The Dirty Word In The Blogosphere
August 22, 2008
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On my travels through the blogosphere, I’ve noticed a dirty word that keeps cropping up. And it’s not the F word - it’s money.
It seems to be everywhere I go. The topics vary but money and blogging always seem to be connected in some way. Like in these articles:
“How Can I Make Money From Blogging?”,
I Don’t Read Blogs With Too Many Ads/Monetized Too Soon,
Advertising Alternatives For Bloggers,
How Top Bloggers Earn Money,
Use A Blog As A Powerful Marketing Tool.
And when it comes to money, there seems to be many different types of blogger, including these ones:
1) The Blog Whores: The ones that want to make a heap of cash and don’t care what they write.
2) The Creative Bloggers: The ones that love writing and hope to monetize their blogs eventually.
3) The Brand Bloggers: The ones who are aiming to use their blog to promote a product or service eventually.
4) The Diary Bloggers: The ones who just blog for fun, or blog about their daily lives.
5) The Savvy Bloggers: The ones who are already making money through their blogs.
6) The Anxious Bloggers: The ones who would like to make money from their blog but don’t want to admit it, incase it drives their readers away.
7) The Dumb Bloggers: The ones who are disgusted at the idea that anyone would want to make money from their blog.
If you were working 20 hours a week - you’d expect some sort of payment or reward eventually. You’d deserve it - so why should blogging be different? Did you ever hear anyone say, “I love Oprah, but I’m not going to watch her program anymore because she gets paid for working?”
Lets face it, if you have no plans for your blog, other than for other people to read what you’ve written, then you’ve got to have one huge ego.
And, although you’re unlikely to generate much money, or publicity from blogging in your first year or two, it can certainly pay off for those who are persistent, including these bloggers, who were featured on business week.
What do you think? I know people don’t want to share their plans on the Internet. But do you hope to use your blog to make money eventually - either directly or indirectly. Or do you think it’s a terrible sin?
Image Credit: Liewcf.
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Adam and Eve Part 2: A Kick In The Teeth
August 21, 2008
“You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”
Walt Disney
Satire
This is a series post on the effects of bad relationships on business and success. It’s about fictional characters - Adam and Eve. You’ll probably enjoy the story more if you read Part 1: Relationships, Are You Kissing Goodbye To Success?
Eve Gets A Kick In The Teeth
Eve is bleeding knackered and she’s beginning to hallucinate. So she tells Adam she’s had enough and he beats her up - even though she tries to escape. This has happened to Eve before but she doesn’t know who to tell. So she goes into work and when her staff ask what’s wrong, she says she fell.
She’s still enjoying her work. The business is doing great. And a few weeks later, Adam says, “Hey Eve, you don’t need to work here anymore. The business can run itself. Why don’t you take a break?”
But Eve does something strange now - something beyond Adam’s belief. And what caused this new behaviour was a metaphorical kick in the teeth.
She doesn’t want to leave the business that she saved and built. And if she’s not there running it, they’ll be in shit up to the hilt. “I’m legally a partner now - I’m staying and that’s a fact. And if you think it can run itself then you really are a twat. But don’t worry I’ll just stay long enough to get my money back.”
Adam is annoyed now - Eve usually believes his bullshit. Plus she’s always working - he wants to go out with his girlfriend while she babysits the kids. And the business is making money now, but she won’t let him spend it. And that’s really pissing Adam off, because he’s told his girlfriend he’s loaded.
Cashflow Isn’t Important Right?
So Adam takes a break from fun, to pay a visit to the bank. There’s heaps of money in there - well over ten grand ($20,000). It’s for something called cashflow, Eve said - but he thinks that’s a load of shit. He needs to have that money now to prove that he is rich. So he withdraws every single penny. Eve won’t have a clue. He’ll tell her the ATM swallowed their card and hide the bank statement too.
Now Eve might be too trusting, but she’s not exactly stupid. And when the bank statement doesn’t come, she asks them to send a copy. And when it finally arrives and she sees what Adam has done, she calls a locksmith right away and has the locks changed on their home.
Then she meets with Adam and tells him, “One of us must go.” And Adam smiles because he thinks he’s won but there’s something he doesn’t know. “I’m prepared to leave the business,” Eve says knowing she’d have the last laugh. “The only thing is, if you stay, you won’t have any staff.”
It doesn’t take Adam long to realize he his done. How can he work and have no staff - he’d have no time for fun. But to be fair to Adam - Eve happily agrees, to pay off his fun bank loan and as for his personal credit cards, she’ll take care of some of these.
The Urban Myth - All Business Owners Are Rich
She doesn’t know how she’ll manage, but she sees no other way. She’ll have to delay her creditors and find more work so she can pay.
