Music in the Digital Age

Music in the Digital Age

by: Esperdi Bova

We are on the brink of a major change in the way the music industry operates. Digital music will not just change the way people purchase music, but it will also change the way musicians approach creating albums. Digital music gives people the opportunity to instantaneously purchase a song they like – without having to purchase the rest of the album. Artists and executives are both going to have to look at how music is released, and if it is worth producing an entire album if people aren’t going to buy it.

Piracy of course is another major issue that the music industry will have to look into and examine. Currently, it is so simple to download a single song everyone does it and doesn’t feel that what they’re doing is illegal. Laws are being put into place in an attempt to stop downloading illegal music, but technology always appears to be one step ahead of the law. Some companies have found success offering music downloads for a price, but this practice only enforces the concept of downloading one or two songs from an artist, and not buying the entire album.

This trend may force the music industry to change the way they package music to the masses. People’s tastes will become a larger factor and will affect the finished product. Personalized CDs and play lists will have a larger influence. Instead of artists creating new albums, they might focus their attention on one song, or perhaps executives will look into theme compilations – give a number of different bands and artists one theme, and then release that music all together. Whatever the music industry decides on, the next few years are going to revolutionize the way we view – and listen – to popular music. The music industry will never be the same.

About The Author

Esperdi Bova is the owner of Fth Music, expert site for your musical needs. For more information, please visit us at: http://www.fthmusic.com

This article was posted on February 16

by Esperdi Bova

Intranet The Benefits Realisation Plan

Intranet The Benefits Realisation Plan

by: David Viney

The Millennium Experience

A successful project is one that delivers onspec (‘quality’), time and cost. Right? Well consider these two projects…

The Millennium Dome was delivered on time for the 31 December 1999 and safely within a budget (fixed in 1998) of £289 million. The Project was also delivered to quality, albeit against a Specification that had been adjusted several times during the project to simplify the scope of work required (and ensure that time and cost deadlines could still be met). However, visitor number targets were greatly overestimated, the business a total flop and the whole endeavour deemed a failure by many.

The Millennium Wheel (or ขLondon Eyeข) opened one month late on a dreary February morning in 2000 (following problems raising the wheel and then safety & quality issues with one of the 32 pods). It was also over budget, with building costs of £70m (against the £25m British Airways had originally planned to spend). However, an average of about 10,000 people a day now ride the wheel, making the London Eye the UK’s biggest tourist attraction (and generating £15 million of trading profit a year) a healthy return on investment for the shareholders.

A New Mindset for Change Projects

Traditional methodologies for change / project management (of which PRINCE is an example) tend to focus primarily on time, cost and quality. Benefits are all too often only implicitly recognised and the accountability for realising them is assumed to lie outside the project.

However, the pace of change within our society, industry and business grows ever faster. Somewhat paradoxically, there is an evergreater need to ensure that changes ‘stick’ (delivering sustainable benefit and competitive advantage to the organisations making them). Most businesses have already achieved greater efficiency and effectiveness within single functions or processes; The challenge of the 21st Century is increasingly how to realise endtoend change across a boundaryless business.

Rarely (these days) will a single customer sponsor a single project, delivering a single system into a single department.

The leadership challenge is thus how to engage multiple sponsors and change agents across the whole business to deliver excellence in change and the ruthless pursuit of business benefits and true return on investment (ROI).

The Case for a focus on Benefits Management

Recent research from the Cranfield University School of Management finds that 78% of ITenabled change projects (in large UK companies) fail to deliver business benefits. 47% believed assessment of business benefits in business cases was poor or worse and 79% said that all the available benefits were not captured during that assessment. 45% believed benefits were overstated in their organisation to get investment approval.

Arguably, this will only change when project managers and their people become accountable for – and obsessed by delivering business benefits and value through Change, rather than simply projects to time and cost.

Benefits Defined

Soft Benefits (sometime called ขnonquantifiableข benefits) are those intangible improvements to be obtained from a change, including improved employee satisfaction, better customer satisfaction, increased knowledge sharing and reuse of intellectual capital. Whilst it is often accepted that such benefits do lead to financial gain, it is deemed impossible to demonstrate a proven causal link that would enable one to place a financial value on the benefit.

Direct Benefits are those which lead to a measurable impact on the bottomline of the organisation, including increased revenue, reduced costs of sale / improved margin, operating cost reduction (e.g. through reduced headcount) and improvements in working capital (e.g. through a faster debt collection cycle). An individual or team can be held directly to account for achieving them and providing evidence of their realisation.

