March 24, 2006

I'll trade you this paperclip

Kyle MacDonald used to play a game when he was a kid. He would trade something small for something bigger, and keep trading up until he got something he wanted. He claims he wasn't very good at it. Now he is trading a paperclip for a house... well, sort of....

The game is called Bigger and Better. He thought about this game when he decided he should have a house, but can't even afford a down payment.

According to an article from the Halifax Herald:

For the paper clip, he got a pen. He traded the pen for a doorknob. He traded the doorknob for a camping stove. For the stove, he got a generator. For the generator, he got a neon Budweiser sign, an empty beer keg and an IOU to fill it. That party pack netted him a snowmobile, which he traded for a trip to the Canadian Rockies. He traded the trip for a van.

He says he is considering writing a book about his experience. But for now, if you would like to see how he is getting along you can bookmark his blog at www.oneredpaperclip.com. You can also use a link on his blog to submit your own trade offer.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:04 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

March 05, 2006

Let's have a laugh

After being married twice, divorced twice, and involved in numerous other failed relationships, I think I am at the point where I am qualified to offer the worst possible relationship advice imaginable. No doubt about it! If you have a great relationship with your spouse or significant other, I'm sure I could help you sour those warm fuzzy feelings. And to top it off, I think I would like to be paid for this invaluable service.

"Dr. Robert H. Coombs, Professor of Behavioral Sciences at UCLA, conducted a review of more than 130 published empirical studies measuring how marital status affects personal well-being. He concluded that scientific investigations, conducted from the 1930s to the present, "attest that married people live longer and generally are more emotionally and physically healthy than the unmarried." Coombs specifically looked at the areas of alcoholism, suicide, morbidity and mortality, mental illness and self reports of happiness."

After my second divorce I joined a "support group" but I didn't stay with it very long. Man, you talk about negative people! Heck, if I wanted to feel worse about myself and situation, I was in the right place. It was crowded with people talking about crazy things like suicide, drugs and alcohol. Yes, I went home and made myself a stiff drink and turned on the TV to watch a re-run of Seinfeld. If his petty character was worthy of enjoying the single life, mine was too. Granted, we might be less "emotionally and physically healthy" but I don't see where it says we can't be just as happy! As George Costanza said:

I'm disturbed, I'm depressed, I'm inadequate, I've got it all!

I don't think people should wallow in self-pity, or have to listen to others who are just as miserable. In fact, I've been toying with the idea of putting up a website that would take a light-hearted look at divorce and failed relationships. Perhaps a column like "Dear Abby" where people could write in with their marital woes and receive the worst possible advice — maybe a discussion forum where we could share some laughs.

What do you think? Does this sound like fun?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 02:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 01, 2005

The Mightiest Voice in Marketing

Do you know what the mightiest voice in marketing is? If you want to promote your own products and services the mightiest voice in marketing is someone else's. Most people won't believe them when you tell them how great you are. You will just come off sound like a braggart. Then if someone else tells a group about how great your product or service is it has the affect of raising your credibility.

Bob Serling's recent article titled "The Mightiest Voice in Marketing" goes on to say:

"Prospects are justifiably skeptical of anything you say about yourself. After all, they've been burned, probably more times than they care to admit, by people just like you who say all kinds of glowing things about themselves. So why should they believe you?"

He suggests the workaround is to let someone else tell your prospects about you, and to get permission to use this in your marketing material. And, do this this any time you can... Here is an example of a piece Bob is using:

Bob says "...that a satisfied customer can say things about you in a powerful way that you could never say about yourself without completely alienating your audience. And that is a mighty tool to have in your marketing arsenal."

Without a shred of doubt I can honestly say that a good majority of the work I get comes from referrals. I would expect if you can get an ad, like the above, in front of your prospects, you could have tons of work. The placement of this type of your ad in your marketing material needs to have some weight and priority too. Bob says:

"It always amazes me that so many people wait until the end of their marketing piece to roll out their testimonials. If you continue to make claim after claim in your marketing without countering your prospect's natural skepticism with undeniable proof, by the time you get to the end of your marketing piece, it's usually too late. What you've really done is built a wall of skepticism so high, that no proof can overcome this."

You can read the full article here. Please feel free to agree your comments on this type of marketing here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 24, 2005

Blog Popup windows

I can understand that people want to make a little money from publishing their blogs. Most blogs you see have Google Adsense inserted in a column along the side, and it isn't uncommon to see other products featured in the same or opposite column. What I do mind, is popup windows... especially the DHTML ones that cannot be blocked and are set on a delay so that they appear when you are trying to read the content.

While browsing my RSS feeds I found a story I wanted to read and clicked the link which loaded the blog in my browser. By the time I got to the second sentence, a DHTML popup floated down from the top (offering 3 free eBooks for signing up) and interrupted me from the article.

I felt this was an annoyance I could live without. Although I have a great deal of respect for the author of the blog, and his marketing knowledge, I removed the RSS feed from my reader. I would like to think this won't become a trend.

How do you feel about popup windows on blogs?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Google Joins IM Fray

Reuters announced that Google will soon be offering an instant messaging system of their own with voice capability. They suggest this will give Skype more competition.

The article says:

Google Talk goes beyond text-based instant messaging using a computer keyboard to let users hold voice conversations with other computer users, the newspaper quoted a source as saying.

You can read the full article at eWeek.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 18, 2005

Email stats from Aweber

Barry Stein published a letter he received from Aweber about newsletter statistics. It includes information about open rates, formats, best delivery days.

If you're a publisher it is well worth a read.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 15, 2005

The Dot Com era is back!

In a recent post titled "Internet use threatens to overtake TV in Canada it discusses the threat of online marketing to traditional media sources in Canada. This isn't a a threat anymore in the US. It is a fact.

An article written by Thomas Mucha from Business 2.0 says:

People are spending more time online than watching TV, which gives marketers a better chance to reach consumers in a place where they are just one click away from making a purchase. "More than 75 percent of companies using the Internet to advertise report confidence in their return on investment," writes the study's lead author, Jupiter Research senior analyst Gary Stein. This confidence, Stein argues, will sustain spending momentum across all the key online ad areas: paid search, display ads, classified ads, and rich media.

Interesting to note that two studies are similar. Although The Ipsos Reid study of Canada claims radio is losing more interest than TV in Canada, it may soon lose to the Internet as well.

Mr. Mucha claims 40 percent of total spending by 2010 will be paid advertisements on Google, Yahoo and MSN to an estimate of $19 billion per year. Not much wonder why the search engines are trying to dominate each other and the marketplace. The one that becomes the most popular will also make the most money.

What will become of the little guy? Will it put an end to buying keywords for ad placement on search engines? Will the small business owner get shoved out of the picture? Maybe not altogether... but let's face it. If GM decides they want to use the keywords you are using, can you afford to compete? The search engines will be laughing "all the way to the bank" and the cost per clicks will just keeping going up... (he-he) similar to the price of gasoline at the pumps these days.

Even though the cost of clicks may get pricey, the major search engines will always have to index relevant websites and include these results and return them on any keyword search. Professional sites (versus linkfarm, affiliate, spam sites) will always be in favour, and the sooner business can get their company sites built, if they haven't already; the better. Google seems to be the top search engine right now, and new sites often get sandboxed. If they hold on to their dominant position, new websites want to make sure this doesn't happen to them.

I've always felt that there was something Google was doing that gave some sites more relevance than others in its index, but wasn't sure how it was applied. At the Search Engine Strategies conference last week in San Jose, California, Rand Fishkin learned that Google places some new Web sites, "regardless of their merit, or lack thereof, in a sort of probationary category" for six months to a year to "allow time to determine how users react to a new site, who links to it, etc."

On a final piece of advice he suggests:

"Several people have also predicted that Yahoo! or MSN may take up similar techniques to help stop spam. This phenomenon could seriously undermine new SEO/Ms and new campaigns, but it is a possibility. My recommendation is not to discount this possibility and launch projects or at least holding sites and their promotional efforts ASAP. The web environment right now is still relatively friendly to new sites, but will certainly become more competitive and unforgiving with time, no matter what search engine filters exist."

Although it is starting to sound a little like the "Dot Com era is back" it will be a little different this time around. In 2000 when it went bust, it is partly because the percentage of consumers purchasing online didn't justify the amount of spending. There was a lack of confidence. It is different now. Jupiter's study shows that "73 percent of Americans who use the Internet have made a purchase online and four out of five of these potential shoppers have responded to an online ad."

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 11, 2005

And I try, and I try, and I try...

The subject line "And I try, and I try, and I try..." is easily recognized form the song "I Can't Get No Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones. And try, they did.

From CTV News:

About 1,000 lucky music fans in Toronto experienced a rare treat Wednesday night they likely won't soon forget -- a live show in a small club by living rock legends the Rolling Stones.

The $10 show, considered a warm-up gig for their upcoming world tour, was The World's Greatest Rock Band's thank you to Toronto for playing host to them for past month.

That was quite a deal, compared to the $450 price tag for a top-priced seat when the rockers play in Toronto next month as part of their world tour, which starts Aug. 21 in Boston.

If you read through the rock band's history as chronicled at en.wikipedia.org you see a 40+ years of hardship, drug abuse and tragic events have marred their success. But they kept trying... and have been called "The World's Greatest Rock & Roll Band."

Entrepreneurs world wide can identify with their struggle. Although most of us will never achieve the level of success that they have, we will also never have to endure the the agony they have put themselves through to get there. However, even modest levels of success seem to require a modest amount of sacrifice, and a ton of commitment.

Today? I'm just going to try a little.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 03:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 09, 2005

Internet use threatens to overtake TV in Canada

A survey from Ipsos Reid suggests that the Internet may soon overtake TV as the most popular medium. The survey says:

The recent Ipsos Reid study Online News and Information Seeking: What the Future Holds shows that the amount of time Internet-using Canadians are spending actively using the Internet is on the rise, averaging 12.7 hours per week (up 46% from 8.7 hours in 20022). This increase appears to have come at the expense of radio as the typical Internet-using adult spends 11 hours per week listening to the radio, down from 16 hours per week in 2002. While weekly Internet usage has surpassed radio listening, television retains the number one position among media sources with Internet-using Canadians averaging 14.3 hours of TV viewing per week. Still, the gap between Internet and TV usage is closing (a difference of 1.6 hours per week compared to 4.5 hours in 2002), with the Internet threatening to overtake television should these trends continue.

Catherine Rogers, senior research manager with Ipsos Reid's Media Practice, said, "In order to combat this growing threat, traditional media sources must continue to find innovative ways to use the Internet as a complement to their total offering."

This leaves us free to speculate about the how this trend will be directly proportional to the cost of online advertising. How will it affect the job market? What about employees who need to be re-trained to work within this medium?

