Patrick Bedard

Patrick Bedard wrote a magazine column that changed my life.

Patrick Bedard was an automotive writer and had a column in Car and Driver for over 40 years. He also raced cars and was in the 1984 Indianapolis 500, where he wrecked horribly. He walked away from the crash, but it caused a delay while crews cleaned up the mess and removed the pieces of his wrecked car from the track.

Other drivers were not happy with him. As you can imagine, there’s a bit of arrogance to being a race car driver and they weren’t happy that a “writer” was driving with them. I mean, who did he think he was?

After the race, another driver found him in the pits and went off on a tirade at him. “You’re just a writer! You’re not a driver! Who gave you permission to drive with us?”. He said he thought long and hard about what that guy said to him. After much thought, he realized that no one had to “give” him permission.

He wrote in his column “Permission comes from within”.

I wrote that phrase on a piece of paper and taped it to the inside of my front door, about eye level, so that every time I left my home, I would see that. It shaped how I saw life. I’d like to think it helped make me who I am today.

I’ve been running across a few posts with that common theme lately, or maybe I’m just more aware of it because I’ve been thinking about it.

Crossing The Red Line | IttyBiz

Nothing bad is going to happen if you cross the red line. You’re not going to be named and shamed. You’re not going to be arrested. Naomi’s not going to say, “Well, I’m not going to let you in, but now you have to pay anyway.” It doesn’t work like that. The worst they’re going to do is say no. Most of the time, actually, you run the serious risk of getting what you want.

Read the entire article at:
http://ittybiz.com/crossing-the-red-line/

and then there was this one:

5 Things You Don’t Need To Sell Your Art (And 5 Things You Do)

No one can give the permission you need to sell your art. I totally understand the need for approval – I’ve been there many times myself – but it’s a dangerous rabbit hole to go down.

You see, asking for permission and waiting for approval is a carrot on a stick. Once you decide to chase it, you’re forever grasping. Every step you take is on the back of someone else’s approval and the further you go, the more of it you need.

Not a good place to be.

You don’t need permission or approval to be you and do what you do.

Read the entire article at:
http://lateralaction.com/articles/sell-your-art/

There are a lot of blogs out there that talk about how to build web site traffic but most of them are pitching an ebook or trying to get you to buy some elaborate Search Engine Optimization strategy that relies on complex (often under handed) strategies to accomplish something that is fundamentally easy, yet time consuming.

That’s right – building an online presence is actually one of the easiest things a person will ever do in the life time of business, much easier than building a web site or opening a retail location so why do so many people do it so badly? Fear, ignorance, uncertainty and shame.

Fear of the unknown, being ignorant of the unknown and being uncertain of where to start learning. It’s exactly the same reason I didn’t learn to cook until I was in my thirties or why I still don’t know how to change the gasket in my car.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.thisismyurl.com/4064/tutorials/marketing/the-secret-to-building-website-traffic/

Introduction

The world has changed. The Internet is becoming a normal part of everyday life for a majority of people. With every new change in technology, comes the rise and fall of businesses as they try to adapt, from railroads to airplanes, from buggies to cars, from radio to TV, from vinyl records to CDs to MP3s.

Today is no different. It’s adapt or die.

Many people who own a small business know that they should “do something” about the Internet, that there is a huge opportunity out there somewhere, but they are not quite sure how to do it, much less do it efficiently, and if that they miss that opportunity, it might mean the end of their business.

The biggest issue that we heard from small business owners, and everyone else, for that matter, is that they don’t understand this stuff. No one has the time to find and distill all of the information. They do research and the technical information that they find is too complex, too difficult to understand. They are afraid and overwhelmed by it all. It’s frustrating.

Our purpose is empowering non technical people by explaining technical things in easy to understand terms. This book is written in that “easy to understand” style and will show you how to use the tools available on the Internet to sell your products more efficiently. Your learning path will start with concepts that will solidify into goals, then work through the strategies, and end up with step by step tactics that will make it easy for you to understand what to do and how to do it.

Did I mention that it will be “easy to understand”?

Let’s get started.

Chapter One – Marketing 101

What is marketing?

Before we talk about marketing on the Internet, we have to talk about just plain old marketing.

Generally, you think marketing is that bad commercial on late night TV with the used car dealer yelling at you. That’s part of it, maybe the most visible part, but that’s not “marketing”.