Indirect Benefits are those which facilitate or enable bottomline impact, without leading directly to realisable items for which can individual or team had be held accountable. Such benefits include cost avoidance (i.e. costs not currently budgeted that might otherwise become payable) and capacity creation (where efficiency savings free up people to undertake highvalue adding tasks but do lot lead directly to the release of FTEs or other costs).

The Benefit Realisation Toolset

In the Benefits Realisation & Tracking chapter of my (free to access) Intranet Portal Guide, I outline a number of tools that can be used to better manage benefits on the typical portal project.

1) An enhanced Business Case

Many business cases simply do not sufficiently reference Benefits. Make sure that you dedicate at least as many columninches to benefits as you do to costs. Split benefits between soft, direct and indirect. Ensure that direct benefits are included in the ROI, NPV or IRR calculations and that the people who will be accountable for their realisation have signed them off.

2) The Benefits Blueprint

Create a document that shows how your benefits link to actual business process changes, projects or deliverables and changes to systems. Suitable tools can be found in Cranfield’s Benefits Network approach, the Six Sigma toolset and as addons to PRINCE. Position the overall result in the context of your vision and strategy. This will help you capture all the benefits and to sharpen what you need to do to achieve them.

3) The Benefits Realisation Plan

The key control document, a good Realisation Plan includes, for each benefit, (a) a description of what the benefit is, (b) how much it is worth, (c) who will be accountable for it’s realisation, (d) when it will be realised and (e) where it will impact. If there are risks or dependencies to the benefit realisation, these should be noted and managed in the plan. Finally, it should be clear in the plan how the benefit realisation will be objectively measured and evidenced (e.g. through the monitoring of key performance indicators).

4) Benefit Evidence

In my guide, I suggest the use of Benefit Signoff sheets, whereby the benefit owner identified at the Business Case and Planning stage is expect to signoff once she is satisfied that the benefit has been realised. Evidence supporting the signoff should also be attached to the signoff sheet. This is a good discipline, to keep everyone honest.

Conclusions

The 21st Century Project Manager needs to be obsessed with delivering business benefits and value through change, rather than simply projects to time, cost and quality. There are tools that can help, including in particular the Benefits Realisation Plan. Good luck and don’t forget to check back with my guide for further help and templates you can download.

About The Author

David Viney ([email protected]) is the author of the Intranet Portal Guide; 31 pages of advice, tools and downloads covering the period before, during and after an Intranet Portal implementation.

Read the guide at http://www.viney.com/DFV/intranet_portal_guide or the Intranet Watch Blog at http://www.viney.com/intranet_watch.

This article was posted on January 27

by David Viney

The One Simple Trick That Can Double Your Adsense

The One Simple Trick That Can Double Your Adsense Revenue

by: Brad Bahr

Iกve been working with Googleกs Adsense program for a while now. If you’re not already in the program, why not take a look at it now at https://www.google.com/adsense. I really like Adsense. It makes me money and itกs easy to work with. Just some simple copy & paste into your webpage and you’re done. Right?

Wrong! You can do it that way if you want. Who knows? Maybe youกll get lucky and get a lot of clicks. But if you’re really serious about making a lot of money with the program, you’re going to have to tweak it a little.

Iกve invested quite a bit of time experimenting with the program. When I first signed up, I got some clicks and made a tiny bit of money. That wasn’t good enough. I knew there must be a way to get more of my visitors to click on the ads.

Google has a strict policy about not pointing to the ads in any way or asking people to click on them, so there were two things I couldn’t do. What else was there?

Then I remembered reading an article once that discussed the psychological impact of colors on the human mind. I started researching everything I could find on the subject.

After a lot of reading, many tests and periods of watching my clicks go up and down, I found the one color combination that seemed to work the best.

Testing previously done at supermarkets had revealed that the same product could pull more sales from just changing the colors of the label. What were these colors? Red and yellow! The combination of these two colors has an immediate impact on the person who sees them. They make your eyes stop and focus. They pull your eyes right to that part of the page. They grab your attention! Iกm not sure exactly why the combination of red and yellow does this, but it does. On one of my sites, I changed my Adsense ads to a bright red border and a yellow background with black text and URL.

My click through rate more than doubled with just that one simple change. Thatกs what worked on my site. Your siteกs color scheme may work better with a slightly different color combination. Try lots of different color variations. Make a change in the morning and let it ride for the whole day. The next morning, try a different set of colors. Change the border, background, text. Change everything you can. Most importantly, keep detailed records of the color scheme you used, click ratio and revenue generated.

After youกve done all the experimenting you want to, go back to the most profitable one and let it run for a week or so and see how it does. Iกm always trying different colors even after my run of good clicks with red and yellow. There are a lot of color combinations to choose from. You never know when youกll find just the right one.

