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Sunday, 18 May 2014
[Build Great Backlinks] 16 Top eCommerce Business Sales – Sell Your Ecommerce Business for Millions
When most people think of ecommerce, they tend to think of retail websites. In reality, ecommerce consists of everything that has to do with trading products or services electronically. This means all of the payment processing, ecommerce software, third party processing, and everything else that has to do with buy and selling electronically. The reason why we are going over this basic information is to give you an idea on how many ecommerce business opportunities there are and then to show you how much those opportunities can be worth in the long run.
In this article we will be going over some of the biggest ecommerce sales and looking at how much you could potentially make with a company that is directly involved with doing business over the internet.
#1 – PayPal.com – Sold for $1.5 Billion
Year founded: 1998
Year sold: 2002
PayPal is a e-commerce business that processes payments and money transfers throughout the internet. It is used internationally and is the biggest alternative to using traditional transfer methods. On October 3rd, 2002 eBay bought PayPal for 1.5 billion dollars. Throughout the years PayPal has grown into a company that has a revenue (2002) of 5.6 billion dollars and continues to see a rise in growth. What once was just a payment processor for small transactions turned into a multi-billion dollar powerhouse.
#2 – Billmelater.com - Sold for $1.2 Billion
Year founded: 2000
Year sold: 2008
Bill Me Later is a proprietary payment option that has been offered on a lot of well-known websites. It offers customers a line of revolving credit which allows them to make purchases online without using a credit card. PayPal purchased Bill Me Later on November 7, 2008 for 1.2 billion dollars. While the concept took a little while to get popular, the company has become more and more popular.
#3 – Zappos.com – Sold for $1.5 Billion
Year founded: 1999
Year sold: 2009
Zappos is an online retail website that sells shoes and clothing. Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, the company was founded by Nick Swinmurn and his company was seeing over 8 million dollars in revenue within just 2 years. The company is now seeing over 1 billion dollars in revenue per year and was purchased by Amazon in July of 2009. They purchased the company for about 1.2 billion dollars. When nick first had come up with the idea to sell shoes online, his investors almost declined saying it wasn’t profitable enough. Now the online retail store has become one of the biggest show retailers in the world. That goes to show, never underestimate an idea you may think be profitable.
#4 – Endeca.com – Sold for $1.075 Billion
Year founded: 1999
Year sold: 2011
Endeca was sold for 1.075 billion dollars on October 18, 2011 to the Oracle Corporation. Endeca sells ecommerce search, enterprise search, business intelligence, and customer experience management applications. This international company has thrived over the years by providing ecommerce and other intelligence to their clients and were recognized as a pioneer in their industry.
#5 – Shopping.com – Sold for $620 Million
Year founded: 1998
Year sold: 2005
Shopping.com is a price comparison service that uses websites in 5 countries. Originally, the company was Dealtime.com and founded in Israel in 1998 by D. Nuhum Sharfman and Amir Ashkenazi. Originally it was a model to make a downloadable client that can monitor changes in price for certain products. Then it would notify the customer with price drops. That idea was then evolved and they were bought by eBay for 620 Million dollars.
#6 – Kelkoo.com – Sold for $1.5 Billion
Year founded: 1999
Year sold: 2004
Kelkoo is a European price comparison server that was founded in France, 1999 by Pierre Chappaz and Mauicio Lopez. It allowed customers to find information about products that they were interested in by including information about different prices and sellers. It was purchased by Yahoo! Inc in April 2004 for 579 million dollars and then was later sold to a private equity firm in 2008.
#7 – Half.com – Sold for $318 Million
Year founded: 1999
Year sold: 2000
Half.com allows sellers to offer items that usually have a ISBN, UPC, or other types of SKU. There are only a limited amount of categories that they allow on their but that hasn’t stopped their site from gaining massive popularity in such a short time. It was bought by eBay on June 13, 2000 for 318 million and continues to thrive.
#8 – Stubhub.com – Sold for $310 Million
Year founded: 2000
Year sold: 2007
StubHub is a marketplace that provides services for buyers as well as sellers of tickers for concerts, sports, theater, and other live events. It is now the largest ticket marketplace in the world. The company refuses to reveal its financial information, but they did say that they process a ticket it order every single second and had over 15 million unique visitors per month in the year of 2012. The company was acquired by eBay on January 10, 2007 for 310 Million dollars.
#9 – Hautelook.com – Sold for $270 Million
Year founded: 2007
Year sold: 2011
HauteLook is a flash sales business, which was acquired by Nordstrom for 270 million dollars in 2011. The business got popular due to its exclusivity of members only and online sample sales. High end retailers place their excess inventory on sale for a large percentage discount over a limited amount of time. They offer products for women, men, and even children.