It also makes one wonder about companies who spend their advertising budgets on more traditional methods, while excluding the Internet.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 01:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

August 03, 2005

The case for RSS

Bill Flitter's article, While Web publishers slept, on C|Net says that:

Just about every major online news source uses RSS to deliver content to subscribers. RSS has been adopted by major publishers such as CNET, the BBC, Yahoo, Motley Fool, InfoWorld, The New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, Wired News, The Wall Street Journal and many others, including a rapidly growing number of local and regional newspapers.

In regards to MEDIA sources who are not using RSS he says, "If they don't watch out, their Web sites just might die along with the traditional viewership model."

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Guides and Resources for Small Business Owners

eBizBlog.ca announced a new resource for Canadians thinking about operating an Internet business from home. They say it is a joint effort by eBC and the e-Futures centers in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, but some of the information provided on the website could be applicable to lots of entrepreneurs... and not necessarily just those in Western Canada.

It has 16 guides including:

Building an Effective Website (PDF, 218 KB) This guide provides valuable tips on how to build an effective website, how and who will use your website, how to select the right developer, top mistakes in website design, and more advanced web development issues.

Essential E-Business Partners (PDF, 226 KB)
A wide variety of ebusiness partners is required to create and implement a successful e-business strategy. Learn more about web hosts, Internet service providers, ASPs, web designers and developers, and how to select the right partners.

Internet Marketing (PDF, 254 KB)
Understand how to use web development, search engine optimization, online advertising, e-mail marketing, blogs, and affiliate program strategies to increase your website traffic.

Selling Online (B2C) (PDF, 204 KB)
Going from a web presence to selling online is usually not as simple as adding a picture of your product to a web page. This guide provides a common-sense approach to issues such as web development and design, electronic storefronts, payment processing, taxation and duties, shipping and order fulfillment for your B2C ecommerce website.

Return on Investment (PDF, 202 KB)
There are many ways to measure the return on an e-business project, and a ROI analysis should form part of your decision-making process. Often entrepreneurs measure ROI as the cash returned from a particular investment. In many cases, however, determining ROI is not so obvious. This guide will teach you more.

It also has a page of links to other resources of interest.

The Pan-Western Website loads fast, and is an incredible resource for newcomers.

The current four team members of Pan-Western each wrote four guides to total sixteen. Regardless of how well informed the members are, it is important to understand that some of the information provided is based on opinion.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 29, 2005

Forbes lists the best blogs

Forbes recently published a list of blogs. They say:

"We identify the best blogs in categories ranging from Art and Literary Blogs, to Small Business, Marketing, Shopping and Music Blogs."

HA! They overlooked this one. What were they thinking?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:29 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 19, 2005

Getting to the top of Google

Danny Wall's article, How To Steal To The Top Of Google: Use the News offers some great tips and strategy for getting to the top using press releases. I would have to presume this would include writing articles and submitting them to article directories too. Mr. Wall says:

"...a visitor that comes to your site from an ad is actually much less likely to buy from you on that visit than is someone that comes to your site because of some sort of beneficial news article that they read somewhere."

I know I've tried using press releases in the past, but haven't had much luck. But this article gave me a great idea. Danny said:

"Is the price of gas going up? That’s good news if you do almost anything that helps to extend a car’s fuel economy."

With prices here hovering at around $1 per liter, it makes me think that this could be tied into why people want to start establishing a second income by building a web business.

You know, if nothing else, it will help put gas in their jalopy so they can get back and forth to work! Or better, yet.... maybe they will have some money left over at the end of the month.

But the point being made is that information being searched for at Google often has links to media coverage at the top of the returned results page, BEFORE any of the regular indexed pages appear.

Something to think about, isn't it?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 14, 2005

Adding RSS Content

I was viewing a discussion thread that mentions a program called RSS Indexed that sells for $199.00. They claim it works like:

RSS Indexer takes all of the hassle out of creating pages and submitting feeds for you. You simply point RSS Indexer towards a URL and it will spider EVERY PAGE on the site and gather content for the RSS Feed.

Tell RSS Indexer how often you want it to submit and YOU ARE DONE!!! Your once Static website is now considered to have CONSTANTLY UPDATED CONTENT.

I guess there is something I don't quite understand here...

If you have a 100 page website full of static content, what is the purpose of turning static content into RSS feeds and having the same static content submitted every 18 days to the search engines. Is this suppose to make the site appear fresh?

If the search engines want FRESH content, wouldn't it make more sense to give them fresh content?

Sure, I understand 100 pages of fresh content might be a little much, but I will tell you what I found.

I was browsing through hotscripts.com and found a program called RSStatic.

Here is how this program works:

Typical web based RSS aggregators simply allow you to publish a headline and link from your chosen feed. This provides you with fresh content on your site and gives visitors a potential reason to return. This offers very little value to search engine optimization efforts. RSStatic goes one step beyond that.

RSStatic takes information from the feeds you choose and generates static html pages for each item in the feed. This quickly turns a 10 page website into a much larger, more robust site complete with relevant content that continually grows.

I installed this as a way to share some of my favorite feeds with my site visitors. I did not submit this page to the search engines. A few days later I noticed the increase in traffic while viewing my stats and referring URLs. If you have a look at this URL from Google you can see it found about 300 new pages from the installation of this script.

Well... I guess I get to share my favorite feeds with more people then just my site visitors.

I guess if someone wanted to use this for a good tool to bring in targeted hits, they could make sure that the feeds they included were site and keyword related. At least it doesn't cost a lot, and the content is fresher. So comparatively speaking, I don't see the advantage of using "RSS Indexed" over the free RSStatic.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:37 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 13, 2005

The 20 Second Rule...

This is the average time someone will spend looking at your sales letter.

Bugsy Cockaracha, from www.SalesLetterHumor.com visited my discussion forum and suggested:

Have any of you read "The 20 Second Rule"

That is the average time a sales letter will be in the hands of the receiver, looked at, read, and thrown away. Does this surprise you? Please go and read the two reports by Professor Vogele and see for yourself. Both articles are not long but are packed with information you can not get any place else.

http://cdmdirect.com/eyestudy1.htm read this first
http://cdmdirect.com/eyestudy2.htm read this next

I came across "The 20 Second Rule" about three years ago and been working on a way to increase the time a sales letter stays in the hands of the receiver. I have created a sales letter that will increase that time many times over

Regards,
Bugsy Cockaracha

"Humor Sales Letters" last forever
they are a Salesmen's best friend.
http://www.SalesLetterHumor.com

P.S. One good turn of the blanket . . . and you'll have the whole thing.

These reports are a must read.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 11, 2005

Online Profits

ON June 26th, 2005, I posted about Bob Serling's new eBook Online Profits at the Speed of Light. A special pre publication was released today where you can buy the eBook for a little less. Bob says:

The price for Online Profits at the Speed of Light — once the full program is ready — will be just $79. That includes the main program and at least 8 powerful bonuses.

However, as a special pre-publication offer to get a partial version of this highly profitable material in your hands as quickly as possible, I'm offering a discounted price of just $59. You'll get all the material that's currently available right now. And because it's all in pdf format, you can have it delivered to your desktop in the next couple minutes. Then, once the full program is complete (toward the end of September), you'll get the complete program and all the remaining bonuses.

When I posted about it, I told you Bob was looking for contributors.

The list of experts currently committed to participating at this point include:

Bob Bly, John Carlton, Dave Dee, Randy Gage, David Garfinkel, Paul Hartunian, John Jantsch, Audri Lanford, Paul Lemberg, Clayton Makepeace, Ken McCarthy, George McKenzie, Paul Myers, Bob Scheinfeld, Yanik Silver, Joe Vitale, Jeff Walker, and Pamela Yellen.

The BIG SURPRISE for me was that he published a handy tip I submitted.

If you missed out on getting your material submitted the deadline for getting your materials to him is July 27th, 2005, but he would prefer to get them as early as possible. It might not be too late to get in the final publication.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 12:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

July 07, 2005

6 ways to improve website stickiness

Don MacLeod article 6 ways to improve website stickiness offers some good common sense using:

• Fresh Articles
• Forum
• Reviews
• Resource Directories
• Newsletter
• Blogs

How many of these strategies do you employ?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 26, 2005

Online Profits at the Speed of Light

I had an email this morning from Bob Serling who said he is looking for people who want to participate in a new ebook he's creating. It's called:

This book will give you an opportunity to get tremendous exposure for yourself and your business, or just to help others.

1. How to contribute material for the ebook.

The gist of the book is simple. Just answer the following question:

"What are the fastest, cheapest, most effective things you do to market online?"

The idea is to keep things as short and easy to act on as possible. At the same time, feel free to take the space you need to make your contribution as useful as possible. You may also include a resource box with contact information and any special offer you may want to include.

He's also looking for bonuses to include with this product. So if you have a report, interview, or some other material that you'd like to offer as a bonus, be sure to let him know.

The deadline for getting your materials to me is July 27th, but he would prefer to get them as early as possible.

2. Significant exposure for the product

He's arranged with a number of companies with large lists to joint venture the product and he's looking for even more. Right now, it looks like there will be in excess of 500,000 people who receive the promo for this product. So you should get tremendous exposure for your products and services.

Also due to the name recognition of the experts he expects to contribute to the book, it should generate strong interest and sales. The list of experts currently committed to participate at this point include:

Bob Bly, John Carlton, Dave Dee, Randy Gage, David Garfinkel, Paul Hartunian, John Jantsch, Audri Lanford, Paul Lemberg, Clayton Makepeace, Ken McCarthy, George McKenzie, Paul Myers, Bob Scheinfeld, Yanik Silver, Joe Vitale, Jeff Walker, and Pamela Yellen.

He also expects to have at least a dozen more experts, as well. All of this fire power should make the book very attractive to buyers.

Please send him your submission as soon as possible and he will get back to you right away to let you know if its been accepted. Send submissions to: opebook@DirectMarketingInsider.com

Bob Serling is the editor of the the popular Direct Marketing Insider newsletter.

UPDATE: July 3, 2005. For those of you who are considering submitting articles to be considered for Bob's eBook, there have been a couple of samples posted to his site. Use these to get an idea for the the types of articles he is looking for.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 23, 2005

Yellow Pages usage declines

Don MacLeod of Ideas4Rent reports:

It's bad news for those who sell Yellow Pages advertising and important information for Yellow Pages advertisers. New research shows that more consumers are using Internet search engines for local shopping information rather than their phone books.

He says that a recent report from Adweek shows "70 percent of US adults use the Internet as an information source when shopping locally for products and services."

This is more or less consistent with a report titled Shoppers Cruise to Auto Sites, that was released by ClickZ Stats on September 24, 2004, that said:

Consumer Reports found that 77 percent of pre-owned vehicle shoppers research prices, and 77 percent go online to do so.

