As part of our effort to provide you with more information on invalid clicks, we wanted to give you some additional background on how our systems, processes, and teams work together to manage click fraud for our advertisers, while also sharing what the overall landscape of invalid click detection at Google looks like.
Let’s dive right in with an overview of how it works. At a high level, we have a three stage-system for invalid click detection: (1) our real-time filters, (2) offline analysis, and (3) reactive investigations. The diagram below gives a more detailed explanation of what each does:
As you can see, the invalid clicks detected in the first two stages are the result of proactive work by Google. In stage one, we automatically filter most of these clicks before they even reach your account to protect against malicious activity and optimize your return on investment (ROI). The much smaller amounts of invalid clicks found in stage two are reflected in Click Quality Adjustments listed on your billing summary page. In either case, you don’t need to take any action or write to us to receive this protection. The third stage only includes the relatively rare cases where advertisers are affected by undetected click fraud. In those cases, an advertiser writes to us, we conduct an investigation, and if we find signs of undetected click fraud, we mark those clicks as invalid and give a refund to the advertiser.
So, how many invalid clicks are detected proactively vs. reactively? Here’s the breakdown:
Impact vs. activity
Click fraud is similar to email spam in a lot of ways. The most significant similarity is that the seriousness of the problem is not measured by how much spam is sent, but rather how much gets into a user’s inbox. When looking at click fraud, the most important measure is not the “activity” metric – which measures the volume of invalid clicks that occur overall – but the “impact” metric. The activity metric could go up or down significantly and the impact on advertisers would not change if filters are catching the invalid clicks. So far, we have only publicly shared this activity metric, which we have disclosed as being less than 10% of all clicks, and explain in more detail next. After that explanation, we want to talk about the impact metric for the first time. This measures what percentage of all clicks are clicks reported by advertisers which, after investigation, turn out to be invalid and have not already been caught by Google. Explaining these topics is complicated, but we’re going to give it a try. Here goes.
Activity - invalid clicks fluctuate constantly but average less than 10% of all clicks
Our invalid clicks rate – the activity rate – has remained in the range of less than 10% of all clicks every quarter since we launched AdWords in 2002. At Google’s current revenue rate, every percentage point of invalid clicks we throw out represents over $100 million/year in potential revenue foregone.
Because it is difficult to definitively determine the “intent” of a click in many cases, the number of invalid clicks that we filter also include those filtered for reasons separate from fraudulent intent. Cases of provable click fraud attempts constitute a small minority of the clicks we mark as invalid. There are many greyer cases of possible click fraud attempts (but without clear scientific “proof”), for which we still choose not to charge advertisers. For example, we have an automated rule which filters out the second click of all double clicks as a matter of policy. We mark this kind of activity as invalid simply to optimize advertiser ROI. Those clicks are included in our “activity” metric and are also a good reason we use the term “invalid” clicks instead of fraud.
This combined approach is the essence of click fraud management: the goal is to cast the net of invalid clicks sufficiently wide in order to have a high degree of confidence that actual malicious behavior is effectively filtered out. By proactively filtering clicks worth potentially hundreds of millions of dollars every year, we are able to provide very effective protection against attempted click fraud.
Impact - less than 0.02% of all clicks are reactively detected as invalid
Our Click Quality team investigates every inquiry we receive from advertisers who believe they may have been affected by undetected click fraud. Many of these cases are misunderstandings, but in most cases where malicious activity is found, the clicks have already been filtered out (and not charged for) by our real-time filters. Because of the broad operation of our proactive detection, the relatively rare cases we find of advertisers being affected by undetected click fraud constitute less than 0.02% of all clicks.
Put another way, for every ten thousand clicks on Google AdWords ads, fewer than two are reactively detected cases of possible click fraud. This proportion has stayed within this range every quarter since we launched AdWords, even as the issue of click fraud has received more widespread media attention. In the cases of reactively detected invalid clicks, a refund or credit is provided to the advertiser, and we utilize the discovery as a feedback mechanism to improve our proactive detection systems.
What do these numbers mean for me as an advertiser?
It is important to understand that the network-wide invalid clicks rate is separate from an individual advertiser’s invalid clicks rate. The invalid clicks rate is what we call an open loop number, which means that the more invalid activity we detect, the more protection we provide. A machine attempting a click fraud attack can send any number of clicks, even exceeding the maximum number of clicks that are allowed based on an advertiser's daily budget, but our systems will automatically filter these clicks so that the advertiser is not impacted. For example, an advertiser with a $10 daily budget could be attacked by someone attempting click fraud consisting of $1 million worth of clicks. When our filters protect against that attack, the advertiser’s invalid clicks rate would increase dramatically – meaning we were filtering out a very high proportion of their clicks – and their campaign would be unharmed. Similarly, that attack alone would increase the overall invalid clicks rate on our network, even though it was limited to a single advertiser. In this manner, a large attack focused on just a few advertisers can actually manipulate Google’s overall invalid clicks rate for that day, so this is an externally manipulable number.
Thus, the overall invalid clicks rate, as well as its day-to-day fluctuations, has almost no relation to the invalid clicks rate for an individual advertiser. In order to provide the real data to our advertisers, we launched the invalid clicks report in the AdWords Report Center last year. This feature provides the precise number of clicks we are filtering out on each of an advertiser’s campaigns.
We are disclosing these network-wide figures in order to provide greater transparency to Google advertisers and the marketplace as a whole. These figures illustrate the significant level of proactive protection we provide, and how this has resulted in minimizing the actual impact of click fraud on advertisers. As noted above, these network figures do not have any bearing on what individual advertisers may experience, and you should refer to your invalid clicks report for that data.
Moving forward
Click fraud protection is something we take very seriously, and it requires a great deal of research and development to do effectively. We believe we lead the industry in terms of our level of investment as well as the effectiveness of the protection we provide, but we also look forward to continuing to innovate and invest in this area of our advertising system just as we do in others. It is clearly in the long-term best interests of both Google and the industry as a whole to effectively protect advertisers against click fraud. This is why we are also working with dozens of other companies to establish industry standards for click fraud protection, as one of the founders of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Click Measurement Working Group.
Ultimately, the biggest benefit of the pay-per-click advertising model is that advertisers can measure the performance of their campaigns extremely accurately, and thus the most important metric that both our advertisers and Google are focused on is providing the best possible return on investment.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Invalid Clicks – Google’s Overall Numbers
Over the past year, we’ve been working hard to share more information about how we protect you against click fraud. Last July, the invalid clicks report was released to provide you with the number of invalid clicks we detect (and don’t charge for) in each individual account. A few weeks ago, our Click Quality team provided a list of common concerns and tips related to their click fraud investigations and let you know how to request an investigation. Now, Shuman Ghosemajumder, Business Product Manager for Trust & Safety, has an update:
Creating Team Innovation - Chapter Three - Unleashing Creativity And Innovation
How do leaders create highest performing teams that unleash unmatched creativity and innovation, thereby making the best products built on repeatable processes in the marketplace? Increasing the team’s productivity, creativity, innovation, and potential for success is every manager’s goal. Importantly, how does a manager avoid team frustration and disruption, and at the same time manage team dynamics? Creating Team Innovation – Chapter Three – explores these key elements of team structure and behavior that create constant Team Innovation.
Creating Team Innovation – Chapter One presented the seven characteristics of highest performing teams resulting in consistent Team Innovation. Chapter Two – Examples of Effective Teams provided examples of successful teams in various organizations.
Here are the Ten Principles for creating highest performing teams that produce continuous Team Innovation:
Ten Principles for creating the highest performance teams and team innovation:
1. Establish the reasons and objectives of forming a team. Create a concise team vision and mission statement that is crisp and well understood.
2. Recruit the best team players who will be the most adept at achieving the said team objectives, vision and mission. Find employees both from within the organization through your own network of friends, peers and managers, and externally through the best recruiters available.
3. Establish clear, participatory, effective and elevating team goals and plans, preferably using SMART system. Ensure that the team’s plans and future direction are clear and supported, the team is kept informed of the ongoing progress, quality standards and effectiveness set, and there is complete commitment from team members towards achieving these objectives.
4. Articulate and communicate team task functions and relationship functions, and help the team understand the differences through examples. Organize and lead the team so that the team coordinates the efforts and cooperates well. Create a high degree of trust and confidence among the team members, ensure that the team members participate fully and communicate openly making sure that everyone is always included, encourage different viewpoints and foster diversity in thought and members, and build camaraderie, closeness and friendship within the team.
5. Develop healthy and productive group and meeting norms, grow team cohesiveness by building collaboration, and manage social loafing consequences. Make decisions by consensus after seeking opinions from each team member, help the team towards making its own good decisions, resolve problems and find solutions through mutual effort and open communications, and evaluate team behaviors and perceptions openly.
6. Proactively manage team behaviors and conflicts that could either encourage or harm member relations, and regulate situations where individual needs are not satisfied. The emphasis is on “proactively” managing conflicts. A high performing team will have conflicts, openly and often. Conflicts are a healthy sign of a team cooperating and communicating ideas frequently. The manager should create sound conflict resolutions techniques wherein the conflicts are addressed in a timely manner, and conflicts remain rooted in problems and issues, and not about members.
7. Cultivate and unleash Group Creativity and Innovation. A leader becomes indispensable and important to the organization when they can develop creativity throughout the organization--in their team, and in the processes the leader uses to tap and leverage that widespread creativity. What processes drive Group Creativity and Innovation? The team leader leverages Group Creativity techniques including Basic Brainstorming, Nominal Group Technique (NGT), and NGT-Storming. A creative team leader will always ask a lot of questions, never judges, encourages free-wheeling, goes for quantity (of ideas), and promotes piggybacking during the group creativity meetings. Finally, a witty quote about change, and stepping into the team member’s offices and asking a simple question: “any creative ideas today?” will always encourage creativity and innovation among the team.
8. Analyze, update and maneuver team communication according to the twelve categories comprising Bales’ Interaction Analysis. Bales’ Interaction Analysis allows the manager to review the team’s member communications in four categories: Positive reactions, Attempted answers, Questions and Negative reactions. By analyzing this once every few months, the leader can not only get insight on how the team communicates, but also provide individual members feedback. If the overall communications are moving towards increasing Questions and Negative reactions, the leader can take appropriate steps to enhance the communication flow.
9. Create a Team Assessment Inventory on the team’s general productivity and climate, team goals, processes and procedures, and member relationships every three months to analyze and calibrate the team performance. This is very important if the team is going to be working together on projects for the long term. Also, this would provide the manager a self-assessment on how well the term is performing.
10. Have fun!! Create an environment wherein the team members enjoy their work, and the team morale remains high. The leader needs to exude excitement, and inject that passion so that the team members also work with high degree of energy and excitement. Every month or once every few months, the leader should take time to enjoy the achievements, and plan fun activities with the team.
If you enjoyed reading this Innovation best practice, I recommend the complete list of Creativity Innovation Best Practices.
References:
eCornell
Creating Team Innovation – Chapter One presented the seven characteristics of highest performing teams resulting in consistent Team Innovation. Chapter Two – Examples of Effective Teams provided examples of successful teams in various organizations.
