I bet you think you are. Wanting your marketing message to spread by word of mouth is not necessarily the same as being ready for it to happen – and I’m not just talking about the mechanics of it happening but the results – good and bad.
On one hand you need to ask yourself: is your online business robust enough to cope with a mass of traffic and sales? On the other hand – do possible weaknesses in your business need mass exposure before you sort them out?
What I’m getting at is this: do you actually know what it is people are saying about your business? What specific “words” of “mouth” are they spreading?
If you are focused on delivering quality and your customers are raving about your speed you could be in for some trouble down the road.
How could world of mouth advertising ever be bad? How could it ever hurt your business?
I’ll give you a recent example of mine…
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Monday, August 14, 2006
How do you convert trial downloads into sales
The answer depends in part on the nature of the trial and the likelihood of the “downloader” using the product any time soon – thus realising and extracting the products value. Much attention also needs to be paid to those that ultimately won’t convert.
Let’s say you could convert between 5 and 10 percent of the people who downloaded the trial - let’s say after your promotion costs you are making a profit, that leaves 90-95% of your original trial users out of the picture – these people may be worth as much as your buyers over time. Consider also the effort and cost it took to get their attention.
You could do it this way…
...convert trial downloads...
Let’s say you could convert between 5 and 10 percent of the people who downloaded the trial - let’s say after your promotion costs you are making a profit, that leaves 90-95% of your original trial users out of the picture – these people may be worth as much as your buyers over time. Consider also the effort and cost it took to get their attention.
You could do it this way…
...convert trial downloads...
Saturday, August 05, 2006
Time management tips
The single, most productive, time management technique and strategy I have is this…
A kitchen timer, almost every day without fail, I twist the top of a yellow pepper just like this (not my picture) and let the 60 minutes begin.
No checking email, no checking statistics, no coffee, no tea, no trips to the bathroom, no telephone, nothing except uninterrupted business building activity.
Why does this work?
Well first of all, I have an appointment with myself of 60 minutes; I have an agreement to work only on things that will build my business. The fact that I have agreed this in advance makes it easier to come up with the specific activity as my mind is working in the background before the appointment.
Another benefit is the 60 minutes usually turns into 90 minutes, sometimes 2 hours. By the time the bell sounds I am usually deep into something, rarely am I waiting for the 60 minute bell so I can quit.
My email technique
Most of the mail in my inbox is stuff I have subscribed to, a lot of it is material I want to read, some of it is junk, some of it is promotional. I find the most productive way to deal with this avalanche is to take the first email on any given day and search for all the email from that person then go through the emails one at a time.
I scan each email, immediately deleting those I have no interest in. The ones I want to read - I paste into a text reader. You can get a free working version here: www.readplease.com
There are paid versions of this kind of software but this free one really isn’t bad, the voices are quite good to. You can also adjust the playback speed, so it’s like speed listening instead of speed reading.
Another benefit of going through all the email from a particular sender is that I don’t have to re-orientate as much after each message
Time Management Book
I have just finished Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Time Management… and I have to tell you, if I could have anyone kick me in the ass it would be Dan Kennedy, it would be expensive, it would be painful, but it would be worth it.
The ISBN for Dan’s book is 1-932156-85-2
Enjoy!
A kitchen timer, almost every day without fail, I twist the top of a yellow pepper just like this (not my picture) and let the 60 minutes begin.
No checking email, no checking statistics, no coffee, no tea, no trips to the bathroom, no telephone, nothing except uninterrupted business building activity.
Why does this work?
Well first of all, I have an appointment with myself of 60 minutes; I have an agreement to work only on things that will build my business. The fact that I have agreed this in advance makes it easier to come up with the specific activity as my mind is working in the background before the appointment.
Another benefit is the 60 minutes usually turns into 90 minutes, sometimes 2 hours. By the time the bell sounds I am usually deep into something, rarely am I waiting for the 60 minute bell so I can quit.
My email technique
Most of the mail in my inbox is stuff I have subscribed to, a lot of it is material I want to read, some of it is junk, some of it is promotional. I find the most productive way to deal with this avalanche is to take the first email on any given day and search for all the email from that person then go through the emails one at a time.
I scan each email, immediately deleting those I have no interest in. The ones I want to read - I paste into a text reader. You can get a free working version here: www.readplease.com
There are paid versions of this kind of software but this free one really isn’t bad, the voices are quite good to. You can also adjust the playback speed, so it’s like speed listening instead of speed reading.
Another benefit of going through all the email from a particular sender is that I don’t have to re-orientate as much after each message
Time Management Book
I have just finished Dan Kennedy’s No B.S. Time Management… and I have to tell you, if I could have anyone kick me in the ass it would be Dan Kennedy, it would be expensive, it would be painful, but it would be worth it.
The ISBN for Dan’s book is 1-932156-85-2
Enjoy!
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Improve your Google AdWords campaign with split testing
Be your own Google AdWords consultant!
Split testing is essentially the science of making small changes and comparing the results – with a view to making improvements in performance. On the Internet the goal is usually to increase conversion – mostly sales but it could just as easily be to take a trial offer or sign-up for a newsletter.
The beauty of Google AdWords is that it has split testing capability virtually built in.
Before I go any further I should point out that it is against Google Terms of Service to reveal your click through rates, so the following examples are all hypothetical and do not relate to any actual results.
If you are running an ad campaign on Google it stands to reason you want the click. You have set the maximum you are prepared to pay per click and a daily budget. You have chosen your keywords and there is a landing page just waiting for visitors from your ad. Let’s assume your website is effective, it is well written, holds the readers attention and is converting your visitors.
Your AdWords ads however, aren’t getting the clicks. If you are bidding 10 cents on a keyword that has a top bid of $4.80 and you ad is being displayed at position 583 then there is nothing to improve as there is nothing to measure – people simply aren’t seeing your ad.