If your business isn't online, now is the time to do it.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:34 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

June 07, 2005

Observations on Advertising

An interesting article I saw this morning suggests that the placement of your ad on a website, as well as the design of the ad, contribute greatly to the advertising campaign.

"Observation: People avoid looking directly at some ads while looking at others; performance depends on placement."

The article is based on a report:

EYETRACK III FINDINGS
This report is one of many from the Eyetrack III study of broadband-era news websites.

46 people were tested for one hour each in December 2003 by Eyetools Inc. in partnership with the Poynter Institute and the Estlow Center. During the test period, each test subject viewed mock news websites created for research purposes and real-world multimedia news features. Results were published in September 2004.

If you are thinking of paying for advertising on other websites you might want to read this first. You will get more bang for your buck depending on how the ad is designed and where it is placed on the website.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 03, 2005

Opportunity gaps

Bob Serling recently wrote an article about opportunity gaps and how to capitalize on them. He quoted this example from a dentist who was barely paying the bills:

"So he looked outside his industry and noticed that more and more businesses were staying open later at night to gain business from people who were busy working all day. Supermarkets stayed open later, as did many malls, convenience stores, record stores, restaurants, and so on.

Following the lead of all these other businesses, he decided to become "The Night Time Dentist", with office hours from 4:00 pm to midnight, five nights per week. He sent fliers to businesses in his area with employees who work the day shift, as well as to the homes in his surrounding area.

Within weeks, his once thin appointment book was filled to capacity. And it's continued that way for many years."

You can read the article here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 21, 2005

The Business Case for RSS

Lee Odden's post led me to a website called marketingstudies.net. They are offering a free report titled The Business Case for RSS. They say:

"The purpose of this report is to demonstrate just how RSS can help marketers and publishers improve their bottom-line and show them how to integrate it within all of their internet marketing and publishing activities."

In this 28 page report you will learn:

• Getting your internet content delivered to end-users.
• Improving your online visibility and generating more traffic / visitors for you.
• Powering your internet public relations through RSS conversations.
• Enhancing your web presence.
• Serving as an advertising platform for publishers and advertisers.

If you would like to lean more you are are encouraged to visit marketingstudies.net and download a copy of the report for yourself.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 01, 2005

Ken Evoy's Unethical Affiliate

I ventured to IceRocket.com today to see how many of my blog posts were indexed, and how fresh the posts were. From doing a search I ran across this blog which has stolen the copy from my homepage, and The link at the top of the post (which says "Home Business Web Sites") goes to an affiliate for Ken Evoy's SiteBuildIt.

Put your mouse over the link and you will see "home-business-web-sitescom-web-site.html."

Even though HomeBusiness Websites is a registered business name, clearly I can understand that use of these words in another context. What really irks me though, is that this guy would copy the the blurb from my homepage, and link it to something else.

And this comes as no surprise &mdash that if you navigate to the homepage of the blog, you will see this guy has done the same thing by targeting other design businesses.

I understand that Ken Evoy may not have any control over unethical affiliates but it would indicate that along the way better affiliate tracking programs need to be built and put to use. I think Ken is fine person and produces some needed programs. It is a shame to see Mr. Envoy getting the name of some of these products dirtied by unethical affiliates.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 30, 2005

Can I Close More Leads?

Most of the business I get comes from referrals and word of mouth. But each month there are always a few, who have probably never heard of me, that submit the form on the bottom of this page, (the link will open in a new browser window, if you want to have a look).

I would say my chances of closing any of these leads is about 1 out of 10. I see the leads come in and I just kind of shake my head. They were interested enough to submit the form — how come they don't follow up to the email that is automatically generated and sent to them?

I was doing up a form for gathering leads for a client yesterday. I asked him, "What text do you want on the thank you page?"

He said, "Oh, you know... the usual. Put "thank you" on the page and then underneath in a smaller font tell them that a confirmation email has been sent to them."

This is pretty well standard, isn't it?

I was reviewing my form (see the link above) and I follow the same process. Then I thought... maybe there is a better way to go about this. Right above the form you will see this text:

Call Steve at 1-(902)843-2534 or put your name and email address in the boxes below and push the button to request more information. Discover how HomeBusiness Websites is the right choice for you.

When you think about it, this might be the wrong place to stop selling. This might be the place to begin selling. They have requested more information... which means... they want more information before they make any sort of decision. So, you've got a hot lead and a thank you page telling them that an email is on the way... it just sort of leaves them hanging.

Maybe the thank you page is the place to start selling some more. Since you have already captured the name, you can place that into a cookie, and present them with a personalized letter. This letter can offer a lot more information about your services, or product and perhaps help close the sale.

This is what I've done. Hopefully this test will see me closing more of the leads that come in. I think this is a much better idea then simply presenting them with a "thank you &mdash an email is on the way" page. What do you think?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 12:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 24, 2005

Local Business soon to Suffer Without Websites

More local business are going to quickly find that their business will suffer without a website. In my post 75% of Canadian Small Businesses Have Websites, I question the validity of a survey by the CFIB (Canadian Federation of Independent Business).

The same thing holds true for our US friends. In a post by B.L. Ochman, she says:

The Kelsey Group revealed figures last night showing 70 percent of U.S. households now turn to the Internet to find local products and services. That's up 16 percent in 2004 over the previous year, putting the Internet on par with newspapers which are likely to fall behind the Internet very shortly, according to MarketingVox.

I don't know! Maybe it is time for me to start running a classified ad site again... but this time focus on a local market.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:05 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 21, 2005

75% of Canadian Small Businesses Have Websites

Michael Ryval, Globe and Mail, quoted Ted Mallett, chief economist at the Toronto-based Canadian Federation of Independent Business that almost 75 per cent of all small Canadian businesses have websites. He goes on to say:

And that means, if you're not there, potential clients will find and hire the competition that is.

I don't know what they base this estimation on. It doesn't give any indication of how this figure was arrived at or what area and percent of businesses was surveyed.

Ms. Duncan, who owns www.ottawaweb.ca, a directory of links to services in the Ottawa was quoted as saying:

"Instead of looking through the Yellow Pages, a lot of people search for information on-line. It's faster, easier and there's more information."

I agree that all small businesses should have websites. However, from doing online searches for local small businesses in this area, I would have to say that it is easier to use the Yellow Pages. Only a small percentage of the Truro and Area businesses have websites.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

March 11, 2005

88 Marketing Tips That Will Change Your Life

Willie Crawford highly recommended a Free Ebook, 88 Marketing Tips That Will Change Your Life.

He says:

One of the best books I've read on marketing and copywriting was written by my friend Paul Elliott. His mastery of copywriting and the psychology of it all, really amazes me.

I had a look at Paul's book and as usual Willie is right on! It's a keeper. I particularly liked #21. It says:

No matter what the goods or services you have to offer are, you are not in the business of providing those. No matter what you prefer to believe, you are in the business of building interpersonal relationships. The sooner you acknowledge that fact and pursue it vigorously, the sooner you will be massively successful.

This would certainly be reason enough for any and every business to consider having a blog, wouldn't it?

BL Ochman posted that Jeremy Wright has a list of 40 Fortune 500 companies that use blogs and an article about why the NY Times paid $410 million for About.com's 500 blogs.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:19 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 24, 2005

Throw Out All of Your Marketing Books

Wanda Loskot once told me that she "would rather build one meaningful relationship today, then be in random contact with a few thousand people." Trying to get noticed by thousands of potential customers on the Internet can be likened to throwing dice. Sometimes you feel all you need to do is to model your business after someone else's.

Chris Houchens whose recent manifesto (featured on ChangeThis.com) says:

We all know that the perfect case study and the way things are supposed to work just don't happen for the most part in the real world. Here's what is happening: Today's business leaders are trying to make these textbook examples fit into the irregular holes of everyday marketing.

He suggests being careful in choosing a coach because some of them have existing strategies that they may try and plug you into... without really understanding your business. Although hiring a professional might be beneficial to some, it might not be a good idea for all. I've always felt that it helps to find someone who is already doing what you want to do, and study them. Then build a network of people who are willing to share their ideas and concepts with you.

One needs to study, of course! But you also need to have an idea of how you can apply these techniques and strategies to your business. You might find that a group of people, who you can bounce ideas off of, can help shape the ideas into a workable concept tailored to your specific needs. Some of the smartest people I know, are the first to ask, "What do you think?"

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 21, 2005

You are too young for a cell phone...

When my 8 year old daughter was visiting me last year, she kept asking for a cell phone. I told her I thought she was too young for it. After all, the set of walkie-talkies I bought for her are usually useless to her and her friends because one of the units is always missing.

Now Mattel will soon start selling working pre-paid cell phones alongside the Barbie doll.

In an article by Business Week it says:

The new Barbie-brand phones aren't toys at all, but real phones. Mattel expects them to appeal to 8- to 14-year-old girls and will offer them in all stores that carry Barbies, company executives told BusinessWeek Online.

So it would seem every time she loses it I would have to buy another one for $49.95? Hmmm! I don't think so!

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:24 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

February 09, 2005

Interview with Craig Newmark

In December I posted about Craig Newmark's website, www.craigslist.org, that has:

"...cost the newspapers millions more in merchandise and real estate advertising, and has damaged other traditional classified advertising businesses, according to a report published by Classified Intelligence."

In a ChangeThis exclusive: The craigslist founder reveals the values that made craigslist a success.

Craig says:

A lot of people say that the internet is about technology. For me, it's about people, and people connecting with each other in their day-to-day lives. In that way, the internet hasn't changed at all since I started craigslist ten years ago. We help people to find each other and we give them a voice, and somehow, people really do feel a sense of community that they belong to. Ten years on, now we're just connecting more people in more places: we think of ourselves as a family of community bulletin boards that helps people connect to get everyday stuff done. We've said that often, and it's true.

I was attempting to run a classified site 10 years ago too. It was fairly popular at the time. Sometimes I received over 2,000 new ads a day. But I failed to see the potential in it, and later abandoned the idea. The point is, don't let negative people tell you something can't be done until you've tried it. Just because your neighbor says it can't be done, doesn't mean YOU can't do it.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

February 04, 2005

The Difference between Luxury and Status

I was reading an article on The Business 2.0 Blog, Fakes and Status Marketing where it talks about 2 handbags almost exactly the same, except one costs $12,000 and the other costs $70.

Damon Darlin goes on to say:

"It used to be that "luxury goods" were actually luxury. A Rolls with polished burled walnut interiors, precisely fitted doors, and a hand-made engine was actually a better car than a Chevy. A Steinway was a better piano than a Baldwin. So you paid more. But the two Vuitton bags are nearly identical. Quite often these fakes come from the same factory that makes the real thing. Which tells you, these aren't luxury goods, but merely status goods and are priced precariously."

