Yogi Land

I keep telling my friends and families,  "Some things are good to have, but not to own."  I think that this statement can be very helpful when it comes to make most decisions. I will spend more time to find more supporting articles and do more research on this topic. At this point, I have found an interesting article from Smart Money September 2008 issue called 10 Things Millionaires Won't Tell You. Point number 8 says,

Why spend $3,000 on a Versace bag that'll be out of style as soon as next season when you can rent it for $175 a month? For that matter, why blow $250,000 on a Ferrari when for $25,000 it can be yours for a few weekends a year? Clubs that offer "fractional ownership" of jets have been popular for some time, and now the concept has extended to other high-end luxuries like exotic cars and fine art. How hot is the trend? More than 50 percent of millionaires say they plan to rent luxury goods within the next 12 months, according to a survey by Prince & Associates. Handbags topped the list, followed by cars, jewelry, watches and art. Online companies like Bag Borrow or Steal, for example, cater to customers who always want new designer accessories and jewelry, for prices starting at $15 a week.

For Suzanne Garner, a millionaire software engineer in Santa Clara, Calif., owning a $100,000 car didn't make financial sense (she drives a Mazda Miata). Instead, Garner pays up to $30,000 in annual membership fees to Club Sportiva, a fractional-ownership car club in San Francisco that lets her take out Ferraris, Lamborghinis and other exotic vehicles on weekends. "I'm all about the car," she says. And so are other people, it seems. While stopped at a light in a Ferrari recently, Garner received a marriage proposal from a guy in a pickup truck. (She declined the offer.).

When you hear of this statement, what comes to your mind? If you are interested to contribute to this topic, please feel free to comment.

Professional website developers know the importance of web design and the role it plays in making a website successful. Designing a successful website is no easy task, especially for someone who is new to the world of web development. With the help of web development applications many people can and do create decent websites. But decent in most cases is not good enough to make a site successful from a traffic or financial standpoint. There are five crucial components of web design that you must focus on in order to make a site valuable to its visitors and successful for you.

• SEO – Getting free traffic to your site.
• Usability – Ease of navigating around the site and finding desired information quickly.
• Aesthetics – Visual appeal.
• Content – Valid, up-to-date, relevant information.
• Graphics – Eye candy that relays relevant visual information to the visitor.

SEO

Before you ever lay down a byte of HTML code for a site, you have to know and understand at least the basics of SEO and how it fits into the design. SEO is the art of designing a site in a fashion that gives the site an advantage for obtaining free and abundant traffic. The number one aspect of SEO is selecting keywords relevant to your site. The keywords you select should be based on high usage, low competition and relevancy to your topic. Once you select keywords you can then begin the development of your site. Keep in mind keywords are a critical aspect of the design. The keywords you choose will be applied within the design in strategic fashion to benefit the flow of traffic to your site. To understand more on how to implement SEO you should read and learn more about this important subject. If you don't, your website success will be difficult to achieve.

Usability

Your website must be easy to navigate and designed in a way that makes it easy to find information. Visitors will not stay long if it takes more than one or two clicks to get the information they want or if it takes brain power to figure out how to get the information they want. One of the goals of your site design is to keep usability easy, and simple. To do this, apply the following three fundamentals of usability.

• Provide a site search tool. A visitor in a hurry can quickly find the info they desire then move on to the action they desire.
• Provide simple, intuitive and consistent site navigation. This provides visitors the tool they need to leisurely explore their way through your site.
• Provide logical and simple to follow content.

The message of a site should start off in a simple and basic fashion with well defined links pointing the way to more detailed information or explanation as needed. In the cases above, the goal is to make it easy for your visitor to find the information they want without frustration or difficulty. Doing this well will have a positive effect on increasing the return of your visitors.