(c) Brad Bahr All Rights reserved

http://www.nononsenseinternetmarketing.com

About The Author

Brad Bahr is the author of the NEW eBook: กHow to ‘reallyก Make Money on the Internetก. Itกs filled with no nonsense, practical information. To get your FREE copy of the book, go to ==> http://www.nononsenseinternetmarketing.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on March 19, 2004

by Brad Bahr

5 Common Web Site Development Mistakes of Small Bu

5 Common Web Site Development Mistakes of Small Business

by: Robert Flenner

Hereกs some mistakes to avoid when selecting or building your Web site. You know on those days when you have to wear your tech hat.

1) No Value Too Simple

This is probably the most common mistake made by small business owners online. The site has little value for the service or product their offering. Often it starts out as a กbrochureก site. Meaning their current offline marketing material is put online. Unfortunately many sites never progress past this point.

Now don’t get me wrong at leasts itกs a start, but it may not be enough.

You need to take a hard look an ask if there is anything of real value for the customer once they get there. Does it go beyond your contact information and service offering? Does it need to?

You can build a brochure site, but you might quickly find itกs not getting the results you expected.

2) Overkill

This mistake goes in the opposite direction. These sites fall in two categories:

They either are so loaded with content that the customer says กoh no, I don’t want to work this hardก or the site has been so กovertechedก the lights dim in your house when you access it.

The first site suffers from a lack of proper categorization and navigation. Probably the designer read one too many books on effective Web sites 50 articles per topic minimum of 10 topics, blah, blah, blah. It misses the critical difference between mass marketing and local community marketing. The fact is of the 100 articles on your web site 5 of them are being read if you’re lucky!

Now the second site, the bandwidth hog, suffers from misguided flash intros, excessive movie downloads, cute images sliding in and off the page, and all of this is happening at the same time. You can almost hear the customer crying out กI just want to schedule an appointment onlineก.

3) The กAll In the Familyก Site

Also known as the relative site. Be it your talented son of 16 or your brotherinlaw who knows all about this technical stuff, the site was designed, developed, and released by someone in the family who is กvery technicalก. The chance of success of these sites is very low because itกs not the technical side of a site that makes or breaks it for small business, itกs the business side. How much does your 16 year old son know about your business? Or more importantly how much does he care to learn?

4) Free Web Site with Purchase of Candy Bar

Yeah, itกs almost got to that point. Web sites for free! Anyone can have one like giving away a promotional magnet for my refrigerator (actually promotional magnets are much more effective). Costs nothing, design it in minutes. However, most are worth nothing and are a waste of time and effort.

5) Over Priced and Difficult to Change

The business owner looking for something really กspecialก. Cost is not the issue. This mistake can have significant ramifications because you can spend a lot of money and then realize you need something different. Make sure you get a site that you can change easily. Not a site that the company you hired can change easily, but that you can change. Make sure YOU see how easy it is to change before you agree.

Web sites offer you the opportunity to try different ideas, promotions and services quickly. The Web site you launch today will not be the Web site you need in six months. Small business owners are reluctant to redesign or change Web sites because of cost and experience.

Make sure that the Web site you buy at a minimum is database driven, supports templates, and can be changed by anyone, not just the กoriginal manufacturerก.

About The Author

Robert Flenner is founder of www.bentgrassgraphics.com devoted to community oriented small businesses. His articles have appeared on many web sites such as O’reilly, and is the author of a number of books on emerging technologies and ecommerce. He can be reached at [email protected] .

This article was posted on August 24

by Robert Flenner

Google is Quickly Changing…

Google is Quickly Changing…

by: Martin Lemieux

Google is quickly changing…

With the big buzz of Novembers fall within Google comes a newly indexed database…

Did Google do something bad to our great placements? No I don’t think so and hereกs why.

While people are screaming for help and wondering what went wrong, Iกve noticed a MASSIVE shift in page ranking.

If you look at top placements at the moment, according to Scroogle, most of the ecommerce search terms got hit really hard. A lot of the top 100 placements were vanishing and quickly.

Now on the other hand, less impressive and especially smaller ranking sites have been bumped up top. I firmly believe this is all because of Googleกs ‘refreshingก their memory and possibly starting to take on web site IDกs with 5 characters plus.

What I mean by that is the ability for Google to index more than 3.2 Billion web sites. Adding another character to the already large 4Idกs deticated to each site indexed will allow Google to add a whole other list of sites within their database.