#10 – buy.com – Sold for $250 Million
Year founded: 1997
Year sold: 2010
Buy.com has seen many ups and downs throughout the years but ultimately grew into a massive online retail store owned by Japan’s biggest ecommerce company. Rakuten, Inc purchased Buy.com in May 2010 for 250 Million dollars. Buy.com originally sold computers and electronics, but has since expanded into many other categories. In its first year of business it sold over 110 million dollars worth of goods and services, which beat many of their tenured competitors.
#11 -Magento.com – Sold for $225 Million
Year founded: 2008
Year sold: 2010
Magento is a open source ecommerce application that acted as a content management system for web hosting services. eBay bought the whole program for 225 million dollars in February 2010 making them 100% owners. In April 2014, it is estimated that Magento is used by 1% of all websites. Magento is among the top 20 most popular ecommerce platforms for businesses to use.
#12 – Gittigidiyor.com – Sold for $217.5 Million
Year founded: 2001
Year sold: 2007
Gitti Gidiyor is a Turkish e-shopping mall that eBay bought on May 3, 2007 for 217.5 million dollars. Consumers have access to all types of different products and are also able to sell whatever they want. It has evolved to replicate the main eBay website ever since it was purchased. eBay has been trying to expand their presence over the world which made this an important acquisition for them.
#13 – Eachnet.com – Sold for $150 Million
Year founded: 1999
Year sold: 2003
EachNet provides a similar service as eBay which is why it became a subsidiary of eBay inc on July 16, 2003 for 150 million dollars. It is an ecommerce company that provides auction services to consumers and businesses in China. The community is able to buy and sell a large range of items in different price formats.
#14 – Joyo.com - Sold for $75 Million
Year founded: 1998
Year sold: 2004
Joyo.com started out as a IT information service and download website prior to the year 2000. Shortly after, the company decided to become an online book store. One the company started to grow, Amazon took notice and decided to buy them for 75 million dollars on August 19, 2004. The name then changed in 2007 to Amazon China, making it the 7th regional website of Amazon.com. Joyo only had 5 employees in 1999 but a year and a half later, became the 33rd largest Chinese website.
#15 – Milo.com – Sold for $75 Million
Year founded: 2004
Year sold: 2010
Milo lists real time product inventory for more than 50,000 stores around the country. There are over 3 million products from many large companies and it is continuing to grow. eBay bought Milo for 75 million dollars in 2010 in an another attempt to get into the 917 billion dollar market of online research. eBay brought their inventories to Milo and also integrated local product feeds to its online market place and mobile applications.
#16 – Lexity.com – Sold for $35 Million
Year founded: 2009
Year Sold: 2013
Lexity provides ecommerce services and even has their own app store that provides marketing applications that are made to help online merchants drive sales. It was purchased by Yahoo! for 35 million dollars on July 31, 2013. The company currently focuses on creating mobile applications for ecommerce purposes. Founder Amit Kumar has been successful with similar projects in the past and was allowed to stay with Lexity after it was purchased by Yahoo!.
The post 16 Top eCommerce Business Sales – Sell Your Ecommerce Business for Millions appeared first on How To Make Money Online.
You may view the latest post at
http://www.incomediary.com/ecommerce-business-broker
Build Great Backlinks
Jock
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Monday, 5 May 2014
[Build Great Backlinks] 7 Ways To Get An Extra Sale Today
Welcome back to the AwesomeWeb Series.
Last time, I asked the guys the number one design feature your website may be missing. Because people are quick to judge based on your appearance, and the same is true when it comes to website design.
If you’re site’s ugly, you’re not going to sell as much. Which brings us to our second question in the series…
How to generate an extra sale today!
In order to makes sales at will, it’s important to understand who your target audience is. And if you don’t understand your prospect, you won’t sell him anything.
Get to know what motivates them and truly listen. Keep in mind people don’t particularly care about you online. This is why you need to show them you truly care to form a lasting (profitable) relationship.
Once you do, you’ll be able to utilize the following methods over and over for a lifetime of sales.
If you had to get an extra sale today, how would you get it?
Email Your List
Contributed by Brian Moran
I would email my list. Simple as that.
It’s the easiest way to sell products.
If you don’t have a list, I would focus on creating one. It’s the only way you can control your own destiny as a marketer.
Paid Ads
Contributed by Tom Lambert
Paid advertising. I’m 100% behind creating a holistic traffic strategy that leverages all of the different channels we have available to us as digital marketers (social, email, affiliates, etc.) but paid ads will always be the quickest way to make a sale.
In under an hour I can design my ads, write my copy, build and launch an ad campaign for as little as $5/day.
Within a few hours (depending on the ad network) my ads will be live and pushing targeted traffic to my website.