If however you are bidding 22 cents and your ad is being displayed between 1-3 and you are unhappy with the click through rate then there is a LOT you can do about it – you can split test.
More on writing AdWords…
Here’s a hypothetical example…
Let’s say we run an ad something like this:
How to Use Split Testing
Small changes / big difference
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
In Google AdWords campaign summary under “Ad variations” we can very easily “clone” this ad by clicking “+ Create new ad: Text ad”
We can now change one element starting with the headline and create more ads like this:
Improve Online Conversion
Small changes / big difference
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
Split Testing Exposed
Small changes / big difference
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
We are only changing one element which makes it easy for us to compare the performance of each ad. You may also want to go to EDIT CAMPAIGN SETTINGS > ADVANCED SETTINGS and change the ad serving setting. By default Google sets it to “optimize” this means the “better” performing ads get more exposure over time. You will be deciding which are the best ads to run yourself once you have some data to make a decision on, so change it to “Rotate: show all ads equally”.
Let these ads run for a thousand impressions or so and you will have a good idea of their relative performance.
If you are short on ideas for new headlines click on your keywords tab and sort by CTR so the highest percentage is at the top. Try creating some new headlines using these top performing keywords. Another place to get ideas is to go to Google or Yahoo or MSN and type in some of the keywords you are bidding on and look at the ads that are displayed.
The difference in performance can be significant. Let’s say our three ads performed like this: 0.0%, 0.43% and 0.06%. We would take the second ad clone it several times and change the second line:
Improve Online Conversion
Free trail our software
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
Improve Online Conversion
Blast sales to the next level
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
Improve Online Conversion
Run your business like a pro
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
We would now run these ads for another 1,000 impressions and check our results, then change the third line.
The beauty of split testing and refining your ads this way in Google means you can take your best performer and confidently distribute it on the smaller (cheaper!) ad networks for pennies.
P.S. When composing your ad remember the tried and tested A.I.D.A. principle:Attention > Interest > Desire > Action
Another approach is “Identify problem” > “Agitate problem” > “Offer solution”, this 1-2-3 approach can work well as the Google ad effectively exists on 3 lines.
To you increased click through!
Noel
Split testing is essentially the science of making small changes and comparing the results – with a view to making improvements in performance. On the Internet the goal is usually to increase conversion – mostly sales but it could just as easily be to take a trial offer or sign-up for a newsletter.
The beauty of Google AdWords is that it has split testing capability virtually built in.
Before I go any further I should point out that it is against Google Terms of Service to reveal your click through rates, so the following examples are all hypothetical and do not relate to any actual results.
If you are running an ad campaign on Google it stands to reason you want the click. You have set the maximum you are prepared to pay per click and a daily budget. You have chosen your keywords and there is a landing page just waiting for visitors from your ad. Let’s assume your website is effective, it is well written, holds the readers attention and is converting your visitors.
Your AdWords ads however, aren’t getting the clicks. If you are bidding 10 cents on a keyword that has a top bid of $4.80 and you ad is being displayed at position 583 then there is nothing to improve as there is nothing to measure – people simply aren’t seeing your ad.
If however you are bidding 22 cents and your ad is being displayed between 1-3 and you are unhappy with the click through rate then there is a LOT you can do about it – you can split test.
More on writing AdWords…
Here’s a hypothetical example…
Let’s say we run an ad something like this:
How to Use Split Testing
Small changes / big difference
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
In Google AdWords campaign summary under “Ad variations” we can very easily “clone” this ad by clicking “+ Create new ad: Text ad”
We can now change one element starting with the headline and create more ads like this:
Improve Online Conversion
Small changes / big difference
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
Split Testing Exposed
Small changes / big difference
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
We are only changing one element which makes it easy for us to compare the performance of each ad. You may also want to go to EDIT CAMPAIGN SETTINGS > ADVANCED SETTINGS and change the ad serving setting. By default Google sets it to “optimize” this means the “better” performing ads get more exposure over time. You will be deciding which are the best ads to run yourself once you have some data to make a decision on, so change it to “Rotate: show all ads equally”.
Let these ads run for a thousand impressions or so and you will have a good idea of their relative performance.
If you are short on ideas for new headlines click on your keywords tab and sort by CTR so the highest percentage is at the top. Try creating some new headlines using these top performing keywords. Another place to get ideas is to go to Google or Yahoo or MSN and type in some of the keywords you are bidding on and look at the ads that are displayed.
The difference in performance can be significant. Let’s say our three ads performed like this: 0.0%, 0.43% and 0.06%. We would take the second ad clone it several times and change the second line:
Improve Online Conversion
Free trail our software
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
Improve Online Conversion
Blast sales to the next level
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
Improve Online Conversion
Run your business like a pro
Easily double your conversion
www.bestsplittesting.com
We would now run these ads for another 1,000 impressions and check our results, then change the third line.
The beauty of split testing and refining your ads this way in Google means you can take your best performer and confidently distribute it on the smaller (cheaper!) ad networks for pennies.
P.S. When composing your ad remember the tried and tested A.I.D.A. principle:Attention > Interest > Desire > Action
Another approach is “Identify problem” > “Agitate problem” > “Offer solution”, this 1-2-3 approach can work well as the Google ad effectively exists on 3 lines.
To you increased click through!
Noel
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
How to increase Google AdSense revenue...
There are plenty of ways to legitimately make more money with AdSense. If you familiarise yourself with Google’s TOS before implementing anything you read here or anywhere else on the Internet you will be well covered.
If you intend to click your own ads or have someone else or a robot do it for you then time is against you – Google will eventually close your account and you will have lost perhaps the easiest and most powerful way to quickly monetise any site that attracts legitimate visitors.
Getting the most out of your AdSense ads has become something of a science in itself and there is a wealth of material available (paid and free). I will share with you one technique I have used to increase my ad revenue from AdSense in the region of 400% with the same amount of visitors.