The idea has been around the Internet for years now that “Everything you do is marketing“.

That means that the look and feel of your web site is marketing. How you answer the phone is marketing. Your profile picture, your pricing, the color of your products, and how big the font is on your web site is all part of marketing.

The Story

There’s another concept that I heard from Seth Godin, who has a blog that you should read every day. This concept is “the story“.

Everyone has ideas in their head, a bias, a point of view, a value system that works it’s way out to a belief system. When a person is told something, or becomes aware of something, it gets filtered through this belief system. You need to understand the belief system of your target market and “tell a story” that fits into their belief system.

You shouldn’t lie. We’re not talking about presenting a falsehood. You should present your product in a way that fits your audience and what they believe to be true. Most of what we believe is a matter of interpretation without an empirical basis in absolute reality. (I was a philosophy major in college for a while.)

You will not be as successful trying to change the belief structure in their head, as you will be selling into the belief structure in their head. If they don’t value what you are selling, they are no going to buy it, no matter what.

There are many examples in the world of politics and religion, but I want you to buy another book from me someday, so I won’t mention any of those. Let’s use a more common example.

Answer this question:

A Venti Caffè Latte from Starbucks that costs $5.85 is:

A. A handcrafted beverage that will give me the pleasure that I deserve because I’m worth it.
B. An overpriced cup of pretentious bitter hot water that rich, arrogant snobs buy.

(I know I said that I wouldn’t talk about religion and then I brought up Starbucks, which I know is a religion for some people. Sorry.) What did we learn from that example?

If you want to sell pretentious hot water, you need to tell the story of how high the quality is and why you deserve such a great cup of handcrafted beverage. Price won’t matter. Exclusivity matters. Quality matters.

If you were to compete against Starbucks, you might want to talk about how your coffee is even more exclusive and higher quality, like Stumptown Coffee does in Portland.

Here’s an example from the world of cars. This 1966 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe was sold for $88,000 at auction because Dan Hines ran it in SCCA SW division races in 1966. You can buy another car from a collector, identical to this one, except for the racing history, for about $60,000. Why pay the extra $28,000? You’re paying for the story. You’re not buying “just metal and rubber” any more than that latte is “just flavored hot water.”

Unique Selling Proposition

That brings us to you. You need to answer this question, and I don’t mean to be rude here, but you need an answer, “Why should anyone buy anything from you?”

I know you have reasons. You just have to define them. Price, reliability, and quality are all good, but not unique, unless they are. Why are you different than your competition?

Your competition includes “doing nothing”. Why is buying from you better than sitting home and watching TV? What is going to move a customer from arms folded across their chest to reaching for their wallet?

What exactly are you selling? Hot water or a handcrafted beverage? Perhaps you are selling “you”, your own personality. Maybe you are selling an experience more than a product. Maybe it’s a feeling. Would you like to buy a cup of bitter hot water or a cup of sweet superiority?

Target Demographic

One thing that working out this USP does for you is to define who you will be selling to, as well as who you will not be selling to.

You want to know who your best customer is. Demographic is a fancy word for describing a person. How would you describe your target market? Age, sex, and economic status are classic ways, but what is special about your target? Would they pay extra for the racing heritage of an old car? Would they pay for a handcrafted beverage? Who would pay for your product? What problem does it solve and who has that problem?

The area to focus on with your target is their needs, desires, and values. You want to solve a problem for them, so define the problems they have. You know some facts about them. Everyone has some common needs, like ice cream, but what are the specific needs that your customers have? What do you know about their needs, wants, and values?

If you don’t have answers to these questions, ask them. Call them, email them, casually chat with them, do Google searches for them, but find out the answers to these questions.

Worksheet Time

Half of the solution is asking the right questions. I’m asking you these.

1. What is your unique selling proposition? Name 5 things that makes you different.

2. Get specific. Finish these sentences:
My company is the one that ______________________
I am the person who ________________________
My product is the only one that ____________________

3. What are you selling? Name 10 adjectives describing your company or your product.

4. Describe your “story”. Write a 3 sentence description of your story.

5. Describe your ideal customer. Name 10 facts, needs, desires, or values that you know about them.

6. What words or phrases would your customers use to search for you with? Name 10 and rank them.

7. From everything you’ve written above, fill in the blanks below:

My customer needs ________________, more than anything, and my product will solve their problem by ___________________ because it’s the only product that is __________________.

