Welcome! Start Here...

[angienewton]

Welcome Larry, glad to have you here.

Not sure what you mean about saying anything that would be considered inappropriate but just as long as you don't promote something on the forum you're good to go *wink* Feel free to start new threads to ask any questions you have about business and help others as well.

My first suggestion would be to use Wordpress instead of the Yahoo sitebuilder. You can find a lot of great info on Lynn's Internet marketing blog.

Hilton Head sounds like a nice place!

[JimD]

Hi Lynn, I just joined. I emailed you about a month ago. Asking your opinion on a web site I had built. You ansered back and said to join and post my site and you would give me feed back. I have no sales and it is set up with share a sale. Let me know where to post the site. I apoligize I am very new and not sure what to do.

Thanks,

Jim

[Phil Tanny]

Hi HiltonHeadLarry, welcome the forum, enjoyed your opening post.

Right now I'm involved in promoting a new Hilton Head Island real estate business. In addition to building their website using Yahoo Sitebuilder (see I really am new to this), I am trying to learn how to best promote their website and business (through Internet Marketing).

Ok, here's some general food for thought, just something to ponder.

As you said, you're new and have much to learn. It's real real easy to get swamped with all the things one can learn about this business, get distracted, lose focus etc.

Thus, you might consider asking yourself what role you want to specialize in. Are you the writer? The marketer? The closer? The technician?

This market is dominated by what I call the "lone wolf" webmaster paradigm. That is, lots of people trying to do everything, all by themselves. Another name for this is "jack of all trades, master of none".

Imagine you were just getting in to real estate, and you were trying to learn carpentry, plumbing, architecture, community planning, land development, home sales, wallpaper installation etc etc. It'd be nuts, right?

If your situation will allow you to pick one job, focus on that, and out source the other jobs to other people, you can sweep huge piles of things that need learning off the table in one fell swoop, right from the start.

As just one example, the site building job could be handed over to a minimum wage college student, who already knows all about web tech stuff. With your experience, I'm guessing your time is worth much more than minimum wage, so it kinda doesn't make sense for you to be learning that job.

The most important job could be building the audience to your client's site. Unless you have considerable traffic, nothing else much matters.

If you can liberate yourself from everything else, you could possibly focus on that key task full time, and really make some progress.

Pretend you are starting a print magazine, and you're the publisher. As the publisher, your job isn't to do everything, but to find quality people to do everything, so you are free to think big, and chart the course ahead.

Thinking about your enterprise like this from the start could possibly be the best thing to learn right now.

Again, just food for thought, not a prescription for everybody on the net.

Looking forward to learning more about you and your project.

I don't want anything I say to be considered inappropriate.

Oh darn! Maybe we need to pass some beers around the forum? Lynn, what's on tap??

[Phil Tanny]

Hi again Larry,

Ok, I must type carefully here.

First, let me state unequivocally the obvious fact that you know your situation better than anyone else.

Second, everything I'm about to say is about webmastering in general, not about you specifically. I'm just using your comments as an example, as they are very typical of very many other webmasters.

Ok?

Problem with me is that I always try to do too much ... and that's because I get a kick out of learning new stuff.

Your description of yourself fits me perfectly as well, and I'd guess many other webmasters.

In my case, I'm a third generation publishing technology nerd, and so I have an undeniable unstoppable compulsive genetic level addictive interest in web technology.

It's great to know who we are, and to be able to be who we are, and there's wisdom in that.

But, here's the price tag. Technology is not the smart place to be in this business, marketing is.

An unquenchable curiosity is a good thing in principle, but in practice, in an info saturated environment like the net, compulsive curiosity can be a major big time distraction from the focus needed to achieve business goals.

I say this not as an accusation, but as a confession, and a warning. If you're here to do business, be careful about what you invest your time and energy in. If you're here to have fun, that's another matter altogether, and the only rule is fun, fun, fun.

And you're right, what I should spending most of my time (for her) is to drive prospects to her website.

Well, prospects are who have the money, and the more of them the better of course.

(I did build her business website at www.your5starrealty.com - and had too much fun doing it), and now I'm thinking about revamping it and making it look better.

Ok, again I wish to emphasize it's not my role to tell you what to do. Instead, I'm trying to spring off from your quote to make a general statement about the whole field.

A key skill each of us can develop is clarity.

What is our real goal? Building a business, or being a creative artist? I'm not suggesting one is right or the other wrong, I'm suggesting not being clear within ourselves about our priorities is a mistake.

Building a business and being a creative artist are in conflict, in that there are only so many hours in the day. The exception of course would be if we wish to go in to business as creative artists.

Here's an image that may be helpful to some. As we begin any project, think of an imaginary time clock that starts ticking down.

In the beginning, we have lots of enthusiasm, but this is a perishable asset. Sooner or later the enthusiasm will decline in a natural normal manner. At the moment in time when that happens, our site will be making money, or it won't. If our site isn't making money when that moment comes, it can be very very easy to give up.

This is the most common webmaster experience there is. Folks jump in to a project with enthusiasm, squander that enthusiasm on things that don't matter, not reach their goals in time, and then give up.

I've done it a hundred times myself. Thus, this subject interests me a good bit, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's relevant or useful to you, or any other individual reader.

Let's just call it a challenge to be aware of, if we're not already.

[Lynn Terry]

Welcome Larry & Jim

Jim - you'll want to start a new thread here on the forum and we can take it from there. Just go back to the Main Internet Marketing Forum and click the button to post a new thread.

Larry - I can move your conversation to a new thread for you to keep it all in one place so you can continue the discussion. If you agree, what would you like me to title your new thread?

Great to have you guys on board! And hey - what's on tap is whatever you have on hand *cheers*

[Phil Tanny]

And hey - what's on tap is whatever you have on hand *cheers*

WHAT??

This forum doesn't come with an open bar?

I knew it was all a scam, I knew it!

[Lynn Terry]

Yup, you figured me out - consider me busted LOL

[Infinity]

Welcome to the forum, Ruth!

All the best to you, and hope that you learn a lot here.

Cheers,
Allen

[Lynn Terry]

Welcome Glad you joined us!

[angienewton]

Welcome Ruth. Glad to have you here.