Now I could be wrong on that one but hereกs another phenomenon going on. Iกve been talking to other ecommerce web sites and helping them gain better rankings. Itกs been a while since theyกve had their Page Rank change within their site. Working real hard as I instructed, they have followed all the rules and attempted to boost their page ranks.

Up until now, nothing has changed and people are loosing their ranks within Google since Novembers algorythim change.

Around a week ago Iกve been getting calls left right and center about page ranks boosting like I’ve never seen.

The previous scare before this November change went something like this. Google stopped indexing more than 3 levels within your site. Ex. www.yoursite.com/level1/level2/level3

I affirm to you this: its pure baloney, more sites now have better PR ratings within their entire site than ever before. I believe that Google is rewarding most great resources online before taking on more listings within their index.

As towards se placements, I also took a major hit for my better search engine placements but a couple of days ago that started to all change. It almost seems as though Google wanted to take out the top placement companies in order to thoroughly crawl through all their information before letting them get back in the game.

I say this because one of my top placements was sitting at #1 for a long time. Since this November change, it immediately dropped to #181 and didn’t move one single number for over 3 weeks. To my knowledge, thatกs a little strange. All of a sudden, my site stats recorded Google browsing through all my 600+ pages and presto, my site is back in the game, just like that.

In Conclusion:

It seems to me that we’re all just lined up to sign an application for better search engine placements. The question isn’t if your site will get back in shape, itกs a question of when your number will be called.

Have a little faith and a little patience and you too will rise again! Just keep doing what youกve been doing all along and don’t worry about falling down. The ones who get back up are always the ones on top in the end.

About The Author

Martin Lemieux is a young entrepreneur leading the field in Marketing for Canadians. Having been online since 1991, he knows his stuff when it comes to online marketing.

Affordable Web Design & Web Site Marketing

http://www.smartads.info

ASES Advertising Search Engine Services

http://www.smartads.info

RePrint Rights: You may use this article within your web site ONLY if it remains intact with everything included!

This article was posted on December 06, 2003

by Martin Lemieux

Does Your Marketing Plan Need Changing?

Does Your Marketing Plan Need Changing?

by: Joy Gendusa

Change is good, right? Not always. But when is it bad? Is it a question of good or bad? Sounds philosophical. Maybe it is.

Philosophize on this…why would one take something that is going good – no.. great – and change it? Obvious answer is to make it better. Not!

In business or in marketing, change is not always good. When you have certain promotional actions that are in place making things happen, or in better terms, making you money – don’t change them! Why do I say this? Because I see it time and time again. Someone has a marketing campaign that is bringing in a good return on investment and they up and decide to change their postcard! What?!?!?!?!? Change your postcard – why??????? ขEr uh, we just decided to do something different.ข

And then some three or four months down the road, they call back with their tail between their legs and ask – no demand to have everything back the way it was before. In this latter case – change is good.

I am not just saying that to say that one should always keep their postcard marketing campaign the same and never change it. Quite the contrary. Change your marketing, change your habits, change your way of life when it warrants it. There is really some truth to the old adage ขIf it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.ข Maybe it is human nature to want to change everything once something gets going just the way they planned it. Who the heck knows? All I can say is step outside the humannature box. Change only when things are drastic or when change is warranted.

Drastic circumstances deserve drastic measures. But how do you determine drastic? Sometimes that is really easy. Your company’s income is crashing. Do something! Change! Or better yet, figure out what you changed and get it back to what was working.

How about a plateau? Does that deserve change? Depends on how long that plateau lasts. I have never seen things leveling off and staying level forever. It either goes one of two ways – up or down. I know an optometrist who had a very successful practice in small town USA. He never really marketed. He never really had to. People knew of him from miles around. Mainly he did PR stuff – a fundraiser here, networking there, etc., etc. His good works made him well known and respected and the community ooo’ed and ah’ed over him so much the paper loved printing it.

But things changed. Malls started opening up. People started shopping out of smalltown USA and into the bigger cities. The environment changed. But he didn’t. He still kept a good practice, but you could see something interesting – his gross income started to plateau. And over time – many years – that plateau gradually started to show where it was really going. I actually don’t have to say where – you’ve got the picture.

Now, would that demand drastic measures? Taking into account inflation, cost of living and other factors that are on the rise – yes, I would say that would demand drastic measures. Did he take them? Not until the direness became all too apparent. But yes, he finally did take them. He started postcard marketing his youknowwhat off!

I have another client that is just a dream. They have had the same list for the past 5 years, ever since they have been in business – thirty thousand physical therapists they mailed to over and over and over and over and … They never changed. They figured if it was bringing in the income it was the thing that was working. And it worked and it still works. And today – they made Entrepreneur’s 100 Hot List for 2005.

