He was describing the mindset of the of the opposing parties in the revolutionary war. War seems ever present in our world, whether you look at nations, or, as Steven Pressfield puts it in the War of Art. Whether in your mind or on the ground there are two beliefs that prevent us from establishing realistic expectations.

First, he points out, is the belief that the conflict will be short. Second is the belief that the moral superiority of ones position will bring success. As it turns out, they’re both lies, and they may even keep you from achieving your highest priority goals. Let’s have a closer look.

The conflict would be short

I’ll relate this first point to marketing your products on the internet. Many entrepreneurs (myself included) harbor the belief that some innovation, tactic, campaign or other mechanism will bring them fast and effective results. The only problem is that they just haven’t found it yet.

These people understand that you can’t plant a seed one evening and expect to wake up the next day to a blossoming fruitful tree. They know that you have to water it and wait. Even after it starts to grow you have to nurse it and harden it until it has strong roots. So why do they think that somehow their business will blossom overnight?

It is simply not realistic to expect that any one tactic, product or offer will shorten the road to a thriving, successful business. Just like a seed, it requires the investment of time and effort. And even then, sometimes it just doesn’t work out and you have to plant another seed or even change the ground where you’re planting it.

Did you know that to plant an orchard takes years. Literally. After you finally get trees growing, you have to pluck all the fruit off of them for the first three years, while you continue weeding, fertalizing and pruning. That doesn’t include the years before that bringing the tree from a seed, to sapling and on to the point where you could plant it in the orchard.

From a seed, you might be five or six years out before you get a piece of fruit that you can actually eat. Sure you can shortcut that and let the fruit grow sooner, but you actually decrease the lifetime output and effectiveness of the tree. By taking too soon, you limit your overall returns.

The conflict will not be short.

Raw Undisciplined Recruits vs. Veteran British Soldiers

The next mental plague that threatened the continental army from the outset was the belief that untrained, undisciplined militia could triumph over well trained, well equipped British regulars, simply because the virtue of the cause that inspired them was morally superior.

However appealing this argument may have sounded, the fact of the matter is that discipline, training, equipment and compensation play an enormous role in the potency of an attack (or even a defense).

If you’ve convinced yourself that your better idea or refined tactic will give you the upper hand against someone who’s willing to slog through three hours of content, create 50 backlinks and make 10 JV calls per day, then you’re fooling yourself. Victory favors the person that puts in the hours and is well trained.

Weekend Warrior’s Fail

Are you a weekend militia man in your business or are you a well trained, highly disciplined British regular. If you think that success will come because you deserve it, or because your idea is better or any way other than discipline and follow through, then you should think again.

The quality of your ideas, your ability to write or even the contacts you have aren’t often the most significant factors in who wins the race. The difference between you and the guy that makes it work often comes down to discipline and work.

Ditch the Two Seductive Illusions

If you really want to win this game, then learn from history and don’t give into these two seductive illusions. The conflict will not be short and you must approach your craft with discipline and training.

P.S.
If you’re looking for a roadmap of exactly what to do, then you should really consider following along with this years Challenge (Ed Dale and his gang). You can find it here: http://www.challenge.co/

Leadership defecit

I’m not sure that he had in mind to point out that there’s a significant leadership deficit right now in America (both business and politics). Some people blame this on our academic system or use of standardized tests where an artificial bar of excellence has been established and everyone is taught from age five to measure themselves against it (and nothing higher). Others argue that TV and movies and other popular media discourage us from reading classic books, which is how character and values have been taught for centuries.

Whatever the true cause of the deficit, there’s little doubt that it exists. Rather than making difficult choices, like sacrifice, discipline and hard work, we seem to be a generation of entitlement. Everyone wants “their fair share”. No wonder Ed Dale and Frank Kern have been heard to lament that the one thing they can’t sell is the “do” part of what they teach.

Leadership vs. Management

One comparison that he uses throughout the book, which I think highlights the leadership deficit, is manager vs. leader. A manager’s job, he suggests, is to maintain the status quo. He isn’t there to innovate or to change. He has the sole purpose of ensuring that production of X goes on according to specifications. Leaders, on the other hand, define specifications.

While I don’t care for his use of the word heretic throughout the book, I think I see what he’s getting at. In this book I think a heretic is someone who challenges the status quo. The reason I say that I don’t like his use of the word is that I doubt most leaders would self identify as a heretic and by choosing a recalcitrant word, they might discount some of the strength of his arguments.

I believe that many leaders rise to their position not because they want to oppose established authority, but instead because they find their backs against the wall. For example, I think that many people would agree that the founders of the United States constitution were effective leaders.

