Trying to Build a Business with Your Website?

A few key websites I would recommend:

• High level business plan suggestion – http://blog.guykawasaki.com/#axzz1j9so32SI  I am listening to Guy’s Reality Bites and they echo so much the experiences of many who have been successful in growing a business and getting capital investment. Guy started his success at Apple, but along the way has become a successful venture capitalist, and therefore has sat through many many business presentations. He has learned what works from the perspective of will it get someone to write a check and do a deal.

• I have mentioned Seth Godin a few times, I particularly recommend Linchpin
  

  A mindset for new business creation or anyone trying to earn a living

  His writing style is light and fun, but I think his ideas are pretty fundamental to the way the new world is. It tells the story that trying to be 2nd best or worse is hardly worth getting out of bed in the morning. Be the best – 2 ways:

  • Be ‘fortunate’ enough to be the best in a ‘standard’ area.
  • Be creative enough to define your niche of being best. The key is you should be able to introduce your self as ‘the best ………’ in a way that everyone you meet knows it is the truth. That may be by geography, or creating a new market segment or reframing an existing segment but be the best.
• Here is the story of the marketing and passionate niche I was telling a few clients about. http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelellsberg/2012/01/11/the-tim-ferriss-effect/ It demonstrates how the world of broadcast over narrow-casting has passed as absolute law. Our markets are large enough (over 303million in US alone) and flat enough (2 day for under 2 pounds, but so much is the speed of internet) and segmented enough (how many Yahoo groups are there today, how many Meetup groups are there today in your area). So many business owners keep trying to get the ‘big’ publicity hit and fail to understand that most success comes from targeting the key people you want to connect with. That success from connection individually rather then exposure of many.

• Explore your business using the Business Model Canvas. I have worked with many different start-ups.
  

  A new way to get to the Truth of a business plan

  Along the way, I have built a variety of questionnaires that I found very helpful for all to understand and clarify what the real objective and strategy. Having recently found this 1 page tool, I find it naturally replaces my flat mini-book of questions with a single sheet that is far more action oriented, less overwhelming and more action oriented.

• And of course, there is the E-Myth Revisited by Micheal Gerber.

Inventory is Dead Weight.

“A feature that you built and tested, but didn’t deliver yet because you’re waiting for the next major release, becomes inventory. Inventory is dead weight: money you spent that’s just wasting away without earning you anything.” Joel Spolsky

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2012/01/06.html

I discovered a new tool for quick survey of the series of tubes of the web (Daily Show fun) – AllTop.com which lets you get a single feed around topics that you can create or others have created. The ‘generic’ page led me to Joel’s blog post today.

But Joel’s thought on inventory struck me. I have different posts in ‘draft’ stage. I have different ideas in planning stage. I have different relationship in development stage – I promised to get them some useful information (by their feedback) that I have not. This inventory (or more appropriately WIP-Work In Progress) is not creating value for me or more importantly for others. I am short changing myself and others, and need to stop that.

I notice so many people I respect getting hung up in working on getting ‘it’ perfect before they publish/post/deliver/share that the opportunities are missed. The value is they are reflecting how I do that myself.

I am finally not only hearing the need for creating, sharing and niching but delivering whether that means publishing, posting or just hitting send more often. Thank you Seth Godin and the many who have preached this newer concept over the old framework

So this year there will be more posting, more ideas and consequently more mistakkes as I ‘iterate’ and continually improve.  How are you going to change your models to improve this year?

Should I Upgrade to the New Version of WordPress?

One of my projects is helping out a small non-profit with online presence and social marketing. Their simple site is in WordPress, so when WordPress.org let them know that a new version was out. Of course, they recommended upgrading just days after the release. So the executive director asked the natural question: Should we upgrade our site to the new version? Seems logical, newer is better, right?

Well not so fast.

WordPress 3.3 was release 4 days ago. My short answer was not now. It is probably best to add this to the list of todo’s for next year. But I was not in a short answer mood. A big part of the issue was risk management, and the software layers involved like the layers on a wedding cake.

