) in order to expand your business influence and to create a powerful market presence. It’s important, if you are going to do this, to do it soon… because otherwise your competitors may beat you to it!
Formally speaking, in a joint venture, an entity is formed between two parties (or more) to take part in economic activity together. They both contribute equity and share in the expenses and in the control of the business. It can be for only one project or be a continuing relationship.
So much to the formal stuff… ;-)
In a joint venture, you won’t be transferring ownership in any way. It’s not a merger, just a sharing. So what do you share with a partner?
You can share markets, assets, or knowledge, and of course, you can share (higher) profits!
For example, a large company may decide to start a joint venture with a small company to get some intellectual property not available to them otherwise, or to obtain hard-to-come-by resources.
Or a small business person with a Web site and hundreds or thousands of visitors per day shares the traffic with another webmaster who is in the same market but with eventually a slightly different audience (not necessary though!). Both have excellent products or services and share their excitement by recommending each others products. As a result, each of their audiences get more of what they want and improve their lives, so it’s a true win-win-win situation.
The advantages are great! It’s possible to expand into foreign markets, lower production costs, increase sales, etc. Collaborating with others definitely has pluses.
Bottom line, rather than invest large amounts of resources to enter into new areas of the marketplace, you can join forces with others who have identical products or services. And you will possibly find yourself able to compete (together with your partner) against some of your larger competitors—or even joint venture with THEM later, too!
So, before talking about “that competitor” again, why not shift your mindset from Competition to Joint Venture?
—Marcus Hochstadt
Good Internet Business Practice
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business, Strategies
When running an Internet business, it’s important to maintain good business practices, just like when having an offline storefront establishment. The major difference in operating online is that you have a much larger market—and therefore potentially can do many times the business that you would be doing locally. All the more reason to keep your business practices up to snuff! :-)
An example of how you can go off the rails in your business practices is this…
Say you are communicating to customers via email. You should treat email as if it was a handwritten letter. Sign it! Otherwise how does the person receiving it know who you are? Then how do they address you when they write back? “Dear Ghost”? Or “Dear you-won’t-reveal-your-name”? Or “Dear you-want-me-to-visit-your-web-site-and-search-for-your-name?”
You won’t be using letterhead with email, so the best way to handle that is to have not only your signature at the bottom, but the name of your company and your contact information, too. Or perhaps a great, catchy headline making them want to click through to your Web site.
The same goes for greetings. Don’t just start messages with “I wanted to write to you about your last purchase…” Use their name in a proper greeting, “Dear John,” and give them some respect. In your offline business, you would never write a letter to a business associate and fail to use a greeting at the head of the letter, would you?
In a store or office, when a customer comes in with a question or complaint, it gets answered right away. You can’t turn away someone standing there in front of you. Even phone calls are answered and you deal with the person on the other end.
The same goes for an Internet business. The communication methods will often be different. They will usually email you or fill out an online form. These have to be handled rapidly.
When you don’t answer communications right away, you can lose a good customer. They wonder if you are really there at all, or if you are really serious about your business.
Perhaps you went out of business. They don’t know. It’s not like calling a company and hearing a voice on the other end stating the company name and giving you the option of speaking with a live person.
Truthful and accurate descriptions of your products or services are a must, too. If someone can walk into a physical store, they can inspect the merchandise for themselves.
They can’t see the actual item online, so you must be able to substantiate whatever claim you make as to its appearance, ability to do any function, etc. To advertise a product otherwise would be misleading and can result in less sales and countless refund requests.
Offline, when a store gets unsolicited referrals from a “competitor” it is likely that competitor becomes a partner in that you also refer customers to that store. Do the same online.
Does someone recommend and link to one of your products? Recommend and link back to one of his/hers, at least to his or her Web site!
Bottom line? Run your Internet business with all the care of one offline, and you will be respected for your good Internet business practices… and likely get more business through word of mouth!