Aesthetics

A website has to look clean, uncomplicated and strike a balance in layout that is pleasant to the visitor. Pleasing aesthetics come about when the colors of a site complement each other, the graphics blend and lend continuation of the theme and the layout brings unity and openness to the page. Often overlooked by novice designers is the color palette of the site. While you can select color in a willy-nilly fashion and still provide a visually appealing site, a better idea for color selection should be based on an understanding of the color wheel and proven color strategies. Many web designers often view a web page as an opportunity to blast a visitor with lots of information in hopes this will convince the visitor to take action. Usually this results in a quick exit due to the overwhelming visual effect and complicated look. A better approach is to provide less content and open space (referred to as white space) to allow visitors eyes to scan and explore with ease.

Content

An important feature of any website is the quality of the text content. Visitors come to a site expecting to find answers to their questions, solutions to their problems or for entertainment value. The content offered at your site must be well-written and without grammatical or spelling errors. It also has to be relevant to the theme of your site, with valid, up-to- date information for your visitors. Content is King!

Graphics

You can have a functional and usable website without graphic elements. However, if there are similar sites to yours that employ graphics, guess which site will get the most traffic. The necessary companions to any well-designed site are the images and illustrations that grace its pages. The images can't be any willy-nilly graphic that you might think is cool. Graphic imagery has to support your branding, and communicate the message you are trying to convey. Before you incorporate graphic elements into your site, take some time to look around the web. Notice what looks good and how elements are laid out. These same layouts techniques can be used as models for your site. The Internet is a highly competitive business arena. To be successful with a commercial website, you have to keep these five crucial web design elements in mind. Contrary to what many will tell you, it is rarely possible to have commercial success without the benefit of a professional website. This is not to say that you must hire a professional, however you must implement professional design elements to improve your chances for success.

Let's face it, anyone can build a website. There are countless companies out there offering a vast array of web building solutions, some good, some great, and some quite frankly are a complete waste of time! But throwing together a website is really only part of the story, only part of the process. There are literally, hundreds of thousands of web pages, that won't ever be viewed and therefore stand no chance of commercial success. Some of those sites are relatively good; unfortunately their owners have misunderstood the process and have the cart before the horse… In the online world no one just happens by your website, credít card in hand! If you've yet to build your website, or about to create a new site, stop! consider first exactly what you wish to achieve with that site, before you start. "Creating a website should follow a process proven to deliver a commercial end result… or run the risk of ending up, just another pretty picture in cyberspace!" Fortunately there is a process, and I highly recommend you take a look at it… perhaps you already know it… Content > Traffic > Pre-sell > Monetize A time tested, 4 step process, proven to produce websites that deliver… commercially! Ok so, let's now look briefly at each step and why they work in this particular order. 1. Numoro Uno, as always. Content. Very, very important. Building information-rich sites is crucial. You must have high quality, unique, relevant content on your site, A; because you want to attract visitors in the first place and B; to generate long term, search engine based free traffic. Online, people are looking for solutions, for information that leads to solutions. They use the search engines to hunt for the most relevant facts to reach this end goal solution. Your job is therefore easy… give it to them… but don't just plonk down any old garbage and hope for the best… take your time, put in the effort, provide good quality information that will over-deliver and keep your visitor interested, satisfy her need and you will be rewarded. Over time, gradually add new fresh, useful content and you will be creating web pages valued by humans and search engines alike. On the internet, high value content is king! 2. Traffic… Ahh! The Holy Grail… Much has been written on the subject, and many are making a good living providing (?) this elusive element. Truth is, (excluding social media) there are but two ways to get it – you either pay for it, or you optimize for it. If you take the time to understand the basics, you can easily do both. Paid search, (PPC) such as Google Adwords has its place, and can provide an immediate stream of targeted visitors to your website; however it is a study of its own and can, if not understood, be very costly very quickly! If you want to go that route learn with small amounts (of money) and don't be tempted to throw good after bad… owch! been there! Safer and arguably better, is optimization (SEO) for the organic results, as reached via a Google or other search engine search. This is simply intelligent website construction, a process anyone can do. The important point is, the optimization should be built in during the creative process, at the time you're constructing the site; you are literally building your website to principles that make it search engine friendly, thus leading to high natural positions in organic search results, leading to of course, significant free traffic flow to your site… 3. Don't sell… Pre-sell. You have created a website with value rich content, and fully optimized its pages for indexing by Google (and other search engines)… Folks are arriving at your site as directed by their search results. You are keen to have them buy your goods or services, ready with your pitch… but wait! There's another vital step in the process of converting your visitors into customers, and you've done half the work already… Pre-selling is a warming up process, whereby you develop trust and confidence in your offering… it's already well known that people are more willing to buy from those they like, trust or respect. By over-delivering relevant high value information, without appearing to be forcing a sale you will almost by default, create an atmosphere that inevitably leads to sales. Simple! As far as your visitor is concerned, her needs are being met, his wishes are being fulfilled, you are providing the very information that is the solution to that which they are searching for in the first place. Pre-selling creates an open-to-buy mindset that smoothly introduces your visitors to your monetization offer. 4. Monetize. Ok thanks for sticking with me, here's the home run… This is where you make your offering enticing by introducing and highlighting the many benefits of your product or service, and detailing exactly how it offers the solution to their predicament. You have paved the way with informative, relevant content and can now look to close with persuasive sales copy. Your call to action should be strong and concise. Tell your prospect exactly what they need to do to order. If you have a good product, and you should, let them know exactly how they will benefit by ordering from you… Today! So there it is… in brief… A formula simple, yet highly effective. Generate targeted free traffic via your highly optimized website, provide information packed content that offers solutions, warm up or pre-sell your visitors by over-delivering on the quality of that content, then and only then, monetize by introducing persuasive, benefit focused sales copy to convert pre-sold visitors into enthusiastic customers. For full details on how to implement each of these steps (with no technical knowledge whatsoever!) grab yourself a free 48 page e-copy of The Simple Art of e-Persuasion at the info link below… or visit my site.

Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, marketing strategy consultant, and instrumental in some of the most lucrative online businesses and wildly successful marketing campaigns to ever hit the web.

A while ago, I wrote a blog post on the power of names. I won't repeat it here, except for the fact that, while branding may not be a priority for you, choosing a name for your business or product (even your domain name) is often the single, most important business decision you will ever make. In this blog post I submit five characteristics of great brand names, which I call the five "S's." They are characteristics I encourage you to follow when coming up with a solid, long-lasting, and highly profitable name. For starters, let me point out that the best names are names that are short, easy to pronounce, and easy to remember. They have considerable mnemonic value, which often translates into financial value. A mnemonic is a device – such as a word, symbol, or sound – intended to assist in recall. If a name carries some mnemonic value, it will improve traffic, sales, and value to your business on its own. The more mnemonic a name is, the more valuable it is. There are various reasons for this. First, due to the growing overload of information on the web, people no longer have the time to search the Internet let alone pages upon pages of search engine results in order to find exactly what they want. Sure, search engines will always have a place. But more and more people would love to skip irrelevant search engine results. Many will in fact attempt to reach websites directly by guessing and typing plausible domains into their browsers. (How often have you done this? I do all the time.) Either that or, when do they use the search engines, they will search for specific names, especially those they remember or deduce, first – and do so before they try to search for something too generic or general, which might force them to wade through pages of search engine results to no avail. Think about it. How easier would it be if they knew of a name beforehand and typed it into a search engine? How much more relevant would search engine results be? You guessed it, a lot more. Take, for instance, search engine trends, even trends that appear on the front page of social networking sites. When a current news item, hot topic, major event, or popular controversy crops up, the Internet becomes inundated with people looking those terms up. Search trends often include brand names, too. Your objective, therefore, is to choose not only a good brand name but also one that burns itself into the mind of the marketplace. The brains of the people in your market. That's the power of being "hooked on mnemonics." Nevertheless, while the availability of good brand names is shrinking, here are five basic guidelines to follow. Try to follow these as much as you can. I call them the "5 S's of Naming" (and yes, using the letter "S" is a mnemonic), which are:

