March 19, 2009

An Open Letter to a Desperate Business : You’ve officially lost my trust and therefore my business!

Dear Desperate Business Owner or Marketing Manager:

I just got your last email and I’ve had enough.  I know that when I shared my email address with you and confirmed it, I was “officially” giving you permission to market your services to me but enough is enough.  I marked the last communication from your staff as spam so hopefully I won’t ever hear from you again.

It’s unfortunate that it’s had to come to this.  When I signed up for your service, I had high hopes.  You offered a free 30 day trial of your Web 2.0 application and it was presented in such an attractive manner that I couldn’t WAIT to try it.

As you’ve probably already guessed –  there was a significant lack of trust on my part when I agreed to your free trial.

What you may not realize is only one of those questions was whether or not the product would perform as promised.

I had other concerns.  Since this is a Web 2.0 application, this is not simply a product that I download and use.  To use your wonderful application, I must subscribe to your service.  That requires a higher level of trust.  This is not a one time transaction –  in purchasing your service, you are asking me to enter into a relationship with your company.

IT’S NOT A TRANSACTION, IT’S A RELATIONSHIP!!!

The trust element raised the bar significantly and changed the rules of the game.  When this went from a one time sale to a long term relationship – this transaction went from being a Minor Sale to a Major Sale.  (Pick up a copy of my book Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results for more on the differences in marketing the Major Sale vs the Minor Sale.)

Trust is a huge part of the Major Sale.

I understand that you probably weren’t aware of the differences between Minor Sales and Major Sales when you created the marketing for this service.   Perhaps you thought marketing was simply a matter of B2B or B2C.

I forgive you for not buying and reading my book.  That’s why I’m composing this open letter to you.

I trusted you enough to give you my real email address.   Perhaps you don’t recognize the significance of that.  Sharing my REAL email was in and of itself a huge trust step.  I maintain a Hotmail email account when a company hasn’t even earned the right to an email account I access on a regular basis.

However, while I was willing to share my real email address, I didn’t trust you enough to share my real phone number when I signed up for your free trial – even though that was a “required” field on your form.

I hated lying to you, but as I’ve stated before- I didn’t know if I could trust you with that information. In order to explore whether or not I could trust you and enter into a business relationship with you, I was required to tell a white lie when I filled out that form.

As you’ve obviously discovered – that phone number I entered into the form is not mine.  (I owe an OFFICIAL apology to whomever has been fielding the telemarketing calls from your firm.  Sorry about that.)

See,  I’m just like a lot of people who are using the internet.  I’ve shared my contact information only to have it shared and sold repeatedly.  That’s why I get so much SPAM on a daily basis!!!  I have no idea whether or not I agreed to allow this or not because I rarely read those privacy policies.  What I have learned over the years is not to TRUST anyone with sensitive information – especially someone I’ve only met on the internet.

From the tone of the emails you’ve been sending me this week, things are really desperate on your end.  You’ve obviously been trying to contact me via phone – and discovered you can’t.  So now you’re barraging me with emails as you desperately try to contact me.

Today I got the THIRD email in one week (yes, I had to provide you with a working email to download your free trial) with the title “Response Required”.

Response REQUIRED?

I’m REQUIRED to write a hefty check to pay my income taxes in a few weeks.

I’m REQUIRED to show up for jury duty when called.

I’m REQUIRED to tell the truth to the nice US Marshall when he asks me questions about the unusual activity going on across the street.  (Hasn’t happened – yet!!)

I’m struggling now to think of things that I am REQUIRED to do.   As I try to think of the things that I absolutely MUST do – most of the things that come to mind involve police officers, jail time and/or hefty fines.

Most of the things that I’m truly REQUIRED to do include dire consequences and quite honestly, I can’t think of a single downside to me NOT responding to your inquiries.

When I got the first email from you this week, I ignored it.  I’m not ready to buy and I’m definitely not willing to try to justify my decision on the phone to a pushy sales rep.   I didn’t mark this communication as spam because, at that moment in time,  doing business with you was still a possibility.  I’m still about 15-30 days away from making a serious purchasing decision about this service and at that point, you were still in the running.

When I got the 2nd email on the next day – I started to get irked.   However, I get that sometimes spam filters keep legitimate emails from getting through so I didn’t hit the “mark as spam” button – YET!

When I got the THIRD message from yet another email account from your firm – well, that’s what prompted my actions AND this open letter.

The path to the sale – especially a Major Sale – can be a long and complex journey.  Every step in the marketing process is another opportunity to earn another deposit into the trust account with this potential clients.

Trust is a tricky thing.  It’s hard to gain and oh, so easy to lose.  What’s worse is – as is illustrated by my experience with my pest control company – sometimes the actions of one member of an industry can destroy an individual’s trust with EVERY member of an industry.  Even though you personally didn’t do ANYTHING to destroy a consumer’s trust – one of your competitors may have.  When that happens, it makes your job of building trust with potential clients/customers/ patients that much more difficult.

On the bright side, once you’ve established a trusting relationship with these consumers – you’ll find they’re your most passionate brand advocates!

Filed Under: Blog, Web Site Success Tagged With:
February 26, 2009

When the Pest Control Company is your most Annoying Pest!

There are times when, if it wasn’t for the media telling me how HORRIBLE the economy is – I wouldn’t know it. This is not one of those times. This is a sad tale of a business obviously struggling to survive the great recession of 2008 and features my former pest control company – Truly Nolen.