—Marcus Hochstadt
The Importance Of Rapid Communication
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Strategies
In any business, online or off, your communication with your customers and business associates alike is extremely important. Whether you have a Web site, a regular store front establishment or have a mail order company from your kitchen table, you have to maintain rapid communication with all concerned; clients, customers, partners, and others.
It isn’t just what you say that’s the crux of your communications, but the speed with which it is delivered. Of course, what you say is vital. You are, after all, imparting a message with what you are saying—a message that should travel over to the other person by whatever means, and be understood. But perhaps you have that down. It won’t matter what perfect message you are relaying; if it comes too late, it won’t make a big difference.
What I’m saying is that speed in delivering the communication is very important. It can actually make or break you as a business. Here’s an example…
A lady wants 10 small booklets printed. It’s a pretty simple job, with no huge design challenges. She walks into a printer’s shop and tells them what she wants and gives a couple options, wanting to get a price range. The printer takes down all the details, and then says she will email the quote by the day after tomorrow.
The lady is sort of stunned, since the job seemed pretty simple. But she thanks the shopkeeper and leaves. She drives down the street to another printing shop. She walks in and tells them what she wants and gives a couple options. The printer pokes at a calculator and gives her a quote.
Guess who gets the printing job?
Take complaints within a business for another example. A customer with a complaint, although sometimes hard to face for a businessperson, needs attention, and needs it fast. It’s the complaints that aren’t “communicated to” that escalate into legal suits and other things.
This world has become one of customers desiring instant gratification. With the speed of the Internet and the ease of phone calls, this continues to increase. The same goes for communication. People with questions of you expect rapid response. If you don’t respond at all… well, they think you don’t exist anymore and go somewhere else.
So, okay—you know that you must respond to communications fast. Good! But now, how to you prioritize these communications? Glad you asked… ;-)
You should treat any communication as a priority when it’s related to your business, but how do you break them down more thoroughly?
Prioritize communication handling this way as a suggestion:
- People appearing in person
- Telephone calls
- E-mail messages
- Letters
There’s nothing worse than being in the middle of a business transaction in person with someone and having the phone ring to interrupt. What’s worse is when you are the customer and the business owner stops, picks up the phone, and begins a whole new transaction. It would be just as simple for him to either put the person on hold, explaining that he was going to be a few minutes, or taking a number to call back.
E-mail messages can be answered within a few hours with no real problem, and letters can be replied to within 24 hours to three days and still be considered rapidly handled.
Fast communications are vital to today’s business practices. Get good at it. You’ll have more business—guaranteed!
Or as Joe Vitale famously says, “Money loves speed!”
—Marcus Hochstadt
Law Of Attraction In Action
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Strategies
The term “Law of Attraction” is used a lot these days. And because I’m far from being an Law of Attraction expert, there are two sources I visit often and highly recommend, Abraham-Hicks and Gary Evans.
As far as I know, it’s based on the principal of “like attracts like.” Simply stated, if your emotions and beliefs are all positive, you will attract positive things. It precludes actually having to take action to attain these things. The idea is “they will come.”
It has been considered that you get what you feel in alignment with, and what you feel in alignment with determines what you will experience.
And yes, this can be applied to any area in your live, including the thriving Internet business you are building.
Let’s share a story with you…
A friend of mine had the Law of Attraction work for her—and she didn’t even know about it as a subject. That just goes to show that laws are laws. The law of gravity works whether we know about it as a law or not.
She had recently divorced and her children were grown and out on their own. She thought this was the perfect time to change everything in her life, move to a new city and start over. She could do all the things she had not had the chance to do before. She sat down for a couple of nights running and started making a list of the things she wanted.
She wanted a cheap place to live to start out. She wanted to get a job in which she could advance, and she even listed out certain things that she would like that she never had with her family. For instance, her family had hated chocolate (for whatever reason) and she loved it. She wanted to have Boston cream pie until she could stand it no more.
Once she arrived in the new city—with a friend putting her up until she could find a place to live—she almost immediately found the perfect place in the exact price range she pictured. (And it was commented by her friend that NOBODY found apartments that cheap in this area.) She got a job and was promoted in two weeks to an executive position. And when her birthday arrived, what did the office have for her celebration? You guessed it! Boston cream pie.