So, next time you think about changing your marketing plan, look to see if it needs it. Look at your numbers. Are they improving? Declining? If your income is going up – don’t change one single thing. But if it is going down or flat lining – for heaven’s sake, change!

About The Author

Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998, her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2004 the company did $9 million in sales and employed over 60 people. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. As an Expert Author, she is always willing to share her marketing advice through articles, interviews and speaking engagements; visit www.postcardmania.com.

This article was posted on September 07

by Joy Gendusa

Cisco CCNA Certification: Don’t Overreact To Exam

Cisco CCNA Certification: Don’t Overreact To Exam Version Changes

by: Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933

CCNA Certification: Don’t Overreact To Exam Version Changes

Whenever a Cisco exam version changes, thereกs always a lot of chatter about it on the web. The CCNA exams are no exception.

One comment I see often goes like this: ก I hear Cisco is going to change Intro / ICND / CCNA exam versions soon, so Iกm not going to start studying yet. Iกll wait until the new exam comes out.ก Do not let this happen to you. While some large publishers would have you think these exams change tremendously from one version to another (กupdated for the latest exams!ก), the simple fact is that the Intro, ICND, and CCNA Composite exams simply don’t change much from version to version.Sure, the questions change.

The only people who should be nervous about that are those who are trying to braindump their way to a technical certification.The topics covered on the CCNA exams don’t change much at all.

You know you’re going to have to demonstrate knowledge of LAN switching, ISDN, Frame Relay, routing protocol behavior, RIP, IGRP, EIGRP, and OSPF. Perhaps some of the more advanced topics will change, but these will be minor changes at best. Cisco announces these changes on their website well in advance (and youกll read about them here, too), so you won’t be left with no time to study.

Whatever you do, don’t fall into the กversion changeก. Don’t spend $100 $150 to hurry up and take an exam before you’re ready because of an upcoming version change.When you’re ready, you’re ready. Time spent learning is never wasted. Get started NOW.

About The Author

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage. The Bryant Advantageกs website offers FREE ebooks and tutorials for the CCNA and CCNP exams, FREE subscriptions to กCisco Certification Centralก, and sells the best CCNA and CCNP prep courses and books on the market today. Visit his site at www.thebryantadvantage.com today!

[email protected]

This article was posted on January 04

by Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933

7 Compelling Reasons to Start Using CSS for your W

7 Compelling Reasons to Start Using CSS for your Website

by: Bina Omar

If you haven’t heard of CSS, itกs short for Cascading Style Sheets. Iกm not going to go through what it is. There are many free articles and resources about CSS out there in the wild wild web.

Instead, Iกm going to share with you why I decided to switch to a CSS based design.

Iกve known about CSS for quite awhile now but I used it minimally on my sites. Mainly to control the default font used in my web pages and also to define certain styles that I seem to use over and over again. I never gave much thought about using CSS to itกs greatest potential.

I guess it was because I was already good at making web sites the way I made them, i.e. using tables. I didn’t want to have to learn a totally new way of doing things. So I stuck to tables for as long as I could.

Unfortunately, กas long as I couldก turned out to be until the middle of last month.

It started with my WebSite Workshop members area. I had added a new section and needed to update my navigation. I had a rollover navigation, pretty much like the one I have at MakeYourOwnWebSites.com. The only difference is that when someone clicks on a button, a secondary navigation will appear below.

I used images as my navigation buttons. So, in order to add one more section, I had to create a new image for that section and resize all the other button images so they would all fit nicely in one line. To top it off, I had two sets of images. One for the default button and another that replaces the default button when someone hovers over it. Thus, creating a roll over effect.

After creating the button images, there was also the need to use tables to arrange them nicely in a row. And this whole table had to go into a row in the main table of the page.

After a few solid hours into it, I started thinking, this is crazy. There must be an easier way to do this. All I wanted to do was add ONE more section.

I did a quick search on the net and realized that there was an easier way … using CSS.

I spent some time reading articles on CSS. Not so much about what it is or how to code it but rather what it could do and was I in for a surprise. Apparently, it could do more than I gave it credit for. Here are just some cools things about CSS:

1. Create roll over effects with ease

CSS makes it really easy to create roll over effects. Youกve probably seen this all over the web. If you haven’t, just hop over to MakeYourOwnWebSites.com. Check out the navigation at the top and the navigation on the right and links throughout the site. These were done using CSS only. No images required. Just view the source code and youกll find that the navigation is a simple unordered list.

