Archive for the ‘Home Business’ Category
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 |
Striking headline, sure … but it’s honest.
I came into blogging in late-2004 when it was still a little niche industry. Actually, it was this very blog that started it all. It wasn’t too long before I got heavily into meta blogging - which would be blogging about blogging, blogging about bloggers and generally blogging, blogging and some more blogging.
The echo chamber was still an infant but was growing fast.
2005 was pretty much a wasted, but fun-filled, year. It was spent totally immersed in the blogging scene. There was an innocence there but nothing stands still.
And as blogging moved from its growing pains and into adolescence, blogging about blogging started to put a drain on me. I lost my passion for it. I, like many others, spent way too many hours in our own little ’sphere probably to the detriment of our businesses, our jobs and our family lives. Something had to give.
Once I finished my short stint as a columnist at The Blog Herald, I had pretty much made the decision to step back from this scene - going cold turkey. And that’s what I did in 2007. And surprisingly, that very year was my most successful on a number of fronts. So I have no regrets.
But lately, via my rss reader, I’ve noticed that items are getting through to me that I just don’t want to know about.
How many times do I have to see another post about THAT New York Times article about blogging being a killer of a job! One, two, three …No! Eight times.
I didn’t unsubscribe from those blogs because I value their views. It was just a stark reminder of how much the echo chamber is still among us.
So be warned, all you wide-eyed newbie bloggers: if you’re not careful, the “blogosphere” can drag you in and chew you out and before you know it you’ve wasted month and months of your life.
In my planned mentoring program, I talk about such issues and how to deal with them. In fact, I’m doing a module on this very topic this week. I’ve just finished a 20 minute audio on the topic and later this week I’ll be doing a detailed screencast.
Okay, enough of the plug :-) just be careful not to get too attached to meta blogging to the detriment of your business.
Posted in Home Business | 2 Comments »
Monday, April 21st, 2008 |
Most people working in the Internet industry would have heard of Joel Comm. He is most famous as being the AdSense “Guru.”
Well that guru credibility took a mighty battering this past week and left many affiliates red-faced.
$9.95 for the 4th Edition of a top-selling ebook on AdSense was just too good to be true.
It was later revealed that once you purchased the book, you were automatically subscribed to his newsletter. Yeah, that’s not bad, but … he’s the bite: it’s a $29.95 a month newsletter!!!
And that’s when the ‘you know what’ hit the fan.
Negative Option Billing is Frowned Upon … And Rightly So!
Such negative option selling is rarely used online because it simply screams of sneakiness. Negative option being when you are subscribed or purchase something that you didn’t necessarily asked for - you are signed up without knowing and you were never given the option.
In other words, the normal way to make any up-sell would be to ask at the time of purchase.
What this means is that to get off it you have to actually request it after finding out after-the-fact … and possibly only finding out after the money starts coming out of your account. Pretty obvious to see the negative connotations in that!
Such a tactic is a big no-no on the internet, and I always advise my clients to steer clear of it.
Selling on the Internet is About Credibility
Which brings into question the credibility of Joel Comm, a seasoned internet marketer. I find it very hard to believe it was a mistake because it takes planning to implement such a marketing technique.
The problem lies in the fact that the option - or non-option to be precise - was buried deep in the long sales letter. I don’t know if this was a planned tactic or just poor marketing communications. If it was planned - lets say for publicity sakes - then Joel Comm might as well hang up his online boots.
Because in the end, Joel Comm takes a massive hit in credibility, the many affiliates promoting this are red-faced and have learned the valuable lesson to read first before pushing products and the whole internet marketing industry is embarrassed once again.
Joel Comm has gone into quick damage control with an apology and offer to send all proceeds to charity and so on but …
… as I will be telling my mentoring clients (how’s that for an announcement! - HomeOfficeMentor.com is coming soon) the real lesson to be learnt from this is to stay away from such tactics in the first place.
Posted in Home Business | 4 Comments »
Thursday, April 17th, 2008 |
Wendy Peirsall had a problem.
The problem was, in fact, that she had become too popular.
You might know Wendy as the founder of eMoms at Home.
Ever since launching the little blog called eMoms at Home, Wendy’s star has been growing at an amazing rate.
And leveraging that amazing growth she re-launched her blog into an “internet magazine” with a handful of new blogs or channels.
But there remained one small problem. The eMoms at Home name and brand simply outgrew what she was now doing. A change was in the making.
And so Sparkplugging was born. eMoms at Home is no more.
My first reaction to the new name was, well - Hmmm… And after a few days it’s still the same.
To be honest, I raised an eyebrow upon hearing about it. I know Wendy worked long and hard on finding a name, remembering that as well as finding a name she had to also make sure the domain was available.
Here’s why I have some reservations about the name:
Go out on the street and ask a hundred people what they associate the term “sparkplugging” with and I’ll bet you 99% will say cars.
To me that’s poor branding. It’s confusing branding. I see no association between “sparkplugging” and home business, or the home office. Yes, you can cleverly explain the meaning behind the name but if you have to do so in your header - as Wendy has done - then, I’m sorry to say, you’re behind the eight ball right from the start.
For my liking, the name does not come even close to what her site is all about. In fact, there was nothing wrong with eMoms at Home. It’s a niche in itself, and it was going strong.
With the new name, advertisers won’t have a clue. The lay person won’t have a clue. To me, it just doesn’t make sense.
The tagline is another one. “Thinking Big in the New Work-at-Home Generation.”