In one of my former lives, I was an event photographer. I always vowed (pun intended) to not do weddings. The reason – the expectations are unreal. If the baker makes a mistake, I as the photographer am already doomed. The expectation is perfection. Anyone on the ‘team’ makes a mistake and all fail.  Especially since everyone can make a cake, press a button on a camera (or cell phone or computer).  So the question becomes why is making a cake (especially for a wedding day) so complicated. Well after listening to a few bakers and artists, I learned there are a thousand critical points where a simple cake turns complicated. Mostly because for each layer you add, all the little mistakes on the layer below it show up and get amplified until you end up with the tower of Pisa or worse.

A similar situation exists with a ‘simple’ WordPress website and its’ many layers of software that are used to let someone see our site. Tomorrow I will run down the different layers, but for now, here are the reasons that most jump out to not upgrade.

Now don’t get me wrong, I feel WordPress is a great tool for most websites (since most websites are simple in objective and construction). Those that is is not (more complicated) the conversation becomes far more nuanced.  And I recommend WordPress as the 1st consideration for a site. Even if it does not belong on WordPress, it becomes a great prototyping tool and scrum development platform for at least a place to converse with key stakeholders.

Recently I was asked ‘should we upgrade to the latest version of WordPress?’.

• New releases are best tested by others. Unless they are fixing a core issue that is not working today. I am so appreciative of the thousands in the Internet and in the WordPress community that will find all the other ways a new release does not work on all configurations all the time. They will share with all the different layers and get those problems fixed. Hopefully before we upgrade.
• This new release does not really change the limitations of the template, it may make new templates easier to build or old templates easier to improve, but it will not ‘fix’ the limitation of the existing template. So this is another reason not to upgrade right away. Tomorrow I will go over all the different layers and what risk I estimate they add to such an upgrade, but here are a couple of highlights:
• Whenever changing software and its many layers, it is important to have a testing plan and program. We have not had the time to develop that, and it should be done before we upgrade releases.
• Add all the risk up (sorry the risk is cumulative), and the potential risk to upgrade is around 1 in 18 upgrades will have some challenge. This is where a testing and roll-back plan (the ability to undo the changes in case they make it worse then the ‘upgrade’) come into play.
• A testing plan minimizes these risks by being able to duplicate the above issues as close as possible and see if in our specific circumstances if there is a problem. For usually very few dollars a test bed can be set up (usually less then $50 per year) Costs usually include:
• ‘testing domain’  – $10 per year
• setting up a 2nd domain/website – $10
• Reinstalling WordPress, plugins and all the other layers listed above all the same except the one change/upgrade (in this case new version of WordPress).
• Possibly some testing software (although there are many low volume free versions) to thoroughly test a site, and some monitoring software to see how the ‘new’ version works.
• This does not include the extra time on various peoples part to:
• Define a testing plan.
• Set up the testing platform.
• But, once a process is defined, it will be much easier for all future upgrades, and far less stress before, during, and after (if there is a problem, there is a test bed to go see what is happening and how to troubleshoot it, especially if the site is not fully down, but only ‘damaged’.)
• This of course assumes a low volume, simple site. Issues, and solutions scale up as the sites objectives and complexity scale up. However, these fundamentals still apply, we have to add other considerations.
• Other questions to consider are, has the hosting company added the new release to its auto install packs?
• Have they tested the new release on their servers (at least on one of them, they should all be the same, but as you can see from above there are a lot of areas where variations can be introduced).
• Has the theme tested itself on the new release?  Their site or page should list comparability with the current release.
• Have all the plug-ins (or add-ons) been tested as compatible with the new release? According to the page http://www.projectrace.com/wp-admin/update-core.php it has not yet be tested.
• These three ‘pre-tests’ will be very helpful in determine when to start considering when we should install the new release. Relatively speaking this is not a major release and does not seem to add much.

