Food For Thought
Posted On: 2011-12-16
Well I don't know what it's like for you and your business but here in my office the pre-Christmas insanity levels are steadily increasing as more and more people come in wanting something done before Christmas.
The place is just going nuts and it's hard to find a moment to even stop and think. More and more of our clients want things done before Christmas and there's only so much time in which to try and meet their requests.
I guess it should come as no surprise when I tell you that I am really hanging out for a few precious days off over Christmas. Of course some of that time will be spent with family ... lots of family ... but there will be some quiet time when my partner and I can just sit down and think about where my business is going to go in the coming 12 months.
Hopefully you guys can get some quiet time over the festive season when you can just sit back and think about your business and maybe make some plans for the coming year. If you do have some time here are a few things worth thinking about.
Some of these are little hints I've picked up from chats with friends while others are things that we've begun to notice from the work we do for some of our clients. There's no guarantee that any of these things are right ... or that they're sure to happen ... or that if they do happen they will have an impact on your business ... but they definitely are worth thinking about.
Google in trouble?
Yeah right ... of course it is ... people have been forecasting the demise of Google from the time it first began to appear on the horizon. How could the biggest search engine on the planet be in trouble? People are always going to be hitting the search engines so Google is never going to be in trouble ... right?
Maybe people have always been suggesting that Google is about to fail and it really is the biggest search engine on the planet ... even its name is part of our vocabulary now. But where do you find most people online these days ... and what are those online places now beginning to offer?
Some very experienced and sensible people are beginning to wonder if we're seeing the first signs that Google's importance may be on the wane. It's worth thinking about because if you or your traffic sources aren't where your target market is then eventually you're going to have trouble surviving.
Build for the short or long term?
What tactics do you use to make sales online? Are you building for the short or long term? In the past it was quite possible to make a lot of money by fooling your clients ... baiting and switching ... maybe even outright lying about what you were selling ... but does that still work?
If it does still work is it a business strategy that will really make you enough money to retire early? Does it work for someone who wants to be in business and making money for years to come?
Learn to say 'no'
It doesn't really matter if you're a content provider or an affiliate marketer ... this is something that we all have to learn to do if we want to survive. If you're a content provider there are going to be times when you get a potential client come along who wants to pay you to do something that you really do not want to do.
Maybe the job is too big ... maybe it's too involved ... or maybe there's a personality clash with the potential client. When anything like that sounds a warning bell in your brain then you need to decline the job. Of course saying 'no' is never easy but sometimes the future of your business can depend on making the hard choice.
If you're an affiliate marketer you'll be hit with lots of offers from sponsors that are just too good to be true and you need to learn to say 'no' so that you don't end up wasting time and money on trying to sell something that's not going to work for you.
One day I'll learn to say that magic word and just maybe that day will come in the next few months. I know I wish I had learned how to say it this year.
Make more use of video
These days people want to see video when they're thinking about buying something and when you think about it that's really obvious. When they shop in bricks-and-mortar stores they want to touch and play with whatever they're buying so obviously they're going to want to do the next best thing when it comes to shopping for anything online.
So no matter what you're selling ... be it porn or coffee mugs ... if you're not using video to sell your product then a lot of people might look but not be convinced to buy.
And that's a little tip I'm going off to act on right now for one of our online stores. A simple video shot with a Flip camera should help our customers see that what we're selling really does work.
Oh dear ... I just realised that I've just added to the workload here before Christmas.