Click here to learn how to make money with AdSense.
If you intend to click your own ads or have someone else or a robot do it for you then time is against you – Google will eventually close your account and you will have lost perhaps the easiest and most powerful way to quickly monetise any site that attracts legitimate visitors.
Getting the most out of your AdSense ads has become something of a science in itself and there is a wealth of material available (paid and free). I will share with you one technique I have used to increase my ad revenue from AdSense in the region of 400% with the same amount of visitors.
Click here to learn how to make money with AdSense.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Strengths, interests and niches ...
None of these on their own will bring you’re online business long-term success – you actually need all of them – regardless of what the niche bashers and opportunist haters say.
Let’s take a look...
Strengths – what are YOUR strengths?
Often overlooked and taken for granted, your strengths are your natural abilities and the skills you have developed over time. Qualities you bring to bear on situations where you clearly demonstrate an advantage over others, with what seems like little effort.
Interests – what are you interested in?
It’s as simple as that. What interests you, fascinates you, can hold your attention easily for an hour or more and doesn’t leave you feeling tired. What is it you find so interesting that when you start talking about it other people fall asleep? These are things that interest you, they may not interest everyone but other people with a similar interest will be equally fascinated.
Niches – small specialized groups of people or markets that may, or may not, be catered for.
First of all, the problems…
Strengths
Have you ever known someone that really was outstanding in one area but never seemed to apply themselves? We all know or have known someone like this – it may even have been ourselves at some point. The thing is it just doesn’t matter how good you are at something, if you have no real interest or any real desire or motivation it won’t take you anywhere.
Interests
What interests you may not interest someone else, in fact anyone else. Your level of interest and enthusiasm for your subject will make little difference.
Niche
By their very nature niches come and go. What was once a small interest group can become mainstream, what was once an underserved market may eventually be catered for.
How they work together...
Let’s take a look...
Strengths – what are YOUR strengths?
Often overlooked and taken for granted, your strengths are your natural abilities and the skills you have developed over time. Qualities you bring to bear on situations where you clearly demonstrate an advantage over others, with what seems like little effort.
Interests – what are you interested in?
It’s as simple as that. What interests you, fascinates you, can hold your attention easily for an hour or more and doesn’t leave you feeling tired. What is it you find so interesting that when you start talking about it other people fall asleep? These are things that interest you, they may not interest everyone but other people with a similar interest will be equally fascinated.
Niches – small specialized groups of people or markets that may, or may not, be catered for.
First of all, the problems…
Strengths
Have you ever known someone that really was outstanding in one area but never seemed to apply themselves? We all know or have known someone like this – it may even have been ourselves at some point. The thing is it just doesn’t matter how good you are at something, if you have no real interest or any real desire or motivation it won’t take you anywhere.
Interests
What interests you may not interest someone else, in fact anyone else. Your level of interest and enthusiasm for your subject will make little difference.
Niche
By their very nature niches come and go. What was once a small interest group can become mainstream, what was once an underserved market may eventually be catered for.
How they work together...
Strength is not something you exert continuously (you would become exhausted), you do it from time to time. When you employ your strength against people that are less strong – you win. The spaces in between these moments of you winning are your interest. Something that interests you has you running while your competitor is walking. The niches that COME and go (my emphasis on COME) are the opportunities that you can leverage your strength and interest against to accelerate the growth of your business from time to time.
This is what I mean...
Sunday, July 16, 2006
How to list your web site on Google
So you still want to get your website listed?
I was explaining this to a friend of mine a few weeks ago (as well as the logic behind it) and he asked me almost in amazement “how do you know this?...” My answer was something like “erm… I don’t remember, I just know, I read it somewhere”. An answer from someone who has clearly spent too much time online.
If all your sites are indexed by Google and you know everything about everything then you won’t be reading this, if on the other hand you would like to see your domain appear in the Google search results instead of:
“Your search - www.yourdomain.com - did not match any documents”
… then read on, this technique should get you listed in Yahoo! and MSN as well.
So to get listed in the search engines you will need to do the following:
I was explaining this to a friend of mine a few weeks ago (as well as the logic behind it) and he asked me almost in amazement “how do you know this?...” My answer was something like “erm… I don’t remember, I just know, I read it somewhere”. An answer from someone who has clearly spent too much time online.
If all your sites are indexed by Google and you know everything about everything then you won’t be reading this, if on the other hand you would like to see your domain appear in the Google search results instead of:
“Your search - www.yourdomain.com - did not match any documents”
… then read on, this technique should get you listed in Yahoo! and MSN as well.
So to get listed in the search engines you will need to do the following:
- Create a blog at blogger.com
- Write an article with a text link to the site you want listed (and post the article on your blog)
- If you don’t have them already then create an email account at Yahoo!, Hotmail and create an account at Google
- Copy the xml link in Blogger and add it to your Yahoo email, hotmail and Goggle Reader
- Ping your blog at pingomatic.com
Wait for search engine spiders (about 2 weeks or less)
A quick explanation
Search engines like fresh content to serve to their visitors, blogs are often updated frequently and do not normally have a business focus like say a .com
So rather than submit your .com domain to the search engines you can “let” the search engines find you.
When a search engine indexes a website (or a blog) it will usually follow through to the links – i.e. your site.
Google owns Blogger, it stands to reason that Google indexes the content from all the blogs at Blogger.com (Blogger has it’s own search engine – this engine wouldn’t work if the blogs hadn’t been indexed;o)
Yahoo will index the news feeds you will put in your “My Yahoo!” likewise MSN will index the link you put in your hotmail account, same with Google Reader.
When you create a new post in your blog and alert the blog indexing services using pingomatic – Yahoo!, MSN, Google will all see that a news feed has been updated and will come along to read it (in my own experience) much sooner than they would have come to look at the website if you had submitted it directly).
