1. I have a site designed. I need it done in css (like we've done with this site). If you're keen please let me know and I'll give you the details so you can provide a quote. (I did have a regular reader quote on this site before and we went with someone else - can't remember who that was and I can't find the email. If it's you the job's yours!) Thanks. brendon@tailored.com.au
2. I need an American woman's voice for a bit of audio on a web site. It will be just saying welcome to the site, this is what we have - the site sells to Americans and I'm thinking it would help sales if we had a reassuring voice on the site. I'd need you to record as a wav file and send through. Only about 20-30 seconds.
Please let me know if you can help. Thanks. brendon@tailored.com.au
* Latest figures for The Census Bureau on the Dept of Commerce in the USA found that ecommerce accounted for US$15.65 billion of the US$919 billion total retail sales for the second quarter of 2004.
* There are now 123 million users of broadband.
* Domain registrations hit an all-time high at the end of the second quarter of 2004 - 64.5 million domain names are now registered (4.6 million names between April and June alone!).
* Online advertising (according to the Online Advertising Bureau) grew for the 7th consecutive quarter. Advertisers spent $2.37 billion in the 2nd quarter of 2004. Online advertisers for the first half of 2004 totaled $4.6 billion. That's an increase of 39.7% from the first half of 2003.
* Yahoo! has tripled their profits in the three months to the end of September, 2004 - $65.3 million to $253.3 million. That's after sales soared to a sixth consecutive record high of $906.7 million.
That tells us a lot
1. E-commerce is strong and getting stronger
2. More and more people have fast Internet connections. Now they don't have the frustration of slow connections they stay online longer. Which means more familiarity. More looking. More confidence. Increased sense of security. Increase in buying online.
3. More and more businesses are recognizing the need to get a web presence.
4. Online advertising is growing, growing, growing. If it wasn't working it wouldn't be growing.
And then there's my experience
As you might know, we run a few e-commerce web sites. They have been growing strongly especially over the past 6 months or so.
I launched a site about 14 weeks ago that is already doing big, big sales and providing big returns.
This is the start of a fantastic e-commerce boom. It's going to be bigger than the tech-wreck of a few years ago because this time it's built on something solid - viable business models.
If you have ever considered starting an e-commerce site then now is the time to gather up that courage, get ready for some hard work and have a go at making your dream a reality.
As modest as I'm not (!), I'm pretty good at picking trends and figuring out what's going to be the next big thing.
On the weekend I think I figured out why:
1. When it comes to IT stuff I'm a moron who knows very little.
2. I'm in business and I read lot sand lots (and lots) of business material.
3. I write so much about trends and what's happening, that a bit rubs off.
Probably the most important one of those 3 is the 1st one.
Because I'm not an IT person, by the time I read about something over and over and then set about figuring out how to use it, it has moved from being just for geeks to almost (but not quite) being used in mainstream.
Blogs are a good example
I'd seen, heard and read about blogs extensively. Then I thought I'd give one a go. If I can figure out how to set up and use a blog, anyone can.
Which means they were just about to hit widespread use just after I set my first blog up (back in March 2003).
And so when I started telling every man and his dog back in early 2003 that blogs would be big, it was from a basis of understanding some reasoning behind it.
Ok. So here's the next big thing.
VoIP
Voice Over IP
Which is just a fancy way of saying making and receiving phone calls via your computer.
It's been the next big thing for a while now, but getting it to work has been about as easy as flying to the moon.
VoIP is no getting easier and easier for any moron to use - i.e. me. And if I can do it, then so can you.
And the big winner is the $ you'll save on your phone bills.
What I'm not going to do
What I'm not going to do is tell you how to go about it (too technical for me!). Start reading up on it, visit some web sites and see if you could do it.
Howdy. I've been writing about various e-commerce signposts in the SitePoint newsletter lately.
* Google's IPO was a huge success.
* Yahoo! have tripled their profit.
* Sites are reporting big increases in spending.
In short, e-commerce is growing and growing. And after the Tech crash of a few years ago this is solid, real growth by profitable companies. Companies showing how it should be done on the web.
Is e-commerce part of your strategy? Could it be?
It's going to be massive this Christmas. Now may be the time to get on board.
Be a Debt Collector - excellent example of keeping in contact.
Howdy.
Heard a great example of the effectiveness of keeping in touch today.