You know... I had to read that article twice!

It would seem to be that this doesn't only apply to handbags. I might suggest some well known Internet marketers have read this article, and they challenge you to be one of the top elite to buy a high priced status info-product that they have created.

One reviewer who shall remain anonymous said about one of these:

"...it's not perfect, it's not the "be-all-and-end-all" marketing product, but it does deliver the info it promises on and in a way that's palatable, easy to understand.

The DB Bistro Moderne, in midtown Manhattan sells hamburgers for $59 and $99.

Kitsy Battle, 48, a bookkeeper visiting New York from Atlanta said:

"They're not selling food, they're selling status."

Point is, if you're trying to start or run a business, there isn't harm in having the odd luxury item like a Rolls. Spending money on luxury items isn't the same as spending money on status items.

If you buy the $99 hamburger you will be hungry tomorrow. If you buy the expensive info-products, you will just need more knowledge tomorrow. Save your money. Buy the Rolls.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:00 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 22, 2005

Don't Believe the Browser Stats You Hear of

eWeek author Matt Hicks published an article titled "Internet Explorer Use Keeps Falling" and says:

"Mozilla Foundation's Firefox browser rose 0.9 percentage points to reach 5 percent, Web analytics provider WebSideStory Inc. confirmed Thursday."

Cnet staff writer Jim Hu pusblished an article this week and in "FireFox continues gains against IE" quoted similar statistics also taken from WebsSideStory.

These facts shouldn't matter to you.

Using some of these sites that offer stats is good enough to get an over-all view but you can't expect the same results on your site. You need to check you own logs. And just to be sure you are getting the full picture, you need to check for Netscape, Mozilla, Firefox and other less known Mozilla based browsers such as Kazehakase, Galeon, Epiphany, and K-Meleon. The heart of all of these browsers is the Gecko rendering engine.

I still see a lot of websites that have been designed for IE users with no thought to any other browser. To some this might be acceptable, and relying on information like the Stats published by WebsSideStory, you understand that one of these days... when you get "a round tuit" you might have to look at your site in some other browser... but it's only 5%... and you're sure everything will be fine anyway.

Thom Meyer, entreprenuer, operator of three websites recently shared his stats on my discussion forum On Friday, 17 December 2004, he posted:

Well Steve here's the stats from 3 of my sites. I am just showing IE, Mozilla, and FireFox here.

Site 1:
I.E. 49.4%
Mozilla 23.2%
FireFox 20.4%

Site 2:
I.E. 60.4%
FireFox 23%
Mozilla 8.6%

Site 3:
I.E. 51.9%
Mozilla 19.3%
FireFox 10.1%

Last month Mozilla beat out I.E. by the end of the month on two out of the three sites

I was quite surprised to learn of these results, but my stats show a higher usage too. In the middle of January, this year, 15.15% of the people visiting this site used a Gecko based browser.

I'd like to suggest something to anyone building websites this year. Don't rely on statistics that publish browser stats as a gauge to whether you need to make the site cross-browser friendly. You don't know what percentage of your users will be using something other then Internet Explorer. It would be wise to take this into account.

If anyone would care to comment on this or let us know the percentage of Gecko based browser users that frequent their site, please feel free...

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 18, 2005

Newsletter format

I've noted a lot more people read this blog, then subscribe to my newsletter. Blog readership seems to keep increasing.

It seems every time I send my newsletter out there are always a few people who choose to unsubscribe. That's to be expected of course. Ya' can't please everyone!

When I started blogging again this year after my brief hiatus since 2001, I thought I should make the blog something like my newsletter... but that didn't happen.

So as an experiment this week I decided to format my newsletter differently to make it more like my blog. It was similar to the main blog page where you get an introduction to the article, and a link to click on for more information.

Funny thing happened. There weren't any unsubscribe requests.

Maybe the new format is a keeper, maybe it is too early to tell.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 03:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 16, 2005

What is an exclusive offer?

Liz Tomey recently asked on a discussion forum:

When someone tells you that they have an exclusive offer, what does that mean to you?

My reply....

It means they are unsure about the quality of their offering, and don't want too many charge backs.

If the exclusive offer is a success without too many charge backs, then they can offer it to the general "Internet marketing get rich quick crowd" at a slightly higher price.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 15, 2005

My Google Site Map

I've read a lot of discussion about how one should create a site map for their site. Many software download sites and script repositories offer to sell you software there will index everything on your site and then automatically create the map for you.

What follows is strictly my opinion...

You don't need to do this!

I know this goes against conventional thinking. People that tell you this, and encourage you to do this, are wrong.

Most of the software available not only indexes everything you want it to index, but it also indexes everything you don't want it to index.

Let me explain:

There are a lot of pages (in fact the majority of pages) on this site I don't really want to make availible to the general public. These are pages where I've uploaded scripts, programs and examples for potential clients to view. They aren't linked to the main site. Any automatic software used would have to have the results edited so these were not included.

Surprisingly enough! Google seems to know what to index and what not to index. Google doesn't seem to index pages that are not linked to other parts of the main website. As a matter of fact... it does a decent job of providing a site map. You can see my Google Site Map of HomeBusiness Websites here.

When you click that link it says 1 - 10 of about 434 and then links to the others. I didn't go through the whole list but I expect there must be some outside links mixed in there too. I can't imagine I've created 434 pages on this site that are meant to be viewed by the public — yet in the results I did search through I didn't find access to any pages I don't want the general public to have.

I was even able to find recent blog posts in there as recent as last week. Amazing!

What do you think? If I were to add a site map to my site... why wouldn't I just point it to this Google URL?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 14, 2005

Built in Computer Systems

I ran across a column on Cnet today, written by Steven Musil, called This week in gadget news which talks about a company that specializes in building high-end PCs into handcrafted furniture. The downside is the company, Truvia, charges $55,000 for one of their creations.

Something like this would be a good idea for a small business startup too. I would think someone who was crafty working with wood and gadgetry could probably buy small quantities of desks and customize them so they wrap around a computer system. You could probably charge a lot less, and reach a far greater market.

Mr Musil says:

The movement has attracted interest from companies such as Microsoft that are looking to popularize PCs as living-room objects.

A few comments can be found relating to this article — not all favorable, but like anything else you would have to do your own market research, perhaps build a prototype, and see who is the market, at the price you decide you can deliver for.

A lot of businesses fail simply because they fall in love with their project, go ahead with it, without finding out first if there is a market for it. You need to find out who your customers will be and create a profile of the ideal customer. For those who might consider this, or any other business, you just need to make sure you've done your market research.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 05:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 13, 2005

105 real-life marketing lessons

MarketingSherpa is offering a free download of an eBook titled Marketing Wisdom for 2005 which is a 51 page pdf report. It includes 105 real-life marketing lessons learned from MarketingSherpa readers including the folks at Timberland, Pacific Shaving, and ING Direct:

• Email tests that worked
• Search marketing tactics
• Site design to raise conversions
• Direct mail, radio, & telemarketing stories

I learned of this from Brian Carroll's Blog where he says:

"I contributed lesson #52 (on lead generation of course) in the B-to-B Marketing section."

You can get access to this eBook and others at wisdom.marketingsherpa.com. I think for those of you unfamiliar with this source, you will find these a valuable resource. Over the years I have saved many case-studies published by MarketingSherpa and used this information to help build my business.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 11, 2005

Beginner's Guide to Business Blogging

Debbie Weil said:

"My quick guide to the "what, why ∓ how of business blogging" went live moments ago on Seth Godin's ChangeThis site. Download my "Beginner's Guide to Business Blogging" as one of the new manifestos. It's FREE... until Jan. 25, 2005 so don't wait!

Click here to read the announcement and get your copy.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

January 07, 2005

More Business on the Horizon

BusinessWeek Online recently published an article, Tech Startup 2.0 that says:

Everywhere you look, signs of life are emerging in startup land. Entrepreneurs are huddling in their garages and dens, tapping out software code. Venture capitalists prowl Stanford and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, checkbooks in hand.

Some people don't necessarily think this is true. Charlie Wood, who refers to himself as "a Bubble 1.0 survivor" suggests we shouldn't read too much into this.

In his blog post quoting Techdirt it says:

"The fact is that startups never went away. And, some of these startups they're talking about aren't exactly new. They've just been around and quiet over the past few years. About the only thing that's clearly back is... the buzz. That can be fun, but it's also ridiculously distracting."

Business Week author, Robert D. Hof, goes on to say about these star ups that "the good news is they're stepping up to the challenge. From Silicon Valley to Boston, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are rethinking everything they do. This generation of startups is more organized and aggressive than ever."

Whether it is a buzz or a fact might mean we will have to wait to find out, but the buzz being generated may be enough to start smaller businesses spending more cash.

See... when the bubble broke, it wasn't only the larger companies going "belly-up," it had an adverse affect on the mindset of small business owners and entrepreneurs. There was a stretch of time during this period that small business people were scared to spend money on the web. After a relatively short period of time, these people realized that this wasn't going to affect them, and they could still prosper online.

My point being: the buzz generated from the BIG boys, being funded by venture capitalists, will be enough to excite the small business sector and they will likewise... start spending more money.

This means for those of us who cater to small businesses, we may find ourselves a little busier then the last couple of years.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 12:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Moreover Technologies Gives Bloggers Free Tools To Significantly Increase Content Distribution

After I built this blog I promoted it to the RSSTop55 - Best Blog Directory And RSS Submission Sites and of course my blog is set-up to automatically ping a handful of sites each time a new article is added.

Another one to automatically ping, announced on December 09, 2004, is Moreover.

If you are not familiar with them Moreover has been involved for years in syndicating content. They say:

Moreover's sophisticated technology continually scours the Internet to capture breaking news and business information from thousands of qualified, handpicked sources. Headline links to relevant information are filtered according to clients' specific business needs, and delivered in real time to any platform or business application through one of Moreover's customizable Connected Intelligence™ solutions.

Now to automatically notify Moreover when new content has been published, you can set your blog software to automatically ping their servers. This ensures that your content is entered into the vast Moreover distribution network as quickly and as accurately as possible.

Here are the instructions from the Moreover website that show how to configure your software.