These were just a few of the things she had visualized. In fact, she had kept a little notebook where she wrote down all the things she had listed. A year later, she came upon the notebook while cleaning. Opening it to her list, she began highlighting all the things she now had that she had wanted back then. Every single one she had or had accomplished!
My friend had never heard of the Law of Attraction. Yet it worked for her. She knew what she wanted, listed it down, pictured what it would be like to have those things, and forgot about it… everything just happened from there.
If you have never seen the film entitled “The Secret,” you should see it. The way the Law of Attraction is defined presently is largely due to this film and its popularity.
Without getting into the history of the concept, suffice it to say it’s been around for a long, long time… like from the times of Babylon. :-)
The concept is simple. How you feel is shaping your future. If you have good thoughts, positive ideas and feel good, then that is how your future will be. The good things will come to you.
Following with the rule of like attracting like, you must therefore avoid negative feelings. If you are concentrating on the negative, negative things will come into your life.
For instance, if you are thinking how broke you are and how hard it is to get money, this will manifest for you. You’ll be broke and have a hard time getting money.
So how do you “practice” the Law of Attraction to change your life for the better? It’s only a few steps, and there are many details to each, but here is a summary.
- First you know what it is you want, and know it with conviction. You can list the things you want, like a shopping list.
- You ask “the universe” for it. The universe can be whatever you envision it is—God, some other higher power, a kind of energy source, whatever.
- You then focus upon the thing you want with an upbeat emotion like cheerfulness or enthusiasm or gratitude. You experience the emotions and feelings you have as if you already achieved or have what you want. You do this on a daily basis.
- You are open to receive it. If it doesn’t just appear, you might expect it to come in the form of some opportunity—and you should go with the flow if it feels right. Take advantage of the opportunity that will likely bring you what you want.
There isn’t any time frame. It will come about in its own time and space.
Do things that make you feel good, practice the Law of Attraction, and make your life better. Opportunities will unfold, and you can get what you want!
The Importance Of An Internet Business Plan
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business, Strategies
So, you have this wonderful new idea for an Internet business—many have one—but web development and technology move at breathtaking speeds. Do you really have time to put together a business plan?
Of the millions of Internet businesses that have opened in the last few years, how many of these put together a detailed business plan, or even a blueprint? It’s a small percentage. Most new online businesses think preparing a business plan is a waste of time, and by the same respect, over 80% of all new businesses fail, often in the first year.
You have the vision, you may have lofty expectations of what you want to achieve, but do you know how to get there?
There is no “one fits all” solution… Every business—and every one—is unique, even for companies within the same sector. Plus, if you have a successful business offline, that doesn’t guarantee the transition online will be easy, and there are extra considerations when you start any business on the internet.
The primary purpose of any business plan is to give your business direction. In order to move forward, you need vision, planning, research, and goals. Not only do you need to convince yourself that your idea is viable, but a business plan will also convince others. Let’s say you want to raise capital, then your bank manager or potential investors will also need to see a detailed business plan.
The Internet is also a valuable source for finding templates and advice for your Internet business plan, so here I am going to outline the need of a business plan rather than the content, and if you still think you don’t want a business plan, come back in one year and let’s see how you performed. ;-)
Writing a business plan forces you to analyze every aspect of your proposed business venture and whether you use ten or twenty sections to get you there, it puts your vision down on paper, proves your understanding of the business, highlights any hurdles you may not have expected, and ensures that the overall idea is realistic.
Key Issues To Outline
Your Mission
Explain your new business and what you want to achieve. What are you currently doing that makes you believe you can make a success of?
Explain in detail what your business does, detail your products & services and illustrate your goals. Developing a Web site also requires further planning. What do you want to achieve from the front end, your user interface? Is this an e-commerce business, or do you just want to promote your business or services? Do you want to generate hits or want users to sign up for membership? What do you want your clients to see and do?
