Fire in the belly, passion in the business
While surfing around I found this video about Soda Business by John Neese. When you watch this video, you’ll see how passionate he is about his business. He loves, enjoy and play with this business. With over 500 different types of sodas he can claim to be the only one with so many varieties.
Have you ever heard of cucumber soda? John has it, even if you haven’t heard of it.
My Way of Putting together a Website.
I have been working online since 2004 and I had my shares of up and downs when it came to internet marketing. One of the biggest headache or pain in the ass while starting online is putting together a website.
I don’t mean in technical terms. You can hire anyone to get a website in a week or less. No I meant in terms of Marketing, Producing, it’s like giving a birth to website.
1. What’s Your Goal? – When I am starting out, I ask myself a very simple question. What’s my goal? Now of course, your goal can be, saving the world, making money, just plain old vanilla putting your business offline.
But in this phase, you have to find out how you are going to achieve your end goal.
For example, this website http://www.varunpratap.com/ went through many phases (from a personal website to fitness blog to again a personal website to professional website to phew… tooo many). I ended up scraping all of these earlier versions just because I wasn’t satisfied.
I am a creative person and I need an outlet where I can speak, shout, rant or just be darn creative.
Currently my slogan “Desire. Commit. Succeed” is something I want others to experience. And to me, there’s nothing better using a blog to share your experience. With my experience in many diverse fields, I know I’ll end up talking about tons of different things on this blog.
So you have to decide what’s your ultimate goal? And how you are going to achieve it?
2. How are you going to create a connection? – Websites do not exists in solitude. In fact nothing exists in solitude. So when you are going to make a website, you have to find a way to create a connection with people who are going to visit your website.
There’s no other way. You cannot avoid this. No matter who you are. No matter what business you are in. No matter what your race is or where you live.
Your website cannot live without visitors and there has to be a way to connect with them.
2 Easiest way to connect with them are
1. Blog Like this one.
2. Newsletter
3. Forum (I am adding this one but it takes lots of efforts to maintain a forum).
You also have to understand about the media (Audio and Video). Because they ultimately create a connection. You have to check whether you can use it or not.
3. Potential to monetize or not – Third thing I think about potential to monetize a website. It’s very simple, If you are already making an effort to build and maintain a website, then why not monetize it?
There are many ways to monetize. The easiest to implement are :-
1. Sell advertisement space.
2. You can create a list and sell advertisement.
3. Create a product/s and sell it.
4. Promote affiliate products.
5. Sell your services.
Now this is how I start even before I order a website design to be done. I worry about my prospects. I prepare about how I am going to connect. I prepare about how to market. I prepare about how to sell.
Like I said, any one can put a website online. These days even toddlers and their pets have one. But all of this underestimates the real though that goes behind putting a website together.
It’s not that complicated. In fact it’s easiest the moment you decide “What’s my Ultimate goal with this website?”.
This is first of my 3 part formula “Decide. Commit. Succeed”. The moment you decide and decide to commit, things changes. Everything will work in your favor depending on your will. And Succeeding is just next step.
Notice, there’s no where I talked about SEO (search engine optimization) or any other new internet technologies. Because we don’t have to worry about them.
First build a website in mind, then on paper and only then come online.
Best Regards,
Varun Pratap
Desire. Commit. Succeed.
What has internet marketing taught me in last 5 years.
Whew, it has been 5 years and right now I am looking back at the lessons Internet marketing taught me over the years. Of course I am not discussing marketing tactics and techniques here otherwise this blog post will probably turn in a huge book.
First lesson :- Strike and Grab the Opportunity fast whenever it presents
This is the first and most important lesson that you’ll learn while doing Internet Marketing.
It all comes down to speed of implementation. If you are slow, time will move on and chances of your profiting from the opportunity has left you by.
If you compare internet time line to offline line real world time line, then time is moving at least 4 times faster on internet (that’s due to advancement in Internet technologies). The cause and effect can be seen almost immediately of internet technology and time.
People who sit on the side line and wait and check are often late and broke.
That’s why I said speed of implementation is important.
Second Lesson : Ideas are dime a dozen, Action is rarer.
Too many people have way too many ideas… but people who take action are rarer. And thats true in harshest of terms for people on internet. With the access to ever changing technologies, people can exchange ideas in a blink. But People who take action on those ideas are rare and those who do, often succeeds.
Again complimented with first lesson of speed of implementation, this will help you tremendously.
Third lesson : Sell whenever the damn you can
Someone told me, “Every attempt at communication is an attempt of persuasion. Either you are persuading someone or being persuaded by someone”. When I am writing as “Sell whenever the damn you can”, it sounds like a sleazy salesman or slick opportunist.
But that’s not my intent at all.
In internet, the method of communication changes a LOT and if you have a business, you have to learn, adapt and implement different communication methods. If you are selling online you have to utilize every opportunity to communicate efficiently otherwise you’ll not sell at all.