No other digital marketing channel has that type of on/off switch with such a small barrier to entry. If you’re just getting started with paid ads make sure that you’re testing everything from your creative & copy to your landing pages to your ad targeting.
I’ve never worked in a niche or vertical that I can’t make paid ads profitable in after some fine tuning and testing.
Email Your List
Contact An Existing Client
Contributed by Nicholas Tart
Most of my work to this point has been freelancing as a WordPress designer and developer. For me, I would contact an existing client and recommend that I do or fix something on their site.
Email Your List
Contributed by Josh Dunlop
Well you can always email your list, but that will inevitably burn them if all you're doing is selling.
Publish An Article & Set Google Alerts
If I needed to get an extra sale today and assuming my list has already been emailed, I’d write an article with a plug to whatever it is I’m selling.
After publishing the post containing links to the product I need to sell, I’d set up Google alerts. These Google Alerts will notify me when anybody enters a keyphrase relating to my article topic.
Then I’ll leave a comment answering whatever question the user had, while subtly inserting a link to the article in my signature. You can also immediately jump on Yahoo Answers and search open questions relating to the problem you, your product, or article is solving.
After each question you genuinely answer, leave the link to the “money page” in your resource box. In the past, this has instantly driven multiple sales and hundreds of extra unique visitors to my sites.
Make sure you’re not being “spammy” and actually offering value. If you’re primary focus is only on the sale and not delivery of valuable insight, your prospect will sense this and not purchase.
Use Somebody Else’s List
Contributed by Michael Dunlop
If I had to make a sale today and I was desperate to make it?? and I couldn’t use an already existing list?
Then I would use someone else’s list. Here’s an example of how I would see it going down:
I have a health ebook that I sell. To find affiliates, the simplest thing you can do is to head over to Clickbank.
Clickbank is a shoppingcart/merchant. It has a marketplace where it displays all it’s users in categories, in order of most successful.
So I would go to the health area, find other people who have products and I would email every single person there till I got the yes I needed.
Don’t just ask for someone to promote you. Do something to stand out:
- Customise your sales page to mention the affiliate to increase conversions.
- Do a guest post for their blog.
- Be interviewed for their site.
- Offer them a decent cut of the sale. Info products don’t really cost the vendor much, it’s nearly all profit. So offer them 50% – 75% of the sale. You wouldn’t have the sale without them. You could also include scarcity here, for example, 75% affiliate commissions, today only!
- Offer to reciprocate the promotion. Later on you agree to promote them. This is only cool if they have a decent product. Most people just agree to do this not caring what they have to promote, just so that they can make a sale. Don’t be this person.
- Come up with a reason for the late notice promotion. For example… Late notice 24 hour fire sale, buy quick!!! Big discounts! I see people freak on tax day and do 24 hour sales to pay what they owe in tax and they use this reason for the sale and it works!
Everyone is always looking for something to sell. Just remember that.
7 Things to do right now to make an extra sale.
- Open an Aweber account, set up your first squeeze page and send your first email sequence.
- Head over to Clickbank’s marketplace, find products in the same category as you and reach out to respective owners for a jv.
- Set up PopUp Domination and increase your optins by overs 500% overnight. In order to gain opt-ins, you’ll need to give something of value away – video, app, audio, eBook, eCourse, etc.
- Write an awesome, valued filled article/blog post and recommend a product or service within. Set up google alerts relating to the problem your article solves. Respond to the google alerts with more value and leave the link to your post in the signature or resource box.
- Reach out to an existing client and create a sale. Figure out why they bought before, what benefits sold the product, and what it would take for them to buy again.
- Set up a paid advertising campaign as this is often one of the easiest and fastest ways to make a sale online.
- Write an article of huge value and insert affiliate links cleverly within. Then email your list about the article. Simple.
The post 7 Ways To Get An Extra Sale Today appeared first on How To Make Money Online.
You may view the latest post at
http://www.incomediary.com/7-ways-get-extra-sale-today
Build Great Backlinks
David Aston
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Thursday, 1 May 2014
[Build Great Backlinks] 15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Successful
Have you ever wondered why you’re not reaching your next level in business and life?
Hi, I’m Maxine,
I often talk about how to overcome self-doubt & achieve your goals. Today, I’m going to share with you some of the main reasons why most people never achieve success.
You see, there are so many things that hinder us from achieving our goals. We all cling on to bad habits, deconstructive behavior and limiting beliefs.
The difference between stagnation and growth are often subtle shifts. Here are 15 things to give up for more success:
1. Give Up Your Mask
In order to avoid getting hurt and rejected, we hide who we really are behind a mask of who we think we should be.
Have the courage to be you, to show your true emotions and stand behind them – even at the risk of disapproval.
Embrace not only the "good" side of you, but also the vulnerable side. Because vulnerability is authentic and real.