Most of us have been late with a bill at some time. What happens is something like this:
1. Letter from creditor
2. Phone call from creditor
3. Another letter from creditors
4. Letter from Debt Collector
5. Phone call from Debt Collector
6. FINAL DEMAND from Debt Collector
By this stage the vast, vast majority of people pay the bill. Because they were asked to. Numerous times. With ever-increasing urgency.
It's the same as selling a product or service
Keep in contact with your prospect and continue to make an offer. Your process might be something like this:
1. Letter from you - with an offer
2. Phone call from you - with an offer
3. Another letter from you - with an offer
4. Letter from you - with an offer
5. Phone call from you - with an offer
6. FINAL DEMAND from you (i.e. Just 2 days left before the price goes up) - with an offer
Keeping in contact leads to more sales and more referrals. It has to be done as a fundamental part of your marketing strategy.
Howdy. Just reading a bit of research talking about how people's brains respond differently to products (in the research the products were Coke and Pepsi).
By associating a drink with Coke or Pepsi, different parts of the brain were found to become more active.
The results suggest that Coke's branding has been so effective that it stimulates areas within the cultural centre of the brain that overrides preferences based on things like taste.
But I think if you take a good look around you'll see that with fashion. People buy the brands, not the clothing. The brand overrides the fashion sense.
I've been writing a speech tonight. It's about the lessons I've learnt as I've gone along in business and what I've found are the important aspects, for me, in success.
I've been thinking of examples of these traits in action. Examples of the trait and how it's applied to whatever success I've had thus far. And just about every decent trait I've thought of so far have their basis in my childhood.
I'll give you 2 examples.
1. Persistence
2. Hard working
=======
Persistence - it's a little know fact, but nonetheless highly celebrated within the Sinclair family, that I am the Sinclair Family Hide and Seek Champion.
Undisputed.
Now that crown came to me when I was 7 years old. My young Aunty was looking after me, one of my brothers and little sister.
To pass the time we played Hide and Seek.
2 hours, 45 minutes later and I was the Hide and Seek Champion! Oh, yeh!
2 hours, 45 minutes of hiding behind the garage door.
My Aunty didn't find me. Nor my brother. Nor my sister. Nor my parents when they got home. Nor any of my other brothers and sisters (I have 4 brothers and 2 sisters). Nor the kid next door. Nor his parents.
Yep. That's champion Hide and Seek material!
I was found by one of the policemen who had been called to the house in response to the frantic "Missing Child" report.
For 2 hours and 45 minutes I stayed hidden. About 2 hours, 30 minutes of that time was spent behind that garage door ignoring the increasingly urgent cries of "Brendon, the games over. Come out, come out!!"
They weren't fooling me with that! Oldest trick in the book, thought I!
That's persistent. It also scary, worrying and downright freaky for my parents and Aunty!
===================
Hard working
My dad used to work at a place called the "Zinc Works" in Hobart, Tasmania. That was a 7 am to 5 pm job.
Hard, tough work.
...and then go to his 2nd job
After that he would come home and go to his second job as a Cleaner in Government Offices in an outer Hobart suburb called Derwent Park.
As a kid - from about 7 to 14 - I used to go out and help him 5 nights a week. From 6 pm to 9 pm.
It was my job to empty the rubbish bins, dust and sweep. I also had to burn all of the rubbish collected in an old incinerator out the back.
I was paid the sum of 20 cents a night for the work. And even then 20 cents wasn't much!
It's funny, but I used to love those nights working with my dad. Friday nights was a treat. We'd finish at about 9 pm and play Table Tennis for an hour or so in the Break Room they had the in the offices.
On the way home we'd always stop at the same late-night cafe and have a drink. Dad would have a coffee and I'd be allowed to have a chocolate milkshake.
Work ethic as a kid
So the work ethic as a kid was there - taught to me by my old man. And I still have it today. And it's a part of the things I've done successfully.
(And looking back at that and psycho-analysing that, maybe I equate hard work with the reward and very positive memory of spending time with my dad??? Or is that too deep?!)
Whatever the case may be, persistence and hard work have been part of me - or I've identified those traits from back then - since my childhood.
And many of the other traits I've identified have their roots from childhood.
So I guess we can take a couple of things from that:
1. We'd all have positive childhood experience to draw upon - those same traits are the ones that can help you on your journey to success - whatever success means for you.
2. If you have kids, try and teach them the right traits. I saw a bumper sticker today that said "Be the change you'd like to see in the world."
If I could say it better than that, I would. But I can't. Have a good night.