Fourth Lesson : Learn to communicate with written word.
Now as you can guess, learning to write is going to be one of the most important way to communicate online. If you can’t write, you can’t communicate. Oh yes there are videos, audios too but let me say it again, written communication is a HUGE part of Online communities. You just cannot ignore it.
Fifth Lesson : It only takes one silly mistake to get crushed in the time
Doing business ethically is important. With internet and the ease of communication methods, you can be easily crushed. If you are a good businessman, then people won’t be able to slander you even with internet. Why ? because your evangelists(customers) will help you fight against them.
You are nothing but a speck of dirt in the time line and trust me, it’s going to be important to do your business ethically and grow and succeed.
There are many other things I can write here but I think the long laundry list is unnecessary. 5 lessons will suffice for now.
Varun Pratap
Desire. Commit. Succeed.
Beware of Sharks When You are Getting Your Business Online
How to harness the true power of Internet for an Offline Business?
Business Owners tend to get burned by greedy sharks when it comes to getting their business online. One of the simplest way they get burned is by SEO (Search engine optimization) Experts. Typical SEO techniques might not work for offline business, Infact I dare say, often they don’t need those services at all.
And often these services are quite pricey even at their lowest packages (at around $5000).
Just couple of days I got a call from one of my reader asking about XYZ SEO company’s package. So I checked out their package and I almost spilled my evening tea on my PC’s screen.
SEO services are expensive and they are the kind of the expense sometimes you can live without. Their price ranges from $5000 – $50,000+. If you are wondering if it’s right decision to buy a package like that, then step back and again rationalize.
The worst part is most business owners can’t differentiate between good service or bad service when it comes to SEO. Heck this field is so complicated it even makes most online marketers sweat. And it’s purposely set that way to wring more money out of you.
When it comes to harnessing the true power for an offline business.
You are better off if you focus more towards creating and building relationships with your customer base.
You are better off spending more time utilizing Audio and Video to help create more trust in your visitors.
You are better off spending more time creating product demos which can help you sell more products.
Think of your website as platform which will help you sell more in real world. Do not worry about Typical SEO or things like that.
Think how can your website help your current marketing efforts in your business?
Think how can your website help you relate with your customers?
These questions will help you understand what kind of marketing approach you should use on your website. Without a sound marketing approach all the SEO, all the bells and whistles, all the graphics on your website is just waste of space.
Think about your marketing first, then about your website.
Own Your Business, Don’t get Owned By it.
Yesterday evening, I spent 3 hrs in meeting with one of the sharpest marketing mind in New Delhi. We discussed content, marketing strategies and many others things that we are going to cover in my upcoming seminar on building business.
One of my foundational base is “Scientific advertising”. In this, you have to understand the nature of your product, your company, your customer base and so much more so that you can create a marketing frenzy. It goes beyond what you might think about marketing or selling.
And because I have worked with pretty darn successful companies in New Delhi. I realized they have no concept of marketing and selling. Often their marketers are doing the job of salesman (and doing a piss poor job of it) and their marketing is literally man-handled by people who should have nothing to do with marketing at all.
For Example :– One of the Marketer for this publishing company was more worried about selling the advertisement page for the magazine rather than creating a strategy which results in automatically selling those pages, building a database or may be more effective brand awareness.
And these marketers have gall to brag about how successful their last campaign was. When you ask them what are they going to do afterwards, their silence give you the answer. Sometimes I wonder what exactly they think their job as marketer is?
Ah, I digress.
The problem with institutional advertising is, it’s too time consuming, too resource hogging, too pricey and almost always gets results which cannot be substantiated. This is where most business owners get owned and swallowed by their own business.
And this is exactly where I am going to show how anyone can handle their own marketing with just a shift in mindset. If your base is “scientific advertising”, then you’ll see results of your campaign and be able to realize and make informed decisions whether you should scrap this campaign or not before it starts bleeding your account dry.
And that’s how exactly you should be doing your business.
For example :– I helped a marketer with a full page advertisement which was going on 4 national monthly magazines with re-creating the offer, changing image position and improving the overall impact of the advertisement. The results was staggering. He could not believe how much response his ad got. His office was swamped with calls and people tried to get their hands on the offer.
The best part was he knew when to scrap this campaign as it started losing steam and instantly changed the offer with new advertisement improving his results.
Now this is what I call smart marketing. I did help create the advertisement, but it’s his job to make sure he runs it and follows it afterwards. Most MBA grads spend spray shinning their diploma/degree rather than understand how to actually successful market and campaign their products.
How to Increase Conversion on Your Website by 39%
How to Increase Conversion on Your Website by 39%
By this simple Marketing Tactic
If you have a website selling products and capturing subscribers, you can use this technique.
Use Your Thank You page More effectively.