Back in 2007, I contracted with Truly Nolen to provide pest protection for my home and yard.  I paid to have my yard treated despite the fact that I pay a monthly fee to my homeowner’s association and their guy rides around spraying what must be water on my lawn every 4 months.

My complaints about my homeowner’s association are legion but they can wait until another day.

Today, I’m telling the tale of Truly Nolen – how I came to choose them as “my” pest control provider – why I decided to NOT continue that relationship and most importantly, how I have become involved in almost a “Fatal Attraction” style “service provider breakup” with them.

Why I chose Truly Nolen as my Pest Control company

I chose Truly Nolen as my first provider of pest control in southern Florida because of the car. In a word – it’s ADORABLE!!! It’s a yellow VW Bug outfitted with ears and a tail.  You used to see it driving all over town. Looking back, I realize it probably wasn’t the most REASONED buying decision I’ve ever made.

Truly Nolen’s Performance as my Pest Control company

I signed a one year contract for pest control for my home and my yard – because I actually SAW a grub on the sidewalk. When I complained to the guys hired by my homeowner’s association – they told me I didn’t know what I was talking about. Those brown spots in my lawn weren’t from insect damage – they were because I needed to water more often.

I hate being lied to!

So I call Truly Nolen.  The Truly Nolen guy comes out and makes a BIG production about the infestation of cockroaches living behind my dishwasher.  EWWW!!!!  My home is less than 3 years old and I’ve got cockroaches!!!  EWWWW!!!!

I’m thinking, “Boy, am I glad I signed a year contract with these guys.”

As the Truly Nolen dude pokes, sprays and heads merrily upon his way –  I feel safe and protected.

Three days later, I am confronted with one of said cockroaches on my front door. EWWWW!!!

So I call and tell them to get someone out IMMEDIATELY!!!  They say they can’t get anyone out until next week.  

Wait – I’m not feeling so safe and protected anymore.

When the Truly Nolen guy finally arrives,  he is obviously having a bad day.  Obviously, Truly Nolen must not PAY their technicians when they have to go back out to retreat a house.  Or maybe they treat him as badly as they’re treating me.

This scenario plays out repeatedly over the next year.  I see bugs – I call – they apologize, stall and then give excuses.  I anxiously await the call to renew my contract.

Truly Nolen never calls. Instead, my doorbell rings as I’m getting ready for church one Sunday morning (yes – Sunday morning….) and my teenage son answers the door.  As I’m getting ready, I see a Truly Nolen guy walking the perimeter of my house.  Before I can get my clothes on, he’s gone.  I ask my son who was at the door and he told me it was the Truly Nolen guy.  He told me the guy had asked if it was ok for him to treat the house and my son said, “Sure.”

I am now officially upset and sure enough, they follow the treatment with a bill for ANOTHER year’s services.

I call and tell them that not only do I NOT want their sub-standard services for another year but the services they provided were based on a verbal contract with a minor which is a HUGE problem for THEM not ME!

Truly Nolen becomes my most annoying pest

Actually, I think I’m being QUITE nice about this with the young lady from Truly Nolen.  She replies, “Oops!  Let me have you talk to my manager.”

She puts me on hold – 15 minutes later, I hang up and call back.  She answers, and I ask to speak with the manager.  I’m now told that the manager is on vacation and he’ll call me when he gets back.

A few weeks later, I get another bill from them – which I call and am told that the manager is STILL not available to talk to me.

I ignore said bill.

Yesterday, I got a collection notice in the mail.  I call the “collection” agency and get an answering machine that loops endlessly telling you to wait for the beep and it never does.

I feel extorted.  Of course I’ll pay the bill.  It’s not worth it to TRASH my good credit over this amount.  Truly Nolen will have won.  They will have gotten to a little bit MORE of my cash.  [NOTE:  After this blog post was published- Truly Nolen representatives contacted me.  Not only did they promptly remove me from collections and credited the account – they also assured me they would be making the auto renewal of the contract more visible in the future.]

The real pity here is Truly Nolen is selling a SERVICE.  They may think they’re selling pest control, but you know what – I can’t SEE pest control – all I see is the surly Truly Nolen tech.  In her post You May Not Be Doing as Badly as You Think, Cath Lawson writes:

Selling a service, especially a more costly service, to your first few customers is far harder than selling a product, because you’re selling the invisible – they can’t see what they’re going to get.

Truly Nolen “got me” the first time with clever branding and effective advertising.  They won’t get me again no matter how cute the mascot or how effective the marketing message.

That’s the way this whole “customer service” stuff works.

When you please a customer – if you’re lucky-  they’ll tell 3 people.  If they’re pissed or disappointed – they’ll tell 16.If they have a blog – they’ll tell thousands – perhaps tens of thousands – as long as the blog post stays “alive”.

Over at the Ignite Social Media blog there’s a GREAT post on Your Customer’s Hierarchy of Needs. You have to get  passed the “satisfied customers” tier – before you can begin to achieve customer advocacy.

So here I am – pissed off and feeling really abused.  It’s not the money – it’s how they’re GETTING my money – via extortion.   It’s the accumulation of multiple bad experiences with several different technicians with the final straw being a hidden renewal clause.

All I can do is wonder what in the world they’re thinking.

What are YOUR customers saying about you online?  Are your customers blogging about your piss poor customer service?  Are your customers pissed off enough to contact a blog which specializes in airing poor customer service?

You build your business reputation one customer service contact at a time.  If you’re a business owner – protecting your online reputation should be a high priority.  Is it?

Authors note:  Over the course of the past three years – this blog post as served as a “lightning rod”  for people who are upset with their pest control company – or looking to find a reputable pest control service. 

