| LED Digest 2189: Purpose Passion Persistence |
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List Moderator: Published by:
Adam Audette LED Digest
adam, led-digest.com http://www.led-digest.com
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June 23, 2006 Issue no. 2189
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.....IN THIS DIGEST.....
==== CONTINUING =================
--== Top Email Marketing Services? ==--
~ Martha Retallick
"I do regular e-mailings to my design studio
client and prospect list..."
--== Success Stories ==--
~ R. Neilson
"...expanding into eBay...has helped my
business to grow."
~ Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian
"In 1996, the Internet came to India."
==== BILLBOARD ===================
--== Domains and PageRank ==--
~ Marios Alexandrou
======== CONTINUING ===============================
From: Martha Retallick
Subject: Email marketing
> What would be your top 3 online
> email marketing services and why?
- Eran Adams, LED 2188
I do regular e-mailings to my design studio client and prospect
list, and to the people who've signed up for my e-mail newsletter on
postcard marketing. I write and design these mailings myself, but
contract the mailing out to e-mail list hosting services. These are:
1. Campaign Monitor - www.CampaignMonitor.com
2. Databack Systems - www.Databack.com
Martha Retallick
Western Sky Communications
-------- new post - new topic --------
From: R. Neilson
Subject: Success stories
> ... I'm amazed at how few recent posts deal with
> web site successes... Please let's hear these
> stories about how you grew your online biz.
- Richard Ackerberg, LED 2188
Well my business hasn't grown as much as Richard Ackerberg it has
grown online. My online sales orders have increased slowly but I
have found it has been an outlet for customers to view my product
and either vist my brick and morter store or call in orders for
merchandise. So as an advertising tool it has been very successful.
I have also found that expanding into ebay with a online store and
links from my website to my ebay store has helped my business to
grow. I am a powerseller on ebay with at least an average monthly
sales of $1000 and getting more often in to the $2-3000 a month
range. This may not seem like a lot compared to some other sites
but it is at least growing.
I find the informaiton I find here on LED is helping me to learn
more and motivate me to do more with my website. It also helps me
to expand my ideas into what I could do and where my online business
should be moving towards.
R. Neilson
H. L. Supply
-------- new post - same topic --------
From: Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian
Subject: Success stories
> Please let's hear these stories about
> how you grew your online biz.
- Richard Ackerberg, LED 2188
Well, here's the 'quick digest' version:
1996 to 2001 - Learn about EVERYTHING
2001 to 2003 - Try some stuff - and enjoy minor success
2003 to 2006 - Leverage success - and ramp it up!
And here's a long 'special report' version:
"How Long Does Success Take?"
Finally, the version for LED :)
In 1996, the Internet came to India.
I got a dial-up account immediately. My registration number was 800
- in a city with a population of a little under 4 million, where
today the total number of Internet users is around 1 MILLION.
Yes, I'm an early adopter.
Like any newbie online, I explored many things (or at least, as many
as could be explored on a x386 computer on a Shell account dial up
at a speed of 9600 bps or less!)
What started as curiosity slowly grew into a hobby, and then an
obsession - and finally is now a passion. Getting online put me
into instant contact with a wide new world, gave me access to a
whole new dimension of people, resources, networks and information.
Starting with absolutely zero knowledge about marketing,
copywriting, selling or indeed very little else outside my
professional expertise, I soaked up things like a sponge.
Curiously, eagerly, enthusiastically, I participated - and even
posted regularly - to various discussion forums and email discussion
lists. Adam (and John) will likely remember my flurry of frequent
posts to all the I-Sales family of lists, and LED too - along with
many others.
As a raw beginner learning HTML coding, I exchanged emails and ideas
with a guy who was designing Microsoft's homepage! And little did I
know at the time that folks I was engaging in debate, throwing my
'amateur' ideas at, were very highly skilled professionals with
decades of experience in their chosen fields.
It was an amazing, un-duplicatable, otherwise inaccessible learning
opportunity - one even the best college and university teaching
programs couldn't hope to replicate! And if I had to sleep late,
wake up early, and 'sacrifice' some other things, so what?!
Some of my strongest online relationships today stem from those
halcyon days. And over the years, they have only grown stronger,
bigger and mutually profitable.
This journey has now lasted NINE years.
Those years were not easy. Internet dial up access was very bad.
If it rained, my connection would die. I could not get a merchant
account or process credit cards online, had problems paying for
stuff in foreign currency, could not attend training programs - or
even talk to anyone about things I was eager to learn!
For 2 years when I began, working on the first website I designed,
my cousin in Japan would print out a screen-shot and FAX it to me so
I could view the page - because my computer could not support a
graphics-capable browser (it had too little memory!)
But I survived. Thrived. Made my way through it all.
And now that it's past, water under the bridge, one feeling stands
out at the end...
It Was All Worthwhile
Even fun. Satisfying. Energizing.
After all, unless there was some positive driving force, it would
have been hard to sustain the level of energy, focus, determination
and consistent action needed to conquer those mountains.
So what were those drivers? That's what set me thinking this
morning as I read Richard's post. And I came up with a very short
list of just THREE things...
Purpose
Passion
Persistence
As a result of sticking with these '3 Ps', my Internet marketing
work has led me to hobnob with American millionaires (and shake
hands with some famous people like my mentor, Jay Abraham), have
dinner at the Palace of Westminster with a British MP, and gain
worldwide recognition as a specialist in my chosen fields of passion.
The purpose - the glue that holds it all together - is my non-profit
foundation that sponsors heart surgery for kids from families not
able to afford it.
And while the other income / earnings claims from my online business
might probably interest some readers more (yes, they are in the low
6-figures annually), what is more satisfying and fulfilling to me
personally is the fact that donations to the Dr.Mani Children Heart
Foundation have so far funded THIRTEEN operations - and will help
many more kids in the years to come.
This probably is not the exact answer Richard hoped for when he
posed his question - but I've done so much re-structuring, changing
direction, focusing on different things over the last decade that I
felt like sharing the common underlying theme that held it all
together, and kept me going even when the going wasn't good :)
Looking forward to many more 'Success Stories' from LED'ers.
All success
Dr. Mani
The Children Heart Foundation report
==== BILLBOARD ===================================
From: Marios Alexandrou
Subject: Domain and PageRank
> Does google think it is important to be a properly
> formulated web domain (www.xxx.com) as opposed
> to a "lazy" one (xxx.com)?
- John Smart, LED 2188
The issue you've brought up is related to what Google calls
canonicalization. A web site can be referenced with and without the
www, but Google doesn't necessarily know that both are the same.
Google will attempt to figure it out, but they may not get it right.
To help them along, it's a good idea to pick the variation you like
and then set up a 301 redirect from all others to the one you like.
Google doesn't care which variation you go with and there is no
notion of a "proper" URL from what I've read. It's just important to
pick one and stick with it.
In your case, I'd go with whichever one you've used the most in the
past. That's probably the one with the higher pagerank. And, of
course, when you're creating internal and external links, make sure
to reference the same variation.
There's a great page from Steven Hargrove that describes how to do
301 redirects on various platforms:
Marios Alexandrou
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