Amid the din of patriotic praise for what they did, we might think that the government they established was heretical for it’s time. That’s not true. In fact, many of them tried (for many years) to reconcile their differences with Britain. They tried as hard to resolve the conflict beforehand as they did to establish independence afterward. They were also very well educated in matters of politics and familiar with the forms of government that have existed throughout the ages.

A leader doesn’t have to fly in the face of established patterns in order to lead. Sometimes to lead means to confront mutiny and maintain order according to specification (or the status quo).

How to identify your tribe

One significant question that the book doesn’t answer is “how do I identify my tribe”. This might have been his intention. After all, how do you teach someone where to go to look for people that might be interested in what you do? The fact is, you just have to make some noise and see who raises their hand in interest. In many cases, the people that compose your tribe may surprise you.

One aspect of identifying your tribe, that I think he understood to be implicit, is that you need to have a deep, burning passion for what your doing. Someone that lacks that all consuming drive for change will rarely be generous, selfless and enduring enough to inspire allegiance from their tribe (all qualities he attributes to leadership).

Noteworthy quotes

Here are a few quotes that I really enjoyed. By the way, I bought my copy on Amazon.

“great leaders don’t try to please everyone”

“the new thing is rarely as good as the old thing was. If you need the alternative to be better than the status quo from the very start, you’ll never begin”

“Don’t mortgage today just because you’re in a hurry”

“It’s a myth that change happens overnight, that right answers succeed in the marketplace right away, or that big ideas happen in a flash.”

And of course, he has a blog: Seth Godin. Go subscribe now.

Geeky looking actor #2: “Watch me turn this wrigley’s gum wrapper, a AAA battery and some titanium shavings from my laptop case into an instant bypass of this multi-million dollar security system”.

Don’t you love the movies? They rock. Some total stud and a complete geek get together and decide they’re going to save the world by breaking into the pentagon or CIA and getting access to top secret files. There’s actually a good reason these persona’s exist. It’s because you want them to exist.

It’s really a funny quirk about human nature that we tend to think that everyone else has a “secret” or “discovery” that we don’t. That’s why headlines like “1 Secret to a Flat Belly” pop up all over the place. It’s not because they really have a secret, other than do tons of exercise, stop eating like a garbage can and get plenty of sleep. It works because way too many people assume that the hot girl with the sexy abs is eating twinkies and sitting in front of the tube six hours a day, just like us.

Enough about twinkies. What has this got to do with internet marketing technology?

Programmers have to follow the rules

Many people really believe that somewhere in the world there’s an omniscient hacker who can break into computers at will and reads top secret files like I read my email. They really believe that if you know enough about technology then you can control any computer in a matter of minutes. Here’s a news flash for you. HE DOESN’T EXIST!

Yep. Sorry to burst your bubble. Even the guys that design the programming languages understand that there have to be rules. They define how things are ordered, loaded, protected and so on. You might even think about it like gravity. You can sometimes find ways around it (like an airplane), but as soon as the engines cut out you remember really fast that it’s there working like always.

Remember that programmer? Yeah, the one that you wanted to build your website for $300 and you’re always mad that he didn’t get it done just the way you dreamed about it and that it took more than two days time. He has to follow the rules too.

And if you want the guy that can actually perform “miracles”, keep in mind that he’s worth a lot more than $300. Yep, it’s true: you really do get what you pay for.

The “REAL” secret: Quality comes with time and iterations

Another thing that the movies have ruined is the reality of developing through iteration. Since they only have a two minute montage to show you how they break in to the Oval Office or the FBI mainframe before getting back to the story line, it’s easy to think that real programmers should be able to write a perfect program the first time.

That’s not actually true either. In reality, the best software is the result of iterations! Period! This isn’t just limited to programmers. Look at cars, buildings and architecture, plumbing and even your favorite pancake recipe. This applies equally to the creative design process and shopping at the grocery store. It’s a universal constant.

The bottom line is that if you want something to be top quality then you have to plan for iterations. The first revision product is going to be limited, clunky and might even work (with a little skill and luck). Give yourself and your programmer time and budget to get through a couple of iterations if top quality is your goal.

Did I mention the power iterations

Why are iterations on a project so important? For the same reason that a baby’s first step usually isn’t followed by an immediate second step. Even the unbelievable human nervous system requires many, many failures and falls before all the neural connections function well enough together to enable us to walk. That’s not to mention the building up of strength in the legs.

