Small business success
Three things you need:
1) the ability to abandon a plan when it doesn't work,
2) the confidence to do the right thing even when it costs you money in the short run, and
3) enough belief in other people that you don't try to do everything yourself.
Put it in your portmanteau
Jonathan points us to FreeRice.
Sites like this rarely have a valid business model, but it doesn't make them less fun. I was amazed at how well I did. If you're a web developer, notice how interaction leads to involvement which leads to learning and exploration. In that order.
The secret of writing to be read
Complex Are you Foucault or Gladwell?
Steven Johnson has done some interesting (but not surprising) research on the complexity of the work of a few writers. Basically, short, simple sentences not only sell more books, but spread ideas farther and faster.
The really cool part is that authors have fingerprints. From one book to another, we keep the same style
"I can't afford it"
That's not true.
At least it's not true almost all the time. Very few of your prospects literally can't afford it. What they are really trying to say is, "it's not worth it." As in, it's not worth reprioritizing my life, not worth the risk, not worth what I'll have to give up to get this, not worth being in debt for.
One response to repeated cries of "I can't afford it" is to lower your prices. A better response is to tell a better, more accurate story, and to tell it to the right people. The best response is to make something worth paying for.
four kinds of surveys that are worth doing:
* Census surveys designed to teach your market, not you. The act of asking the question is a marketing tactic.
* Public non-scientific surveys (or census surveys) in which publishing your results to the group helps change the group's behavior.
* Professional surveys designed to extract really meaningful data from a small group.
* Census-based analytics in which you are extracting data about behavior from the entire group.
If the customer is wrong, they're not your customer any more.
How to create a great website
Here are principles I think you can’t avoid:
1. Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a dealbreaker.
2. Change the interaction. What makes great websites great is that they are simultaneously effortless and new at the same time. That means that the site teaches you a new thing or new interaction or new connection, but you know how to use it right away. (Hey, if doing this were easy, everyone would do it.)
3. Less. Fewer words, fewer pages, less fine print.
4. What works, works. Theory is irrelevant.
5. Patience. Some sites test great and work great from the start. (Great if you can find one). Others need people to use them and adjust to them. At some point, your gut tells you to launch. Then stick with it, despite the critics, as you gain traction.
6. Measure. If you’re not improving, if the yield is negative... kill it.
7. Insight is good, clever is bad. Many websites say, “look at me.” Your goal ought to be to say, “here’s what you were looking for.”
8. If you hire a professional: hire a great one. The best one. Let her do her job. 10 mediocre website consultants working in perfect harmony can’t do the work of one rock star.
9. One voice, one vision.
10. Don’t settle.
Big marketing lessons here:
1. when you do something that everyone said was impossible, or that they never even considered, you get remembered for a long, long time.
2. once you demonstrate that the jar actually doesn't have a lid on it, people start jumping out left and right.
[http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/11/index.html]
Three things you need:
1) the ability to abandon a plan when it doesn't work,
2) the confidence to do the right thing even when it costs you money in the short run, and
3) enough belief in other people that you don't try to do everything yourself.
Put it in your portmanteau
Jonathan points us to FreeRice.
Sites like this rarely have a valid business model, but it doesn't make them less fun. I was amazed at how well I did. If you're a web developer, notice how interaction leads to involvement which leads to learning and exploration. In that order.
The secret of writing to be read
Complex Are you Foucault or Gladwell?
Steven Johnson has done some interesting (but not surprising) research on the complexity of the work of a few writers. Basically, short, simple sentences not only sell more books, but spread ideas farther and faster.
The really cool part is that authors have fingerprints. From one book to another, we keep the same style
"I can't afford it"
That's not true.
At least it's not true almost all the time. Very few of your prospects literally can't afford it. What they are really trying to say is, "it's not worth it." As in, it's not worth reprioritizing my life, not worth the risk, not worth what I'll have to give up to get this, not worth being in debt for.
One response to repeated cries of "I can't afford it" is to lower your prices. A better response is to tell a better, more accurate story, and to tell it to the right people. The best response is to make something worth paying for.
four kinds of surveys that are worth doing:
* Census surveys designed to teach your market, not you. The act of asking the question is a marketing tactic.
* Public non-scientific surveys (or census surveys) in which publishing your results to the group helps change the group's behavior.
* Professional surveys designed to extract really meaningful data from a small group.
* Census-based analytics in which you are extracting data about behavior from the entire group.
If the customer is wrong, they're not your customer any more.
How to create a great website
Here are principles I think you can’t avoid:
1. Fire the committee. No great website in history has been conceived of by more than three people. Not one. This is a dealbreaker.
2. Change the interaction. What makes great websites great is that they are simultaneously effortless and new at the same time. That means that the site teaches you a new thing or new interaction or new connection, but you know how to use it right away. (Hey, if doing this were easy, everyone would do it.)
3. Less. Fewer words, fewer pages, less fine print.
4. What works, works. Theory is irrelevant.
5. Patience. Some sites test great and work great from the start. (Great if you can find one). Others need people to use them and adjust to them. At some point, your gut tells you to launch. Then stick with it, despite the critics, as you gain traction.
6. Measure. If you’re not improving, if the yield is negative... kill it.
7. Insight is good, clever is bad. Many websites say, “look at me.” Your goal ought to be to say, “here’s what you were looking for.”
8. If you hire a professional: hire a great one. The best one. Let her do her job. 10 mediocre website consultants working in perfect harmony can’t do the work of one rock star.
9. One voice, one vision.
10. Don’t settle.
Big marketing lessons here:
1. when you do something that everyone said was impossible, or that they never even considered, you get remembered for a long, long time.
2. once you demonstrate that the jar actually doesn't have a lid on it, people start jumping out left and right.
[http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2007/11/index.html]
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