Successful Blog

5 Steps To Create a Solidly Successful Online Product

by

A Guest Post by
Rahil Muzafar

cooltext443809602_strategy

We know that almost all products, no matter how good or bad they are, have a certain life cycle, and once a product has ran its lifecycle, the business needs to modify, innovate, or even create new products to survive. So, whether you are an old online business or a new one, you can benefit from having a step by step course-of-action for product creation, because you will need it sooner than later.

Online businesses should not be treated differently from their offline counterparts, as far as product creation is concerned. In both cases, the businesses have to come up with a product, or service that some customers are looking for, while expecting some rewards (AKA profits) for doing so. The only difference is probably in the nature of the products, for example, in cyber world, even a website that offers a very basic service like accumulating news on a specific topic at a single platform is still a product, regardless of how profitable or unprofitable it turns out to be.

Following are five basic steps that you should adhere to, when creating a new online product, regardless of how small or how big the product is supposed to be.

Step 1 – Idea

First step in product developments of all sorts is the idea, whether it is unique or just inspired by an already successful business model. The idea for an online product should be based on solving an unattended problem or a particular need of Internet users. Mindlessly copying some get rich quick schemes with the purpose of earning some extra income doesn’t really stand for an idea.

Remember that the web might appear to be already cluttered by all types of business, but a little out-of-the-box thinking will reveal many untapped markets, however you will be able to see these opportunities only if you are not driven by “overnight riches” dreams.

Step 2 – Scrutinizing

Next step is to brood over the idea, while considering all aspects. This phase is very important, still most entrepreneurs, in sheer excitement, neglect this very important step, and go straight from idea to development phase. It’s important that you take some time and wait for the excitement to settle down, only then you will be able to see the glitches in your plot. Once the initial excitement fades out, you will see that it’s not really a walk in the park.

Step 3 – Marketing Strategy

Some businesses devise a marketing strategy after the product is ready. Ideally, you should be wearing your marketing hat even before you get into the development phase. Having a marketing strategy, or more importantly the target market in mind will help you come up with a product/service that caters to the specific type of customers you are going to target. Thinking from the perspective of a marketer will give you an idea of the cost, and profit margins. Otherwise, it’s quite possible that once you’ve invested your time or resources in the product development, you will discover that you aren’t left with enough money or resources to invest on marketing.

Step 4 – Product Development:

Once you’ve mulled over the idea a number of times, and devised a marketing plan, it’s now time to develop the product. This should be easy, because you’ve successfully gone through the planning phase.

When developing product, think of your customers, and what they’d be looking for, and not what you’re looking for.

Step 5 – Test Marketing

Before you go full throttle with your marketing strategy, you must do the test marketing. Test marketing is quite the same like the actual marketing, but on a smaller scale, while targeting a small test group. Thanks to the Internet, you can use the power of social media to identify your target customers and check the initial response. If it’s good, you should set the wheels in motion, and if they are finding faults in your product/services, be thankful that you’ve avoided a bigger setback, and get back to make necessary changes before launching the final product into the market.

Rahil Muzafar

—-
Author’s Bio:

This article was contributed by Rahil, who is an Internet Marketer, specializing in making available discounts (like this) and coupon codes (click to see) opportunities. At his website, you will find all kinds of coupon codes and discounts, from hosting packages to stuff like 4inkjets or 123inkjet. Feel free to avail these deals to save on popular online products.

Thanks! Rahil!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

How to Market a Model-T in the 21st Century

by

Understanding a Single Version Product

cooltext443809602_strategy

Whether Henry Ford actually said, “You can paint it any color, so long as it’s black,” it underscores Ford’s success at building for a mass market. He brought together an acceptable combination of consistent quality, price, and reliability to sell 15,000,000 Model-T automobiles.

It might seem that all we need to do is find our own “Model-T” and get it to the mass market. Some companies are trying to do that. The companies that succeed understand that no product can serve a mass market in the 21st century quite the way products once did.

If you’re marketing a Model-T — a single version product — in this century, here’s how to do it in the 21st Century.

  1. Build a “Model-T” with easy to communicate benefits, such as low price and reliability.
  2. Identify a clearly defined key customer group who value for those key benefits and use them for buying criteria.
  3. Study the products that this group currently buys. Identify the features those products have in common. Look beyond the features to the benefits that each feature offers.
  4. Build relationships with the “Model-T” customer group mavens — folks who offer friends detailed advice on buying products that might compete with your “Model-T.” Get to know customer evangelists for the products that the key group is currently buying.
  5. Ensure your “Model-T” product includes all of the features that key customers value and none they have no use for.
  6. Offer it at a competitive price that requires no negotiation. Negotiate takes time and thinking.
  7. Provide fast delivery and excellent service.
  8. Allow consumers to personalize it. Make product modification easy and friendly. Offer mod kits and merchandise add-ons that lets folks feel part of a “Model-T” club for owning the product.
  9. Take care with new product versions that you don’t revise out the values that developed the customer base that you’re enjoying.
  10. Consider an exclusive brick and mortar presence and a huge online selling model. A consistent product with a simple sales story works well in an online situation. Check whether direct mail is also viable for your “Model-T.”