In response, I’ve finally launched Florida Pest Control Reviews. as a place where consumers can leave their authentic experiences with various pest control companies throughout Florida. I’m going to close comments on this post – and ask that you head over there to share your experiences.

Bugs are just a part of living in Florida – but they shouldn’t be the lesser of two evils when it comes to dealing with your pest control company.  Feel free to share your experience at

Florida Pest Control Reviews

Filed Under: Blog, Small Business Success Secret, Web Site Success Tagged With: , ,
January 16, 2009

Everything’s relative… setting your life thermostat

Today in my little corner of south eastern Florida – it’s 60 degrees today.

BRRR!!!

I don’t expect you to cry me a river – especially if you’re living in the path of the bitter cold that is blanketing much of the northern United States. However let me assure  you that temperatures in the 60’s feel positively FRIGID when you’ve spent a few summers surviving “surface of the sun” heat indexes in the mid to upper 120’s.

Meanwhile, a check of the weather back in my hometown in Indiana reveals that the current AIR temperature is currently -11 and the wind makes it feels like -29 … and those temps are °F by the way!   It’s even worse where my in-laws live.  It’s -20 and it feels like it’s -40 below just an hour north!  (Yes, I’m deeply concerned about the state of the plumbing in my Indiana property!)

But this whole weather thing has got me thinking about how where we are (and who we’re with) affects us and how our experiences shape our view.  In other words – there’s more than one setting on your life thermostat.

For example, I know that the weather today at my house would have felt positively tropical in January when I was living in Indiana five years ago.  Unfortunately, KNOWING that doesn’t make it FEEL any more tropical today.  Living down here for four short years has reset my thermostat – without my “permission” I might add.

That’s right.  I didn’t make a conscious decision to TRY to reset my body’s  thermostat.   I didn’t attempt to use “positive thinking” to change my body’s physical reaction to temperature so 60 degrees would feel cold to me.   As a matter of fact,  the opposite is true.  I desperately didn’t WANT to be a “Flor-idiot” who complains about being cold when it’s 60 degrees outside.

It didn’t matter what I desired, by moving to southern Florida, I changed my physical environment and as a result, my body’s physical responses have been altered.

Setting your Life Thermostat

However, there are other aspects to setting and regulating your life thermostat – beyond that of your physical perceptions of hot and cold.  Call it self help, call it self awareness, call it authentic expression or call it creative productivity –  the input you allow into your mind greatly affects your life thermostat settings.  (Oh, and if you think you can separate your “business” from your “life” ….. good luck with that.)

Just as your body will get “adjusted” to your physical environment – your mind will also get “adjusted” to the environment you create there as well.

Way back in 1997, I taught myself to code in HTML.  When word got out around town that I had acquired this skill, local business people started hiring me to create websites for their businesses.  One day about a year later, a very progressive woman who called herself a “life coach”  hired me to create a website for her business.  This turned out to be a significant “life thermostat altering” event.

What you read – what you watch – and the people you choose to accompany you on this journey called life – all have a dramatic effect on where your “life thermostat” is set.

Because I started working with forwarding thinking, successful people, my life thermostat settings changed… to the point where I find it difficult to relate to people from my “previous” life.

I recently was contacted by a co-worker from my past.  She was laid off from a subsequent employer and worrying about what she would do when her unemployment ran out in a few weeks.  She contacted me in hopes of landing a “J-O-B”.  However, her passions don’t lie in administrative work – and as much as I would have LOVED to have a passionate virtual assistant, it was easy to see that she was not that person.  So, in the course of the conversation (which lasted less than 40 minutes), we came up with a plan for her to start her own business based on the very things she was passionately devoting her time to during her unemployment.

I was surprised at how blatantly OBVIOUS what she SHOULD be doing was – and then I realized that my life thermostat settings have changed DRAMATICALLY since we last worked together.  She’s been punching a time clock, rubbing elbows with other “wage slaves” over the past decade.  Meanwhile, I’ve been spending the last decade connecting with other people who breath “rarified air” on a daily basis.

I am honored and feel privileged to be surrounded by such an amazing group of successful business owners.

Don’t underestimate the power of your surroundings to impact your perceptions and thinking.   What changes have you made (or do you need to make) to change your life thermostat?

Filed Under: Blog, starting a small business, Web Site Success, Word Press Blogs Tagged With: ,
December 26, 2008

Twitterpated by Twitter

“Twitter is stupid.”  Before you lash out at me for that line – you should know that I didn’t say that.   Laura Fitton of Pistachio said it in her Twitter for Business keynote at Webcom Montreal, November 2008.  Laura is an EXPERT on Twitter and makes her living speaking on and educating business owners about the Twitter phenomenon so she should know! 🙂

I recently wrote about  how important it is to overcome doubt because sometimes when you’re starting a business a “stupid” idea can turn into a run away success.  Twitter is a GREAT example of a “stupid” idea that has become quite a success story.

Twitter may be “stupid” – but it’s a growing phenomenon. I wouldn’t go so far to say it’s a necessary evil – even though it appears to have been an important part of the Hitler regime:

I remember when I first signed up for Twitter – and quickly forgot about it.  I couldn’t imagine why anyone would CARE what I was doing!   A few weeks ago – I placed the widget in my sidebar and started to make an effort to “tweet” and to follow others.  The more I use Twitter – the more I can see how important it is to stay “connected”.