It's the source of creativity and innovation. It creates opportunity.
"Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weakness." ~Brené Brown,
2. Give Up Your Belief In The Future
Yes, your future holds your hopes, your dreams and desires – but your future depends on the choices you make today.
Believe in the presence. You only ever have this moment – because the past moments are gone and the future will eventually show up as another moment of now.
Success starts at this very moment, with the choices you make right now. Practice presence.
Notice what's around you, what you see, hear, taste and smell. Notice what you experience and interact with it.
"Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life." ~Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
3. Give Up Your SOS (Shiny Object Syndrome)
Whether it's chasing that next "shiny" idea or the secret shortcuts to success – we are all guilty of this addiction.
The pursuit of everything that seems appealing is seductive. It makes us get side-tracked, loose focus and go in a million different directions.
Take time to identify the ideas and activities worth pursuing and then stick to them on a consistent basis.
"If you want to draw water you do not dig six one-foot wells. You dig one six-foot well." ~Buddha
4. Give Up Your Need Of Other's Approval
You sabotage your success if you make choices that aim to avoid disapproval. Your ego's seeking of recognition is never ending and makes you miss potentially rewarding opportunities because of your fear of being criticised.
Choose wisely between what's good for the ego and what's good for your success.
"A truly strong person does not need the approval of others any more than a lion needs the approval of sheep." ~Vernon Howard
5. Give Up Taking "No" As "No"
Interpret feedback the way you choose to: A "no" doesn't mean "no" – it just means "not right now" or "not this way".
Whatever it is that you want to achieve, don't take rejection as a final answer. Take it as a useful feedback that says, "Keep going".
6. Give Up Distinguishing Between Your Private And Work Life
All aspects of your life are interconnected. You are fooling yourself by believing your private life doesn't impact your entrepreneurial success.
You are hindering your growth if some areas of your life are a mess. True success encompasses all areas.
Bring passion, perseverance and joy to all of the roles you play: as an entrepreneur, a lover or a friend… Make all aspects of your life successful and be proactive.
7. Give Up Your Reluctance To Ask For Help
Be man enough to admit you don't know everything. Don't take asking for help as a sign of weakness.
Instead, embrace it as an act of strength: it indicates honesty, intelligence and your rise above the ego that wants to do it all alone. Remember:
"The strong individual is the one who asks for help when he needs it." ~Rona Barrett
8. Give Up Fixing Your Weaknesses
We live in a society that emphasize the need to be well-rounded. Successful people hardly ever tick that box – instead they know, embrace and manage around their weaknesses.
Fixing weaknesses is just another strategy to play safe – playing not to lose instead of playing to win.
Change your focus from fixing weaknesses to capitalizing on your strengths – because you will grow the most in your areas of talents.
"Emphasize strengths, don't fix weaknesses." ~Timothy Ferriss
9. Give Up Being Perfect
Perfectionism is based on the false belief that if we do things perfectly, we can avoid failure.
It's an unhealthy quest to make your work flawless in order to earn approval and acceptance from others.
Recognize the distinct difference between giving your best and trying to be perfect. Ask yourself if spending the extra time will make an equivalent difference to your success in the long run.
Always favor progress over perfection.
"Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough – that we should try again." ~Julia Cameron
10. Give Up Playing Small
We are all afraid of failure, so we play small.
Playing a bigger game means following your own path. Listening to your intuition, doing what feels right compared to doing what everybody else tells you to do.
By playing small, you are not serving yourself nor anyone else. Instead play big, go out of your comfort zone.
Be prepared to be wrong and fail. Be prepared to feel fear.
"If you're are paralyzed with fear it's a good sign. It shows you do what you have to do." ~Steven Pressfield
11. Give Up Your Dependency On Willpower
Regardless of willpower being limited or not – tasks done on autopilot require less thought, decision-making and energy.
To be successful, you have to act successful. Align your actions with your goals.
Create routines that automate taking the right actions. Be intentional about setting work, health, fitness and relationship habits.
Automate your behavior, one habit at a time.
12. Give Up Your Resistance To What Is
The present moment is out of your circle of influence. You can't change what is happening right now.
Instead of wasting your energy complaining, being upset, annoyed or disappointed, learn to fully accept the present moment and your current thoughts and emotions.
What is more insane than resisting something that can't be changed? Acceptance doesn't not mean approval. It doesn't mean you can't take action to change an undesirable situation.
Instead, it means saying "yes" to life as it presents itself and then moving forward. Let go of your resistance. Say "yes" to how you feel, "yes" to what is happening right now. When you do, life will get a hell of a lot easier and will work for you, not against you.
"Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it." ~Eckhart Tolle
13. Give up Trying to Be too Clever
Be different and innovate, but not for the sake of being different, but out of a quest to make things better. Overcome your reluctance to make use of proven methods and good advice.