2. Separate content from design

This oneกs a bit hard to explain. The best way I can think of to explain this is to point you to csszengarden.com. Hop over there now. Youกll see a list of styles you can select. Click on a few and youกll see what I mean. The content remains the same but the design is totally different. This comes in really handy when youกd like to change the look of your site without touching your HTML web pages. Just change one CSS file and your whole web site has a new look.

3. No more tables … almost

You no longer need extensive use of tables. No more nesting tables within tables. No more figuring out which closing table tags belong to which tables. No more deleting a single table cell and having your whole web site resemble chaos. Youกll still, however, need tables to tabulate your data. But thatกs about it.

4. Easy sitewide changes

Need to change the color or size of your H1 tags? All you have to do is change the color and size once in your CSS file and all H1 tags in your web pages will change.

5. More design effects

CSS offers you more design effects than normal HTML. With HTML you can change the color, font and style of your content. With CSS you can change the background color (e.g. set it to yellow to create a highlighter effect), create borders, change letter spacing, word spacing ….

6. Faster loading time

Reduced table use and reduced image use will lead us to faster loading time. Need I say more?

7. Search engine friendly

Now that all your design code is in your CSS file, what is left in your web pages? You got it … content. Thatกs not all, with CSS, you can even put your navigation text and other กnoncontentก content at the bottom of your HTML file but make it กappearก at the top using CSS. This way, search engines will find the more important content first.

Enough said. I think now you can understand why Iกm so excited about switching to a CSS based site design.

Copyright 2005 Bina Omar

About The Author

Bina runs the WebSite Workshop http://websiteworkshop.com, a membership site filled with tips, tools and tutorials for the novice webmaster. Subscribe to her free ezine, WebBriefcase!, and get your free 7 part course on กHow to Build Your Own Web Site in 7 Easy Stepsก mailto:[email protected]

This article was posted on February 28

by Bina Omar

Visibility Equates to Higher Profits

Visibility Equates to Higher Profits

by: Kathleen Gage

One of the greatest challenges businesses face is how to market cost effectively while gaining a good return on investment (ROI). Regardless of what industry you are in, the size of your organization and how long you have been in business, you must continually look for ways to gain and maintain your visibility to your market.
Gaining visibility is one of the most important, and yet often most overlooked, aspect of running a business. Perhaps you don’t run a company, but you are in sales. Visibility applies to you as well.
Before you begin to aggressively position yourself and gain visibility, think about what the vision for you and your organization is. Gaining a vision of what the organization stands for, the impact you want to have on your customers or clients, the quality of products and services, your contribution to your community, and where you want the organization to be in the future is essential as you move forward.
Your vision is your ideal future state. The statement includes what you desire your organization to be like. Again, it doesn’t really matter the size of the organization. Included in the vision are your values. What is really important to you?
Once you have your vision in mind, consider writing it down. This can help you to solidify your thoughts and to stay on track with what is truly important.
Another important aspect of your marketing is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). It is beneficial to actually write down what makes your product or service different from those of your competitors. Whether you are in financial planning, training, banking, the beauty industry, day spas, or technology, take the time to know what sets you apart. In the consumer’s mind, Company A looks the same as Company B in many ways. The same with Salesperson A compared to Salesperson B. To stand apart your job is to help the consumer understand your differences. You can do this in a very positive way without belittling or badmouthing your competition.
A simple formula to clarity your USP is to write down every reason someone would want to do business with you.

Are you an expert in your industry?
Do you deliver in record time?
Do you have a unique location?
What is unique about your business compared to your competitors?
What is most important to your prospects and customers about doing business with you? (If you don’t know – ASK!)
What can only you do that your competitors can’t do?

Once you answer these questions, create a short message to include the key information. Many people avoid doing this type of exercise thinking it is a waste of time. Fact is, when you meet with a potential customer and they ask what you do, you want to be able to concisely tell them. This process is also helpful with your current clients in that they are only one call away from utilizing the services of someone else.
Another challenge people have is once they have created a USP they seem to be married to it. Avoid the trap of having a canned USP. Make it spontaneous according to the situation.
Your USP can be used in a number of different ways; conversations, networking opportunities, on your business cards and letterhead (if it is not too long), your yellow page ad, and in your other forms of advertising.
Periodically, it is helpful to revisit your vision and USP. As you change and your customer’s needs and wants change, you may find it necessary to adjust to those changes. What should drive any change are your core values more than anything else. When you are congruent with your values, success is assured.

About The Author

Kathleen Gage is a business advisor, keynote speaker, and trainer that helps others gain market dominance and visibility within their market. Call 801.619.1514 or Email [email protected]. Get Gage’s FREE 4 day online marketing course by visiting www.kathleengage.com.

