Month: February 2008

(This is the first part of a two or three part series on “Doing What You Love to Do”.)

Scott Hanselman once talked about three aspects to evaluate the dream job. They are:

1. Doing Stuff You Love to To
2. Doing Stuff You’re Good At
3. Doing Stuff Someone Will Pay You to Do

Why do you think these concepts are so important to consider as you start your first on-line business? One of my good friends, Melissa S., couldn’t say it better:

I think it is very wise for Prosper to encourage the students to pick something they love to market. I love ballroom dancing and I guess there is a gene in most women that makes them love shoes.

Because of Melissa’s decision to do something she loved to do, she has seen amazing results with her first website.

As many of my readers know, my first website was all about clogging shoes and the clogging dance industry. I was such a wild little kid that my mom did everything she could to calm me down. She put me in every sport, piano lessons, singing and finally, after exhausting all other options, clogging was an attempt to drain me of unnecessary energy. At the time I don’t know how much I really liked it, but, it’s paid off now in more ways than I ever imagined. Clogging is really why I’m now so actively involved in the search engine optimization and on-line marketing industry. Without that first website idea, I would not be doing what I do today.

So why is it important to do something you love to do? As I mentioned in a previous post, starting an on-line business isn’t easy. You have to be patient, diligent, hard working and persistent. Luckily I had a mentor that took me by the hand and walked me through some of his trials and errors (although he wouldn’t claim he had too many 🙂 ) so I didn’t have to go through them on my own. He didn’t tell me what industry I should get involved in to start, but he did have me write down hobbies, interests, and things I enjoyed doing. As I look back at my education, this was one of the first steps towards my success.

If you are just getting started with an on-line business or thinking about starting something new, this is my biggest recommendation – Do Something You Love to Do! Many people have a tendency to think, “What will make me the most money?” or “What’s the best selling thing out there – I’ll do that.” I’m yet to see a mindset like this become really successful. Yes it’s important to do market research. Just because I love to watch sports on TV doesn’t mean that activity is going to make me money. But as you consider different options, don’t rule some out just because you “think” they wouldn’t be profitable or you “think” they are too saturated with competitors.

In Part 2 of this post I plan to do a case study on a client that has really seen success with her first on-line business because she followed this simple concept – she picked something she loved to do and then monetized it.

One thing I’ve realized lately is how important it is to not sit back and “wait” for sales to happen on a new eCommerce website. No, you don’t have to be a jerk like the picture below explains 🙂 but you do have to go out there and make things happen.

I run one website that sells clogging shoes and dance bags. One of the initial ways I made sales was to start contacting people I already knew that may be interested in what I was selling. Yes, I had to take a few big steps out of my comfort zone at first; however, as I talked to friends and family, they were willing to give me good feedback and even criticism which helped my site make progress.

Some of that feedback was positive. I used this feedback as the start of a “testimonials” section. Am I positive that it had a direct effect on sales? No. I do know that many large companies use feedback and reviews to give their products and services more credibility.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about goals and how this ties in to sales online. I heard that Monday, January 21st is known as “Blue Monday” because people realize they probably aren’t going to keep their infamous “New Years Resolutions”. Three weeks have come and gone, they realize they’ve fallen in to the same patterns as always – they decide to give up and quit.

Why does this happen? Were they not serious when they set these goals in the first place? Were they not committed? Did they not want to succeed or overcome a bad habit? Of course they were serious; of course they were committed (at least at first); obviously they wanted to succeed or cut the bad habits. But, in my opinion, their goals were probably based on “outcomes” and not individual “performance”.

I would say that my greatest “discovery” to date as an entrepreneur has been a better understanding of how to set and accomplish goals. When it comes to sales, some things are obviously out of our control. I really wish I could just turn on a magic button and all of a sudden the money would flow in to my merchant account on a consistent basis. However, this doesn’t happen as often as I’d like. Why, Why, Why? I’ve actually heard a few clients ask this very question: “Why the hell am I not making sales?” My simple response, “What have you done TODAY to make a sale?”

So my advice is this: as you think about your goals, what you want to accomplish with your online business, or with anything, ask yourself the question – “How much control do I have of that outcome?” If you can honestly say you have COMPLETE control, this is the type of goal you go after. Here’s a ficticious example:

Goal: Make $60,000 this year with my online business.

Let’s break it down:

• To make $60,000 this year, assuming we are starting today, Tuesday, February 19th, means we have 10 and 1/2 months.
• $60K / 10.5 = $5715 per month.
• $5715 / 4 weeks = $1430 per week.
• $1430 / 7 days = $205/day.

By doing this break down I can actually see what it’s going to take on a day to day basis if I want to achieve this financial goal of $60,000 by Dec. 31, 2008.Now I have to ask myself that important question: How much control do I have of that outcome – to make $205 per day?” Some might say this is debateable but think about it, can I actually MAKE a visitor to my website buy the products I am offering on a specific day? From my experience, the answer to that is NO. However, there are things I can do every day that will improve the likelihood of this happening. What are they? Phone calls, emails, weekly or daily promotions, testing different wording strategies, client feedback and referral systems, offline marketing, joint ventures – the list can go on and on. But look at this list – “How much control do I have of [these] outcomes?” All the control!

I can set a goal to make X amount of phone calls today, send Y amount of emails to my database. Then, after doing these things, I can monitor my progress. Maybe today I called 20 people and 5 of them purchased for an average of $50. That means 25% of my contacts purchased something and I made about $250 today. If I contact 50 people tomorrow I have a chance to sell to 12.5 people for about $625 in sales. The numbers won’t always be perfect every day, but keep track of your progress (what was working, what didn’t seem to work), and then duplicate your successes more and more and more!

I’ve rambled long enough today. These strategies will pay off with your businesses. As the cliche states: “Practice makes perfect!” Now start practicing!

Dang it baseball! I grew up loving this “Great American Pastime”. Every night after school I’d beg my dad to take me out to play catch until the sun went down. Grounders, Pop-Flys, dives in to the seats (or bushes in my case), the hard line drive – Dad had me act out all the possible scenarios except one – the steriod one.

Now baseball seems to be getting some bad PR: from the Barry Bonds binge on the “cream” to Jose Canseco making money by ratting on everyone, many fans like me have a hard time wondering who isn’t on some kind of performance enhancer.

The other day I watched parts of the Roger Clemens and Brian McNamee hearing, which was a waste of time. It made me so mad to know that one of those guys is straight up lying to everyone, including himself. How can this happen? What are these guys thinking? I don’t know enough about the entire story to take a big stand either way, but I really hope for baseball’s sake that Roger is being honest. He’s been a Cy Young Award winner. A World Series star. And now, even if he’s not convicted, people will label him as part of the “Doping Era”.

How does this tie in to what I generally talk about at MollerMarketing? I could take it a few ways: brand management, the power of press releases, or viral marketing strategy. I’ve read quite a few articles lately about brand management and how helpful it can be to build the credibility and long term existence of your business. Wikipedia.org has this to say about brand management:

Brand management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand. It seeks to increase the product’s perceived value to the customer and thereby increase brand franchise and brand equity. Marketers see a brand as an implied promise that the level of quality people have come to expect from a brand will continue with future purchases of the same product…

One thing I’ve learned about brand management is that it’s never too early to start protecting your brand. I’ve also learned that there are multiple ways to do so. Tony Wright mentioned the following six strategies to protect your brand. Let’s see how Roger Clemens meets up (think about these with your new online business as well):

1. Keep your customers happy: “The Rocket” has done this for many years. The question is now, did he do it legitimately or not?
2. Don’t screw ex-employees: BZZZ! Pardon the language here but it doesn’t look too good for Clemens or McNamee on this one. Someone is screwing someone in the Clemens/McNamee trial!
3. Don’t screw partners: Weren’t Clemens and McNamee really close friends at one time? In the world of business and business partnerships, the Golden Rule still applies. If you want someone to take care of you and help your business grow, you better treat them the way you’d like to be treated.
4. Practice good business
5. Practice good customer service
6. Admit your wrongs – through the proper channels: I skipped going in to any detail on the prior two because this one by far takes the cake – one of these guys is completely wrong. It’s time they cut to the chase and just be honest. In online marketing, there are times when we all make mistakes. The best companies acknowledge those mistakes and do the best they can to resolve the problem. By going the extra mile with clients, even if the experience wasn’t a perfect one, you’ll generally leave a positive impression on the people you work with.

Keep these things in mind as you continue to build your prospective businesses. The sooner you start protecting and building your brand, the better off you’ll be in the long run.