Programmers are the same way. The more iterations you go through on a theme, the easier it becomes. Even to the point that some tasks may go off just like walking. We don’t really think about walking (I mean lift leg, lean forward, place foot, ensure balance, shift weight, lift other foot, etc.). Some programming tasks can get to be that way too, just like walking, but it’s only after many iterations and failures.

Marketers call this split testing

This is actually an old concept in advertising. Direct response marketers call this split testing. Interestingly, many programmers hold a similar myth about the omniscient marketer. They really believe that there’s a sales guy somewhere that can sell anything to anyone, whether or not they have a need or desire for the thing.

There is no omniscient marketer either.

In reality there’s no direct sales guy that can magically whip out the perfect headline in a matter a minutes based purely on his genius. The best copywriters will tell you that research is the key to good copy. I would add that research must be coupled with many iterations of split tests to identify an optimal headline and offer.

Stop the cycle of first version paralysis

Rather than get hung up on why your programmer or marketer friend isn’t able to pull out the hollywood version of the website or sales offer that you need right now to become an instant millionaire, why not just take a stab in the dark and call it a first iteration. If it’s useful then pat yourself on the back and get back to work!

I promise you the next iteration will be even better than the first.

SEO

I’ve discussed these criteria in a previous post, but it’s worth going through them again here as they apply to Thesis.  First off is SEO.  SEO is tricky for a few reasons. 1) No one really knows Google’s algorithm except for Google.  Meticulous testing has revealed many of the details, but it’s a stab in the dark or a good guess in many cases.  2) SEO and design don’t always agree with each other.  Designers want to make things look good to humans and SEO experts want to make things look good to the search engines. Both are necessary and there’s a trade off involved.  3) SEO is a moving target.  Google and other search engines are constantly making adjustments to their methods and so to maintain rankings and search engine position requires continual vigilance.

In terms of SEO, Thesis has a few advantages. The core development effort is aware of SEO best practices and has made it a focus from the beginning to balance SEO with good design. The large install base for the theme and the caliber of the blogs that use Thesis provide feedback to the developers which improve the core even further.  Finally, the proper use of css and XHTML (standards compliant) ensure that automated bots (from the search engines) can find the keyword information you include in your posts easily.

Speed

One of the most significant factors in the success of WordPress as blogging software has been the theme and plugin architecture.  You don’t have to be a programmer to understand how appealing it is to be able to modify a WordPress blog without having to do a lot of programming.  One problem that comes with this flexibility is that there are a lot of poorly written themes and plugins.  Each task that you want your theme or plugin to do requires processing, which can potentially slow down your website.

Here again, Thesis does an amazing job because it was a focus from the beginning.  The core development effort is aware of how WordPress is supposed to work and they have made very deliberate choices to make the theme as fast as possible.  This has two outcomes.  First is that visitors to the site have a better experience.  Research has shown that faster sites get more clicks.  People are more willing to explore the site when each page loads quickly. The second is that you can accommodate more visitors to your site without performance degrading.  I suppose a third would be that Google has just announced that the load time of a website is now a factor in ranking, which means that a fast theme brings SEO benefit too.

Usability

When a user comes to your site, they want to find the information that’s most relevant to what they’re looking for.  The Thesis team has found a great balance between design and SEO that gives the user a very clear path to the information that’s of greatest interest to them.  In addition to good design, they fully support the customizable widgets that are built in to WordPress.  This gives you ultimate flexibility when tweaking your site to increase conversions.

Productivity

Finally, the breadth and quality of the customization options available in Thesis means that you don’t have to fight with your blog or know how to code to get the results you want.  You’re productive from the first moment using nothing more than your web browser to configure your site.  This may be the most immediate benefit to using Thesis.  You get to stop thinking about how to do this or that and instead focus on your content.  Thesis gets out of your way and helps you do what you do best.

My sites run Thesis

I’m a big fan of Thesis and use it for my own websites.  In fact, my first blog ever runs Thesis.  Have a look at these links for a couple of examples:

• Exercise Log Blog
• Choice Software Zone

To see even more examples of how to use Thesis and see some great videos about how to use it, head over to the official site:

In every niche there exists a hierarchy of voices competing for the attention of the people that subscribe to that niche. Within that hierarchy there’s a very natural positioning that occurs. Quite often (and not surprisingly) this positioning favors the individuals that have the most seniority in that niche.

That seniority and positioning isn’t always popular among two groups of people. One group includes some who want to ascend in the hierarchy and take positions of leadership. The other group is composed of those that are dissatisfied with the current landscape of the niche and often attribute what they perceive as being negative to the current leadership.