You’ll be glad you did.

http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/advanced-notice-mailing-list

I’ve talked to my wife about it and we have ideas, but I’m really not exactly sure what it is or how to describe it. It seems to be fear.

People are afraid of failing is my best guess.

What are you afraid of? What is holding you back? Please leave a comment and tell us your thoughts. I really want to work through the issue.

Here’s an excerpt from an article I found.

Successful people see failure as an acceptable risk.

This is one of the hardest shifts to make, but it’s the most important ones.

Habitual action-takers and bigger-game players understand that failure is part of the process, that for  every stellar success there will be a their fair share of lukewarm events and more than one embarrassing  flop.

Yet they keep the bigger picture in mind.  They understand that the biggest failure is not to try (guaranteed zero results) and that failure gives them at least a chance of success.  They also understand that there’s no such thing as a perfect person, ever.  Even the greats have their black marks.  In fact, the greats have plenty of them.

This is a big shift in thinking for most people who are stuck in worry mode. Successful people understand that there will be plenty of failure and potential embarrassment baked into the process, so it’s not a big scary thing.  It’s just something to go through and minimize, kind of like taxes.

So yes, successful people are afraid of failure, but it’s a manageable fear because it’s built into the process.  And because it’s acknowledged up front, it’s possible to compartmentalize it.

For worriers, inaction equals safety, which is nice because you don’t lose anything.  For action takers, the idea of inaction is a huge loss in terms of opportunity cost.  They know that if they take enough action, and they’re constantly evaluating their strategy, they’ll come out ahead.

So to sum it up, successful people say “Failure is part of the game.  Let’s get it out of the way because there’s some raging success waiting  to happen in there somewhere.”

Read the entire article at:
http://www.thelaunchcoach.com/why-worry-keeps-you-poor-and-how-to-fix-it

Victoria standing next to some ''art'' found on Jalama Beach

Now, counterbalance “she’s nice” against the image of managing a large department in a huge corporation. To survive in the huge corporate world, you need to be a cutthroat political animal, right?

I once mentioned to her that she wasn’t political. She disagreed. She said that she was VERY political. She told me that she had helped so many people and done so many nice things for so many people, because she was nice. She just wanted to help.

She also knew that if she ever needed anything, she knew the right people in the right places that would do anything for her because she helped them in the past.

Did I mention that she’s also very smart?

I read this post below and had to link. This seems to be a recurring theme among blogs that I read and friends that I have.

The people who are successful in life are the people who give. Love is the key to success.

This is not a feel good, bubble gum philosophy. Love is a very political act. You want something? Give it away and you’ll be overwhelmed with what you get back.

“How can I get more for myself?” The more in question varies: interest, customers, website traffic, subscribers, money, whatever—but it always relates to an increase in focus on the individual.

There’s nothing wrong with any of those things. I’d like more too. But motivations can be interesting predictors of success. The more that we want tends to come along when we give more, but when we give because we want to receive, it doesn’t always turn out so well.

If it sounds complicated, it’s not. Here’s the secret:

Some singers want the audience to love them. I love the audience.
-Luciano Pavarotti

Read the entire article at:
http://chrisguillebeau.com/3×5/luciano-pavarottis-secret-for-online-success/

Why Do They Rank So High?

Why are these ranked so high? Let’s use Yahoo’s Site Explorer to investigate them. We want to know how many pages and internal links they have on their site and how many people link to them externally, from other sites. These two factors are huge in determining search engine rankings.

westcoastseaglass.net
westcoastseaglass.net has 773 pages, more than I expected. It looks like every product has a page, using the same template, so they all link to each other. 773 pages is more than we can generate quickly.They have 2,149 total links, including internal links and 1,774 external links. That’s a lot. This will not be easy. Where do they get these links from? Browsing through their links quickly, it looks like they got picked up by 3 or 4 prolific blogs and put in their blogrolls. That means that there’s a link to their site from every page on these blogs. Every post on a blog can mean a lot of links quickly and easily. We’ll have to use the same strategy and maybe even target the same blogs. This looks like the top site to target.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/2009/06/06/small-business-seo-%e2%80%93-sea-glass-jewelry-keywords-and-competition-part-2.html

Keywords are the root of SEO. Picking the correct keyword is critical. You can’t optimize for everything. You can only optimize for one or two things. You need to figure out what those specific things will be. One keyword different can make the difference between a flood of traffic and a trickle of traffic.