Because I’ve been twitterpated by Twitter, posts like Kalena’s 16 Must Have Tools for Twitter Users and  Twitter – Social Media’s Hidden Gem are now catching my eye.  Because of Twitter, I’ve discovered Darren Rowse’s TwiTip blog which is a blog devoted to all things Twitter.

The thing about Twitter is that it really is like blogging -which is why it’s called “micro blogging”.  Like Blogging, Twitter is incredibly easy to use while at the same time being very difficult to master.  If there’s just ONE blog post you read about Twitter – make it Liz Strauss’ 25 Traits of Twitter Users.  Liz writes:

Certain signs and characteristics seem to show in the folks who live the social media culture. Certain value and actions make people who care about having relationships and conversation before transactions easy to spot.

It’s a must read because, as Liz’s post points out – not everyone “gets” Twitter.  Despite what you may have read in the latest “get rich sitting on your ass” email newsletter, signing up for Twitter is NOT going to get you tens of thousands of visitors to your blog and it isn’t going to put money in the bank for you.

If you use Twitter to brag about how many followers you have – or you just blast Tweets about your latest blog post – then you won’t find Twitter to be a rewarding experience.

Twitter is a communication tool.

I’ll say it again – Twitter is JUST ANOTHER communication tool.   There are other Twitter-like micro blogging applications that are competing with Twitter.  Over at Splitbrain they’ve said goodbye to Twitter and hello to a new micro blogging communication tool.  Does this mean Twitter is a business failure?  Of course not.  It means that someone had an idea about how to make Twitter better.   (Remember this as you’re going through the steps to starting a small business. Can you do it better, faster, cheaper? Then maybe you should!)

One thing I will say for any start up that tries to make Twitter BETTER,  they will benefit from the fact that Twitter “broke ground” with micro-blogging.  It’s taken a couple of years for people to figure out what Twitter was good for and for Twitter to “catch on”.  Anyone who can make a better version of Twitter will have to thank Twitter founders for going through the arduous process of educating the masses over the last two years on the benefits of micro-blogging.

Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it. Over 100 years ago there was another communication tool hitting the scene – the telephone.  It might surprise you to learn that people yawned when they heard about the telephone just like I yawned when I first heard of Twitter.

There’s a story that says the early telephone sales force wasn’t greeted with enthusiast demand when they first began selling their new fangled communication tool.  The story goes that the single most effective “sales spiel” used to “sell” the new way of communicating was to tell people that the telephone made it so they could talk to their neighbors without getting dressed to go outside.  It wasn’t until that “benefit” was communicated to prospects that the telephone began to “catch on” as a communication tool.

Ah – the first tale in the never ending saga of being human in the age of the electronic mob.

Wikipedia reports that “Twitter had by one measure over 3 million accounts and, by another, well over 5 million visitors in September 2008, a fivefold increase in a month.”  I’m seeing other evidence of a groundswell around Twitter as well.

I use the Google Keyword Tool plug in to check for keywords when I begin a post.  (It’s something I recommend you do and cover in more detail in my 8 Week Power Blog Launch course.)  So, as I began this post, I went to check on what’s happening in Googleland around the term “Twitter”.  What I saw was the average search around the term “Twitter” is in the 550K range.  However last month (in November)  that number skyrocketed to 1.2 MILLION searches.    Yet more evidence that people are twitterpated by Twitter!

However, there’s another reason why Twitter is becoming the latest bell of the ball.  See, Twitter promises free and easy communication with a mob of people  Since communication is the foundation of advertising and marketing – well the appeal is obvious.

Advertising and marketing are simply communicating what it is your business can do for people to a mob of people.

Since Twitter is “free” and “easy to use” that makes it a “Free – easy to use marketing tool”.  VIOLA!  A small business owners favorite marketing combo – free + easy!  This is why when a new means of “communication” comes down the path, it doesn’t take long for the marketing “gurus” to line up and announce that the SUREFIRE KEY to making untold riches is to simply utilizing the new method of mass communication.

Oh but here’s the “reality check” in the Twitter as the surefire path to riches scheme–  If you don’t have anything to say – and you don’t know who you’re talking to – then Twitter won’t do much in the way of your marketing or your business.  As a matter of fact, unless you’re a major company (like Dell) whose customers follow you just so they’ll know about the latest sale – you won’t find that using Twitter will put any cash directly into your pocket.

However, if part of your job description is that you have your finger “on the pulse” and to be “in the know” then Twitter is an indispensable tool.  Since being “in the know” is an essential part of every blogger’s job description – that’s why Twitter is important for bloggers.

Are you twitterpated by Twitter?  If so -why?  If not – why not?

Filed Under: Web Terms Defined Tagged With: , ,
November 7, 2008

Creating a Website that Does Almost Nothing.


business successs secrets

I’ve worked with hundreds of business owners in creating websites for their business – and often discover during the process that there’s a lot of “magical” thinking out there when it comes to web site development.

Many business owners just assume that by simply creating a website, they’re going to automatically experience floods of traffic from qualified prospective clients/customers.

They expect the website to collect and process leads while acting as a 24/7/365 sales force that never sleeps.

Of course all of the above is possible – but only if you build the website with accomplishing those goals in mind.

In Steps to Starting a Small Business, I advise small business owners to:

Remember, when you’re starting your own small business everything is going to take longer and cost more than you planned.

Chances are, you aren’t a MASTER at all of the jobs you’re going to need performed in your small business, so you should probably plan on farming out at least SOME of the work.

One of the jobs I recommended you farm out is the development of your website because there truth is, unless you’re an experienced web developer, the first website you create is going to be a piece of shit.

