The number one factor that makes or breaks your website is whether or not people can use it. This is typically referred to as your website’s usability. It seems simple: if people can’t do what you want them to do (buy things, subscribe to things, request a call, etc.), they won’t do it. Yet, because websites are so easy to change, several companies just create websites, web applications, e-newsletters, etc., and hope that the changes will help their business.
What further confuses this is typically a lack of clear insight into your website’s performance. For example, how well does your website convert visitors into buyers? What are the key decisions that visitors must make on your website? Do you give them the information and tools necessary to make those decisions?
This article will help you focus on 3 proven techniques for improving your website’s performance: website analytics, usability testing, and personas. Exactly how you choose to implement these techniques is obviously up to you. However, one thing is guaranteed: all three techniques help you get closer to the people who visit your website: their needs, their desires, and their behaviors. This information is critical if you plan to optimize your website’s usability to achieve your goals.
1. Measure Progress with Website Analytics
Many companies mistakenly install a standard “website statistics” program and only get a group of standard reports. Typically, these reports do very little to help you judge the true effectiveness of your website.
Want to get a jumpstart on creating your own website analytics? Just follow these 3 simple steps:
1. Begin with the end in mind – start with your objectives. Define your website marketing strategy objectives (i.e. “Increase the number of qualified prospects coming from web search engines”), and what you want your website visitors to do to reach those objectives (i.e. “See our listing in the top 10 in Google and click on it)
2. Get in touch with your visitors’ behavior on your website. Track how many unique visitors you get, and how long they stay on your site (including how many pages they view). You want all of these numbers to be going up, since that means you’re getting more visitors who are staying on the site longer. You are maximizing the odds that they will do what you want them to do.
3. Develop your conversion rate. Track how many visitors do the key action you want them to do and compare this number to your total visitors. This helps you determine your conversion rate. For example, if 15 out of 100 visitors requested more information from you (and that is one of your objectives), then your conversion rate for information requests is 15%.
Once you have these key website analytics in place, you can start to evolve your tracking and look for trends to optimize for. Here are two examples:
• Let’s say you notice higher conversion rates on weekends. Then you might want to spend more on online advertising on weekends and reduce your spending during the week.
• Let’s say you need more visitors and embark on a search engine optimization project to improve your rankings. Then you can track the increase or decrease in visitor flow from your project’s activities.
Regardless of what you want to achieve, getting to website usability first starts with solid website analytics. Why? Because website analytics force you to identify those areas that matter most, and identify how well or poorly you are doing in them. Once you know this, you are armed with key data that can help you focus your efforts and determine where things like usability testing can help the most.
2. Leverage Usability Testing
Usability testing is where you take people who would use your website, and actually watch them using it. Typically, you ask the person to do things on the site, and you watch either over their shoulder, behind a one-way mirror, or via a second computer where you can see what’s being recorded on the test computer.
It’s amazing how many things you can make better on your website just by watching people use it. Yet, as you get into it, you may find that hiring a usability professional for a testing project can be unnecessarily expensive. Usability professionals are helpful, since they typically have substantial expertise in planning and conducting tests, as well as interpreting test results. However, usability testing does not have to be fancy or formal: people are going to give you their opinion whether you’re sitting in a research company or at Starbucks. So be careful when hiring a professional that seems to make the testing process complicated or costly. When someone does this, it’s usually only for their own financial gain.
To successfully conduct a usability test, just follow these 5 steps:
1. Define your objectives. Begin with the end in mind. What do you want to accomplish with this usability test? Do you have specific areas of your website that you want to improve? If so, this is a great way to get ideas on how to make those areas better. Are you planning on rolling out a new area of your website? A usability test is a great way to do a “trial run” before the big launch.
2. Recruit the participants. This will take the most time, and can be the most frustrating part of the test process. You have to find people to participate (which can be tough, particularly if you need to match specific demographic profiles), and then you need to schedule them. Then, some will cancel, some won’t show, and some will be great test participants. The best way to get a feel for the person is to talk to them directly more than once over the phone. TIP: Be sure to call the person the day of the test to remind them about it.
3. Script the test. You’ll want to have an intro script, the test script, and a post-test survey. The intro script serves as a checklist of things you want to be sure to cover with the person before you start the test. TIP: During the part, try to focus on making the person feel comfortable giving their opinion, and reiterate that any feedback is good feedback. The next part, the test script, is a checklist of the actual things you want the person to do. This is followed by the post-test survey, which allows you to ask the person questions, and later compare those answers to what they said during the test.