This article was posted on July 11, 2004

by Kathleen Gage

Test Your Headlines for Maximum Profits

Test Your Headlines for Maximum Profits

by: George Dodge

Professional copywriters do not simply write or select one headline and then hope for the best. They create a number of different headlines; often times as many as a hundred before selecting the headline they think will perform the best.

But they don’t stop there! Professional copywriters know that their choice will often not be the choice of the public and therefore they test their headlines in the market place.

Believe it or not, even professional copywriters find that half or more of their ads, sales letters, or campaigns fail to become winners. But, by testing, they are able to cut their losses early and maximize their successes.

The method of testing most commonly used is known as split testing. With headlines, split testing involves the exposing of two different alternating headlines to prospects. This can be done both online and offline, but online is much easier and the testing process is quicker.

Here is the way headline split testing works online. Visitor A comes to your website and sees headline #1 while visitor B comes to your website and sees headline # 2. When visitor C comes to your website, headline # 1 is shown again and the alternating process continues for the length of the test.

After a number of actions have been recorded for each headline, such as clicking through to the order page, the results are compared to determine which headline resulted in the largest number of desired responses (the click through to the order page, in this example).

The larger the number of total responses recorded, the greater the accuracy of the test to determine the headline winner. Once a winner is chosen, that headline becomes the new control. A control is the current best performing item being tested, in this case, a headline.

Now that a control has been established, a new headline is tested against the control to see if the response can be improved. This process continues on until a given headline has been the control for a large number of tests.

Initially the two headlines that are being tested can be quite different. What you are looking for in the early test is what general kind of headline seems to work for the target market. Once a general kind of headline appears to be a winner over competing types of headlines, then you begin to tweak and split variations of the winning headline itself.

Letกs take a look at an example.

This headline example comes from Jimmy D. Brown, a very successful Internet marketer. The following two headlines were split tested to determine a winner.

Headline # 1: ‘the Power of Viral eBooksก

Headline # 2: กHow to Create Automated Profit Generatorsก

The Result? Headline # 2 out pulled headline # 1 by multiple times.

Now to simplify this process, letกs assume for the sake of this example that Headline # 2 proved to be the winner, not only of this test, but a number of follow on test against a number of other headlines. So, you have determined the type of headline that seems to work well for your particular target market. Now, it is time to tweak the headline by split testing variations of this particular headline.

When you split test variations of a headline, you want to only change one thing at a time. Perhaps you will change only one word in the headline, or the color of the headline, or the using of quote marks around the headline, etc. But you only test one item at a time. Each item you test is called a variable; it is the thing that varies between the headlines in the test.

Everything in the headline can make a difference in the headline response rate. Things that make a difference in response are called response modifiers. In addition to the items mentioned above, other response modifiers in a headline might include the font used, the size of the font, the capitalization of the first letters of each word, etc. Everything in your headline can and should be tested.

For an example of how a very minor change can make a difference in your headline response, take a look at these two headlines:

Headline # 1: กPut Music In Your Lifeก

Headline # 2: กPuts Music In Your Lifeก

The only difference between the headlines is the addition of the letter กsก to the first word. Again the second headline greatly out pulled the first headline. Some copywriters assume that this is because the first headline implies some work on the part of the reader, while the second headline implies that something or someone else does the work. But the reason is not important, only the results matter.

Each tweak of your headline that results in a new control improves the desired response rate of your headline leading to a maximization of profits, if your headline involves the selling of a product or service.

You can never know for sure why one headline out pulls another, but while you can guess, the reason is not important. What is important is the results, no matter what the reason.

Jim and Audri Lanford of www.netrageous.com, now www.scambusters.org, once made a change of color to a sub headline on one of their online sales pages and orders almost dropped to zero. When they changed the headline color back, their normal order rate returned. They guessed that this was because the color change may have caused the headline to look more like hype, but as noted above, the reason is not important. What are important are the results.

Are you testing your headlines? If not, you should be. Every little positive change continues to increase your profits and it all adds up in the end. While some changes may only increase your desired response by a fraction of one percent, some people have seen changes of as much as 1,500% with a single headline change while the rest of their copy remained the same.

How would you like to see either a single or cumulative improvement over time of 1,500% in your desired response rate? I thought so! Then go forth and test, test, and test some more!

About The Author

George Dodge is owner of the Headline Creator Pro Website at http://www.HeadlineCreatorPro.com where you can download software that saves you time and effort by allowing you to quickly and easily create headlines with push button ease.

This article was posted on September 12

by George Dodge

Basics of Starting an Online Business

Basics of Starting an Online Business

by: Shannon Emmanuel

So you’re ready to dive in are you?

