On March 17, I will quit blogging!
Relax folks, I am not talking about myself. I am talking about veteran problogger Joel. For the last 10 years Joel has been blogging at JoelOnsoftware.com. Joel’s blog is regarded as one of the best blogs in the software industry. The main audience of the blog comprised of Software Developers. Joel was very successful in using his blog to launch his own software company Fog Creek Software.
But after 10 years of blogging, Joel is ready to go offline! Joel claims that his blog has provided a very narrow channel to promote his company and its products. Joel feels that the time and energy spent on blogging is better spent on other activities to broaden the channel to market his company. Joel says his company Fog Creek has become a big fish in a very small pond!
I am sad to see Joel leaving blogging for good. He is an expert in his field of software development.
This whole story has prompted me to think about who are the target audience for our blog.
I think Joel’s company became the big fish is a small pond because Joel’s readers were mainly Software Developers. JoelOnSoftware became popular because it was a well focused niche blog catering to a specific group of people. But the narrow niche nature of this blog may have been the reason why Joel could not broaden the channel for promoting his company. Software Developers are not managers and they are not in a position to make any buying decisions. This could be the reason why Joel couldn’t lead the big fish out of the small pond using his blog. Joel’s blog comprised of passionate readers but they were not decision makers.
Let’s take a simple example to illustrate this point. Let’s say that you are in the business of making candy. If you sell your products directly to kids, your business will not get the exposure it deserves. Your marketing plan should include ways to promote your products to other channels such as Super Markets, Corner Stores, Restaurants etc.
Even though Joel had a large group of followers, all of them came from the same category. This could explain why Joel couldn’t promote his business using his blog after a certain point was reached.
Another way to look at this issue is that Joel’s company has really out grown the need for a blog. Because the brand has become strong there is no need to attract clients using a blog.
What do you think? Is blogging applicable only to small companies? Is blogging a dying medium to promote your business? Love to hear what you think about this story.
What puzzles me is that why Joel decided to say goodbye to blogging for good. For example, he could have still continued blogging and saved time by cutting down the number of posts. I take this opportunity to wish Joel good luck in his future efforts to expand his business.
In my last post, I provided some tips for selecting a good username on Twitter. In this post I will give you some tips to get your profile picture right. The tips in this post not only apply to Twitter but also for other Social Networks.
Your profile picture is the first point of contact for a person who is interested in knowing more about you. Therefore, it is important that you give some thought into the selection of your profile picture. As a business owner you need to project the right image to your clients.
Here are some of my tips for selecting a good profile picture. These tips are more applicable for people who use Twitter for business purposes.
- Be yourself. Do not fake your personality. It is very important that your clients’ expectations about you are met if both of you had to meet face to face.
- Take the picture in a relaxed position. Wear clothes that your are comfortable with and ones that reflect your style and personality.
- Take the picture in a brightly lit environment.
- It is preferable to have a neutral color background.
- Do not have other distractions in your photo. For example, do not take a picture with your dog. Your clients are not interested in your dog. They are interested in getting to know you better.
- Only have other people and objects in your picture, if they are related to your business or profession. For example, if you are a professional Dog Trainer then you got to have a picture with a dog!
- Make direct eye contact on the picture, it is important that you come across as a confident person in the eyes of your prospective clients.
- Avoid Logos! If you own a business or a brand, do not use the logo as your profile picture. In social networks people are more interested in making connections to people, not organizations. Even if you use your company name as the username in your Twitter account, it is important to show your face in the profile picture.
- Keep your profile picture consistent across different networks such as Twitter, Facebook etc. This allows potential clients to easily recognize you.
- Take multiple pictures in different postures with varying smiles.
- Ask family and friends for their opinion. Get a vote. Choose the picture that gets the most number of votes.
I hope you found the above tips useful. Add your own tips in the comments section. Thank you.
As a business owner you may want to give some thought into the selection of your Twitter username. A good Twitter username can give you an advantage in marketing yourself or your business.
When it comes to Twitter usernames you have the following 3 choices:
1. Use Your Real Name (example @RichardBranson)
This is the best option for business owners who want to promote themselves directly. For example, if you are a real estate agent you may want to promote yourself to your local community. Using your real name is very effective on Social Networks because people are interested in making connection with a real person instead of a company. Also, this option is more suitable if you intend to use Twitter for personal use.
2. Use the Name of Your Business or Brand (example @TechThinker)
If people are going to find your business using your brand name then it is important to use your brand name as your Twitter username. For example, I use the name of my blog (TechThinker) as my username on Twitter since I want to promote my business under this brand name.
3. Use a Keyword Rich and Descriptive Name (example @WhatsOnToronto)
Some people prefer to use a keyword rich Twitter username that describes the nature of their business. For example, the username name @WhatsOnToronto is self explanatory. It is not hard to figure out what this Twitter profile is all about. Google pays a lot of attention to content generated by Social Networks. Therefore using a keyword rich username may allow you to take advantage of Google search results.