4. Conduct the test. This is the fun part! You sit down with the person, and walk them through the test scenario. Some tests benefit from close “hand holding,” while others benefit from letting the person do whatever they think is right. It completely depends on the objectives, and they information you want to collect. In either case, the best thing to do is to record both the person and what they do on the computer. TIP: Be sure to compensate the person for their time.
5. Report the results. The best way to report the results is two-fold: First, do a quick, one-page or less recap of each session immediately after the test. That way, the information is still fresh in your mind. TIP: Include a picture of the user in your recap, since it will help make that person’s feedback “come alive.” Next, take the information collected during testing, and create 1 to 4 “personas” – user profiles that explain the type of person, what they need from the website, what issues they encounter frequently on the site, and what can be changed to help them. This will help you explain the results to others, and you can reuse these personas later when you are adding or updating areas of your website.
How many people should I test?
For most usability tests, you can learn the maximum amount by only testing ten people. Too many more and you’ll start to see too many recurring patterns. If you go less than ten, you might miss things or not see enough of a pattern.
3. Develop Personas
Let’s face it - no one reads a 20-page usability report from cover to cover. It just doesn’t happen. Usually, key decision makers ask for “recap” presentations, and then “latch on” to one or two key points from the study, quoting that point over and over again.
This presents a great opportunity: why not give those key decision makers something memorable? Enter personas.
Personas are a way to get everyone involved thinking about the actual people who visit your website.
What Personas are:
Fake people based on real data
A practical tool to maintain focus on your target customers
A way to make your data come alive and be more memorable
What Personas are not:
Every possible customer profile
“Made up”; they are created from real data, like usability test results
A replacement for existing ways we design and build our web site
Reporting user tests as personas is a great way to:
1. Get key decision makers on board with the persona concept
2. Communicate web site issues in the context of the people actually using your site
Creating personas from usability testing data is time-consuming, but very valuable. Just look across the data for key trends: what common roles, goals, and actions do you see? Can you group the feedback along those things? You’ll quickly start to evolve a handful of personas which can be refined over time. Add a name and a few pictures of that “person” and you’ll be on your way to creating a more user-focused website experience.
Again, exactly how you choose to implement these techniques is obviously up to you. Even small steps can make a big impact. You don’t have to have super-sophisticated website analytics, test your website with 100 users, or develop extremely detailed personas. Every step you take in these three areas, no matter how big or how small, will help you get more from your website, and your website marketing strategy.
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Golf Tips On When To Chip Versus Putting
Playing a chip shot from the fringe of a green versus putting through the fringe can be a little confusing for the average golfer. A lot of golfers choose to putt for the fear of not being able to control the distance of a chip shot around a green, and lets not talk about choking a chip shot. More often than not the confidence lies in the ability to putt the ball. When do you decide to chip instead of putt?
A quick review of some your options will help in the decision process. The circumstances have to be right to putt the ball. Here are some golf tips to consider and several situations to help your decision on choosing to chip the golf ball rather than electing to putt.
You may want to chip in these circumstances.
(1)Wet grass or thick grass.
The moisture or thickness of the grass is going to slow up the ball considerably, therefore weight of putt has to be determined to get it through the grass, and once you get it rolling on the green, the weight of putt it took you to get it through the fringe may not be enough or too much distance for the golf hole. In this circumstance there is too much weight control to consider.
(2)A very wet or slow green.
Chipping the golf ball will take a lot of moisture out of play, and a slow green forces you to swing harder with a putter to get the golf ball up to the hole, when the art of putting should call for a soft touch.
(3)Long grass and uphill to the hole.
You have to hit it harder to get it through the grass with a putter and up to the hole. Eliminate the chance of getting the golf ball caught up in the grass by chipping out and over.
(4)Over 7 feet of grass between golf ball and start of green, and hole is beyond center of green.
Chipping over the grass will eliminate slowing the golf ball up if you have a lot of green to work with.
(5)Hole is beyond center of green and more than 20 feet.
The odds are higher on getting the golf ball beyond 20 feet with a chipper versus a putter.
(6)Sprinkler system directly in front of line to golf hole or other obstacle that will affect the roll of golf ball.
Eliminate possible deflection of golf ball by chipping over the obstacle.
