Low prices aren't everything

According to CNNMoney.com, "If online retailers think slashing prices to the bone is the best -- and only way -- to grab holiday shoppers this year, they're mistaken."

Even though more shoppers make purchases online this year compared to previous, their satisfaction levels with e-tailers declined slightly this holiday sales season.

A new industry report released today, by Foresee Results, ranked holiday winners and losers among major online merchants based on customer satisfaction. Satisfaction with the top 40 online retailers slipped 1 percent to an index of 78 out of 100 points.

Retailers were judged on four categories: content, functionality, merchandise and price. Amazon ranked #1. They reportedly excelled on content, functionality and merchandise.  Again reinforcing that the lowest prices aren't everything.

According to Kevin Ertell, vice president of retail strategy at Foresee, “Overall online site experience is incredibly important to not only satisfaction but in getting people to come back and buy, again and again.”

As you plan your online presence for the upcoming year, your website may need an update.  Evaluate your website from the perspective of your customer. Evaluate what is working and what needs to be adjusted for better response and retention. Solicit answers from your customers. Asking "why" and acting on the feedback, may help you to gain better long term customer satisfaction.

Is there really instant success?

Everybody fails but very few successful people ever want to discuss it.

Anyone who does anything in the world has to experience failure. It is impossible to have all the “right” answers before setting off in pursuit of your goals. We all know that Henry Ford was responsible for manufacturing the first mass produced automobile called the Model T. But very few people are aware that the Model T was not his first automobile. He went through models from A to S that all were failures before he got it right. Coca-Cola was only selling a dozen cases a week for a long time before they got it right. Even Thomas Edison failed over 1,000 different times while working on the filament for the light bulb before he was successful.

Our society should glorify failure the same way it glorifies success. The stories we read about in the general press and in special interest magazines all make success sound easy. They tell you stories similar to the housewife who was selling her "Best Tastin’ " cookies at school bake sales when her son’s teacher suggested she should sell them in stores. Almost overnight she's a millionaire.

These stories make you feel that you should also be a success overnight or you are a FAILURE. Not true! Go out and fail ... that is the best way to get anywhere. The odds of being an instant success are about the same as you being hit by lightning. If you live in Florida, where lightning has a habit of striking often, your odds may not be so bad. However, if you're waiting for the right idea that is sure to be an instant success like you see in the magazines, you'll never do anything. Magazines write their articles so that you will believe that you, too, can be an instant success, if you must have the “right” idea, just like the people they profile. This is how they sell magazines.

The problem with these instant success stories is instead of encouraging you, they are more likely to stop you from fulfilling your dream. When you hear about a common persons instant success you might find yourself thinking..."If that average person can do it, why can't I?" If that average person really did it and you can't, you're going to feel dumb. How can an average person be smarter than you? No one wants to know that an average person is smarter than you are so you don't do anything about it. Or, if you attempt to figure out and make your own instant success, you get angry because your life didn't change overnight. You get discouraged and hang up your dreams.

We all have misconceptions about the way things work and what will be successful. We are inundated from all sides with opinions. Our friends, family, associates, and teachers all continually tell us why they believe someone else is a success. If they really knew the answer, they would be doing it too. Or these well-meaning folks hinder your success by attempting to protect you. They do not want to see you hurt. They will show you 15 ways your idea is likely to fail. Something to remember, though, the founder of Federal Express first presented his idea as a paper in business school and the professor barely gave him a passing grade because he thought the idea wouldn't work. And that was at Harvard! So trust your instincts and set your idea in motion, regardless of what some people might say.

The reason for your success will be because you are different than anyone else and your product and/or services will fit a niche and fulfill a need better than anyone else's.

If you want to succeed, most likely you are going to experience failure. A “failure” can be a good thing. If an idea appears to flop, take time to analyze before moving on. Rather than assigning blame or beating yourself down because of it, re-examine the failure. Determine it’s cause. Was it insufficient planning? Was it poor timing? Was it insufficient research? Was it insufficient resources? Was it erroneous data?