Express your vision and the keys to its success. (I personally use and highly recommend Mindjet’s MindManager Pro for this.)
How Will You Get There?
What resources do you have available? Are you using your own expertise, or will you be using employers or outsourcing work? If you have a successful business away from the internet, how will you make that transition online, and what effect will it have on your existing business?
How will you create your Web site and what resources do you have available? When a web designer starts work on your site, you will need a blueprint of how your site comes together, and how the pages are organized and integrated.
Outline your marketing strategy, your pricing strategy, and your plan to promote sales.
Analyze your competitors and explain what will give you the edge, while at the same time list possible partners. Take the time to plan for contingencies, too. Show that you are aware of possible hurdles and how they can be overcome.
Include timelines, goals, and explain where your Internet business will be in one year, five years, and ten years time, or within a scale that suits your business.
Back Up Your Information
If you think there are thousands of customers for your business, prove this figure and provide an up-to-date market analysis. You must include projected sales figures, cash flow and profit and loss forecasts. Not only will you need this to raise capital (in case you want to), but it provides you with a budget and planning tool to measure your progress.
Finally, top it all off with an executive summary. This is like the blurb on the back page of a novel. Summarize your Internet business plan and explain it on one page, which will be the very first page. When approaching investors and bankers, it should encourage them to take the time and read through your Internet business plan. It ensures that you can encompass all your facts, figures, vision, and your mission into one statement.
—Marcus Hochstadt
11 CommentsPermalink Tags: blueprint, internet business plan, vision
The Anatomy Of Hurdles
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business, Strategies
On a daily basis, you may encounter several different hurdles… They distract you from the job at hand and frequently slow you down, but quite often they are an expected part of your working day.
It’s the bigger hurdles that present a challenge; they creep up through neglect, or bad planning, and can be extremely detrimental to your Internet businesses success.
So how do you define an Internet business hurdle? A challenge to one company can be a disaster to another. No wonder they are called a roadblock to success.
Let’s see… An Internet business hurdle may…
Impede Advancement
Unforeseen hurdles can slow down the progress of a project. They increase man hours, and affect its profitability, which has a continued effect throughout your Internet business, and the necessary excuses distill confidence with your customers.
Dictate Choices
A hurdle can force you into changing direction. When you plan and choose the direction your Internet business needs to move in, an unexpected hurdle limits those choices and may force your Internet business in a direction that would not be your ideal or first choice.
Block Avenues
A hurdle can also block avenues or possibilities completely. A roadblock to success is a common description for a business hurdle. For some hurdles, there may not be a way forward.
Cause Discouragement
When projects do not work as planned, or unforeseen hurdles block progress, the effects on morale are harsh. It’s very disheartening for managers and staff to not see a project through to fruition and can cause owners to neglect their Internet business rather than face further disappointment.
Affect Cash Flow
Most hurdles can have an effect on cash flow, when customers are slow to pay bills or sales drop, it’s increasingly difficult to pay your own suppliers and creditors. Bad financial management means that serious hurdles, like unforeseen tax bills, will also drain your resources, plus losing staff to sickness, family problems or other employers is another hurdle which slows down your advance and adds more expense with recruitment and training.
The Solution
To overcome Internet business hurdles, plan for them. When you create your initial Internet business plan, you have to implement plans for contingencies and analyze every potential hurdle. Risk Management needs to continue throughout the life span of your Internet business, and every new project and investment needs planning to control it and predict future outcomes.
The more you plan, the less Internet business hurdles you will face, or the smaller their impact will be. And when they appear, they are expected and you know the appropriate action.
Let’s look at the number one hurdle, lack of sales, and see how planning can prevent this problem:
How Well Do You Know Your Market?
In Internet business, you need to analyze your potential markets, and know how to reach them. If trends suddenly change, you need a plan to move with them. Your old marketing strategy may have worked once, but you need to keep up with the changing market. Never sit on your laurels. Reach out to your customers, reward loyalty, and actively promote and analyze new ventures.