(7)Too much rolling terrain in the first 1/3 distance to the hole.
Taking most of the rolling green out of play by chipping over will give you a lot less rolling green to read unless you are very good at reading greens.
You have the ultimate decision on your ability to play any one of these golf club selections in these circumstances, but there is a good reason to think about these circumstances before you choose the club. I hope some of these golf tips will help in your decision process, and your goal to save strokes.
Get more Golf tips for Beginners.
A quick review of some your options will help in the decision process. The circumstances have to be right to putt the ball. Here are some golf tips to consider and several situations to help your decision on choosing to chip the golf ball rather than electing to putt.
You may want to chip in these circumstances.
(1)Wet grass or thick grass.
The moisture or thickness of the grass is going to slow up the ball considerably, therefore weight of putt has to be determined to get it through the grass, and once you get it rolling on the green, the weight of putt it took you to get it through the fringe may not be enough or too much distance for the golf hole. In this circumstance there is too much weight control to consider.
(2)A very wet or slow green.
Chipping the golf ball will take a lot of moisture out of play, and a slow green forces you to swing harder with a putter to get the golf ball up to the hole, when the art of putting should call for a soft touch.
(3)Long grass and uphill to the hole.
You have to hit it harder to get it through the grass with a putter and up to the hole. Eliminate the chance of getting the golf ball caught up in the grass by chipping out and over.
(4)Over 7 feet of grass between golf ball and start of green, and hole is beyond center of green.
Chipping over the grass will eliminate slowing the golf ball up if you have a lot of green to work with.
(5)Hole is beyond center of green and more than 20 feet.
The odds are higher on getting the golf ball beyond 20 feet with a chipper versus a putter.
(6)Sprinkler system directly in front of line to golf hole or other obstacle that will affect the roll of golf ball.
Eliminate possible deflection of golf ball by chipping over the obstacle.
(7)Too much rolling terrain in the first 1/3 distance to the hole.
Taking most of the rolling green out of play by chipping over will give you a lot less rolling green to read unless you are very good at reading greens.
You have the ultimate decision on your ability to play any one of these golf club selections in these circumstances, but there is a good reason to think about these circumstances before you choose the club. I hope some of these golf tips will help in your decision process, and your goal to save strokes.
Get more Golf tips for Beginners.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Lose Weight Quickly With This Easy To Maintain Diet
There are a lot of people in the world who are trying to find ways to lose weight quickly. In this article I write about a simple diet that worked for me.
I have always had an ongoing battle with my own weight, however a few years ago I managed to lose those excess pounds.
I have always liked the wrong types of food and drinks and as a result have have always been on the large side. I have to be very careful what I eat as I seem to gain weight very easily. In my life I have tried many weight loss programs or diets, however I have always looked for a way of losing weight without having to resort to starving myself or by having to do huge amounts of exercise.
I am not sure if you are like me, but I have always been annoyed and frustrated with people who seem to be able to eat seemingly huge amounts of food, without getting fat. I am sure I eat half as much as these people but am still twice their size, it is not fair! That was until a couple of years ago.
I decided I needed to find my own weight loss program. I had to be realistic, I was aware that I did very little exercise and that I liked all of the wrong types of food. I loved the taste of fast food, this was only because of my busy lifestyle though. One of my biggest problems though was that I liked snack food, such as peanuts, chocolate and crisps. I also liked alcohol as this helped me to gain confidence.
I knew that most people would advise me to stop eating all of these fatty type foods, especially the pizzas and chips. They would also no doubt, advise me to join a gym and to go jogging every morning. Get real! Those gyms are full of thin people, if I go jogging I might get mugged, and I am sorry but life would not be worth living without my weekly pizza!
I decided that what I would do is to basically eat a healthy type breakfast, which would be cerial or toast. I would have a fairly light lunch, such as a sandwich, however for my evening meal I could eat whatever I wanted. The main thing and most difficult to implement would be the fact that I would be no longer eating between meals. The snacks had to go!. I am not trying to say that this was easy to do, however I had a need and was determined to lose weight.
For exercise I decided to leave the car at home, wherever possible, and walk to more places. I also started taking my children to the park more often. At the park we would play games such as football, cricket and baseball. It is amazing how much weight you can lose by having fun.
These things were what helped me to lose all of my weight and to reach a size I was happy with.
