Today my dog Red was in the house sleeping. We had some milk so I filled
his bowl up with it. He loves milk but he saw me get something else out
the fridge. So instead of running to get his delicious milk he followed
me into my office. What I had was Chips Ahoy [...]
I had a passionate conversation with my cousin over this idea of "Internet
Marketing". He asked as many questions as I can answer accordingly.
One significant question he asked is about how to compete with 'so many people and websites' in this business. This is the first time I'm ever asked such a question since I started out, so I did my best to answer...and my answer must have so impressed his father who overheard it that he said, "Yes yes, this is also exactly what I told my staff too."
This uncle is in the construction business and he does not know much about the Internet as I do, but the point is if he agrees with what I said, then the answer must contain principles applicable in real life.
I do admit that over the years I learned, inculcated and mastered as best as I can what I know to be universal principles whether they can be applied online or off.
I told my cousin you don't have to 'compete' though everything is done in 'healthy competition'. He has 3 courses of action to participate online, or in any other environments which he so chooses:
1) Be Yourself. I personally think that one of the hardest skill in self-development is 'knowing thyself' and shaping your personal identity throughout the years of business evolution. This calls for immense foresight and smart work at sustainability. A great example is Microsoft. This corporation always outdoes its own products and services and therefore it is able to evolute itself. What a powerful lesson it imparts! You better like this company now.
The first paragraph of pg. 129 in Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People" quotes from Viktor Frankl: "Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."
2) Be Different. If someone stands at a particular spot in a room, and you can't stand at his spot because you can't shift him, are you going to kill yourself of an opportunity to stand elsewhere when it so happens that this very BIG room contains only the 2 of you?
If some of you reading this is losing heart right now over your own e-business, this is my encouragement to you: STAND FIRM, because you are already different. Continue to recognize and uphold the uniqueness of who YOU ARE and...*next point*
3) Be Better. The first case of betterment is to continually take corrective action and improve on your own existing results. If you commit a mistake, ADMIT IT. Admission always opens a new pathway for corrections and improvements. In past experience I know of people who did not allow friends, for all their genuine intentions, to help them simply because they refused to admit defeat!
The second case of betterment is to continually take corrective action and improve on other people's existing results. If you think you can do better than Jay Abraham, if you think you can do better than Yahoo.com, if you think you can do better than the website next door, if you think you can do better than where you are NOW, GO FOR IT.
How To Wipe Out The Competition With Just A 'Niche'
As I write this very special report, another idea that is "Niche Marketing" comes to mind. What is a niche really? What is your definition of a 'niche'? Is it any more different than the 3 above points, or is it on a spot marked 'X' right under your nose?
Currently one of the hottest area in Internet Marketing is "Niche Marketing" and now we have several trailblazing personalities to present you a whole lot of education out of it. You can 'jump' on the bandwagon as it was with people 'jumping' onto Internet Marketing but your decision, action and performance will not prove that you are in "Niche Marketing" unless you fully understand what the above 3 'Be' points really mean to you. Do you understand this very significant point?
Truth is, you may not need experience in "Niche Marketing" to do "Niche Marketing", but don't let other people expose you for this 'missing' fact!
Our site Internet Mastery Center is a niche. How is that possible? Because we dare to be different? Actually it's not as hard as it sounds. We are able to create this site simply because no one else did it in a similar fashion! And so it contains our own unique business angle.
Can you see in your mind's eye what is your own unique business angle? What can you 'BE' to be unique?
Here Is One Niche Identification Technique
As a toastmaster, I frequently visit clubs to participate and enjoy a meeting at exercising my public speaking skills. All you toastmasters out there will appreciate what I'm going to write next. At the beginning of each meeting, the language evaluator introduces a "Word Of The Day" with which s/he explains the meaning and significance of a chosen word and then encourages all attendees to use this word as frequently as possible in their speeches. It's fun and challenging because no one knows what the word is before the meeting but that's besides the point.
The point is this one single word is going to dictate how all attendees are strategizing to fit it in every time they are called upon to speak.
Similarly, all you need is just one PROFITABLE keyword to reap the full potential out of it and dictate an entire target market as your clients strategize to fit it in their overall business agenda!
It could be "MONEY, "SEX", "POWER", "PROFIT", "KEYWORD"..."keyword marketing", "car polishing cream", "decorative lighting", etc. Surely the first 5 words are no longer specialized niches (unless you don't see it that way). The best is what YOU know BEST, can do BEST, and make the BEST money out of it (and still be unique, that is).
You can start jotting down a list of words on paper and flip through your dictionary or thesaurus for assistance.
Our word is "Mastery"...what's yours?
Any ordinary folks who suddenly seemed to know how to answer all the above questions will find that they can dabble in Niche Marketing, Internet Marketing or any other 'Marketing' whatever...and they will be UNSTOPPABLE.
Therefore it gives me no more greater pleasure than to learn from you, Dear Master Marketer.
Thank you for being online.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
One significant question he asked is about how to compete with 'so many people and websites' in this business. This is the first time I'm ever asked such a question since I started out, so I did my best to answer...and my answer must have so impressed his father who overheard it that he said, "Yes yes, this is also exactly what I told my staff too."
This uncle is in the construction business and he does not know much about the Internet as I do, but the point is if he agrees with what I said, then the answer must contain principles applicable in real life.
I do admit that over the years I learned, inculcated and mastered as best as I can what I know to be universal principles whether they can be applied online or off.
I told my cousin you don't have to 'compete' though everything is done in 'healthy competition'. He has 3 courses of action to participate online, or in any other environments which he so chooses:
1) Be Yourself. I personally think that one of the hardest skill in self-development is 'knowing thyself' and shaping your personal identity throughout the years of business evolution. This calls for immense foresight and smart work at sustainability. A great example is Microsoft. This corporation always outdoes its own products and services and therefore it is able to evolute itself. What a powerful lesson it imparts! You better like this company now.
The first paragraph of pg. 129 in Stephen Covey's "The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People" quotes from Viktor Frankl: "Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of life is, but rather must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible."
2) Be Different. If someone stands at a particular spot in a room, and you can't stand at his spot because you can't shift him, are you going to kill yourself of an opportunity to stand elsewhere when it so happens that this very BIG room contains only the 2 of you?
If some of you reading this is losing heart right now over your own e-business, this is my encouragement to you: STAND FIRM, because you are already different. Continue to recognize and uphold the uniqueness of who YOU ARE and...*next point*
3) Be Better. The first case of betterment is to continually take corrective action and improve on your own existing results. If you commit a mistake, ADMIT IT. Admission always opens a new pathway for corrections and improvements. In past experience I know of people who did not allow friends, for all their genuine intentions, to help them simply because they refused to admit defeat!
The second case of betterment is to continually take corrective action and improve on other people's existing results. If you think you can do better than Jay Abraham, if you think you can do better than Yahoo.com, if you think you can do better than the website next door, if you think you can do better than where you are NOW, GO FOR IT.