Don’t let yourself jump to conclusions. Allow yourself to get all the facts , so you can make a well-founded decision on the actual outcome of your efforts. You may find some efforts were useful or correct, however, most of all with proper analysis, you will gain a valuable learning experience

Welcome Failure.

It's the best springboard to your future success.

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Google New Preview and Star Features

Two new Google features are striking a high note with some people and hitting a bad nerve with others.

THE PREVIEW FEATURE:

On the plus side:

+ Searchers can see a thumbnail of your landing page by simply clicking the magnifying glass next to the search result. If you have multiple pages in the results, the searcher can get a visual idea of which page they want to visit. This may motivate faster decisions in result selection.

+ The thumbnail image may be the deciding factor to the searcher. Visually appealing pages may see an increase in page rank, regardless of SEO efforts. (note: previously used SEO techniques required re-vamping when Google introduced instant search anyway.)

On the minus side:
- If you recently changed, or regularly change your page content, the thumbnail may not match your actual page.

- Some CAPTCHA gateway pages may not be protected, and still show up in Google's thumbnail.

- Adult content only sites may also produce thumbnails, requiring adjustments in parental controls

Some searchers will spend extra time looking at all the previews without having to leave the search page, others will find the thumbnail saves them time.

THE STAR:

You will also notice the star next to the magnifying glass.

On the plus side:

+ Click this star and the next time you perform this same search, your starred web sites will show up at the top - above the ads and above the organic results.

On the minus side:- Web designers and marketers will have to be more creative on how to keep their websites ranked at the top of the page results.

Have you checked your results to see your your websites show up?

With every change in search algorithms (Google, Bing, etc) new efforts need to be made to keep your website fresh, interesting and findable. The longer your website sits without change, the easier it will be for your competition to rise above you on the page.

Wishing you awesome and continued success.

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Who's your ideal client or customer?

Based on your research and expertise who is your ideal client/customer?

What are their professions?

Does gender or age matter?

What are your client's interests, hobbies, and lifestyle?

What group or area can afford your fees and product prices?

Who could be a good long-term, repeat client/customer?

What are they getting from you that makes then a long term and repeat client/customer?

What values does your ideal client have?

What are their challenges or problems that you are able to solve with your services/products?

And just as important as knowing who is your ideal client/customer, who is NOT your ideal client/customer?

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What/Who is your target market?

WHY

What or who is the exact market for your business/product/service?

Do you know?

Some entrepreneurs erroneously believe that everyone is a prospect for them. Everyday I receive about a dozen emails from people, many whom I don’t know, telling me that they have the perfect business for me; or when I am ready to give up my J-O-B and quit making someone else rich, they have the opportunity for me. Dozens of emails circulate the internet for vitamins, prescriptions and enhancement products. Not one of these people has identified if or why I am the “perfect person” for this perfect solution to a problem they don’t really know if I actually have. Instead they are using what is termed as a shotgun approach – quantity over quality marketing – and hoping some of it will come through. This approach may work for some, especially if you have the thousands of dollars needed to stay one step ahead of the spam controls. However, is this how you would like to be introduced to a product or service? Most people would prefer to be told about something they are personally interested in or need.

Start two lists with two columns each.

The first list, write what is the EXACT market for your business/product/service in the left column.
And in the right column, write WHY.




EXACT NICHE MARKET    |    WHY


 

On your second list, identify who is your target customer in the left column. And in the right column, write WHY you know that this is your customer.

EXACT TARGET CUSTOMER    |   WHY

 

What research did you do to determine these answers?


What sets YOU apart; what makes what you have to offer – different than someone else allegedly offering the same thing? This is an essential piece of the puzzle. What is unique about you and your business?