Get more weight loss tips
I have always had an ongoing battle with my own weight, however a few years ago I managed to lose those excess pounds.
I have always liked the wrong types of food and drinks and as a result have have always been on the large side. I have to be very careful what I eat as I seem to gain weight very easily. In my life I have tried many weight loss programs or diets, however I have always looked for a way of losing weight without having to resort to starving myself or by having to do huge amounts of exercise.
I am not sure if you are like me, but I have always been annoyed and frustrated with people who seem to be able to eat seemingly huge amounts of food, without getting fat. I am sure I eat half as much as these people but am still twice their size, it is not fair! That was until a couple of years ago.
I decided I needed to find my own weight loss program. I had to be realistic, I was aware that I did very little exercise and that I liked all of the wrong types of food. I loved the taste of fast food, this was only because of my busy lifestyle though. One of my biggest problems though was that I liked snack food, such as peanuts, chocolate and crisps. I also liked alcohol as this helped me to gain confidence.
I knew that most people would advise me to stop eating all of these fatty type foods, especially the pizzas and chips. They would also no doubt, advise me to join a gym and to go jogging every morning. Get real! Those gyms are full of thin people, if I go jogging I might get mugged, and I am sorry but life would not be worth living without my weekly pizza!
I decided that what I would do is to basically eat a healthy type breakfast, which would be cerial or toast. I would have a fairly light lunch, such as a sandwich, however for my evening meal I could eat whatever I wanted. The main thing and most difficult to implement would be the fact that I would be no longer eating between meals. The snacks had to go!. I am not trying to say that this was easy to do, however I had a need and was determined to lose weight.
For exercise I decided to leave the car at home, wherever possible, and walk to more places. I also started taking my children to the park more often. At the park we would play games such as football, cricket and baseball. It is amazing how much weight you can lose by having fun.
These things were what helped me to lose all of my weight and to reach a size I was happy with.
Get more weight loss tips
How Steve Jobs Personally Benefited from Options Backdating at Apple Computer
Apple Computer stock dropped recently after the San Francisco Recorder, a legal newspaper, said Federal prosecutors are examining Apple’s stock option documents to decide whether to file criminal charges. That was an escalation from the previous level of expectations. Some of the stock’s cheerleaders are saying it won’t hurt Apple or Steve Jobs, and there is not a chance he will be leaving Apple.
I think that’s wrong, or at least expresses a lot more certainty than any outsider could know. The other, quieter announcement was that Steve Jobs has “decided” that he needs to hire his own attorney to deal with the SEC and the Justice Department from now on. Up to now, he has been represented by the company’s outside law firm.
One of the big advantages of being in and around Silicon Valley for 25 years is the déjà vu effect. I have seen this before. CEOs usually don’t hire their own counsel until the company counsel tells them that the company’s interests and the CEO’s interests have diverged. In other words, if Apple’s counsel has seen enough to believe the company was hurt and the CEO was involved in it, they have the potential of representing the company in a lawsuit against the CEO, and therefore have to advise him that they can no longer represent him..
Now that the company has admitted Jobs knew about the backdating, I think the next announcement we will see is that Steve Jobs has been notified he is the target of a criminal investigation, and then the Board will have a very difficult time doing anything other than suspending him until the investigation is over.
I think these things because I have been through the numbers, including what I believe is the largest stock option grant ever, to Steve Jobs in January 2000.
Overall, since the current proxy disclosure rules started in 1994, Apple made 15 rounds of options grants through their September, 2002 fiscal year. If you look at the price of those grants compared to the annual range of the stock for the six months prior to the grant and the six months following the grant, all 15 should average somewhere around the 50th percentile of the annual range. Some grants made right before the stock declined would be in higher percentiles, while others made right before the stock shot up would be in lower percentiles. But averaging all 15 rounds together, it seems reasonable to expect the 50th percentile if no funny business was going on.
Apple’s grants average in the 15th or 16th percentile. That is powerful evidence that a company backdated, or at least granted options right before they had reason to believe the stock was going to jump. Of course, Apple has now admitted that they backdated options, and Jobs knew about it
There are three transactions the SEC and Justice Department probably are looking at for backdating. One was on July 11, 1997, when Apple repriced options and executives turned in old options with a $7.44 strike price for an equal number of new options with a $3.31 strike price. There were only two other days in the 1997 fiscal year when the stock closed at a lower price. On August 6, only 26 days after the repricing date, the stock jumped 33% and then added another 11% on August 7. The question is whether someone decided on August 8 that July 11 would have been a great day to make the repricing effective.