Sorry for giving a long answer to a short question, I got on a roll and wanted to map it out to share with others.

What are your thoughts on WordPress 3.3 and upgrading software?

Which Headset Should I Use with Dragon Naturally Speaking?

Nuance seems to always be discounting Dragon Naturally Speaking (DNS) in November each year, probably in advance of the latest version coming out in December or right after the 1st of the year. Therefore many clients consider improving their ability to create documents and all the other promises of voice recognition.

The headset that comes with Dragon Naturally Speaking is known to be crap by Nuance and others. Technically there are 2 chips used in most wired USB headsets (using the builtin connectors is a strain on the PC, although the newer computers may be able to handle it). The cost to manufacture is about 3-5 cents difference, so you can not tell by price which model is using which, and even a single brand line (such as logitech) will use both. But at $20-50 you can almost by 2 or 3, and return the ones that don’t work well.

I could not tell you why Nuance, the latest owner of DNS chooses to set so many potential customers with bad equipment that will hate voice recognition for years to come, and especially DNS, but they do. Perhaps they really do want to work only with resellers that know the dirty secret, or they want to keep expectations low for another 5-10 years. But the strategy sure seems counter intuitive.

Regardless, now that DNS is so relatively inexpensive, and decent headsets are as well, consider finishing the tool kit and purchase a decent USB or bluetooth headset before installing Dragon Naturally Speaking.

There are some inherent limitations to bluetooth, but they still work well. I researched which was best, and in talking to the engineer who actually worked on the Drgaon Naturally Speaking (DNS) recommended (even though he does not sell it) the Parrot VXi Xpressway last year when I bought mine.

DNS will create a different profile for each headset (since they are sound ‘different’ to the software), so switching does have the challenge of making a vs. b vs. c comparison a little more challenging (but better then training with mic x and then testing with mic y).

Hope this technical interlude helps.

Book Review – Innovation You

Innovation You

Jeff Degraf

 

I listened to this a week ago on CD in the car, and just now getting around to writing about it.

 

As I look at the cover, I am trying to remember the 3 takeaways that I had listed to myself as I was finishing up with it and finding it hard to remember.  Seems Innovation You‘s message was not that memorable.

 

Jeff is very relatable for me, coming from the next state over of Michigan and working with University of Michigan. He does the reading for this book, and I needed the 1st CD to get used to his voice and not feel it grating on my senses.

 

His stories are very relatable and useful.  Especially the need to pay attention to the weather as a sailor, or anyone in the midwest where a tornado can change the day in a hurry. The analogy is that business and your life can also be changing quickly, but often there are hints of the changing world the let us know that it is time for us to change as well, and now.

 

The  rest of the 6 1/2 hours is spent reminding us that what worked yesterday may be useful today, but in a world where everyone is changing rapidly, there is more then a fair chance that we need to consider a new approach and new methods. They may be uncomfortable, but adapting will be more comfortable then not adapting and using old approaches with the new storm.

 

His other big takeaway is the continual reminder that in most endeavors of life, perfection is not expected during a career to be the best (he uses Gretzky and shots on goal as the example), and certainly while learning a new area (even surgeons get to practice before working with live humans). The key is to keep trying and learning from what you attempt. Don’t get hung up in analysis by paralysis but keep attempting and improve from your attempts.

 

Of course in our incredible world that is continually expanding, it is important to remember to look for worthwhile goals to shot at. Look at what is worth the effort and keep adjusting to the world that is adjusting around you.

 

Jeff’s book is framed around a quadrant model of different ways people ‘fundementally’ approach life and challenges. He does recognize that many times the best solution is to blend 2 quadrants to come up with the best solution to a challenge. His labels for the quandrants is based on colors. Of course as an audio book, these colors did not map well for the concepts he was referring to. Concequently, much of the ideas were confusing for me as I was trying to visualize, but had not made a clear picture of his model in my mind. His description of the colors and quandrants did not anchor. Perhaps if he had included some key charts to audio book, it might have made a more lasting impression. My copy of the audio book was a library copy, which only included the cover in a library case, so maybe the retail version addresses this.