Tips for Selecting a Twitter Username
1. A Twitter Username cannot exceed the maximum 15 character limit.
2. A Twitter Username can be changed without creating a new account. You will NOT lose your followers due to a username change.
3. If you happen to change your username, make sure to immediately create a new Twitter account with your old username. Simply leave a tweet (in the newly created account) indicating the fact that you have moved to a new Twitter username.
4. If your real name is already taken, then try a username with initials (example @RobASmith) or try a name with an adjective or description (example @RealtorDavid).
5. Whenever possible try to keep your username short. Your username will consume characters when it appears on a tweet or retweet. Therefore, keep your user name as short as you can.
6. Avoid underscores(“_”) on your username. On many mobile phones it is often hard to type the underscore. Not all mobile phones support the underscore directly on the keyboard, even if the underscore is found on the keyboard it might be hard to locate it.
Do you have any other tips to choose a good username? Please share them below.
While Twitter as a company is not making any money, entrepreneurs and businesses can make money on Twitter in number of ways. Twitter is a very valuable tool to promote your brand, build relationships with clients and eventually make money by selling your products and services.
So, how your business can make money on Twitter? Here are some of my thoughts.
1. Promoting Products and Services
One of the most elementary methods to make money on Twitter is to promote your products and services. Deals and Contests are two techniques that you can use to promote your products on Twitter. Make sure that you do not over use these techniques. If you tweet about product deals very frequently your followers will probably ignore you.
2. Turn Followers into Marketers
This is a very powerful technique where you can turn your followers into marketers who are willing to sell your products. For example, you could pay your followers a referral fee for every product they sell for you. Alternatively you can reward your followers with a point system where they can earn points for referring products that can be later redeemed for something valuable.
3. Turn Followers into Creators and Helpers
If you are developing a product and want to get the best ideas, you can turn your followers into creators or helpers to deliver that product. For example, let us assume that you have developed a new software and want people to perform usability testing. People who follow your company on Twitter are probably interested in your software too. With in no time you will have many people willing to test your product and provide their feedback.
4. Reaching out to Clients in Different Geographic Locations
Twitter can be used as a broadcasting tool to reach new clients in different geographic locations. Let us assume that you conduct seminars and workshops on Personal Development. You travel the country city by city holding these workshops. You can tweet your workshop details and location information when you are in a city. This allows you to get new clients from that area.
5. Lead Generation
Using Twitter you can get new leads and convert them to loyal clients. The best way to do this is by adding value. For example, if you are a real estate agent you can use Twitter to provide various information relating to real estate. For example, mortgage advice, home staging tips, market trends etc. When you provide value, people are more likely to notice you. By adding value you become a trusted and credible source in your industry. When people view you or your business as the expert in the field, they are more likely to do business with you.
The above points are some ideas that came to my mind. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list. If you have other ideas and methods to make money on Twitter please feel free to share them below.
Photo Credit: luc legay’s photostream
Flavors.me is a simple site that pulls all your social media content into a single location. To use flavors.me you simply signup for an account and start importing your content from other services into flavors.me. The social media sites and services supported in flavors.me include Twitter, FaceBook, Tumblr, Posterous, Blogger, Wordpress, LinkedIn, GoodReads, NetFlix, last.fm, YouTube, flickr, Four Square, Etsy and your blog’s RSS feed.
I like this service because it is very simple to use. Keeping track of a person across a number of social medial sites and services can be overwhelming. Flavors.me allows you to share all of your social content in a single location. The site has a minimalist and intuitive design.
You can check out my flavors.me page at http://flavors.me/techthinker
While flavors.me is free to use, the company provides a premium service for $20 a year. The premium service offers Custom Domain name support, web statistics and a contact form for your readers to contact you.
Check out this cool flavors.me video. I hope you like it.
Flavors.me from Jack Zerby on Vimeo.
Today, I did a reorganization of the categories in my blog. I had too many categories therefore it was time to reduce them and focus on the core topics that I want to concentrate. As I continue blogging, I am getting a much clearer picture on the direction I want to take this blog. Reorganizing the categories is my first initiative to make sure my blog stays on track with its goals and objectives. The next time when I have an idea for a post I will be checking to see whether that post will fall under any of these categories. If the post doesn’t qualify for a category, I will not be writing that post. This will make sure that I stay super focused on message and content that I am trying to promote in this blog. The following pie chart shows the percentage of posts by category at TechThinker.com. My next task is to rewrite the About Page of this blog.
The following is a guest post by Zack Shapiro.
Zack Shapiro is an entrepreneur, tech blogger, journalist and world traveler. You can find him on Twitter @ZackShapiro and on his blog at ZackShapiro.com.
Over to you Zack:
Humankind has never been more linked together than we are today. And tomorrow, we’ll be even more connected.
With the increasing levels of connectivity, we became slaves to our means of digital outreach. Facebook, blogging, Twitter, email, Skype and the list goes on and on.