How To Wipe Out The Competition With Just A 'Niche'
As I write this very special report, another idea that is "Niche Marketing" comes to mind. What is a niche really? What is your definition of a 'niche'? Is it any more different than the 3 above points, or is it on a spot marked 'X' right under your nose?
Currently one of the hottest area in Internet Marketing is "Niche Marketing" and now we have several trailblazing personalities to present you a whole lot of education out of it. You can 'jump' on the bandwagon as it was with people 'jumping' onto Internet Marketing but your decision, action and performance will not prove that you are in "Niche Marketing" unless you fully understand what the above 3 'Be' points really mean to you. Do you understand this very significant point?
Truth is, you may not need experience in "Niche Marketing" to do "Niche Marketing", but don't let other people expose you for this 'missing' fact!
Our site Internet Mastery Center is a niche. How is that possible? Because we dare to be different? Actually it's not as hard as it sounds. We are able to create this site simply because no one else did it in a similar fashion! And so it contains our own unique business angle.
Can you see in your mind's eye what is your own unique business angle? What can you 'BE' to be unique?
Here Is One Niche Identification Technique
As a toastmaster, I frequently visit clubs to participate and enjoy a meeting at exercising my public speaking skills. All you toastmasters out there will appreciate what I'm going to write next. At the beginning of each meeting, the language evaluator introduces a "Word Of The Day" with which s/he explains the meaning and significance of a chosen word and then encourages all attendees to use this word as frequently as possible in their speeches. It's fun and challenging because no one knows what the word is before the meeting but that's besides the point.
The point is this one single word is going to dictate how all attendees are strategizing to fit it in every time they are called upon to speak.
Similarly, all you need is just one PROFITABLE keyword to reap the full potential out of it and dictate an entire target market as your clients strategize to fit it in their overall business agenda!
It could be "MONEY, "SEX", "POWER", "PROFIT", "KEYWORD"..."keyword marketing", "car polishing cream", "decorative lighting", etc. Surely the first 5 words are no longer specialized niches (unless you don't see it that way). The best is what YOU know BEST, can do BEST, and make the BEST money out of it (and still be unique, that is).
You can start jotting down a list of words on paper and flip through your dictionary or thesaurus for assistance.
Our word is "Mastery"...what's yours?
Any ordinary folks who suddenly seemed to know how to answer all the above questions will find that they can dabble in Niche Marketing, Internet Marketing or any other 'Marketing' whatever...and they will be UNSTOPPABLE.
Therefore it gives me no more greater pleasure than to learn from you, Dear Master Marketer.
Thank you for being online.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
One of the biggest issues any business would face is its unique position in the
market. If you've not got a unique position, then you'll find that you've got
nowhere to "stand out" of the crowd throughout your promotion.
USPs were originally defined around the 40s as a position a company took to make them stand out from their competitors and make the customers of said competitors switch to them. It works as an understandable and tangible reason for people to buy your product, over that of other competing products, or as a benefit that your competitors don't offer.
For example, a bank in the UK can be promoting itself based on these propositions:
1) All call centers are in the UK—so no one is dealing with crackly lines, or broken English due to the call centers being based in a lower-cost area of the world.
2) It has no middlemen—which means there's no commissions to pay to anyone.
3) It has no shareholders, so it does not charge money for things that should be free.
That's the USP for that bank and it has resulted in many people switching to it.
The USP is anything that makes you 'different' from your peers. The only caveat to this is to make sure it's a clear difference—anything unclear, or too technical may not work, or be completely overlooked by your customers, thereby creating no reason for them to switch to you or choose you over your competitors.
Your unique sales position is a clearly defined statement of what your business stands for—what makes it special apart from others, and is your key to monopolizing a stake in your customers' mind. If you have not thought of a USP before, why not think through all the departments of your business e.g. finance, accounting, human resources, sales and marketing, pre- and post-sales support etc. and discover if there's anything outstanding enough to be worth telling your customers about it? Just don't be shy about promoting it.
Say, your USP could be your customer service position, whether it has to do with your response time, or your guarantee. But if your rivals are also competing on response time, one strategy is to flesh out a true instance or circumstance as a case study for prospects to refer to. By this method you're telling the story of how Mrs. Smith became very relieved that fast response time had saved her husband's life and therefore became a high-profile testimony for the hospital. People love inspiring stories because they are what make incidents sound special and unique. This would be your USP angle.
Ultimately, having a USP is nothing more than a matter of positioning perspectives. How do you want your business to be viewed by your prospects compared to others? It certainly helps that each individual's needs are already different. All you can do to the best of your abilities is to craft that position to match their needs, thereby gaining a competitive edge over other merchants/vendors. Thereafter, everything you do to reinforce the USP is to instill confidence in the prospects that your proposed solutions will work out. You will have to be fluid and flexible in your approach to reconcile with a wide range of different needs and yet align your corporate values with the common points shared by these needs in order to serve well and consistently in the business.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
USPs were originally defined around the 40s as a position a company took to make them stand out from their competitors and make the customers of said competitors switch to them. It works as an understandable and tangible reason for people to buy your product, over that of other competing products, or as a benefit that your competitors don't offer.
For example, a bank in the UK can be promoting itself based on these propositions:
1) All call centers are in the UK—so no one is dealing with crackly lines, or broken English due to the call centers being based in a lower-cost area of the world.
2) It has no middlemen—which means there's no commissions to pay to anyone.
3) It has no shareholders, so it does not charge money for things that should be free.
That's the USP for that bank and it has resulted in many people switching to it.
The USP is anything that makes you 'different' from your peers. The only caveat to this is to make sure it's a clear difference—anything unclear, or too technical may not work, or be completely overlooked by your customers, thereby creating no reason for them to switch to you or choose you over your competitors.
Your unique sales position is a clearly defined statement of what your business stands for—what makes it special apart from others, and is your key to monopolizing a stake in your customers' mind. If you have not thought of a USP before, why not think through all the departments of your business e.g. finance, accounting, human resources, sales and marketing, pre- and post-sales support etc. and discover if there's anything outstanding enough to be worth telling your customers about it? Just don't be shy about promoting it.
Say, your USP could be your customer service position, whether it has to do with your response time, or your guarantee. But if your rivals are also competing on response time, one strategy is to flesh out a true instance or circumstance as a case study for prospects to refer to. By this method you're telling the story of how Mrs. Smith became very relieved that fast response time had saved her husband's life and therefore became a high-profile testimony for the hospital. People love inspiring stories because they are what make incidents sound special and unique. This would be your USP angle.
Ultimately, having a USP is nothing more than a matter of positioning perspectives. How do you want your business to be viewed by your prospects compared to others? It certainly helps that each individual's needs are already different. All you can do to the best of your abilities is to craft that position to match their needs, thereby gaining a competitive edge over other merchants/vendors. Thereafter, everything you do to reinforce the USP is to instill confidence in the prospects that your proposed solutions will work out. You will have to be fluid and flexible in your approach to reconcile with a wide range of different needs and yet align your corporate values with the common points shared by these needs in order to serve well and consistently in the business.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
It is imperative you must know about this sooner or later. If you are into
e-zine publishing right now, this set of criteria will significantly enable you
to tweak your layout and presentation to suit your subscribers' taste in
general. It's brief but better than nothing.