Look At Your Performance.
If you cut corners on your production or service, your customers will soon realize. Plan your pricing strategy, and review and test it continuously. Is your price too expensive to be appealing, or are your prices too low? Most businesses do price themselves too low, which may win a short term popularity vote, but affects the performance of your overall Internet business and its “Net Worth” and can rarely be sustained.
Look at, and evaluate you customer services standards. These standards should be outlined in a plan and upheld regardless of the circumstances. Bad customer service is usually the number one reason your customer does not return.
Has Your Product Reached Its Lifespan?
Trends change continuously. The latest gadget on the market may earn you millions, but it will not be around forever. If you have based your business on one product, you will need to know what to do when this product reaches the end of its life-cycle. Do you have other products to replace it with? Or do you update old products to be “the latest” again?
Bottom Line
There are far too many hurdles to list here, as every Internet business is unique with its own set of risks, but planning and prevention are paramount.
You may not think you have the time, but that’s something else you need to overcome and plan. And when your Internet business stumbles over that last hurdle you failed to overcome, you will have all the time in the world to analyze it then and eventually start over.
Having said all this, I want you to remember a quote I use quite often…
If something doesn’t work, do not adjust your goal, adjust the action steps towards that goal.
—Marcus Hochstadt
Why I Do Not Use FeedBurner
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Marketing, Reviews, Strategies, Traffic Generation
Ever heard of FeedBurner? Stupid question, huh…
It seems as if the majority of bloggers use FeedBurner to distribute and track the use of their RSS feeds.
Every day I come across blogs showing off the neat little counter proudly displaying how many subscribers they have, just like so…
Here is the thing I have with Feedburner.
Feedburner feeds are, per default, in a format that looks like this…
http://feeds.feedburner.com/KeywordPhrase
And more strangely, when you view a blog post in a feed reader their URLs look like this…
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/KeywordPhrase/~3/279888022/
Isn’t this a bit strange? How do you know to which site or post you’re subscribed to or what that post is about?
Another thing is word-of-mouth. Imagine you send the FeedBurner URL of a particular blog post to a friend. You eventually provide a short description to entice him/her to click trough. Yet still, it is fairly hard to imagine what one will find when clicking on such a ghost link.
Whereas, when one sends an RSS feed link of one of my blog posts to someone it is clearer what you will find when you click on it since it serves as a “URL headline.”
Do not underestimate word-of-mouth! I get lots of visitors from mail services like Gmail, Yahoo! Mail, and Live Mail. Many of them enter my blog on individual pages. (My blog announcement list mentions the home page only.) It is likely some of them picked up the post’s URL from my RSS feed and sent it via e-mail to a friend.
How often did you hear that the headline is the most important part of a message? With a great headline you can pull a reader to your site to read all the rest. You can entice him, brag him and encourage him, but with a Feedburner feed… where is that “URL headline?”
Let’s compare the following two RSS feed links. Assuming both lead to the same location, which one would make you click?
http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/InternetBusinessGuide/~3/279888022/
http://www.hochstadt.com/aweber-secret
See?
This is my main reason why I’m not a FeedBurner.
Another thing is that FeeBurner owns your feed when you use their services. Theoretically, they could do whatever they wish with it. They could even terminate your account. In such a case, you would instantly lose all of your subscribers. Think that won’t happen?
Recently, there was a guy using myspace.com as platform to social network with others and promote his upcoming first music CD. He built a large following in a fairly short time period. He had lots of friends and even established connections to popular names in the music industry. What happened?
Myspace.com terminated his account two days before his CD came out, without providing any reason.
BANG!
What was supposed to become a hit became a flop.
Bottom line, if, after reading the above, you still think it is advantageously to use FeedBurner, I at least strongly encourage you to remove the counter (unless it shows thousands of subscribers.)
—Marcus Hochstadt
51 CommentsPermalink Tags: feedburner, rss feed, subscription, word of mouth
The “Not Enough Time” Excuse
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business, Strategies
“There are never enough hours in the day.”