Don't try to be clever in order to earn other people's approval and enhance your self-worth. Act out of a desire for improvement and service and you will end up being clever in the process.
14. Give Up Waiting For Luck
Luck builds its foundation on preparation. To be successful, you don't just have to be lucky to come across good opportunities, but you have to be ready and prepared to make use of them.
Be the right person in the right place at the right time through preparation. Lucky people act in a way that increases their change of good opportunities.
Be open-minded and optimistic. Prepare for your luck then go out and find it.
"Opportunity is where you find it ….not where it finds you ” ~Old Proverb
15. Give Up Other People's Versions Of Success
Being successful and feeling successful are quite different things. Reaching other people's version of success does not come with the joy and happiness that you were hoping for.
Success is a word that means many different things. Chasing other people's dreams means betraying your own ones.
Define your version of success and give up all the others.
“There is only one success: to be able to spend your life in your own way” ~Christopher Morley
Over to you: What else stands in your way to success? Which one of the 15 points above are you willing to give up?
The post 15 Things You Should Give Up To Be Successful appeared first on How To Make Money Online.
You may view the latest post at
http://www.incomediary.com/15-things-successful
Build Great Backlinks
Maxine Schiffmann
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Friday, 18 April 2014
[Build Great Backlinks] 20 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Immediately Improve Their Health
The most common problems for entrepreneurs are often not even “work” related…
In many instances it has something to do with excessive sitting and poor diet.
Working long, unsociable hours, on little sleep, fueling your body with crap food – just to get back to the grind isn't healthy for you or your business.
New research shows sedentary behavior to be equivalent to smoking… It’s no wonder some entrepreneurs are incredibly unhealthy despite an OK diet.
I recently stumbled upon a thread about an article I wrote in regard to entrepreneurs being unhealthy, and one of the replies helped me grasp something…
Many entrepreneurs, mostly those just getting their feet wet, are under the impression health is a necessary sacrifice now in order to live well later…
And they’re basing this on the notion;
“Entrepreneurs live like most won’t now in order to live like most can’t later.”
Working harder at working smarter is one thing, but that has nothing to do with sacrificing your health. It’s important to understand the body wants every internal process to function in harmony.
When this happens, our energy, mental clarity and creative abilities operate at a much higher level.
As I mentioned in “Why Entrepreneurs Are Unhealthy & What To Do About It”, studies are showing successful entrepreneurs are healthier than most people.
They tend to eat more fruits and vegetables, exercise more, and take more self-responsibility.
Here’s what else they stick to…
20 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Immediately Improve Their Health
#1 Spend One Hour Outside Daily
Thomas Jefferson spent most of his waking hours at home working, but never failed to spend at least one hour outside per day.
Force yourself to go outside and get some fresh air, vitamin D and exercise. Just walk around the block a few times if you’re unable to venture to far from the computer.
#2 Improve What You Eat
In order to become the healthiest and strongest version of yourself, it’s ideal to eat nutritionally balanced meals with all natural, unprocessed ingredients.
These meals should consist of local and organic whole foods, herbs and spices.
I use a cool resource called Local Harvest to find farmers’ markets, organic family farms, and other sources of sustainably grown food in my area.
#3 Improve How You Eat
If you want to maintain healthy weight, high levels of energy and positive well being it's critical to develop healthy eating habits!
I like to eat soon after waking up and stick to set eating times (ex: 9, 12, 5 & 8) throughout the day.
Also, thoroughly chewing your food and not drinking during and for up to an hour after a meal noticeably aids digestion.
#4 Improve Your Posture
Acknowledge how you’re sitting this very second.
Are both of your feet planted on the ground? Is your chest up and shoulders back?
When you correct your posture, you allow your spine to rise and your chest to open, which eases tension and helps the breath flow more freely. The oxygen can now penetrate more deeply into your lungs.
As you begin to take these deeper breathes you activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which is lowering your stress hormone levels, healing your brain, and stimulating recovery and digestion.
#5 Open A Window
The quality of our air has a huge impact on our health.
As entrepreneurs, most of us spend quite a bit of time indoors in front of the computer.
New research shows that more than 99% of the bugs living inside us aren't harmful, in fact, they’re beneficial; assisting our digestion, metabolism, and immunity.
Interestingly, one of the easiest ways to build your microbiome (the bugs living inside you), is simply opening a window.
But there’s even a tasty way to do it… with Kombucha of course.
#6 Stick To A Sleep Schedule
Going to bed and waking up at the same time each day forces your your body's “internal clock” to expect sleep at a certain time each night.
Go to bed and get at least 8 but no more than 9 hours of sleep and wake up at the same time every day (for me it’s typically 11pm – 8am).