Here are the Ten Principles for creating highest performing teams that produce continuous Team Innovation:
Ten Principles for creating the highest performance teams and team innovation:
1. Establish the reasons and objectives of forming a team. Create a concise team vision and mission statement that is crisp and well understood.
2. Recruit the best team players who will be the most adept at achieving the said team objectives, vision and mission. Find employees both from within the organization through your own network of friends, peers and managers, and externally through the best recruiters available.
3. Establish clear, participatory, effective and elevating team goals and plans, preferably using SMART system. Ensure that the team’s plans and future direction are clear and supported, the team is kept informed of the ongoing progress, quality standards and effectiveness set, and there is complete commitment from team members towards achieving these objectives.
4. Articulate and communicate team task functions and relationship functions, and help the team understand the differences through examples. Organize and lead the team so that the team coordinates the efforts and cooperates well. Create a high degree of trust and confidence among the team members, ensure that the team members participate fully and communicate openly making sure that everyone is always included, encourage different viewpoints and foster diversity in thought and members, and build camaraderie, closeness and friendship within the team.
5. Develop healthy and productive group and meeting norms, grow team cohesiveness by building collaboration, and manage social loafing consequences. Make decisions by consensus after seeking opinions from each team member, help the team towards making its own good decisions, resolve problems and find solutions through mutual effort and open communications, and evaluate team behaviors and perceptions openly.
6. Proactively manage team behaviors and conflicts that could either encourage or harm member relations, and regulate situations where individual needs are not satisfied. The emphasis is on “proactively” managing conflicts. A high performing team will have conflicts, openly and often. Conflicts are a healthy sign of a team cooperating and communicating ideas frequently. The manager should create sound conflict resolutions techniques wherein the conflicts are addressed in a timely manner, and conflicts remain rooted in problems and issues, and not about members.
7. Cultivate and unleash Group Creativity and Innovation. A leader becomes indispensable and important to the organization when they can develop creativity throughout the organization--in their team, and in the processes the leader uses to tap and leverage that widespread creativity. What processes drive Group Creativity and Innovation? The team leader leverages Group Creativity techniques including Basic Brainstorming, Nominal Group Technique (NGT), and NGT-Storming. A creative team leader will always ask a lot of questions, never judges, encourages free-wheeling, goes for quantity (of ideas), and promotes piggybacking during the group creativity meetings. Finally, a witty quote about change, and stepping into the team member’s offices and asking a simple question: “any creative ideas today?” will always encourage creativity and innovation among the team.
8. Analyze, update and maneuver team communication according to the twelve categories comprising Bales’ Interaction Analysis. Bales’ Interaction Analysis allows the manager to review the team’s member communications in four categories: Positive reactions, Attempted answers, Questions and Negative reactions. By analyzing this once every few months, the leader can not only get insight on how the team communicates, but also provide individual members feedback. If the overall communications are moving towards increasing Questions and Negative reactions, the leader can take appropriate steps to enhance the communication flow.
9. Create a Team Assessment Inventory on the team’s general productivity and climate, team goals, processes and procedures, and member relationships every three months to analyze and calibrate the team performance. This is very important if the team is going to be working together on projects for the long term. Also, this would provide the manager a self-assessment on how well the term is performing.
10. Have fun!! Create an environment wherein the team members enjoy their work, and the team morale remains high. The leader needs to exude excitement, and inject that passion so that the team members also work with high degree of energy and excitement. Every month or once every few months, the leader should take time to enjoy the achievements, and plan fun activities with the team.
If you enjoyed reading this Innovation best practice, I recommend the complete list of Creativity Innovation Best Practices.
References:
eCornell
5 Simple Ways To Promote Your Home Business Webiste
I ran across these easy tips to promote a online website. Traffic is essential, so follow this tips to get more of it!
5 Simple Ways To Promote
5 Simple Ways To Promote
by: Larry Johnson
Learning to promote your business online is one of the most important steps in being successful.
Otherwise your site may as well be in some dark closet, because no one is going to stumble over it.
Here are 5 simple ways to promote your site and gain some needed traffic for your business.
-- AUTOMATE IT
As much as possible you should automate your promotion efforts. One of the easiest and quickest ways to do this is the use of autoresponders.
There are many paid ones available and they okay for the most part. Personally, I like to use a fr*ee one you can find here: http://www.freeautobot.com
It comes without any types of ads, and I have found it to be very dependable and useful.
-- SWAP ADS
There are always those online who are willing to swap ads, bannners or links in order to gain some additional fr*ee exposure.
Search for them in your e-mail messages and in a variety of directories related to your type of business.
For example, here is one that is not fr*ee, but it is well-established as a great resource for locating reputable e-zines in which to advertise:
http://www.directoryofezines.com/
-- JOINT VENTURES
Directories can also provide a wealth of contacts for potential Joint Ventures.
For a small percentage of your profits you can enlist the help of other sites and publishers to promote your offer.
One simple way is to use http://www.ClickBank.com which has a built-in affiliate program to help you with just this type of thing.
-- WRITE ARTICLES
Yes, it takes a little effort, but writing articles to promote your site does pay off.
Sharing a little bit of information in the form of articles with others has many rewards.
Hey, we are working in an information media type of are here, right ? Everyone is looking for the answer to some problem. Help them find it with a well-written article and get some deserved promotion when it is published in other's newsletters or e-zines.
-- PUBLISH A NEWSLETTER
Online promotion is a slow learning curve for most folks, but it is one that has many rewards in terms of traffic and sales for your online business.
While this list is not inclusive, it does give you a starting point to begin your online efforts at building traffic and gaining some needed exposure.
Remember, "Running a business without advertising is like winking in the dark. You know what you are doing, but no one else. does."
-- Larry Johnson, author
Biz Site Biz E-zine http://www.BizSiteBiz.com/
|
About The Author
GET A QUICK START in this FR*E, weekly promotional marketing ezine. Each issue offers powerful marketing tips, resources, fresh ideas and original articles on how to create, promote and market your own business. You will discover information with a "How-to-do-it" approach. Join us now for the full scoop. Mailto:subscribe-956607103@ezinedirector.net |
Have a Google search question?
As active web publishers, we know you're working to build quality traffic so the world can see the great content you've created. Since many of you rely on listings in search engines for this traffic, we often receive email from publishers who have concerns about their site's listing on Google.com.
We'd like to let you know that to protect the integrity of our search results, your participation in AdSense won't affect your site's ranking or listing in the Google index. Since AdSense is separate from Google.com search results, our team is unable to provide publishers with any information about a site's Page Rank or status in the Google index.
However, if you do have questions about your site's ranking or listing on Google.com, we encourage you to visit Webmaster Central. There, you can navigate to pages with information about how Google crawls and indexes pages, how to improve a site's ranking, or why a site is no longer visible in the index. In addition, Google's webmaster tools can provide you with comprehensive information about your site, including queries for which your site appears in Google.com search results, potential indexing problems, and much more.
If you have questions or feedback about the resources on Webmaster Central, you might also find the discussions in the Google Webmaster Help Group useful, as Google employees monitor and contribute to the group.
We'd like to let you know that to protect the integrity of our search results, your participation in AdSense won't affect your site's ranking or listing in the Google index. Since AdSense is separate from Google.com search results, our team is unable to provide publishers with any information about a site's Page Rank or status in the Google index.
However, if you do have questions about your site's ranking or listing on Google.com, we encourage you to visit Webmaster Central. There, you can navigate to pages with information about how Google crawls and indexes pages, how to improve a site's ranking, or why a site is no longer visible in the index. In addition, Google's webmaster tools can provide you with comprehensive information about your site, including queries for which your site appears in Google.com search results, potential indexing problems, and much more.
If you have questions or feedback about the resources on Webmaster Central, you might also find the discussions in the Google Webmaster Help Group useful, as Google employees monitor and contribute to the group.
Agile for business people
Who does Agile serve?
The first answer I have is...many people. Some Agile skeptics (and we need them) want to think that Agile only serves the (selfish) interests of those coder dudes. Well, yes it does serve the interests of the developers. And it should serve their interests, albeit any of us would be wrong to look at things too selfishly. We all need to make our work more human and humane, and partly so that we can do better things. This is no less true for developers.
The next answer is...the customer. More specifically, the many many end customers of the business or users of the software (assuming you are doing a software project). Very true.
Some business school friends would say...the shareholders. That by making the business more profitable, we improve the financial health of the widows and orphans who ultimately own most stocks and bonds. True again.
One group connects all these people. The business people who run and manage and lead each business. My sense is that we have explained Agile and Lean and Scrum and XP and Agile Project Management to many, but to these business people we have not explained it well enough. And we must sympathize with their needs and concerns. And their mis-understandings. Like most of us, they are rushed, and all the wonderful things about Agile seem to them like yet another pretty Powerpoint that they see 10 of each day.
So, while this blog is for all of us who benefit from Agile (or Lean-Agile, if you prefer), this blog is especially dedicated to the business people.
+ Joe Little
The first answer I have is...many people. Some Agile skeptics (and we need them) want to think that Agile only serves the (selfish) interests of those coder dudes. Well, yes it does serve the interests of the developers. And it should serve their interests, albeit any of us would be wrong to look at things too selfishly. We all need to make our work more human and humane, and partly so that we can do better things. This is no less true for developers.
The next answer is...the customer. More specifically, the many many end customers of the business or users of the software (assuming you are doing a software project). Very true.
Some business school friends would say...the shareholders. That by making the business more profitable, we improve the financial health of the widows and orphans who ultimately own most stocks and bonds. True again.
One group connects all these people. The business people who run and manage and lead each business. My sense is that we have explained Agile and Lean and Scrum and XP and Agile Project Management to many, but to these business people we have not explained it well enough. And we must sympathize with their needs and concerns. And their mis-understandings. Like most of us, they are rushed, and all the wonderful things about Agile seem to them like yet another pretty Powerpoint that they see 10 of each day.
So, while this blog is for all of us who benefit from Agile (or Lean-Agile, if you prefer), this blog is especially dedicated to the business people.
+ Joe Little
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Market plunges - its all China's fault
Been a tough day/night on the markets. The mainstream news is blaming China.
Thought I would take a look at what impact their was/wasn't on eLong and Ctrip. Over the last five days eLong is down almost 10% and about 7% from where it was a year ago. Ctrip is down a similar 7% over the last 5 days but is up almost 50% over the last twelve months. This reflects Ctrip's widening gap over eLong and a premium for being number one in the market with the biggest potential. That said, Ctrip is trading at an extraordinary P/E of more than 65 (compared to Expedia's 30 times, Priceline's 32 times and Wotif's almost 40 times). Clearly a lot of work for eLong to catch up but also a lot of work for Ctrip to prove that the enormous multiple is justified.
[The main China stock exchange] fell nearly 9 percent on Tuesday, erasing about $140 billion of value in its biggest fall for a decade, on concerns that share valuations had become overextended and economic growth may slowaccording to Reuters/Ninemsn. The Chinese government is trying to fight back announcing that they had no plans to add a 20% capital gains tax . Related to not the market bounced back - up 1.2% according to the SMH.
