Category: Marketing

Customers and Clients remain silent. Sometimes, you think, “surely there must be questions” but you can hear your hair grow in the void.

What do you think when there are no questions?

As a professional educator, conference presenter and speaker, I gotta tell you there are times when you are hoping for this, and there are times when you are sooooooo frustrated by a lack of feedback . . . aaaaaaahh

It’s not the questions after all. Why is that?

What we want as professionals, whether its internet marketing or knitting class, is feedback.

Questions are a form of feedback.

They tell us a lot about our market, target, customers or whatever:

Questions tell us first if there is sufficient understanding with which to formulate a question.

Hey, if you don’t get it at all, the best question you’re going to be able to muster is, “Huh?”

This is also useful feedback. It tells us either we’ve missed our market, the material is not clear, or the market for this product isn’t sharp enough to not need Velcro on there shoes instead of laces.

But it’s still feedback, and it’s still valuable.

What about silence?

That’s feedback, too. Problem is determining what caused the silence. Again, there are a few possibilities, and a few we’ve not already covered.

1. They got it. (Could happen.)
2. They didn’t get it, at all. (Also possible.)
3. The audience just doesn’t give a hoot. (More likely than we as marketers want to consider)
4. The group is just tired, wants to go home, get the ‘free’ product you offered in return for their attention or whatever.

Now, which is the best reason? Who knows? Who cares?

How do we get some response so that there is a starting point?

Ahha young Grasshopper, you can move ahead in the class for asking the proper question.

Just look at what you can do . . .

People ask me all the time, what kind of site, what kinds of things, can I do on the internet?

This question never ceases to amaze me, nor does the incredible number of possibilities.

There are so many ideas that you can use to build your site around.

And Yes, there are a ton of sites already out there.

What you need to do is find a way to make your site, like you 🙂 No, no, not boring, balding, and belly-widening, that’s like me, I mean

UNIQUE!

Here’s a great example of taking offline ideas and implementing them into online ideas.

It’s also a great way to spend some time, so don’t read the rest of this if you’re in a big hurry to get things done 🙂

Here’s a site that uses digital photos to make jigsaw puzzles, online, and you can do them right there.

This link will take you to a puzzle I had made from a photo my wife and I took on a recent trip to Korea. It’s a picture of the most famous temple in South Korea, the oldest still operating one as well if I recall correctly.

The name of the temple is Bulguksa (“sa” here means “temple” so it’s a bit redundant to say Bulguksa temple, but I see this a lot on maps and brochures. I’ll save that rant and explanation for another time. Lucky you, hehheh). It’s located in Kyungju, the ancient capitol city of Korea.

It’s a well-made site, it’s light and fast, and it shows you just how you can utilize offline interests for your online endeavors.

http://justjigsawpuzzles.com/jigsaw_Bulguk_Temple_Korea_SR003.html

Drinking and riding your bicycle is a fairly serious offense in Japan.

It seems odd to me, that in Japan, there are some fairly stiff penalties for riding your bike after drinking.

At the same time, bicycle theft, while illegal, borders on socially acceptable. Umbrellas tend to fall into the same category. That is, fair game when left unguarded and there’s a downpour on.

Maybe you don’t find that interesting.

What does this have to do with marketing? With anything? . . .

Just made me stop and think that there are many things that we often take for granted. We (yeah, I’m talking to you, and me) forget that in different places, the rules, the way of doing things, well, they’re just different.

The key here for me was the idea that you don’t really have to go to another country to find yourself facing these sorts of issues.

You need only walk out of your own abode.

The rules are different.

Are you using the same language, same tactics, layouts and colors even, to promote your sites or products to different markets?

You just stepped outside your abode, my friend.

You gotta know your market, the way they walk, the way they talk, what they think is the right, or wrong way for doing things.

The rules and even the game can be very different.

Ever watch an international basketball game? Different, isn’t it? What’s with those lanes anyway?

Football? Be careful there. Has a different meaning, especially here. In Japan, football is soccer.

It also means that terms, phrases and expressions that you might think are common knowledge and in regular use may have some differences. Those differences may range from slight to might.

Know the rules, and the way the game is played before you put up your hand and start jumping up and down yelling, “pick me! pick me!”