I’ll typically dim the lights an hour before bed and sleep in complete darkness which helps me fall asleep and stay asleep.
If you’re on the computer in the evening, I recommend installing the f.lux app as you’re probably affecting the quality of your sleep.
#7 Start Your Day With A Walk
Make it a priority to go for a morning walk before you start working. This primes you for the day, helps you sleep and lowers your stress levels.
Some of my best ideas have occurred on my morning walks.
#8 Take A Break and Move Around
Sitting for long periods of time is linked to obesity, metabolic syndrome, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and excess body fat.
Walking and exercise in general releases endorphins, which quickly creates feelings of happiness and euphoria.
Instead of just flying from one task to the next, walk around the park or at least stretch in between to-do list items. Simple stretching, lunges or even walking up and down the stairs a couple times is a great way to recharge and refocus.
#9 Take Weekend Vacations
Reserve weekends for yourself.
Even though you work for yourself, and don't have a morning commute, weekend rest should still be a priority. But this doesn't necessarily mean lounging all day.
Take short mini-vacations. Get in your car and drive a couple of hours to the beach or forest.
Even if you feel you didn't get enough work done during the week, and want to make up for it on the weekend, enjoy the fresh air and refocus while away from the computer.
#10 Take Walking Meetings
As entrepreneurs, we’re constantly networking and meeting new business contacts. Next time, suggest a walking meeting instead of a sit-down.
I love to meet people and walk around a park. This has helped me settle negotiations and left lasting impressions on some great people I now call friends.
It’s also a great excuse to get outside and get the blood flowing a bit.
You might find some who think you’re a nut, but I’ve found most professionals appreciate this refreshing approach to meetings.
#11 Don’t Eat Lunch At Your Desk
Lunch is a great opportunity to recharge, network and even stretch the legs.
You're definitely busy, but you're not so busy that you have to eat at your desk. Make it a point to take a lunch break.
#12 Drink More Water
Make water your primary beverage – it’s far and beyond the superior choice for entrepreneurs.
A 2% decrease in water saturation in your body will noticeably slow your thought process and ability to remember. If you need flavor, try adding fresh fruit and/or citrus to make it more appealing.
#13 Get A Massage
Massage therapy has been used for hundreds of years as alternative medicine and a way to promote health and well-being.
A weekly deep tissue massage helps me maintain relaxation, sleep better and keeps my muscles healthy and flexible.
#14 Limit “Time-suckers”
Set email answering and social media updates to certain times. You can get bogged down answering emails or checking out stories on Facebook.
Aside from allowing your audience to expect content at a certain time, you’re able to get on and do what you have to without being sucked into a juicy controversy or losing sleep over some new conspiracy you saw in your newsfeed…
Limiting time-suckers will allow you to get more done, which frees up time to exercise, socialize or simply relax.
#15 Do Light Exercise Around The House
There’s really a point of diminishing returns when you're working all the time.
Your brain gets locked down to one way of thinking, and you're simply not as productive as you’d be if you’re blood was flowing and you were engaging your entire body.
Take short, frequent breaks and utilize them to exercise throughout your day.
20 minutes of extended exercise or an hour of walking per day is great. But it’s even better to get up frequently from your desk and move around even if it's only for 10 minutes.
Again, the whole 33 minutes on with 10 minutes off, seriously works wonders.
#16 Hire A Virtual Assistant
As entrepreneurs especially those of us just getting our feet wet with this whole “running my own business” thing, often end up doing much of the leg work ourselves.
This translates into working long 14-hour days, resulting in mental and physical exhaustion.
Outsourcing everything from office tasks to your social media presence can free up time to focus on health and the expansion and improvement of your business.
Here are 5 great resources to find reliable freelancers and virtual assistants to do just that:
#17 Challenge Yourself
Whenever you go out – to the store, the movies, or the mall – physically challenge yourself by parking farther away, taking the stairs and reaching with the opposite hand.
Each of these subtle actions results in stimulated muscles, increased blood-flow and calories burned.
#18 Find an Accountability Partner
A great way to stick to a workout program or healthy lifestyle is finding a partner. Whether it’s someone to go to yoga class with or somebody to text "crushed my work out!"
Having an accountability partner will help you stay committed and allow you to see better results in return.
Check out these 64 awesome health and fitness apps outlines by Greatist.
#19 Set A Work and Play Schedule
If you’re chained to your desk all day, think about incorporating hikes, tea, games, yoga et cetera into your regular breaks.
I've adopted a great method allowing me to remain productive yet active and grounded throughout my day.
Working in 33 minute and 33 second (33.33) intervals seems to be the magic productivity number for me.
After each session, I take advantage of a 10-15 minute break by conversing with strangers, walking around the park, practicing yoga, doing push-ups and meditating.