This is a common excuse and everyone is using it. As I figured out over time, for our customers and colleagues, it’s exasperating to hear, and only highlights our poor time management.
When you bring up the topic of Time Management, it’s often dismissed as nonsense; business jargon from do-gooders with too much time on their hands. Try working in the real world is the response, no one could possible understand or do their job in the measly 24 hours allotted every day.
Even if you start work every day with the greatest intentions, time management is constantly challenged. You are distracted by phone calls, e-mails, or that mountain of mail that arrives on your desk daily. After hours on the computer you are lethargic and cannot concentrate, or the demands on your time are causing you considerable stress.
Or here’s another scenario… The project you are working on commands more time and resources than you can possibly handle, but you are reluctant to delegate this project to a colleague, contractor or employee.
There Is Logical Reasoning Behind This
Maybe you don’t want someone else to take the credit for this project; you want the praise, or even want to play the martyr for completing this task alone.
Another—and equally misleading—reason for not delegating work is the fear that the other person may not be able to complete it to the same standard and you will have to waste more time putting it right. You know the age-old saying that if you want to get something done correctly, you are best doing it yourself.
How insane is that…
Of course, if you cannot produce services to an agreed deadline, people may look elsewhere for a more reliable source. The internet has made this even more demanding. As technology has advanced, human beings struggle to keep up.
Also, some folks expect instant responses to their e-mails. They can purchase goods online in seconds and they can instantly buy into any online service with very little effort.
Still, performing all tasks by yourself due to fear of rejection or imperfectionism is a surefire way to 24/7 busyness (i.e., all-nighters) and discarding freedom.
So, Now That We’ve Heard The Excuses Let’s Look At Fixing The Problem
A successful Project Manager knows that you have to organize every project into small easily manageable tasks. By breaking the project down into small pieces, you can assign a timescale and budget to each of these components and then delegate roles. Delegating administrative and less important tasks gives you breathing room and time for finalizing more important and/or more confidential tasks.
Ever heard of the “80-20 rule” or the Pareto Principle?
The Pareto Principle is a business model that decrees that we achieve 80% of our results from only 20% of our efforts. The model is based on the Pareto Index, a parameter outlined by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, when he proposed that 20% of the population owned 80% of the wealth.
New models have changed the percentages slightly over the years, but the 80-20 rule can be applied to many different areas from the laws of nature, to human and social behavior, such as our network of friends, recognized when we spent 80% of our social time with 20% of our friends (or that 80% of our sales is generated by 20% of our customers.)
When you apply this to Time Management, the 80-20 rule seems quite outstanding. How can you possibly achieve 80% of your results with 20% of the effort. Does that mean you only have to put in 20% of the hours?
Well, when you start delegating and outsourcing, yes, definitely!
Now you probably recognize that you work hard 20% of the day, while the rest of the day is full of distractions, breaks for coffee, needless conversations on the telephone, browsing the internet instead of working, and on and on…
Ha! I caught you. :-)
Think about how you organize your time. Break projects down into small manageable tasks and don’t be distracted by those 80% time fillers. Plan your week, plan your day, and use whichever method gets the best result.
If you can, only review and answer your e-mails twice a day and not every ten minutes, when the server drops down the latest batch of junk into your inbox (including that distracting sound alert, uh!)
The same applies to your mail. Organize as it arrives. There should be only three categories: Action now, File, or Throw Away. If you have to add an Action Later category, you will soon find that the contents will end up as junk as well.
Although many businesses have standards of correspondence, when you receive a letter, rather than spending time typing another letter in return, could you simply write your response on the bottom and send it back? It’s good for the environment too.
And as for all that paperwork - clear your desk. It takes only five or ten minutes at the end of the day. This allows you to further organize your work for the following morning and walk into the office without being confronted by a mountain of paperwork.
Write To-do Lists And Prioritize Your Time
Another tried and tested Time Management technique is to list the five most important tasks to do in each day, or maybe ten depending on your Internet business, but make that list and stick to it. Prioritize the list further by listing the tasks in order of importance. Then make sure you complete the most important task first thing in the morning!
