Posts Tagged: Web

Web — No Comments
11
May 10

Find a Barrier and Destroy It

This article is written mostly with a web site in mind, but you can apply the same basic philosophy to pretty much anything in the world and your life. The philosophy is this: things will never get better until someone (hopefully you) finds where the problems are, identifies them as problems, and removes them.

On a web site we have the distinct advantage of being able to see pretty much everything that happens within its borders. By using analytics software like Google Analytics, Coremetrics or (my favorite) Omniture SiteCatalyst it’s extraordinarily easy for web designers, programmers and marketers to watch what users are doing with your site. The problem, however, is that most of these packages have a tremendous amount of data that you can look through. So, what your focus needs to be is to determine what information you’re looking for and focus on that.

For the purposes of this discussion, we’re going to focus on giving the visitor a remarkable experience. What is a remarkable experience? It’s one in which the user doesn’t want to leave you site until the goal is achieved. In my opinion, it’s not about flashiness or spectacle, nor about guiding the user through the loopholes you might want them to go through for add-on sales, extra page views, etc. Instead it’s about determining why is this person on my site and how do I get them to leave fulfilled?

That is your goal. If they are fulfilled they will return, and they will tell others to come as well.  If your business model is sound, good will come of this approach.

As for the analytics, however, the question remains how do I fulfill my visitors goals? What is my purpose?

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Life / Technology — No Comments
14
Mar 09

Is There a Point to Web Conferences? (Yes, I’m @ SXSW)

I’m sitting here on the floor at Austin’s South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive conference, waiting f0r the next panel discussion on my schedule to start, but as I sit here I wonder a bit what the point of coming to these conference really is.  Sure, there are a lot of smart people here, and for the most part the panels have some great ideas… but are they ideas I couldn’t have acquired by simply reading sites like Mashable, Internet Retailer or other tech blogs and news sites? The answer here is pretty clearly “no.”

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Life / Money — 2 Comments
4
Feb 09

Plan to Sell Your Creation? Then Be a Business and Claim Your Tax Deductions.

Dollar in Your PocketWhether you’re an author, musician, artist or any other kind of content creator, one important thing you need to think about is whether you create as purely a hobby, or if you intend (or hope) to someday make money off of your creations. For many creators, this intent becomes obvious once you’ve decided to go beyond creating for yourself, friends and family and taking the big step into offering your creations to the rest of the world (with an intent to make some money while you’re at it.)rec

If you’ve taken this step, you’re a business – and you need to start acting like one.

To be a creator doesn’t mean you have to be creating a tangible item either. You could be running your own blog, review website, etc. – and if you are doing it with the intent to make money – and even if you’re not currently making a profit or doing it full-time – you need to treat it as a business.  And, during this time of the year, that means claiming all of your expenses in your tax return.

During my college days I launched and ran Music-Critic.com (I sold it years ago now) – and I ran it as a business. The fact of the matter is that if you’re going to make any money from a venture, you have to pay income tax on that money. This is why you are required to supply your tax ID or Social Security number when you sign up for affiliate programs, Google AdSense, publishing through sites like Lulu.com, and any other instance where an entity is going to be sending you a check.  At the end of the year, if they’ve sent you any money, they’re also going to send you your tax information – which you are required to include in your tax filing.

But whether or not you actually did make any money in the first year or two doesn’t mean you’re not running a business. If you honestly are attempting to make a profit from whatever you are doing (in my current instance, writing a book), then you need to start treating this venture as a business now. Beyond the mindest that running a business requires (seriousness, professionalism, etc.), you also need to run it right financially. And again, at this time of the year, it means writing off any expenses you put into it in the previous year.

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