MyWorkTools.com

If you read my blog with regularity you know what a big fan I am of quality tools that make our lives easier when starting up businesses. It’s very easy to get caught reinventing the wheel when there are often templates and tools available that can provide, at the very least, a good starting point if not a huge leap forward. Wendi McGowan over at Wendistry turned me on to MyWorkTools.com, a collection of tools, templates and other useful widgets for helping you analyze, plan, execute and do whatever else you need to do to your business or idea. Whether you are looking to do a market analysis of your idea, build a business plan or (gasp) a financial analysis, there is likely to be something useful here for you.

Even if you don’t find exactly what you need you can likely find something that will help you generate ideas and understand what you need to figure out.

So don’t spin you wheels reinventing them, head over to MyWorkTools.com and check it out. My only gripe is that the site can be a little tough to navigate to find exactly what you are looking for but the search function seems to work reasonably well.

P.S. Some of the tools/templates are free some are not.

Don’t Go It Alone

Partnerships between two people (which seems to be the best combination) have brought us parings now synonymous with business and have given us some of the greatest success stories of modern times. Names such as Gates/Allen, Yang/Filo, Hewlett/Packard and Page/Brin, just to name a few.

Most of my business ventures include a partner (and in some cases 2) because they bring a perspective that is impossible for me to have on my own, they distribute the work load and allow me to focus on doing the things I am strong at rather than trying to muscle my way through the things I am not. It should go without saying that you should seek out the right partner but the journey can be much more fulfilling and enjoyable when you share a common vision with someone else.

Recently, one of my partners and I were having our standing weekly call to catch up (we live states apart) and during that conversation he made a comment that sparked a new idea for me. Suddenly a new revenue stream revealed itself without us even trying. It is for exactly that reason, and the countless other examples I could give you, that I would suggest partnering up with someone if you are starting or trying to grow/expand your business. There are 101 ways to structure that partnership to make it work for you both but partnering/aligning yourself with good, motivated, hard working and smart people will pay off in ways you just can’t imagine on your own.

Share with us a partnership success story of your own…

37 Google AdWords Secrets

Building a business is tough business, even in the on-line world. Unfortunately, as we are looking for resources to help us learn how to grow our businesses on-line, we are faced with an overwhelming number of options and it can be difficult to tell the good from the bad. As a part of the “Net Generation,” actively online since about 1994 (but partially on-line since 1990), I have seen a lot of “Net” things come and go. The internet has lowered some barriers to entry for entrepreneurs but also created new learning challenges requiring new skills to remain competitive. I am still learning everyday and have yet to feel even the slightest degree of complacency with it.

One of the common learning challenges to internet-entrepreneurs is that of on-line advertising. In particular, the now ubiquitous pay-per-click (PPC) advertising such as that which Google has popularized is flooded with competition and pitfalls. There are a lot (and I mean a LOT) of publications, e-books, websites and other sources which promise to teach you how PPC works. My experience so far has been that some of those resources are useful and some are total junk often set up only to sell you something. So be careful! I read all of these publications with a healthy degree of skepticism but occasionally find some that are useful and worthwhile.

You can easily spend a lot of money on useless information but you can spend even more on your PPC advertising without getting much if anything in return if you don’t know what you are doing. The point is that PPC works, and we need to learn how to make it work for us, but it isn’t as simple as putting up and ad and “they will buy” any more than you can just put up a site and expect a million visitors to find it. Advertise without direction and watch your wallet shrink, do it right and watch it grow. It’s like anything else, constant learning and applying yourself will pay off.

So how do we learn from good resources while avoiding the pitfalls of the bad? The simple answer is do your research. In my continued pursuit to bring to you tools and information that are worthwhile I’ll mention the first of the PPC e-books I’ve found that have been well worth the cost. I’ll preface the rest of this by telling you that I have actually been using the suggestions in this book and it has kept it’s promises. “37 AdWords Secrets” by Roger Hall is a collection of (surprise) 37 techniques for improving your Google AdWords performance. Roger is a Google Certified AdWords Professional and his e-book sells for $37 or about $1 per “secret.” I have been using the techniques in Roger’s book for over a month and have seen the performance of my own AdWords campaigns improve making the book a bargain at that price. Whether you are selling your own stuff or an affiliate marketer selling someone else’s product, this book will easily pay for itself. When you buy there are also several follow on bonuses that will come after your purchase which are also quite useful (and free). If you want to try before you buy there is a “5 Secrets” primer which is free and can be found here. If you would like to purchase the full 37 Secrets you can click on the link inside the free “5 Secrets” e-book or download it here.

You don’t have to go alone. There are more tools to come but if you do ANY on-line advertising, 37 AdWords Secrets is a great place to start.

