jtrigsby.com » blogging

Get a Phone in the Cloud

jtrigsby — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:26:57 +0000

We love being connected. People have always tried to find new and better ways to communicate. To do this, sometimes, we have to use multiple communication devices to do so. This is a big hassle and could most of the time be confusing. But what if you had something wherein you can organize and manage all your communication records, devices and contacts by using just one simple application? Wouldn’t it be easier? Well, Google has the right solution for you. It’s called Google Voice. Google Voice is an awesome, FREE service to help manage phone and contacts the same way gmail helps you manage your email.

Google Voice is a great new telecommunications service from Google. It is not a phone redirecting service. It’s not VoIP or Voicemail. It is a combination of all of the above and more. Google voice allows users to register a new phone number and direct it to call multiple phones. It could also collect messages and act as your personal switchboard operator and it also tracks, records and transcribes communication for easy recording and safekeeping on the cloud.

It is currently one of the best cloud apps in the market today. However, it is still just limited to the United States. You can get a telephone number for any US Area Code (sorry, only works in US) no matter how far or remote the area that you would like to be in. Google voice service also now allows you to choose words or witty phrases that your phone number spells out. So you can easily personalize and have fun choosing the number that you want such as (773)824- LOVE. The downside is that sometimes you cannot use an existing number of yours or have to pay a switching fee to allow it to switch to Google Voice which can be a sad fact for those who are married to a longtime cell number or the like

Another great thing about Google Voice is that you can forward incoming calls to ANY phone, to even more than one phone. This protects your privacy since you don’t have to give out your actual cell phone number and if you change phones, you don’t have to worry about missing calls. This application forwards your calls to as many or as few numbers as you like, and you can even redirect calls to different phones depending on who is calling. This makes it easier for you to organize your call list, avoid unwanted callers and get the calls that you actually want. Just like gmail, you can even set certain groups (or individuals) to be sent directly to Voicemail, to the Spam folder, or block the call altogether.

With Google voice, you are not stuck at home with a computer. It is portable and could even be used with ANY phone. It forwards the calls to wherever you are and you can check your messages from all the phones anywhere using the service. The Iphone has even launched an official application for Google Voice users.

If that’s not enough, Google Voice also allows you to thread incoming calls differently for different groups of callers. For example, unknown callers go straight to voicemail while family callers go to your cell phone and business callers only go to your cell during business hours. You can take that total holiday without fear of losing and missing any important calls. You can take your business anywhere with you and gives you freedom and allows you to organize contacts into groups for easy tracking and recording.

Google voice allows you to either have the calls sent directly to your phone with no filtering, or you can have Google ask them to say their name first so you can screen callers and choose the people you want to talk to or avoid. The service will call you, tell you the name of the person who is calling, and give you the option to take the call or send them to voicemail. This is a great way to protect your privacy. You can also customize the behavior of the service at anytime depending on a group (Friends, Family, Work, etc.) or an individual basis. This eliminates the guesswork and even gives you the ability to listen in on voicemails as they are being left.

This service also has a great voicemail system with transcription and email forwarding. Incoming voicemails are automatically transcribed and can be configured to be emailed to you. It could also be sent through SMS and is recorded and kept in the cloud forever. There is no fear now of losing a call record because you will all have them organized and permanently stored in the cloud.

Now for the best part, Google Voice gives you all of this for FREE. It’s all free. And we all love free! How could you even compare to that?

So, this leaves me to ask: Do you use Google Voice? What do you think? What’s the good, the bad, and/or the ugly from your experience with Google Voice? Is it worth it or is it just another waste of a perfectly good cloud?

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Building Your List

jtrigsby — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 16:20:41 +0000

Stores have inventories. Brokers have stocks. Real Estate Brokers have Listing. You, as an online seller have your list. If you want to make money blogging you have to build your list. It’s hard to sell anything if you have no interested buyers. Even if you have the best product in the whole world and the best website, if no one knows about it, then your online business will go kaput. Having a list of interested buyers makes selling online much easier.