I'm off for a run. Ooooooh, there's that persistence again! (Or maybe it's just plain craziness.).
This audio file was meant to be with the September 29 blog. But I had a few "technical difficulties". Which means I'm a clown who couldn't figure it out!
So, take 2 on the audio. It tells you the way we increased the sales conversions on a site of ours from 3% to 4%.
You always learn something from everything you do.
I wrote the blog below on Friday afternoon. It's a tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top, outrageous post meant to be funny. Emphasis on "meant to be".
Jo, Mel and I all went through it.
* Jo didn't like it - she thought not everyone would 'get' my sense of humour.
* Mel - the wife and mother! - thought is was funny.
* I thought it was either really good or really bad.
4 bits of feedback
So far I've had 2 people email me and tell me how good the post was.
And 2 people emailed to tell me they hated it.
And that's the trouble in using humour in otherwise business type writing.
It's really difficult to get across the humour. What is funny to me, may not be even remotely funny to you.
So I guess the question is: Should we use humour in our writing at all?
I think yes. Otherwise it would be far too boring to read (let alone write). But, the humour needs to be softer with not such outrageous statements.
That way it can still be interesting to read without offending people.
I was back with the business students I spoke to the other day. Today I was judging part of their business studies' practical component.
Lots of the students came up and said how much they enjoyed the speech on Wednesday. And how funny it was.
One young lady I spoke with took me through her business idea - which was a fashion assistance concept. She said something to me like:
"Like that jacket you wore on Wednesday! Seriously, you have to get rid of it! This fashion idea would let you know of fashion disasters like that....."
Okay, then. Mark her down for a ZERO!! How's she like them apples??! F stands for FAILED!
Just kidding (no I'm not!).
I love that jacket
I love the sports jacket she was talking about (it's the jacket I'm wearing on the top right of this page. You can't see it real well, but it's a checked, light brown jacket).
But everyone else seems to hate it. Everyone in the office calls it my "Cardigan". A guy I play golf with asked me if I'd inherited it from my grandfather.
Anyway, back to what I was talking about.
Criticism and Praise - take it or leave it?
Everyone told me what a great speech it was. How it was the best they'd heard. The funniest.
But I always find it hard to judge praise.
A lot of people will tell you what they think you want to hear.
The motivation is nice of course. They want you to feel good and be pleased with yourself. And that's great.
But when you need 'real' reviews, it can be tricky to get the information you need to be a better speaker, a better businessperson, a better whatever.
Happiest moment of my life
My other favourite one is this question:
"What's been the happiest moment of your life, Brendon?"
My answer is always the same.
"Well, that's easy. When my first child was born...." I say with a sincere smile fixed to my face.
Ha! That's all I say now! HA. HA.
I make that crap up because it's what the person wants to hear!
Try the truth on for size, baby!!
Real moment # 1: Footy Grand Final. We'd creamed the other team and won by a big, big space. Back to the hotel after and drank our body weight in beer. Once we'd done that.....more beer!!
Real moment # 2: Footy game. 5 points down. 10 seconds to go. I've marked the ball which stops play. I'm 45 metres out on an acute angle. The siren goes. We need a goal (worth 6 points to win).
It's a tough goal to kick. Can I do it?
I go back. Calm. poised. Shaking inside. I trot in and kick. The ball, and I've never had this measured but I'm pretty sure, splits the exact centre of the goals. The goal umpire watches as the ball sails over his head deep into the crowd behind.
GOAL!! We win by 1 point. I''m the hero!! More beer...........
Moment # 3: Me. Bar. Beautiful woman walks in.............. And because this is a 'G' rated web site, that's all you're getting!
Now if my wife reads this, my top moments will suddenly change to:
Moment # 1: 1st child born
Moment # 2: 2nd child born
Moment # 3: 3rd child born
Moment # 4: When I first met you darling......
Are you out of your mind! I repeat, having a kid is lucky to rank in my top 10,000. It only narrowly beats the time I had my Wisdom Teeth removed!
Have a look at the facts
Get a kid who, for the next 20 years, is going to annoy me, spend my money, borrow my car, eat my food, and interrupt me when I'm trying to "get busy" with my own wife.
And don't even get me started about keeping me awake at night, vomiting breast milk on me, weeing on me when I'm kind enough to change its nappy...........I could go on and on. And I usually do. But there's not enough space with my web host for me to finish!
But the point of all this is this. People lie!!