If you're using MovableTyoe as I am, you can just enter the special URL from your control panel after clicking on Configuration/preferences. Add this URL: URL: http://api.moreover.com/ping

They show an example using this method like this:

The REST interface:

URL: http://api.moreover.com/ping
Parameters: u=
HTTP method: GET

Example:
http://api.moreover.com/ping?u=http://moreoaa1.miniserver.com/weblogs/stevesfirstweblog/index.rdf

I'm not sure if MovableType users need to do all of this or if the program automatically includes these parameters. I have a hunch it includes them, but I will need to find out.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:52 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

January 02, 2005

62% of Internet Users Do Not Know What a Blog is

Lee Rainie is the founding Director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. In a survey by her organization she says 62% of internet users do not know what a blog is.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project produces reports that explore the impact of the Internet on families, communities, work and home, daily life, education, health care, and civic and political life. The Project aims to be an authoritative source on the evolution of the Internet through collection of data and analysis of real-world developments as they affect the virtual world.

In a summary of two surveys (4 page PDF file) she states:

8 million American adults say they have created blogs; blog readership jumped 58% in 2004 and now stands at 27% of internet users; 5% of internet users say they use RSS aggregators or XML readers to get the news and other information delivered from blogs and content-rich Web sites as it is posted online; and 12% of internet users have posted comments or other material on blogs. Still, 62% of internet users do not know what a blog is.

There seems to be some growing indications that once again the technology maybe ahead of the knowledge. It isn't any secret that many online businesses are adapting blogs for their own use, but there is a question there on whether they are putting this technology to good use.

As Kevin Robb suggests:

"A lot of items relevant to having a successful website also apply to Blogs, don’t get caught up in the hype and think that a Blog is the answer to all your problems, they are not a magic solution."

Many of you may have already clicking a link to read a blog only to have Google Adsense embedded into one side (that is acceptable) and then on the other side you can see more Google ads except these are flashing and bouncing around the screen in a mis-matched colored coordination with the animated or FLASH banner at the top, and then when the page finally loads, you have a paragraph written by someone other then the blog owner and the rest of the page is consists of affiliate links and more advertising.

The good news is that at least it is easy to un-subscribe from an RSS feed (if that is how you keep track of the blogs you read) and you don't have to bother clicking an un-subscribe link that will remove you from a mailing list only if it pleases the publisher.

How much of your blog is advertising?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:24 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

December 29, 2004

Tell us what you really think John!!

Between Paul thinking you're a moron and John saying:

Look, you don’t need another fix it quick ebook from an "Internet Marketing Guru" who has done nothing is his life but figure out how to sell you on the next hot thing.

...I had to smile. I enjoy reading uncensored passionate outbursts, the like of which probably would never have been published to a website before blogs.

For most of us who run a small business and work the web...

...there is a lot more to it then spending our days looking to get rich. A lot of this information being produced is taken with a "grain of salt" because those of us who work at it full time, know it is a lifestyle choice. Recently I explained it in this way:

"I guess it is likely common sense... but some people don't get it...

There are a lot of us (most people you will never hear about) that make a living from running an online business. We aren't gurus... we don't sell info-products telling you how you can get rich... 'cause if we knew how, then I expect we would be rich. But we get by, just the same.

Christmas, 2003, I made a total of $988.00 for the month. That was the worst month I've had since December 2000.

Still, I paid all of my bills, bought a used car for $4000 and spent $1000 on Christmas.

I was able to do this because, as an entrepreneur I know if I am to survive I have to live well below my means.

OK... so in December of 2003 I wasn't living below my means, but for the 11 months before... I was.

My ex wife made fun of my truck. Yes... I have two vehicles... paid cash for both.

Between her and her new man they are spending $1500 a month for two new vehicles, financed through the bank, (that's including insurance) and last year, besides child support, I was loaning them money almost every month.

Let me tell you about my cousin Harry. Harry is a millionaire and entrepreneur.

A few years ago on a trip he and his wife were taking, their car needed repair. Actually... the frame broke. The garage where he took his car looked at the problem. After seeing that the frame had already broke and been welded 5 times in the past, they said there wasn't any solid metal left so the car could not be fixed. So Harry had to part with a car that was 20+ years old and bought another one.

Lot's of people have a problem with this type of thinking. My friends and family constantly say to me "Why don't you buy another house?" or "Why don't you buy a new car?"

I'm not here to impress anyone.... heaven forbid! What if I have 4 or 5 bad months in a row?

It has been my experience that this isn't likely, but I would be fine.

Being an entrepreneur isn't about money. It's a lifestyle choice. When you choose this lifestyle then you have to be able to adapt your finances to match this lifestyle. This means finding the ability to live well below your means so the money will be there when you need it. "

Sure... getting rich might be OK (can't say for sure how much I would enjoy it because I've never been rich) but it might complicate things a whole lot more which I tend to think would go beyond my vision for my lifestyle choice.

I use the Internet to research and/or buy things I'm interested in. I've bought books related to my business in the form of programming manuals and books, researched hotels and bought air-line tickets. One time I bought an eBook from Paul Myer's whom I've known more or less since 1996 when he used to moderate a business discussion group on the USENET.

For anyone considering buying anything on the Internet they need to be encouraged to perform a little due-diligence and discover for themselves the truth behind some of these publishers.

You have to applaud the efforts of people like John and Paul whose passionate posts would probably not be available if they had to markup a webpage to put it up. (the time it would take to markup a webpage might take a little of the edge off) And you have to applaud blogs and RSS that keeps us informed of posts like this that otherwise we would likely never stumble across. Who knows? Eventually we may discover the real truth in marketing.

OK... spit it out! It's your turn. Don't hold back! Tell me what you've been buying on the Internet.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:03 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 28, 2004

Take it to the Streets

I was reading an article on Cnet this morning on how www.craigslist.org, an online classified website, has:

"...cost the newspapers millions more in merchandise and real estate advertising, and has damaged other traditional classified advertising businesses, according to a report published by Classified Intelligence.

Steven Musil, Staff Writer, CNET News.com goes on to say:

"Online auction giant eBay took a 25 percent stake in Craigslist in August. eBay also announced recently that it would buy online apartment rental service Rent.com for $415 million."

As I report on my www.carsite-marketing.com, ClickZ Stats on September 24, 2004, said:

"Consumer Reports found that 77 percent of pre-owned vehicle shoppers research prices, and 77 percent go online to do so."

People are using the Internet to find just about everything which means there is an opportunity for local entrepreneurs. Although they might not have the money to compete with the the BIG players, they can do a much more better job at representing the local market, and find businesses that will pay them for helping them advertise.

My used car website faced competition from major car classified websites and print publications, but I found that local businesses like to do business with people they know and trust — which all comes down to how you build professional relationships. They are quite happy to give you some of their advertising budget if you can produce results.

We typically think of the Internet as offering a place to reach a worldwide audience, but there is good money to be made in your backyard without taking on the whole www.

Watch for more websites like these in 2005.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 23, 2004

How to Really Market on the Internet

Verizon SuperPages.com, in conjunction with their partner SCORE, has teamed up to give you a short primer called "How to Really Market on the Internet Workbook."

Although some might find is quite useful... don't believe everything you read.

I looked through it rather quickly and noted a few discrepancies such as this paragraph:

The number of Web sites doubles every four to five months. By 2003, the Web will have up to 80 million users logging on either through standard Internet access accounts or online services.

You have to wonder where they came up with that figure. The last I heard was that world-wide Internet usage was around 560 million.

Read it if you want. It might offer some solid advice to you. Don't assume it is completely accurate though. There was a few places I found my-self scratching my head and wondering.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 17, 2004

Personal Internet Software Consultants

I understand that Jeremy Wright's business is taking off. He's hiring bloggers to post to company blogs. This brings to mind another trend we may see develop.

Software in the form of CGI, PHP/MySQL .NET ASP scripts and programs is becoming increasing more difficult for small business people to understand. As the web matures, programming evolves, the complexity of the programs we have at our disposal is in some cases almost as complicated as some software you could install on your own hard drive.

Let's take Microsoft Office products for an example. How many adult learning courses do you hear about that trains people to work with these programs? My sister-in-law just finished a course on Excel.

Let's look at some recent examples from my personal experience.

There is the client who was recommended he should use 1shoppingcart.com for his ordering system. This online service is meant to be user friendly but he did not understand it, and asked me to setup his autoresponders, links, etc... and whenever he has a question about it... I have to read the manual for him and give him the answer.

BUT... this isn't just limited to 1shoppingcart. Whether it is remotely hosted or installed on a private hosting account, more and more people are becoming intimidated by the complexity of the programs, and claim they don't have the time to read the manuals to learn to work with the programs.

This is a problem...

The first rule of being an entrepreneur is to find a common problem and provide the solution.

Me?

No, no,no,no!

Yesterday I had six jobs to do for six different people. One job was installing a program on a customers website. It was a fairly simple installation. I did it in about 10 minutes... logged onto the program to make sure it is functioning and did a couple of minor tests.

The customer doesn't understand how to work with the program (he thought it would be simple)... doesn't want to take the time to read the manual, or access the customer support discussion forum. He assumed since I was a programmer that I would automatically know how the program works.

I don't!

I know how to install the program, check to make sure it is operating properly, but the installation of such software isn't even remotely connected to learning to use the software. Again take for instance Microsoft Office... I was able to install my first Microsoft Office in 1997 on my computer. But the ability to install the software on my computer doesn't necessarily mean I automatically become an expert Office user.

Ahh!

This opens the door for "Personal Internet Software Consultants" ... people who are willing to trade their time to help manage, use and learn complex web software for small businesses.

What do you think? Am I missing my bet here? Or do you think this will be something to watch for in the coming years?

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 14, 2004

eBay I want it now

Myles Goodwyn who is credited to be the founder of the old rock band "April Wine" is originally from New Brunswick, Canada. I get a kick out of some of his lyrics... for example "Hard Times:"

"When the truck driver don’t wanna truck
And the hockey player won’t touch the puck
And the rock musician don’t wanna fool around,
it’s hard times"

Speaking of Canadians...

Apparently eBizBlog.ca is a Canadian government agency whose goal is to assist small and medium-sized businesses with technology issues. From their blog I learned about Christopher Saunders' article called "eBay Buyers Can Recommend Products" which announces that buyers can post the items they are looking for. This creates a great opportunity for sellers to do a little market research to find out what is hot and what isn't.

The article states "Sellers can then browse through these requests to discover buyers for their items, as well as get new ideas for what items are in demand."

This just made market research a lot easier, right?

Maybe... but what a lot of people don't stop to realize when they do their market research is one of the key elements. Yes... you find a niche that is buying certain products and services... but what you want to find out is if are they willing to spend money with YOU for these products and services and what are they willing to pay YOU for YOUR products or services. This point is often over-looked.

Don't let this stop you though. Visit pages.ebay.com/wantitnow to get started.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 06:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

December 12, 2004

Newspapers and Blogs? Nope! Can't see it.

Thanks to Jeremy C. Wright for the email yesterday, which contained a few useful links, one that eventually led to Roland Tanglao blog post titled "Newspapers should launch blogs - Canadian papers are you listening?" For an answer I would refer to Seth Godin's post "Why ask Why."