A second case was January 17, 2001, when four top officers (not including Jobs) got options totaling two million shares at $8.41 a share. A few months before, on the last business day of the 2000 fiscal year, September 29, AAPL was cut in half when they preannounced an earnings shortfall. It kept dropping to the $8.41 option price, and then staged a nearly 60% rally in four months.
The third and most serous case is the giant 40 million share (split-adjusted) grant at $21.80 a share to Jobs on January 12, 2000. This one is a bit tricky, as the company has said Jobs “didn’t benefit” because the stock eventually went below the option price. But here’s what really happened.
In the previous 26 trading days, AAPL fell 26%. Jobs then got his grant on the exact day the stock hit its low, and the stock rose 65% in the following 10 weeks. The issue, again, is whether someone decided in February or March that January 12 was a great day to price the boss’s options, it being the lowest price for many months. AAPL stock eventually went below the option price, and the options were cancelled. The company says due to “irregularities in the grants, the options were canceled and resulted in no financial gain to the CEO.”
Oh, really? This bunch of options would have expired in January 2010. Apple’s stock kept declining in the tech bear market, so the Board gave him 10-year options on another 15 million shares in October 2001. But the second batch went underwater, too, and on March 19, 2003, Jobs “voluntarily cancelled” all 55 million options. That’s why the company claims there was no financial benefit to him from the perfectly-timed 40 million share grant.
But the Board of Directors Compensation Committee report for that year disclosed that “in exchange for his cancelled options” Jobs was given 10 million split-adjusted shares worth around $75 million at the time. They were restricted from sale for three years, and when they became free to trade on March 19, 2006, they were worth $640 million. Not bad!
Here’s the rub, and I am indebted to compensation consultant Graef Crystal for doing the calculations. How did Apple’s Board decide on the number 10 million shares? Almost certainly, they used an options pricing model to calculate the current value of the options, which still had seven and eight years to expiration. Even though they were underwater on that day, the long time to expiration gave them value. Crystal used the Black-Scholes option pricing model to calculate the current value of the 55 million options: $77 million. That’s close enough to $75 million to believe this was their methodology.
But remember that the value of the options also depends on their strike price, and the very favorable strike price on the first 40 million grant raised their value quite a bit. If the strike prices of the two contracts had been set at the 50th percentile of the daily closing prices in their respective fiscal years, the calculated value on March 19, 2003 would have been $10 million less, around $67 million. So the Board might have given him, say, $65 million in shares instead of $75 million, or 8.7 million shares instead of 10 million. Those 8.7 million shares would have been worth $557 million when the sale restrictions expired on March 19, 2006, instead of $640 million. That’s an $83 million difference.
Yet in an October 4, 2006 filing with the SEC, Apple said: “In a few instances, Apple CEO Steve Jobs was aware that favorable grant dates had been selected, but he did not receive or otherwise benefit from these grants and was unaware of the accounting implications.” He didn’t receive the grants? He didn’t benefit from the grants? What about the $83 million? Get real.
It now appears that the paper trail around the October 2001 grant (7.5 million shares at the time; 15 million split-adjusted) was falsified. Recently, Apple has been saying that, yes, there was something wrong with the first and maybe both of these grants, but Jobs was not aware of the “irregularities.” But Jobs also was CEO of Pixar at the same time, which also appears to have backdated stock options. So he is the only CEO of two companies caught in this scandal, and it looks to me like someone on the East Coast has decided to teach the freewheeling entrepreneurs on the West Coast a little lesson by nailing a very big target. I still think there is a substantial risk that Jobs will be forced to leave Apple, and therefore it is too risky to step into the stock yet.
Michael Murphy, CFA, has been a technology stock analyst for over 35 years. He founded the first technology investing newsletter, the California Technology Stock Letter, in 1982. He now writes New World Investor, a weekly advisory letter, with more information available at http://www.NewWorldInvestor.net.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
The Good and the Bad of Electric Men's Shavers
Shavers come in different shapes, sizes, and makes. But it basically boils down to two main types: men's razors and electric men's shavers. Different men have different preferences when it comes to have that handsome, neatly shaven look. But some men take advantage of technology and acquire high-tech gadgets, including shavers. Electric shavers have advantages and disadvantages too. We will just focus on the main ones, so it's up to you to check which outweighs which.