While both groups want to see change happen, they often (short sightedly) fail to understand some of the basic rules of niche ascension. I’ll get to those in a minute, but first it’s important to understand how communication occurs within a niche. My discussion here focuses on how leaders within the niche communicate, not how subscribers to the niche communicate among themselves.

Tiered communication among niche leaders

Within a given niche there are tiers. The first coherent explanation of this concept that I heard was from Jeff Walker in his Product Launch Formula course. The A tier (I think he might have called them the A-listers), is the upper echelon. This is the pinnacle of the leadership structure. There are fewer people here and each person in the A tier has broad reach.

As you progress on to B, C, D and other lower tiers, the leaders in each tier have diminished reach. A triumvirate naturally emerges which, to some extent, dictates how communication takes place between tiers. For example, those that are in the B tier communicate freely with people in the A tier and the C tier. People on the C tier communicate with people on the B tier and the D tier. You rarely have direct communication between odd or even tiers (e.g. C to A). It’s also important to notice that there is a natural cascade of information from upper to lower tiers, but not the other way around. Information can travel easily from A to B to C and so on, but it rarely goes from lower tiers to upper tiers.

It works this way for a reason

At first glance, some would complain about this structure and suggest that it isn’t fair that the A tier gets to decide what’s worthy of propagation throughout the niche. It’s sometimes also seen as an injustice that the ideas from lower tiers aren’t given more credence. As “unfair” as it might seem to you, there are a few important reasons it works this way. Perhaps more important to understand is that the A tier leaders are not typically self appointed and they aren’t explicitly working to maintain the hierarchy. In fact, many of the A tier leaders would genuinely welcome someone into their tier, provided they enter in a natural way.

Good ideas vs. Leverage

For the people that go around crying foul, lets explore what I consider to be the two most critical aspects of niche ascension. The first is a good idea and the second is leverage. Far too many people think that the value inherent in a good idea has substance in and of itself. These people tend to guard their ideas very protectively. They have massive insecurity and don’t trust many people. They tend to tell stories about how they wrote the lyrics to a chart busting song or invented a groundbreaking product and it was stolen from them. They live in fear that someone will steal their ideas (or lucky charms) and they always have a non-disclosure agreement close by. These folks live under the assumption that if they could just get the attention of this person or that (one of the A tier leaders) then they would immediately be accepted into the A tier, which they consider to be their rightful place. These folks don’t want to be caught dead in the lower tier circles, because they consider it beneath them. In short, the good idea folks rarely enter the conversation in the niche in a useful and productive way.

Leverage is quite the opposite and it can only come about through conversation within the niche. The leaders that end up with leverage typically get there by sharing, giving and contributing to the niche. These people voice their ideas and opinions rather than hiding them. They tend to give more credit to others that took part in forming their views. They don’t really think of ideas as something to sell, steal or barter. They appreciate that an idea only has value after it has been peer reviewed and in some cases validated with in-the-field data. They are more inclined to open up and communicate freely with the people in the niches around them. In short, they take part in the conversation in the niche.

Communication is the basis of leverage. Leverage (which comes from the word lever) gives you more power or effectiveness for the same amount of effort. As your ability to communicate with more people quickly increases, so does your leverage. The good idea folks tend to communicate in low-leverage ways, like posting their rants in forums or in private messages. In stark contrast you see that those who enjoy leverage communicate in open and free ways. If what they say has merit then people will find ways to listen to them, whether it be through email lists, RSS or even just increased awareness.

Natural niche ascension

So it ought to be clear by now that if niche ascension is your goal, then you want to communicate openly. But it’s equally important to note that you need to know where you currently sit within your niche’s hierarchy and who’s above and below you. As you direct your communication to the right people in your niche, you’ll find it easier to get their attention. If the quality of your ideas justify it, and you add value to the niche, you will naturally ascend. This will happen as people from the tier directly above yours (and in some cases below yours) share your ideas with their subscribers. Some of those subscribers will join your conversation and eventually you’ll have a similar amount of leverage.

It should be more clear now that the A tier leaders didn’t just jump in and say “I want to be an A tier leader and all the rest of you can go jump in a lake”. Quite the contrary, as they formed and shared their ideas freely within a niche, their subscriber base grew. Over the course of years, they refine their ideas, their voice and add to their subscribers, which increases their leverage. They got there because many other people further disseminated their ideas and helped them to increase their leverage. The closer you get to the top of the stack, the faster your leverage can grow, since each person that you communicate also has increased leverage. In the beginning it can feel like a painfully slow process.