 

His website seems to have more tools, but they are all linked to those that got the program as a premium for his PBS special/pledge package. If you did not get the program as PBS pledge it takes a lot of wandering around the site to find out that you need to spend $100 on paypal to get access to other resources. More wandering around the site infers that it includes access to audio, video, iPhone app (no indication of Android version), and perhaps a chart (what I was looking for to see his color map explained). A poor sales job and poor communication job, so I conclude that the resources would probably be poor as well.

 

Not bad for reminding of the basics, and a potential idea for modeling that you need to emphasize different modalities for different situations. If the way you solved the problem last time did not work this time, then try a different model (approach or method) using a different mindset/framework. And understand that much of succeeding in today’s world will require changing your framework on an ongoing basis. And success is not just in terms of money or career, but on your values.

 

two stars of 5.

Damian

Computer Challenge – How to Create a Bootable Disk?

From Oren S./M/Newington,CT)
Whats the best way to create a bootable disk?

It depends on version of OS that you want to create the bootable disk.  UBCD from Download.com (a CBS (the TV conglomerate) site of shareware programs that are pre-checked for virus’ and malware) is a good tool. UBCD (short for Ultimate Boot CD/Compact Disc) is a program that allows you to create and load a few programs to create a bootable CD.

• Start Menu|Run|CMD|Format a:/sys if you still have a 3.5 diskette.
  

There are other tools built into MS Vista and I believe MS Win7, but I am not as familiar with them. You can also use UBCD to create a bootable thumbdrive or flash drive if you can have your PC boot from USB port. Otherwise the install disks that may have come with your PC as operating system may work to be able to boot directly from a CD.

Do you Have your Eagle Eye up?

JD at Owlish Communications posted about  Time’s Man of the Year – Mark Zuckerberg. When you have a movie not just written about you, but shot, editted and released and an Oscar nominee before you are 30, you are on an incredible life track. But Facebook has changed the world.

Having the wisdom to listen enough to not sell out will allow him to call many shots for the rest of his life. It is interesting how quickly FB has become the new model of blogs and podcasts coming out of Silicon Valley. Now cutting edge is to disagree with the Zuck model. The movie Eagle Eye ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1059786/ ) comes to mind often as the personification of what is inherent with FB when I think of Zuck and Facebook.

So a few take aways for me:

• Listen to what others tell you (and do what is best for yourself).
• Have passion and everything can be fun.
• Understand the details, but focus on the big picture.
• Believe in yourself, even if you have faults.
• Be willing to adapt as you learn more about the world.
• Be clear in your vision.
• How you take care of your friends and business partners will reflect on you. Understand the consequences.
• Find people who are at least as good as you are, and you will look smarter.
• There is incredible power in collecting data.
• Presenting data can be very lucrative, even banal data.

I have to go update my FB status.

Marketing Insights based on Data of 3,700 Businesses from HubSpot

There are so many opinions these days in the world of online marketing about what ‘works’ and what does not. It is always refreshing to see actual data rather then opinion based on hunches and single experiences.

Hubspot has built a reputation by building a community where businesses can share their opinions of what works. In exchange, Hubspot started collecting real stories of what is happening with businesses. That has allowed them to build some tools. Those tools have gotten respect by marketers that have been around long enough to tell the difference between ‘wantabe’s’ and the real deal. Hubspot is not done building, but then neither is the Internet. So while I continue to check out their tools (and recommend you do the same), they have a gift for us. They have shared some of their insights from over 3,700 business customers. They created a slidedeck of those insights and are sharing them here: http://www.hubspot.com/charts

This slidedeck has great statistics from 2010 about marketing and social media for both B2B (business selling to Business)  and B2C (business selling to consumer) companies. While often focused for smaller companies,  I found slides 117-120 particularly interesting as it shows how stock performance related to customer response speed is real interesting. Hint faster response=more money for stock holders of Fortune 100 companies.