If you are into marketing and sales, you’ve probably heard sayings like “Always be selling” or “Always be closing (the sale).” If you intend to have a successful online business, you should really “Always be list building.” It’s an online marketing basic. Everyone knows that having a well-targeted and responsive list of people is the key on how to make money blogging. It is essential that you understand that the success of an online business comes from building relationship with a big subscriber base. It is also important that you build good relationships with people who are generally interested in the same subject area as your product or service is. This will allow you to enter their niche and help you sell the product to them. You have to remember that the most successful online business knows that they can only succeed when the subscriber succeeds or is satisfied.

“Your List” is the list of readers, subscribers, or followers who have given you permission to offer them products for sale. Seth Godin coined the term Permission Marketing to define the practice of asking someone’s permission before hitting them with a marketing message. The concept is simple, permission marketing is basically the privilege and it is not a right of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to know or hear about it. This list allows the person to choose which marketing messages to allow and which to filter out.

If you want to know more about it, here is a link to Seth Godin’s book below

To tell it simply and in a more straightforward way it is basically this: People hate SPAM. If you use the older technique of using mass e-mails to market your product, more likely than not, you will not get your message across. Your message will fall into the vortex called the SPAM folder (or stuff that we don’t ever read) and eventually get deleted along with the other e-mail garbage. An average person will never sort through SPAM and read through all of it.

Online consumers are very selective of what messages they want to read. They only read things that are interesting to them. That is why it is important that you give them the ability to choose whether or not they want to read the message that you are offering them. By having an opt-in subscriber system, the consumer now has the power to choose if they want to be on your list or not. If they are interested, more likely than not, they will subscribe and therefore read your messages and eventually patronize your business.

Most often, your List is thought of as you email subscribers, but you can also include your Twitter followers, Facebook fans, anyone who has opted-in to relationship building with you. You have to capitalize on the power of social networking in helping you build your list. Remember, that in order to catch their attention, you always have to post meaningful messages that will interest them in adding you to their friends list. By doing so you can effectively build relationships with your list and eventually have them patronize whatever it is that you are selling. This is an effective way on how to make money blogging as well.

So, how are you building your list? Do you use social networking sites such as twitter and facebook to do so? Do you only friend people so you could add them to your list?

If you are interested in further building your list, you can use this link to sign up with Aweber and learn how to effectively build your list even further for the success of your online business.

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Stop Taking Pictures of the Cloud and Get Your Pictures in the Cloud

jtrigsby — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 14:00:45 +0000

In the past, people would take their roll of film and get their pictures developed at the local drug store. Getting the pictures developed was the only way to view pictures taken with film cameras. With today’s popularity of digital cameras, people can take as many pictures as their memory cards will hold (usually thousands upon thousands) but it is not practical (or necessary) to print hard copies of every picture. When you get your pictures home, what do you do with them? Most people will only go as far as uploading their pictures to their computer’s hard drive, which puts their new memories at risk. Two internet services make sharing and storing pictures very convenient and trouble-free. Both services are examples of cloud-based storage.

The two big players are Flickr and Picasa. Flickr is a Yahoo property while Picasa is a Google property. Both services offer pretty much the same thing but there are some differences between the two that you should consider before clicking the “Upload” button. Flickr places your pictures in the public domain by default, which means that anyone with internet access can view your pictures. That may be appropriate for your sight-seeing tour of San Francisco but not so much for your Spring Break trip. Flickr does allow you to perform some minor editing such as cropping and color fixing to your uploaded photos. Picasa is private by default, which makes it ideal for sharing with family and friends without changing the settings of each photo album you create. It has several powerful tools such as tagging a photo to a map and order products (i.e. mouse pads, coffee mugs, etc) using your uploaded pictures. I like both services. I use Flicr for pictures that I want to share and Picasa for family pictures.