Advantage: Convenience
With electrically powered men's shavers, you have rotary blades that move hundreds of times faster, therefore cutting your shaving time to half. Also, it is portable. You can carry it around, stash it in the car, and put it in your pocket. If you're in a rush, you may skip the preparation ritual in your bathroom and just shave while driving on your way to your work or your date, or shave in your workplace's men's room. Lastly, you don't have to buy new razors or blades every time since the ones in electric men's shavers do not dull easily.
Disadvantage: Not many really!
Since electric shavers have protectors like steel screens and nets, for some men they do not shave the hair close enough. Some men's skin is more sensitive than others and those screens irritate them, therefore, ending up with rash-like spots on their face. Also, since these modern shavers are electrically powered, maintenance is needed and some problems might occur. If broken, the shaver's replacement parts may be expensive.
What you can do to make an informed decision about determining which shaver is for you and base your choice on your lifestyle and grooming needs. Today more and more Men are choosing to go with electric men's shavers.
Click HERE for some great FREE informative articles and a superb Site where you can see all the latest models and is designed especially for us Men who are thinking of changing to a men's shaver.
Did you find this Article helpful? If you did, why not take a look at my other articles?
Mens Electric Shavers | Men's Electric Shaver
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Beginners guide to starting an online business
Today the Internet is much more than a simple document storage/retrieval system. It is a great vehicle for anyone who wants to setup an online business with little or no money and a want-it-now attitude.
I have a programming background but it was not my technical know-how that allowed me succeed in this area but my trials and errors as an online business owner.
I have tried many opportunities and techniques but it was through my failures I've learnt and consolidated a simple technique to succeed as an online business owner.
I can assure you that, although you will need to acquire some basic technical skills, your success will depend not on your programming or typing skills but more on what you have between your ears.
Below is my list of what you'll need and have to do, to succeed as an online business owner.
1. Have a dream and persistence. If you haven't got a dream and the persistence to follow it through then you will fail, guarantied.
2. Have a mentor. Find someone who has gained the experience in this field. Beg, crawl, wash their car, do whatever takes to become their student. Listen to their advice and learn from their failures and successes. You'll save yourself a lot of time, effort and money not to mention heartache and disappointment.
3. Find a hobby, a 'pet' project, something you are interested in and would do without payment or rewards. If it gets you excited, keeps you awake at nights thinking about it, it will provide you with opportunities to make money from it too. For example, once you have a project/activity that you live for, be it surfing, stamp collection, video games, mobile phones, you could start a local club. Once the club is established you can start a club website. Once the website is up and running you can introduce products to promote the club and your project/activity. You get the picture? You probably have seen the film 'Pay it forward'. Well, you can use the same principle in establishing an online business. Give something valuable first and then you'll get your opportunities to reap your rewards.
4. Promote and automate your project website. Once you completed step 3 above and your site is up and running you want to be able to promote your club site to 'outsiders'. You don't have to get technical and bogged down in programming or writing strings of HTML code. There are brilliant software out there to do a lot of 'skilled' tasks with the push of a button (both free and commercial products). Learn to use them well! Promoting your website should be your priority from now on. Get as many people to come to the site as you can and automate this activity. Start a newsletter to keep in touch with your members and provide them with free advice, tips and news on the subject of your project/activity. And again, automate this too. Get software to automatically distribute your newsletters and automatically sort any emails you get in reply to your posts. Set up autoresponders signup new members and to respond to email queries; automate, automate, automate...
5. Once you have enough members and you have an established, loyal group of followers, you can introduce your promotional products and other services that you now want to sell and make money from as a business. You'll have to be gentle and do this bit by bit. You may also find it useful to have another, separate, commercial site for this purpose and simply direct your members there from your 'signature files' or 'letterheads' you send out as part of your club newsletter. By now you should have enough experience in setting up and running a website from step 3 above. If you did have a separate commercial site you run a smaller risk of offending 'purist' club members.
6. Review the operation of your site, experiment and test the effect of site layout, content, headlines etc. Review and look for opportunities to further automate anything that you can to make your site 'self-sustaining'. If you do this you should be able to get yourself more free time to actually enjoy your hobby/project and to go out and look for more new material (advice, tips and news) that you can send out to you members. Once you have a website running and are making money out of it, it is very easy to forget that without new content and looking after your members your business will not survive. So make sure that the time you have freed up by automating your processes, you put back into searching for and providing fresh content and keep on provide a service to your members and keep in mind that they are members because they share your enthusiasm for the hobby and not for your business. Find a gentle balance between that hobby and your commercial interests.