This tip alone—if applied consistently—saves you another 1-2 hours each and every day. (Don’t believe me? Why not just do it and experience it yourself… ;-) So did I.)
Finally, delegate any tasks that you are able to, empowering your contractors to be fully involved in your internet businesses success. After all, you should be managing your business, not suffering under the stresses of not having enough time…
—Marcus Hochstadt
Do You See The Footsteps In Front Of Mount Everest?
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business, Strategies
Do you have big dreams? Do you know of people who have?
I know people with big dreams. Each and every single one of those dreams involves making a significant change in the way these people are currently living their lives.
Have you ever asked yourself why so many people spend all that time dreaming, but so few actually manage to live the life of their dreams?
The way I see it, the world is split into two camps: the world of people who actually get things done and the world of people with wishful thinking. So, what really makes the difference?
The answer to that question is twofold… It depends on peoples’ level of commitment to their goals and the way they go about achieving them.
Your Level Of Commitment
Big, ambitious goals demand a lot of energy, passion, commitment, determination, and persistence.
Why do you think Michelangelo took four years out of his life to carve the famous statue of David? Why do you think NASA keeps sending astronauts into space? Why is the tallest building in 2020, the planned Al Burj on Dubai’s waterfront, going to be over 1,000 meters high?
All these big projects were and will be achieved because they have one very important thing in common. The people behind them cared enough about them to make them happen. Tackling the question of what the source of true commitment is, then, becomes quite simple.
Commitment always starts with identifying a dream that is truly worth having, one that makes you stay up at night.
What do you really care for?
What is it that you really want, from the bottom of your heart?
How much does your dream mean to you?
Does it mean enough to you to commit yourself to it?
It’s something you need to become clear about before you embark upon achieving your goal. I cannot stress that enough.
How Do You Go About Achieving Your Goals?
Turning to the issue of how to go about achieving ambitious goals…
I often come across extremely driven, determined people who just don’t seem to be making any progress. Most of the time, it’s because they fail to find the correct balance in setting their short and long-term goals.
In other words, they set short-term goals that are too big, and long-term goals that are too small.
Setting big, even huge, long-term goals is nothing to be afraid of. You can make your ultimate goal as big as you like, as long as you stay conscious of the fact that anything worth having does take time, passion and determination.
You cannot earn a degree, master a musical instrument, or have a thriving Internet business in a couple minutes. Just like Rome wasn’t built in a day. Instant Gratification is a virus that needs to be stopped.
On the other hand, setting short-term goals that are too big can be detrimental to the achievement of your final goal. Motivation is vital for getting things done. So, when you fail in one of the shorter term goals, you risk losing your nerve and abandoning your dream completely!
Here’s a wonderful technique to avoid that from happening…
Cut the big picture into small, very small and doable pieces. Transform your journey towards the final goal into a series of tiny, mini-steps. Make sure each of these steps is so small that it makes you think they’re too easy—they might not even look like actual steps!
Write down every single one of them in a list. Tackle each step, one at a time, and check it off on the list once you’re finished with it. Ticking things off is a very powerful technique to motivate yourself. You are giving yourself a personal reward of sorts every time you complete a task. This will keep you going until your dream finally materializes.
Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it?
Well, one could say Simplicity was the father of Archievement. ;-)
Bottom Line
The right strategy is to think big, but execute small. After all, the only way to get from here to where you want to be is by taking all the little steps in between.
Give yourself permission to motivate you.
—Marcus Hochstadt
Internet Business — Planning Comes Before Building
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business, Strategies
“If you build it, will they come?”
Don’t think just by creating a blog site or starting an Internet business that you will be like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams. He built a baseball field and the players came… but that was a movie and this is real life.
In order to sell or bring in business, you have to plan and work at it. Even the best entrepreneurs and copywriters will tell you that. (No, not those GRQ scams; they’ll continuously promise you the quick ‘n dirty easy zero-cost path to wealth—when you buy their $97 e-book. Sorry but I’m just too tired of them… LOL)
The following startup tips will help you become a successful entrepreneur… one step at a time.