Thought I would take a look at what impact their was/wasn't on eLong and Ctrip. Over the last five days eLong is down almost 10% and about 7% from where it was a year ago. Ctrip is down a similar 7% over the last 5 days but is up almost 50% over the last twelve months. This reflects Ctrip's widening gap over eLong and a premium for being number one in the market with the biggest potential. That said, Ctrip is trading at an extraordinary P/E of more than 65 (compared to Expedia's 30 times, Priceline's 32 times and Wotif's almost 40 times). Clearly a lot of work for eLong to catch up but also a lot of work for Ctrip to prove that the enormous multiple is justified.
Process Visibility
"Succeeding at process optimization requires a user to have unrestricted visibility to all process elements, their relationships and how those have changed over time."
The preceding is a quote from one of Lombardi Software's training manuals, and I think it highlights a key guideline for architecting successful applications in a Service Oriented environment (Obligatory disclaimer: I work for Lombardi, but the opinions and ideas expressed in this blog are my own).
If you can't see it, you can't fix it.
"It" in this case refers to any of the activities or services that must be performed in order to successfully complete a Business Process.
In a SOA environment Services are not generally created for a specific Business Process. Services somewhat mirror their real-world namesakes... Businesses seldom provide a Service that is only of use to a single customer (unless that customer is very, very important).
In a similar vein, Services are seldom unadvertised. Generally speaking, the ROI for developing a Service is closely related to the number of customers who consume the service (which is why advertising is crucial).
I recently worked on a project that required delving into employee details that were spread across LDAP and a relational data base. Much to our chagrin we were far into the project before learning that a WebService provided all the data that we needed in a one-stop shop (so to speak).
If you don't know that it exists, you can't use it.
The bottom line in Business Applications is to get the job done in as reliable and efficient a manner as possible. As experience is gained and external conditions change, the procedure for "getting the job done" may change.
The Holy Grail for Business Programmers is to never be the limiting factor for how quickly the business can adapt... Actually it's beyond that... The ideal Business Programmer should be able to help the Business Analysts know when and how to adapt.
Business Applications do not require fancy and finely tuned User Interfaces... They require effective User Interfaces that can be quickly adapted when the business process needs to change. Sadly, many well-meaning Business Analysts focus more on the aesthetics of the applications that they want rather than on the business tasks that the application supports.
If elements of the UI don't closely map to Process Steps, then it probably won't be easy to change the UI when the process has to be changed.
Back when OO first came into vogue many UI developers made the mistake of tying their UIs too closely to the underlying objects. While this is not always a bad thing, as is evidenced by the popularity of NakedObjects, it often led to quite unnatural interactions between users and applications (unnatural from the human's perspective). We could make a similar mistake by tying a UI to closely to a Process Step... but it's a risk worth taking.
Creating Team Innovation - Chapter Two - Examples of Effective Teams
In Creating Team Innovation – Chapter One, the characteristics of a high performance team that led to consistent Team Innovation was presented. Before I jump into how to create high performance teams, I would like to provide quick illustrations of three such teams.
Chapter Two – Examples of Effective Teams provides best practices of effective teams in various organizations, looks under the hood on what made these teams effective, and exposes areas in which these teams could have done better.
What are some examples of effective teams in an organization of which you have either been a member or a leader?
What made it an effective team? What could the team have done better?
Example One
Team:
12 Department heads and 175 employees in a Golf & Spa Resort.
Team Goal:
Business turnaround.
Team Achievement:
The team managed to turnaround a resort that was losing significant money to a hotel that actually began producing profits.
What made it an effective team?
1. One of the major factors that turned the hotel around financially was that the management focused on having the right people in the right jobs.
2. The hotel management focused on selecting (both management and hourly staffed) the right talent, setting the expectations, and defining the right outcomes.
3. Over time, the hotel ended up with a group that embodied the term “team work”.
What could have been done better?
Give everyone a fair opportunity to prove themselves (after giving the tools and training necessary to be successful). However, once you have determined that it is not going to work out, you cannot wait too long to deal with poor performers. Not dealing with those issues will create frustration amongst those that are performing well.
Example Two
Team:
Kitchen crew at a restaurant.
Team Goal:
Product Innovation.
Team Achievement:
It was the most highly creative and fun group, that created great camaraderie and spirit in the kitchen that led to new innovations in food and service.
What made it an effective team?
1. A spirit of creative freedom was fostered by everyone, from the top down. Even though it was a very busy kitchen, there was always time to work on a pet project or to create a new dish or daily special.
2. For the most part, people were able to put aside their egos. It was very common to work on a dish, and to have someone come over and give his input, and then another person would come over and contribute his two cents. After awhile, a great new dish would emerge, which usually had little resemblance to the original thought - but was a collaboration of creative effort. Everyone would look at it with pride.
3. People were publicly praised and recognized for a job well done
4. There was a common passion and enthusiasm for what we were doing. The owners seemed to be very good at attracting and recruiting this type of employees.
5. The standards and expectations were always being raised. There was no room for complacency.
What could have been done better?
Many individuals eventually left and opened their own restaurants in the area.
Ownership was at times unreasonable, did not tolerate or forget mistakes.
The kitchen atmosphere took on an "us against them" mentality, which ironically brought the kitchen crew members together.
Example Three
Team:
Process Quality team consisting of over ten managers from sales, service, product and infrastructure organizations.
Team Goal:
Process Innovation.
The goal of this team was to surface any quality issues that the sales or service team experiences with the currently released or soon to be released products. If the issues required follow-up, the product and infrastructure managers provided a detailed follow-up analysis. If the quality issues required immediate resolution, the product and infrastructure managers will escalate these issues to executive management until they are resolved.
Team Achievement:
The team was effective in generating timely feedback and follow-up on quality issues.
A detailed log of quality issues was generated after each meeting, and the product or infrastructure managers were required to follow up on these issues via email and before the next meeting. A new meeting will go over any outstanding issues, and then dive into the new issues.
What made it an effective team?
1. The team goals were clearly defined.
2. The team deeply cared about product and service quality, and customer satisfaction.
3. There was active participation, frequent communication and collaboration among the team members and management.
4. The product and infrastructure managers followed through on the quality issues, and resolved them in a timely manner.
5. The team took pride and enjoyed the moments when the quality issues were resolved.
What could have been done better?
When there was a change in senior management (a new VP took over products), his position on the activity and escalation of issues by this team changed. Thus, when issues were escalated, they were not resolved, ignored, or even challenged. Ultimately, the sales and service team who were giving their pro-active feedback began realizing the lack of follow-through from the product and infrastructure teams (owing to the change in guard). Hence, the team was eventually dissolved. Later on, the new VP realized this mistake, and created a new team to handle this.
Lessons learned:
What are the incentives for a new manager to re-invent existing processes?
Cost saving, the recognition from upper management, the recognition from clients, make an impact on existing processes by making them more efficient, cheaper or faster, to show that the experience they bring can take the company to the next level, better align processes to the company goals & objectives.
These are just a few examples from various segments of the industry on how effective teams deliver and execute, and innovate with creativity.
Creating Team Innovation - Chapter Three will examine forming such a well-functioning high performance team.
If you enjoyed reading this Innovation best practice, I recommend the complete list of Creativity Innovation Best Practices.
References:
eCornell
Chapter Two – Examples of Effective Teams provides best practices of effective teams in various organizations, looks under the hood on what made these teams effective, and exposes areas in which these teams could have done better.
What are some examples of effective teams in an organization of which you have either been a member or a leader?
What made it an effective team? What could the team have done better?
Example One
Team:
12 Department heads and 175 employees in a Golf & Spa Resort.
Team Goal:
Business turnaround.
Team Achievement:
The team managed to turnaround a resort that was losing significant money to a hotel that actually began producing profits.
What made it an effective team?
1. One of the major factors that turned the hotel around financially was that the management focused on having the right people in the right jobs.
2. The hotel management focused on selecting (both management and hourly staffed) the right talent, setting the expectations, and defining the right outcomes.
3. Over time, the hotel ended up with a group that embodied the term “team work”.
What could have been done better?
Give everyone a fair opportunity to prove themselves (after giving the tools and training necessary to be successful). However, once you have determined that it is not going to work out, you cannot wait too long to deal with poor performers. Not dealing with those issues will create frustration amongst those that are performing well.
Example Two
Team:
Kitchen crew at a restaurant.
Team Goal:
Product Innovation.
Team Achievement:
It was the most highly creative and fun group, that created great camaraderie and spirit in the kitchen that led to new innovations in food and service.
What made it an effective team?
1. A spirit of creative freedom was fostered by everyone, from the top down. Even though it was a very busy kitchen, there was always time to work on a pet project or to create a new dish or daily special.
2. For the most part, people were able to put aside their egos. It was very common to work on a dish, and to have someone come over and give his input, and then another person would come over and contribute his two cents. After awhile, a great new dish would emerge, which usually had little resemblance to the original thought - but was a collaboration of creative effort. Everyone would look at it with pride.
3. People were publicly praised and recognized for a job well done
4. There was a common passion and enthusiasm for what we were doing. The owners seemed to be very good at attracting and recruiting this type of employees.
5. The standards and expectations were always being raised. There was no room for complacency.
What could have been done better?
Many individuals eventually left and opened their own restaurants in the area.
Ownership was at times unreasonable, did not tolerate or forget mistakes.
The kitchen atmosphere took on an "us against them" mentality, which ironically brought the kitchen crew members together.
Example Three
Team:
Process Quality team consisting of over ten managers from sales, service, product and infrastructure organizations.
Team Goal:
Process Innovation.
The goal of this team was to surface any quality issues that the sales or service team experiences with the currently released or soon to be released products. If the issues required follow-up, the product and infrastructure managers provided a detailed follow-up analysis. If the quality issues required immediate resolution, the product and infrastructure managers will escalate these issues to executive management until they are resolved.
Team Achievement:
The team was effective in generating timely feedback and follow-up on quality issues.
A detailed log of quality issues was generated after each meeting, and the product or infrastructure managers were required to follow up on these issues via email and before the next meeting. A new meeting will go over any outstanding issues, and then dive into the new issues.
What made it an effective team?
1. The team goals were clearly defined.
2. The team deeply cared about product and service quality, and customer satisfaction.
3. There was active participation, frequent communication and collaboration among the team members and management.
4. The product and infrastructure managers followed through on the quality issues, and resolved them in a timely manner.
5. The team took pride and enjoyed the moments when the quality issues were resolved.
What could have been done better?
When there was a change in senior management (a new VP took over products), his position on the activity and escalation of issues by this team changed. Thus, when issues were escalated, they were not resolved, ignored, or even challenged. Ultimately, the sales and service team who were giving their pro-active feedback began realizing the lack of follow-through from the product and infrastructure teams (owing to the change in guard). Hence, the team was eventually dissolved. Later on, the new VP realized this mistake, and created a new team to handle this.
