I know you want me to fix something.

You want more profit, more sales, more results from your website, more customers in your store.

You heard that E-marketing, the internet is the way of the future. And it is ALL FREE.

• Just create a website and the customers will come.
• Just get on Google’s first page and your business will have too many customers.
• Just create an email list and create product demand like turning on a tap.

Well sorry to burst your bubble, but it just ain’t that easy.

First and foremost – it is not like flicking a switch. Using the internet, creating an E-marketing plan and proper implementation means changing your business.

I will state; E-Marketing is the most cost-effective way to increase sales. E-Marketing is also your most secure way to increase income. By that I mean I can deliver GUARANTEED E-MARKETING RESULTS!

But only if you do it right.

You need to be able to track your business, track your clients, know where the people come from, know why they buy.

If you don’t have the right systems in place to know what is happening in your business – then really any E-marketing strategy you implement is a gamble.

But if you are tracking sales and income – then you can guarantee results.

So . . .

The first step for me is to know your business.

You can ask me to create a website – I could do it for a fee.

You can ask me to set up an email marketing campaign – I could do it for a fee.

You can ask me to set up a Customer Relationship Management system – I could do it for a fee.

You can ask me to optimize your website for the search engines – I could do it for a fee.

All these are legitimate strategies. But if they are set up independently, and without knowing your business, how everything will work together, and tracked to make sure they are working properly – then you are simply wasting money. That fee you pay me – or someone else – is money flushed down the toilet.

I need to know and understand your business. Then I can recommend how we put in place systems to monitor and track results. Then we start implementing strategies that will actually work.

That’s how it works.
That’s how I work!

Warning!!!
There is a company called Domain Registry of Canada that I believe is doing some sneaky marketing!

Domain Registration

Pretty basic – you need a domain name for your website, so you go to a site like zeddomains, godaddy, namespro, etc – and purchase a domain.  You can buy it for a year, 2 years, or longer.  Basic .com domains cost you about $10, .ca can cost about $14 or so, very few domains extensions cost more than $20/year.

When your domain is getting close to renewing, the company that sold you the domain will send you an email that your domain is close to expiring and ask if you want to renew it.  Actually most companies let you auto-renew if you trust them with your payment information. But they will still send you a notice either way via email.

All in all, a pretty basic process, not much can go wrong.

There are a few companies out there that OVERCHARGE for domain registration.  Some add extra services to make you think their price is justified -  other just overcharge because they can.

Domain Registry of Canada is one of those companies that overcharge – their price for a 1 year domain registration is $40 (4 times what it should be).

Any business has the right to charge what it wants – so I am not picking on them for that.

What I do not like is the way they market their services.

Domain information is fairly public – it is an option when you register to keep your registration info (your name and address) private.  But most companies that want their business to be found have no problem in letting people know they own the domain, in fact it shows legitimacy of the website that it is owned by an actual business or person doing business.

So what Domain Registry of Canada does is search the records (contained in what is called the whois database – at whois.net) for domains that are coming due for renewal.  Then they send a very official ‘Domain Name Expiration Notice’ in a brown envelope to make it look official.

Inside that envelope is a form for you to fill out to renew your domain at the high price of $40 per year.  This will transfer your domain over to them from now on, rather than the registrar that you originally purchased your domain.

So beware – this is a marketing ploy – you do not have to transfer your domain over to Domain Registry of Canada for their higher prices.  You can stay with your original registrar and renew your domain online.

Yes we need to learn what makes writing better, but simply by putting more words to paper, we will get better.

I have done a little research to how I can write more effectively, and also write more consistently.

First from Jeff Goins site here are seven tips for more effective writing:

1. Practice
2. Challenge Yourself
3. Be Yourself
4. Don’t write like an Idiot
5. Start Small
6. Don’t give up
7. Learn to pitch your pieces.

I think for me the ones I need to focus on are practicing, challenging myself with specific topics, and being myself.  The latter – leads into another article about finding your writing voice that I recently read.

Joy Tanksley writes that to find your voice you need to write what you know (or I believe do great research), then write like you talk, get into a flow of writing, and to start off with, forget conventions – just get the words down on paper.

My research on writing lead me to a great article about how to write daily.  Julie Isaac lists these five steps:

1. Make a commitment
2. Make a list of the top 10 reasons why you want to write daily.
3. Make writing top priority
4. Write first
5. Break your daily goal into smaller goals.

I believe I need to make that list of to 10 reasons and post it on my bulletin board.  Then I need to make writing a priority – as it now is not at the top of what I do.

Onward and Upward,
Jack

We can look at any organization and see that it is a mixture of both systems and people.  Therefore to improve the business we need to either create better systems, or have better people.

Improving the systems can help the organization improve.  Often many systems improvements are easy to fix, and allow quick improvements to overall performance.  Other times tinkering with the systems can have detrimental effects. Or they can be costly in some organizations.

Having better people is the other half of improving business performance.  This is often the harder side, due to emotions, personality conflicts and the fluctuations in behaviour of the typical human.

Leadership training is the best way to input people improvements in your business to build a top performing organization.

Leadership has a direct relationship with overall performance in the organization.  Unfortunately the managers or leaders in an organization do not always have the courage or forethought to look in the mirror.  They look outward and see the problems in their people.  But many visible people problems are simply a reflection back of the leadership exhibited at the top of the organization.

Leaders need an outside person to examine the operation and look very hard at the behaviours of both the people and the leaders.  They need that unbiased feedback to really see where their leadership strengths and weaknesses are, and how they can improve them.

Leaders should also take every opportunity to get high level leadership training. Too often leaders and senior management send their people to various leadership courses, but never go themselves.  In many cases, the people in the organization can actually grow beyond the leadership culture of the business.  This is seen in the symptom of top performing people often leaving that organization to work elsewhere.

Build your leadership, starting at the top, and you will truly build a top performing organization.