1. Suggestiveness
2. Spelling
3. Size
4. Singsong
5. Scalability

1. Suggestiveness

First, choose a suggestive name, one that communicates the main benefit if not at least the nature of the product, business, or website. Benefit-based names have a multitude of advantages beyond ease-of-recall, including credibility. Studies show suggestive names that instantly communicate what the product or business is all about, what's their purpose or benefit, in one fell swoop, can rapidly improve desirability, believability, sales, and of course, brand equity. Look at some of the strongest brand names out there. You will notice that most of them tend to have a name in which the main purpose or benefit is suggested. For example, "Jiffy Lube" means a fast oil change. "Band-Aid" means a bandage that comes to your aid. "Duracell" means a battery cell that's durable and longlasting. Benefit-based suggestiveness applies particularly well to domain names. Why? Because if a brand name is already taken, you can resort to its core benefit or purpose instead. For example, if you sought a financial planner and were given a bunch of URLs, would you choosenafep.com (which is an actual name, by the way)? Or InvestRight.com?

2. Spelling

Second, make it easy to pronounce and hard to misspell. If you must spell it, then scrap it. The moment you're forced to spell your business, product, or domain name when asking people to look you up, you've lost them already. Think of the people trying to find your business, your product, or your website – whether they use a search engine or not. Make it easy for them to do so and avoid anything that impedes the proper spelling of the brand name. For instance, avoid numbers, hard-to-pronounce words, or acronyms. Unless you are IBM, AOL, CNN, BMW, or some other, already well-known brand, avoid acronyms or initials at all costs – they are probably the worst of the bunch. In short, make the name intuitive. I'm not just talking about unique names, either. Avoid generic words that are easily or commonly misspelled, which may impede traffic. For example, if you have a wedding planner site, would you call your business "Marriages Made Easy"? Or "Weddings Well Done"? The two are good, but "marriage" can often be misspelled with one "R" instead of two. (If you already have one and it's too late, hopefully it's not too late to register the misspelled domain to capture additional traffic – lest they go to a competitor, much less a site that might be less favorable, like some ädult site.) On the other hand, if an acronym makes a name easy to pronounce, easy to remember, and shorter, then go for it. In fact, this is the third guideline.

3. Size

The shorter it is, the better it will be. For example, which one would you remember the most and have the least amount of trouble (or potential for error) in typing into your browser: YetAnotherHierarchicallyOrganizedOracle.com? Or Yahoo.com? Long names can be counterproductive as it diminishes its mnemonic value. "Federal Express" is now FedEx. "FedEx" means a courier that express-ships your packages, federally. But since they now ship internationally, FedEx makes better sense. Or take a look at "Kentucky Fried Chicken," which is now KFC. I don't know why exactly they changed the name, but I surmise that it's because of the word "fried," which tends to communicate unhealthiness in a now health-conscious society. But be careful, if you're brand-new and decide to use an acronym, make sure to avoid confusion. It's best to choose an acronym that's memorable or easily pronounceable. Take the aforementioned Yahoo!, for instance. Or SHIELD, which means "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division." (Sorry. Couldn't resist. My love for comic-book heroes slipped through.) Or better yet, start with a regular name first, build your brand, and then shorten it, if appropriate - although that may be an expensive proposition. Remember, IBM wasn't always IBM, but "International Business Machines." AOL, America Online. Etc.

4. Singsong

The fourth guideline is to use repetition. Repetitious sounds are pleasing to the ear and add a singsong quality. As the adage goes, "Repetition is the parent of learning." By making the pronunciation simpler, repetition, such as with rhymes and alliteration, helps to turn names into mental "hooks." And by making the name esthetically pleasing, studies show you also increase credibility, too. If you can make your name rhyme, you're going to create a name that will almost instantly create an indelible mark on people's minds. When the need for your solution arises, people will naturally think of your name first. Which is the whole point of a good, memorable brand name. Don't forget alliteration, also known as "head rhymes," too. It's all about repetition. For example, NoBrainerBlinds.com, Coca-Cola, SiteSell.com, Krispy Kreme, Google, and so on have that pleasing, singsong quality. Also, strong-sounding or "choppy" consonants (like the sound of "P," "D," "T," and "K"), used particularly at the beginning, help recall by adding emphasis. They are called plosives. And according to naming expert Steve Rivkin, "It makes linguistic sense to start a brand name with a strong-sounding consonant or a plosive."