(Note: this was originally posted years ago – just trying to put some of the old content back up here)

In order to get started with your online business you need to know how much it is going to cost, how long you may have to wait to recoup that cost, and the cost of staying in business until that might/should happen.

So many times you see these ads for ‘own your own business for $10’ or ‘start your own business for under $100.’

On the surface, this might look like a great deal, a bargain, a steal even, or more likely a ripoff 🙂

What do you need to consider before you make that jump?

You of course have to consider the initial cost.

Buying the program, or buying into the program has it’s fee.

If you’re setting up a website for this business, there are added fees you need to be thinking about and planning ahead for:

Domain registration: 8-10 dollars at most places. (Hint, if you’re paying more, you’re losing money for nothing)
Hosting: You can find a good host for around $10. (Hint, if you want a really good host, you’ll have to pay more, and yes, you get what you pay for.
Advertising/PPC: You may need to pay to drive traffic to your site. (Highly recommended to at least get the ball rolling.

Also, there’s a time factor.

If you have a new site and you are expecting to get free, organic traffic from the major search engines, you might be in for a long wait. Waiting for spidering, waiting for indexing, then waiting for traffic to actually find you via the SE’s. If it’s a site promoting an affiliate product, you could wait up to 90 days to get paid for your first sale. There are ways to speed up parts of this process, but that’s another article 🙂

So, when you are considering a new online business, be sure to think about and take into consideration all of the other added expenses and time.

It’s really not that much different from buying a car. You have the price, the bottom line of what you have to pay to call that car yours.

Then there’s insurance, gas, sometimes parking fees, any additional items you might want or need added such as a CD player, or airbags or whatever.

And maintanance: tires, balancing, muffler repairs, windshield wiper blades, windshield wiper fluid even. Hey, water works sometimes and it’s fairly affordable, but it’s not always the best tool for the job, and just like in your internet business, you can find ‘free’ but it’s not likely to work as well, as fast, or bring you the outcome you’re after as quickly or as often as those things that you do pay for.

So, before you jump onto that ‘greatest business to hit the web this decade’, think about what it might cost you in upkeep in money and in your time.

Johnny Cash, The Man in Black. Capital “T” for “the.”

What made Johnny Cash so memorable?

I’ve seen photos of him when he was a young man, I suppose he was sort of handsome in a rugged way.

Frankly, though I enjoyed his music (8-tracks 🙂 from the pickup truck rides with my dad, I didn’t think of him as a great singer.

The songs were catchy, easy to remember, but there has never been a shortage of those kinds of singers, those kinds of songs in any genre of music, now has there?

So, what made Johnny “Johnny”?

We’re always being told to find your angle, you way, your USP. Separate yourself from the pack, the herd, do something everyone else is doing, but do it differently.

Johnny Cash was a perfect example for me.

Think about it.

He was a big guy, well over 6 feet tall, 200 pounds. Rugged, tough, low voice.

Guys liked that. Not the wimp.

But he was also very, very popular with women (fans that is, he was also famous for his devotion to his wife June and their family, another part of his persona).

Why? What was he doing? Was he the king crooner? Great moves like James Brown? Cutting edge of the country music world?

I say, no, no, and sort of.

Here was a man, talented man, yes, who sang about life, little things in life, and how life and love were bigger than any man, and doing it in a very straightforward, honest way that appealed to both men and women.

Men thought, hey, this is sooooo true, and I feel like this, but I often can’t just say that, or act like that. Kind of the ‘thanks for saying that for me’ and ‘thanks for the validation’ so I know I’m not alone.

Women thought, hey, this is sooooo true, and good to hear that men, even big, rugged ones, have big hearts, can hurt, know the value of love and life and family.

Then, he added that extra little bit, that rebel, Highwayman side and the black clothes.

No country singer had ever, still hasn’t unless you include someone like Garth Brooks who used much of this same ‘everyman’ approach to be one of the top selling artists in all genres, done that.

Marketing yourself, your site, your product, doesn’t need to be any different than this.

What you’ve got, others are offering, but they can’t offer it in the exact same way as you as an individual can.

Think about that. Find your ‘man in black’ angle, and you will find success.