Chances are you suffer from being incredibly over-connected to at least one of the tools listed above.
It’s time to begin to break away. If it sounds scary, don’t worry. We’ll take baby steps.
As with any change in habits small steps are important towards reaching your goal of being digitally free. Jumping into things cold turkey often leads to a relapse because we can’t mentally commit.
My foray into digital relaxation began with No Email Saturdays, where, as the name suggests, I take a break from email for one-seventh of the week.
At first it was harder than I imagined it would be. I had no problem leaving Mail alone on my laptop but I forgot to turn off the email on my iPhone. That meant I was constantly checking my phone not to see what the email was but to see if I had gotten anymore. As the day went on and the number of unread emails climbed higher I was no better off than digging into the actual emails themselves.
There was still digital weight on my mind. This you do not want.
If you’re apprehensive about cutting the cord remember this: unless you work for an organization that requires you to be connected all the time, you don’t need to be.
Sure an email on Wednesday morning about Friday’s meeting may be an important one but ask yourself this, “What could I possibly get on Saturday that can’t be taken care of on Sunday?
Leave the Mail our Outlook icon alone, don’t go to your webmail and turn all email on your phone off. Every phone has a way to switch it off without deleting precious accounts or stored email. Leave it all alone.
If you find yourself itching to see what’s waiting in your inbox remember this: You have to physically allow yourself to check your email. Be strong. I believe in you.
It has been a little over a month now with No Email Saturdays and I love the concept. It frees my mind from whatever’s coming up and I trust that whatever I get on Saturday can be dealt with later. It’s unrealistic to expect yourself to be connected at all times.
Now I’m ready to take the next step: No SocMed (Social Media) Saturdays.
You may not be able to get to me by email on Saturdays but you can still get my attention through my blog, an @reply on my Twitter account, a comment on Flickr, etc. So I’m still connected; I’m still checking.
Next Saturday I plan to cut out the blogging. The following week, Twitter. Those are my big two. Identify yours and make a plan. Set goals based on your level of comfort after realizing what the extra free time means.
Go outside. Spend time with friends. Watch TV without your computer around. Read a book. Go for a run. Have some fun.
There are two types of people. The Shipper and the Perfectionist. The shipper ships a product on the deadline date even when the product is not fully finished. The perfectionist only ships a product when it is fully complete. For the perfectionist, even if a small feature is incomplete it is a good enough reason to delay the delivery of the product.
Who do you want to be? Which style is better?
Here is my personal take on this issue.
While we should always strive for best quality in the products we produce, the perfectionist mentality is the NOT the right attitude for today’s fast phased market place. In today’s market place the product has to be delivered at the right time. Velocity is key. The market place moves at such a rapid phase and by being a perfectionist you may not be able to deliver the product right on time. Another problem with the perfectionist is that the perfectionist always works under more pressure compared to the shipper. Since the perfectionist prolongs the delivery of the product, the product becomes (or feels) stale over time. This is why we often end up throwing up work that was dragging for moths or weeks. Overtime the passion fades away and we perceive the product useless, even though the product has some value. Perfectionist often get stuck with a product development because they are not willing to move on to the next stage.
On the other hand the shipper attitude is great for for today’s fast phased market. Shippers are usually in better control of their products. They are much happier people than the perfectionists. By shipping the product at the right time, shippers feel a sense of achievement. Therefore they are able to do a much better job in their second delivery of the product. By shipping the products on time, the shipper tames the Lizard Brain and Resistance that has been telling the shipper all sorts of negative things such as “the delivery will not happen”, “be careful”, “your product will not be received well in the market” etc.
Do you agree with what I am saying? Which camp are you in?
If the product has a quality score of 90% and if it is going to take substantially more time to achieve a quality score of 99%, will you ship the product as it is? or will you try to achieve a score of 99% and delay the delivery of the product?
Ok, that is a bit exaggerated. Apple is not the king of the tech world but no one can refute the fact that the company is a dominant player in the technology market. What makes Apple a successful company? As entrepreneurs what can we learn from Apple? In this post I try to answer these questions by identifying some of the key characteristics that set Apple apart from other tech companies.
1. Market Creators
Apple under Steve Jobs has had tremendous success in creating new markets. In the past decade alone the company has created many new products and ventured into markets that never existed before. The iMac, the iPod, and the new iPad are perfect examples of such products. While others try to capture market share, Apple succeeds in creating new markets!.
WordPress is a free blogging platform that was created in 2003. The software was originally intended for creating blogs. Over the years Wordpress has been continuously improved. Today Wordpress is used is to create all types of websites. In this post I look at the top 7 reasons for creating your Business Website using WordPress.
1. Free
The WordPress software is opened sourced. You can use the software free of charge for both personal and commercial projects.
2. Community
WordPress has a large user community. Therefore it is very easy to get resources and help from fellow WordPress users.
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