Lessons learned:
What are the incentives for a new manager to re-invent existing processes?
Cost saving, the recognition from upper management, the recognition from clients, make an impact on existing processes by making them more efficient, cheaper or faster, to show that the experience they bring can take the company to the next level, better align processes to the company goals & objectives.
These are just a few examples from various segments of the industry on how effective teams deliver and execute, and innovate with creativity.
Creating Team Innovation - Chapter Three will examine forming such a well-functioning high performance team.
If you enjoyed reading this Innovation best practice, I recommend the complete list of Creativity Innovation Best Practices.
References:
eCornell
AdWords Optimization Tips: Part 2 - Assessing Your Website and Goals
Two weeks ago, Stephanie L. from the Optimization team outlined the four topics of optimization that she would cover in our "AdWords Optimization Tips" series: Assessment, Structure, Keywords, and Ad Text. In the first half of Assessment, she encouraged advertisers to assess their industry and audience before beginning an optimization. Today, she will discuss the second half of Assessment -- different ways you can evaluate your website and identify your goals as you begin to optimize your campaign.
This post ends our discussion of Assessment, the first of four topics we will be covering in this series. We have touched upon a few high level tips today on how to achieve your goals for your advertising campaigns. Stay tuned for future posts of "AdWords Optimization Tips" when we will take a deeper dive on specific advice and tips on structure, keywords, and ad text. Until then, happy optimizing!
Know your website
Whether you are the marketing manager or webmaster (or both) of your business, you know the products and services on your website better than anyone else. And that means you are in the best position to evaluate your website and assess how a visitor may interact with and respond to the content on your site. Imagining yourself as your prospective customer and fine-tuning your site as necessary can result in a better experience for that prospective customer, and thus better results for you.
Some elements to consider as you evaluate your website are:Know your goals
- Site structure or sitemap: Are your products and services organized in a way that makes sense from your visitor's perspective? Specific landing pages can help these prospective customers find exactly what they are looking for. For example, if a prospective customer is searching for 'women's snowboarding pants,' the ideal landing page may feature women's snowboarding pants in all brands and styles. If she is searching for a specific brand of snowboarding pants, the ideal landing page may feature all types of snowboarding pants by that specific manufacturer.
- Layout and design: Visitors to your site may respond more favorably to a site that is straightforward, clean, and simple to navigate than one that is flashy or slick. Those who do not find what they are looking for tend to leave the site within the first several seconds.
- Ease of use: When visitors come to your site, they should be able to quickly understand how to navigate your site and find the information they're looking for. Navigation and search bars allow your prospective customers to look for more specific items or different styles. Clearly marked buttons that read 'Sign Up Now!' or 'Add to Cart' encourage further action from these prospective customers. On the other hand, broken links, inaccurate or unfinished landing pages and other obstacles make it more difficult for prospective customers to become actual customers.
Your goals, or desired results, are perhaps the most important thing to keep in mind when setting up a new account or optimizing an existing account. Are you more interested in branding your business, garnering clicks, or maximizing your return on investment? It is important to clearly identify and prioritize what specific goals you want to achieve and design your campaigns around those goals.
Depending on what your primary goal is, you may want to consider the following tips:Last but not least, it is important to determine how you will measure the impact of your optimization so you can clearly evaluate your campaign's performance before and after the optimization. If you are feeling extra scientific, you may want to test altered campaigns against a control group to see what works best for you. Google offers some powerful tools that can help you better track campaign performance, including Analytics, conversion tracking, and the Reports Center tab in your account.
- Maximizing clicks: If your aim is to cast the widest net to draw as much relevant traffic to your site as possible, you may want to consider running on a broader range of keyword variations. Keep in mind, however, that running on very general, irrelevant keywords will negatively affect your clickthrough rate, Quality Score, minimum bids and positioning.
- Optimizing for Ad Performance: One component of improving ad performance is maximizing your clickthrough rate. If this is your goal, the first step is to filter out irrelevant searches by refining your keyword list and incorporating negative keywords where appropriate. In addition, your ad text should ideally reflect a user's search as closely as possible. If you are running on a keyword such as 'San Francisco travel tours,' your ad text should also highlight travel tours in San Francisco.
- Promoting brand awareness: If you want to promote your brand, you may decide to run a cost-per-impression campaign in addition to a cost-per-click campaign. You may want to supplement your text ads and incorporate image and video ads in your campaign. You could also employ site-targeting to show your ad to people who aren't actively searching for your business but may still be interested in what you sell.
- Maximizing ROI: Maximizing your return on investment calls for a little more understanding about the sales cycle unique to your product or service, and how keyword searches can reflect which stage a user might be in that cycle. If you want to separate the serious buyers from the online equivalent of window shoppers, your structure, ad text and keyword lists can be designed to target specific kinds of users. For instance, users searching on variations such as 'reviews' or 'ratings' are probably still researching the product, and you can filter out such searches by including those words as negative keywords.
This post ends our discussion of Assessment, the first of four topics we will be covering in this series. We have touched upon a few high level tips today on how to achieve your goals for your advertising campaigns. Stay tuned for future posts of "AdWords Optimization Tips" when we will take a deeper dive on specific advice and tips on structure, keywords, and ad text. Until then, happy optimizing!
Monday, February 26, 2007
Flight Centre privatisation in trouble
Word on the street (ok - from Travelweekly) is that the privatisation of Flight Centre is in trouble. The billion dollar plus deal was announced in October but is seems that management and the board are not going to get to the magic 75% voting mark to make the deal happen. The article says that it is Lazard Asset Management (28% owner of the company) that is holding out. Chances are they are simply looking for an increase in the bid.
However I would caution anyone against calling the deal dead. The PE firm behind the deal - PEP - are not going to give up too easily and with $400 plus million resting on the deal, the management including Scroo Turner are certainly going to keep fighting. Chances are we will see a revised bid very soon.
That said - this is not a slam dunk must do deal for PEP. I have not done the financial analysis so cannot say for certain if the value is right or wrong. But I do know - and said before- that Flight Centre has not reacted properly to the rise of online travel, to reductions in airline commissions, to changing staff patterns, to the international challenges (especially in the US and UK) or to the need to have more depth and breadth in directly contracted land product. If the deal does go through, PEP will need to address all of those issues
UPDATE - Ouch - Flight Centre stock is down more than 10% as a result of all this.
However I would caution anyone against calling the deal dead. The PE firm behind the deal - PEP - are not going to give up too easily and with $400 plus million resting on the deal, the management including Scroo Turner are certainly going to keep fighting. Chances are we will see a revised bid very soon.
That said - this is not a slam dunk must do deal for PEP. I have not done the financial analysis so cannot say for certain if the value is right or wrong. But I do know - and said before- that Flight Centre has not reacted properly to the rise of online travel, to reductions in airline commissions, to changing staff patterns, to the international challenges (especially in the US and UK) or to the need to have more depth and breadth in directly contracted land product. If the deal does go through, PEP will need to address all of those issues
UPDATE - Ouch - Flight Centre stock is down more than 10% as a result of all this.
5 Reasons Why Headlines Are Crucial To Your Home-Based Business Website’s Success
When it comes to your home-based business, when you write ads or seek to promote your product or service in other ways, it always is crucial to have an attention grabbing headline. It must generate enough curiousity to get people to at least click on it. Here is why:
5 Reasons Why Headlines Are Crucial To Your Website’s Success
5 Reasons Why Headlines Are Crucial To Your Website’s Success
by: Robert Boduch
Without a powerful headline, your message stands little chance of being noticed in an increasingly competitive marketplace. If your headline doesn’t capture attention and pull prospects into your sales copy, than your marketing effort is a total waste of energy and resources.
Nothing is more important to getting your message noticed than your headlines. If you’re not allocating a sizable percentage of your time and creative effort to the headline used on each page of your website, you could be losing out on a large chunk of business.
Top copywriters understand this concept well. They know how essential it is to capture attention by literally stopping pre-occupied prospects in their tracks.
Here are five good reasons why your site headlines deserve greater emphasis and attention:
1) Headlines Are Natural Attention Getters. The majority of online prospects are quick scanners. No one reads the body copy of a page without first reading and being pulled in by the headline. Headlines are the first thing your visitors see. They jump out visually and command attention. Headlines are leads set distinctly above the rest of the text. Often the typeface, size, and style used for headlines contrasts with that uses in the body copy. It’s a proven approach that naturally attracts eyeballs, virtually forcing interested prospects to grasp the message of the headline and to read on.
According to advertising legend David Ogilvy, 5 times more people read headlines than body copy. Although Ogilvy was talking about print advertising in general, the observation is certainly applicable to websites as well.
With 5 times the readership, headlines have the power and capability to make any message many times more successful.
2) Site Headlines Serve As Valuable Guides To The Busy Surfer. Headlines reveal key details. They tip off readers as to what follows. They provide clear signals to help readers decide whether they should stick around for the full message, or dash off to something else – something better suited to their own special needs and interests.
As a quick summary of the entire piece, headlines either attract continued interest and readership, or they repel it. Without a headline, the reader is forced to wade through a portion of the text to understand the meaning. Forcing readers to do this is to risk losing them altogether. It’s sales suicide. In effect, having no headline will cost you at least 80% of your potential audience.
3) Headlines Prepare The Reader For What Is To Come. Headlines stimulate interest. They captivate, arouse curiosity and stimulate the desire for more. It’s the headline that starts the reader’s motor running. A good headline sets up a feeling of expectation as the reader anticipates discovering more -- and can’t wait to get it!
Successful headlines address specific audiences. They open prospects minds to new possibilities and expand their level of enthusiasm and interest. The best headlines involve prospects, virtually guaranteeing their sustained attention for the time being.
4) Headlines Simplify The Learning Curve. Every headline serves to introduce whatever follows. As an opening or lead-in, the role of the headline is to succinctly communicate the essence of the message it precedes in a n interesting and compelling way.
Effective headlines and sub-headings reveal key bits of information -- often with the added power of emotion. A review of the various headings alone can often provide one with the gist of a given message. This makes it faster and easier to understand, remember, and review.
Use your headings to generate emotional involvement and you increase the chances prospects will go back and read more of your copy. When you make it easier to read and comprehend your messages, you increase the chances of making the sale.
5) Headlines Allow You To Deliver Your Biggest Bang Right Up-Front. Capture attention and interest at the outset, by using your most appealing selling point. If your strongest, most desirable product attribute (benefit) fails to pull prospects in, surely nothing else you could ever say would do the trick, either.
The stronger and more compelling your headline, the more readers are likely to read on and spend more time at your website. Create every headline to grab attention and inspire interest. The more alluring and irresistible you can make it, the more genuine prospects you’ll attract and ultimately, the more sales you’ll record. Headlines are powerful marketing tools when used effectively. Take a good look at your site headline. Could you add more intrigue, curiosity, or interest?
Test different headlines by trying various appeals and offer combinations. Keep an eye out for additional headline opportunities throughout your sales letters, as well as on other pages on your site. Make your headlines impossible to miss and difficult to ignore… then, watch your results soar!