Overnight success comes after years of preparation (hopefully)

There is a crucial misconception about overnight success stories. I think there are two varieties of overnight successes. One is the accidental success. While they may have broken into the A tier on a stroke of luck or genius, they don’t often last there. To understand why, just look to the research which shows how people who win the lottery end up in a worse financial mess than before they had won. Tying this into our discussion, you could say that their understanding and maturity didn’t have a chance to increase with their leverage. In that case, leverage can be a dangerous thing and it may not last very long.

The other variety of overnight success is the person that has been present in the niche for a very long time. In some cases, the right person can end up with a unique type of leverage. For example, someone that provides good ideas to each leadership tier without accumulating a following of his own, has leverage among a small group of people. But when that small group collectively accounts for a very large amount of leverage, and they all introduce the newcomer at the same time, it can appear as though he just popped on the scene and rose to stardom.

In each case, there appears to be a breach of the natural rules of niche ascension. When this happens, don’t get stuck thinking that things are unfair. There are much more productive things you can do.

Where to start

If you think leadership is your gig then there are a number of things you can do. First, stop being so protective of your ideas. Sure some people may “steal” them, but more likely, if you share freely and your ideas really are good, then you’ll start to get some attention. People will start to be more interested in your opinion. You’ll start have a better feeling about where you are within your niche hierarchy and who your closest mates are. Be consistent in your communication and give your best ideas away. The more you do, the more others will repeat what you say.

Perhaps most important of all, is Give it time. As you climb the ranks within your niche, there are really important things that you learn and attitudes that you cultivate. You’ll need those when you reach the top (and you might not ever reach the top without them). They include being gracious, thoughtful and generous. People naturally want leaders who they trust and respect, and it’s hard to get trust and respect without those time tested qualities.

See you at the top.

What is the point?

The people that are looking for a tutorial about FTP often don’t know the ‘basics’. When you tell them to type the ‘host’ in here, and ‘navigate’ to this folder, and ‘set permissions’ there… Well, it just doesn’t mean anything. The first video that I watched used at least a half a dozen words in the first 30 seconds that most regular users just don’t get.

So I decided to change my approach. Rather than teach you about FTP, I’d rather tell you why you shouldn’t ever use FTP again.  Huh?

Let’s start out with a simple question. At the moment you decided to learn how to FTP something up to your server, what were you trying to accomplish? I think it’s very unlikely that you were sitting down to figure out how FTP works and how to use it to get stuff up to your website.

Instead, I bet you were trying to communicate with your audience/clients/visitors. That’s a really important distinction. You don’t want to know how to FTP. You want to communicate with people. So how can you ditch the FTP and start communicating with your clients?

Use a blog

The absolute best way I can think of is to use a blog.  With most modern hosting accounts you can install a blog without FTP, without database setup and without needing to use any tool other than your web browser (I recommend Google Chrome, by the way). You literally just click a few buttons and you’re done!  Once it’s done then you use a web browser, from anywhere in the world, to communicate with people.

If you’re thinking that a blog would be great except that you still need to upload pictures and videos and so you can’t get around FTP, then you’re wrong. WordPress has little “easy buttons” that let you find the file on your computer and it puts it right in where it belongs. As far as video, you can now just paste a link to a youtube video and WordPress will take care of the rest.

Special cases

There are special cases when you need to FTP something up to your server, but those are more rare. When that moment comes along, do yourself a favor and hire your kids to figure it out for you. If you don’t have kids at home, find a neighbor that’s in high school and have them give you a hand. The $10 you pay them will be a huge prize and you can keep your hands clean of all the dirty work.

Keep your eye on the real prize

Don’t forget the real purpose of your website is to communicate with your target audience. Do yourself (and your site visitors) a favor.  Stop trying to figure out how to FTP stuff up to your server and instead figure out how to use WordPress.  Then go on to provide the content that they want. That’s the real gem!

(photo by Gabriella Fabbri)

• Logic
• Design
• Content

A theme has very little (ideally nothing) to do with the logic or programming of your blog. A theme serves to frame the content that you put on your website, but it is not the content.

Design is the sole focus of theme development and WordPress has made if very easy for non-technical designers to create a new theme quickly. That can be both good and bad. The bad comes in the form of poorly written themes that don’t perform well in SEO and website load time.

The HTML bummer

You only have to look back on the first websites ever built to begin to appreciate the power of themes for websites. Creating websites out of HTML, JavaScript and CSS was a major bummer. Why?

Imagine you have a website with hundreds or thousands of pages and you wanted to change how the header looked, but the content would remain the same.  This shouldn’t seem too far fetched. It would be like painting your house or putting a new sign up in the window of your business. Everything stays the same inside, but the ‘theme’ changed. With the original HTML approach to creating websites, you would have to hand modify every single page and try to keep them consistent with one another.