Before you register your domain name and put up a Web site, you need to plan and build the foundation of your Internet business and the audience you’re about to target. What? You already started a site or blog but haven’t planned anything upfront?
Well, then… now is a good time to do it and start fine-tuning (or starting over if necessary.)
What are your plans for marketing? Who is your target audience? Where will you find these people? And, most importantly, why should they buy from you? Deejay vu… English 101 all over again…. Who, What, Where, and Why. The “How” will be answered… through the creation of your Web site.
Let’s look at marketing first. There are many sites out there, including mine, that offer marketing tools, tips, and products (soon) that will help you bring in more traffic or assist in sealing the deal. Take some time to check them out and choose the ones that are best for you and your product.
Next, who is your target audience? You should have been thinking about this all along when you were drawing up your business plan and fine-tuning your ideas. Who will shop or purchase your products. Everyone? A select group? Men? Women? Pets? (Just kidding with the latter…) Now is the time to truly define this in order to know where to look online to find these people.
So, you have your target audience… now what? Start out by checking for blog sites, forums, and other sites that cater to your target audience, or who would buy or market your product, or be interested in your blog. Compile a comprehensive list and then start contacting them or participating.
You can either write up a great sales copy, post to their blog, forum, or site, check out their affiliate programs, etc. The sky is the limit here. With so many Web sites out there, you are bound to come across many potential buyers or customer bases.
When contacting these prospects, think to yourself, “Why should they buy from me or check out my blog, rather than someone else’s?” What makes your site and/or product stand out? You need to be able to answer these questions and stand behind your product (or the ones you recommend) in order to bring in the sale or hit to your site.
Do not copycat someone else; build your own “brand of one”.
Now that you have answered the “Who, what, where, why, and how,” you should be well on your way to Internet business success.
Remember business plans always need fine-tuning. Also, make sure to keep your blog (if you have one) fresh and updated… posting things people want to read on a regular basis (more than once per week; yes, blogging is a commitment.)
Continue to create or build upon your sales base. The market is always changing and you need to be ready and on top of your game… if you want to stay in the game.
“If you build it right, they will come!”
Right? :-)
—Marcus Hochstadt
Why Drafting Messages Saves You Time
Published by Marcus Hochstadt | Posted in Business, Strategies
Drafting messages in order to publish them at a later time is a great way to save a bunch of time. You sit down one time, focus on writing, writing, writing, and then you’re done for a couple of days or even weeks.
I haven’t “completely” done this exercise yet. What I mean by “completely” is to take an entire day off and write as many blog posts as I can, putting them into my WordPress post management and schedule them for a certain date to be published (or simply leave them there as drafts and hit the “Publish” button when the time is right).
I did once spend two hours though. I locked my door and really focused on the task at hand and got five blog posts written that way. Two of them are still in my draft posts area, so to speak.
Matt Cutts posted the other day mentioning he’d have ~219 (!) yes, two hundred nineteen draft posts. He’s now thinking of deleting or publishing them. Think about this for a second (or two)… 219! I currently have only 5 drafts (five). He has 219… Wow!
How many draft posts do you have in your WordPress Mission Control Center?
Well, I do have an excuse (we all have one, don’t we)… I started this blog just a couple of weeks ago (4 weeks exactly today!), not two years ago like Matt.
Still, one of my goals is to have a bunch of posts finished and scheduled to be published on __.__.____. Let’s say to have enough for an entire month… this would free up our time, wouldn’t it? Imagine, you’d have 30+ posts ready and scheduled, how much time would you have freely available to do something else then?
And to answer Matt’s question… Matt, I, personally, would trash the “pretty sucky” posts and polish those that would make them become a high quality one, if you have the time. (Matt must be 10 times as busy as I am!)
“Well, let’s first get that AdSense video finished, Marcus…”
Alright!
—Marcus Hochstadt
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