Roland's post led me to a pdf file written by Todd McCauley who outlines a strategy that newspapers could use to engage, solicit interaction and feedback from a younger audience which would attract the 18-34 year olds.

In my post titled Let's Talk Turkey about Blogging it mentions statistics collected from what was CyberAtlas, that says:

"The demographics suggest that 51.5% of all new blogs created are created by the 13-19 year olds with 20-29 year olds taking second place at 39.6%."

This is a clear indication that younger people want to have their voices heard. I don't know what part of Canada Roland Tanglao grew up in, but the area I grew up in seemed to include a number bureaucracies, as pointed out by Mr. Godin, that just want you "to go away."

At the risk of sounding like a middle-aged whining adolescent, newspapers aren't any different from Mr. Godin's description of bureaucracies "who don't want the whys working their way up the chain." We have learned this lesson well, which is evident from the poor turn-outs at election time. Newspapers are more like Seth Godin's bureaucracies who "encourage their people to be the first and only line of defense" so that editors, jobbers by nature, can just make it to quitting time without really having to give a "rats ass" about any controversial issues that would ruffle the feathers of the the "good 'ol boys" club. If the newspaper started to lose sponsors, you can bet that editor would be looking for a new job.

Let's look at an example. From the CBC News: Opposition leaders unite to guard EI surplus

The four federal opposition parties have announced a plan that will try to stop Finance Minister Paul Martin from using the Employment Insurance surplus to pay for other priorities.

The EI surplus will be about $20 billion by the end of the year. There wasn't supposed to be a surplus, but by starving the people who could use this money, the government has created a situation that screams "Oh those poor people! What should we do? Hey... anyone want to party?!!!"

The PDF article written by Todd McCauley mentions a website called "Debatables.com" which was "A Web log on which a handful of writers/editors scan and post news from a variety of sources along with their own commentary" and encourage feedback "to provide a place for a segment of young readers to have something to talk about and to feel they’re getting smarter about topics of interest to them."

Well...well! It isn't any surprise to see that the site is no longer active. See, the politicians want your vote, but they don't want any public forum which might hold them accountable and coerce answers that might imply further corruption and scandal. And, any newspaper that was to adopt the radical idea of a web blog, would keep an editor busy just deleting posts and questions. The editor might not know where the EI surplus is going, and if he can keep his job, he doesn't have to know. He's got a few more comments to delete... then it's quitting time.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 22, 2004

Evaluate Your Web Site's Credibility

How Do People Evaluate a Web Site's Credibility?

Consumer WebWatch released a report after surveying 2,684 people to find out how people evaluate a website's creditability. This group was made up of, Female: 58.1%, Male: 41.9%, Average age: 39.9, Average use of Web: 19.6 hours/week.

According to the study:

"...nearly half of all site evaluators (46.1%) used visual cues, such as the site's overall design or look, to assess a site's credibility. This happened slightly more frequently with finance (54.6%), search engines (52.6%) and travel (50.5%) categories, and less frequently with the health (41.8%) and news (39.6%) categories."

Ahh! but the kicker is... some really slick looking sites received negative comments such as "It looks like it's designed by a marketing team, and not by people who want to get you the information that you need." This means you definitely want to keep away from having a site designed that is too brochure like and make sure it is engaging to the visitor.

Since they found that looking good is often interpreted as being good and being credible, an evaluation of your site now, might mean you can budget for a re-design in 2005. Even if it just means removing dated content, checking to make sure links are functional, and to give it the over-all appearance that everything is current.

When I was so busy with my website that sold advertising to used car dealerships, I fell behind a bit in keeping this website updated. Some of the content was dated, some of the links were bad, and things looked stale. I received a number of nasty comments by email, and had people making jokes about my site that were posted to my discussion forum. I felt a bit offended by this, but... thanks to the negative comments it prompted me to re-design the site and get it back on track.

The result has been a lot more traffic and business.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:06 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 18, 2004

Do you like to write and get paid for it?

This week in the HomeBusiness Websites Journal I wrote about niche markets. One of the topics I should have covered too is about writing. Since the Internet is a medium that is mainly read, this means if you're going to have a web presence you will have to write. Some people "don't mind" writing, some hate it, some love it... and there are a few who just can't write enough because they love to write.

If you love to write, there is a good chance that you don't need to worry about making an income. Your passion will pay your way. There are lots of way to write and get paid for it on the Internet.

If you click the thumnail to the left, a new window should open with an eBook written by Chris Carlsson. Chris sells a paperback of this eBook for $11.25 plus tax and postage online and can be ordered here. The novel is about:

A teenage arsonist threatens a partially submerged mid-22nd century San Francisco. As a Public Investigator "tryout" seeks evidence across the utopian city full of canals and veloways, political and social conflicts erupt. When there is no such thing as property, what is crime, and how does a utopian society protect itself from bad behavior? Should scientists be as free as artists to create? What is a "free market" for work without and money and commodities?

I must admit I don't know why he offers it for a free download, unless it is to encourage off-line sales, but the whole point is, if you like to write, the Internet is a perfect medium to explore, develop and sell story ideas, eBook and novels. I fancied myself as a bit of a writer when I was a teenager. This hobby was soon abandoned in my later teen years in favor of becoming a rock n' roll musician.

There are also other way to get paid for writing too. There are tons of magazines, journals and websites that often pay people for writing. For example (when this post was written) JournalismJobs.com offered a job from Media Life Magazine where the job description was/is, "Media Life covers the media industry, from TV to magazines and newspapers to radio and out of home advertising. We are a web site that is up five days a week with news stories and features. We are looking for reporters who can cover one or more areas of media. Good pay, live where you please."

A good place to keep updated on freelance writing job opportunities is to bookmark my Freelance Writing page which is a newsfeeed that gets updated every week or so. This is a great resource for those who want to be freelance writers.

You know what I would like to do if I had the time?

Write eBooks with pictures taken with a digital camera that show all the neat but lesser known cool spots to explore in Nova Scotia. This is something I can't picture myself doing right now because of my current business. But tourists who come in the summer time often spend thousands of dollars on travel, lodging, entertainment, and various activities such as hiking, white water rafting, and bycycling. It would seem reasonable that if you're going to rent a cottage that costs you a few hundred dollars for the week, the same people might buy a $20 eBook that shows them some of the really cool spots and activities they don't want to miss.

I would sell these books from Clickbank and talk to website owners who have cottages, accommodations, or anything tourism related, about being an affiliate of the eBook and ask them to promote it on their site.

What a great job that would be! Spend the Summer "taking in the sights" and then in the evening, or days you are resting up, write about what you have seen.

If you can think of other things you might write about, you are encouraged to leave your comments if you want.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 15, 2004

Get a free copy of Seth Godin's The Bootstrapper's Bible

Seth says this book is for:

"...entrepreneurs who are working their butts off to start a great business from scratch with no (or almost no) money."

That would include most of the people I know? How about you?

It is only being offered for two weeks for free. Don't snooze and lose. Click here to read Seth's blog where he made this offer and download a copy.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 09:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 13, 2004

Get a Clue

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.

These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.

While many such people already work for companies today, most companies ignore their ability to deliver genuine knowledge, opting instead to crank out sterile happytalk that insults the intelligence of markets literally too smart to buy it.

However, employees are getting hyperlinked even as markets are. Companies need to listen carefully to both. Mostly, they need to get out of the way so intranetworked employees can converse directly with internetworked markets.

Corporate firewalls have kept smart employees in and smart markets out. It's going to cause real pain to tear those walls down. But the result will be a new kind of conversation. And it will be the most exciting conversation business has ever engaged in.

THE CLUETRAIN MANIFESTO
http://www.cluetrain.com

95 THESES

1. Markets are conversations.

2. Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors.

3. Conversations among human beings sound human. They are
conducted in a human voice.

4. Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives,
dissenting arguments or humorous asides, the human voice is
typically open, natural, uncontrived.

5. People recognize each other as such from the sound of this
voice.

6. The Internet is enabling conversations among human beings that
were simply not possible in the era of mass media.

7. Hyperlinks subvert hierarchy.

8. In both internetworked markets and among intranetworked
employees, people are speaking to each other in a powerful new
way.

9. These networked conversations are enabling powerful new forms
of social organization and knowledge exchange to emerge.

10. As a result, markets are getting smarter, more informed, more
organized. Participation in a networked market changes people
fundamentally.

11. People in networked markets have figured out that they get far
better information and support from one another than from
vendors. So much for corporate rhetoric about adding value to
commoditized products.

12. There are no secrets. The networked market knows more than
companies do about their own products. And whether the news is
good or bad, they tell everyone.

13. What's happening to markets is also happening among employees.
A metaphysical construct called "The Company" is the only thing
standing between the two.

14. Corporations do not speak in the same voice as these new
networked conversations. To their intended online audiences,
companies sound hollow, flat, literally inhuman.

15. In just a few more years, the current homogenized "voice" of
business -- the sound of mission statements and brochures --
will seem as contrived and artificial as the language of the
18th century French court.

16. Already, companies that speak in the language of the pitch, the
dog-and-pony show, are no longer speaking to anyone.

17. Companies that assume online markets are the same markets that
used to watch their ads on television are kidding themselves.

18. Companies that don't realize their markets are now networked
person-to-person, getting smarter as a result and deeply joined
in conversation are missing their best opportunity.

19. Companies can now communicate with their markets directly. If
they blow it, it could be their last chance.

20. Companies need to realize their markets are often laughing. At
them.

21. Companies need to lighten up and take themselves less
seriously. They need to get a sense of humor.

22. Getting a sense of humor does not mean putting some jokes on
the corporate web site. Rather, it requires big values, a
little humility, straight talk, and a genuine point of view.

23. Companies attempting to "position" themselves need to take a
position. Optimally, it should relate to something their market
actually cares about.

24. Bombastic boasts -- "We are positioned to become the preeminent
provider of XYZ" -- do not constitute a position.

25. Companies need to come down from their Ivory Towers and talk to
the people with whom they hope to create relationships.

26. Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are
deeply afraid of their markets.

27. By speaking in language that is distant, uninviting, arrogant,
they build walls to keep markets at bay.

28. Most marketing programs are based on the fear that the market
might see what's really going on inside the company.

29. Elvis said it best: "We can't go on together with suspicious
minds."

30. Brand loyalty is the corporate version of going steady, but the
breakup is inevitable -- and coming fast. Because they are
networked, smart markets are able to renegotiate relationships
with blinding speed.

31. Networked markets can change suppliers overnight. Networked
knowledge workers can change employers over lunch. Your own
"downsizing initiatives" taught us to ask the question:
"Loyalty? What's that?"