This is an important piece in your entrepreneur puzzle. There are numerous “me too” businesses and products on the market battling for business. Yu can set your self apart from the crowd when you effectively identify your uniqueness, the unfilled need and your target market.

 

From a Chicken to an Eagle

One day, a naturalist who was passing by a chicken farm was struck with curiosity.  He noticed an eagle, the king of all birds, living among the chickens.  He asked the farmer, "Why do you have this eagle confined to live in the barnyard with the chickens?"

"Since I have given it chicken feed and trained it to be a chicken, it has never learned to fly," replied the farmer.  "It behaves as chickens behave, so it is no longer an eagle."

"Still," insisted the naturalist, "it has the heart of an eagle and can surely be taught to fly."
After talking it over, the two men agreed to find out whether this was possible.  Gently, the naturalist took the eagle in his arms and said, "You belong to the sky and not the earth.  Stretch forth your wings and fly."

The eagle, however, was confused;  he did not know who he was.  He was comfortable with his life and was content with the farmer providing his food and being in the company of the chickens.  Seeing the chickens eating their food, he jumped down to be with them again.

Undismayed, the naturalist took the eagle on the following day up on the roof of the house and urged him again, saying, "You are an eagle.  Stretch forth your wings and fly."  But the eagle was afraid of his unknown self.  He was afraid of the world he did not know.  He was scared to fly.  He jumped down once more for the chicken food.

On the next day, the naturalist rose early and took the eagle out of the barnyard to a high mountain.  There he held the king of birds high above him and encouraged him again, saying, "You are an eagle.  You belong to the sky as well as to the earth. Stretch forth your wings now and fly."

The eagle looked back toward the barnyard.  Then he looked up to the sky.  He still did not fly. 

Then the naturalist lifted him straight toward the sun.  The eagle looked up to the sky and began to tremble.  Slowly he began to stretch his wings.  He looked back once more to the barnyard and then fixed his gaze toward the sky.  At last . . . . With a triumphant cry he soared into the heavens.

From that moment on, the eagle was living life as an eagle. 
Now it may be that the eagle still remembers the chickens with a certain fondness and nostalgia.  It may even be that he occasionally revisits the barnyard.  But as far as anyone knows, he has never returned to the barnyard to live the life of a chicken.  He truly was an eagle, even though he had lived the life of a chicken.

Just like this eagle . . . . . people who have learned to limit themselves by their surroundings, instead of the passion of who they really are.

As you begin to map out and plan your business venture, stretch your wings and let your inner eagle soar.

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Why You?

WHY YOU?
If someone else asked you the following question: “Why are you the best person to do this (business, product, service, job)?” , what convincing answer would you need to convey?
What makes you unique?
What do YOU have to offer?
Why are YOU the best person to do this?
How does your background and experience assist you in this?
Are you the kind of person who can get a business or project started, or consistently advance towards a compelling Goal or Vision? How do you know this? How would someone else see this in your or your results?
 
Why You? Do you really believe ALL that you have just answered about yourself?
If not….. then don’t go any farther with these questions, until you are able to believe your own words. If you don’t believe you – then chances are that no one else will either.
Did any part of your statement sound defensive? If so, what would it take to remove the defensiveness and replace it with confidence?
It is important that you can understand- ”Why You?” And when it is true for you, you will be able to tell someone else with confidence and not defensiveness.

“Know that although in the eternal scheme of things you are,
you are also unique and irreplaceable,
as are all your fellow humans everywhere in the world.”
~ Margaret Laurence ~

Taking all the reason why YOU are the best person to do this, how will your actions or results benefit others?
Who else (family, friends, employees) will also benefit?
What is the greatest benefit to you?
Many people run into the next business venture or job without much forethought, many times in desperation and then the results are stressful and unprofitable.
Taking the time to identify the WHY YOU  and the benefits to all involved before making the decision can make a difference in your results.
Once you identify the Why You? then you can move towards identifying your precise target market.

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