WordPress makes this type of change easy and very fast. To help it all make a little more sense I made this video for you.

Cell phone faceplates

Blogs aren’t the first place to use the idea of a theme. For example, cell phone manufacturers have been doing the same thing with their phones for years. Just like this Superman Cell Phone Faceplate. It doesn’t change which contacts are in your phone or your caller ID history. It just changes the way it looks to everyone. It’s the same story with a WordPress theme.

Other considerations

As you think about what theme to choose for your blog, you want to look deeper than just how it looks. The fact is that the theme can have a very significant impact on where the search engines place you in search results. It can also affect how visitors interact with your site.

SEO Friendly

One big factor in choosing the right theme in WordPress comes back to Search Engine Optimization. While the content may not change, the theme can make it easier or harder for the search engines to find the content on the finished page. That means the your theme can have a big impact on your search engine ranking. This tends to be a big differentiator between free and premium WordPress themes.

Easy to customize and tweak

Since most people aren’t programmers (and don’t really care to be), the best themes offer a range of customizations and tweaks that the blog owner can do without needing to write any ‘code’. These are browser based tools that you can use from your WordPress dashboard. The more control you have without needing to modify the theme code the better.

Visitor experience

The experience a visitor has when he arrives at your site is influenced by two theme related characteristics. The first is speed, or load time. The second is ease of navigation.

In the first place, if the pages take too long to load, then the user is very likely to bounce off your site. To ‘bounce’ means that they clicked through to your site and then immediately left. You want to make sure you choose a theme that will load quickly.

Ease of navigation is very relative. It’s relative to the content, your conversion goals, the visitor expectations and even the visitor state of mind. There aren’t really any general rules here, but there are some guidelines, like this post about one page, one job. As you choose a theme, think about what your visitors are expecting, where they’re coming from and what your end game goal is. This will help you choose the right theme.

Now you can see that themes make it easy to change the way your website looks. In my next few posts on WordPress themes I’ll tell you which free and premium themes I like best and why.

How can I increase revenue?

Of all the reasons to have a website, I think that increasing revenue is a fantastic idea. This is the reason why most established business owners want an e-commerce website. As they see it, having an e-commerce site is the cheapest way to stay open 24 hours a day, 365 days per year without increased staffing costs. The appeal of turning your business into a vending machine that anyone can drop their coins in any time of the day or night is compelling.

Unfortunately this approach can miss the mark in some significant ways. The worst part is that most web developers and lesser ad agencies aren’t prepared to give good advice. They just smile and say “do you want one category or two?”

Communication mismatch

I really want to make this point clear. In this two sided conversation between a business owner and someone capable of building a website they aren’t saying and hearing the same thing.  The established business owner says “I want a website“.  What he means is “I want more revenue“.  The ‘web guy’ hears “I want a website” and understands that to mean “I want to put my business online with the latest technology in a way that automates things and integrates social blah blah blah“.

It’s surprisingly easy for the business owner to get sucked in and start talking about features, design, technology, security and all the unimportant nitty gritty details. This could result from a few different influences. The first is that he doesn’t really have a grasp on the basics of business: traffic and conversion. This isn’t so hard to imagine since many business owners are in businesses or niches that chose them. As they mature in business the focus will come. In this case he fails to ask for a website that increases revenue because he doesn’t how to articulate that yet.

The second reason he gets sucked into the details without making his goal of increased revenue clear is more pernicious because he has decided to outsource his expertise.  He mistakenly assumes that the individual or firm he has hired knows best and that they are focused on traffic and conversion. Unfortunately, fewer ‘web guys’ and ad agencies than you would hope actually understand and focus on these all important pillars of successful business. There’s a simple reason for this lack of focus: The details are easier than the strategy.

Be painfully clear as you set expectations

As the business owner, it is your responsibility to set the focus on traffic and conversion and to steer the correct course during the project. Never assume that your web guy will do it for you. Even if he gets you more traffic, that doesn’t mean he knows how to increase conversions (front end or back end sales) and so he usually misses the mark.  He’s not negligent. He just doesn’t have the experience or authority to communicate with your niche in a way that makes them buy.

E-commerce vs. Authority (Identity)

Let’s look at another type of site that has potential to increase your revenue: A blog.  ”That’s absurd” you say.  Well, it might sound absurd for a minute, but keep in mind that you are the expert in your niche, not your web guy.  Your customers buy from you because they trust you.  Even a well qualified ad agency will have to do a hefty amount of research up front to get to know your clients as well as you do.