Click here for a step-by-step guide (with screen shots) on how to list your web site on Google.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Financial leverage a definition…
Following my previous post about leverage I thought it might be interesting for some people to have a concise definition. This is from the Oxford Dictionary of Business...
Financial leverage See gearing.
Gearing (capital gearing; equity gearing; financial gearing; leverage) The ratio of the long-term funds with a fixed interest charge, such as *debentures and *preference shares, making up a company’s capital to its *ordinary share capital. A company is said to be high geared when its fixed interest capital is dominant and low geared when its capital is predominantly in ordinary shares, especially in relation to other similar companies. A high-geared company is considered to be a speculative investment for the ordinary shareholder and will be expected to show good returns when the company is doing well. The US word leverage is increasingly used in the UK.
Gearing adjustment In *current cost accounting, an adjustment that reduces the charge to the owners for the effect of price changes on *depreciation, *stock, and *working capital. It is justified on the grounds that a proportion of the extra financing is supplied by the *loan capital of the business.
Gearing ratios (leverage ratios) Ratios that express a company’s capital *gearing. There are a number of different ratios that can be calculated from either the *balance sheet or the *profit and loss account. Ratios based on the balance sheet usually express *debt as a percentage of *equity, or as a percentage of debt plus equity. Income gearing is normally calculated by dividing the *profit before interest and tax by the gross interest payable to give the *interest cover.
Leverage 1. The US word for *gearing. 2. The use by a company of its limited assets to guarantee substantial loans to finance its business.
Leveraged buy-out (LBO) The acquisition of one company by another through the use of borrowed funds. Usually the acquiring company or individuals use their own assets as security for the funds. The intention is that the loans will be repaid from the cash flow of the acquired company.
…and these are from the Collins Concise Dictionary…
Lever 1 a rigid bar pivoted about a fulcrum, used to transfer a force to a load and usually to provide a mechanical advantage. 2 any of a number of mechanical devices employing this principle. 3 a means of exerting pressure in order to accomplish something. 4 to prise or move (an object) with a lever
Leverage 1 the action of a lever. 2 the mechanical advantage gained by employing a lever. 3 strategic advantage. 4 power or influence 5 the US word for gearing (sense 3). 6 the use made by a company of its limited assets to guarantee the substantial loans required to finance its business.
Financial leverage See gearing.
Gearing (capital gearing; equity gearing; financial gearing; leverage) The ratio of the long-term funds with a fixed interest charge, such as *debentures and *preference shares, making up a company’s capital to its *ordinary share capital. A company is said to be high geared when its fixed interest capital is dominant and low geared when its capital is predominantly in ordinary shares, especially in relation to other similar companies. A high-geared company is considered to be a speculative investment for the ordinary shareholder and will be expected to show good returns when the company is doing well. The US word leverage is increasingly used in the UK.
Gearing adjustment In *current cost accounting, an adjustment that reduces the charge to the owners for the effect of price changes on *depreciation, *stock, and *working capital. It is justified on the grounds that a proportion of the extra financing is supplied by the *loan capital of the business.
Gearing ratios (leverage ratios) Ratios that express a company’s capital *gearing. There are a number of different ratios that can be calculated from either the *balance sheet or the *profit and loss account. Ratios based on the balance sheet usually express *debt as a percentage of *equity, or as a percentage of debt plus equity. Income gearing is normally calculated by dividing the *profit before interest and tax by the gross interest payable to give the *interest cover.
Leverage 1. The US word for *gearing. 2. The use by a company of its limited assets to guarantee substantial loans to finance its business.
Leveraged buy-out (LBO) The acquisition of one company by another through the use of borrowed funds. Usually the acquiring company or individuals use their own assets as security for the funds. The intention is that the loans will be repaid from the cash flow of the acquired company.
…and these are from the Collins Concise Dictionary…
Lever 1 a rigid bar pivoted about a fulcrum, used to transfer a force to a load and usually to provide a mechanical advantage. 2 any of a number of mechanical devices employing this principle. 3 a means of exerting pressure in order to accomplish something. 4 to prise or move (an object) with a lever
Leverage 1 the action of a lever. 2 the mechanical advantage gained by employing a lever. 3 strategic advantage. 4 power or influence 5 the US word for gearing (sense 3). 6 the use made by a company of its limited assets to guarantee the substantial loans required to finance its business.
Friday, July 07, 2006
Gustavo’s homemade leverage machine… (means no excuses for you!)
Today I was just a street away from home when I saw this guy, or maybe “the” guy that delivers those free leaflets through your door, you know the guy I’m talking about (you’ve probably seen him in your area;O)
Recently I’ve been calling up newspapers and magazines to get prices for an insert (just yesterday in fact) so I thought I’d ask the guy how much it costs to deliver door to door. He shows me a small business card: these are £35.- per thousand and a larger sized printed flyer: these are £45.- per thousand.
I get talking to the guy and it turns out he has three main clients – all estate agents – and he delivers to fairly well to do areas in London; namely: Ealing, Golders Green, Finchley Central, also Cricklewood and Hendon (maybe not so well to do).
The guy tells me he has been in London for three years and has not taken a single day off… you know what? I believe him.
So where is the leverage?
When I met him he was delivering a flyer for an estate agent AND a business card. The business card was a taxi service. He is leveraging his real estate flyer route to deliver the taxi business cards.
The taxi business cards cost him nothing extra to deliver, he was going that way anyhow, and get this, at an extra £35.- he has nearly doubled his earnings. With another one or two mail pieces he could easily triple or quadruple his earnings – he is really only limited by the amount of stuff he can carry in his rucksack.
Now I’m not saying this is an easy number by any stretch – it’s going to take the best part of a long days hard labour to deliver a 1,000 of these things but with a little friendly solicitation to businesses, shops and restaurants along his route he will easily pick up more customers.
