Entrepreneurship
Who Needs a Digital Coach? (I Do!)
Seth Godin piqued my interest (there’s a surprise) with his post about a shortage of digital coaches. Seth points out a need that a whole lot of people, myself included, have: Help getting more from the technology in which they’ve already invested.
We have an interesting discussion going about Apple, technology needs, and advertising to different types of computer users. Here’s another chance to look at how people use technology and how you can use that knowledge to create better advertsing for them.
As Seth tells it on his blog,
Here are three things that are true:
1.) Digital technology, especially computers and cell phones, can dramatically increase productivity.
2.) More and more users of digital technology are small firms or individuals.
3.) The vast majority of users of digital technology are totally lame in getting the most out of the investment of their time and money.
My guess is I’m not alone in how I use technology. I can set it up myself, and I do. I can figure out some stuff, and I do. But is there a better way to use this technology? You bet. If I had about 200 extra hours, I could go out and educate myself on every cool product, feature, new software, etc., and set it up to greatly increase my productivity. Here’s the only catch: I don’t have 200 hours.
I don’t have one hour.
One hour that takes me away from what really matters to me — researching marketing to women online, doing outstanding client work, being taken for my afternoon walk by my Lab — is one hour too many. Like many people, I would gladly trade time for money. I would gladly hire someone who has lost 200 hours of their life learning this stuff so they can set it up for me.
In his blog post, Seth is looking for the same person I am.
Here’s what I haven’t found: people who charge $100 an hour to hear what you do and how you do it and then show you how to do it better. People who organize data and put it in the right place. People who overhaul the way small groups use technology so they can use it dramatically better. People who use copilot to take over a PC and actually rearrange it so that it works better.
YES! Where is that person!? As luck would have it, the post links to a Squidoo page where people who provide just such a service let you know about themselves.
Last I checked, there were over 40 responses, but only one really got my attention. Here’s what it said:
“Your tools should fit YOUR life”
Now THAT’s great copywriting. (Sign me up!) Use words that your customers can relate to. In one sentence, they managed to explain exactly how I feel: Technology should work for me, not the other way around.
Here are some of my reactions to the other “digital coach” auditions:
“Web gurus help make sense of online technologies.” (I’m not interested in trying to make sense of technology. My love life, yes. Technology, no.)
“Simple easy to do lessons and tips.” (I don’t want lessons and tips. That’s why I’m hiring you!)
“Have you been seeking some hand-holding?” (Not since I was three.)
“Teaching digital literacy.” (Did you just call me illiterate?)
People who are not tech-savvy are not inherently stupid. It’s not that we don’t understand; it’s that we choose to spend our time doing other things that are more important to us. There’s an important distinction.
Don’t be condescending.
If you want to build solidarity with someone, look at their problem through their eyes. That’s why “your tools should fit YOUR life” is a very powerful message. You shouldn’t have to work your life around technology. Technology should work around you.
If you’re going after the do-it-yourselfers, some of those other lines would work. But if you’re going after the do-it-for-me crowd, try the “your tools should fit YOUR life” approach. (Trust me, it could win you a lot of business.)
Agree with them. THEY are not the problem.
[Editor’s Note: If you’re a fan of his work, take a moment to listen to our exclusive interview with Seth Godin, or download it by right-clicking here.]
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Written by:Holly Buchanan
How to Make a Billion Dollars in Your Underwear
A few months ago, we blogged about Markus Frind, a lone entrepreneur and founder of the popular dating site PlentyOfFish.com. On a panel interview with Guy Kawasaki (watch it here if you’ve got 30 minutes), Markus claimed that he was his only employee, and that he basically spends a couple hours each day maintaining the site — that’s it — in his underwear.
Fast forward to yesterday, when Read/Write Web’s Richard MacManus caught up with the entrepreneur, who’d just hired his first employee. Apparently, the site may now be worth a billion dollars — billions, maybe. (And hey, if Microsoft thinks Facebook’s worth $15 bills, why not?) Says MacManus:
Markus told me that per page view, Plentyoffish has 5-10 times the click through rate of Facebook. So by his calculations, POF’s 1.2 Billion page views per month is the same as 5-10 Billion Facebook page views per month. Facebook “only” generates 40 billion page views a month and yet it has a $15 Billion valuation. But the crux of Markus’ argument is that despite having about 33 times the monthly traffic of POF, Facebook’s poor click-through ads should bring the valuation models closer. Markus said that “over 40% of Facebook’s pageviews are image related, ads in bad positions and users just generally looking to waste time.” He said that “there are only a handful of sections on the site [Facebook] that will generate good click thru rates for advertisers.”
So getting down to nitty gritty metrics, Markus concluded that “Facebook is only able to generate 10 to 15 times as many clicks on ads as my site and it’s valued at 15 billion. Needless to say I’m watching ad supported business model valuations very closely.” What’s more, some of his direct competitors - e.g. Eharmony and match.com - are apparently valued in the billions.