Newsletter readers like:
Easy-to-skim designs
Short articles
Interesting subjects
Good visuals
Calendars
Bulleted Lists
Content telling how to make money/save time
Offers and Benefits
Newsletter readers DON'T like:
Intimidating pages
Disorganized information
Long, continuing articles
Overly frequent mailings
Irrelevant content
Impersonal tone
Receiving multiple copies
Chaotic page design
Too many pages
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
Newsletter readers like:
Easy-to-skim designs
Short articles
Interesting subjects
Good visuals
Calendars
Bulleted Lists
Content telling how to make money/save time
Offers and Benefits
Newsletter readers DON'T like:
Intimidating pages
Disorganized information
Long, continuing articles
Overly frequent mailings
Irrelevant content
Impersonal tone
Receiving multiple copies
Chaotic page design
Too many pages
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
Not strategies or techniques, but business models in a more general sense. To
give you an idea:
1. Affiliate type website.
2. Content website with Adsense.
3. Affiliate type + Adsense.
4. Your own product - membership site.
5. Your own product - ebook.
6. JV deals.
7. Your own product - software.
8. Directory type site.
9. Online newsletter.
10. Promote affiliate products using AdWords.
Bonus. Sell on Ebay + your own site.
The VERY top way is to create your OWN business and market it well. Find out what YOU are GOOD at, see if there is a niche, and start your business in that niche. Run it like a professional business with profit/loss evaluation, business plan, goals, etc. You can make a lot of money doing this, but most people won't take the time and effort to make it happen. Question is: Will you be the one to do it?
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
1. Affiliate type website.
2. Content website with Adsense.
3. Affiliate type + Adsense.
4. Your own product - membership site.
5. Your own product - ebook.
6. JV deals.
7. Your own product - software.
8. Directory type site.
9. Online newsletter.
10. Promote affiliate products using AdWords.
Bonus. Sell on Ebay + your own site.
The VERY top way is to create your OWN business and market it well. Find out what YOU are GOOD at, see if there is a niche, and start your business in that niche. Run it like a professional business with profit/loss evaluation, business plan, goals, etc. You can make a lot of money doing this, but most people won't take the time and effort to make it happen. Question is: Will you be the one to do it?
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
Running your own free newsletter or e-zine can bring massive benefits to your
website and profits. Did you know that newsletters are one of the most
important components for you to drive traffic to your website and build your
online business?
The popularity of newsletters is based on the thirst for information by information-hungry Internet surfers. The main reason people are online is because they want and need information and that is exactly what newsletters provide.
There are 3 major advantages of starting your own newsletter, no matter what product or service that you are offering. They are:
- Being able to maintain regular contact
- Being able to build a relationship with your subscribers
- Being able to offer new products and services
A newsletter allows you to keep the connection with your site visitors reminding them of how your product is suited for them.
The other, often overlooked, advantage of having a newsletter, is the income it can generate, not from selling your products and services or links to affiliate programs, but from selling advertising space in it.
You do need a medium to large subscriber base before other businesses will be interested in advertising, but this is not that hard to achieve, especially if it is regularly full of quality content. You can earn a few hundred, even thousands of dollars, every month just from ads if you play your cards rights.
Your online customers will eventually become your offline customers if they trust the information you regularly send them. Put simply, a newsletter is your way of helping people. If you help people online, eventually they will buy from you.
However, running your own newsletter involves a considerable amount of work. It is vital that you regularly write a lot of quality content before your next release. Ideally a newsletter should be sent out every week or at least every fortnight. This is not always easy. It definitely takes consistency and a keen eye for content.
You see, just as it is on your website...content is KING in your newsletters.
You need to offer valuable information, products, services, and more to keep your subscribers clicking on every newsletter that you send out.
In conclusion, running your own newsletter can have a very positive impact on your website and online business. If you dedicate yourself to keeping it up, you will find it well worth the effort. We have seen incredible success on the Internet that is most encouraging as we integrate work, play and home into a lifestyle, one that we're sure you have a desire for too. I wish the same for you.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
The popularity of newsletters is based on the thirst for information by information-hungry Internet surfers. The main reason people are online is because they want and need information and that is exactly what newsletters provide.
There are 3 major advantages of starting your own newsletter, no matter what product or service that you are offering. They are:
- Being able to maintain regular contact
- Being able to build a relationship with your subscribers
- Being able to offer new products and services
A newsletter allows you to keep the connection with your site visitors reminding them of how your product is suited for them.
The other, often overlooked, advantage of having a newsletter, is the income it can generate, not from selling your products and services or links to affiliate programs, but from selling advertising space in it.
You do need a medium to large subscriber base before other businesses will be interested in advertising, but this is not that hard to achieve, especially if it is regularly full of quality content. You can earn a few hundred, even thousands of dollars, every month just from ads if you play your cards rights.
Your online customers will eventually become your offline customers if they trust the information you regularly send them. Put simply, a newsletter is your way of helping people. If you help people online, eventually they will buy from you.
However, running your own newsletter involves a considerable amount of work. It is vital that you regularly write a lot of quality content before your next release. Ideally a newsletter should be sent out every week or at least every fortnight. This is not always easy. It definitely takes consistency and a keen eye for content.
You see, just as it is on your website...content is KING in your newsletters.
You need to offer valuable information, products, services, and more to keep your subscribers clicking on every newsletter that you send out.
In conclusion, running your own newsletter can have a very positive impact on your website and online business. If you dedicate yourself to keeping it up, you will find it well worth the effort. We have seen incredible success on the Internet that is most encouraging as we integrate work, play and home into a lifestyle, one that we're sure you have a desire for too. I wish the same for you.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
Auto Racing
Championship - The cars all
run to the same specification with the only variable being the body style and
also have a lot more power than grip which ensures exciting racing.
Do you recall the classic statement, "the only constant is change"? It is an
ever-present phenomenon, and by comprehension at the level of man's
intelligence, a tricky one, because change is in constant clash with timeless
principles, which by evidence of established patterns, do not change.
The winner is the one who knows how to maintain and manage the balance between change and timed, principle-based progress on a daily basis, which all boils down to the little decision-making that counts. One thing is for sure: the "final decision" is the only one that is expressed in action, which will translate into results. How you arrive to that decision ultimate hinges on the summation of your reaction to the present moment (a moment of change?) and your personal values (are they timeless?).
Interestingly, if you should look back at how you made your 'final' decisions in the past, you may find a pattern and a set of reasons for why you made your decisions in a certain way. Now, this is a part where you as a reader would be wondering what point I am driving at.
It's all in the habits.
Habit is the encompassing definition of the translation from "how you think" to "what you do". It is incredible that general statistics point to a real fact that 80% of businesses do not last over 2 years, but at a personal level, people don't seem to realize larger implications and consequences in the scheme of things even as they drudge through the motions of daily work.