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About The Author
Robert Boduch is the author of Great Headlines Instantly! -- How To Write Powerful, Attention-Grabbing Headlines That Pull In More Prospects, More Customers And More Profits, NOW! This full-length manual features hundreds of helpful tips, techniques, strategies and hands-on formulas for writing successful headlines of every kind.
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AdWords Editor 3.0 now available for Windows
AdWords Editor 3.0 is now available for Windows. With Version 3.0, you can:
Please note that Version 3.0 is currently available for Windows 2000/XP/Vista only. If you're a Mac user, we won't keep you waiting long -- AdWords Editor 3.0 for Mac is scheduled for release in a few weeks.
- Add or edit site-targeted campaigns
- Add or edit negative sites for keyword- and site-targeted campaigns
- Edit another account while posting or checking your changes
- Pause or resume individual ads, keywords, and sites
- See the number of rows you've selected in the data view
Please note that Version 3.0 is currently available for Windows 2000/XP/Vista only. If you're a Mac user, we won't keep you waiting long -- AdWords Editor 3.0 for Mac is scheduled for release in a few weeks.
Link unit, front and center
If you visit www.the-gadgeteer.com, you’re likely to find a review of the newest, hippest gadget. For nearly a decade, Julie Strietelmeier has taken her fascination with consumer electronics to the masses, offering her opinions on the latest gadget accessories for readers to enjoy.
Recently, Julie experimented with optimizing her link unit ad placement. She removed the existing 120x90 link unit from the uppermost right corner of her pages, and instead placed a 468x15 link unit at the top of her articles. In doing so, Julie found a convenient, unobtrusive location and saw her readers naturally gravitating towards the link unit. Her efforts led to an immediate doubling of her revenue -- an increase that has been sustained since the move.
Before
After
With the nice bump in her earnings, Julie has found the extra pocket change handy. As she says, “Now I can go out and buy the newest gadgets and review them immediately” -- much to the relief of her gadget-happy audience.
Recently, Julie experimented with optimizing her link unit ad placement. She removed the existing 120x90 link unit from the uppermost right corner of her pages, and instead placed a 468x15 link unit at the top of her articles. In doing so, Julie found a convenient, unobtrusive location and saw her readers naturally gravitating towards the link unit. Her efforts led to an immediate doubling of her revenue -- an increase that has been sustained since the move.
Before
After
With the nice bump in her earnings, Julie has found the extra pocket change handy. As she says, “Now I can go out and buy the newest gadgets and review them immediately” -- much to the relief of her gadget-happy audience.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Lastminute sale a real possibility
International readers will be confused by the headline for today's post as most will assume that the sale of Lastminute.com to Sabre/Travelocity was old news (2005). However in Australia the Lastminute "franchise" is operated under a joint venture with local player Travel.com.au being the majority shareholder. Travelweekly is reporting comments from Travel.com.au CEO Adam Johnson that he is considering selling the business back to Sabre/Travelocity by exercising a right under the joint venture triggered by Sabre's recent privatisation. The key part of the comments from Adam is that this is not a done deal but merely a right possessed by Travel.com.au. Am looking forward to watching this unfold.
Arm Chair Explorer
My father was an explorer.
He had a wife and two kids and a day job and little disposable income, but that did not keep him from venturing into the unknown whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Usually the opportunity to explore would present itself while the family was in the car and driving from point A to point B (often on the 300+ mile trips to or from either set of grandparents). Tom (we called our dad by his first name for some forgotten reason) would spot a road sign and declare to the captive audience that this was undoubtedly a short cut to our destination. Despite any protests (and we soon learned not to bother offering any) my father would veer off from the safe-and-narrow and head our car down the pavement towards "the unknown".
We discovered some really great places, and some not so great places, and we discovered that paved roads don't always stay paved for their whole length. Many times we'd end up on dusty dirt roads and seldom if ever would "the short cut" take less time than the beaten path.
Long after my brother and I left home, my dad continued his driving explorations along with my mom. On one infamous journey to find out what was in Pandale Texas the locals told him that his was the first stranger's car to head into town over the dirt road from Ozona in collective memory.
My dad is gone now... but that wanderlust is alive and well in the next generation. I love maps, and I long to drive down every side road with an interesting name.
That's why I love Google Maps and Google Earth. When I pass an interesting road sign, I can keep on going (much to my wife's relief) safe in the knowledge that as soon as I can get to a Browser I can "go back" and find out where that road really went.
My most interesting recent discover has been "Radar Road" out in West Texas to the Southwest of Van Horn. If you look carefully, you will see that Radar Road is one of those anomalous roads that leaves the Interstate as a dirt road, but which miraculously becomes paved many miles further on. Perhaps this is a little known relic of the Cold War, guarding our borders from Soviet sneak attacks via Mexico. I will probably never know the story behind "Radar Road" for sure, but I do love dreaming up my own conjectures.
My "Google-Based" explorations don't completely satisfy my wanderlust, but they do save a lot of wear and tear on the car and the budget. I'm sure my dad would approve.
Christian Divorce. What to Do When It Happens To You.
Just in case you were thinking I can't relate to what you are going through there was
a two and a half year period in my life where I went through a Christian divorce. During that time I lost 85% of everything I owned , was denied access to my kids,
cried for at least an hour everyday, was kicked aside by my church, was falsely accused, lost my job, was dragged through the courts, paid out unjust amounts of money, almost went bankrupt, and seriously pondered suicide daily with detailed plans of how I was going to do it.
That was many years ago and I wouldn't want to come across like I am still bitter or
looking for some sort of revenge. God has restored me marvelously and I hope to encourage those of you out there who may be in the middle of this dark emotional
hellish roller coaster at the moment. There is definitely hope for you. Jesus for sure is right in the middle of all this with you. He hasn't left you or condemned you like the church probably has painting you with the divorce brush. So I will attempt to share some of the life lessons and things I discovered about Jesus through it all in the hope that you will find sound counsel and comfort.
#1) Jesus is not asking you to now be single for the rest of your life because of your divorce. Jesus knew exactly how long your marriage would last and what you would
do when you were in it and what your spouse would do...etc. It is baffling how confused some believers are on this issue. When God created Adam he said" it is not
good for man to be alone". He has provided abundant life for you and given you all
things you will need to be Godly. This includes a good mate in life. The only people
who are called to be single are quite comfortable with the idea. If you are not
comfortable with the thought of being single then you are not called to be single so
don't start entertaining that thought and tormenting yourself with it.
#2) You are not required to hold out forever and pray that your spouse one day snaps
out of it. What you will come to find out is God gives us all a free will in all matters (especially marriage) and watch out for well meaning Christians who counsel you to keep praying and believing when God is asking you to move on with your life. Having said that there will be some of you who are apart from your spouse for reasons other than adultery and there is a reasonable chance of reconciling. Perhaps neither of you have done things too damaging to your relationship. To you I say stay in prayer and hold out for a season. How long a season is up to you and God but you are under no condemnation if you move on. Forgiving your spouse is one thing and ever being intimate again with that person is another. There are certain boundaries a spouse can cross and only you can decide if reconciling is reasonable or possible. A relationship is a two way thing (not just one) and both parties have to want to change. If your spouse is demanding change in you and is blind to his or her own arrogance and faults there is no foundation for a healthy reconciliation.
3) Get yourself into some sort of Christian divorce support group outside of your
church. Once you find one you will discover that many people's stories are way uglier
than yours and you are not the only one going through this. Whatever you do get out
of your house where you are trapped in your own self pity. Brooding by yourself is fruitless. There are natural phases we all experience in divorce and separation it will bring healing to you to understand where you are on the scale by talking to others. Purpose in your heart not to do any Christian dating at this time. Why you ask? Because who you are and why you split with your spouse are all tied into the spirits you have been listening to up to this point in your life and most of them are not good. You may have many patterns of behavior that God wants to change before you are ready again. This is a time for deep introspection on what you may have done wrong and how you can change. I have seen it over and over again where people jump out of their marriage right into the same kind of crap they just got out of. You need time to let the holy spirit change you from within. This doesn't necessarily mean you were to blame or anything like that it just means God is transforming areas in your life that will take time to emerge in you. How long? I don't know but it will take care of itself.
Begin to thank God out loud and in your heart for your new spouse and the changes
he is making in you.So once again grab hold of hope in your heart. Be on the look out
for a good friend of the opposite sex. Why? Because the little fox I am now married
to was my best friend during that awful time. The Lord had her right there in front
of me but I had to do some changing before I was ready. The key to success is to
realize God is for you in this time of hardship and he has a great plan B seeing how
plan A didn't pan out.
a two and a half year period in my life where I went through a Christian divorce. During that time I lost 85% of everything I owned , was denied access to my kids,
cried for at least an hour everyday, was kicked aside by my church, was falsely accused, lost my job, was dragged through the courts, paid out unjust amounts of money, almost went bankrupt, and seriously pondered suicide daily with detailed plans of how I was going to do it.
That was many years ago and I wouldn't want to come across like I am still bitter or
looking for some sort of revenge. God has restored me marvelously and I hope to encourage those of you out there who may be in the middle of this dark emotional
hellish roller coaster at the moment. There is definitely hope for you. Jesus for sure is right in the middle of all this with you. He hasn't left you or condemned you like the church probably has painting you with the divorce brush. So I will attempt to share some of the life lessons and things I discovered about Jesus through it all in the hope that you will find sound counsel and comfort.
#1) Jesus is not asking you to now be single for the rest of your life because of your divorce. Jesus knew exactly how long your marriage would last and what you would
do when you were in it and what your spouse would do...etc. It is baffling how confused some believers are on this issue. When God created Adam he said" it is not
good for man to be alone". He has provided abundant life for you and given you all
things you will need to be Godly. This includes a good mate in life. The only people
who are called to be single are quite comfortable with the idea. If you are not
comfortable with the thought of being single then you are not called to be single so
don't start entertaining that thought and tormenting yourself with it.
#2) You are not required to hold out forever and pray that your spouse one day snaps
out of it. What you will come to find out is God gives us all a free will in all matters (especially marriage) and watch out for well meaning Christians who counsel you to keep praying and believing when God is asking you to move on with your life. Having said that there will be some of you who are apart from your spouse for reasons other than adultery and there is a reasonable chance of reconciling. Perhaps neither of you have done things too damaging to your relationship. To you I say stay in prayer and hold out for a season. How long a season is up to you and God but you are under no condemnation if you move on. Forgiving your spouse is one thing and ever being intimate again with that person is another. There are certain boundaries a spouse can cross and only you can decide if reconciling is reasonable or possible. A relationship is a two way thing (not just one) and both parties have to want to change. If your spouse is demanding change in you and is blind to his or her own arrogance and faults there is no foundation for a healthy reconciliation.