32. Smart markets will find suppliers who speak their own language.

33. Learning to speak with a human voice is not a parlor trick. It
can't be "picked up" at some tony conference.

34. To speak with a human voice, companies must share the concerns
of their communities.

35. But first, they must belong to a community.

36. Companies must ask themselves where their corporate cultures
end.

37. If their cultures end before the community begins, they will
have no market.

38. Human communities are based on discourse -- on human speech
about human concerns.

39. The community of discourse is the market.

40. Companies that do not belong to a community of discourse will
die.

41. Companies make a religion of security, but this is largely a
red herring. Most are protecting less against competitors than
against their own market and workforce.

42. As with networked markets, people are also talking to each
other directly inside the company -- and not just about rules
and regulations, boardroom directives, bottom lines.

43. Such conversations are taking place today on corporate
intranets. But only when the conditions are right.

44. Companies typically install intranets top-down to distribute HR
policies and other corporate information that workers are doing
their best to ignore.

45. Intranets naturally tend to route around boredom. The best are
built bottom-up by engaged individuals cooperating to construct
something far more valuable: an intranetworked corporate
conversation.

46. A healthy intranet organizes workers in many meanings of the
word. Its effect is more radical than the agenda of any union.

47. While this scares companies witless, they also depend heavily
on open intranets to generate and share critical knowledge.
They need to resist the urge to "improve" or control these
networked conversations.

48. When corporate intranets are not constrained by fear and
legalistic rules, the type of conversation they encourage
sounds remarkably like the conversation of the networked
marketplace.

49. Org charts worked in an older economy where plans could be
fully understood from atop steep management pyramids and
detailed work orders could be handed down from on high.

50. Today, the org chart is hyperlinked, not hierarchical. Respect
for hands-on knowledge wins over respect for abstract
authority.

51. Command-and-control management styles both derive from and
reinforce bureaucracy, power tripping and an overall culture of
paranoia.

52. Paranoia kills conversation. That's its point. But lack of open
conversation kills companies.

53. There are two conversations going on. One inside the company.
One with the market.

54. In most cases, neither conversation is going very well. Almost
invariably, the cause of failure can be traced to obsolete
notions of command and control.

55. As policy, these notions are poisonous. As tools, they are
broken. Command and control are met with hostility by
intranetworked knowledge workers and generate distrust in
internetworked markets.

56. These two conversations want to talk to each other. They are
speaking the same language. They recognize each other's voices.

57. Smart companies will get out of the way and help the inevitable
to happen sooner.

58. If willingness to get out of the way is taken as a measure of
IQ, then very few companies have yet wised up.

59. However subliminally at the moment, millions of people now
online perceive companies as little more than quaint legal
fictions that are actively preventing these conversations from
intersecting.

60. This is suicidal. Markets want to talk to companies.

61. Sadly, the part of the company a networked market wants to talk
to is usually hidden behind a smokescreen of hucksterism, of
language that rings false -- and often is.

62. Markets do not want to talk to flaks and hucksters. They want
to participate in the conversations going on behind the
corporate firewall.

63. De-cloaking, getting personal: We are those markets. We want to
talk to you.

64. We want access to your corporate information, to your plans and
strategies, your best thinking, your genuine knowledge. We will
not settle for the 4-color brochure, for web sites
chock-a-block with eye candy but lacking any substance.

65. We're also the workers who make your companies go. We want to
talk to customers directly in our own voices, not in platitudes
written into a script.

66. As markets, as workers, both of us are sick to death of getting
our information by remote control. Why do we need faceless
annual reports and third-hand market research studies to
introduce us to each other?

67. As markets, as workers, we wonder why you're not listening. You
seem to be speaking a different language.

68. The inflated self-important jargon you sling around -- in the
press, at your conferences -- what's that got to do with us?

69. Maybe you're impressing your investors. Maybe you're impressing
Wall Street. You're not impressing us.

70. If you don't impress us, your investors are going to take a
bath. Don't they understand this? If they did, they wouldn't
let you talk that way.

71. Your tired notions of "the market" make our eyes glaze over. We
don't recognize ourselves in your projections -- perhaps
because we know we're already elsewhere.

72. We like this new marketplace much better. In fact, we are
creating it.

73. You're invited, but it's our world. Take your shoes off at the
door. If you want to barter with us, get down off that camel!

74. We are immune to advertising. Just forget it.

75. If you want us to talk to you, tell us something. Make it
something interesting for a change.

76. We've got some ideas for you too: some new tools we need, some
better service. Stuff we'd be willing to pay for. Got a minute?

77. You're too busy "doing business" to answer our email? Oh gosh,
sorry, gee, we'll come back later. Maybe.

78. You want us to pay? We want you to pay attention.

79. We want you to drop your trip, come out of your neurotic
self-involvement, join the party.

80. Don't worry, you can still make money. That is, as long as it's
not the only thing on your mind.

81. Have you noticed that, in itself, money is kind of
one-dimensional and boring? What else can we talk about?

82. Your product broke. Why? We'd like to ask the guy who made it.
Your corporate strategy makes no sense. We'd like to have a
chat with your CEO. What do you mean she's not in?

83. We want you to take 50 million of us as seriously as you take
one reporter from The Wall Street Journal.

84. We know some people from your company. They're pretty cool
online. Do you have any more like that you're hiding? Can they
come out and play?

85. When we have questions we turn to each other for answers. If
you didn't have such a tight rein on "your people" maybe they'd
be among the people we'd turn to.

86. When we're not busy being your "target market," many of us are
your people. We'd rather be talking to friends online than
watching the clock. That would get your name around better than
your entire million dollar website. But you tell us speaking to
the market is Marketing's job.

87. We'd like it if you got what's going on here. That'd be real
nice. But it would be a big mistake to think we were holding
our breath.

88. We have better things to do than worry about whether you'll
change in time to get our business. Business is only a part of
our lives. It seems to be all of yours. Think about it: who
needs whom?

89. We have real power and we know it. If you don't quite see the
light, some other outfit will come along that's more attentive,
more interesting, more fun to play with.

90. Even at its worst, our newfound conversation is more
interesting than most trade shows, more entertaining than any
TV sitcom, and certainly more true-to-life than the corporate
web sites we've been seeing.

91. Our allegiance is to ourselves -- our friends, our new allies
and acquaintances, even our sparring partners. Companies that
have no part in this world, also have no future.

92. Companies are spending billions of dollars on Y2K. Why can't
they hear this market timebomb ticking? The stakes are even
higher.

93. We're both inside companies and outside them. The boundaries
that separate our conversations look like the Berlin Wall
today, but they're really just an annoyance. We know they're
coming down. We're going to work from both sides to take them
down.

94. To traditional corporations, networked conversations may appear
confused, may sound confusing. But we are organizing faster
than they are. We have better tools, more new ideas, no rules
to slow us down.

95. We are waking up and linking to each other. We are watching.
But we are not waiting.

---

Copyright 1999 Levine, Locke, Searls & Weinberger

ringleaders@cluetrain.com

All rights reserved.

However, world rights granted for non-commercial use

on condition that this page remains intact,

including this notice.

Rip it, steal it, web it, mail it, post it.

This message wants to MOVE!

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 11:04 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Is your Homepage All WRONG?!!

Dana VanDen Heuvel recently posted about a free PDF called One Minute Site Manifesto in which the authors suggest that your content on your homepage may not be engaging enough to your visitors. Dana goes on to say:

This manifesto fits squarely into the way bloggers have treated their home pages for some time now. The home page is meant to 'engage your visitors personally - something that a blog is born to do! So many sites have brochure-ware remnants on their sites that are no longer applicable in today's web environment.

For the most part, I found myself starting to agree with this... before I even saw this post, but then something happened...

The authors of the One Minute Site Manifesto site can be found at www.oneminutesite.com and if this is designed with keeping their eBook in mind, I suggest that you have to read the whole webpage and still don't have a clear pictures of what it is all about. There isn't any compelling headline, or enticing body copy (which is all centered and hard to read). Really it makes a small business person wonder how they ever bothered clicking on a link to the site at all.

In defence of the "Manifesto" it does offer some food for thought. Creating immediate interaction with your site visitors is an intriguing idea, but using their site has an example of how this should be done isn't something I would advocate.

Larry Bodine, who is the Regional Director for North America of the PM Forum, a global organization of 3,000 marketers in law, accounting and management consulting was recently asked "Will a Company Really Decide to Hire Us Based on Our Web site?" to which he responded with:

Yes. Absolutely. Definitely.

Don't just take it from me. I've heard in-house corporate counsel say that when they are searching for a new law firm, they first peruse the Web sites of law firms on their short list. A mediocre Web site conveys that the will also give them mediocre work product. In-house counsel have told me that a bad Web site will disqualify a firm from further consideration.

The Globe and Mail recently published an article by Randy Ray who says:

Employers are increasingly turning to blogs during their recruitment process to learn more about prospective employees -- and for the growing number of bloggers, their efforts have become an on-line portfolio to showcase their talents, says Jim Elve, publisher of BlogsCanada.ca, a guide to blogs.

"If I am an HR director and I receive an application that says a person has a blog, I am going to take a look at it... I am going to see that this person is not hiding himself because he is saying 'go ahead and read my diary.' It gives me a pretty good glimpse into the personality of a person and shows how well he can put words onto paper," Mr. Elve says.

I think this confirms that the One Minute Site Manifesto is on track with their line of thinking, but as Larry Bodine implies, you only have one chance to make a good first impresson, so I wouldn't use the Manifesto website as a good example of how to do this. You need to quickly get to the point with a good headline, and a first paragraph that quickly identifies what you have to offer. Building interactivity elements into it can be links to blogs and discussion forums. If someone is interested in learning more about you or your services they will click the links, provided you have made a good first impression.

To do anything else, in my humble opinion, is pure suicide.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 12, 2004

Search engines and promotion

A beta release of the new MSN search engine is available on the web. My understanding is that it hopes to rival Google. You don't need to submit your sites to it. It has obviously borrowed its listings from other sources even though they claim it has built from the ground up on Microsoft technology.

If you URL is missing though, you can use this form to submit it.

Which brings me to today's topic about getting indexed.

I had some initial trouble getting my www.carsite-marketing.com website listed. Of course these days, getting listed is sometimes just a matter of getting other sites linking to you. The fastest way I found to do this was to write a couple of articles and submit them to some article directories.

