July 2006 Archives

Everybody needs a friend when growing an online business, eh? A friend will be honest, friends can tell you what's working and what's not, or suggest what needs to be tweaked a little. Well, believe it or not, you have a built in friend in the backend of your website - it's called your statistics page. If you are serious about growing your business, you'll want to get to know this page by spending time with it, just like you would any new friend.

Your statisics page will be honest with you. It tracks a bunch of numbers by month such as, site visitors - from whence they came, how they entered, how long they stayed, and which from which page they left. It will tell you what's working and what's not, for example, whether or not your site is being bookmarked and what keyword phrases are used as search terms. There are even stats on what browser the majority are using. This is not all of course, your stats page carries way more information than you probably care to know.

I believe some of the most important trackers are unique site visitors, search keywords, page entry and exit, and time spent. I have fleshed these out a bit more in the section on stats in my e-book, The Insider's Guide to Web Marketing, available August 1st. For a limited time, (like until August 1st), you may sign up as a preferred reader and receive a deep discount. Check it out.

Oh, and good luck with your new friend. Don't be discouraged if you don't hit it off right away, remember, friendships take time.

Okay all you bibliophiles, here's the question. How important is the delivery mechanism for your reading habit? In other words, are you a bound book "purist", or do you enjoy the digital word as well? Are you the download-and-print-type (like me), or would you consider an e-reader that looks like a book, feels like a book, and would hold about 80 books at a time?

The reason I ask, is because I've stumbled upon a few e-readers that hold promise. As a producer of e-content I think this is quite a good thing. I'm going to seriously consider one come release time.

The first is the Sony(r) Reader. Check out the goods at Sony's fact page. I like the looks of this gadget, very sleek. You can't buy it yet, rumor has an August 06 release date.

Another to consider is the Iliad by iRex Technologies. This one has a bit more functionality, more the swiss-army-knife type that will accept hand writing and such. The release date is to be announced.

Finally, there's a unit by Bookeen called the Pack Cybook which allows wireless access to broadband internet. Hmmmm. I like that idea. It's available now. Tempting, eh?

As much as I like holding and reading my beloved books, I can't say I like storing them. My bookshelf runneth over. For that reason alone, I'm anxiously awaiting these new arrivals.

Happy reading!

Have you ever come off an hours long surfing binge feeling numb? Or maybe a tad disoriented, like where have I been and what was I doing there and does it matter?

Information overload can do this, eh? My blogging hero, Sherman Hu of wordpresstutorials.com, has laid out some killer strategies for staying on track in your business (in spite of information overload). It’s worth your time, you can read it here. Lemme know what you think.

To your best!

Man, I don’t know about you, but I feel so fortunate to live the life I’m living. It’s easy street in so many ways. My physical needs are met, I’m never hungry or thirsty, seldom too cold or too hot. I have no chronic illnesses that I know of (other than my digital addiction). My commute to work is only 5 minutes down the hall, gotta love that. I am well-loved by my husband of 24 years, my beautiful daughter, 21, and my awesome son, 18. Pinch me, will ya?

This is all so undeserved. Thank you God. I wanna give out of this overflow so I said “yes” when my friend asked me to go with her on a group mission trip to Mexico, we leave in just a couple of weeks. I am so pumped. We’ll be helping construct a church, teaching vacation bible school, and ESL (English as a Second Language) classes.

This isn’t my first mission trip but it is my first one out of the country. I can hardly wait to see what God has in store for us. It’s a giving trip, the most preferred in my book.

The phone rang the other day. It was a recruiter for a large insurance/investment firm. She asked if I might be interested in working as an associate for her company.

Ahh. The thought of it all. Paid training. People would understand what I do. I could wear cool clothes. Benefits. Prestige. Long term security. A support network. Wow. The pros built an impressive dogpile in the back of my mind.

Then I thought about life as I know it, this dream business I have built from scratch, the hours I have spent absorbed in web technology, the stacks and stacks of books, PDF's, online tutorials and classes I have devoured, the satisfied clients and friends I have made. And mostly, the buzz I get from just the right color and the right graphic and the right sentence in just the right place at just the right time. Hmmm.

It would take alot to give it all up, more than benefits, I believe. More than prestige, more than a support network, more than, well, I can't think of anything that would make me say yes to that phone call.

I had a momentary lapse, a stutter of doubt, a hiccup if you will. Thankfully, it helped me remember why I love what I do so much, and why I'm going to keep doing it until my click runs dry.