Some things never change, particularly knowledge at grassroots level. An effective habit grounded well is knowledge applied from grassroots level onwards. In business, how many people know how to increase leads, build a database, convert them into customers, develop relationships with them, treat them right, follow-up and mold them into repeat customers? But this is the foundation for future profits, no matter how you work your business and how often you change your methodologies or habits.
It is not easy for people to bear principles in mind while being adaptable to changing situations, but no matter how vague the truth is, it is that "the root of all things keeps them in a firm position". Therefore one can be down but never out. Setbacks are temporary only when they don't displace you completely. Yes, you can solve them with a tweak and a change.
On the other hand, the need for a change can make one uncomfortable depending on its scale. Ultimately, think through this: if your business is not doing as well as it should for quite some time, what decisions have you made and actions implemented to elevate it from your current situation, so that it won't be the same or even fall towards failing tomorrow, next week and next month? Strange but true, as long as bad times continue, today is the best time for you to reflect, take stock of your business and re-strategize for the better. If you have not done so, do not procrastinate. If you feel stuck in a quagmire, I would like you to be fully aware that your habits of yesterday produced the results and outcome of today, and whatever you do today, you will be tomorrow. This is an irrevocable and natural law!
If you do not change, change will conquer you! Being smart at conquering change is all about being creative and inventive at doing things in a different way, not doing completely different things, but the primary purpose is the same: to survive! No business can ultimately be a success if it is unable to survive. Every business needs to know what changes are occurring within its environment and will be in the future to effect a corresponding change within the company. When right and wrong decisions are separated by a fine line, they must be made without regrets after careful evaluations of the best actions that will steer the enterprise in the preferred course. Awareness and experience through the rough times can only help to sharpen your survival instincts for better days in the future regardless of any unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances. If there's anything good that came out of setbacks, it is that you have grown to respond against complacency and proactively take charge of your life with new ways, new habits and new solutions.
Embracing a readiness for proactive self-change is actually a catalyst for spotting and working out opportunities, which is essentially an act of stepping yourself up to the next level. Setbacks and problems are everywhere waiting for someone to solve and profit from them. If only you have talked to enough people and opened your eyes wide enough, you would have seen that the hotel, airline, retail, tourism and F&B industries, among hundreds of others, are in dire need of help. Every other day, people are looking forward to the next savior who can propose a solution—be it sales and marketing, customer retention, loyalty and affiliation schemes, products and services, technology optimization etc.—that makes them say, "Bingo!"
So for this article, I touched on 3 major issues: embracing the need for change, considering the impact of habits and laying the foundation of principles. He who can work within the ebb and flow of these 3 issues will be enriched with professional experiences. It is with experiences and through awareness of these experiences that wisdom can be cultivated, and with wisdom comes understanding, pertaining to the nature of a problem, in order to arrive at an appropriate solution through creativity and innovation, endorsed by all.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
The winner is the one who knows how to maintain and manage the balance between change and timed, principle-based progress on a daily basis, which all boils down to the little decision-making that counts. One thing is for sure: the "final decision" is the only one that is expressed in action, which will translate into results. How you arrive to that decision ultimate hinges on the summation of your reaction to the present moment (a moment of change?) and your personal values (are they timeless?).
Interestingly, if you should look back at how you made your 'final' decisions in the past, you may find a pattern and a set of reasons for why you made your decisions in a certain way. Now, this is a part where you as a reader would be wondering what point I am driving at.
It's all in the habits.
Habit is the encompassing definition of the translation from "how you think" to "what you do". It is incredible that general statistics point to a real fact that 80% of businesses do not last over 2 years, but at a personal level, people don't seem to realize larger implications and consequences in the scheme of things even as they drudge through the motions of daily work.
Some things never change, particularly knowledge at grassroots level. An effective habit grounded well is knowledge applied from grassroots level onwards. In business, how many people know how to increase leads, build a database, convert them into customers, develop relationships with them, treat them right, follow-up and mold them into repeat customers? But this is the foundation for future profits, no matter how you work your business and how often you change your methodologies or habits.
It is not easy for people to bear principles in mind while being adaptable to changing situations, but no matter how vague the truth is, it is that "the root of all things keeps them in a firm position". Therefore one can be down but never out. Setbacks are temporary only when they don't displace you completely. Yes, you can solve them with a tweak and a change.
On the other hand, the need for a change can make one uncomfortable depending on its scale. Ultimately, think through this: if your business is not doing as well as it should for quite some time, what decisions have you made and actions implemented to elevate it from your current situation, so that it won't be the same or even fall towards failing tomorrow, next week and next month? Strange but true, as long as bad times continue, today is the best time for you to reflect, take stock of your business and re-strategize for the better. If you have not done so, do not procrastinate. If you feel stuck in a quagmire, I would like you to be fully aware that your habits of yesterday produced the results and outcome of today, and whatever you do today, you will be tomorrow. This is an irrevocable and natural law!
If you do not change, change will conquer you! Being smart at conquering change is all about being creative and inventive at doing things in a different way, not doing completely different things, but the primary purpose is the same: to survive! No business can ultimately be a success if it is unable to survive. Every business needs to know what changes are occurring within its environment and will be in the future to effect a corresponding change within the company. When right and wrong decisions are separated by a fine line, they must be made without regrets after careful evaluations of the best actions that will steer the enterprise in the preferred course. Awareness and experience through the rough times can only help to sharpen your survival instincts for better days in the future regardless of any unforeseen and unfortunate circumstances. If there's anything good that came out of setbacks, it is that you have grown to respond against complacency and proactively take charge of your life with new ways, new habits and new solutions.
Embracing a readiness for proactive self-change is actually a catalyst for spotting and working out opportunities, which is essentially an act of stepping yourself up to the next level. Setbacks and problems are everywhere waiting for someone to solve and profit from them. If only you have talked to enough people and opened your eyes wide enough, you would have seen that the hotel, airline, retail, tourism and F&B industries, among hundreds of others, are in dire need of help. Every other day, people are looking forward to the next savior who can propose a solution—be it sales and marketing, customer retention, loyalty and affiliation schemes, products and services, technology optimization etc.—that makes them say, "Bingo!"
So for this article, I touched on 3 major issues: embracing the need for change, considering the impact of habits and laying the foundation of principles. He who can work within the ebb and flow of these 3 issues will be enriched with professional experiences. It is with experiences and through awareness of these experiences that wisdom can be cultivated, and with wisdom comes understanding, pertaining to the nature of a problem, in order to arrive at an appropriate solution through creativity and innovation, endorsed by all.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
If you've reached the point of exhaustion trying to keep up with answering the
mountain of e-mails that threatens to bury you alive every single day, you're
ready to learn about autoresponders.
The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their e-mail inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to work continual 24-hour shifts, or hire enough people to constantly monitor incoming e-mails (while they're eating up your revenue), you have a problem. The good news is an autoresponder is an inexpensive—or even free—method of quickly responding to e-mails. What these programs do is automatically respond to incoming e-mails as soon as they are received.
E-mails are essential to your business for many different reasons. Most importantly, these invisible e-mail voices give you their feedback about your website—for free! However, if you spend all your working hours answering these e-mails, how are you supposed to run your business?