(Sometimes even experienced web developers need a little help at seeing “the forest for the trees” which means, it’s possible for an experienced web developer to create a piece of shit for themselves – even though they “know” better!)

Whether it’s your first website or your first blog, you wil no doubt be FILLED with pride when you complete it.    If there were such a thing, surely your website would win the “good for a beginner”  award.

The problem is, no one is “grading” this project.  This is your BUSINESS we’re talking about!  If your business is small, then you REALLY want to do everything you can to make your business look – professional, established and trust worthy!

If money is tight, the last thing you want to scrimp on is your web presence!

Here’s one of the first websites I ever created – talk about long ago and far away: WADERS.  I created these web pages by hand using Notepad.  I thought WYSIWYG HTML editors were for the weak and addle minded!  (Turns out they were MAGIC for those who charged by the hour!)  The site was created when you accessed the internet via dial up and a 28.8 baud modem was FAST!

When you come to those pages “organically” there isn’t anyone explaining my beginning programming status.  There’s no commentary saying, “These were created without an WYSIWFG HTML editors.”  “Look ladies and gentlemen, she’s an economics major performing low level (HTML) programming!  Let’s hear it for her!”

Thank goodness the websites I later created for pay were better than those I created in my humble beginnings!

If you’ve read more than 2 blog posts on this blog, you’ll know that I’m all about “integrity”, “authenticity” and most of all “trust“. I believe that trust is the foundation of any successful business.  I am CONVINCED that “branding” and “TQM” are attempts at QUANTIFYING the trust a company has established with its customers.


The Exclusive Concepts website features a blog post headline:  Bad Advice in the Wall Street Journal: Creating a Website for Almost Nothing. Scott writes:

Instead, the title should have been, “Creating a Website that Does Almost Nothing.”
(NOTE:  YES, I STOLE THIS FOR THE TITLE – IMITATION IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY!!!)

The Wall Street Journal is offering bad advice to millions of small business readers by recommending an “on the cheap,” “don’t bother to think it through” approach to the 64% of small businesses (businesses under 100 employees) that don’t yet have a website.

I find it ironic that while the WSJ continues to tout the fact that the web is changing the world, the author, Vauhini Vara, would have you think that your company can capitalize on this by launching a cheap website that is nothing more than a hope and a prayer.

After reading the article it is clear to me that “objective” experts informed very little of the information provided. In fact, the first thing I did when I finished the article was to see if it was labeled as an advertising supplement.

Scott goes on to THOROUGHLY dissect and dismantle the article.    He’s brilliant, he’s articulate and he’s right on the money.

Because I recognize the TRUTH in what he says, he’s already gone a LONG way towards building trust with me.  Not because he’s referenced in an article oniMedia Connection – because he’s writing and sharing his expertise.  I recognize the truth in his analysis and truth leads to trust.

Building Trust is What Blogs Do Best!

Scott was inspired to share truth (one of the signs of a good SEO practictioner, according to Ron Belanger’s article) instead of hiding behind a veil of secrecy.   In doing so, he’s instantly gained my trust – while alerting me to a reason why the WSJ doesn’t deserve mine anymore.

There are SO MANY small businesses with websites that do almost nothing.  When they start looking for answers – they find websites that shouldn’t get an ounce of trust.  These peoploe don’t know what they don’t know, so it’s buyer beware time.  They’ll spend hundreds if not thousands of dollars on empty promises.   If they survive long enough, they might find the answers they need.

It’s one thing when a no name nobody slaps up a one page sales page and buys adspace to promote this garbage.  However, when the Wall Street Journal presents it as “news” – well – this comes at a time when I thought my opinion of the press couldn’t get any lower!

 

Filed Under: Web Site Success Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
October 24, 2008

Achieve Success While Maintaining a Healthy Work Life Balance

Entrepreneurship is a lot like athletic competition: if you don’t prepare yourself mentally AND physically, you’ll find you don’t have what it takes to play the entire game.  The competition in the business world is grueling and relentless and you have to be able to play until the final buzzer!

This is one of those “Do as I say – not as I do” kind of blog posts for me.  Like Monika Mundell, I too have been suffering the health consequences of living a life that has fallen out of balance.

Success is all about balance.

I love word pictures and here’s one to illustrate my point:  to achieve success in your business, you must stand upon a three legged stool.  The three legs of the stool are:

  • Exercise
  • Eat Right
  • Sleep

Trying to build a business which requires you to work 12 – 16 hours a day without doing those three essential things is a recipe for disaster.

It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.

Here is my story of life balance disaster.  Let is serve as a warning to others.

It started 6 months ago when I fell out of the habit of daily exercise.  I believe exercise is an essential ingredient in your quest for success.  Your body was created to move, not to sit in a chair all day.  Daily exercise sharpens not only your body, but your mind as well.

In my case, exercise is the foundation of EVERYTHING healthy and good in my life.

Exercise serves to keep my diet “healthy”.

For example, if I try to eat my favorite food of all time – Pop-Tarts [cue angelic singing] – and exercise, I’ll find that I struggle to finish my workout.  If however, breakfast is a bowl of steel cut oats or an omelet, I’ll have enough energy to exercise and then jump into working.  If I don’t eat healthy, I see the effects when I exercise.

Exercise also helps you get a good night’s sleep.

When I’m exercising, the quality and quantity of my sleep is GREATLY improved.  When I don’t exercise, well – I begin to become acquainted with the various mattress companies infomercials which run during the wee hours of the morning.