Here is a list of directories I submitted articles to:

http://www.cashflowseller.com/ArticleSubmit.html
http://article-emporium.com/submit-article.cfm
http://www.allfreelancework.com/submitarticles.php
http://articlefinders.com/submit.html
http://www.articlecity.com/article_submission.shtml
http://www.articlewarehouse.com/SubmitArticle.aspx
http://www.awomaninbusiness.com/writers.html
http://www.boconline.com/sub-art.shtml
http://www.business-opportunity.biz/addarticle.php
http://www.businesstoolchest.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.ebooksnbytes.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.family-content.com/articles/submit.shtml
http://www.howtoadvice.com/Submit/
http://www.certificate.net/wwio/ideas.shtml
http://www.netterweb.com/articles/
http://ebusinesshelpsite.com/Articles/submit-article.htm
http://www.powerhomebiz.com/termsofuse/articlesubmission.htm
http://www.selfgrowth.com/artman/exec/admin.cgi
http://www.businessknowhow.com/newsletter/articleguidelines.htm
http://www.uniterra.com/submit-article.htm
http://www.vectorcentral.com/articles-form.html
http://www.webmasterslibrary.com/submit.shtml
http://www.web-source.net/article_submissions.htm
http://www.webpronews.com/submit.html
http://www.goarticles.com
http://www.articlecentral.com
http://www.readycontent.com
http://www.ideamarketers.com
http://www.advertisingknowhow.com
http://www.marketing-seek.com
http://www.ezinearticles.com
http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/articledir.php
http://www.1st-in-articles.com
http://www.ezinetrendz.com
http://www.submityourarticle.com
http://www.thephantomwriters.com
http://www.articletrades.com
http://www.articlehub.com
http://www.holisticjunction.com
http://www.kickstartyourlife.com/ezinesresources/articles.htm
http://prweb.com (must be press releases)

Nothing is so discouraging as typing your domain name into Google and having exactly zero results returned to you. This is what was happening to me. Now things are different. While it may not be a great listing yet... at least it is there.

I hope this list will help you with your promotions.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 10, 2004

Slammer People

You here a lot of talk on the Internet about niche markets. People wonder how they can find them, identify them, and market goods and service to them. A common trend I see with so many new people coming online is they want to learn how to use the Internet to make money but make the mistake of trying to market to the same crowd that taught them how.

Here is the problem with this...

Many of these people aren't credible. If one is desperately struggling to find a way to make an extra $500 per month on the Internet, it is hard to convince people to buy one's newly created info product promising the purchaser wealth.

Take the information that can be learned and set your sites on markets outside of the "get rich" crowd.

In the March 2001 issue of my HomeBusiness Journal I wrote about Cyberspace Inmates:

This site is run by a Missouri minister, Rev. Rene Mulkey, who posts inmates messages online and funnels responses back to the inmates. Her client list consists of 1,600 prisoners nationwide and she charges them each $10 per month to handle their accounts.

She claims lawyers use the site to find clients, religious leaders use it to minister to prisoners, and college students use it to study prison conditions and the death penalty.

I don't know how many inmates are currently subscribed but Rene says "I work at this full time ten hours a day seven days a week."

Since the site has won several awards, and has been featured on TV, talk shows, in many local and regional papers, talk radio and several magazines I would have to assume that her client list is well over 1600 by now, and for the money she is making it shouldn't be too hard of a job to find a few others to receive the emails, print them off and deliver them.

I hope this article will help to open you eyes to the possibilities.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 12:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

November 04, 2004

IceRocket.com... the place to promote your site

While promoting my site a while ago I ran across a search engine that is relatively new called IceRocket.com. You know... there are always new search engines springing up... but this one is different. I found for some of the searches I did, this engine was returning more relevant links then Google.

And there is more...

Plus, it returns quick graphic snapshots of the site, so you are not being suckered into clicking on directory generator link, or someone's, less then professional site, who was lucky enough to get it indexed well.

What really impressed me was after finding a link to IceRocket in the OpenDirectory as a place to list your blog (RSS) feeds, I couldn't find the link so I emailed IceRocket. I was expecting I would never receive an answer, but I got one back in 5 minutes. Blake Rhodes answered with:

This isn't the same as most blog directories

This one searches through all of the RSS newsfeeds to return fresh results relevant to your query... so you are always getting the latest news about any given topic.

Congratulations to www.IceRocket.com for providing the Internet community with such a cool tool!

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 01:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 31, 2004

Stay Focused

This Summer gone by, I had to make a major decision — one that was not easy to make. In June, I closed down my Used Car Website business. It was hard to say good=bye to it... but it was either it or my web development business.

Since last year I had been operating two businesses, TruroUsedCars.com and this one, HomeBusiness Websites. In June, two of my sales people quit. This put me in a bad position. I could continue to operate but it meant I would have to be on the road a lot more for the next month or two... maybe more. I find with salespeople... you have to spend sometime showing them the ropes. The unfortunate part of splitting my time between two businesses was having an effect on HomeBusiness Websites. (See my traffic patterns)

Either business could provide me with a full-time income, but trying to split my attention between the two businesses was just too much work for one guy. I chose to close down the Used Car business because in order to make an income it meant I would always have to be depending on other people (sales people) and if they weren't working, I wouldn't be getting paid. With my web development business, I don't have to rely on anyone but myself; I like that!

I was still getting work for my web development but most of it was just site maintenance for sites already built. There wasn't a lot of new customers coming in the door. As you can see, my site traffic was much lower. When I made my decision to focus on web development here is what I did:

I hadn't published my newsletter for over a year. So I started writing again. And, I didn't stop there. I wrote an ebook that shows How to Build, Promote and Sell Advertising on a Used car Website and I resurrected my blog, that had not been used for two years. Other then these two things the only other thing I did was to start posting a little more to a few discussion forums. (which I'm not sure was such a good idea)

Basically what I did was jump in the water and splash around; nothing special...

But... just by being a little more visible online, it has doubled the amount of traffic to my site, and is bringing in new clients again.

I'm sure some of you think that a lot of time is wasted on the Internet (for those of you who make a full-time living from your online ventures). Sometimes it doesn't seem like you're having a whole lot of affect, but from my splash the end of June, you can see the ripples it has caused in my traffic.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 30, 2004

The Cure for Entrepreneurial Fear

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Tell your friends and business associates to
subscribe at: http://www.Consulting-Success.com
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by Bob Serling

The other day a prospect called me to see about getting some help with his marketing. He owns a training company that specializes in organizational development and leadership skills. They have 12 employees and have been in business for over 15 years.

His problem was one I hear very frequently. They've always relied on one primary marketing method, but its no longer producing the results it used to.

As I probed a bit deeper into their situation, I began to pick up on an interesting theme in all of his answers. Regardless of what I suggested they consider doing - think about expanding into additional markets, add new products, test different lead generation processes - he rejected everything. For every suggestion I made, he told me he didn't think that it would work as well as his current method.

I reminded him that his current method had sputtered out or he wouldn't be calling me in the first place. And that testing can be done on a small scale to let the market prove what will work and what won't.

But again, nothing I suggested seemed to satisfy him. Finally, I asked him point blank, "It really doesn't seem like you want to change anything that you're currently doing or test anything new. Is that correct?"

"Yes, that's correct", he answered. "You had helped a friend of mine sell a lot more of their services and I just wanted to check and see what's available."

With that, I wished him well and ended the call.

So what happened here? Did I do a lousy job of presenting a these new options to him? I doubt it, primarily because of his lack of interest in everything I suggested. Plus, there was a strong undercurrent of negativity.

No, what was really going on was...

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A bad case of Entrepreneurial Fear
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The fact is, the guy was quaking in his boots. He desperately needed to solve a steeply declining situation, but he lacked the guts to take even the first step.

I see this happen all the time. People want to change jobs to something either more lucrative or more fulfilling, but are afraid to. Companies know they need to develop new products or services to keep ahead of the competition, but they find dozens of reasons to never get started.

The CEO knows that their marketing needs a shot in the arm, but sits back hoping that some miracle will restore sales to previous levels. A consultant knows that raising his fees is long overdue, but still can't bring himself to do so.

These, and other fears, keep too many people from taking action. But if you're ever going to grow your business to the next level, you're going to have to make some changes that are somewhat uncomfortable. That's just a fact of business life.

There are a number of ways to reduce this discomfort from sheer terror to an acceptable level. I'll show you precisely how to do this in just a minute. But first...

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Two resources to help you bring in more business
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Do you need more leads for your business? Highly qualified leads who contact you rather than you chasing after them? My comprehensive program, "Power Prospecting for Consultants, Trainers, and Coaches" gives you everything you need to generate as many new leads as possible for your business using both online and offline marketing methods. You can get all the details at:

http://www.consulting-success.com/prospecting.html

Have you tried to market your services online and been disappointed with the results? Or is your online marketing doing alright, but you know it could do even better? In my new program, "The Ultimate Guide to Selling Professional Services Online", five leading experts show you everything you need to know to sell more of your services and products online. You'll discover dozens of proven techniques for effectively using web sites, ezines, ebooks, and pay-per-click advertising to fill your appointment book with paying clients. Click here for complete details:

http://www.consulting-success.com/online.html

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The Cure for Entrepreneurial Fear
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There are a number of ways to conquer the fear of making changes. We'll take a look at some of the best methods in the remainder of this issue.

First of all, it helps to remember that not all fear is bad. The fear that bristles the hair on the back of your neck when you walk down a dimly lit street is a good thing. Likewise, fear of making business changes signals you that you may want to proceed cautiously. But it also signals you that there are a lot of exciting possibilities.

So pay attention to your fear, but learn to work with it rather than letting it stop you.

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Limit your exposure
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Making any change can be tested on a small level before commiting to a larger or permanent change. Want to raise your fees? Test it with a couple of projects. For example, test a fee increase with a long-time client to see how well its accepted. Then test it with a new prospect and guage its acceptance there as well.

Your risk is minimal. By testing in small doses, you limit your exposure and potential loss. Besides, you can always back off of the fee increase and work for your prior rate. But - and this is a major "but" - you can rarely raise your fees once you've agreed to do a project at a lower price.

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Have a sense of humor
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Most of us take our businesses far too seriously. Almost all the things you worry about never actually happen.

Years ago, I advised a marketing consultant to increase his fee for a project he was bidding on by 70%. He was terrified to do this, even though he realized he was charging substantially less than other consultants with similar skills.

When it came time to submit his bid, he could only garner enough courage to increase his fee by 50%. Even then, he told me he was terrified that he would lose the client.

The next day, the client called to tell him he had signed the contract and put a check in the mail. Then the client told him, "I was wondering when you were going to raise your rates. It's long overdue."

The client called me and told me he was elated. He also added, "I wish I would have increased it the full 70%!"

The point is, again, most of your fears are just that - your fears. They aren't anyone else's. So lighten up. Relax a little and take some calculated risks. I promise you'll be glad you did.

Copyright 2004 by Bob Serling All rights reserved
Consulting-Success.com
2039 Bruceala Court
Cardiff, CA 92007

Please feel free to pass this issue along in its entirety to others.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 08:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack