All posts by admin

Administrator

Missing Expectations

July 23, 2008 admin

What do you think is a best way to disappoint a customer? I’m sure you can come up with a big list, but right there at the top is promising something and not delivering. I arrived at the airport this morning nice and early because I knew they had free Wifi here, fired up my laptop … and no Wifi. It wasn’t all bad though, because when I tried 30 mins later the network was there, so it could well have been undergoing maintenance, but it did set me thinking all about promises and expectations. In the meantime, FlyBe announced that the earlier Gatwick flight had been delayed because of “technical issues” and that the flight to Birmingham and the flight I was on were delayed because of an “aircraft change”. Now don’t get me wrong, I do expect operational problems to creep in from time to time, but delaying three flights (out of the three on the board with that airline) is shocking!

Anyway, way to my Wifi incident. The reason I was upset was because something was promised to me (by way of a hanging advert and prior experience) and was not delivered. If there had been no prior expectation, I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it. It’s like like Wifi is so ubiquitous that you expect to find it everywhere (yet); so spending an hour waiting in a location without Wifi wouldn’t have been a problem for me. However, the expectation that something was supposed to be there and wasn’t was a totally different ball game.

I expect some industries are also harder to deal with than others. Airlines and trains in particular have a reputation for missing their schedules, but you can imagine that with all those moving parts, problem are bound to happen. I don’t envy companies who provide satellite internet services for example, as there are physical factors that can prevent proper delivery of their services. Wifi is another matter. Everyone with a wireless router at home will know that once it’s set up and running, it can run for months without needing any attention. That’s one reason why this morning was so “interesting”

Consultancy, Starting your business

Improve your Adwords campaigns

May 13, 2008 admin

I came across a great video recently by StomperNet with some great ideas to improve your Adword campaign and maximise the return you get from your website. The idea behind it is that instead of focusing on how much TRAFFIC you can get to your website, you should be focusing on the RIGHT kind of traffic to get to your website, the portion that are motivated to make a purchase. I’m not promising it’s going to be curtains for your competitors, but it can certainly help you make a few more bob. I wish I had watched this when I used to run The Joke Shop

Watch the video here

Guest Bloggers

Mentors…You Can’t Succeed Without Them!

April 28, 2008 admin

Having a mentor is essential to your success. A mentor who has done what you want to do, has the lifestyle that you want to have and has been where you are before. Mentors have learned what works, what doesn’t work, and know the fastest and most efficient path to where they are today…They have made the mistakes…and learned what not to do…Since you want to be where they are, learning from them is like reading 1000 books on the same topic.

The reason mentors are important to have in your life is because they have the experience to guide you to your destination. They are a person to fall back on…to pick you up when you are down or are there to support you when faced with some type of adversity working to achieve your goal.

I have many mentors of my own in all different industries. They have helped me so much in showing me what books to read, how to do certain things that most people don’t know about, and really have told me, “Scott if you need anything don’t hesitate to ask.”

Knowing I have these mentors to always go to gives me peace of mind as I head into graduating next year. While most people are worried where they are going, and how they are going to get there…I personally feel like with all the mentors that I do have…I have nothing to worry about…

Now…I know nothing is going to be handed to me on a silver platter…nothing is ever that easy…but what I do know is this…If I ever need any advice, or guidance, I have the confidence in the mentors that I have to help me along the way.

So you are probably sitting there thinking….Ok Scott…You have all these mentors, but HOW DO I start building my network of mentors.

I would like to share with you what I did, starting the summer after my freshmen year.

1. The first thing that I did was write down all of the business people, and influential people that had some sort of influence over a particular industry that I knew I wanted to be involved in. I chose the industries of Real Estate, Entrepreneurship, Network Marketing, and Creative Ways Of Investing. These were contacts that my father and mother knew.

2. The second thing I did was either call them or send them an e-mail that sounded something like this. “Hi Mr. _____ I hope you are having a great day. I wanted to contact you because I know you are in ___________ industry. I think I may have an interest in being a part in that industry down the road and wanted to talk to you about your past experience in it. I know you are a very busy person, but would appreciate any time you could give me to talk about how you got to where you are today.
I am also in the process of creating a group of mentors to help and guide me along my life path and was wondering if you would have any interest in helping me in my journey.

3. After sending that e-mail I let the powers at be take control. Now you don’t have to use this e-mail word for word…even though you have my permission…but really speak from the heart when writing e-mails to those who you plan to contact.

4. The reason an e-mail like this is so key is because 1) You are being REAL with them…2)By you going to THEM and asking THEM you are stroking their ego…3)More likely than not they will want to help you because THEY KNOW exactly where you are because they have been there BEFORE.

5. When you schedule a time to get together be sure to be presentable, but comfortable at the same time. A mentor in my opinion is just a real specialized friend…you don’t have to show up in a suit…just a collared shirt or something dressy casual. I know it sounds kind of corny but thats just how I see it. When talking with them, remember my post about how people LOVE to talk about themselves. I believe it was the post about Essential Keys To Networking Effectively

Ask them everything about them…How long they have been in the industry they are in, how long they have done it, what did they do before? Etc Etc.

You will find as the conversation progresses you will be starting to ask questions like…
How did you overcome this obstacle.
What do you attribute your past success to? Do you have any guidance for me as an up and coming _____________.

What books would you reccommend that I read to help me along my journey.

Trust me they will want to help you! You just have to have enough guts to ask them.

Think about it…If you were in their position wouldn’t you want to help someone who reached out to you?

If any of you need any help whatsoever in contacting potential mentors I would be happy to help you. Just contact me by eamil at CaliforniaEagle@cox.net

Biz News, Traffic, Websites

Writing Web Content

April 17, 2008 admin 1 Comment

The web has made all forms of communication more informal. People have forged relationships with others that they never see, through a constant stream of messages. The decreased formality of the language used was a natural progression, as more people gained access to e-mail and used it as a casual method of staying in contact with family far away.

With the rise of social media, blogs and online advertising campaigns, writing on the web has evolved into a specialised field. Vast amounts of literature have been published on the subject. It even features in university courses.

When it comes to reading on computers, most readers don’t read the full page. 79% of users scan the page for content only. Speed is another problem with reading on the web. Reading from a computer screen is 25% slower than reading from paper. As a result, writers should try to keep their web content to about 50% of the paper equivalent.

Experts can disagree on what constitutes a web writing style and what doesn’t. Most writers advocate a comfortable, conversational writing style. Your writing should be a reflection of who you are and should be similar to the way that you would speak to a friend. The use of humour is usually recommended, in tasteful amounts.

Headlines need to be instant attention grabbers. A reader skimming over a page is not likely to be attracted to a bland headline so it is important that you make yours stand out. Some experts say that you can do this be being playful or clever, while others say that you must not use clever or “cute” headings since these will pass beneath a reader’s skimming radar. Try to be as descriptive as possible while keeping it short and punchy. It always helps to use action verbs rather than flat ones. The first word is important so try not to waste it by using “The” or “In” or something equally mundane.

The body of your work should contain all of the information that you want to convey, or all the news that you want to share, using the fewest words possible. Try to keep your sentences short and concise, even if you are a natural word wanderer. Given a choice between a big, impressive sounding word that shows off your vocabulary and a short word that gets the message across, go with the short word. Paragraphs should contain one idea only. Don’t split an idea over two paragraphs either. This ensures that your paragraphs are neat and allows your writing to flow well.

Once you’ve caught the reader’s attention with your expertly written headline, you have to hold it with the content of your article or webpage. A good tactic to use is to approach the reader on a personal level. People are more likely to react to situations that they can relate to personally. This applies to all media, including web writing. People’s purchasing habits and their emotions are closely linked. It is important to try and tap into them on an emotional level so that they will be more inclined to relate to your site or product.

A strong start is important to attract attention, and a strong finish is equally important. People remember beginnings and endings, it’s the middle bits that often fade into oblivion. You need to create an ending that will leave them thinking for a long time after they’ve switched their computers off. It’s not always an easy thing to do, especially if your subject matter does not lend itself easily to exciting images and thought provoking ideas. In such instances it’s best not to yield to the temptation to write something extreme, and that appeals to your darker sense of humour, for the sake of sensationalism. No matter how well written it is, blood and gore do not make a good ending to a client’s article.

Marketing

Service or Product – Which is easier to market?

April 8, 2008 admin

An interesting question that came to mind today was whether it’s easier to market a product or a service. I was thinking that product benefits may be easier to articulate; but a service may be something that is easier to persuade a customer that they need. For example .. it isn’t too hard to persuade someone that they need life insurance and persuade them to get some life insurance quotes. At the same time, if someone needs to buy baby clothes, well, it’s a need that you have to fulfill, there’s no way to get around that.

I suppose it does depend on what sort of product or service you’re selling, but personally I would prefer to be pushing a product that people need .. than a service that no one really wants.

Digitale Assets