Many business owners fail to recognize that their authority in their market can do more for sales than an ecommerce website. Another benefit of authority is that it gives you leverage when you do make overtures toward ecommerce online. Rather than starting from zero and trying to get people to buy your wares at the first contact, you instead give them something up front and later roll that trust into a sale.

When it comes time to get traffic, which means backlinks and engagement, the “deal flow” is higher with an authority site than for an ecommerce site. It’s also less competitive, since the quality of the content suppresses the tendency to haggle about price. As your authority and identity within a niche or market increase, your clients interest in buying from yourcompetitors will decrease. They’ll assume that you really are the expert and so they had better buy from the source.

But I still want an e-commerce website, so give it to me now

So you insist.  OK then.  Let me suggest that you start with a blog and use an e-commerce plugin.  Roll out one product at a time. Let those products come as you provide valuable information and other content to your community and establish trust and authority. You might also notice that this is a fruitful field for testing offers.

Make sure you are creating a fit for your business.  If your bread-and-butter product is a high ticket item that is custom every time, then stop trying so hard for the nickel and dime products. Sites like Amazon.com will beat you every time on those. Make sure that your website is either leaning on or establishing authority in your market as the clear leader for those custom products.

No matter what you do, recognize that both an ecommerce website and an authority blog will require content production.  If writing isn’t your thing you can accomplish a lot with a cheap video camera, or even a nice microphone for audio content, but you will still have to produce the content. Without content you won’t get traffic, establish trust or authority and in short, you website will fail.

Photography Credit: Justin Hall

Hard cover vs. paperback

One physical world corollary to this is the difference in price between a hard back and a paperback book.  They both contain identical information and both will provide you with the same benefit (if you read them).  Still, publishers make hard back books and consumers pay more for them than their paperback equivalents.  They effectively increased the perceived value of the book without changing any of the content.

By now you should be wondering: What can I do to increase the perceived value of my eBook? In this article I’ll show you how to do just that by improving the formatting of your book.

Exampe: Financial product bonus ebook

I put together an example to illustrate the process.  In this case I think I’ve found a niche in international stock markets and I want a product to test the niche.  Note that the same process here could just as easily be used to create a bonus for an existing product. A quick search on project gutenberg brings up this book:

International Finance by Hartley Withers

Microsoft Word Version

The easiest way to turn this into an ebook that can sell as a product or serve as a bonus is to condition the text a little bit and paste it into Microsoft Word or other word processor and then use a PDF print driver to turn it into a downloadable PDF.  Some software, like OpenOffice will let you export to PDF in one shot.  Let’s take a look at what I did:

• Download file from project gutenberg
• Use TextPad text editor to remove unnecessary line breaks and other text conditioning (search and replace)
• Copy and paste into Microsoft Word and start adjusting page breaks and formatting
• Go to http://www.sxc.hu and find an image that suggest international finance
• Create a cover for my ebook.
• Print to PDF using the free Primo software.

When I printed to PDF using Primo I got the following dialogue and I just chose the ebook option, assuming that they’re the experts at PDF creation and they know best.

Here’s the finished product:

International Finance by Hartley Withers (Word Version)

That’s not bad.  All things considered it took me about 40 minutes to create that eBook.  That includes the search time on gutenberg and formatting and creating the cover.  In my opinion, the ebook doesn’t look very good and it’s value is questionable.  Even if it convinces someone to buy the product in the first place, does it actually add enough value to prevent returns?

There’s a better (looking) way

Now let me show you how to do a much better job than that Word Document version above. The learning curve is a bit steeper than using Word, but the outcome is much better.  After you see the end result I think you’ll be ready to invest the time to master this process.  You’ll also notice that in the long run, this will not only increase the value of your offering, but it will reduce your time per project. For example, in order to make the Word version above look as good as what I’m about to show you it would easily triple the time required.

This next PDF that I’ll show you was created using LaTeX.  What in the devil is LaTeX?  It’s not that rubbery stuff they make gloves out of, it that’s what you’re wondering.  TeX, and it’s offspring LaTeX were one of the first professional publishing platforms designed originally to work on Unix systems and is used widely in academic circles.  If all that sounds boring it’s because you haven’t seen what it can do yet.  Here’s what I did (note the duplicate steps in blue):

• Download file from project gutenberg
• Use TextPad text editor to remove unnecessary line breaks and other text conditioning (search and replace)
• Copy and paste into WinShell using a template and identify chapter markers (no formatting necessary)
• Go to http://www.sxc.hu and find an image that suggest international finance
• Create a cover for my ebook.
• Click a button to produce my PDF output

International Finance by Hartley Withers (LaTeX Version)

My time to create this eBook was about 45 min.  That’s a few minutes longer than the Word version, but have a look at the difference in output.  What do you think?  Does this version give a higher perceived value?