A single version product that fits its customers perfectly can make a new market happen. The “Model-T” model still has a place in the 21st century.

Take for example the Kindle.

What products might you call the “Model-T” of the 21st Century?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Simple and Basic Ways to Get Your Blog Noticed

by

A Guest Post by
Susan

cooltext443809602_strategy

Promoting your personal blog

With the constant expansion of social networking, there are plenty of ways to promote your personal blog to the right people who have an interest in what you are doing and why you are doing it.

Online pinboard tools

Whether your blog is about parenting, business skills or DIY, online pinboards can be an excellent way of attracting followers that have similar interests to yourself. This type of publicity is free and worldwide. Sites such as pinterest.com allow you to create an online pinboard and post pictures to it from your blog using a simple application added to your tool bar. You can have as many online pinboards as you wish (within reason) each with different subjects or themes. The site will then allow you to follow the pinboards of other users that have similar interests to yourself and in turn to follow the things that you post. Your followers can then re-pin your images to their own boards creating a whole large network. Your images will be available to your followers’ followers and so on.

Include relevant links in your blog

Including relevant links to other products and businesses within your blog can help create a network of interest and create new followers. For instance, when writing about an arm chair, use a hyperlink to create links to other relevant businesses and pages. This is a good an easy way to create an interesting and informative blog.

Facebook

There are many different ways in using Facebook as an excellent tool to promote your personal blog. Facebook groups are there to join together users that have similar interests and want to join discussions on matters that are related to you. It is always beneficial to join groups that can help you forward your ideas and create a good buzz about your blog.

Following other users, pages and businesses on Facebook will often give you the opportunity to promote your blog. For instance if you keep a personal blog regarding crafting, you may want to consider following businesses and even magazine publications that are about the same or similar subject matters. You will often find that like-minded people will be following the same pages as you and will pass on links to your blog.

Finally never underestimate the power of sharing your personal blog with family and friends. These loyal followers will often share your links creating a web of interest stretching out across hundreds of people and businesses.

Twitter

Twitter is an excellent way of promoting your personal blog in an unobtrusive way. Expand the list of other users that you follow to again include people and businesses that have similar interests to yourself. You will find by doing this that Twitter will begin to recommend your tweets to a wider range of users on the site.

Joining blogging sites

By joining a blogging network you will make your blog available to thousands of other users. You can use an RSS feed to automatically update your page on the blogging network so that when you create a new post or make a new tweet. This will work in your favour if you are a frequent blogger.

A good blogging site will also give you access to hundreds of blogs that are on a similar subject to your own. By following those, not only will you be able to find new and interesting ideas to help you along the way, but also attract followers from these blogs in your own right.

Effective use of search words

Most internet users will search for certain words and phrases if they want to find out information. If you are writing about a certain subject matter, make sure that you mention the subject frequently within your blog, this way it will be picked up by the search engines and your blog will increase in popularity.

StumbleUpon

Stumbleupon.com is a very good website searching tool where users can recommend sites that they have found to other like-minded people. When you register an account users can set their preferences to help them find blogs on the subject matters that they are interested in. Whenever you create a new blog post, by adding it to the Stumble Upon register you will make it available to thousands of people who are looking to read articles and information on the things that you are writing about. They will also be able to ‘like’ your blog in turn passing the link on to other users and increasing your bloon behalf of her favorite catnapper recliner specialist.

Thanks! Susan!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Successful-Blog is a proud affiliate of

third-tribe-marketing

How to Protect Your Web Reputation and Promote Yourself Online

by

Guest Post
by Riley Kissel

Job hunters with unchecked Internet existences should worry: an increasing number of employers perform DIY background checks on prospective employees via the World Wide Web. Specifically, they’re running applicant names through search engines. From there, they uncover social networking profiles and anything in which the applicant is attached to that has been published in some way on the Internet. If you haven’t cared about online reputation management yet, you need to.

But hold off on merely deleting your Internet existence all together, because if there’s one thing employers use their investigations to do besides find reasons not to hire people, it’s to hire them. Social network profiles let employers see a glimpse of the “real” you, or at least, see if there are any discrepancies between your resume and what your profiles say about you. Finding information that backs up your claims, or simply confirms that you are indeed a worthwhile individual, are aspects of the hiring process that encourage prospective employers to perfect, not eliminate, their web-based details.

So it’s vital that you go through Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and adjust your privacy settings so that no friends can potentially post damaging information that can be seen on your profile. In addition, sweep through your submitted information to weed out potential red flags – such as any posts that could be construed as offensive. But the essential aspect of making sure you look good on social networks is to constantly monitor your profiles on them, as well as staying up-to-date on privacy changes while job hunting.