As Jack Nicholson might say, "They think you can't handle the truth!"
And it's real hard to tell what's the truth and what's a lie.
So when anyone ever criticises you, take that on board. Because it's rare. If it's from some idiot who doesn't know what he's talking about, then dismiss it and don't give it another thought.
If it's from someone you respect, take a look at it and use it to improve yourself.
Now go find your dad. Ask him this question:
"Dad, you have to answer this question honestly. What has been the greatest moment of your life?"
If his answer doesn't contain the words "Beer", "Football" or "Women" - not necessarily in that order - then he's lying. He's telling a big fib!
Don't say I don't give you good information. Now go and ask.
Have a good weekend. I'm off to spend it with my beautiful wife and 3 gorgeous children.
Oh look. My nose is growing longer and longer...............
Mr Adventure Man - why Mr. Adventure Man is looking stupid in a funny hat
Mr Adventure Man - why Mr. Adventure Man is looking stupid in a funny hat
I'm thinking of changing my name to "Mr. Adventure Man". Seriously! I'll wear a cape, look very serious and, yep.....you guessed it, I'll wear my underwear on the outside!
Oh yeh, baby!
After camping, boating, swimming, running on the weekend, doing lots of business this week, lecturing business students, writing lots and much, much more (!) I went flying today.
Super Waco biplane
Jack and I took to the skies in a magnificent Super Waco, a reproduction of the classic 1935 biplane. An hour's flight in and around the Gold Coast taking in the great beaches, the magnificent hinterland and impressive Mt Warning - we flew around the peak so close you could almost reach out and touch it.
Mr. Adventure Man and Jack. Jack's the short one.
And although in my early days I trained to be a commercial pilot, it's been a while since I've been up in a light plane. And first time for an open cockpit.
Fantastic feeling.
Had a chat with the pilot
The pilot was a lovely fellow called Joe. We had a chat on how Joe came to be flying the Waco out of Gold Coast Airport.
After joining the Air Force at 15, Joe spent 12 years as a mechanic. From there it was work as a Flight Engineer. Then training as a Pilot. After 20 years with the Air Force, Joe took a job flying 747's for one of the world's big airline.
After 10 years of that, Joe settled into semi-retirement on the Gold Coast flying his beautiful Super Waco for fun and a few extra dollars.
The point of all that is this.
How many people today would wait out 12 years as a mechanic to get their shot at a dream - to be a pilot. And another few years as a Flight Engineer.
Not too many.
In these days of instant everything, perseverance is an admirable and increasingly rare quality.
Failing isn't not succeeding. Failing is giving up.
Keep going, keep pushing. Perseverance can make the difference.
How to find kids like Jack - kids who spend $ on camping gear
Howdy
After Jack bought all of his camping gear for his birthday, we just had to try it out. So off we went camping - out the back of nowhere to an old bush camp site.
10 pm middle of a Rain Forest, miles from nowhere.
2 excited boys. 1 still wearing his bush hat (must think the moon will get in his eyes??!). 2 nervous looking females - 1 was earlier spooked by a frog! Note the lantern and the torch in Laura's hand.
Being the good Scout he is, Jack has waterproof matches in his pocket in case they both fail. He also has his Swiss Army knife.
If you read the blog (Tuesday, September 28) about Jack's camping store adventures - he also bought a camping knife, knife sharpening stones and some rope after I wrote that.
The day after this photo was taken Jack went back to a camping store and bought extra tent pegs and a canteen to drink from.
Keeping on the camping store theme, how does a camping store get customers like Jack?
Some customers are better than others.
Why spend your precious marketing $ on a customer who'll come in once and spend $5 when, with a bit of targeting, you can get to kids like Jack who spend heaps, come back every week and are a source of referrals for you?
Here's 2 easy ways:
1. Make an offer to the local Scout Troop: donate gear, donate some money, offer the use of some trial gear, take an ad next to the Scout Hall. That would get to kids like Jack.
2. Make a deal with a camping place: you'll display their brochures if they display yours. Maybe get the camping grounds to provide a value added "Thanks for camping" pack that offers camping tips, free resources and special offers in your camping place. That would get to kids like Jack.
Not all customers are created equal. Business success is much surer if you find the 'best' customers.
The lucky winner of the book is Maciek Kus. It was 57 minutes between posting the blog and Maciek getting back to me. Congratulations Maciek! And thanks to all who responded.