Both services offer fast and easy picture uploading so their site. You can create albums with both services so that you can organize your pictures easily. One of the biggest benefits with either service is that you can access your pictures from anywhere and on any computer. No longer are you constrained to viewing your pictures on your computer’s hard drive. Now your pictures are in the cloud. Sharing your pictures is very easy since you can send a link to family and friends for them to click on and view your pictures trouble free.

The most important benefit that both services offer is that they use redundant, cloud-based storage to keep your pictures safe. The cloud-based storage is backed-up and secure, unlike your computer’s hard drive. Keeping your pictures on your computer’s hard drive puts them at risk of a virus or a hard drive crash. In most cases of a hard drive crash, your pictures will be unrecoverable.

I want to hear about your experience with moving your pictures to the cloud. Do you use Flickr or Picasa? Have you had a good or bad experience with them? If you are not ready to move all of your pictures to the cloud, at least consider a service like Mozy online backup to keep them safe.

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Why You Should Listen More

jtrigsby — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 15:05:09 +0000

Writers block. We all have it. There comes a time in the writer’s life when we are so willing and ready to write and know that we need to write, but as soon as we open the word processor our brain simply flatlines on us.

Bleep. Bleep. BLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. Dead.

At this point in time, we panic. We have a deadline. We need to write about something. Anything! But the universe refuses to give you inspiration or a topic to write about. Thinking back as a blogger you have probably written about everything. Some of them could be topics that you are really into, you feel like you have written the best post in the world but your hit count says otherwise. People are not interested at all and then you stop and wonder why this is so.

Maybe it’s time to stop and think about it. Maybe it’s time that you stop being a selfish insular blogger and start thinking about your audience. Remember that your blog is not just your personal diary and you are not writing only for yourself but for others. Writing for others means that you have to think about what they want to read and not just what you want to write. If you want to write for an audience, you should listen to what they are asking, then go write about it.

I hear bloggers say all the time, “I’ve run out of things to write about!” Well, then you aren’t listening to your audience! Your audience, or the people who read your blog, are probably the most important people to consider when writing your blog. If you want to be a successful blogger, you should start to listen and observe what people would like to read and know about things in your niche. The most successful bloggers anticipate and look for clues as to what potential readers would want to learn about next. Remember that blogging is almost like reporting. You have to find a good story. If you want to be read, you have to find topics that your readers would actually want to read about. Interesting topics would lead to people wanting to read the blog, therefore leading to traffic, once people read your blog and likes it they recommend it to friends creating more traffic.

So, how do I know what my readers think? I really am not a mind reader.

If you want to write something that would be of most interest to your readers, review your most popular blog posts and comments. What was the topic? What was the controversy? What got your readers to take action and comment? Sort through them and through this, find clues on what things you wrote about that they like and start from there. You can easily find things to write about by looking back and reviewing what you have already written and finding out the topics that they really were interested in. This will give you a clear idea of what your audience wants to read about and have something to write about.

If you still cannot find anything to write about or would rather not repeat a topic that you’ve already exhausted, then find inspiration elsewhere. Take the pulse of your online community somewhere other than your blog. What are they saying or asking about on Twitter or Facebook? What is the current trending topic right now? Do you have an opinion about it? What do you feel about such things?

Finally, if all else fails and you still couldn’t get it, ask them what they’d like to hear about. Asking your readers what they want to hear about next is a great way to show that you’re not a one sided blogger and you care enough for your readers that you want your readers to be actively involved in the blog. With this one, you are opening your blog to interaction with your audience by asking them to answer a survey poll question or comment about what they want to know or hear next about a certain topic or generally asking them what they want you to blog about next. This will allow your readers to feel more involved in the blog and therefore, if they feel that they belong there, they will actually come back and read your blog more. Successful bloggers have gained many loyal readers through interaction with the readers.

