Oddities, Profundities, Profanities and Dad Stuff

Tag: business (Page 1 of 2)

Loyalty and Business Sense.

I have been sitting on this post for a day or two but today I want to write it.  I started thinking about how great it is to start building traffic and actually having people reading my blog.  It is exciting to be putting out a product and having someone consume it.  A product that is part of my brain and has required no sweat or muscle to produce.

I have been excited to get replies to my comments on other sites, and on my site.  It is exciting to be “out there” and getting noticed.  If I keep on this way I will be famous in a few years.  That is my hope at least.

I was also thinking about loyalty.  I have several blogs in my RSS reader and I usually keep up with them fairly well.  I have been commenting more and have been plesantly surprised at responses.  Those blogs I tend to want to visit more and more.  If someone posts a comment on my site I want to reply to the comment and then go see what they have in store.  I have been keeping track of people on twitter the same way.

I follow a bunch of people and reply to many who are not following me because I have an opinion damnit and you will at least see there was a tweet directed somewhere vaguely in your general direction.  It is coold to “talk” to people all over the world from one interface though.  You all are my only friends….Just kidding I do interact with humans.  Mostly small ones, but still humans. (written as my 3 year old is begging for Dora the Explorer to return)

So, to go with Loyalty, I read a post on Mike’s Life blog today about reciprocity.  Go ahead and read it yourself but it made me think about loyalty to those who are “with” you on your blog/business.  Mike stated that he has been an affiliate of this other site and has sent traffic to it, if that traffic did not come to sales, that is business.  Mike has done his job and paved the way for a sale to take place.  My opinion, and the way I want to conduct myself in business, if someone I have even heard of doing anything for me wants my help I will do everything I can to help.

I may think differently later but ever since business school I have thought the same.  Give great customer service and go for quality over quantity.  That may limit some income opportunities but I will have loyal customers that will come back and tell their friends about me and my business.  You can’t put a price on that.

Until later,

Justin

PS check out my page For Our Troops for a patriotic message! Thanks

Time is up! *&%$ or get off the pot!

Well folks the time is here and I don’ tknow if my ass is getting worn out yet or it is just the chair.  It has been 5 full months now that I have been posting on this blog and playing around.  I am getting ok traffic and it is time to start charging for each blog post!

No of course I am kidding.  My posts on here and for fiction Saturday will be free forever.  But today I want to talk about money and how to separate people from it.  I have been listening to Nathan Hangen’s podcasts in bulk lately and he has inspired me to get something going now.

What I am looking for today is some input.  The time has arrived that the new baby is imminent and I need to get some cash in to cover the bills.  I am trying to come up with a product that is not just another e-book for people to file away in the dusty recess of their hard drive and never read.  I have too many of those myself.  I want something to make people say, “Yea, that is good.  Hey Steve, have you seen this?”

So here is a question.  I want to ask something like what do you think of a stay at home dad membership site or mentoring thing but then I think how many stay at home dads are out there that actually would be willing to pay money for a site like that?  Maybe an ebook would be better.

I have a couple of books that I am working on, but one is fiction and one is about my daughters kidney disease.  I keep trying to figure out what exactly I have to offer besides writing, that people would be interested in.  I haven’t started yet, but I am going to have audio versions of my fiction stuff available in the near future and I don’t see how I could charge for those, at least until the ebook comes out.

Anyone need a partner for a JV?

So, any ideas that people need tackled?  I am just confused again at what kind of a product that I can offer that will be of value to people.  I am not sure now what is important to share.  I am working on a groovy workbook for kids on roadtrips.  That will be a good one to get out.

Anyhow, what do you guys think?  I expect comments on this one folks!

until later

Justin

Podcast #2: State of the Blog!

Hello all of you lovely readers!  Well here we are at the end of the week and you may have wondered where the ^$%& I have been.  Like I said Monday, it has been a reset week.  A week for working on the business end of a few things and getting ready to hit it hard.

With that, I have recorded podcast #2!  Enjoy, and please let me know what you think!

Podcast2.mp3

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What they never tell you about making money online.

Shopping cart.
Image via Wikipedia

It is simple to read a ton of stuff on the net about making money online.  It is easy to start trying but they don’t tell you actually how hard it is to do “things” right.

There is information about how much work it takes, you do have to look for it.  Many of the people who actually make a great living online work their butts off.

Now, I have been around the blogosphere for a while now, almost 7 months.  I have seen so many make money quick things out there that I can spot a sales pitch in about 12 words.  I have taken steps to try and make sure anything I sell doesn’t sound like those.  As of right now, I have nothing but one fiction ebook to sell.

This weekend I have been working on 2 of my sites that I hope to be making money with right away so that I can write more books.  And more fiction.  I am really trying to create products and interest in what I have to offer.  I am even working on a free ebook for my mail list subscribers and new subscribers, to be released soon.

The other sites I am working on are: First, BrendasQuiltShop.com.  This site I keep calling my wifes, and while it bears her name, and her stuff, it is more of a family business that I do the sales and web stuff for.  We used to have everything up on eBay and we sold some stuff over the years on eBay.  Details are on brendasquiltshop.com.

I decided that eBay was just too expensive to pay listing fees and final value fees for what we have sold.  I try to price stuff with what I think people will pay, that doesn’t leave much profit after the fees.  So I dug into the world of WordPress and integrated a shopping cart that I can list everything we have for sale and sell it myself.  If you get a chance, check it out and send me some feedback about anything I can do better on that site.

The second site that I have been working on is my main business site, AnvilForge Limited.  I am not going to link to it today, it is not finished to where I need it to be.  There is a bunch of copy that I need to write on the about page, and the sales pages, promoting wordpress installs and web maintenance as well as my blogs.

One of these days I will figure out how to write about being a Stay at home dad in a way that will make people want to pay for the privelege of reading it.  I am working on something with real value and not a bunch of worthless info that will sit on someones hard drive and slowly degrade into mediocrity.  Sure, I will have the original investment but I feel strongly about repeat customers and not turning into one of those guys who just sells systems that don’t really help.

So there you are, what they don’t tell you about making money is that it is hard work.  Sitting back and letting money drop on your head is not going to happen.  Yet.   Thanks for reading, I have to get back to work.

Still striving to never work for anyone again,

-Justin

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