5. Scalability

One thing to be careful of is to choose a name that's not too specific, limited, or constrained. Otherwise, it can literally paint your product or business into a corner. Remember the names I mentioned earlier that were later changed to their abbreviated versions in order to shorten them? Rebranding is often a very costly exercise, and you want to avoid that as much as possible. But this also applies to names that, while they may be relevant today, could become irrelevant, incompatible, or impractical in the future. In other words, don't choose a name that's time-sensitive, situational, inflexible, or linked to something else - such as a current event, another brand, or some fad or trend. If things change (and they will), will the name still apply? Will it still be relevant? Can it lose its commercial value? Will you be forced to change if you decided to expand? A scalable name is a name that's evergreen, extensible, easily modifiable (without any costly overhaul to the brand or depreciation in brand equity), and compatible with future changes, additions, partners, or markets. That's why it's important that, while the name may be suggestive, don't make it too generic. Some unique names may not be as suggestive, but they can certainly become some of the most memorable - and profitable - brands. A few good online examples are Google, Twitter, Hulu, etc. Or in some cases, and for the lack of a better word, some names can be "uniquified," either by:

• A combination of suggestive words, such as WordPress, FaceBook, ClickBank, PhotoShop, MicroSoft, etc;
• A generic, suggestive name made unique, like Kleenex (cleanliness), Windex (washes windows), Sensodyne (toothpaste for sensitive teeth), Natrel (naturally filtered milk), iPhone (self-explanatory), etc;
• Or a completely different name that may not be related but is indirectly associated with its core benefit, idea, or purpose, such as Ivory (white soap that's luxurious), Godiva (specialty chocolates that's "sinful" to eat), Raid (insecticide that's as efficient as a military raid), etc.

Bottom line, make sure you stay away from names that are unattractive, confusing, easy to misspell, obscure, too long, inflexible, and can be easily forgotten or ignored. Bad names not only can impede your business' growth, but it can also kill your credibility, cost you in lost sales, and become counterproductive. In essence, make it easy for people to find you and do business with you. Like a brand that burns an owner's indicia on its livestock, choose an easily recognizable brand that burns itself into the brains of your market. For the more you do, and the more memorable you are, then the more profitable you will become.

The Altitude of your Attitude affects your Aptitude.