3) Get yourself into some sort of Christian divorce support group outside of your
church. Once you find one you will discover that many people's stories are way uglier
than yours and you are not the only one going through this. Whatever you do get out
of your house where you are trapped in your own self pity. Brooding by yourself is fruitless. There are natural phases we all experience in divorce and separation it will bring healing to you to understand where you are on the scale by talking to others. Purpose in your heart not to do any Christian dating at this time. Why you ask? Because who you are and why you split with your spouse are all tied into the spirits you have been listening to up to this point in your life and most of them are not good. You may have many patterns of behavior that God wants to change before you are ready again. This is a time for deep introspection on what you may have done wrong and how you can change. I have seen it over and over again where people jump out of their marriage right into the same kind of crap they just got out of. You need time to let the holy spirit change you from within. This doesn't necessarily mean you were to blame or anything like that it just means God is transforming areas in your life that will take time to emerge in you. How long? I don't know but it will take care of itself.
Begin to thank God out loud and in your heart for your new spouse and the changes
he is making in you.So once again grab hold of hope in your heart. Be on the look out
for a good friend of the opposite sex. Why? Because the little fox I am now married
to was my best friend during that awful time. The Lord had her right there in front
of me but I had to do some changing before I was ready. The key to success is to
realize God is for you in this time of hardship and he has a great plan B seeing how
plan A didn't pan out.
3 Steps To Better Sales Copywriting for Your Home-Business Site
If you have an online or offline home-based business or are looking to start one, one of the skills that you will need to work on is sales copy. Sales copy can make a break sales on your website. Here are some tips to help you write better sales copy so that visitors to your site can convert to sales for your product or service:
3 Steps To Better Sales Copywriting
by: J.L. Reid
Whether you’re wet-behind-the-ears or a seasoned copywriter, your craft will benefit by remembering one thing:
You’re nothing more than a salesperson.
There’s an old saying in the “business” that, “a copywriter is a salesperson sitting in front of a typewriter.” True, few of us are using typewriters these days. The principal, however, remains unchanged.
We’re in sales. I know this. You know this. We all know this. Yet why does much of the copy out there, especially ads produced by expensive agencies, seem to miss the point?
If all we’re doing is sales, albeit transmitted through a written or broadcast medium, then we’d better know what we’re doing.
Starting the process
While studying creative writing, I learned this storytelling maxim: every character has a motive for being in a scene. The same is true in a sales situation.
The salesperson’s motive is simple. He wants to make the sale and get his commission. But what does the potential customer want?
First, what type of customer are they? Are they ready to make an immediate buy? Are they information shopping, looking for a great deal? Are they even looking for our product or service?
Ask Questions, then Shut-up and Listen
When selling to prospective customers ask questions that get them to reveal their needs. It’s a mistake to sell the product on the tip of your tongue. “Model X” might work, but if you listen you might discover that the more expensive “Model Z” is what the customer really needs.
Once you know why the prospect is there--whether they have an unresolved need, an emotional reason for buying, or they’re just shopping around--tailor your pitch to their specific reason.
Now when you make the pitch, tell how your product benefits the customer, rather than rattling off product features you think he cares about.
When You’re Finished, Close the Door
By this point your spiel should be unforced. You know the customer’s “hot-buttons” so everything should be smooth sailing.
After you’ve explained the last product benefit, you (as the salesperson) are obligated to close the deal. The way you do that is simply to ask, “Are you ready to make your decision?” or “Is this the product you’d like to buy?”
Hopefully the answer is yes. If not, then you ask, “When would you be ready to make your decision? Can I contact you then?”
What Does This Have to Do with Copywriting?
Remember, you’re nothing more than a salesperson. So you, so while writing copy, you should go through similar steps.
1. Qualify the prospect. How you write your copy, and the ratio of hard selling to information-based soft selling, will change with the medium you’re working in. But the first thing your copy should do is state outright what business you’re in and what you’re selling.
If your pitch is too vague, if it’s implied, or it depends on prior knowledge for comprehension, then your prospect might never realize he needs what you’re selling.
2. Sell Benefits, not Features. I’ve heard many sales trainers say, “It’s not about you, it’s about them.” That’s golden advice. The best way to apply this idea to your copy is by focusing on your product’s benefits.
A sports car’s features might be power steering, fast acceleration, and fuel efficiency. The benefits of that same car to a man a mid-life crisis, however, are the social status and appearance of youth it gives him. Which reason, the benefits or the features, would cause him to buy?
In a face-to-face sales environment it’s easy to ask for a specific customer’s needs. When writing sales copy you can create the same rapport by being customer-centered. To do this, write in the second person, or “You” voice. If your copy repeatedly says your company does this, or your product does that, you’re being self-centered. Your prospect won’t see himself benefiting from your product.
3. Close the Deal. I can’t count how often I’ve read a brochure, watched a commercial, or visited a website and had no clue about what I was supposed to do.
Always end your copy with a Call-to-Action.
Tell the customer exactly what you want him to do. This isn’t the time to be cute, so be exact. Do you want him to call you? Click a “Buy This” button? Make a donation? Tell your customer, or else he won’t do anything.
When asked what I do I usually say I’m a freelance marketing and publicity copywriter. I’m might revise the statement to, “I’m a freelance sales copywriter,” because that’s what it all comes down to: sales. Whether your copy creates a direct response or creates publicity and general awareness of your company, if you don’t sell you might as well not be in business.
About The Author
J.L. Reid is a freelance marketing—er—freelance sales copywriter based in Raleigh NC. Visit his website, www.reidwrite.com, to learn more about his services.
Saturday, February 24, 2007
Latest in travel spam
As you can appreciate, my timsboot email address attracts a lot of spam. I wanted to share one of the recent ones with you.
Hello Dear,I am guessing that the commercial angle is for me to write back and say "I am not a hotel" which confirms my email as legitimate. Or - maybe there is a Nigerian like angle here were they start a dialogue with me on how to book accommodation leading to me giving up a "deposit" etc. Anyway - my favourite part is the very familiar "Hello Dear" at the beginning.
I have 3 clients who will be coming for a vacation in your area from the 10th June to 25th June 2007. Kindly get back to me if you have vacancy for the specified period, Get back to me with the total cost of the 3 Doubles rooms for 3 clients for 15 days stay.
Do confirm if you accept major credit card for your payment.
Note, Breakfast will be included to the total cost.
Do get back to me with the total cost of their stay in Dollars.
Kind Regards,
Friday, February 23, 2007
The Innovation Index up 6% in 2007 - Weekly Report 02-21-07
The Innovation Index is now up 6% in 2007. S & P 500 was even for the week, and is up 3% in 2007. NASDAQ was up 1% for the week, and is now up 4% for the year, whereas the Dow Jones Index was even for the week, and is now up 3% in 2007. The Innovation Index continues to lead all the major indices.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) leads the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index in stock performance with 24% gain for the year.
The Innovation Index closed at 73.15 on February 21, 2007, up 3.84 points from the closing price of 69.31 on December 29, 2006.
8 of the Top 20 Innovators showed positive gains, 7 of the Top 20 Innovators dipped in the red, and 5 Innovators were unchanged last week.
Weekly Advances
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was up 5% in just one week owing to upgrades, upbeat forecasts by analysts for the current quarter, opening of a new store in Florida and agreement with Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) about the iPhone trademark. Apple is now up 5% for the year. Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) announced solid quarterly results with profits that exceeded the analysts' estimates, including the 2007 outlook. The news sent Wal-Mart's shares up 4% in just one week, and now Wal-Mart is up 8% for the year. Target (NYSE: TGT) also benefited from the announcement, and gained 2% in one week. Target is up an impressive 12% for the year. Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) were each up 3% for the week. The street is expecting upside from Yahoo!'s Project Panama, and announced innovations such as Yahoo! Pipes only furthers the excitement (although Yahoo! search share slipped last month to Google). Research In Motion's latest Blackberry innovation is helping the recent surge in stock performance. RIMM is now up 11% for the year.
Weekly Declines
There were no significant declines last week. HP (NYSE: HPQ) had another solid quarter beating the analyst estimates for both topline revenue and profits; however, the 2007 outlook was deemed conservative by the analysts. HP PC business is doing well, and is gaining significant market share against Dell (NASDAQ: DELL). Yet, HP shares were down 4% in one week due to the projections, and are now even for the year. Dell is now planning to "experiment" with retail. Earlier, when Dell took over Dell's CEO role, I had dwelled on the same point on How Dell can turnaround Dell? Retailing is critical to Dell's future success, and Dell can perhaps emulate the recent success of Blockbuster that offers the best of both worlds in the movie rental business (related story: Blockbuster versus Netflix). Today's consumer wants all the choices, likes simple business model, and appreciates ease of shopping through multiple channels.
Yearly Leaders and Laggards
Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is leading the top 20 innovators with 24% gain for the year. Target (NYSE: TGT) is up 12% for the year owing to the strong retail sector and Target innovations into music and electronics. eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is holding steady at 11% for the year. Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) shed another 3% last week, and is now down 9% for the year, after posting a solid 18% gain in 2006. Can Starbucks repeat the 2006 performance with the introduction of new innovations in Coffee vending?
About The Innovation Index
The Innovation Index introduced in December, 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in North America.
The Innovation Index has returned 119% over the last five years. This assumes an investment in each stock of The Innovation Index (buying each stock). An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $219 as of December 29, 2006. By comparison, $100 invested in each of S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index returned $124. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by 77% over the last five years.
The Normalized Innovation Index is even more impressive, and has returned 174% over the last five years. This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index.
The alphabetical list of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index along with their stock ticker symbols are presented below:
3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Dell Inc. - (NASDAQ: DELL)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NYSE: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
Southwest Airlines Co. - (NYSE: LUV)
Starbucks Corporation - (NASDAQ: SBUX)
Target Corp. - (NYSE: TGT)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. - (NYSE: WMT)
Yahoo! Inc. - (NASDAQ: YHOO)
The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2007, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.
Disclaimer: I invest in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.
Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) leads the Top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index in stock performance with 24% gain for the year.
The Innovation Index closed at 73.15 on February 21, 2007, up 3.84 points from the closing price of 69.31 on December 29, 2006.
8 of the Top 20 Innovators showed positive gains, 7 of the Top 20 Innovators dipped in the red, and 5 Innovators were unchanged last week.
Weekly Advances
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) was up 5% in just one week owing to upgrades, upbeat forecasts by analysts for the current quarter, opening of a new store in Florida and agreement with Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO) about the iPhone trademark. Apple is now up 5% for the year. Wal-Mart Stores (NYSE: WMT) announced solid quarterly results with profits that exceeded the analysts' estimates, including the 2007 outlook. The news sent Wal-Mart's shares up 4% in just one week, and now Wal-Mart is up 8% for the year. Target (NYSE: TGT) also benefited from the announcement, and gained 2% in one week. Target is up an impressive 12% for the year. Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO), Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) were each up 3% for the week. The street is expecting upside from Yahoo!'s Project Panama, and announced innovations such as Yahoo! Pipes only furthers the excitement (although Yahoo! search share slipped last month to Google). Research In Motion's latest Blackberry innovation is helping the recent surge in stock performance. RIMM is now up 11% for the year.