Eve knows Adam won’t go easily, so she’s not really surprised, when her phone rings at all hours, cos he’s told his family lies. “You’ve made our Adam homeless,” Adam’s mother said, “The poor little lad’s wandering the streets, he’s got no roof over his head.”
Now Eve has plenty of problems and she doesn’t need this shit. Adam’s family must be thick if they don’t realise where he is. She’s avoiding paying bills until her finances are better. But all these calls are driving her mad, then she gets a solicitor’s letter:
“Adam is entitled to receive a massive wage and live the lifestyle he’s become accustomed to - and this will have to be paid by you.”
By now Eve is livid. Adam obviously hasn’t been honest about the state he left the business in. So she crumples up the letter and throws it in the bin.
Money Doesn’t Last Forever
A few months later on, Adam is feeling sad. He’s running out of money and he’s heard Eve isn’t doing bad. He’s not a partner in the business anymore and the thought of Eve making money, is really making him mad.
But he has a secret weapon - access to Eve’s account. He’s been taking money in dribs and drabs - and now he wants more out.
His new job is an easy one. Who said crime doesn’t pay? Adam is quite happy robbing Eve’s bank account every single day. Soon he’s taking a grand ($2000) a week. It’s better than a job he thinks and hopes she doesn’t click.
Helping Yourself To Money Earned By Another Is Theft
Eve’s pissed off when she realises her business account is being robbed again. She’s been on at the bank for months, but they keep messing her about. All the money Adam is taking is cash that she has earned. But her solicitor says she can’t do a thing until the bank changes the account - it really is a pain.
Ten weeks pass by and Adam’s still robbing Eve’s earnings blind. So Eve calls her bank manager’s assistant, but records of these daily transactions is something he can’t find. And as for changing the bank account, he apologises but these things take a lot of time.
Eve’s had enough by now, the bank is having a laugh. And as for her solicitor, she wonders if he and her bank manager are partners in golf. So she calls the bank’s helpline and they find the transactions straight away. Adam’s been using his passport for ID. Eve’s says, “fuck - you mean they let someone do that - every single day?”
So Eve goes into the bank on Saturday, when the bank manager isn’t there. And aside from a few direct debits to go out - she leaves the business account bare. Her bank manager isn’t happy when he sees what she has left. So he writes to her and reminds her, she needs to keep paying, Adam’s fun loan debt.
Eve sends the bank one payment, accompanied by a letter - unless the bank send itemized proof of Adam’s theft - they can go fug themselves - she isn’t their debtor.
Well, things got a lot worse for Adam and Eve. Do you think Eve did the wrong thing staying in the business until she got her money back? What would you have done? Did she do the right thing throwing Adam out of the business and the house? And do you think she has the slimmest chance of getting her money back? Each time there’s been cash in the bank, Adam has taken it - will this send the business down the tubes?
This is a series post. If you’d like to read the final part of the series, click here to subscribe in a reader.
Is It Time To Get Off Your Fat Ass?
July 4, 2008
When you’re running a business, it’s all too easy to spend too much time sitting on your butt. And you can become so wrapped in what you’re doing that you don’t notice how huge that ass is becoming.
In a recent post, I mentioned that I stopped taking my PTSD medication and began drinking wine each evening instead. Wine is extremely fattening and because I was drinking it I began to exercise less and less. And over the last three years or so I gained around 2 stone (28lbs).
Now I drank a lot of wine - probably between half and a whole bottle each evening, so I deserved to gain more weight. But luckily I eat pretty healthily.
Last week, I started a vigorous exercise program and lost about 8lbs in one week. But I had to do a lot of exercise to achieve this. And rapid weight loss through exercise isn’t for everyone - especially if you’ve led a fairly sedentary life. But I would recommend exercise and developing more healthy eating habits as opposed to fad diets and pills.
Do you spend too much time in your business to exercise? Has your ass grown so huge that you’re practically stuck to the chair?
You’ll perform far better in your business if you’re feeling healthy, so you might want to check out the following tips.
1) Don’t weigh yourself constantly - you’ll only become disheartened. Go by how well your clothes fit instead. This week I can pull my favourite jeans up to knee level. If I can get them to thigh level by next week, I’m making great progress.
2) Choose an exercise routine that’s convenient to you and doesn’t involve a lot of travelling. If you work from home and the nearest gym is 30 minutes away, try walking or cycling instead. If that’s not an option, run up and down the stairs, or dance with the vacuum cleaner. You might feel a fool but nobody is watching you, so what the hell.