It’s also important to become a member of every social network that you can. When mixed with proper monitoring, having multiple accounts may seem like a lot of work, but doing so allows you to immediately take control of the first results people are going to get back when they type your name into a search engine. In addition, if your name’s reflected URL has not already been taken you should buy the rights to it as soon as possible. Having YourName.com is a great way to make your resume readily available plus additional information of your choosing and eliminate confusion stemming from someone else using your name domain for purposes unrelated to you.

Don’t be intimidated by an Internet presence, but don’t disregard its benefits either. It has much to do with the chances of you getting a job as it does with you losing the opportunity to get hired. It’s not outside the realm of possibility for those adamant about finding work to improve their Internet-based reflection. It just takes patience and diligence, two attributes the modern job hunter surely must have.
————————————

Riley Kissel is a freelance writer who covers many industries with style. You can find out more about him at RileyKissel.com

Thanks, Riley, for this few moment of clarity..

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

The Most Important Question to Ask a Social Media Advisor – Bar None

by

It’s More Than Knowing the Tools

insideout logo

My first four years in publishing I learned everything I could about making books. I could write, edit, proof, keyline, set type, layout a page, plan a bookmap, develop a prototype, and conceive ideas for books, series, programs that were unique and loaded with value.

Until I was responsible for growing the business, I never fully understood that some great ideas aren’t actually so great.

Take, for example, what makes a great business website …

A coder has one definition of a great website.
A designer has another.
A writer defines great in yet another way.
An editor has still another.
A marketer will point to yet another.
Yet if customers or clients are looking for something other, then none of those definitions count.

A great book isn’t great if no one wants to read it.
A great game isn’t great if no one wants to play it.
A great business website isn’t so great if customers don’t participate and buy from it.

If our strategies and tactics don’t align with our customers’ missions and goals, then businesses close and people lose jobs.

So understanding the tools and tactics of social media is critical – you wouldn’t want an advisor who didn’t. Understanding the strategy and culture is crucial too – don’t take advice from someone who can’t explain the why as well as the what and the how. But experience is a key component to expertise in any field. And if growing your business is what you want to use social media to do, the most important question you can ask a social media advisor — bar none — is …

Have you ever been in a position where people would lose their jobs based on decisions you made?

Because you really want your social media advisor to be able to tell a great idea from a great idea that isn’t so great.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Be Irresistible: THE 7 Key Steps to Becoming Your Own Boss

by

insideout logo

I woke early Sunday morning. I beat the sun again. I started the coffee; turned on the computer; and while they fired up, I cleaned up and fired up myself. After I poured that first cup of coffee, I sat down to see what was happening on Twitter and one interesting Tweet from @WamdaME timed at 03:49a.m. was waiting for me.

After another tweet or two, we established that WamdaME was asking about “starting your own company,” so I sent the following stream of tweets to her under the hashtag #owningit and favorited them too.

It seemed a good idea to share them here too.

THE 7 Key Steps to Becoming Your Own Boss

The seven steps I tweeted might seem to have come easily at 4:00 a.m. that morning. But every success is build on our skill set and talents — what we’re good at — and experience. Strategy and strategic thinking come naturally to me. However, I learned this strategic process by testing it constantly and doing it wrong until I found the way to “right.” After the experience of building a conference business from a blog post and a consulting business from that, I can tell you this is what works.

  1. Look over your successes to find what they have in common.
  2. Recognize the skill sets and experience that you’ve already acquired.
  3. Name the values that define you.
  4. Know how to recognize the people who believe in those same values.
  5. Get to know the people who share your values and understand their goals, dreams, and problems better than your own.
  6. Identify a problem that you enjoy solving at the crossroads of your success skill set and your values.
  7. Build a strategy to serve the people who share your values and the problem you solve for them.
    • Make it your mission to be mission critical to the mission of the people you serve.
    • Understand your position – how your size, skills, visibility, competitive place, and relationships offer opportunity.
    • Leverage conditions – find the opportunity inside every trend, cycle, shift, change in power, etc.
    • Make command decisions – commit to where you’re going, persuade the right people to help, focus on the things that move you forward.
    • Build Networks and Systems – Connect the people who help you thrive. Have an ever simpler process for serving them.

    And the most critical …

  8. Be in with your head, heart, hands, and both feet.

Offer those ideal customers (the people who share your values) the solution to the problem (something that makes their life easier, simpler, or more meaningful) and make that offer everywhere they gather in ways that are easy for them to say yes. And keep listening to their responses , tweaking your offers, and practicing your craft to give the people who love what you do more of what they love, less of what they don’t like, and something uniquely surprising and valuable that only you can bring.

Success in establishing a business grows from what has always has always made us successful — those talents and gifts that define us expressed in the ways that only we can bring them to the world — and such a deep seated commitment to an idea, a quest, a goal that we’re willing to focus all we are to make it real.

It takes commitment to become your own boss — a commitment to yourself, to the people you serve, and to the value of what you offer.

That commitment has been in every success you’ve won.
Make the commitment and you’ll become an irresistible force.

Ever had an experience like that?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!