So, if you want to be a successful blogger you have to learn how to listen to your audience to find inspiration on what to write about next. So, how do you listen or get feedback from your readers? Are you listening anywhere other than your blog? Where do you get your inspiration to write?

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Are you a pro blogger?

jtrigsby — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 18:00:22 +0000

Blogging has evolved from its humble beginnings as a way to communicate with family and friends or as a diary for personal thoughts to a growing profession. More and more people are turning what was once a simple communication tool to an all out marketing campaign in order to make money online. Since 2004, blogging has become increasingly mainstream as more corporations, celebrities, and politicians have used this medium to promote their products, services, or themselves.

Not every blogger started out writing blogs to record their personal thoughts. Some bloggers started blogging to make money, even if they didn’t know how. There are two main ways to make money blogging. The first way is to promote or review a service or a product for a company and the second way is to sell advertising space on your blog, such as through Google AdSense.

Internet marketers are tasked with promoting their company’s products or services and one way to do that is through the use of a blogger’s personal opinion from their blog. Companies will often pay bloggers to write their opinion about people, products, and services. Companies can also choose to advertise on blogs that are related to their product or service. For example, a company that makes tires might advertise on a blog about the current state of the U.S. auto industry. There are many services available that will allow bloggers to make money blogging.

One service that was previously mentioned is Google AdSense. Google AdSense is a service that allows you to get paid for displaying targeted Google ads on your site. As the blogger, you get to choose what types of ads can compete for the advertising slots that you have chosen on your blog. Advertisers bid on your advertising slots and then you get paid for displaying the ad. Another service, Smorty, offers bloggers two ways to make money: 1) by publishing pay-per-click advertising on their blog or 2) by writing blogs.

No matter how much money you are making, you should consider yourself a professional and treat it like a business. You should track your finances like any other business for tax reporting, operating cost, and business tracking purposes. If you track your revenues then you can adjust your advertising and publishing strategies so that you can earn more money. Everyone knows that in order to be successful at selling or promoting anything, you have to make it known to large groups of prospective users/buyers. You are not going to make a lot of money if there is no internet traffic being driven to your blog. Driving traffic to your blog is challenging and time-consuming but it is worthwhile if you plan to make money online.

The bottom line is that if you earn money by blogging, then you are a professional blogger. Do you make money from your blog? What is the most profitable way you make money from your blog? Do you know how to increase the income from your blog?

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Get an Ownership Attitude

jtrigsby — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 12:01:17 +0000

Blogging is a business. Whether you blog for yourself as a hobby or for others as a job, you are in a business wherein you, the blogger is the CEO of your firm, the audience is your client and your blogs are the products or service that you sell to the people. Like a businessman who works for sales and profit, you the blogger, are working for the same bottom line, hits and profit.

If you are a professional blogger, or those who blog for money, the more one must own up to your role in this entrepreneurial venture. You have to realize that in this business, you play the role of the big boss, therefore you have to step up and take charge. In this case and scenario, having an ownership attitude is critical to the success of your online business.

What is ownership attitude? Ownership attitude starts when you look at things in a bigger perspective. You have to look at blogging through the eyes of a CEO. Once you do that, you start taking responsibility for your blog. You realize that you need to go up and beyond the call of duty to please your client (audience), so that you can get not only repeat businesses but also recommendations to other possible clientele. In short, in order to have a successful blog, whether it’s a personal blog or as a provider who blog for money, you have to take charge and own up to your business and create the best possible blogs (product) in order to reap the rewards of hits and/or profit.

Blogging is your Business

Think of it this way, as CEO of your firm you are committed to producing the best product to keep the customer satisfaction levels high so that your firm will reap its profits. To be a professional blogger or even just a successful blogger, you must treat blogging like that. Since it is a business, it should be treated objectively. You should ensure that the qualities of the blogs that you publish are at the same or exceeds the level of expectations of your audience (client). Your blogs must also keep in line with the needs and wants of the people who read it – because it is a fact that if they like what they see in read in your blog, they will come back and recommend it to friends. So therefore to be a professional blogger, you must read, research and find out what your audience wants and needs and fill in those gaps so that you can have an edge against the competition or blogs of the same genre.