Over the last five years approximately 600,000 entrepreneurs pitched first tier venture capital firms in North America and about 15,000 received funding. Your chances of getting funded are 2.5%. This is a fact. Many of those that were funded became quite wealthy and many more failed. Venture capital firms are looking for home runs not base hits. To begin, let's say you're having difficulties raising capital for one of a multitude of reasons. You lack an experienced management team with a track record of prior success, your product is still in development, the service you've created hasn't been market tested and you still haven't refined the sales process. Or, your company may simply not be a "VC deal" or a "home run", that is, something that will go public or be acquired for a bazillion dollars. Finally, your organization may be a non-profit with a cause like the environment or autism. Does this mean you should give up? Not at all. I could build a case that too much money is worse than too little for most organizations, not that I wouldn't want to buy a NBA franchise one day to emulate Mark Cuban. Until that day comes, the key to success is bootstrapping. Bootstrapping refers to a group of metaphors that share a common meaning, a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help. The term is often attributed to Rudolf Erich Raspe's story The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, where the main character pulls himself out of a swamp, though it's disputed whether it was done by his hair or by his bootstraps. Regardless bootstrapping sounds a lot more businesslike and appealing than hairstrapping. What follows is some practical advice for bootstrapping a start-up or small business. First, focus on cash flow, not profitability. Generating revenue and profíts is the key to survival. If you could pay the bills with theories, this would be fine. The reality is that you pay bills with cash, so focus on cash flow. If you know you are going to bootstrap, you should start a business with a small up-front capital requirement, short sales cycles, short payment terms, and recurring revenue. Service oriented businesses or new products in hot market segments come to mind immediately. Next, forecast from the bottom-up. Most entrepreneurs do a top-down forecast: "There are 150 million cars in America. It sure seems reasonable that we can get a mere 1% of car owners to install our satellite radio systems. That's 1.5 million systems in the first year." The bottom-up forecast goes like this: "We can open up ten installation facilities in the first year. On an average day, they can install ten systems. So our first year sales will be 10 facilities x 10 systems x 240 days = 24,000 satellite radio systems." 24,000 is a long way from the conservative 1.5 million systems in the top-down approach. Guess which number is more likely to happen. This is one of the most common mistakes I see entrepreneurs make. Stop dreaming and let's get real. Hire an affordable mentor or small business coach to provide guidance based upon relevant experience. Most likely they've bootstrapped their own businesses in the past. They can provide you with valuable objective advice steering you around potential pitfalls and hopefully save you dollars, along with time, by keeping you from making the same mistakes as they did in the past. They also aren't going to want equity in your business just by having their name attached to it or request a seat on your board of directors. Most start-up small business entrepreneurs don't have a "proven team" and you can't create experience out of thin air. Proven teams are often over-rated anyways. Especially when most people define proven teams as people who worked for a multibillion dollar company for the past ten years. These folks are accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and it's not the bootstrapping lifestyle. Hire young, cheap, and hungry people. Employees with passion and desire along with low overheads are going to be much more likely to stick beside you during the inevitable ups and downs your business will face. Once you achieve significant cash flow, you can hire experienced supervision. Until then, hire what you can afford and make them into great employees. What type of business is best for bootstrapping you ask? One path to take is to start as a service business. Let's say that you ultimately want to be a software company: people download your software or you send them CDs, and they pay you. That's a nice, clean business with a proven business model. However, until you finish the software, you could provide consulting and services based on your work-in-process software. This has two advantages: immediate revenue and true customer testing of your software. Once the software is field-tested and battle-hardened, flip the switch and become a product company. You'll also have obtained a líst of satisfied clients and developed important industry connections which can be priceless. During the start-up stage be prudent and focus on value. You don't need the fanciest office furniture, phone system or computers. Look for the best value, haggle and shop around for the best deals. There is no shame is negotiating pricing and terms on almost anything related to your business. Sometimes the best isn't always the best either; it's just the most expensive. When it comes to employees make sure new hires have multiple skill sets and can handle stress because if they can't they're going to crack or go crazy lowering overall morale in the process. You are the visionary and leader of the company. Your employees need to believe and put their faith in you. Take your time; hire carefully. At times you'll be asking your employees to do three jobs at once, while learning a fourth, and eating lunch that day at their desk because there's so much work to be done. Your employees look to you for leadership so make sure to lead by example. YOU are the first one there and the last one to leave. Every day. Go direct and sell, sell, sell. The optimal number of mouths (or hands) between a bootstrapper and customer should be zero. Sure, stores provide great customer reach, and wholesalers provide distribution. But ecommerce was invented so that you could sell direct and reap greater margins. By taking this route you'll also learn more about your customer's needs. Stores and wholesalers fill demand, they don't create it. If you create enough demand, you can always get other organizations to fill it later. Why would a store or a wholesaler put time, money and effort into selling your product or service if you can't? If you don't create demand, all the distribution in the world will get you nowhere fast. Sell, sell, sell and if you're not good at selling one of your first hires better be a superstar in that department. In summary, focus on creating revenue, retain a qualified affordable mentor/business coach, forecast from the bottom up, pick the right business model for bootstrapping, focus on value when purchasing goods and services for your business, take your time to hire the right people and sell, sell, sell. For a small business or a start-up nothing happens until someone sells something to someone. Period.