The guy has a choice:
a) Work his backside off and barley scratch out a living in London of £35.- a day
b) Work his backside off and earn a very respectable £900.- a week leveraging the work he was doing in the first place
You also have a choice… What will it be?
Recently I’ve been calling up newspapers and magazines to get prices for an insert (just yesterday in fact) so I thought I’d ask the guy how much it costs to deliver door to door. He shows me a small business card: these are £35.- per thousand and a larger sized printed flyer: these are £45.- per thousand.
I get talking to the guy and it turns out he has three main clients – all estate agents – and he delivers to fairly well to do areas in London; namely: Ealing, Golders Green, Finchley Central, also Cricklewood and Hendon (maybe not so well to do).
The guy tells me he has been in London for three years and has not taken a single day off… you know what? I believe him.
So where is the leverage?
When I met him he was delivering a flyer for an estate agent AND a business card. The business card was a taxi service. He is leveraging his real estate flyer route to deliver the taxi business cards.
The taxi business cards cost him nothing extra to deliver, he was going that way anyhow, and get this, at an extra £35.- he has nearly doubled his earnings. With another one or two mail pieces he could easily triple or quadruple his earnings – he is really only limited by the amount of stuff he can carry in his rucksack.
Now I’m not saying this is an easy number by any stretch – it’s going to take the best part of a long days hard labour to deliver a 1,000 of these things but with a little friendly solicitation to businesses, shops and restaurants along his route he will easily pick up more customers.
The guy has a choice:
a) Work his backside off and barley scratch out a living in London of £35.- a day
b) Work his backside off and earn a very respectable £900.- a week leveraging the work he was doing in the first place
You also have a choice… What will it be?
Monday, June 26, 2006
Create your own custom “Glass” buttons in CorelDraw…
… watch the video!
Or use your own favourite drawing package – the principals will be exactly the same.
Today I’m going to show you how to create a glass button (for your website) which is fairly simple, but if you don’t know or haven’t done it before it can be something of a mystery.
I’ll be using CorelDraw not because it’s better than other packages necessarily but simply because version 4 shipped back with my first PC way back in 1996 – and I never quite got it together with Photoshop.
I’m now on version 12 so there really is no turning back, you should be able to do this in your own drawing package (even PowerPoint).
You can find the video here…
CorelDraw Video Tutorial
Or use your own favourite drawing package – the principals will be exactly the same.
Today I’m going to show you how to create a glass button (for your website) which is fairly simple, but if you don’t know or haven’t done it before it can be something of a mystery.
I’ll be using CorelDraw not because it’s better than other packages necessarily but simply because version 4 shipped back with my first PC way back in 1996 – and I never quite got it together with Photoshop.
I’m now on version 12 so there really is no turning back, you should be able to do this in your own drawing package (even PowerPoint).
You can find the video here…
CorelDraw Video Tutorial
Friday, June 09, 2006
Customer service – what is it?
About a year or ago I was selling rare casino chips on eBay. Now when I say rare, I mean rare – some of these chips could only have been bought from me or my supplier.
Some of these chips were from casinos that never opened their doors to the public; some were “end-of-run” uncompleted chips from the manufacturing companies.
So you get the picture, they were rare;O)
I would scan these chips and post the picture on eBay with a brief description. Because of the light weight of the items I would offer worldwide shipping at a flat rate (this was before eBay was swamped with 1 cent and 1 dollar items with 10 dollar shipping charges).
There were also a few warnings such as “PayPal Only” and “don’t ask for a shipping discount if you win multiple items, even if you live next door to me”.
Now this worked very well in terms of pre-qualifying people for the sale: you had to pay by PayPal and I would not field any enquires about shipping rates – if you could do this I was more than happy to pop these rarities in the post.
Now of course eBay is some kind of super-magnet for crazy people and a few did slip through, there was one guy that won and asked if he could send cash in an envelope (from the US!), I said it was PayPal Only, but he doesn’t have a PayPal account (he didn’t see the big orange letters – PAYPAL ONLY, he opens a PayPal account, then send me a nasty email blaming me for the hassle it’s caused him, he sends the money via PayPal, I return the money (via PayPal) tell him I don’t want to sell to him then ban him from all of my auctions
Another guy bids an item way up then asks if he can send me a money order, erm no… it’s “PayPal Only” I loose the sale, he tries to bid on another auction but can’t and wants to know why I’ve blocked his bidding, so I block his email… etc… etc…
I have maybe a small handful of stories like this, nothing new to people that use eBay regularly. Maybe these people aren’t crazy, maybe it’s a communication thing or a language thing, anyway I still managed to keep my 100% positive feedback rating to date.
Back to the theme…
Something that was never in my description was bonus chips, for every person that bought chips from me on eBay I would send them a bonus chip or two, equally as rare as the paid-for item. I would even keep a record of who got what so as not to send a duplicate chip, you would only get a chip you had not yet purchased or been given free.
So one guy buys some chips from me in the US and I post them from the UK. About a week letter I get a complaint (it was curt at best) regarding the non-delivery of the item. I check when I sent the item (I keep all postal receipts) it was a day or two after I received the money, from then, it’s about five days.
Now airmail to the US from the UK can take 5 – 7 days easily, even 10 is not uncommon.
What do I do?
First-up I log into my PayPal account and refund the full amount including postage, I then write an email explicitly apologising for the delay, I explain when I received payment, when I physically posted the item and speculated that it could still be on route. I inform the bidder that I have made a full refund and that I have sent a replacement item and ask him to accept it as a gesture of goodwill on my part.
What happens?
The very next day the original items arrive (with the bonus), the bidder sends me an email and is clearly flawed, he apologies for his hasty email and goes on to explain that he has had a string of eBay sellers either send items late or not-at-all.
I go from eBay zero to eBay hero, the buyer cannot thank me enough and escalates his praise in my feedback.