Since you own this business and run it, you have to ensure that your business won’t die. To do this, you have to make sure that you keep your clientele happy.

You do this not only by filling in the gaps in their want and need list but also by acting professionally. You have to complete your writing assignments punctually and accurately. You have to post the blog when you said you will post it and meet your own deadlines. If you want to succeed in this blogging business, you have to meet and exceed the expectations of your clients in order to build customer loyalty which in turn will translate to repeat business (subscriptions and loyal readership) and recommendations and ultimately translate to your bottom line which is hits and profit.

Owning the Business of Pro-blogging

You have to keep in mind that in this business of blogging for money, you are the owner of this business and not an employee. Therefore, you have no one telling you what to do. You are independent. All your decisions and actions would actually have repercussions in the business. You can’t be lazy about it. You have to be pro-active.

Since you blog for money, the bottom line is profit. How would you profit if you cannot get repeat business and recommendations from the clients? Or rather, how can you get repeat business if you cannot get clients? In order to become a professional blogger or a successful blogger you have to be creative. You have to market yourself until you find your niche. Once you have that, you have gain their loyalty and satisfaction by publishing blogs that they want to read.

Successful bloggers are those who listen to what his readership wants to read and blogs about it. They are not bloggers who blogs selfishly about themselves or what they want and expect everyone to read it. Since your blog is a business, you have to listen and get what your readers want by asking them and encouraging them to leave you feedback through comments and e-mails. You can then read through this feedback and use them to make improvements in the content of our blog. Improvements and adjustment could help you gain more readers. Because, admit it, the blog is all about the readers, it’s not all about you.

“Make the best decision you can, with the information you have now.”

To become a professional blogger, you have to be resourceful. Understand that in this business, most clients/audience would want to read a blog to get information. But sometimes, you have insufficient information or just a vague idea of the topic. Therefore you have to make do with what you have and exhaust your resources to get the precious bits of information that could make or break your blog.

With your limited resources, you have to be creative. You have to make the best decision that you can regarding the topic at hand and based on his information, create a post that would sell. If further research or outlining the draft differently might be necessary to satisfy this requirement, then you are responsible to do it.

Just remember that you, the blogger, have the power to decide what information goes on your blog and what doesn’t. You have to make sure that the information that you are sharing is accurate or credible to make you a credible blogger. Remember that you have to get credible sources for what you put in your blog and to reference them properly if you do, because in this business of blogging, credibility is very important.

Finally, since you, the blogger/ CEO is now considered an entrepreneur, I would like you to ask yourself the following questions:

What is the state of my business right now?
How can I improve my blog so that I can get more readers?
What have decisions can I make now to further my online business?

Good luck, CEOs and happy blogging!

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On Failure, Success, and Starting Over

Thom — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 17:51:05 +0000

I had a conversation today that caused me to spend some time thinking about failure, success, and starting over. In the course of that contemplation, some things became clear to me that, at least to me, seem pretty profound and I wanted to share them with you.

The dictionary defines success as

An event that accomplishes its intended purpose

It doesn’t say anything about cars, houses or money. It doesn’t speak to your level of education, your earnings potential, or your family genealogy. It simply and succinctly states how we can achieve success… by accomplishing our intended purpose!

That gives rise to the next logical question… What is your intended purpose? NOW the cars, houses and money come into play. If your intended purpose is to have the nicest car on the block, fine. When you’ve done that you are successful. At least until your neighbor drives up in his new car a couple of weeks from now. If your intended purpose is to accumulate wealth, again, fine. Just understand that one dollar today does not equal one dollar ten years from now. Depreciation, taxes, even catastrophic life events can wipe out that tidy little nest egg over night… along with your “success”.