Weekly Declines
There were no significant declines last week. HP (NYSE: HPQ) had another solid quarter beating the analyst estimates for both topline revenue and profits; however, the 2007 outlook was deemed conservative by the analysts. HP PC business is doing well, and is gaining significant market share against Dell (NASDAQ: DELL). Yet, HP shares were down 4% in one week due to the projections, and are now even for the year. Dell is now planning to "experiment" with retail. Earlier, when Dell took over Dell's CEO role, I had dwelled on the same point on How Dell can turnaround Dell? Retailing is critical to Dell's future success, and Dell can perhaps emulate the recent success of Blockbuster that offers the best of both worlds in the movie rental business (related story: Blockbuster versus Netflix). Today's consumer wants all the choices, likes simple business model, and appreciates ease of shopping through multiple channels.
Yearly Leaders and Laggards
Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) is leading the top 20 innovators with 24% gain for the year. Target (NYSE: TGT) is up 12% for the year owing to the strong retail sector and Target innovations into music and electronics. eBay Inc. (NASDAQ: EBAY) is holding steady at 11% for the year. Starbucks Corporation (NASDAQ: SBUX) shed another 3% last week, and is now down 9% for the year, after posting a solid 18% gain in 2006. Can Starbucks repeat the 2006 performance with the introduction of new innovations in Coffee vending?
About The Innovation Index
The Innovation Index introduced in December, 2006 is a weighted stock price index of the top 20 Innovators in North America.
The Innovation Index has returned 119% over the last five years. This assumes an investment in each stock of The Innovation Index (buying each stock). An average of $100 invested in The Innovation Index on December 31, 2001 returned $219 as of December 29, 2006. By comparison, $100 invested in each of S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index returned $124. The Innovation Index beats the S & P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones Index by 77% over the last five years.
The Normalized Innovation Index is even more impressive, and has returned 174% over the last five years. This assumes equal investment in each stock of The Innovation Index.
The alphabetical list of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index along with their stock ticker symbols are presented below:
3M Company - (NYSE: MMM)
Amazon.com, Inc. - (NASDAQ: AMZN)
America Movil - (NYSE: AMX)
Apple Inc. - (NASDAQ: AAPL)
Cisco Systems, Inc. - (NASDAQ: CSCO)
Dell Inc. - (NASDAQ: DELL)
eBay Inc. - (NASDAQ: EBAY)
General Electric Co. - (NYSE: GE)
Google Inc. - (NASDAQ: GOOG)
Hewlett-Packard Co. - (NYSE: HPQ)
Intel Corporation - (NYSE: INTC)
International Business Machines Corp. - (NYSE: IBM)
Microsoft Corporation - (NASDAQ: MSFT)
Research In Motion Limited - (NASDAQ: RIMM)
Southwest Airlines Co. - (NYSE: LUV)
Starbucks Corporation - (NASDAQ: SBUX)
Target Corp. - (NYSE: TGT)
The Proctor & Gamble Company - (NYSE: PG)
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. - (NYSE: WMT)
Yahoo! Inc. - (NASDAQ: YHOO)
The Innovation Index will analyze the positions and standings of the top 20 Innovators at the end of each year. For 2007, there will be no further changes in The Innovation Index.
Disclaimer: I invest in the stocks comprising The Innovation Index.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
5 Powerful Tips To Beat The Biggest Problem ALL Home-Based Marketers Face
All of us who have home based business strugle with marketing at times. Here is one of the big ones:
5 Powerful Tips To Beat The Biggest Problem ALL Marketers Face
by: Charles Kangethe
I bet you can't tell me... the single biggest problem facing Every Direct Marketer, new and old.
It's not generating traffic, nor building an O'pt-In list, nor is it finding products to market and it's not a lack of Cash.
You can buy traffic, you can buy O'pt-In list members, you can make or buy products and you can even borrow Cash.
The biggest single problem for any Direct Marketer is How To Earn Your Prospect's Trust.
Learn how to earn AND keep trust and you open up huge new Marketing possibilities.
Too many salespeople of doubtful credentials, and too many adverts promising so much and delivering so little have hardened consumers, they no longer trust Marketers and Marketing claims without a great deal of convincing.
So how exactly do you turn a skeptic into a believer ?
Tip #1 - Make Your First Contact Count
Your initial point of contact with prospects is typically
* An advert, in a PPC, a banner exchange, a classified or solo campaign
* An entry in a Search Engine directory,
* Or an article you have written.
Unfortunate as it may be, people do judge others by first contact. If your initial impression of someone is poor, chances are that you will not give them a second look, be it in business or your personal affairs.
Make sure your initial point of contact with all prospects is to your advantage.
This does NOT mean expensive, glitzy or superficial.
It means make your initial contact Sincere.
Keep that one word in mind as you design all your sales and marketing strategies and your Initial Contacts will always be positive.
Tip #2 - Products, Pricing, Promises and Personality
Sincerity in your contacts with prospects comes from applying the (modified) 4 p's of marketing.
* Products
Market the best products you can and never settle for second best. Add value and benefit to your prospect with quality merchandise. Resist the temptation to market "Cost Cutting" alternatives that are in fact more expensive due to their poorer real value.
* Pricing
Price your merchandise at a fair value for the producer, the consumer and the marketer. Over pricing your products is a self defeating tactic because prospects learn to avoid your pitch and with over high pricing you invite competition to under cut your cost and price base.
* Promises
Your sales literature and copy must be accurate and reflect the true benefits of your products and services. This does not mean you should be unduly modest, by all means make big claims, but make sure you can prove and demonstrate anything you promise.
Remember, in this context, any guarantee you give must be more solid than any Banks Vaults and worth as much as the contents of Fort Knox
* Personality
Inject your personality into your contact with prospects.
People love to do business with people they know. Avoid doing things you feel uncomfortable with, but do tell people about yourself, your failures, your wins, your hopes and your fears. Be the human face of you business and build a sincere relationship with prospects.
Tip #3 - Communication
When you get past the initial contact, the next hurdle in building trust is communication with your prospects.
There are several ways to do this
* A sequential autoresponder with relevant messages sent to your O'pt-In prospects at regular AND frequent intervals.
* An e-zine sent out to subscribers with useful information and not just an excuse for another advert.
* Articles showing your prospects how YOU manage your business and personal tasks, tactics and strategies.
Communication is two way traffic. Ask your prospects for input into your professional relationship and how they think you can improve it. Listen to your prospects.
Tip #4 - Credibility
Prospects always seek comfort that they are doing the right thing.
It pays to use "borrowed" credibility if you are not a world recognised expert in your field. This is where testimonials enter the picture.
Here are a few ways in which you can obtain testimonials and build credibility with a new product or service :
* Give a few samples away to a test group in return for the testimonial
* Use functionally disabled or time barred samples as demo versions which you can give away to prospects
* Develop fully functional modules with less features than the standard product and give those away to prospects.
* Develop e-courses and other training programs showing prospects the benefits and training them in how to use and consume your products and services.
Tip #5 - Service
Your prospect's Trust is very hard earned. But this is as nothing when compared to retaining their Trust.
Once a prospect becomes a customer, too many marketers make the fatal mistake of taking that customer for granted.
Post sales service is a crunch time for cementing the Trust you have managed to win with such effort.
Make sure you stay in touch with your new customer. Offer them advice and help in the use of their new product or service. Make sure any potential issues are dealt with before they escalate.
Be available and within easy contact for your customers and prospects.
Relevant Resources
http://www.simplyeasier.com/me.html
Conclusion
As a direct marketer you can buy traffic, you can buy O'pt-In list members, you can make or buy products and you can even borrow Cash.
You cannot manufacture or in any way manipulate trust - Trust is the one thing in your business that must be earned the Hard Way.
Be sincere, do the right things as shown here and build trust with your prospects.
(c) 2004 Charles Kangethe
|
About The Author
Charles Kangethe of http://www.simplyeasier.com is a leading new wave Netpreneur and a published author from England. The "Simply Easier" brand name is your guarantee of high value, quality Marketing Products, Services and Resources. |
AdSense for content now in Hebrew
This week, we’ve launched AdSense for content in Hebrew. If you're a publisher with a site primarily in Hebrew, feel free to begin displaying contextually-targeted ads on your pages by logging in to your account and generating your ad code under the AdSense Setup tab. As you may know, it can take up to 48 hours for our crawler to visit your site and determine which are relevant ads to display.
Please know that we’re working on making AdSense for content and AdSense for search available in more languages, and we’ll be sure to post any updates right here. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience, and ask that you continue to place the ad or search code only on pages in one of our supported languages.
Please know that we’re working on making AdSense for content and AdSense for search available in more languages, and we’ll be sure to post any updates right here. In the meantime, we appreciate your patience, and ask that you continue to place the ad or search code only on pages in one of our supported languages.
!מהיום תוכלו להרוויח מהאתר שלכם גם בעברית
Google versus Microsoft - the enterprise battle heats up!
Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) today introduced new innovation with the Business version of Google Apps - Google Apps Premier Edition in direct competition to Microsoft's Enterprise applications.
Google is one of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index.
Google Apps Premier Edition is available for a yearly subscription of $50 per user account per year.
Google Apps Premier Edition communication and collaboration suite includes the following Top Ten Features:
1. Google Gmail webmail services including Gmail for Blackberry
2. Google Calendar shared calendaring services
3. Google Talk instant messaging and voice-over-ip
4. Start Page branded and customized to company domain (e.g. companyname.googleapp.com)
5. Google Docs & Spreadsheets
6. 24 x 7 Phone support for critical issues - extended business hours support
7. 10 GB storage per user
8. New set of administration and business integration capabilities - Application-level control and APIs for business process adaptation, policies, data migration, user provisioning, single sign-on, and mail gateways
9. 99.9% uptime - SLAs (service level agreements) for monitoring and credits
10. French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean language versions (possibly more)
Importantly, Google Apps Premier Edition builds on the success of 100,000 small businesses and universities using the free Google Apps Standard Edition and Google Apps Education Edition introduced in 2006.
Proctor & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) are also two of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index. Both P&G and GE applauded the new Google Apps Premier Edition.
P&G statement:
"Procter & Gamble Global Business Services (GBS) has enrolled as a charter enterprise customer of Google Apps, a successful consumer product suite now available to enterprises. P&G will work closely with Google in shaping enterprise characteristics and requirements for these popular tools," said Laurie Heltsley, director Procter & Gamble Global Business Services.
GE statement:
"So much of business now relies on people being able to communicate and collaborate effectively," said Gregory Simpson, CTO for General Electric Company. "GE is interested in evaluating Google Apps for the easy access it provides to a suite of web applications, and the way these applications can help people work together. Given its consumer experience, Google has a natural advantage in understanding how people interact together over the web."
Google also has the backing and adoption of smaller yet critical businesses such as San Francisco Bay Pediatrics.
San Francisco Bay Pediatrics:
"When it comes to our email systems, our doctors don’t have the time or the budgets to deal with managing technology or defending against spam," said Andrew Johnson, chief information officer, San Francisco Bay Pediatrics. "With Google Apps Premier Edition we don’t have to worry about downloading the latest spam filters or navigating unwieldy servers. This is where we let Google do what it does best, so we can do what we do best – help our patients."