THIS is customer service, customer service is fixing the things that go wrong. If your operation runs smoothly 90% of the time that is not customer service, that is basic service, that is your job, that is what you are paid to do. Customer service is the 5-10% of the time when things go wrong, this is your opportunity to gain a life-long customer whether it was your fault or not.
People won’t remember the times things went smoothly, they will remember the times something went wrong and what you did about it.
I recently ordered some boxes for a promotion I was running, the items were sent to me via a company called Parcel Force, I have had many things sent to me via this courier and have always been in to receive the item and have never had a problem.
Until… the day I wasn’t in. Once I fell outside the loop it was a disaster. I called the premium rate phone number: 5, 10, 15 minutes no answer, I visit the website it says I can reschedule but gives no option for AM or PM. I call the next day get through (eventually) they say the parcel is at my local post office, I go there, it’s not there, I phone back they say they will get the depot to ring me, they don’t ring me…
On and on… it’s a customer service disaster.
What’s even worse is that the box supplier did a superb job wrapping the items and sent them in a reasonably timely fashion, and probably has no idea about the problems I had trying to receive the items. The next time I need to re-order, well I don’t know, I might look elseware the boxes weren’t unique to this supplier.
So your customer service even extends to the 3rd party vendors you use.
If you want to master customer service (and you do!) just look at the poor customer service you receive from others, find a parallel in your own business and commit to mastering this area, put a system in place, have a back-up plan, make it sooooo outstandingly good that you can even incorporate a marketing effort into it.
Your customer needs to FEEL that you did something, that you went the extra mile, that you ACTUALLY value them, their feelings, their business.
No one will champion your business more than a customer who experienced you putting something right.
************************************************************
This article is FREE to republish as long as you:
a) Publish the article in full
b) Include the following information with a “clickable” link back to the blog:
Author: Noel Byrne
http://sitesforbusiness.blogspot.com/
************************************************************
Some of these chips were from casinos that never opened their doors to the public; some were “end-of-run” uncompleted chips from the manufacturing companies.
So you get the picture, they were rare;O)
I would scan these chips and post the picture on eBay with a brief description. Because of the light weight of the items I would offer worldwide shipping at a flat rate (this was before eBay was swamped with 1 cent and 1 dollar items with 10 dollar shipping charges).
There were also a few warnings such as “PayPal Only” and “don’t ask for a shipping discount if you win multiple items, even if you live next door to me”.
Now this worked very well in terms of pre-qualifying people for the sale: you had to pay by PayPal and I would not field any enquires about shipping rates – if you could do this I was more than happy to pop these rarities in the post.
Now of course eBay is some kind of super-magnet for crazy people and a few did slip through, there was one guy that won and asked if he could send cash in an envelope (from the US!), I said it was PayPal Only, but he doesn’t have a PayPal account (he didn’t see the big orange letters – PAYPAL ONLY, he opens a PayPal account, then send me a nasty email blaming me for the hassle it’s caused him, he sends the money via PayPal, I return the money (via PayPal) tell him I don’t want to sell to him then ban him from all of my auctions
Another guy bids an item way up then asks if he can send me a money order, erm no… it’s “PayPal Only” I loose the sale, he tries to bid on another auction but can’t and wants to know why I’ve blocked his bidding, so I block his email… etc… etc…
I have maybe a small handful of stories like this, nothing new to people that use eBay regularly. Maybe these people aren’t crazy, maybe it’s a communication thing or a language thing, anyway I still managed to keep my 100% positive feedback rating to date.
Back to the theme…
Something that was never in my description was bonus chips, for every person that bought chips from me on eBay I would send them a bonus chip or two, equally as rare as the paid-for item. I would even keep a record of who got what so as not to send a duplicate chip, you would only get a chip you had not yet purchased or been given free.
So one guy buys some chips from me in the US and I post them from the UK. About a week letter I get a complaint (it was curt at best) regarding the non-delivery of the item. I check when I sent the item (I keep all postal receipts) it was a day or two after I received the money, from then, it’s about five days.
Now airmail to the US from the UK can take 5 – 7 days easily, even 10 is not uncommon.
What do I do?
First-up I log into my PayPal account and refund the full amount including postage, I then write an email explicitly apologising for the delay, I explain when I received payment, when I physically posted the item and speculated that it could still be on route. I inform the bidder that I have made a full refund and that I have sent a replacement item and ask him to accept it as a gesture of goodwill on my part.
What happens?
The very next day the original items arrive (with the bonus), the bidder sends me an email and is clearly flawed, he apologies for his hasty email and goes on to explain that he has had a string of eBay sellers either send items late or not-at-all.
I go from eBay zero to eBay hero, the buyer cannot thank me enough and escalates his praise in my feedback.
THIS is customer service, customer service is fixing the things that go wrong. If your operation runs smoothly 90% of the time that is not customer service, that is basic service, that is your job, that is what you are paid to do. Customer service is the 5-10% of the time when things go wrong, this is your opportunity to gain a life-long customer whether it was your fault or not.
People won’t remember the times things went smoothly, they will remember the times something went wrong and what you did about it.
I recently ordered some boxes for a promotion I was running, the items were sent to me via a company called Parcel Force, I have had many things sent to me via this courier and have always been in to receive the item and have never had a problem.
Until… the day I wasn’t in. Once I fell outside the loop it was a disaster. I called the premium rate phone number: 5, 10, 15 minutes no answer, I visit the website it says I can reschedule but gives no option for AM or PM. I call the next day get through (eventually) they say the parcel is at my local post office, I go there, it’s not there, I phone back they say they will get the depot to ring me, they don’t ring me…
On and on… it’s a customer service disaster.
What’s even worse is that the box supplier did a superb job wrapping the items and sent them in a reasonably timely fashion, and probably has no idea about the problems I had trying to receive the items. The next time I need to re-order, well I don’t know, I might look elseware the boxes weren’t unique to this supplier.