Kind of amazing how a cheap-looking site with virtually no overhead, aside from server costs, can be worth billions.
Whether or not you believe in these fishy valuation schemes, it’s still pretty cool, isn’t it? Here’s a guy who’s only invested in the things his business requires. Oh, and he’s clearly more focused on ROI than his competitors.
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Written by:Robert Gorell
How to Grow 2,250% While Launching a New Online Business
Acceller (formerly BuyTelco) has been a reference client of ours for the past 4 years. In that time, we’ve been fortunate to see BuyTelco.com become one of America’s top resources to compare Cable, DSL and High-Speed Internet options. But today, we’re especially proud of Acceller because they’ve been named #54 on the “Inc. 500″ list, with 2,250% growth. (The Inc. 500 ranks top U.S. companies based on growth acceleration for the last few years.)
Acceller CEO Steve McKean is happy to point out that “the Inc. 500 list looks at 4 years of data, and that you can correlate Acceller’s work with Future Now to that growth.” While we do appreciate the compliment, I correlate their success to Steve’s vision as CEO; a relentless focus on execution, the customer experience, and commitment to ongoing improvement.
Their next step: start a new business unit.
While many CEO’s would be content with 2,250% growth, Steve, aware of changes in his industry, knew they had to innovate. Rather than reinvent BuyTelco — which is focused solely on converting ready-to-buy, internet-service-only customers — they created an entirely new experience and brand: Digital Landing.
How did they do it? How does a company capitalize on what it knows about its current business while there are so many unknowns about the new brand’s potential customers and their buying process?
1.Assemble an Investigative Task Force, consisting of people experienced with past/current products, new research, and conversion issues. Make sure you ask the right questions, keeping lessons learned from the former site in play.
2. Develop customer persona assumptions. Why assumptions? Digital Landing didn’t have any customers yet, so we had to make assumptions as to who their customers might be. The good news is that, once a site launches, you can test these assumptions and optimize accordingly.
3. Develop and refine the buy-flow. This is the conversion-related part. Since they were adding additional services — e.g., phone, video, HD — and bundles, we knew it would be complicated. We worked closely with them to make sure it would be as smooth as possible, but much more time was focused on the details — specific wording of calls to action, shopping cart usability, color choice, etc. — pre-launch. There’s still work to be done (read: optimization).
4. Plan content strategy using personas. By planning content through the eyes of our personas, we were able to match both the tone and types of content to their individual needs. While one needs, say, a video on how to install a flat panel TV, another wants to print an article on how to set up a home office.
5. Develop top-quality content. Don’t skimp on production quality. Look at all these resources for digital newbies. Or this custom internet speed test. They didn’t have to do that — which, of course, is exactly why they did have to do it.
6. Develop a launch plan. Work with everyone on the team — engineers, researchers, project manager, the analytics team, designers, copywriters — to coordinate the launch. If something can’t make the launch date, prioritize what needs to be fixed as soon as possible.
7. Do a “soft launch” ahead of time. It makes everyone feel good and allows you to fix what’s broken before creating mixed first impressions. Digital Landing officially “launches” late next month. Here it is today, flaws and all. Why? Because the first version was never meant to be perfect. Besides, a soft launch gives search engines spiders a chance to crawl and index the site.
8. Allow customer’s to interact. Open it up to a small-yet-vocal audience; GrokDotCom readers, for instance. Launch a little Pay-Per-Click traffic and see how it affects the priorities on your optimization list.
9. Measure, Listen, and Optimize. TEST your original assumptions. Figure out who you’re losing, where you’re losing, and adjust.
10. Stay cool. This isn’t childbirth, even if it does feel like it at times.
Join me in congratulating Steve and the rest of his phenomenal team at Acceller on the “soft launch” of Digital Landing. While broadband growth has driven a lot of his business, the marketplace is shifting. People want additional services, and Digital Landing is meant to help us get away from the marketing hype individual providers in order to make intelligent choices and get the best offers on high-speed internet, digital phone, video, and HDTV services.
Originally, the goal was to have the site “soft” launched by Labor Day. They beat that by a few days. As I’m sure you can see, there’s still plenty of tweaking to be done. But one of the biggest mistakes anyone can make when launching a new site is trying to make it perfect from the get go. Getting it perfect in your eyes means very little. Getting it perfect for your customers matters a lot.
One of the best pieces of advice my mentor gave me — and hopefully I can teach you — is “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing wrong.” It’s all about execution and allowing yourself to do it wrong quickly.
We’d love to have your fresh eyes check out Digital Landing. Go as far as you like, with or without placing an order, and share your feedback here.
Any suggestions to add to our list? Find any bugs?
We appreciate your help, as does Steve. He didn’t get on the Inc. 500 list by not listening carefully. 
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
A Half Dozen Business Choices
Every company has to make choices when it comes to how it markets and sells and, in some cases, who it is and what it sells.