#20 Be More Social – In Real Life
Having a positive sense of community is nearly as important to our health as exercise because the division of work, feeling of association and togetherness all help establish a healthy atmosphere and mindset.
With no separation between work and home life, and no one to answer to, an Internet entrepreneur isn’t forced to keep his body moving, to keep his mind alert, to maintain his appearance, or to do anything that would be socially ideal.
Remember, the most successful entrepreneurs combine great health with great business!
Health by choice, not by chance.
-David Aston
By the way…
How would you like to experience perfect health and greater lifestyle freedom?
My mini-course reveals exactly how and exposes the 7 deadly health mistakes most people make…
The post 20 Ways Entrepreneurs Can Immediately Improve Their Health appeared first on How To Make Money Online.
You may view the latest post at
http://www.incomediary.com/20-ways-improve-health?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=20-ways-improve-health
Build Great Backlinks
David Aston
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
Friday, 11 April 2014
[Build Great Backlinks] 7 Website Design Features That Will Increase Profits and Usability
I’m excited to introduce the first of many posts for the all new AwesomeWeb Series here at IncomeDiary!
Each week I’ll ask 6 other internet entrepreneurs a specific question relating to your online success.
At the end of each weekly post, you’ll have an opportunity to vote on the best responses. This helps keep things interesting and of the highest quality.
Between the 7 of us, Josh Dunlop, Brian Moran, Nicholas Tart, Tom Lambert, Dainis Graveris, Michael Dunlop, and myself (David Aston), we’ve gotten over 150 million unique visitors, launched dozens of digital and physical products, had our products viewed over 1 billion times and earned millions of dollars and fans alike.
That said, this first question in the series is an obvious place to start because we’re first introduced to a website visually.
People are often quick to judge you based on your appearance, and the same is true when it comes to website design.
Easy navigation and a visually pleasing layout will help tremendously when it comes to converting your prospects into customers.
7 Design Features Your Website May Be Missing:
Membership Logins - Josh Dunlop
One feature I love is actually quite subtle, and that's membership logins.
When I arrive at a tutorial site like my own, and I see 'Members Area' or 'Members Login', I'm intrigued by what they have to offer. It instantly makes me think that if they sell something to someone as a membership, then they must have something worth buying.
That they're someone worth following.
It's such a small feature, but it has a big impact on the way I perceive a website. It also helps to drive sales as I'm intrigued by what they're selling.
A Well-Thought-Out and Strategically-Placed Headline - Nick Tart
When we were designing the homepage for a new startup, I asked Michael if we needed a headline. Surely the user would land on the page, understand what we’re doing, and know to use the search feature.
We looked at examples (KISSmetrics, Freshbooks, CrazyEgg, etc.) and they all had headlines, even as SaaS companies. In Web Domination 20, Yanik Silver mentioned that his page design process starts with brainstorming 100 headlines.
So we brainstormed headlines that explained both what our new company does and why you should use it.
We settled on:
“Find The Best Designers and Developers Who Could’ve Started Yesterday“
What? Find Designers and Developers
Why? The Best, Who Could’ve Started Yesterday
Once we had the copy, we made the first line red because it’s the first color you see and we want people to start at the headline.
The next challenge was positioning the headline and tying it to the call to action. After six homepage iterations we settled on a layout, but there was a lot of white space (grey space) between the headline and the search area.
To direct people to the call to action, we added an arrow from the headline to the search box (as seen in the photo).
When we’re writing a blog post, the headline is a natural part of the post. But it’s not as obvious for supplemental pages or even your homepage.
Every page needs a headline that explains the what & why, is designed to be the first thing you see, and leads into the call to action. Michael understood this. I had to learn it.
Eye-popping Calls To Action - Brian Moran
All marketers should include eye-popping calls to action. Whatever the purpose of the current web page is, make that more obvious than any other feature or design element on the page. Example of this would be buttons that tell users what actions to take.
For example:
- Sign Up Now
- Get Instant Access
- Download the PDF
- Register for the Webinar
- Show me the Video
Great examples of landing pages that have obvious calls to action are http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/, http://www.basecamphq.com/ and https://www.dropbox.com/.
All three of these sites make sure that the visitor will notice the 1 thing they want you to do. Far too many marketers forget this simple tactic, and it can absolutely crush your conversion rate.
Email Capture Form - Tom Lambert
An Email capture form.
Believe it or not – 90% of the people that visit your website will never do business with you in any capacity.
Capturing email addresses while prospects are on your website gives you a chance to increase those odds and nurture them with high quality content while building a relationship. Your effective frequency will vary but virtually none of your visitors will see your product or service once and be convinced to do business with you.
