Category: blogging

Freshness

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

On first thoughts we’d assume that green grocers and web developers are in an entirely different business. But upon closer expection there are quite a few similarities. Similarities which can’t be ignored.

First of all – it needs to easy to find what your after. If it’s not obvious, if we can’t see it  we’ll assume it isn’t there.

Secondly – we need things clearly categorised.we need to be able to sort the apples from the oranges. So it makes sense to have them in different sections. Not all bundled up in the one place in a rainbow of colors.

But most important of all things need to be fresh. They need to know it and we need to show it. There is nothing worse than a static website – not only do we want, but we ‘expect’ frequent change.

Clue number 1 – the refresh button.
Clue number 2 – it’s software – it’s made to be malleable.

People want to see what ‘we’ and ‘they’ the members / users are up to. What members are doing, what’s changed, that it’s live, that the site represents what’s happening in the physcial world. This matters for every website, that is any business which happens to have a website. Not just businesses with the web as it’s primary forum.  Youtube does it with it’s most viewed by the day, feature videos and promoted videos. Flickr shows a different photo everytime we click in it. Most cool sites let us register for updates or run a regularly updated blog. It isn’t hard – just important.

Start blog says – change things up a little a lot

Media diet – startup style

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

As promoted in the 4 hour work week a media diet is a nice way save time. For entrepreneurs a different type of media diet is required.

A business trends diet

Here’s how – avoid all business related articles as they pertain to new strategies & trends.

Here’s why – We already know enough to be successful. Our problem is doing the stuff.

Unless we are just starting in the business world – we’ve heard every strategy and the fact is that most ‘new’ business ideas are simple derivatives of business theories which have been around since the birth of commerce. Cables channels and tech stuff is the worst. Who’s got the time to read 86 posts from techcrunch every day? – not me.

We ought just trust our judgment and make the call that we know enough to get moving…and the rest we’ll learn on the job…. So in the spirit of this blog entry, ignore the articles you were about to read and get back to your stuff.

Engage your customers

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

Really the title should say “people” – we don’t do business with customers, it’s the greatest lie of all time. People trade with people. But I just gave it that title so I could teach people this who stumbled upon this blog entry…

So here’s how we do it at rentoid.com

We have a live chat session with our people. Answer all their questions, assess their concerns and just get to know them. Tonight we are doing it at 7.30pm Aust Syd / Melbourne time.

Go here to log on: http://rentoid.com/live

You can see the startup blog author in action live and see if he (me) can deliver it all live. So tune in, tell your friends and get a shout out!

Free advice – from the world greatest thinkers

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

It’s never been easier to be mentored on a specific subject, from experts, for free. There are even live feedback mechanisms from other interested experts. And most of the amazingly cool and informative stuff comes from blogs – just like this one.

But are you really taking advantage of this mentoring revolution?

Do you have a digital mentor?

Have you emailed the writer of your favourite blog?

Asked for advice / help, given them advice or help?

Are you passing on your skills by blogging for others?

My favourite blog has 25,000 readers a day. The publisher has his email address listed on it. When I email him a question he gets back to me within a day or two with an answer, a link, a blog entry or if I’m really lucky a free PDF copy of his latest book. The real value comes from the interactions, not the reading.

Smart entrepreneurs get involved in the conversation, they don’t just listen to the lecture.

Best ‘Selling’ Author

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

I read the first half of the 4 hour work week… I put it down before finishing. The book could’ve been written on a 10 page presentation – startup blog view.

 

Tim Ferris currently the best selling Author on the New York Times list. The words here are very important: He’s the best selling author, not best writing author.

 

Tim Ferris knows how to sell. He’s got a couple of great ideas which are absolute gold. He’s sold them in guru style. Power to him.

 

  

Title: 4 hour work week – he got the title name from doing a Google ad word experiment to see which title got the most clicks.

The Cover – cubicle dwellers dream of this lifestyle. Create a visual.

Outsourcing your life: Possible for those with a large existential stream of income.

Vicarious living: Most how to books never actually get implemented, it’s about the dream. Readers rarely implement, so concepts don’t get questioned.

The brand: Tim is the brand. He knows how to work a system.

Bottom line: The idea works and he works it.

 

The truth: He worked his butt off first, got massive cashflow, then scaled down. I challenge anyone to not answer their phone, email and live in another country and do it all in four hours a weekand ‘become’ wealthy. Not possible, unless you’ve already done what Tim did.

 

Like any book – we take the bits that work for us and ignore the stuff which doesn’t apply.

 

Sometimes you could build a company or a business on a simple idea. His idea is outsourcing. But it’s the way he sold it which makes him a world beater.

 

All entrpreneurs ought take a lesson from Tim on how to bundle things up to sell.

Compound effort & Google

Posted on by Steve Sammartino

The good news about Google is that it rewards hard workers. That’s good news for all the genuine marketers, startups and bloggers out there

 

Here’s proof.

 

I decided that startup blog might be a good name, given it was all about – yep start ups and entrepreneurship. But unbeknownst to me the inexperienced blogger there was already a zillion blogs with this title, or one very similar. The dot come was long gone.

 

I didn’t even exist in Google… I was more than 20 pages deep. I was also blogging to about 3 friends and my mother. I never did any marketing of my blog, just registered it on technorati. That’s it.

 

Now after consisting writing, sharing my ideas, almost 500 posts and providing some reasonable insights, this blog is clear number one on Google. Just type in any permutations of the words start up blog and you’ll see. I also have over 20,000 readers a month now.

 

Word of mouth is slow, but effort equals reward.