Researching Products On-Line

It’s easy to find information on-line, but finding worthwhile information on-line is quite a different matter. I am currently undergoing a research study of different on-line marketing tools, websites and books to determine which resources are worthwhile and what makes a resource worthwhile. I expect this to take several months, and when finished (ok, so you’re never really done) I’ll publish a free report on what I have found. In the mean time I thought I would share with you a few suggestions for digging through the haystack to find the needle you are looking for. These are mostly common sense (which is not so common sometimes) but have been effective for me so far.

1) When you are reading about a product, search for that product name in Google and see what comes back. Click a lot of links and read what is said about it. If the product name contains more than one word, be sure to put the name in quotes so your search is specific to that product (example “Scott’s Book” as opposed to Scott’s Book).
2) In another Google search for that product (again name in quotes) add the word “scam” outside the quotes (and other helpful terms like “rip off”, “review”, …) See if anyone is reporting it as a scam or great product.
3) Click a lot of the search links, go several pages deep on the search. Searches like this will often have informative links buried deeper in the search results.
4) Look at the advertising that accompanies your search. What does it say about the product? Is it being resold by a lot of people or just one company?
5) Pay close attention to the URL of the website selling the product. Does it look legit or a bit too cryptic?
6) If the site selling the product has a lot of other advertising on it, be cautious.
7) Single landing page sites are ok (example) but read them to completion and again, look for references. Does the site appear to at least be designed by someone competent? If not, it might be a red flag.
Search for forums on the product or industry that might mention the product. People tend to spill their guts on forums. However, they sometimes rant unfairly too.
9) E-mail the owner of the site selling the product and ask them a question (it doesn’t really matter what), the idea is to determine whether you get something back from a human (not just an auto responder) in a reasonable period of time.
10) Search Google for the names of the people selling the product (again, full name in quotes). What can you find on that person?
11) Every good product should offer a money back guarantee if you aren’t satisfied.
12) Consider the location of the business. Be extra cautious overseas though some countries such as Japan, Germany, Australia and Great Britain are safer than say, Nigeria who is notorious for scams.
13) Visit sites you trust that have information on the product or service and see what they say (hopefully this will become one of those over time).

I could go on for a long time (future e-book? with this list…

The hardest part isn’t knowing “what to do” as most anyone could have written the list above. It’s having the patience and persistence to perform thorough due diligence on whatever it is you are researching. Spend the time, it’s a good investment that will pay you back.

Side note: One negative review you find about a product shouldn’t necessarily turn you off, nor should one positive review make you a believer. Some websites are just poorly designed and some individuals (not just companies) are providing very good products so don’t make a snap judgment either way unless it’s clearly a scam. BTW, some big companies produce total crap too so don’t just trust them either. Even if it is an individual selling something, don’t be afraid to pay for information you have deemed worthwhile. People have a right to make a living, even off of “soft products” such as e-books with information for how to “do something.” This is after all the “information age” and intellectual property has value.

The idea is to get a thorough, objective picture of whatever it is you are researching and make an educated judgment call based on that information before you throw down your credit card number.

I’d be interested to hear your suggestions for researching things as well so please share them with us.

Business With A Purpose

While pondering what is to come in 2008 and looking forward to new endeavors with some excitement, I was taken back to an article I had recently read by Paul Johnson (Forbes, Dec 2007) who chose to pontificate, in a succinct manner, the relationship between our quest for success and true happiness. Rather than belaboring the usual “money can’t buy happiness” mantra he choose a different path reminding us that without the pursuit of success by ambitious people the world would be a much less interesting and poorer place. Still, “the pursuit of success” he says, “is not enough.” Mr. Johnson goes on to suggest how the pursuit of success combined with more altruistic pursuits should be our guide. His recommendations, which I hope we will all keep in mind throughout our pursuits in the New Year were as follows, and I am paraphrasing (for the most part):

- “Try to combine the pursuit of wealth with creativity.” Bits of paper and moving things around might make you rich but creating or building something (a new business for example) is more conducive to happiness.
- “A successful man is likely to find happiness in producing something useful, delightful or beautiful.” So write that book. It can be a tremendous source of happiness to create something entirely new, useful and within reach of the masses.
- “Create happiness and satisfaction by creating jobs.” Don’t just create paid positions but useful, productive and contributory jobs that justify themselves and have a true purpose. Doing so will provide you not only with personal satisfaction and likely wealth, but with the gratitude, spoken or unspoken, of those whom you lead and of the community you render more prosperous and secure.
- Create jobs that are aligned and consistent with the needs of our fellow men and women. “Not just their material needs but their emotional and spiritual needs.” It might seem difficult or ambiguous but as Mr. Johnson reminds us, “the pursuit of happiness is a very ambitious undertaking.”

Mr. Johnson goes on to clarify that he is not suggesting business people pursue only moral aims as that would likely fail, but we should ensure that whatever we do is now, and continues to be, compatible with morality. So rather than pursuing wealth, fame, success, or other material ambitions for their own sake, root them in creativity, morality and a higher sense of purpose. Doing so will enable you will realize not only your dreams but happiness as well.

To a happy and prosperous 2008.

- Scott

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