2) Walking is just as good as any other form of exercise. This makes up a huge part of my routine and the area I live in is a great place to walk, so long as you dodge the cow shit and keep your mouth closed so you don’t swallow a dozen flies.
If you’re going to do a huge amount of walking, remember that it’s just as important to warm up and down and stretch, just the same as if you were doing any other exercise - especially if your thirtieth birthday is just a vague memory. I forgot about this the first couple of times and struggled to walk up the stairs afterwards.
3) Weights are great for giving your body excellent shape and definition. Trouble is, unless you live near a gym, or have a huge amount of space in your home, it may not be possible to use weights on a regular basis.
But pilates is something you can do at home that will give you an excellent shape and improve your posture. I use the Winsor Pilates
4) Don’t depress yourself by reading magazines and web pages on celebs who have dropped ten stones in a week. Remember, they have personal trainers, dieticians, liposuction, airbrushing, drugs and lots of toilet roll to eat.
5) It really is all about maths. You need to burn off around 3500 calories to lose one pound. If you reduce the number of calories you eat by 1000 a day (the maximum recommended by the gurus), you’ll lose 2lbs a week. And if you do 9 hours moderate exercise per week (around 400 calories per hour depending on the exercise and how fat you are to begin with) that’s another pound of weight loss.
6) Don’t listen to the “experts” who tell you not to eat certain foods after the middle of the day etc. It doesn’t make a whole heap of difference what time of day you eat. And not being able to sleep because you’re absolutely ravenous is far worse than worrying that you’ve burned off 100 calories less that day.
7) Don’t be suckered into buying fat melting diet pills. If you’re not sure what you should be eating, get some expert help.
Now, I could blog about what exercise I’ve done each day and persuade those of you with equally huge butts to follow me. But I’m scared that you’ll injure yourself and sue me.
Are you suffering from ass spread as a result of running your own business? Did stress cause you to overeat, or overdrink, or is lack of exercise and a more sedentary lifestyle to blame? Have you managed to get back into your favourite jeans yourself, or do you still struggle? Please share in the comments section.
Value - Is It Possible To Give Too Much?
July 1, 2008
Many customers buy things that give more value, as opposed to things that are the lowest price. For example, they’d prefer to buy a widget that costs £200 and lasts five years than one that costs £100 and lasts for one year.
And those are the type of customers we all want to attract, because we know we don’t have to compete on price to attract them. And when the customer does want to replace that product, we hope they’ll automatically think of us. Trouble is, that doesn’t always happen - even if your name is stamped clearly on that product.
The other day, the sole of one of my walking boots fell off completely. Luckily, I was only about a mile away from home. The following day, I was due to do a thirteen mile hike in the mountains and I would have been more than a bit pissed off if it had happened then.
Now, I don’t use walking boots every day but when I do use them, they get a fair bit of hammer. So I was pleased when I worked out that those Berghaus boots had lasted me for almost 13 years. I got them in the sale and probably paid something like £50 ($100) for them. So that was pretty good value - less than £4 ($8) per year.
I needed to replace the boots and the obvious choice would be to go for another pair of Berghaus ones - but I didn’t. And because I’m interested in what makes customers buy, I’ve been thinking about why I didn’t buy another pair of the same brand and what would have encouraged me to do so.
And I came up with the following reasons why I opted for a different brand:
1) It was an unexpected purchase - I didn’t know the other boots were going to break, so I hadn’t budgeted for a new pair. I got the new boots in the sale for £45 ($90) and a new pair of Berghaus boots were £85 ($170)
2) It put me in a potentially unsafe situation. I make sure I buy decent boots because my safety is important when I’m up a 3000 ft mountain. The boots had shown no sign that the sole was about to fall off completely and I’d rather they’d only lasted five years and showed some sign of wear before falling apart completely.
So what could a company like Berghaus do to encourage customers to buy from them the next time? They obviously have a long lasting hard wearing product.
I was thinking maybe they could have:
1) A guarantee that doesn’t last as long as the product - 5 years would be pretty impressive and a policy where you’d get a small discount on your boots if you returned the old ones when the guarantee was up.
2) Some kind of warning system built into the boot that kicks in after they’ve had so much wear, so the walker knows when to replace them.
Incidentally, the boots I chose to replace the old ones just aren’t as comfortable as the Berghaus ones, so I’ll probably go back to using Berghaus really soon. I’ll just replace them a lot earlier than I did the last ones.
Have you ever been in a similar situation - eg. You’ve not bought the same product even though it served you well? Why did you make that choice?
Do you have any ideas on what Berghaus could do to make customers come back to them? If you already have a business, or you’re considering starting one, can you think of ways you could persuade the customer to come back to you after the initial purchase?