The Internet has made a valuable contribution to the working world; it has created a ‘virtual’ workforce that has chosen to create their own incomes from the comfort of home. Without all the expense and time it takes to set up a traditional business, individuals can build their own business without anything more than their desktop computer.

This is a world where everyone’s dreams seem possible. But what really are the basics of an online business?

Computer and the Internet:

Granted, this must be obvious to anyone considering an Internet based business, but definitely take a look at what you’re working with. You will be spending a lot of time with these basic tools. Having reliable service and equipment is essential to your business success.

Website:

Website development is not what it used to be. It could easily cost you $3000 $10000 for a website in the notsodistant past. Now there are free templates, user friendly interactive building tools, and lots of cheap services to help you out.

Traffic:

Become familiar with this term, it will take on a whole new meaning. In the ‘real’ world, traffic is a bad thing. For your online business, it is the lifeblood. When potential customers visit your website, we call it Traffic. The methods of obtaining traffic are diverse and plentiful. Finding quality traffic is a level of marketing you will need to learn as you go.

Advertising:

This is the key element in obtaining your traffic. Many advertising techniques that were booming a few years ago are now ineffective if not downright a waste of time and money. Methods change very quickly on the Internet, and you need to stay informed. There are plenty of resources that provide quality information on the topic.

Automation:

The ‘buzz’ for online businesses is to be completely automated. There are a variety of ways to do this, but in essence you want to provide your product, service or information in a process that eliminates the need for your constant supervision. Allowing the customer to browse, select, purchase and receive their selections immediately. Depending on your business, some or all of these needs can be met. By planning your business in a manner that encompasses as many of these points as possible you will get ahead of the game.

Bringing your business ideas to the Internet can be a fruitful and inspiring process. However, just as in the offline world, businesses take time and effort to develop. Avoid being distracted by promises of ‘instant wealth’ and focus on creating a viable business that can change your future for the long term.

About The Author

Shannon Emmanuel is a freelance writer and Virtual Assistant. She has published dozens of articles about health, family and running a home business. Find out more at www.assistantforhire.com.

This article is free to reprint in full, without change and with authorกs credit and links in place.

This article was posted on August 08

by Shannon Emmanuel

If You Don’t Like The Weather…Just Wait Ten Minu

If You Don’t Like The Weather…Just Wait Ten Minutes

by: Kirk Bannerman

This old saying which addresses the variability of the weather in Montana is also applicable to the volatile market dynamics for an online business. If there is one thing that is certain about the future of online marketing, it is that it will continue to constantly change.

A generation in Internet marketing seems to last 12 months or less and therefore it is very important for online marketers to reassess their marketing plan frequently. It wasn’t too long ago that popups and banner ads were all the rage and now they’re about as welcome as a telemarketer or a lawyer.

In earlier times, just getting traffic to your website could spell success. That just is not the case today. In the current environment, Internet marketers have many tasks before them including increasing traffic, maximizing traffic quality, and improving conversion ratios. Much simpler said than done, but the key element is to understand that we are dealing with a dynamic marketing landscape where change is almost a continuous process. A successful Internet marketing campaign will always be a work in progress.

A dynamic internet marketing campaign will be a continuous process of monitoring & analyzing, followed by tweaking & experimenting, followed by measuring the impact (more monitoring & analyzing) of the changes made.

The first step in analyzing your marketing campaign is pinpointing precisely where the prospects are coming from. Whether itกs search engines, email, or from other sources. All of this data can be found in your server logs and there are some very good traffic analysis tools (many of them free) that will provide you with the information without requiring you to become technically proficient at deciphering raw server logs.

By analyzing the information taken from the traffic analysis tools you can track keywords and other parameters which will tell you how visitors are getting to your site which, in turn, will help you improve and target traffic.

The goals for your particular site will depend upon the nature of your online business or endeavor. A good way to determine how well your site attracts and converts visitors is to analyze your traffic and then experiment or tweak some of the different elements of your site such as sales letter copy, special price promotions, limited time offers, free offers, headlines, color schemes, testimonials, etc., etc.

After making changes in your program, once again analyze your traffic to obtain a measure of the impact (good, bad, or none) that your tweaking has produced. And then start the process all over again, retaining the changes that yielded a positive result and, of course, rejecting those that did not.

Remember folks, it is up to us to stay in touch with the fact that there is one certainty about the future of online marketing, and that is that it will continue to change.

About The Author

Kirk Bannerman operates his own successful home based business and also coaches others seeking to start their own home based business. For more information visit his website at http://www.homebasedbusinessteam.com.

This article was posted on February 01

by Kirk Bannerman