That's what makes it a monster.
In fact, when you look the monster in the eye, when you calmly and carefully inspect the actual monster, you discover that he's not so bad after all. It's just the shadow that's scary.
When in doubt, ignore the shadow.
Post written by Seth Godin and sourced from http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
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Post written by Seth Godin and sourced from http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
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I’ve been spending a lot of time this month updating the web page for my financial planning business. I’ve decided to move it completely across to WordPress using the Headway theme. This should help me with the SEO, and makes it a lot easier for me to add extra pages when I need to.
I’ve also been speaking with a couple of other financial planners about web sites. Usually the conversation goes something like this:
I then have to explain to them that it’s not that easy!
I’ve learnt a lot over the past three years about marketing on the internet. I’ve set up a few blogs, and worked hard to get my financial planning website ranking well for certain keywords. But getting traffic to your site is only one piece of the puzzle.
When people come to your site, what do you want them to do?
This comes back to the post title – What is the purpose of your web site? When I ask planners this question, many of them can’t answer it.
When it comes to my financial planning website, I know exactly what the purpose of the site is and what I want people to do.
The web site exists for two reasons:
So when people come to our website, our phone number is very prominently displayed on every page. At the end of every article is a call to action, suggesting that they call us to make an appointment. The website message is geared around providing information, but encouraging people to take the next step and contact me.
That’s Plan A. Plan B comes into play of people don’t want to pick up the phone at that point. If people don’t want to make an appointment, that’s fine, but I’d like to be able to keep in touch with them. To do this I have a sign-up box on every page for our Aweber email list. When people sign up we’ll send them regular, topical information that helps them learn more about our business. As they learn more about us, hopefully they’ll get in touch with us when they’re ready to get financial advice.
But the important thing is that the web site provides relevant content to our readers. And they can see that it’s updated regularly so they need to come back.
So when I speak with financial planners about their websites, I want to know what the purpose of their site is. A site built to generate leads could look very different to one that’s aimed at existing clients.
So what’s the purpose of your web site?
Are you blogging because you enjoy it, and just want to share information with people. Profit may not be your main goal.
On the other hand are you trying to make a living from blogging and marketing on the internet? The purpose of your web site may be quite different.
There’s no one ‘right’ answer – it’s whatever is right for you. The important thing is to take the time to decide on why your website exists.
Leave a comment below and let me know what the purpose of your website is.
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Post written by Allan Ward and sourced from http://bloggerbusinessplan.com
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If you work out on a weight machine that has a limit--where you have to push the bar until it stops--you're far more likely to to hit that limit than if you had left it to your own initiative to figure out how far is far enough.
People enjoy going to the max (or in the case of Spinal Tap, a little farther than max, to 11). But if there is no max, no limit, it's much easier to satisfy yourself and declare that you've done enough.
If you want your best users to do more, one way to do it is to announce the most they can do. While this may dissuade a few people from pushing ever farther, it will in fact motivate a large number of people to up their game.
"The maximum number of times a week you can dine here is three."
"The maximum bonus paid is $100k."
"The maximum number of tweets per day is 30."
Post written by Seth Godin and sourced from http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
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The only problems you have left are the perfect ones. The imperfect ones, the ones with a clearly evident solution, well, if they were important, you've solved them already.
It's the perfect problems that keep us stuck.
Perfect because they have constraints, unbendable constraints, constraints that keep us trapped. I hate my job, I need this job, there's no way to quit, to get a promotion or to get a new boss, no way to move, my family is in town, etc.
We're human, that's what we do--we erect boundaries, constraints we can't ease, and we get trapped.
Or perhaps it's your product or service or brand. Our factory is only organized to make X, but the market doesn't want X as much, or there is regulation, or a new competitor is now offering X at half the price and the board won't do anything, etc.
There's no way to solve the perfect problem because every solution involves breaking an unbreakable constraint.
And there's your solution.
The way to solve the perfect problem is to make it imperfect. Don't just bend one of the constraints, eliminate it. Shut down the factory. Walk away from the job. Change your product completely. Ignore the board.
If the only alternative is slow and painful failure, the way to get unstuck is to blow up a constraint, deal with the pain and then run forward. Fast.
Post written by Seth Godin and sourced from http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/
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