Wishing you success in your new adventure,
Ference
Online Business Opportunities
Affiliate Marketing Program
I have a programming background but it was not my technical know-how that allowed me succeed in this area but my trials and errors as an online business owner.
I have tried many opportunities and techniques but it was through my failures I've learnt and consolidated a simple technique to succeed as an online business owner.
I can assure you that, although you will need to acquire some basic technical skills, your success will depend not on your programming or typing skills but more on what you have between your ears.
Below is my list of what you'll need and have to do, to succeed as an online business owner.
1. Have a dream and persistence. If you haven't got a dream and the persistence to follow it through then you will fail, guarantied.
2. Have a mentor. Find someone who has gained the experience in this field. Beg, crawl, wash their car, do whatever takes to become their student. Listen to their advice and learn from their failures and successes. You'll save yourself a lot of time, effort and money not to mention heartache and disappointment.
3. Find a hobby, a 'pet' project, something you are interested in and would do without payment or rewards. If it gets you excited, keeps you awake at nights thinking about it, it will provide you with opportunities to make money from it too. For example, once you have a project/activity that you live for, be it surfing, stamp collection, video games, mobile phones, you could start a local club. Once the club is established you can start a club website. Once the website is up and running you can introduce products to promote the club and your project/activity. You get the picture? You probably have seen the film 'Pay it forward'. Well, you can use the same principle in establishing an online business. Give something valuable first and then you'll get your opportunities to reap your rewards.
4. Promote and automate your project website. Once you completed step 3 above and your site is up and running you want to be able to promote your club site to 'outsiders'. You don't have to get technical and bogged down in programming or writing strings of HTML code. There are brilliant software out there to do a lot of 'skilled' tasks with the push of a button (both free and commercial products). Learn to use them well! Promoting your website should be your priority from now on. Get as many people to come to the site as you can and automate this activity. Start a newsletter to keep in touch with your members and provide them with free advice, tips and news on the subject of your project/activity. And again, automate this too. Get software to automatically distribute your newsletters and automatically sort any emails you get in reply to your posts. Set up autoresponders signup new members and to respond to email queries; automate, automate, automate...
5. Once you have enough members and you have an established, loyal group of followers, you can introduce your promotional products and other services that you now want to sell and make money from as a business. You'll have to be gentle and do this bit by bit. You may also find it useful to have another, separate, commercial site for this purpose and simply direct your members there from your 'signature files' or 'letterheads' you send out as part of your club newsletter. By now you should have enough experience in setting up and running a website from step 3 above. If you did have a separate commercial site you run a smaller risk of offending 'purist' club members.
6. Review the operation of your site, experiment and test the effect of site layout, content, headlines etc. Review and look for opportunities to further automate anything that you can to make your site 'self-sustaining'. If you do this you should be able to get yourself more free time to actually enjoy your hobby/project and to go out and look for more new material (advice, tips and news) that you can send out to you members. Once you have a website running and are making money out of it, it is very easy to forget that without new content and looking after your members your business will not survive. So make sure that the time you have freed up by automating your processes, you put back into searching for and providing fresh content and keep on provide a service to your members and keep in mind that they are members because they share your enthusiasm for the hobby and not for your business. Find a gentle balance between that hobby and your commercial interests.
Wishing you success in your new adventure,
Ference
Online Business Opportunities
Affiliate Marketing Program
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Conversational Hypnosis - A Powerful Sales Tool
If you have not heard of conversational or covert hypnosis then it is time to you get to know about it.
What is conversational / covert hypnosis?
Conversational hypnosis is a term used by Ericksonian hypnotherapists to create a trance using embedded words in the verbal text. Some people see this technique as unethical because the client has a right to knowingly participate in the development of trance. On the contrary, other specialists affirm that conversational hypnosis is a well-tested and effective Ericksonian technique, and definitively not unethical in any way.
Conversational hypnosis is one of the most effective and efficient techniques of hypnotherapy in producing quick and permanent results. However, special training and skills are necessary to be able to effectively use this technique.
How can conversational hypnosis relate to your sales job?