It’s simply too long, too clever and needs some fine tuning.
Although, I must say that it did spark in me an idea for a book proposal that’s been swimming around in my head for a while now that needed a working title (but that’s another post).
As for the new site, it’s still early days, so it’s hard to tell. But for my liking it’s a bit clunky and cluttered. But I’m sure Wendy and her team are fine tuning it on a daily basis.
I am drawn to the Lifestyle Channel she has put in place - as that is in my area of interest - so it’ll be good to see the sort of topics covered.
But back to Sparkplugging.
It is worth pondering why Wendy came to such a decision. Why the rush? Did she take on some advice from seasoned marketers and branding specialist? If you’re looking at this for the long term, why not take your time, seek advice and get it right.
I invite Wendy to an interview here to try and get some reasoning behind this new direction - as this is not personal - but something I’m standing back from and seeing with fresh eyes from a purely business perspective and someone that is heavily involved in the home business sector.
Sorry Wendy - but ‘Sparkplugging’, I just don’t get it.
~ ~ ~ ~
You can read the initial launch announcement and interview Darren Rowse recently conducted with Wendy over at ProBlogger…
Posted in Home Business | 5 Comments »
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 |
A quick post to let you guys know my guest post is up at Home Office Warrior.
The post is titled What is a Lifestyle Entrepreneur and is a two-parter - the second part will be out later this week.
Enjoy.
Posted in Home Business | 2 Comments »
Sunday, April 13th, 2008 |
I just thought I’d let everyone know what this coming week entails for me.
Twitter
I’ve caught the Twitter bug as of late, something I never thought I would say. Hence, I’m working on an in-depth look into Twitter (from the perspective of the home business owner) and will post it later on this week.
I’ve also noticed that there has been a surge of interest in Twitter in recent weeks. Lots of posts being written, especially from a business perspective. Lots of ideas out there. Catch my post later on this week (oh yeah, and you can follow me via Twitter if you’re into Twitter).
Guest Blogging
Did you know I have never done a guest post … yet? I had a writing gig for a while at The Blog Herald in ‘06 but have never done a guest post.
Well that’s about to change. Grant Griffiths from Home Office Warrior has invited me to do a guest post. I asked him if he had any requests or any direction he wanted me to go down. Nope, I’m to write whatever I want. :-)
I’m polishing up a nice piece for him on the topic of … ;-)
Re-Branding
Wendy Piersall has done a tremendous job over at eMoms at Home, turning it from a small hobby blog into a well-respected, multi-channel “internet home business magazine”.
Well because of her roaring success, she’s doing a total makeover of her site to move to the next level - and when I mean a makeover, I mean a major makeover!!! This week she will Rename, Rebrand and reBirth eMoms at Home.
As a big fan of what Wendy has achieved, I’m following all this with great expectations … and of course, wish her all the luck.
That’s my week in a nutshell - as well as my continuing behind-the-scenes work here on HomeOfficeVoice. You’ll notice the little graphic up top here. By weeks end, it should be rolled out and available to all.
Have a good week and remember … business success means little without the lifestyle you want.
Cheers,
Martin
Posted in Home Business | 6 Comments »
Thursday, April 10th, 2008 |
By now, you would no doubt have heard of the about-to-be-released book by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett.
Published by Wiley, the book, titled ProBlogger Book — Secrets for Blogging Your Way to a Six-Figure Income, is a 240-page paperback due to be released in May (a few short weeks).
Here’s how they describe the book at the Wiley website…
Blogging has become a popular and fascinating pastime for many, but more and more bloggers are finding it can also be an excellent source of direct or indirect income. Although the barriers to starting a blog are low, without expert guidance it is easy to get frustrated when success doesn’t match expectations. Written by the creator of the world’s #1 resource for making money with blogs, ProBlogger takes the reader from absolute beginner to earning money from or as a result of blogging. Through step by step practical lessons the reader will choose a blog topic, analyze the market, set up a blog, promote it and earn revenue.
Having read the first chapter (22 pages), I must say I was mightily impressed by the amount of information offered - heck, that chapter alone could easily sell as a $27 ebook online anytime.
Apart from generating the two bloggers enormous publicity and credibility (heck, there’s no real money to be made in publishing traditional books), this book will no doubt bring blogging closer to the mainstream. Expect a swathe of new blogs (and probably blog networks) popping up over the next 12 months.
With all this activity, I can see many little niches opening up for the lifestyle entrepreneur to take advantage of - more of that in future posts.
They have setup a special website for the book at ProBloggerBook.com
Following are the Table of Contents…
1. Blogging for Money.
2. Niche Blogging.
3. Setting Up Your Blog.
4. Blog Writing.
5. Blog Income and Earning Strategies.
6. Buying and Selling Blogs.
7. Blog Networks.
8. Blog Promotion and Marketing.
9. Secrets of Successful Blogs.
10. Creating Something Worthwhile.
Posted in Home Business | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 |
Last night I installed WordPress 2.5 for the first time. It does all that it’s supposed to do, it’s a little more polished looking but …
I’m not a fan of the user interface.
The menu system we’ve become so used to has been messed around with, names changes, split and placed into different areas.
You know the saying “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”.
I think this applies in this instance.
There was nothing wrong - and everything right - with the 2.3 version with an added plugin I had a beautiful drop-down menu navigation system.
I don’t know much - yet - about any new real feature changes but the new design layout and navigation structure is a disappointment.
Posted in Home Business | 1 Comment »