So your customer service even extends to the 3rd party vendors you use.
If you want to master customer service (and you do!) just look at the poor customer service you receive from others, find a parallel in your own business and commit to mastering this area, put a system in place, have a back-up plan, make it sooooo outstandingly good that you can even incorporate a marketing effort into it.
Your customer needs to FEEL that you did something, that you went the extra mile, that you ACTUALLY value them, their feelings, their business.
No one will champion your business more than a customer who experienced you putting something right.
************************************************************
This article is FREE to republish as long as you:
a) Publish the article in full
b) Include the following information with a “clickable” link back to the blog:
Author: Noel Byrne
http://sitesforbusiness.blogspot.com/
************************************************************
Lifetime value of your customer (and how to loose it)
On 4 June 2006 my Wife and I were due to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary. My Wife currently lives in the US and I live in London. So I went ahead and booked a flight, and a room at the Waldorf Astoria in New York and a dinner reservation at their famous Bull & Bear restaurant – where we celebrated our wedding exactly one year ago to the day.
I am not the most creative when it comes to celebrations and recreational ideas but I felt pretty good about this, I thought it would be nice for me and my Wife to revisit the scene a year later, just the two of us and reflect on that day and the loved ones that travelled so far to be with us.
On 30 May I was in what I can only describe as extreme pain, I went to see my doctor and he sent me to hospital directly. As Dave Ramsey likes to say “Life Happens”, and it did.
It’s Tuesday (I’m in hospital) and my flight is on Friday and our wedding anniversary is on Sunday, it dawns on me (even though I’m a guy) that things are probably going to get cancelled.
I call my Wife from the hospital and calmly let her know what’s going on – she books a flight to London.
I ring up Virgin Atlantic to cancel the flight, they say (due to the circumstances) they will honour the flight another time – until they realise I have booked through a travel agent and inform me that they can’t make any alterations and I should phone the agent.
I call eBookers, explain the situation, they tell me the ticket is non-refundable (I know this) but they can refund the airport taxes after charging me an administration fee. The airport tax is almost a third of the ticket price so I take it and then phone my travel insurance company who send me out a claim form.
On Friday evening I get discharged from hospital, my illness, although causing me a great deal of pain is not uncommon, is not life threatening and will remedy itself. My gratitude, my relief are hard to describe, my belief and faith in God and in Jesus are magnified, tears are shed.
By this time I have clearly missed my flight, which I had already cancelled and in any case my Wife is with me. I call the Waldorf Astoria – this is the instructive part of the story – and explain the situation, the lady on the phone explains the reservation I made is non-refundable. I thank the lady and put the phone down.
Frame of reference No 1 (me)
I knew the room was a non-refundable booking when I booked it, when I went to the website to book a room they had a special/promotion Sunday night booking for $367.45 (yes, this is the special discounted rate) – I booked it – non-refundable, it makes no difference to me, it’s my anniversary.
The flight – same deal exactly, I don’t take transatlantic flights on a whim, if I want to fly to New York on a particular day it’s because I have good reason.
I have no grievance with the Waldorf or eBookers, do you know why? Because when I booked these I knew they were non-refundable, life happens, I’ve just been discharged from hospital, my Wife is by my side, I am a happy man! (even considering the pain even considering lost wages, as a contractor, I listen to Dave Ramsey – I have an emergency fund in place and am not too out of pocket).
Frame of reference No 2 (my Wife)
My Wife chose the Waldorf Astoria above many other possible venues, this decision was not based on price. She chose the Waldorf to celebrate her marriage to me with the important people in our life. Our tiny gathering was nothing compared to the Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones extravaganza but it was our special day.
She has travelled 3,000 miles at short notice, at great expense because she has been told that her husband is in hospital, she does not know what’s wrong with him.
So my Wife rang the Waldorf about 3 minutes after I finished speaking to them and after a quick pre-amble with the operator asked to speak to a supervisor, after some wait a supervisor came to the phone. My Wife explained how exactly one year ago we had our reception at the Waldorf – (the booking was still “non-refundable”), my Wife went on to tell the supervisor that she works for a large investment bank in New York and when travelling on business only stays at the Hilton (the Waldorf is owned by Hilton Hotels Corporation) and actively recommends it to colleagues (all true!) still the booking is “non-refundable”.
Exasperated my Wife asks if the booking can be moved or a credit be put towards another stay (clearly our intention was to stay there in particular not just any hotel in NYC), nope, the booking is non-refundable, non-transferable, non-redeemable just about any word with the prefix “non” – were we in France? Non!
The conversation ended suddenly with the sound of plastic striking Formica (neither the phone or table suffered any damage). I was in the next room, not because I’m scared by my Wife or because she is a scary woman but because she had a very serious look before phoning. When my Wife looks serious… it’s serious.
So what IS my point?
My point is this: the Waldorf Astoria were correct in upholding the non-refundable status of the booking. If I never went there again it would make no impact on their business, if Michael Douglass never went there again it would make no difference, if everyone in Hollywood boycotted the Hilton on his say so, it would still probably not make any difference to their bottom line.
A few years ago the big business buzz-words were customer-focus, customer-orientated, customer-led… Clearly in retrospect this was in fact a fad, borne out by out-sourcing and off-shoring the new not-so-buzz-words.
One of largest business costs is still customer acquisition but somehow businesses fail miserably in the area of customer retention. This may in some ways be irrelevant for a publicly owned company with huge critical mass, such as Hilton Hotels. They could probably close their customer services department tomorrow (maybe they have already;O) and still do business for the next decade leaning on their brand name alone.
But for other small businesses, entrepreneurs and marketers this story is instructive. You can NEVER underestimate the lifetime value of your customer, their ability to endorse you, to recommend you, to even build your brand for you – at no charge!