So for more than 3 years, my day would begin by putting on my walking shoes, putting a leash on my dog and walking a mile or more every morning.   If 7:00 AM rolled around and I didn’t have on my walking shoes, my dog would begin barking relentlessly until I started our pre-walk ritual.  If I didn’t know better, I’d swear that silly dog could tell time!

Then, I came down with the flu.  I guess the dog knew something was up because instead of launching his full scale high decibel barking assault, he just whimpered and whined outside my bedroom door.

Well, the habit was broken with the dog after a week – and when the daily exercise stopped, everything else went to hell in a hand basket.

So at this point in time, I’m not walking, I’m busy working and  my family is subsisting on Pop-Tarts, frozen pizzas and fast food.  It should come as no surprise that I began having trouble sleeping about this time.

Fast forward just a few months.  I feel like crap and my twisted, nutrition deprived mind decides the problem lies in a partially impacted wisdom tooth that has recently emerged.

It’s not my junk food diet that is making me feel like crap.  It’s not my lack of exercise that is making me feel like crap.  It’s not the fact that I’m only sleeping 4 hours a night that I feel like crap-  it’s my tooth that is the root of all evil.

In a nutshell, my idiot dentist prescribes an antibiotic to which I have a reaction which the leaflet says could be fatal.  When I call the office, the woman says, “Don’t worry about it.  We’ll see you next Tuesday.”  The idiot dentist pulls the infected tooth and  the infection rages out of control.  A month later,a doctor is telling me, ” This is really serious.  You could die.”  I walk out with a referral to an ENT and enough prescriptions to start my own pharmacy.

After CAT scans, blood tests, specialists and way too many hours sitting in doctor’s waiting rooms, I’m really regretting NOT paying attention to maintaining a healthy life balance.

Oh, I’m so back on the “wagon” when it comes to diet and exercise – the sleep thing just follows naturally when I’m doing the first two.

It could be that the purpose of your life is only to serve as a warning to others.

Don’t wait until you’re making the rounds of various doctor’s offices to pay attention to the “basics” you need to achieve success.  Trust me, productivity takes a NOSE DIVE when you’re spending your days in a doctor’s waiting room!

If the three legged stool is in balance – exercise, eat right and adequate sleep – then you have a firm foundation upon which to operate your business.   If you think you can “cheat” the system – think again.   It’s true – an ounce of prevention is really worth a pound of cure!

I thought I was invincible – and I discovered I’m human.    I guess that discovery is just another part of the aging process!

This blog post is part of Stacey Hoffer Weckstein’s “Life Balance Group Writing Project“.
Filed Under: Blog, Web Site Success Tagged With: ,
October 2, 2008

What is YOUR blog worth?

Darren Rowse of ProBlogger is getting inundated with the news of the 1 Man Blog Sells for $15 Million Dollars

The question at the back of EVERY blogger’s mind when they hear news of a blog sale is, “I wonder how much MY blog would bring?”

For John Wu, the sole author of Bankaholic the answer is a cool $15 Million.

Darren reports:

the blog has an Alexa ranking of 42,168 and averages less than 20 comments per post. The blog does seem to rank very well for a lot of bank terms and I’m sure drives targetted traffic.

That’s the key – TARGETED TRAFFIC.  The blog buyer is Bankrate, which is acting very much like Google in this acquisition.  It’s the old,  “let someone ELSE do the hard work” and then the big guy with deep pockets sweeps in to collect.    John Wu got to perform the hard work – building up the blog over a period of 26 months.  He did the digging and Bankrate gets the gold and John’s labor is being WELL rewarded with a ROI of $576,923 per month for his efforts.

However, I think it’s important to remember that he didn’t launch this blog with this payday in mind. Instead he set out to create a tightly targeted blog focusing on attractive and tightly targeted keywords.  Now a big player wants his blog and is paying handsomely for John’s hard work.  Congratulations John.

Oh, and in a medium where community is everything, this blog is a bit light on that aspect.  Blog posts don’t get a lot of comments, but the blog delivers where it counts and that’s on desirable keywords and targeted traffic!

Oh, and for what it’s worth – Bankaholic is a WordPress blog.

Filed Under: Blog, Web Based Horror Stories, Web Site Success, Why Blogs are Better Than HTML Web Sites, Word Press Blogs Tagged With: , , , ,
August 22, 2008

Strategic Internet Marketing: Making the Intangible Major Sale

Blogs are a GREAT strategic internet marketing tools and should be included in every independent service professional’ marketing tool box!

If you’re selling “nothing but air” (a.k.a. selling your knowledge and/or services), your blog can be a great cost effective way of attracting your ideal clients to your practice.

In order to understand the “Why” behind why a blog can be a great tool to promote your business when you’re selling nothing but air, you need to understand the two types of sales your business may be making.

The Ultimate Major Sale: Selling the Intangible

When you’re selling your services, you’re making the most difficult sale of all : the Intangible Major Sale.

In my book, Beyond the Niche: Essential Tools You Need to Create Marketing Messages that Deliver Results, I cover the fact that there are TWO types of sales your business can make. There are Minor Sales which are sales which don’t carry life altering consequences. Buying office supplies is an example of a Minor Sale. There are few, if any consequences from making a purchasing mistake when it comes to buying copier paper. There isn’t a significant investment of time, energy or money unless you’re buying copier paper by the semi-truck load.