Some other observations from the slides:

• It is interesting to see how video is shifting our online conversation. Many more people will share a link to a video than just a photo. A picture may be worth a thousand words, but moving pictures are worth more (plus there is audio). Want to get more sharing of your site? Post interesting video on your blog, website, Facebook Fan Page. (Slide 9)
• Comments are easier for photos then video. I wonder how much of that is the number of sites that allow comments without logging in for photo’s compared to video (especially when directly linking to a YouTube.com or similar tool). Of course videos may just speak for themselves and not need more editorializing. (slides 9-10)
• Having a clear voice and adding your insights gets more views as we continue to have more choices of content to read/consume. ( slides 11-18)
• Readability is important. Don’t write at a college level – The Wall Street Journal does not, for a good reason (Juicy’s Interpreting the Results) (slide 20)
• Giving something of value (webinar, whitepaper, download, chapter, tools, report) increases conversion (slides 30-34)
• Your conversion rate on forms drops after 3 fields. Sorry, our desire for information scares away customers and relationships. Start with a little information and share some value. ( slide 35)

More insights from this treasure trove of information to come.

Hubspots’ full webinar is at http://www.hubspot.com/the-science-of-blogging/

The download PDF and PPT are accessible at http://www.hubspot.com/charts

Mashables’ 5 Essential Small Business Tools

The cost to start up a business these days is lower then ever. As the needs for technology and communication sophistication keep increasing, the cost for these tools keeps dropping, at least to get started and prove your concept. Voice phone calls and voice mail is free (once you pay for Internet access) with Google Voice and many other solutions. Video conferencing is free with a little technical know how using Skype and other services. The list goes on (I keep trying to keep an updated list, but the best in breed and abilities change so frequently).

One of the ways of determining some of the best of breed is to look at the many (many, many) end of year “best of” lists. These often consolidate and update the author’s finds from throughout the year.

Here are some cool types of tools for businesses looking for low cost (free on up) solutions to business communication and learning challenges. Cloud solutions are going mainstream. Even the GSA (goverment Services Administration)  is using the cloud (they choose Google Apps and will save 50% of email costs in 5 years).

From the Mashable site http://insr.us/SeoDamian5Essential

Comment on what are your favorite tools that you could not live without, and what tools have you discovered this past year that you are keeping in your tool box for 2011

KISS – Keep It Simple and Short

One of the best practices for website conversion also lines up (often) with better rankings on SRP (Search Results Page) – simple language, and good readability scores.

The issue is that once you get someone to your site it needs to be easy to read. There are exceptions, but how often are the buyers (of your product or ideas) really looking to work hard to understand what you have written? Of course Google is no genius either (although many that work there are). It is designed to look at your site as others without sophisticated degrees and high end language skills would look at your site. Of course, I am like many who like to slip into the shorthand of our vernacular and the jargon of each industry. But I do so at my own peril. And increasingly, at my own laziness. MS Word has had analysis of the reading level of your documents for at least a decade. But there are also online tools available as well for free that are quick and easy to use.

Understand that the Wall Street Journal writes its content for 11th grade. Most novels are written at the 8th to 10th grade level (remember we had to read them in high school). Take a look at most websites, they are written for graduate level. How many websites have you seen with humongous long words, utilizing complex sentence structures reminiscent of academic papers that put everyone to sleep (bad example intended)?

Here are a few based on a quick search (until I get back to finding the best in class):

• http://juicystudio.com/services/readability.php#readingresults
• http://www.editcentral.com/gwt1/EditCentral.html

In fact, the readability of a website is important enough that Google will allow you to control what sites you see in the results based on reading level: http://www.google.com/advanced_search

If you don’t believe that readability can help your site, do a little test and then let me know the results in the comments section.