Balancing the success scale is failure. If success is to accomplish one’s goal, then failure can be simply stated to be NOT accomplishing your goal. As simple as that sounds, it can be a little tricky. Lets break it down a bit.

First, a goal can have many parts. For instance, I want to save $1,000 by December 31st. That’s a SMART goal (Specific, Measurable, Attainable (maybe), Relevant, and Time-bound), but what if you only have $995 on December 31st? What if you didn’t get that last $5 till January 10th? Did you fail?

In the clearest sense, yes you failed. You did not have $1,000 saved on December 31st. But life is not always so clear. You do have almost $1,000, you’ll have the last $5 very soon, along the way you learned how to save, probably cut corners or be more frugal. If your goal were to “by the end of the year save around $1000 for a rainy day” then you might count this as a success.

Which brings us to starting over. If you have cash “in the bank” and lose it for whatever reason, you’re only starting over if your intended purpose is to have cash in the bank. On the other hand, if you have $100,000 in the bank and lose it, but your needs are still being met, food on the table, gas in the car… are you really starting over? Only if you goal is to have $100,000 in the bank. Because if your intended purpose is to have all your needs covered and some wants attainable… what have you really lost?

Does a marathon runner “start over” when she gets a cramp or stumbles? No. Its a setback to be sure, but she is not required to go back to the starting line and begin again. It’s just par for the course, and she keeps on running.

If your Definite Major Purpose, your intended purpose, your goal, is to make work optional, certainly one way to do it is to hit the lotto and live fat, dumb, and happy. Of course you’re still subject to the unforeseen events that may wipe out your winnings. A far better way, and the way I pursue, is to create diverse streams of income that require as little work as possible and produce enough income to cover all my needs plus a couple of wants.

Sometimes, in the course of creating these multiple streams, one (or probably many more) will fail. You’ll start a new blog, start selling product X, whatever… and it will not pan out. It will not “produce 25% of the income required to meet my needs” and will thus be a failure. But meeting that failure doesn’t mean YOU are a failure or that you have to start over. It simple means that way didn’t work.

Thomas Edison is famously quoted as saying,

“I didn’t fail to make a light bulb 10,000 times. I found 10,000 ways not to make a light bulb.”

Well, if its good enough for Edison, why isn’t it good enough for you?

You must consider the totality of the situation and make sure your perceived goals are in line with your intended purpose. If your intended purpose is to travel, that doesn’t mean you need to have $50,000 in the bank. You might be able to travel by driving a big rig!

I see this play out all the time when people say they need a job that pays better. Really? Why is that? What are you going to do with the extra money? If it pays better, does it require more of your time? (Unless trading your time for money is your goal, you probably want to steer away from that!)

Making more money is a short term goal that most people can’t tie to any specific long-term objective, other than perhaps to say, “Oh, I want to retire some day.” If by retire they mean quit working, I wonder if they’ve done the math with that extra money they’re chasing after so diligently.

Far and away, the better solution is to spend your time today creating sources of income that will continue to pay over time. This does a couple of things for you:

Pays you “retirement” money in inflation adjusted dollars – Since you don’t get it till you need it, you can assume it is adjusted for inflation. If you get it today and try to save it till tomorrow, it will NOT be adjusted properly.

Allows you to “retire” much sooner – Since you’re not trying to save a million dollars or more, you can have a much more attainable goal, one you can be successful in reaching, and then wave goodbye to your job.

Success is what you define it to be, not what your parents or your neighbors define it to be. Write down your Definite Major Purpose, say it outloud to yourself ever morning, then go make your success happen! If you stumble or hit a few bumps in the road along the way, that’s ok as long as you’re still making progress toward your goals!