In an e-mail exchange, Tom Grimes, a great and brilliant friend, shared with me what he’s thinking about in terms of business choices. Based on his list, here’s my own list of many of the high-level choices businesses typically make every day. It may help you make some more conscience choices of your own:
- Select or solicit?
- Tangible or intangible?
- Transaction or relationship?
- Speed or quality?
- Price or prestige?
- Lifestyle or utilitarian?
Click here for a further explanation and to read the rest of my column on ClickZ…
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
The Myth of The One Hour Meeting
We’re not big fans of meetings and neither is Jason of 37 Signals his post has received tons of comments on the the one hour meeting:
It’s no mystery that we’re meeting averse, but here’s another reason why we think meetings are toxic: There’s no such thing as the one-hour meeting.
If you’re going to schedule a meeting that lasts one hour and invite 10 people to attend then it’s a ten-hour meeting, not a one-hour meeting. You are trading 10 hours of productivity for one hour of meeting time. And it’s probably more like 15 hours since there are mental switching costs associated with stopping what you’re doing, going somewhere else to do something else, and then resuming what you were doing before.
Is it ever OK to trade 10-15 hours of productivity for one hour of meeting? Sometimes, sure, but it’s a heavy cost. Meetings are expensive when you think about the opportunity cost. On a pure cost basis, meetings can quickly become liabilities, not assets. So when you schedule that one-hour meeting for 10 people think about the 10-15 hours lost. Is it still worth it?
I’m sure a few of our readers also read the Signal vs. Noise blog but I wanted to ask those who don’t what they think. One of our friends likes doing 15 minute-and-under stand-up meetings. Is that better? Is it still worth having them? How do you keep meetings from eating up time, or do you? Do you have any suggestions about maximizing value and minimizing time of meetings?
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Written by:Jeffrey Eisenberg
Aren’t You My Competitor?
A GrokDotCom reader asked me the following question:
I was reading a blog entry done by a fellow blogger today about niche competition. I think he has a good reason for not sharing his thoughts about the niche that he is interested in.
Do you have any opinion about it? If you were to be at his position, would you do the same thing too?
For the better part of a decade, we’ve published hundreds of articles, several books–including 2 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers–trained thousands of people, and consulted with the goal of educating the entire marketplace (including competitors) about the value-of/how-to convert website visitors into sales, leads, subscribers, etc.
During this time, we’ve armed our subscribers, competitors, licensees and friends with powerful ideas on how to better use web analytics, design more effective landing pages, how to use Google Website Optimizer, what makes people buy, why people share things through word-of-mouth, how to make your pay-per-click and search engine marketing more effective, and even about our methodology for pulling all these things together: Persuasion Architecture™.
We do it happily! As our friend Sean D’Souza likes to say, “Give the ideas. Sell the system.”
The bottom line, dear reader, is that not only are ignorance and apathy our competitors, but everyone, including you, is a competitor. Everyone can help you with your business. The point is to share and learn from each other. Hopefully, by sharing your ideas, you’ve built a strong brand and reputation. By building-up others you will build yourself. A rising tide lifts all boats.
There are a couple of realities to face if you think you can keep your knowledge to yourself. First of all, even if you communicate it well, it doesn’t mean everyone completely understood, or could duplicate, it (whatever “it” may be). Secondly, everything people do online is being watched by someone else; eventually, someone will figure it out and share it. Don’t share trade secrets, if you can avoid it, and be certain that people are actually watching you.
The more you give, the more you get. If you gave away every idea you ever had, people would still step up to ask you to help them, or do it for them. The same can’t be said if you don’t share with them at all.
This is what I love about blogging and the culture of sharing that I hope it retains. The problem we still face is sorting through all the noise. My favorite line from the niche competition post:
You are like 99% of the other bloggers that keep the real juicy stuff to yourself and share the fluff as if it’s the juicy stuff.
This may be why there is already a blogging revolution going on. Have you shared with your community lately?
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Written by:Bryan Eisenberg
Guy Kawasaki on Making $5M/yr in Your Underwear…
It’s pretty nice work, if you can get it:
Markus Frind, the founder of PlentyOfFish.com is my new hero (James Hong of Hot or Not is a close second). Marcus spends about two hours a day in his underwear managing a free dating website that gets twelve billion page views a year. He is the only employee, and he only has one server. And by the way, he makes $5-6 million/year with Google ads.
I’ve moderated many panels in my time, and if I had to choose one that entrepreneurs should watch, this is it. If you’re one guy/gal or two guys/gals in a garage, it will push all the right buttons, and you’ll love it. However, if your plan is to raise several million dollars from venture capitalists and then hire five engineers, one VP of biz dev, one CTO, two testers, and a VP of marketing to ship a product in a year, you probably shouldn’t spend your time watching it.
I only watched the first 30 minutes of the Google video this AM, before I realized that 15 minutes of checking Bloglines had stretched well over an hour. I’ll be back later to watch the rest, and comment on the highlights. Will you?
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Written by:Howard Kaplan