The answer is simple: use autoresponders. Autoresponders are programs that automatically respond to your e-mails without you so much as having to click on your mouse.
There are a number of good reasons why you need an autoresponder besides just answering your e-mail. For example, autoresponders can be used if you need a way to send information about your services or products, price lists, or if there are repeated questions asked across large numbers of e-mails. Maybe you want to offer your site visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as advice or relevant articles. All of this can be handled by an autoresponder. Additionally, you can advertise your business and then build stable relationships with your customers by using autoresponders.
Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with your e-mail program to a specialized script that runs on your web hosting company's server. This kind of script may use a web page form or simply operate with your e-mail account. This kind of script is programmed to send out a standardized message whenever an e-mail is received. The message is sent to a particular script or e-mail address.
Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out standardized messages. They can send out an unlimited number of follow-up messages sent at predetermined interval of time. For example, you can set your autoresponder to send out a new message every day for as long a period as you desire.
There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free of charge. Your website hosting company often provides autoresponders as a free service. If this is not the case with your web hosting company, there are numerous companies who offer this service for a small fee, or free of charge, providing you attach an advertisement for their company to your e-mails.
To personalize your autoresponder messages, you can attach a signature. Signatures in this case are much like business cards. You can include your name, company, all your contact numbers and addresses, and a brief message.
It's a good idea to attach a signature to every e-mail that is sent out. This works as a repeated reminder of your business identity every time a customer sees it. The more they look at your signature, the more likely your company will spring to mind when your particular service or product is needed.
You can create a standardized signature that every employee in your business uses, or you can go wild, and let every staff member create their own personal signature. Of course, like everything in life, there are some rules and guidelines to creating a personal signature.
Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines of text, with no more than 70 characters in a single line. Make sure that your e-mail program does not cut off your text! The content should include your name, your company name, your e-mail address, fax number, and any other contact details, such as 800 numbers. Lastly, always include a short personal message about your company. It should be a subtle sell of your services or your products, and possibly your company's reliability and longevity.
Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create courses that you can then offer your site visitors for free. You must choose a topic in which you are an expert and that precisely targets your potential customers.
Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into a number of different sub-topics. Then offer your site visitor a free 10 or 15 day course, each day offering a different sub-topic. The first topic should always be a welcome message to your site visitor and an explanation about what is to follow. Your explanation should be enticing, getting the point across that you are offering free, quality information that your target audience will find of great value.
With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the topic title, information about your company and its services or products. At the end, include a few blurbs about the next lesson to entice the subscriber to continue on.
Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable information, and leaves the visitor lusting to know more. Otherwise, you may lose them in the very beginning.
Of course, you have to write up your course before you can offer it. Once you have done this, and gone over the material carefully, employing a professional writer or editor if necessary, you must transfer your text to your autoresponder.
There are a number of quality autoresponders you can try out for a free or low-priced trial. Just go to Google and search 'autoresponders', then sign-up for your chosen autoresponder. Once you do, you will receive instructions as to how to set it up and transfer your text.
E-mail is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and it is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing your e-mail address carefully. Your website should contain different e-mail addresses for different contact requests. For example, use info@yourdomain.com for information requests, or sales@yourdomain.com for questions about sales. It's a good idea to set up one for the owner, such as president@yourdomain.com. This presents your company in a personal, approachable light and insures that direct contact is provided.
Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing tool, allowing you to make contact with thousands of potential customers. This is an invaluable asset considering how many potential customers you usually have contact with before you make an actual sale. Essentially, an autoresponder allows you to automate part of your marketing campaign.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
The bad news is that people expect prompt replies to their e-mail inquiries. However, unless you can figure out how to work continual 24-hour shifts, or hire enough people to constantly monitor incoming e-mails (while they're eating up your revenue), you have a problem. The good news is an autoresponder is an inexpensive—or even free—method of quickly responding to e-mails. What these programs do is automatically respond to incoming e-mails as soon as they are received.
E-mails are essential to your business for many different reasons. Most importantly, these invisible e-mail voices give you their feedback about your website—for free! However, if you spend all your working hours answering these e-mails, how are you supposed to run your business?
The answer is simple: use autoresponders. Autoresponders are programs that automatically respond to your e-mails without you so much as having to click on your mouse.
There are a number of good reasons why you need an autoresponder besides just answering your e-mail. For example, autoresponders can be used if you need a way to send information about your services or products, price lists, or if there are repeated questions asked across large numbers of e-mails. Maybe you want to offer your site visitors a special bonus of some kind, such as advice or relevant articles. All of this can be handled by an autoresponder. Additionally, you can advertise your business and then build stable relationships with your customers by using autoresponders.
Autoresponder programs vary from software that runs with your e-mail program to a specialized script that runs on your web hosting company's server. This kind of script may use a web page form or simply operate with your e-mail account. This kind of script is programmed to send out a standardized message whenever an e-mail is received. The message is sent to a particular script or e-mail address.
Some autoresponders can do more than simply send out standardized messages. They can send out an unlimited number of follow-up messages sent at predetermined interval of time. For example, you can set your autoresponder to send out a new message every day for as long a period as you desire.
There are numerous companies who offer autoresponders free of charge. Your website hosting company often provides autoresponders as a free service. If this is not the case with your web hosting company, there are numerous companies who offer this service for a small fee, or free of charge, providing you attach an advertisement for their company to your e-mails.
To personalize your autoresponder messages, you can attach a signature. Signatures in this case are much like business cards. You can include your name, company, all your contact numbers and addresses, and a brief message.
It's a good idea to attach a signature to every e-mail that is sent out. This works as a repeated reminder of your business identity every time a customer sees it. The more they look at your signature, the more likely your company will spring to mind when your particular service or product is needed.
You can create a standardized signature that every employee in your business uses, or you can go wild, and let every staff member create their own personal signature. Of course, like everything in life, there are some rules and guidelines to creating a personal signature.
Keep the length of your signature between four to six lines of text, with no more than 70 characters in a single line. Make sure that your e-mail program does not cut off your text! The content should include your name, your company name, your e-mail address, fax number, and any other contact details, such as 800 numbers. Lastly, always include a short personal message about your company. It should be a subtle sell of your services or your products, and possibly your company's reliability and longevity.
Another specialized use of autoresponders is to create courses that you can then offer your site visitors for free. You must choose a topic in which you are an expert and that precisely targets your potential customers.
Once you have carefully chosen your subject, divide it into a number of different sub-topics. Then offer your site visitor a free 10 or 15 day course, each day offering a different sub-topic. The first topic should always be a welcome message to your site visitor and an explanation about what is to follow. Your explanation should be enticing, getting the point across that you are offering free, quality information that your target audience will find of great value.
With every lesson, include the number of the lesson, the topic title, information about your company and its services or products. At the end, include a few blurbs about the next lesson to entice the subscriber to continue on.
Make sure each topic is packed with essential and valuable information, and leaves the visitor lusting to know more. Otherwise, you may lose them in the very beginning.