Here’s an excerpt, but go read the whole thing.

What Keywords Should We Target?

Starting with “sea glass”, I used Google’s keyword tool and found that “sea glass” had 2,433 searches a day. I assume that people were looking for all kinds of sea glass, where to buy bulk sea glass, methods for finding it or cleaning it or whatever else. It’s not that targeted at jewelry.

Next came “beach glass”. I’ve never heard to it referred to this way, but Google has. 1,332 people search for “beach glass” every day. We also have “seaglass” at 398 searches, “sea glass jewelry” at 325 and “beach glass jewelry” at 95. From there, we have all sorts of other keywords with less than 100 per day, including “sea glass jewellry” at 24, so make sure to check those misspellings.

These are the keywords we’ll concentrate on; sea glass, beach glass, seaglass, sea glass jewelry, and beach glass jewelry. Next we’ll look at who else ranks for those keywords.

Who is the Competition?

We’ll do a search for each phrase or search term and see who comes up in what order.

When we search for Sea Glass: Wikipedia comes first. I don’t think we’ll beat them, but they aren’t selling jewelry, so I don’t think we have to. The seaglassassociation.org comes next. Again, not sure we need to beat them, but it would be nice if we could. The next two are westcoastseaglass.net and naturalseaglass.com. These look like they might be our biggest contenders.

Let’s look at “beach glass” next. Wikipedia is first. The next two are relishinc.com and bytheseajewelry.com. These are the ones to beat here.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/2009/06/06/small-business-seo-%e2%80%93-sea-glass-jewelry-keywords-and-competition.html

You’re not lying. You’re telling the truth and helping people get happy. How can that be bad?

People who want to sell their art, or their crafts, or anything that they created with love and care, should read this article.

Desdemona

Process, Not Product
Whenever you create objects by hand, the thing to remember is that it’s not the object you’re selling at the end of the day… it’s the stories behind the object. What’s important isn’t the object, but the process. And there’s nothing better than a blog for documenting this process. A lot of creators learn in school about the importance of process, but when it comes to their web presence or to the business side of their work, they seem to forget this.

The object you create (the product) is a symbol of the process (the story) that went into its making. And it’s that story that’s really the important part. You might think the aesthetics of the object itself are the most important, but they’re not, simply because taste is so subjective.

How to Document the Creative Process on your Blog
On the one hand, what I’m about to tell you is really simple. Absurdly simple. What’s hard about it is remembering to do it in the first place. You have to have a “documentary” mindset. Here’s the thing: you don’t know what others will find valuable, so just document and let others sort it out for you. This isn’t complicated:

Take pictures as you work through a piece, and take notes about why you’re doing what you’re doing, and what is the story behind that.
Shoot video in the same vein. Better yet, if you can get someone else to hold the camera and ask questions, the better. Otherwise, get tripod.
Make a time-lapse video of you working on the piece (setting it to some appropriate music is a nice touch).

Write about what you’re going through, thinking, and feeling as create a piece.

Tell the stories of where everything comes from in a piece, especially the sourcing of materials and ideas.

Read the entire article at:
http://remarkablogger.com/2009/12/22/artist-blogging-101

Businesses should blog. The search engines love it and your readers love it. It’s hard to start out without many readers, but if you follow this advice, you’ll soon have readers.

The trick is figuring out what to give them.

Stuff Christians Like

“How do I get more readers for my blog?”

That’s a great question, it’s just the wrong one to ask first.

Want to know the right question to ask first when you find yourself with a blog and a hope that people will read it? Want to know the secret that I start every day on Stuff Christians Like with? It’s pretty simple.

Don’t ask “How do I get more readers for my blog?”

Ask instead,

“How can I give more to readers?”

The distinction is subtle, but I think it’s an important one. At the simplest level, a blog is just a gift exchange. People you may never meet from countries you may never visit, show up at your blog and give you the most precious resource they temporarily have in their hands – time. Whether it’s 30 seconds or 3 minutes, they offer you something really special, minutes of their day that they will never get back.

In return, you give them something.

Read the entire article at:
http://stuffchristianslike.net/2009/12/1-secret-ive-learned-about-blogging/