Whenever your visitor subscribes and sees the Thank you page, you are better off giving him related offers. According to Marketing Sherpa 39% of viewers accept offers on thank you pages(40% in 2001, compared to 2001, this figure didn’t changed much).
That’s really big number. I think any business trying to get more profits can afford 39% more profit. 
So if you have any thank-you pages out there for anything that only say, “Thank you,” you are wasting very valuable real estate.
Pricing with Regard to Competition – NOT
So How do you price your products or services?
When you’re looking at pricing, I bet the very first thing you’re likely to do is say, hey, so what is everyone else charging for similar products? And you may go from there.
Right?
Now there’s nothing wrong with doing this at all, but there’s more to think about, and a lot more questions to ask than a simple can I beat what this guy is charging for his service?
Your price doesn’t have to beat everyone else’s out there for you to get sales. This is something that I learned a long time ago, and you may remember me talking about actually increasing my sales by putting the price of the monthly membership up, and offering an option that was actually ten times more money up front, which increased profits even further.
You’ll go broke by competing on Prices.
You really need to be aware of what other people are charging for their products, but that doesn’t by any means signal that you have to go out there and beat them. Instead beat them by strategy not by pricing.
Imagine you’ve just started up an ad tracking and autoresponder script site that’s so detailed, and so professional that it smacks the pants off the competition.
But see the other sites offering the same service are hanging around at the ten dollar per month mark. Does this mean that you have to go and beat them and have a lower price for anyone to look at you? Nope, not at all. What you have on your hands is a premium product, and you shouldn’t be worried to sell it at a premium price.
If you start slashing prices from that 10 dollar mark, soon someday someone will out price you again… and this keeps happening until all of you are out of business.
So here are few rules for you to follow…
Rule 1: Premium Products Sell at Premium Prices
So, here’s rule number one. If you have a great premium product, don’t be afraid to bump the price up. You do not by any means have to beat a competitor’s price to be competitive, in fact, by putting your price up, it’s quite possible that you’ll outsell your cheaper competition.
Why? Because a higher price screams quality. Don’t, for one moment, believe you have to have the best price to make any sales. That’s just not true, you just have to have the best sales system, and of course a premium product if you really ever want anyone to buy from you again.
Rule 2: Wowing Through Price Is a Bad Move
The fact is, if your price is too low, people look at you and wonder why the heck you’re charging that tiny amount. They’re saying, “Wow, look at how little that costs. There can’t be that much to it.”
Rule No 3: Don’t Be Afraid
Too many people are afraid to take the leap and price their products as they believe they’re worth. Too many people look at competition and think they have to cost less otherwise no one is going to buy their stuff, or they’ll make less money out of it.
If you notice my service as an example. I AM NOT AFRAID OF CHARGING HIGH. I am not asking $100 or may be $250 an hour, not even $500. Do you think you can put price on the experience and knowledge I gained while I was building business? Heck No…
If you are afraid of charging High… Then first charge high and Add more quality to your product/Service. I have a strong belief that I can Give more than I am charging for. and I do.
Play Only if you can Expect to Win
Everyone reading this can succeed online with their business! I can say that with 100% confidence. There is room for everyone online. The Internet is big beyond your dreams and is getting bigger every moment.
So expect to Win. Expect to Succeed. Why? Because you will. There is nothing standing in your way… Only you can stop yourself to succeed. One of the visitor on my blog left this amazing comment…
Pogo who was made famous for his words, right in the midst of VietNam war days:
– I found the enemy…
– The enemy is us.
You say, “Well how can you say that. Look at my financial situation.” Or, “I don’t have the education so I’ll never be able to compete.” Or, “I don’t have the time!”
Well I’m here to tell you none of those hold water. They are temporary problems. They can be overcome. And giving up is a permanent solution to those temporary problems.
If you commit yourself 100%, burn your bridges, and put all of your energy to task, YOU WILL SUCCEED! There’s no question…
There are a few things you need to get through your head.
- You can’t put a time limit on it.
- You have to expect to fail before you succeed. So fail faster to succeed.
- You have to create a Burning Desire.
- You must walk before your run… Get educated.
- You must have complete focus on your goal.
- You need a defined purpose.
- You have to find YOUR opportunity.
- You have to employ patience.
- You have enjoy what you are doing and believe in it…
- And You Must Learn From Others…
Your commitment to Online Success is the key to finding it. Commit to enjoying the journey. Someday in hindsight you will realize the journey itself produced your life’s dreams. The ups and downs are just brush strokes on your life’s work.
Strategic Internet Marketing- Article Writing – Turn Articles Into Ebooks and get paid
- Why You should Ignore Search Engines?
- Affiliate Marketers – Can You reduce Your Time/Money expenditure by 70%?
- How Not To Suck at making Money?
- Internet Marketing Strategy – Why Do Some Affiliate Marketers Fail?
- My Secret Behind High Speed Writing.
- Market Positioning – 4 Tips to Position Yourself As an Expert in Any Market
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