@jtrigsby

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A Quick Scheduling Update…

jtrigsby — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 04:01:53 +0000

Just wanted to pop in a quick note for those anxiously awaiting the Life In the Internet podcast. My wonderful co-host @VickieRigsby has been under the weather this weekend so we’re a little behind. Be on the lookout for the this week’s episode Monday night!

We also have a new project moving up to the front burner in the next few days… sorry, not ready for more details than that but its pretty exciting!

Oh, and one more thing… We’ve started working on BarCamp Huntsville in earnest. If you’re in or near Huntsville, AL, keep an eye on this site for all the news and updates about this big event for the Rocket City.

See ya tomorrow night!

@jtrigsby

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The Web of Tomorrow?

jtrigsby — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:11:38 +0000

Ben Parr has an awesome post over on Mashable about What the Web of Tomorrow Will Look Like: 4 Big Trends to Watch. One of the things that makes it so totally awesome is that he agrees with me! Here are a couple of the highlights:

The Web Will Be Ubiquitous – Always connected, always on, fully integrated with the appliances that we use to manage our life. Finally!
(see more under Mobile Becomes King in my 6 Guaranteed Game Changing Predictions for 2010)

The PC Will Lose Its Dominance Over the Web – No need to rehash this one… I’ve written about it plenty! Check out Repent! Repent! The End of the Personal Computer Is Near

The Human-Computer Interface – Ben asserts that media centric interfaces will replace the good old keyboard and mouse. Things like voice to text and touch will eventually work well enough… in a decade or so! I’m not sure if you’d call that a pessimistic outlook but I think a decade is WAY too far away. I’ve said before the iPhone has changed everything and how we interact is no different. There’s an expectation for touch these days. The full court press is on and it will be a matter of months before we have usable alternatives to the keyboard and mouse… IMHO.

Finally, Social Media Will Be the Killer App – Have to say I totally agree Ben… and it always has been. Since Ray Tomlinson invented email all the way back in 1971, we’ve been using “the computer” to interact with other people. I mean after all… there are only so many recipes and checkbooks to manage, right? Sooner or later its all about interacting with others. In fact, most technological advances have derived their need by some form of human interaction. Telegraph, telephone, trains, planes… they all serve to facilitate human-to-human interaction.

Even though Ben and I disagree on a couple of the details, I think he’s right on about where we’re going over all. A lot of the things we’ve seen lately, devices like the iPhone, netbooks, and Apple’s new tablet, even applications like Twitter, Wave and fourSquare are really just enabling technologies. My frequent answer to those that don’t get Wave is that it won’t make sense until you have an application for it. Its a platform, an enabling technology that will make something else possible.

So, what do you think about these areas of tech development? Do we have it wrong? What else could be considered important?

And what about the enabling technologies? What did I miss.

Drop a comment and let us know what you think!

@jtrigsby

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What’s Your Value Proposition?

RodKirby — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:06:51 +0000

Guest Post By: Rod Kirby
Image Source: Artquest.org

For 2010, my buzz word is value. I’m including it in everything that I do, deliver, and offer. Some entrepreneurs just don’t understand the concept of value – especially, “internet marketers.” The term sends irritating shivers down my spine. The most successful entrepreneurs know that you can’t just spam, harass, and bully people into buying a product or service . . . you have to offer a value proposition.

What is a value proposition?

Simply put, it’s how you’re going to deliver value to the end user, client, customer, follower, fan, or prospect.

“Literally, what it is the customer gets for what s/he pays. The term is also used to describe some unique value a brand, company, product or service offers that its competitors don’t.”

via www.neubertweb.com/definitions.html

What if you don’t have customers? Maybe you’re a blogger? Well, the same principle applies, how are you going to give your readers value through your blog? It’s a very important question to ask because it extends to anyone wanting to gain anything from anybody. In order to “get” you must first “give.”

Why is a Value Proposition Important?