Some of the great things about LaTeX include the fact that I don’t have to do any formatting, tweaking or adjusting.  It automatically applies page numbers, builds a table of contents (including linking withing the PDF), manages line/page breaks, images and alternating pages.  It even manages the chapter heading style.  All I do is provide text.  Here are the text files for that book that I used in WinShell.

Here are the rest of the files for you to open and look at. First is the original download from project gutenberg with the conditioned version of the text file. I’ve also included the Word document and the LaTeX files use to compile the PDF.

Original and conditioned text versions of book from gutenberg
International Finance by Hartley Withers (Microsoft Word .doc file)
International Finance eBook – PDF of Word Version
International Finance by Hartley Withers (LaTeX source files and images)
International Finance eBook – PDF of LaTeX Version

Add value with minimal effort

For roughly the same amount of time investment, I was able to take the same source content and convert it into a beautifully formatted ebook that has a much higher perceived value. It didn’t require significantly more work either.

Another BIG benefit to the method that I’ve outline here is that the end product will feed right into create space and be ready to purchase on Amazon.com in no time. Just imagine, if the formatting increases perceived value, how much more would the value increase if there was a physical product on amazon.com? Remember that people often equate value to duplication cost.

For your next eBook, take a little extra time an learn the ropes of LaTeX so that you end up with a polished, high value product? As always, leave your comments below.

Just because computers can do so much, doesn’t mean they should.  In fact, this is one of the most common problems I come across as a consultant.  My clients will often come up with an idea for a “feature” for their website and without much thought about the value that feature adds they’re ready to go gangbusters to get it done.

The types of features I’m talking about include integrating weather and time, or building a social network or creating an iPhone app.  All of these features can be great, if they are a fit.  When they aren’t a fit then you can end up with big distraction on your website that consumes your resources and potentially distracts users from the goal you have for your site.

Web developers (the “web guy”) also typically love this type of chatter (or they start it themselves).  They get so excited about what technology can do that they’re desperate to find a problem to try their new solution against, rather than letting real business problems drive their search for appropriate solutions.

How to decide if a feature is worthwhile

If you or your web developer think you have a good idea for a new feature, there are some questions you can ask yourself.  They all center around the guideline that each page should have a single job. You also want to make sure that new features fit properly in with your established priorities.  Here are some questions to ask about a new feature:

• Does it reduce the number of steps for a visitor to accomplish a specific task
• Does it reduce the guess work for a visitor to complete a specific task
• Does it add value for the visitor that completes a specific task
• Does it increase the visitor’s engagement with your site or brand

Poor uses of features often include those that seem cool or that you see somewhere else but they don’t really move your site visitors any closer to completing an action or they even drain resources unnecessarily.  A feature may fall into this category if it:

• Distracts visitors from completing a task
• Has the primary purpose of entertaining (an exception might be youtube)
• Adds marginal value or value not directly related to the purpose of the site or task
• ANY feature that isn’t split tested to verify that it improves conversions

New feature triggers

There are two triggers that usually start someone down the road of adding a new (potentially useless) feature to their website.  The first impetus is from the ‘web guy’.  I discussed that earlier.  Remember to always ask yourself what the specific task is for the feature and where it fits in with your priorities.  The second is much more dangerous.

Many new feature ideas arise because you see a feature on your competitors website and assume that they tested it and it’s making them more money.  I would say that in most cases it’s safer to assume that they haven’t tested it.  Before you go to the trouble and expense of adding a feature to your website that you see on a competitors website, do one or more of the following things.

• Ask your competitor how well that’s working for them.  Don’t laugh.  If you don’t have an open dialogue with your competition, maybe it’s time you did.
• Send the link of your competitor’s site to some of your trusted clients and ask them if they would like a feature like that on your site.  You might be surprised when they say “no, but I would love XYZ”.  Take their lead.  After all, they pay you.
• Run a split test and measure whether or not it actually increases the number of visitors that take a specific action before you roll it out permanently.

Keep your eye on the prize

In short, stop trying to win the feature race.  You don’t have to keep up with crazy ideas that you see on competitor’s websites and you don’t have to make your site cool or entertaining.  The more you give your visitors what they want  and the less that you get in their way when they try to do it, the better.  Features for features sake will almost always cost you money, time and even reduce conversions.