Of course, you have to write up your course before you can offer it. Once you have done this, and gone over the material carefully, employing a professional writer or editor if necessary, you must transfer your text to your autoresponder.
There are a number of quality autoresponders you can try out for a free or low-priced trial. Just go to Google and search 'autoresponders', then sign-up for your chosen autoresponder. Once you do, you will receive instructions as to how to set it up and transfer your text.
E-mail is an excellent marketing tool; it is inexpensive and it is fast. Use it to advertise your business by choosing your e-mail address carefully. Your website should contain different e-mail addresses for different contact requests. For example, use info@yourdomain.com for information requests, or sales@yourdomain.com for questions about sales. It's a good idea to set up one for the owner, such as president@yourdomain.com. This presents your company in a personal, approachable light and insures that direct contact is provided.
Autoresponders are an effective and powerful marketing tool, allowing you to make contact with thousands of potential customers. This is an invaluable asset considering how many potential customers you usually have contact with before you make an actual sale. Essentially, an autoresponder allows you to automate part of your marketing campaign.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
"To go from that legal type of setting to the basketball court in one day
requires amazing concentration," Lakers forward Rick Fox said. "And Kobe is not
only doing it, but he's growing as a player at the same time—if that's
possible."
Back when Kobe was fighting against a charge of felony sexual assault in 2003, at the time of the report by Sports Illustrated, Kobe averaged 25.2 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.5 assists since the All-Stars break, each number pushing the limits of his career marks.
It's not just the hours of consistent practice he put in. His greatest attribute (?) is an almost sociopathic focus that also alienates his teammates and may be the cause of his rift with O'Neal.
Like what Rick Fox said, Kobe's ability to tune in and out and between 2 very different environments like the Court of Justice and the basketball court is forcing him too deep into living in his own self-made world.
Actually it is a very familiar thing to some of us. Have you, in the midst of doing a top-priority task, got frustrated and shouted, "Don't disturb me!"? You may not have this personality trait, but some people find it easy to become self-absorbed and withdraw yourself into ignoring the kids, the kettle boiling etc.
Would you believe this 'amazing concentration' can be learned? This is what you do. Find a good quiet time and soundproof your room (close the windows and door)...all except for a rhythmic sound, e.g. the ticking of a clock.
Sit still, close your eyes and get yourself in tune with the rhythm. When you are ready, start to count along with the rhythm, all the ticks so to speak. The question is when the clock ticks for 60 seconds, did you count at 59 or 61? If you are seriously concentrating, there shouldn't be room for errors, period.
Next, you can fix your eyes on a particular pattern anywhere in your room down to a dot, and really concentrate on that spot while you count up to 60. After 60 seconds, are you sure you are still staring at the same spot? Or have you become groggy?
Now you think you are all right at 60 seconds, extend your test to 2 minutes and more. Some people cannot stand doing this kind of "crazy stuff", yet it does help those who get easily distracted. Out of the 5 senses, the senses of sight and sound are through which we receive our inputs from the environment the most, so they are to be trained.
Even when you have a headache, employing this kind of 'sociopathic' concentration and attitude can help you to get a job done. Seriously, why would you not take a rest? A self-development coach we know said, "You will yourself to fix your concentration into the moment despite outside influences because you acknowledge 100% responsibility for that moment."
Internet marketers don't stay up late at 4, 5 am because they are passionate, nor do they need to drink coffee. If there is a thing they must do to finish it, and on time, they will snap themselves into wakefulness in the name of professionalism.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
Back when Kobe was fighting against a charge of felony sexual assault in 2003, at the time of the report by Sports Illustrated, Kobe averaged 25.2 points, 7.4 rebounds and 7.5 assists since the All-Stars break, each number pushing the limits of his career marks.
It's not just the hours of consistent practice he put in. His greatest attribute (?) is an almost sociopathic focus that also alienates his teammates and may be the cause of his rift with O'Neal.
Like what Rick Fox said, Kobe's ability to tune in and out and between 2 very different environments like the Court of Justice and the basketball court is forcing him too deep into living in his own self-made world.
Actually it is a very familiar thing to some of us. Have you, in the midst of doing a top-priority task, got frustrated and shouted, "Don't disturb me!"? You may not have this personality trait, but some people find it easy to become self-absorbed and withdraw yourself into ignoring the kids, the kettle boiling etc.
Would you believe this 'amazing concentration' can be learned? This is what you do. Find a good quiet time and soundproof your room (close the windows and door)...all except for a rhythmic sound, e.g. the ticking of a clock.
Sit still, close your eyes and get yourself in tune with the rhythm. When you are ready, start to count along with the rhythm, all the ticks so to speak. The question is when the clock ticks for 60 seconds, did you count at 59 or 61? If you are seriously concentrating, there shouldn't be room for errors, period.
Next, you can fix your eyes on a particular pattern anywhere in your room down to a dot, and really concentrate on that spot while you count up to 60. After 60 seconds, are you sure you are still staring at the same spot? Or have you become groggy?
Now you think you are all right at 60 seconds, extend your test to 2 minutes and more. Some people cannot stand doing this kind of "crazy stuff", yet it does help those who get easily distracted. Out of the 5 senses, the senses of sight and sound are through which we receive our inputs from the environment the most, so they are to be trained.
Even when you have a headache, employing this kind of 'sociopathic' concentration and attitude can help you to get a job done. Seriously, why would you not take a rest? A self-development coach we know said, "You will yourself to fix your concentration into the moment despite outside influences because you acknowledge 100% responsibility for that moment."
Internet marketers don't stay up late at 4, 5 am because they are passionate, nor do they need to drink coffee. If there is a thing they must do to finish it, and on time, they will snap themselves into wakefulness in the name of professionalism.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
In the world of 21st century, it is no longer surprising to find that most
business had already establishes a web presence to support their
brick-and-mortar businesses. There are many advantages of establishing a web
presence on the Internet such as selling globally to prospective customers and
disseminating information to the public.
Most business owners would have already understood the importance of a web presence to their businesses. What most of them had failed to understand is that the domain name in their websites can contribute significantly to their online marketing strategy.
First, we look at a few rules of a good domain name. Most would agree that a good domain name should:
1) be able to describe your business when people first look it.
2) include hyphen in between the words to make it easier to read.
3) have an appropriate .com, .net, .biz, .info, .org to reflect the nature of the business.
What I differ in opinion is that a long domain name can be as effective as a short domain name depending on the context where the domain name is used. Many people would probably disagree with me on this point as they believe that a short domain name is easier to remember, but short domain names are easily imaginable and would have already been snapped up before you know it.
Still, when the context is right, having a catchy long domain name such as http://www.dont-miss-a-thing.com or http://www.once-in-a-lifetime.com definitely helps to draw attention to your business rather than promoting your website name like http://www.yourcompanyname.com, which is a usual practice, but remember this: customers don't care much about your company name or even your name until they can find the solution to their needs. When people reach http://www.dont-miss-a-thing.com or http://www.once-in-a-lifetime.com, you are already communicating the meaning of a message before driving them to the appropriate web page. That's why context is so important in aiding keyword research, and having the right keywords in your domain name for increasing appeal.