Back in 2002 I started hosting video game tournaments with inter-linked Playstation 2s and Xboxes (played on big movie projectors – your brain oozes from your ears with awesomeness!). My partner and I decided to make a full-fledged business out of it and decided to seek tournament sponsorship from the big 3; Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. In our sponsorship proposals we outlined our value proposition which was different for each company. We wanted Sony to be our primary sponsor so we emphasized more brand exposure, marketing real estate at event venues, and registration list sharing.

As you can see, a value proposition is important to the end-user to describe how you’re going to deliver value in return for something else. We offered value to Microsoft and Nintendo as well in different ways but, certainly not as much as Sony. In the end, we didn’t get the sponsorship we sought, but it was a great lesson in marketing and handling corporate America. Without a value proposition our proposals would have never gotten taken seriously. How can you expect anyone to take your business, brand, or blog seriously without offering some kind of value to them? When you find your value proposition that’s when you’ll find success.

People That Offer Great Value Propositions

There are plenty of people we all know who deliver strong value propositions online and off like; Chris Brogan, Darren Rowse, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, etc. (Interesting bunch isn’t it? Wonder what would happen if they all went out to dinner one day? . . . anyway . . . ) However, I want to introduce you to someone you may not know who I think is the very definition of value proposition (right beside my name in the dictionary, of course!).

Meet David Garland, show host & creator of The Rise to the Top. What I love about David is the fact that he really “gets” social media and knows how to maximize it for the benefit of his show, sponsors, followers, and fans.

You can see him regularly reaching out to his Twitter followers asking questions, running polls, and returning the love right back with their answers on his show. Don’t you get it? His value proposition is making his fans and followers valuable. How awesome is that? I’ll actually be interviewing David live in St.Louis next week for my show, “Inside the Success.”

How can you determine your value proposition?

Now that I’ve wet your appetite, what ways can you determine your value proposition? Here are a few thoughts;

First, know who you are and what you have to offer. How can you give a man gold if you don’t know what’s in your pocket?
Second, know what your prospects, potentials customers, site visitors, or blog readers want. You can do this simply by issuing polls and surveys. For a WordPress blogger try the WP-Polls plug-in, for entrepreneurs give Constant Contact a try.
Third, think of creative ways to serve. Hold contests, live Q&A sessions via U-Stream, webinars, host tweet-ups, organize a Facebook Group (mine is for Christian Entrepreneurs), or, ask your followers how you can best help them solve their most pressing issues.

Whatever you do make sure you have the right mind-set of adding value to someone else’s life. You’ll only be successful in doing so. Trust me. Want some extra help on delivering excellent customer service? Read my article, “Customer Service is Dead and You Killed It.”

Follower Feedback – Question: How do you add value to the lives of your readers, followers, fans, & clients?

Not So Final Thought

A value proposition is your dedication to adding value to whatever it is you do. Whether you run a business, blog, or a combination of the two. Don’t make it just another “value statement” on to your about page. It’s got be something you decided to do and not tell anyone . . . just show them the value! It becomes your silent partner on the road to success. I didn’t write this blog post in hopes of ending your ever thirsting quest for knowledge of how to add value . . . but in starting it. Let’s chat in the comment section below. What are you doing now to add value to your blog, business, or brand? What’s working for you and what’s not? How can I help you figure this thing out? What other suggestions can we come up with to help others determine their value proposition?

About the Author

Rod Kirby is the editor-in-chief of The Success Center, the #1 Christian Entrepreneur’s blog-a-zine for small business, financial, marketing, and social media help. For resources to help you take your life, brand, blog, or business to the next level, check out the Best of The Success Center. You can also follow Rod’s rampage of terror on Twitter and find him misbehaving on Facebook.

Many many thanks to Rod for a great post on adding value for your readers, something we should always keep in mind! Be sure to leave a comment and let Rod know what you think, I’m certain he’s interested in hearing your opinions as well!

If you’d be interested in guest posting at jtrigsby.com, you can drop me a line via the contact form or via email at jtrigsby [at] jtrigsby [dot] com.

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