Nothing can take away my memory of our wedding day and the evening we spent at the Waldorf, it was exceptional, the attention to detail, the staff, the timing, really were faultless, nearly everyone made some remark to this effect.
At the end of the day the Waldorf get to keep their $367.45 and rightfully so (it was, after all, non-refundable), and my Wife and I get to choose were we stay and were we spend our money.
************************************************************
This article is FREE to republish as long as you:
a) Publish the article in full
b) Include the following information with a “clickable” link back to the blog:
Author: Noel Byrne
http://sitesforbusiness.blogspot.com/
************************************************************
I am not the most creative when it comes to celebrations and recreational ideas but I felt pretty good about this, I thought it would be nice for me and my Wife to revisit the scene a year later, just the two of us and reflect on that day and the loved ones that travelled so far to be with us.
On 30 May I was in what I can only describe as extreme pain, I went to see my doctor and he sent me to hospital directly. As Dave Ramsey likes to say “Life Happens”, and it did.
It’s Tuesday (I’m in hospital) and my flight is on Friday and our wedding anniversary is on Sunday, it dawns on me (even though I’m a guy) that things are probably going to get cancelled.
I call my Wife from the hospital and calmly let her know what’s going on – she books a flight to London.
I ring up Virgin Atlantic to cancel the flight, they say (due to the circumstances) they will honour the flight another time – until they realise I have booked through a travel agent and inform me that they can’t make any alterations and I should phone the agent.
I call eBookers, explain the situation, they tell me the ticket is non-refundable (I know this) but they can refund the airport taxes after charging me an administration fee. The airport tax is almost a third of the ticket price so I take it and then phone my travel insurance company who send me out a claim form.
On Friday evening I get discharged from hospital, my illness, although causing me a great deal of pain is not uncommon, is not life threatening and will remedy itself. My gratitude, my relief are hard to describe, my belief and faith in God and in Jesus are magnified, tears are shed.
By this time I have clearly missed my flight, which I had already cancelled and in any case my Wife is with me. I call the Waldorf Astoria – this is the instructive part of the story – and explain the situation, the lady on the phone explains the reservation I made is non-refundable. I thank the lady and put the phone down.
Frame of reference No 1 (me)
I knew the room was a non-refundable booking when I booked it, when I went to the website to book a room they had a special/promotion Sunday night booking for $367.45 (yes, this is the special discounted rate) – I booked it – non-refundable, it makes no difference to me, it’s my anniversary.
The flight – same deal exactly, I don’t take transatlantic flights on a whim, if I want to fly to New York on a particular day it’s because I have good reason.
I have no grievance with the Waldorf or eBookers, do you know why? Because when I booked these I knew they were non-refundable, life happens, I’ve just been discharged from hospital, my Wife is by my side, I am a happy man! (even considering the pain even considering lost wages, as a contractor, I listen to Dave Ramsey – I have an emergency fund in place and am not too out of pocket).
Frame of reference No 2 (my Wife)
My Wife chose the Waldorf Astoria above many other possible venues, this decision was not based on price. She chose the Waldorf to celebrate her marriage to me with the important people in our life. Our tiny gathering was nothing compared to the Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones extravaganza but it was our special day.
She has travelled 3,000 miles at short notice, at great expense because she has been told that her husband is in hospital, she does not know what’s wrong with him.
So my Wife rang the Waldorf about 3 minutes after I finished speaking to them and after a quick pre-amble with the operator asked to speak to a supervisor, after some wait a supervisor came to the phone. My Wife explained how exactly one year ago we had our reception at the Waldorf – (the booking was still “non-refundable”), my Wife went on to tell the supervisor that she works for a large investment bank in New York and when travelling on business only stays at the Hilton (the Waldorf is owned by Hilton Hotels Corporation) and actively recommends it to colleagues (all true!) still the booking is “non-refundable”.
Exasperated my Wife asks if the booking can be moved or a credit be put towards another stay (clearly our intention was to stay there in particular not just any hotel in NYC), nope, the booking is non-refundable, non-transferable, non-redeemable just about any word with the prefix “non” – were we in France? Non!
The conversation ended suddenly with the sound of plastic striking Formica (neither the phone or table suffered any damage). I was in the next room, not because I’m scared by my Wife or because she is a scary woman but because she had a very serious look before phoning. When my Wife looks serious… it’s serious.
So what IS my point?
My point is this: the Waldorf Astoria were correct in upholding the non-refundable status of the booking. If I never went there again it would make no impact on their business, if Michael Douglass never went there again it would make no difference, if everyone in Hollywood boycotted the Hilton on his say so, it would still probably not make any difference to their bottom line.
A few years ago the big business buzz-words were customer-focus, customer-orientated, customer-led… Clearly in retrospect this was in fact a fad, borne out by out-sourcing and off-shoring the new not-so-buzz-words.
One of largest business costs is still customer acquisition but somehow businesses fail miserably in the area of customer retention. This may in some ways be irrelevant for a publicly owned company with huge critical mass, such as Hilton Hotels. They could probably close their customer services department tomorrow (maybe they have already;O) and still do business for the next decade leaning on their brand name alone.
But for other small businesses, entrepreneurs and marketers this story is instructive. You can NEVER underestimate the lifetime value of your customer, their ability to endorse you, to recommend you, to even build your brand for you – at no charge!
Nothing can take away my memory of our wedding day and the evening we spent at the Waldorf, it was exceptional, the attention to detail, the staff, the timing, really were faultless, nearly everyone made some remark to this effect.
At the end of the day the Waldorf get to keep their $367.45 and rightfully so (it was, after all, non-refundable), and my Wife and I get to choose were we stay and were we spend our money.
************************************************************
This article is FREE to republish as long as you:
a) Publish the article in full
b) Include the following information with a “clickable” link back to the blog:
Author: Noel Byrne
http://sitesforbusiness.blogspot.com/
************************************************************
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