BTW, Maciek's book is already on its way. I asked him if he wanted that book or another - he choose another.
How good is this Internet - a guy in Australia runs a quick and easy competition. A guy from Poland wins. Within 10 minutes the book has been ordered and paid for with a US company.
After spending a great weekend camping, hiking, fishing and boating with the family it was back to work on Monday. Amazing how quickly the week goes.
Writing reviews, public speaking, web sites going well
Other stuff I've done this week includes writing my first software review for a large 3rd party web site. That was hard work - testing out a bit of software and analysing its benefits for potential buyers.
I gave a speech to a group of business students today that seemed to go over okay. It's funny. Most people are terrified at the thought of public speaking, but I really enjoy it.
Once I get in the groove I love it. AND I scored a bottle of wine for my efforts. Gotta be happy with that!
Web site exploding with sales
The web site we just launched that I may have mentioned that is doing so well after just 12 weeks continues on its merry way. $12,000 in sales today. That's $4.4 million pa (and the site will only continue to grow).
The web site is in a small niche market and I ain't telling you what it is! I've been thrilled with the way our marketing of the site has gone. Everything has worked like a dream.
There has been so many different strategies that we've refined and implemented that I really do have to document them all down in some sort of order. Most are in my brain and that just keeps getting smaller with every beer I drink!
Want a good read? Buy this and you'll know why you did!
I've just re-read the great Paco Underhill book "Why we buy. The science of shopping". A brilliant look at the inner workings of why we buy.
This fascinating book is well worth a read.
And as your reward for reading this far, the first person who emails me and mention this post is the person I'll buy this book for and send it through. Delivered to your door - by Amazon.com if you live outside Australia, and by Australia Post if you do.
A mate of mine read the blog below and rang up to ask me why, if I'm advocating doing business, didn't I make the offer to this client. Why didn't I suggest to him what he should have suggested to me?
Good question.
And the answer is a little cynical combined with a touch of realism and commercial reality.
It's my role as the business owner to make a profit. Part of that is to ensure a great relationship with our clients. Which we have.
Do I want part payment, a profit share deal, or any of those things I mentioned?
Not at this time. My time is better spent doing full paying work for other clients. I could do the other thing but that wouldn't be doing the best thing for my business, which ultimately means I wouldn't be able to offer my clients the level of service and quality they've come to expect.
Reading back over that, it all sounds a bit tough. But there are tough decisions to make in business. And one of the hardest lessons to learn is this: Get the money in. Cashflow is King.
At the risk of sounding like an absolute tosser - or more like one than usual ;-) - I'd like to share this bit of Brendon philosophy about business.
I did a fair bit of work for my brother when I first landed in this city about 7 years ago. And he often says the main thing I taught him was that he has to be "doing business" all the time.
That sounds like a fairly vague term or some Life Coach Psycho Babble, but it's not.
Here's 2 examples of what I mean
# 1: Made a pitch to an existing client this week for a new and improved web site. We originally did the site for the client about 6 months ago and it has exceeded all expectations. It's gone brilliantly and he is already making a full time income from the site.
We discussed at length how we could move the site onto the next level in terms of quality, professionalism, automation, etc with a full estimate of the benefits to him.
The client believed everything we told him about the sort of income he could expect, because our previous forecasts were very low compared to the $ he is doing through the site now.
But the client said no to our proposal. He doesn't have the capital to invest.
# 2: We own and manage a web site with a very specific niche. There is about to be a lot of publicity (starting tonight) for a product that is targeted to our niche. I don't know what the product, how much it is or if it will actually help our market.
Now this is what doing business is about
With # 2: I'll be finding out all about the product as soon as possible. If it meets the need for my market (and I can buy it) I'll be offering the product to our database of customers and subscribers within an hour(approximately 35,000).
With # 1: Under capitalisation is the big problem for many businesses. But if you identify something that will make you good $ then there is always a way.
This client could have come back to me with a payment plan, a profit share deal, a deal for bartering services....any number of things.
That's 2 examples of doing things. You have to make things happen.
If you are in business you have to be out there doing business.
** Winner Web Design Library - Best Book of the Web Industry 2004 **
The Web Design Business Kit is a compilation of everything Brendon has ever done and every document he has ever used to build and grow his business!
It contains two huge ring-bound folders with over 700 letter size (8.5x11) pages, plus a CD-ROM which has everything you need to build a thriving Web Design Business...
To find out more about The Web Design Business Kit click here