If you have already gone through the special training to apply conversational hypnosis in your job, just think of the possibilities especially when you are trying to close a deal with a client. You are definitely going to experience a higher closing rate compare to those who have never heard conversational hypnosis.
Every purchaser will have a motive. It is either something that they want to have, wished for or something that can potentially contribute to growth to whatever they are doing. For example why would an individual live a big house when he or she can live comfortably in an average sized home? Or why would a business owner expand his or her business to other states or overseas when it is doing well its current location?
If you are equipped with the skill of conversational hypnosis, you will become a better sale person. Because some how or someway, you will be able to manage and convince your client that the product or service you are selling is what they want or something that can help improve whatever that they are doing.
Do keep in mind though that such skill isn't only for selling. It is really a great addition to your life because you will be able to use conversional hypnosis to persuade an individual, a group or even large audience to do your bidding.
Just imagine how nice it would be to get someone to do something for you just because you are too lazy to do it? Or just to do something as you please.
Can conversational hypnosis be used in an unethical way?
Obviously the answer would be YES. To the extent where you can even make a stranger give you all his cash in is wallet at that point of time. If such skill ever falls in the wrong hands, there would certainly be havoc.
However the supply of appropriate training is very limited worldwide. Not many people can find the right access to the proper conversational hypnosis training courses. Even if there is one available, it will come at a hefty price tag.
How would you know if you naturally have the skill of conversational hypnosis?
Every individual would somehow be in a group of friends. Regardless of its size, as long as you know you're the leader of the group, you pretty much have the natural gift of conversational hypnosis. Unfortunately many of us aren't born leaders. This is where acquiring the knowledge and skills of conversational hypnosis will be beneficial.
It's always better to be the leader in a group of friends or in a relationship because things will go your way, which is favorable to yourself. And the best part is your followers or companion will be happy to have it your way. Isn't that wonderful?
hypnosis
hypnosis quit smoking
What is conversational / covert hypnosis?
Conversational hypnosis is a term used by Ericksonian hypnotherapists to create a trance using embedded words in the verbal text. Some people see this technique as unethical because the client has a right to knowingly participate in the development of trance. On the contrary, other specialists affirm that conversational hypnosis is a well-tested and effective Ericksonian technique, and definitively not unethical in any way.
Conversational hypnosis is one of the most effective and efficient techniques of hypnotherapy in producing quick and permanent results. However, special training and skills are necessary to be able to effectively use this technique.
How can conversational hypnosis relate to your sales job?
If you have already gone through the special training to apply conversational hypnosis in your job, just think of the possibilities especially when you are trying to close a deal with a client. You are definitely going to experience a higher closing rate compare to those who have never heard conversational hypnosis.
Every purchaser will have a motive. It is either something that they want to have, wished for or something that can potentially contribute to growth to whatever they are doing. For example why would an individual live a big house when he or she can live comfortably in an average sized home? Or why would a business owner expand his or her business to other states or overseas when it is doing well its current location?
If you are equipped with the skill of conversational hypnosis, you will become a better sale person. Because some how or someway, you will be able to manage and convince your client that the product or service you are selling is what they want or something that can help improve whatever that they are doing.
Do keep in mind though that such skill isn't only for selling. It is really a great addition to your life because you will be able to use conversional hypnosis to persuade an individual, a group or even large audience to do your bidding.
Just imagine how nice it would be to get someone to do something for you just because you are too lazy to do it? Or just to do something as you please.
Can conversational hypnosis be used in an unethical way?
Obviously the answer would be YES. To the extent where you can even make a stranger give you all his cash in is wallet at that point of time. If such skill ever falls in the wrong hands, there would certainly be havoc.
However the supply of appropriate training is very limited worldwide. Not many people can find the right access to the proper conversational hypnosis training courses. Even if there is one available, it will come at a hefty price tag.
How would you know if you naturally have the skill of conversational hypnosis?
Every individual would somehow be in a group of friends. Regardless of its size, as long as you know you're the leader of the group, you pretty much have the natural gift of conversational hypnosis. Unfortunately many of us aren't born leaders. This is where acquiring the knowledge and skills of conversational hypnosis will be beneficial.
It's always better to be the leader in a group of friends or in a relationship because things will go your way, which is favorable to yourself. And the best part is your followers or companion will be happy to have it your way. Isn't that wonderful?
hypnosis
hypnosis quit smoking
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