On the other hand, there are other purchases that do carry life altering consequences if you make a purchasing mistake. Choosing a doctor, buying a house/car/motor home or investing your life savings are all examples of Major Sales. A significant investment of time, energy or money are all important elements in the Major Sale. However, not surprisingly, another key element in determining whether it’s a Major or Minor sale is the possibility of a developing a personal relationship. Even in there’s not a significant investment of money, if there’s the possibility of “getting to know you” in the course of doing business, then that transaction is elevated in the realm of the Major Sale.

As you have probably guessed, when people are making a decision which qualifies as a Major Sale, they need a LOT of information.

However, there’s a type of Major Sale for which I haven’t come up with an appropriate “name” yet. For now, I’ll call it the Intangible Major Sale. The Intangible Major Sale takes the traditional “Major Sale” to a whole new level.

While purchasing a motor home is a significant investment, you at least have the benefit of being able to walk inside the vehicle. You can look under the hood. You can take it for a test drive. This is one of the reasons it’s difficult to sell a car, a motor home or a house solely via the internet. There’s something about needing to lay your hands on an item that is 2 – 3 times your yearly salary before you write that check or sign those loan papers.

So, when you take a Major Sale but you remove the ability to touch, smell, see and feel the object, you elevate the level of trust you must build with the client before you can close that sale.

Selling Your Expertise

When you’re selling your knowledge, in essence you’re selling “nothing but air”. Your prospective clients can’t touch your expertise. They can’t smell your expertise and it’s possible for them to see your expertise in action and not recognize the magnitude of the display!

Often the truly skilled make the execution of their knowledge in action appear to be easy and effortless.

A few year ago, my husband was chosen to serve as a juror on a medical malpractice case. When the two teams of attorneys entered the court room, they both looked the part.

If anything, the team of prosecuting attorneys were more formidable in appearance. They traveled “en masse” and there were three attorneys followed by five “assistants”. Meanwhile, the defense attorney’s team was comprised of just two lawyers.

Aside from the size of the teams, the two appeared equally matched. Each member of both teams were impeccably dressed. When each lead attorney gave his then her opening remarks, my husband said there was little difference between the two.

At the beginning of the trial, both lead attorneys were well spoken, well groomed and well presented and appeared to be equal in the quality of the representation they provided their clients.

However, by the end of the 2nd day (of a 5 day trial), my husband’s perception of the two teams of attorney teams had changed radically. He reports that by the end of the second day of the trial, there was no doubt which team was going to prevail. The defense attorney had a well defined plan and was executing that plan with finesse. Meanwhile, the defense attorney’s team plan appeared to my husband to be defined as “throw as much sh*t and see what sticks.”

My husband came home saying, “Boy! If I ever need a lawyer, I’m calling that defense attorney!” He reports that other members of the jury uttered similar sentiments.

That is the essence of the Intangible Major Sale.

Prior to sitting through the trial, if anything, you might have decided that the prosecuting attorney was the better litigator -after all, he brought with him a larger team. However, in the end is was the defense attorney and her assistant who won the respect of everyone in that court room that week.

We all want it to be like it is in the movies. The “good” attorney is well spoken and makes a great impression while the “bad” attorney is wearing a cheap suit, smells like cheap cologne and smells faintly of whiskey.
In other words, you really can’t judge an attorney by his/her appearance.

Which is why, the joke amongst the newly divorced is “I may have a good attorney – but my ex has a GREAT attorney. If I only knew then what I know now, I’d have hired his/her attorney to represent me!”

This is what it’s like when you’re selling nothing but air.

You can look the part. You can talk the talk. The question is, can you walk the walk?

That’s why testimonials play such a HUGE role for the independent service professional who is selling his or her knowledge – a.k.a. “nothing but air”.

It’s also yet another reason why blogs are a GREAT way to build the trust needed to land new clients when you’re selling your intangible services.

Try as you might, it’s tough to “fake” that kind of expertise over the course of 200 or so posts.

So if you wonder why consultants and other independent service professionals who have blogs earn more than others -(I wish I could remember where I read that now) – this is the WHY behind that phenomenon.

If you’re selling nothing but air and you want a way to demonstrate your expertise – expertise that you would like people to spend their hard earned money to access – launch a blog. It’s just one way you can demonstrate your expertise.

Filed Under: Blog, Web Site Success Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
May 21, 2008

Trust Building Business Practices

The letters on the soap box I stand upon frequently around here read “Building Trust”.  Blogs are great trust building tools.  They offer businesses the opportunity to begin the difficult process of building TRUST with potential clients and customers.

Trust is so hard to gain and so easy to lose, which is why business owners must pay careful attention to follow trust building business practices.

Building trust is such a HUGE part of marketing and advertising, yet I don’t hear anyone talking about trust and marketing in those terms. Marketing is just an invitation to your business. Advertising is paying to deliver those invitations.

However, if you aren’t engaged in trust building business practices… how can your marketing invitations build trust as well?

Trust is a HUGE deal for anyone engaged in making Major Sales.

5 Essential Trust Building Business Practices

1: Under promise… over deliver

Trust is established when behavior matches expectations. Set the expectations too high and you’ll destroy the trust you’re trying to build with current and potential customers.

The easier software way of creating marketing messages is to scream “Bigger Faster Stronger” . However, the dirty little secret that marketing professionals know is that when you set expectations too high, return rates can run 25% and higher for products marketed in that fashion – for services, those rates can run even higher.

However, when your marketing messages set realistic expectations and you end up delivering more than your marketing messages promise – well, that’s what it takes to ignite the holy grail of marketing… word of mouth advertising!

2: Transparency = Trust

If you’re transparent with your customers as well as with your employees, then you’ll be laying a foundation for building trust.