Finally, Google made a very important announcement which was embedded towards the later paragraphs of the Press Release:
"other early adopters of Google Apps Premier Edition include Salesforce.com and Prudential Preferred Properties in the U.S., as well as Essilor and Mediametrie in France. "
Google is touting Salesforce.com as an early adopter.
Could this be the beginning of an early indicator that Google will go on to buy Salesforce.com?
Does Microsoft Live or Microsoft Business Services division have an answer for Google? Can Google find many distribution and enterprise partners such as Avaya and Postini to support, integrate and service Google Apps Premier Edition in the enterprise? For now, Google is knocking at the enterprise doors, and if Google is able to obtain early adopters such as GE and couple of other larger Fortune 500 corporations, Google will generate the kind of momentum where major enterprise customers will be compelled to take a look at Google Apps Premier Edition and evaluate at the price point of $50 per user account per year.
New Revenue Opportunity
With the introduction of Google Apps Premier Edition, Google has the opportunity to create new market share, and grab market share from Microsoft Office and Email applications. Google Apps Standard and Education Edition has 100,000 business customers today; at an average of 10 users per customer, this translates to 1 million end users potentially using Google Apps today. Google Apps was introduced in 2006. Thus, in about 1 year, Google Apps has an end user population of 1 million potential users. If Google Apps Premier Edition can attract 100,000 new businesses in one year, or 1 million end users, this will translate into new revenue opportunity of $50 million per year. However, knowing Google, and with the tremendous marketing muscle it exerts at Google.com, the goal is possibly much higher: 10 million end users or $500 million in annual revenue. Where will these customers come from? From new market growth and a sizable number from Microsoft. If Google goes on to buy Salesforce.com and introduces Google Apps integrated with Salesforce.com CRM applications, the vision of $500 million in annual revenue is within reach. In five years or less, Google has the potential to create a $1 billion business for Google Apps Premier Edition. Disruptive innovation in motion.
Google versus Microsoft - the enterprise battle heats up!
Google is one of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index.
Google Apps Premier Edition is available for a yearly subscription of $50 per user account per year.
Google Apps Premier Edition communication and collaboration suite includes the following Top Ten Features:
1. Google Gmail webmail services including Gmail for Blackberry
2. Google Calendar shared calendaring services
3. Google Talk instant messaging and voice-over-ip
4. Start Page branded and customized to company domain (e.g. companyname.googleapp.com)
5. Google Docs & Spreadsheets
6. 24 x 7 Phone support for critical issues - extended business hours support
7. 10 GB storage per user
8. New set of administration and business integration capabilities - Application-level control and APIs for business process adaptation, policies, data migration, user provisioning, single sign-on, and mail gateways
9. 99.9% uptime - SLAs (service level agreements) for monitoring and credits
10. French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean language versions (possibly more)
Importantly, Google Apps Premier Edition builds on the success of 100,000 small businesses and universities using the free Google Apps Standard Edition and Google Apps Education Edition introduced in 2006.
Proctor & Gamble (NYSE: PG) and General Electric (NYSE: GE) are also two of the top 20 Innovators of The Innovation Index. Both P&G and GE applauded the new Google Apps Premier Edition.
P&G statement:
"Procter & Gamble Global Business Services (GBS) has enrolled as a charter enterprise customer of Google Apps, a successful consumer product suite now available to enterprises. P&G will work closely with Google in shaping enterprise characteristics and requirements for these popular tools," said Laurie Heltsley, director Procter & Gamble Global Business Services.
GE statement:
"So much of business now relies on people being able to communicate and collaborate effectively," said Gregory Simpson, CTO for General Electric Company. "GE is interested in evaluating Google Apps for the easy access it provides to a suite of web applications, and the way these applications can help people work together. Given its consumer experience, Google has a natural advantage in understanding how people interact together over the web."
Google also has the backing and adoption of smaller yet critical businesses such as San Francisco Bay Pediatrics.
San Francisco Bay Pediatrics:
"When it comes to our email systems, our doctors don’t have the time or the budgets to deal with managing technology or defending against spam," said Andrew Johnson, chief information officer, San Francisco Bay Pediatrics. "With Google Apps Premier Edition we don’t have to worry about downloading the latest spam filters or navigating unwieldy servers. This is where we let Google do what it does best, so we can do what we do best – help our patients."
Finally, Google made a very important announcement which was embedded towards the later paragraphs of the Press Release:
"other early adopters of Google Apps Premier Edition include Salesforce.com and Prudential Preferred Properties in the U.S., as well as Essilor and Mediametrie in France. "
Google is touting Salesforce.com as an early adopter.
Could this be the beginning of an early indicator that Google will go on to buy Salesforce.com?
Does Microsoft Live or Microsoft Business Services division have an answer for Google? Can Google find many distribution and enterprise partners such as Avaya and Postini to support, integrate and service Google Apps Premier Edition in the enterprise? For now, Google is knocking at the enterprise doors, and if Google is able to obtain early adopters such as GE and couple of other larger Fortune 500 corporations, Google will generate the kind of momentum where major enterprise customers will be compelled to take a look at Google Apps Premier Edition and evaluate at the price point of $50 per user account per year.
New Revenue Opportunity
With the introduction of Google Apps Premier Edition, Google has the opportunity to create new market share, and grab market share from Microsoft Office and Email applications. Google Apps Standard and Education Edition has 100,000 business customers today; at an average of 10 users per customer, this translates to 1 million end users potentially using Google Apps today. Google Apps was introduced in 2006. Thus, in about 1 year, Google Apps has an end user population of 1 million potential users. If Google Apps Premier Edition can attract 100,000 new businesses in one year, or 1 million end users, this will translate into new revenue opportunity of $50 million per year. However, knowing Google, and with the tremendous marketing muscle it exerts at Google.com, the goal is possibly much higher: 10 million end users or $500 million in annual revenue. Where will these customers come from? From new market growth and a sizable number from Microsoft. If Google goes on to buy Salesforce.com and introduces Google Apps integrated with Salesforce.com CRM applications, the vision of $500 million in annual revenue is within reach. In five years or less, Google has the potential to create a $1 billion business for Google Apps Premier Edition. Disruptive innovation in motion.
Google versus Microsoft - the enterprise battle heats up!
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
The world in an excel spreadsheet
Dottourism blog brought my attention to a link to the World Gazetteer that provides global population data by location - going as deep as city, town and metropolitan areas. Can be used to mash together with Google maps to add population data to map data. I haven't quite figured out exactly what I would do with all this data - but am eerily attracted to the notion of having an excel spreadsheet with the population numbers for each city.
Quality Score updates are live
Last week, we released the Quality Score column and let you know that we would soon be making improvements to our Quality Score evaluation. Now, Avichal from the ads quality team is back with a quick update:
Today, we began rolling out improvements to the Quality Score algorithm, which will update the Quality Score for keywords in your account over the next 3 to 4 days. As I mentioned last week, the goal of this change is to improve the quality of ads that we serve to our users by making it easier for high quality ads to enter the auction while also discouraging low quality ads. In addition, this change improves our ability to set minimum bids for keywords where we have limited data. As a result, you may see the minimum bid for your keywords increase or decrease based on the updated algorithm.
To better understand the quality of your keywords after this change, we suggest that you enable the Quality Score column. This will allow you to quickly view the quality of the keywords in each of your ad groups so that you can make improvements. For example, if you notice that the minimum bid increases for a number of your keywords, you may want to consider optimizing your ad group to make it more relevant or deleting the keywords that have high minimum bids.
5 Sure Fire Ways To Send Visitors Away For Good from Your Home Business Website
Whatever you do, don't make these 5 mistakes with your home-based business website. Here is why!
5 Sure Fire Ways To Send Visitors Away For Good
5 Sure Fire Ways To Send Visitors Away For Good
by: Mike Cheney
So your traffic is going through the roof yeah? It's all becoming a bit too much? You're getting lots of sales enquiries through your website every day? You want to send visitors away from your site for good? Just follow these five Sure Fire Ways and your site will be a tumbleweed ghost town in no time.
Way No. 1 - Clog Up Their Internet Connection
Imagine it. They're happily surfing around on Google looking for your 'widget' and everything's going smoothly. Your website appears in the first page listings (congratulations you must have employed magnet4web or another highly-esteemed website marketing company!) and they click through to you. Then their internet connection starts to clog up. It is positively groaning and creaking under the strain of downloading your homepage which has so many images on it takes over 30 seconds to appear. They look at the progress bar at the bottom of their screen. It reads '20%'. They look at their watch and then click on the little 'X' at the top right of their screen. Well done - you've just sent away a visitor - for good.
Way No. 2 - 'I am not a number - I am a free man'
Along come some more visitors. They lick their lips in anticipation of viewing your widgets which they are very interested in buying - they have their credit card handy.
They land on your homepage and all is well, at first. "The benefits of choosing Widgets Inc. are as follows..." Your homepage is laden with customer-focused benefits and selling points - excellent. But wait a minute. What's that at the bottom of the page? It's not what I think it is, is it? Oh dear, there in black and white is one of the fundamental no-nos in web design that is guaranteed to send the message "This website was built by my dog":
"Welcome - you are visitor number 102"
Regardless of the number (and let's face it 80% are either you or your family!) you will be sending away people in droves. Well done - your site is becoming less busy by the day. Let's move on to way number three..
Way No. 3 - "Help me buy from you - please..."
They're lost. You have built the site around what seems a logical approach but your visitors are lost. You've given most prominence to testimonials but they just want to send you an email. They click on three, four and sometimes five pages but can't find your phone number or email address anywhere. But it's okay - of course they have a spare quarter of an hour to hunt through your website (that doesn't have a site map) to find your contact details when they already have another window open with your competitor's website - complete with email address, phone number, fax number, street address, mobile number, map and GPS coordinates..
Yes - you've guessed it - you're one step closer to that ghost-town..
Way No. 4 - 'Please Let Me Watch Intro'
Yes, admit it - you once thought the best thing on the planet was a website that started up by having a revolving animation of the company logo that exploded, span round a bit to an 80s sounding techno tune and then re-constituted itself in the centre of the screen with the immortal words:
"Click here to enter site"
Strange that - "enter site". That's what all your visitors were trying to do when they typed in your web address or clicked on your link but instead they were faced with Jean Michelle Jarre and some possessed bit of code that replicated the effect of someone regurgitating your business' corporate identity over the screen. Nice. Flash intro = trash intro. Use em (the intros) and lose em (the visitors).
Way No. 5 -"I am five years' old - I like things that flash"
One day in the future a law will be passed that will make it illegal to use scrolling text, flashing images, rotating heads, animated animals and boucning cursors on a website. Your website is here to do business. It is supposed to be a serious tool in your marketing armoury. It should be used to convey useful information to your visitors and convince them that you are worth doing business with. Dress it up with flashing icons, swirling graphics, flashing logos and spinning pictures and the merry-go of visual delights will just make your visitors sick. They will leave your glitzy fairground never to return..
Mike Cheney, www.magnet4web.com ©
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