Thus, depending on the context where the domain name is used, a domain name can actually help to make or break your overall marketing performance.
On the other hand, buying expired or unavailable domains is a smart move. These are truly underrated traffic sources. It's like people going to a shop when it has already closed down and they suddenly teleport (redirect page) to your shop. Once you bought it, make sure the web host company doesn't own it (YOU own it) and you can always transfer the domain to a cheaper host. Do a search for 'purchase expired domains' and you get good leads.
People going to an invalid hair gel site are not going to buy an e-book on viral marketing, so you must buy domains with the right keywords related to your business.
And of course, those cyber-squatters who make a living out of buying and selling domain names (read: GOOD keywords) are playing a different ball game altogether.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
Most business owners would have already understood the importance of a web presence to their businesses. What most of them had failed to understand is that the domain name in their websites can contribute significantly to their online marketing strategy.
First, we look at a few rules of a good domain name. Most would agree that a good domain name should:
1) be able to describe your business when people first look it.
2) include hyphen in between the words to make it easier to read.
3) have an appropriate .com, .net, .biz, .info, .org to reflect the nature of the business.
What I differ in opinion is that a long domain name can be as effective as a short domain name depending on the context where the domain name is used. Many people would probably disagree with me on this point as they believe that a short domain name is easier to remember, but short domain names are easily imaginable and would have already been snapped up before you know it.
Still, when the context is right, having a catchy long domain name such as http://www.dont-miss-a-thing.com or http://www.once-in-a-lifetime.com definitely helps to draw attention to your business rather than promoting your website name like http://www.yourcompanyname.com, which is a usual practice, but remember this: customers don't care much about your company name or even your name until they can find the solution to their needs. When people reach http://www.dont-miss-a-thing.com or http://www.once-in-a-lifetime.com, you are already communicating the meaning of a message before driving them to the appropriate web page. That's why context is so important in aiding keyword research, and having the right keywords in your domain name for increasing appeal.
Thus, depending on the context where the domain name is used, a domain name can actually help to make or break your overall marketing performance.
On the other hand, buying expired or unavailable domains is a smart move. These are truly underrated traffic sources. It's like people going to a shop when it has already closed down and they suddenly teleport (redirect page) to your shop. Once you bought it, make sure the web host company doesn't own it (YOU own it) and you can always transfer the domain to a cheaper host. Do a search for 'purchase expired domains' and you get good leads.
People going to an invalid hair gel site are not going to buy an e-book on viral marketing, so you must buy domains with the right keywords related to your business.
And of course, those cyber-squatters who make a living out of buying and selling domain names (read: GOOD keywords) are playing a different ball game altogether.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
In English idiom, "2 left feet" refers to an inept dancer and generally, a
clumsy person. Putting this meaning aside, I wish I had 2 left feet so that I
don't have to worry whether to go left or right, so I'll just stick to left and
let Life happens as it always does, and if I walk left long enough, maybe
enough people will start to question, "Does this guy ever turn right?"
Regardless of what 'success' means to you, for everyone reading this, it is a plus, not a minus. Success is a profitable endeavour. No intelligent people on earth would insist on walking from circumstance to circumstance getting pulled down all the time and still declare themselves a 'success' if that's fine with them. Well, it's fine with them, but I call it 'stubbornness'.
Success is not hocus-pocus; it's all about FOCUS. Just how many people had faltered in time past, thought twice and diverted when success was just a block away or around the corner. Consider the total revenue (in US$ billions) amassed by Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola. Pepsi bought over Taco Bell, KFC, Domino Pizza and owns a range of soft drinks like 7-Up, Miranda and others, to name just a few.
Come to think of it, so many 'advisors' in the world say you shouldn't put your eggs in one basket; that's why you diversify your attention left and right. Here is one very great example of why putting all your eggs in one basket can earn you 10 times more. Coca-cola may not be good at mergers and acquisitions, but it has transcended that kind of business. It has become such an evangelistic institution that it conquers India faster than you can say 'Christianity'.
It's the same with McDonald's. McDonald's stick to 'McDonald's' and The Mac--small and big--becomes such an indispensable identity, people cannot "think outside the Mac". Today, many food franchises have emulated McDonald's franchise/food delivery system, but it is still the largest food chain in the world and will remain that way for a good while.
You can be a successful entrepreneur and feel relatively secure in life. You may no longer need to worry about maintaining your home or the welfare of your spouse and kids, but the level of success enjoyed by Coca-cola and McDonald's is something on a scale that cannot be contained by family life, not saying that family life may be a hindrance too. To rise to that level, surely more work needs to be done on building up current flagship products and foundation.
So do you start to walk right? Not really. Success is really achieving one thing and using that as a stepping stone to achieve something else. It's no secret, but oh, how many CEOs do not have the wisdom to appreciate it. For some reasons, they thought having only one type of product is not enough to provide a sense of security, so 'expansion' means 'diversification'.
Creative Technology might have a better bet sticking to its "digital home entertainment" concept. It could have built on the SoundBlaster to move closer to that vision quickly rather than to dabble with MP3 players and optical disk drives. The MP3 player market already belongs to the iPod, no matter how technically bad it is compared to other players while Creative had to write off its disk drives in the late 90s due to excess inventory, remember? It wins some, it loses some, but has the company learnt its lesson yet? Someone must go to the main headquarters in Jurong and tell Mr. Sim Wong Hoo about it.
Netscape Communications came very close to that level of success, very close. It collapsed on itself by expending all its energy on suing Microsoft because it must have thought "the Internet and the browser market is mine, MINE! Muahaha". Instead of improving its own backyard, it got distracted by another company's presence and competition. What does that tell you about not having enough faith in oneself? Now Microsoft and Google are encroaching in each other's territories so we shall see how history repeats itself.
Friends, be focused! The center-point of your attention and the jewel in your eye is the most profitable of them all. Your family members and a few close friends may know you for many good and bad secrets, but most people know you for only one thing. I know nuts about the ingredients that go into making Coca-cola, but the impression is it's better than Pepsi. Creative Technology is known for creating beautiful sounds on the computer. Bill Gates got rich making software. Michael Jordan is the king of basketball, so is Muhammed Ali for boxing, and either have tried baseball. The late Peter Drucker is the founding father of management consultancy and much less well known for his infatuation with Japanese art. Who cares about Japanese art until someone comes along and proactively promotes it like a loudhailer all his/her life?
If you want to catch the attention of as many people as possible, you simply cannot diversify. Do not be tempted left and right but ponder the narrow path right upon your feet in front of you. Here are 3 ways you can build up your ultimate success through focus:
1) Build on your strength. Each and every person has a set of different capabilities, in which some are greater than others. Do you know what you are already good at? Do you have a revenue model for your capabilities? Start building up those good ones to a commercial level with more practice and research for better revenue generating methods in exchange for your products and services which arise out of your capabilities. The beginning of an unsuccessful business is when you become a jack of all trades and master of none.