Transparency’s hard when you’re not being authentic.

For example, I have a friend who works in sales training for a large company. The company has been calling for employees to make sacrifices for the good of the company. They’ve had to turn in their corporate credit cards and they’ve had to share hotel rooms on trips. Imagine their surprise, not to mention disgust, when the CEO drove into work one day in his brand new Bentley.

Word of the CEO’s new ride spread like wildfire throughout the company. Within a few weeks, sales had taken a dramatic downturn and suddenly, the sales training department was assigned the task of coming up with outlining a new marketing campaign to increase sales. (Don’t you LOVE how corporate works!)

Oh, did I mention that the top 6 sales reps left the company in the three months following the CEO’s new car purchase?

Transparency’s hard when you’re not being authentic. Losing trust almost always hurts the bottom line.

3: Focus on meeting your customer’s needs.

When your customer does business with you, it’s because your customer expects you to provide a product or service for them. They are not patronizing your business merely to fatten your wallet or improve your bottom line.

Your customers are doing business with you to meet their needs – to satisfy their wants – to solve their problems. When your focus is upon meeting your customer’s needs… you’re automatically engaging in trust building activities.

4. Make it easy for customers to buy….

I am AMAZED at how hard some companies make it to do business with them. If I, as a potential customer, have to chase you down to get you to take my money, how hard is it going to be to reach you when I have a problem AFTER you have my money and I’ve become your customer?

Trust me, if customers are having to chase you down for the opportunity to buy your product or service… you’ll soon be facing competition that will make it easy to buy the product or service you’re offering. PERIOD.

5: First Impressions Mean a Lot!

Trust is so hard to gain but so easy to lose and little things mean a lot, especially in the beginning.  Dead links on a website… a typo in the sales letter… a forged testimonial…. all can destroy the trust needed for a potential client or customer to make the move from potential to paying.

The obvious point to make here is make sure all your marketing materials make a GREAT first impression.  The old “design vs content” debate doesn’t apply.  Design + Content = Professional Presentation!

For example, I was visiting a blog about business blog consulting.  The design is less than crisp and professional, so that should have been my first clue.  There are 6 different business blog consultants who publish articles on this blog.  They’re great articles… but when you click to learn more you get broken links and error messages.

If you’re in the market for a business blog consultant, you’ve got to ask yourself… are you willing to trust these people with your business blog?  If the links on their own blog don’t work – links which promise to lead to you to the information you need to go about HIRING them- how can you trust them to build links on your blog that work?

Hey, believe me, I know that broken links happen ALL the time.  However, this wasn’t just one broken link – it was several.  One was simply the result of putting two sets of [http://] in the link.  The thing is- these people claim to be blog professionals and that’s a rookie mistake!

Blogs are great trust building tools.  When done correctly, they offer businesses the opportunity to begin the difficult process of building TRUST with potential clients and customers.

Filed Under: Blog, Building Trust with Blogs, Business Basics, Testimonials Build Trust, Web Site Success Tagged With: , , ,
April 25, 2008

Domain Name Registry Scam

The bastards are on the loose again.  You know, the CREEPS  who send you a very official looking “invoice” regarding your domain name registration.   Obviously a LOT of people fill in the form because it looks so damned official.  I’m a “professional” and I have to admit, if I didn’t know better… I’d sign it as well.

It’s bad enough that you have to worry about security online… now you have to guard yourself off line as well.  It’s a form of snail mail domain name phishing.

In case you don’t know, here’s the scoop.   In the fine print it is written that by signing this form you’re authorizing the  transfer of your domain name to THEIR service.  Want to point your DNS to another hosting program.  TOO BAD!  You can’t.  Want to transfer your domain name… can’t do that either… you signed away those rights.

I’ve gotten two emails this week from clients asking about the letters they’ve received via snail mail regarding this scam.

“But I thought my domain name was registered through you?”

My reply, “It is and will be unless you fill out that form and send it in.  Then all bets are off.”

In case you can’t tell, one of my clients made that mistake a few years back.  I don’t think we ever got control of the domain name back.

It INFURIATES me when some slimy bastard tries to use FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) to make a buck.

Well, obviously the scam isn’t working so well anymore, so the slimy bastards have hired a call center to telemarket their service.

I got just such a call this morning.  “Hello.  I’m from Domain Name Registration Services and you will be getting a notice in the mail about changes to your domain name account.”

“Why will I be getting that?” I asked.

“Uh, because there are changes in your domain name registration account,” she replied.

“Why?” I asked again because I can be a horse’s ass sometimes.

She started stumbling so badly it was literally incoherent jibberish.  I began thinking of the dear, sweet woman who wrote to me earlier this week and thought about how different this phone call would be if she were in my place.   That visualization set me off and with that,  I let loose on that poor telemarketer.

You know you’ve reached a new low when a telemarketer hangs up on you.

IF YOU DON’T KNOW ALREADY:

  • Don’t click on links in emails regarding your domain name .  Go to  the web site where you registered your domain name and renew it.
  • If you didn’t register your domain name via snail mail, don’t respond to snail mail messages regarding your domain name.
  • Your domain name registrar will NOT be phoning you about your domain name… even if you haven’t paid the bill.

By the way, these rules apply to your CREDIT CARD, YOUR BANK and YOUR PAYPAL accounts as well!!!

It’s only classified as paranoia if they ARE NOT out to get you.

Filed Under: Blog Basics, Web Based Horror Stories, Web Site Basics, Web Terms Defined, What you don't know Tagged With: , , ,