Adding a simple lead capture form to your website will without a doubt double or triple your effectiveness with minimal effort. Be sure to offer an irresistible lead magnet that attracts the type of people you want to do business with.
For example, if you’re an accountant and want to attract multi-millionaire entrepreneurs write a report along the lines of “7 Costly Mistakes Every Millionaire Entrepreneur Makes When Filing Quarterly Taxes” – making the opt-in offer this specific will help pre-qualify your leads before you ever send them an email.
I recommend a two prong approach: add an email capture form to the sidebar of all of your website posts/pages and an exit popup with the same offer using software like Popup Domination.
Threaded Comments and Comment Upvotes - Dainis Graveris
This is again a subtle improvement, but one I found out was really helping to connect with our readers.
Threaded comments really help to follow up on conversations. You should definitely address every genuine comment from every reader and ask a follow up question.
It will increase your comment count (perceived value), it will increase reader engagement and add to your content, which is indexed in Google! I would suggest to also add subscribe to comments feature (I need to install it myself again)…
I guess I could use AwesomeWeb once it's live.. 
In the meantime, check out this plugin:
http://wordpress.org/plugins/subscribe-to-comments-reloaded/ - Now when you engage with readers there’s a greater chance they’ll come back!
Little tip: To increase engagement always ask questions at the end of an article… and ask questions when replying to comments.
I included Comment Upvote, because there are lots of skimmers and scanners, who like the article, who read the comments, but who don't necessary engage leaving their own comment.
I have noticed many enjoy up voting, down voting comments if they agree or disagree with something. Even this simple action from them, increases user engagement!
Improve Text Readability – Michael Dunlop
- Text links use to be blue and underlined. This is how they should look on a website. Then people started changing how they looked because the technology aloud us to do it. The further you get away from how they use to look, the less people will click your links. Which means less money. If you visit all the top websites today, the majority will use blue text links, most have shifted away from underlining a link. This could be partly because they are big brands and people become programmed to know how to use them.
- Black text on a white background, it's the most readable format. Just yesterday my Dad rang me up to ask about a project I'm working on. He mentioned the designer used grey text on white background for part of the site. It was harder to read, so I got the text changed to black.
- Text width. I think the industry standard/recommendation is around 600 pixels wide. If your text area is wider than that, it starts becoming harder to read.
- Text spacing. Please don't take my word on this because I never did so well at writing in school, but as far as I'm concerned, paragraphs should be small. It makes it look more appealing to read. This is probably why I've written this in a list form, it's easier to consume.
- Headlines should stand out. A lot of people skim blog posts, trying to find what they are looking for. I don’t just bold my headlines, I make the font larger using h tags ( <h2>headline</h2>) – I then use the h tags to create a table of contents box. Here’s a great plugin for table of contents: http://dublue.com/plugins/toc/
Make Sure Your Site Has Usability – David Aston
If you’re in the process of establishing a web asset, I invite you to ask yourself a few questions.
Ask yourself WHY you want a website and WHO will be using it.
This is a critical step in the creation process because a natural health website is going to look and feel different than a daily deal eCommerce website.
With each new startup I dedicate an entire wall in my office to outlining my new website schematic.
The navigation bar is typically where I’ll begin because this helps identify your sites main idea. Make it a point to organize the navigation buttons in order of importance (going from top to bottom or left to right).
Once you have the navigation organized in order of importance, figure out what content will be dedicated to each page. Be sure to keep your visitor in mind without overwhelming them with excessive links to “money pages.”
Remember, using colors to reflect your content and site identity goes a long way.
Dark red and bright yellow cause people to take action, blues and greens build trust, and as Michael mentioned, dark text on a light background is a must for readability.
You can discover more about empathizing color psychology in web design here.
Actually, readability’s really important and plays a HUGE role in a websites overall usability.
Be sure to use appropriate fonts (nothing too fancy) and make sure your grandfather and little brother can both read it!
If your visitors read a sentence with any difficulty they’ll simply exit your site and head on over to your competitors.
Prevent this by keeping sentences to 15 words or less and paragraphs around 2 sentences. This maximizes engagement and keeps your sites readability around a 5th grade level.
Remember you’re writing for web users not your university professor.
You can check your website / article readability by using this tool.
These methods helped me find creatively concise ways to emphasize my point and enhance usability. I trust they’ll do the same for you.
Final Thought
Three things I want you to tell me in the comments:
- Which point is most relevant to you?
- How can this post be better?
- What questions would you like us to answer in future?
Have a great weekend,
-David
The post 7 Website Design Features That Will Increase Profits and Usability appeared first on How To Make Money Online.
You may view the latest post at
http://www.incomediary.com/7-design-features-businesses-should-improve?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=7-design-features-businesses-should-improve
Build Great Backlinks
David Aston
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