2) Build on your uniqueness. This refers to natural talent. Beethoven composed his first symphony at the age of 4. You call that 'capability' or 'talent'? The question is: what are the few things you can do brilliantly without pushing too hard? While others find it difficult, you find easy. When you find something that gets you excited and passionate about, business becomes play instead of work.
3) Build on your life purpose. For a great many people, money is a stumbling block. We are constantly trying to ensure that our deserved payoff matches the amount of effort we expend, no less, but yeah, more would be a bonus, thank you very much. If everybody thinks and acts like this, we will all be a step closer to hell really. There's no greatness in living a life as suckers. Truth is, living a purpose-driven life is most profitable at its heart when you feel you are really alive doing the things you love to do and knowing that your contribution to the people around you will make you great, without ever thinking so much about payoff.
You only have one life to live, so what do you want to be remembered for before you die? Think about it. Life is full of all its joy and pain, and consequences whether you do certain things or not, but until you gain a sense of direction as you ponder every step of your feet, you wouldn't have known how wonderful 'progress' means to you. Achievement is a great feeling; don't indulge in it though, it's only interim. There's always another level of success ahead of you...yet.
All roads lead to Rome; that doesn't mean it's necessary for you to go to Perth. But if you have no choice but to go one big round through Perth, you will have to do it if you seriously want people to remember you for your one and only Rome.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
Regardless of what 'success' means to you, for everyone reading this, it is a plus, not a minus. Success is a profitable endeavour. No intelligent people on earth would insist on walking from circumstance to circumstance getting pulled down all the time and still declare themselves a 'success' if that's fine with them. Well, it's fine with them, but I call it 'stubbornness'.
Success is not hocus-pocus; it's all about FOCUS. Just how many people had faltered in time past, thought twice and diverted when success was just a block away or around the corner. Consider the total revenue (in US$ billions) amassed by Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola. Pepsi bought over Taco Bell, KFC, Domino Pizza and owns a range of soft drinks like 7-Up, Miranda and others, to name just a few.
Come to think of it, so many 'advisors' in the world say you shouldn't put your eggs in one basket; that's why you diversify your attention left and right. Here is one very great example of why putting all your eggs in one basket can earn you 10 times more. Coca-cola may not be good at mergers and acquisitions, but it has transcended that kind of business. It has become such an evangelistic institution that it conquers India faster than you can say 'Christianity'.
It's the same with McDonald's. McDonald's stick to 'McDonald's' and The Mac--small and big--becomes such an indispensable identity, people cannot "think outside the Mac". Today, many food franchises have emulated McDonald's franchise/food delivery system, but it is still the largest food chain in the world and will remain that way for a good while.
You can be a successful entrepreneur and feel relatively secure in life. You may no longer need to worry about maintaining your home or the welfare of your spouse and kids, but the level of success enjoyed by Coca-cola and McDonald's is something on a scale that cannot be contained by family life, not saying that family life may be a hindrance too. To rise to that level, surely more work needs to be done on building up current flagship products and foundation.
So do you start to walk right? Not really. Success is really achieving one thing and using that as a stepping stone to achieve something else. It's no secret, but oh, how many CEOs do not have the wisdom to appreciate it. For some reasons, they thought having only one type of product is not enough to provide a sense of security, so 'expansion' means 'diversification'.
Creative Technology might have a better bet sticking to its "digital home entertainment" concept. It could have built on the SoundBlaster to move closer to that vision quickly rather than to dabble with MP3 players and optical disk drives. The MP3 player market already belongs to the iPod, no matter how technically bad it is compared to other players while Creative had to write off its disk drives in the late 90s due to excess inventory, remember? It wins some, it loses some, but has the company learnt its lesson yet? Someone must go to the main headquarters in Jurong and tell Mr. Sim Wong Hoo about it.
Netscape Communications came very close to that level of success, very close. It collapsed on itself by expending all its energy on suing Microsoft because it must have thought "the Internet and the browser market is mine, MINE! Muahaha". Instead of improving its own backyard, it got distracted by another company's presence and competition. What does that tell you about not having enough faith in oneself? Now Microsoft and Google are encroaching in each other's territories so we shall see how history repeats itself.
Friends, be focused! The center-point of your attention and the jewel in your eye is the most profitable of them all. Your family members and a few close friends may know you for many good and bad secrets, but most people know you for only one thing. I know nuts about the ingredients that go into making Coca-cola, but the impression is it's better than Pepsi. Creative Technology is known for creating beautiful sounds on the computer. Bill Gates got rich making software. Michael Jordan is the king of basketball, so is Muhammed Ali for boxing, and either have tried baseball. The late Peter Drucker is the founding father of management consultancy and much less well known for his infatuation with Japanese art. Who cares about Japanese art until someone comes along and proactively promotes it like a loudhailer all his/her life?
If you want to catch the attention of as many people as possible, you simply cannot diversify. Do not be tempted left and right but ponder the narrow path right upon your feet in front of you. Here are 3 ways you can build up your ultimate success through focus:
1) Build on your strength. Each and every person has a set of different capabilities, in which some are greater than others. Do you know what you are already good at? Do you have a revenue model for your capabilities? Start building up those good ones to a commercial level with more practice and research for better revenue generating methods in exchange for your products and services which arise out of your capabilities. The beginning of an unsuccessful business is when you become a jack of all trades and master of none.
2) Build on your uniqueness. This refers to natural talent. Beethoven composed his first symphony at the age of 4. You call that 'capability' or 'talent'? The question is: what are the few things you can do brilliantly without pushing too hard? While others find it difficult, you find easy. When you find something that gets you excited and passionate about, business becomes play instead of work.
3) Build on your life purpose. For a great many people, money is a stumbling block. We are constantly trying to ensure that our deserved payoff matches the amount of effort we expend, no less, but yeah, more would be a bonus, thank you very much. If everybody thinks and acts like this, we will all be a step closer to hell really. There's no greatness in living a life as suckers. Truth is, living a purpose-driven life is most profitable at its heart when you feel you are really alive doing the things you love to do and knowing that your contribution to the people around you will make you great, without ever thinking so much about payoff.
You only have one life to live, so what do you want to be remembered for before you die? Think about it. Life is full of all its joy and pain, and consequences whether you do certain things or not, but until you gain a sense of direction as you ponder every step of your feet, you wouldn't have known how wonderful 'progress' means to you. Achievement is a great feeling; don't indulge in it though, it's only interim. There's always another level of success ahead of you...yet.
All roads lead to Rome; that doesn't mean it's necessary for you to go to Perth. But if you have no choice but to go one big round through Perth, you will have to do it if you seriously want people to remember you for your one and only Rome.
Nelson Tan is the webmaster behind Internet Mastery Center. Download $347 worth of FREE Internet Marketing gifts at http://www.internetmasterycenter.com
Auto Drifting
Technics - Drifting is a
driving technique and a motor sport where a car slides at an angle, with its
side moving in the direction of the turn.
After 135 posts I feel God is releasing me from doing my devotionals
daily. I am still going to write devotionals but it might not be
daily. I will write them as God gives them to me. I have enjoyed
writing the devotionals and I hope those who have read them have got something
out [...]
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