“We want them to be more cohesive and have a spirit of camaraderie.”

“Foster closer ties and have teamwork.”

“We have gone to __________ (insert your previous venue) before, can we go somewhere else different this time?”

I know that there are reasons behind those statements but what is it that they are really tackling? Whenever I talk to my clients, I try to help them gain clarity in their purpose to make it a fun and yet meaningful experience for them.

Most teambuilding programs have severe limitations and here are the things that it cannot do:

1.    Solve deep rooted resentment among specific individuals. If certain colleagues are already angry with each other, teambuilding programs might not be the best answer. It is better to trash it out openly between them then send them to a teambuilding program.

2.    Streamline processes in work, thus making things more efficient. You need a process consultant, not a teambuilding expert.

3.    Change corporate culture. Culture is already embedded into the company and it does not change overnight.

So, after knowing what teambuilding cannot do, the question is then “what can it do?”

1.    Inspire change in mindsets. My experience is that we can shift or break certain old patterns of thinking by introducing new ones through activities. Using activities are great because most people have better retention rates if they experience the lessons rather than just hear them through a lecture.

2.    Get people to start opening up and sharing with each other.

3.    Create a sense of belonging to the company. When people play together with each other and not against each other, there is a sense of unity.

4.    Give important principles about team concepts and winning with people. Principles are easily remembered and will not change with time.

5.    Help participants know that the company cares for them. Companies provide what I call “meaningful fun” rather than just play games and not learn anything serious.

So, before you start to choose a company for teambuilding, consider your objectives first and then get a company with a great track record. They must be consistent in providing an experience where your colleagues can feel inspired to make a change in their lives.

Here’s an interesting video on how everything goes wrong in a teambuilding exercise by American Airlines. Enjoy!

Read the truth behind such talks and what value it can bring.

You can read download the article here.

Now don’t get me wrong, I would not go here into deeply analyses of niche marketing and mini sites strategies. The subject is too big to discuss it in one single article. Rather than this, I will try to outline couple of things which been overlooked and might influence in a good way your mini Net empire profits.

First time first, you have to understand WHY a niche market can be so profitable. Well, the answer is simple: just because people need to find quick answers to their SPECIQUE problems. And the fastest way today to reach information are the search engines. That’s why niche markets, mini sites and the search engines cannot be considered separately.

A niche market offer the right kind of information to a crowded mass of searchers. It’s TOTALLY focused around one subject, and ONLY ONE. This way searchers are coming “right to the point” and become highly targeted visitors to your web site. These overlooked niches represented huge business opportunities that could quickly change your life and put you on a path to Internet success.

So I’m not kidding when I’m saying that 90% from your mini site success reside in founding a very profitable niche market! A wrong niche market (or the topic of your web site) can mean a wasting of time (and money) on trying to (pre) sell something no one wants, or is even looking for.

The equation is simple:

good niche market + a nice mini site + top position on search engines = solid monthly profits!

But from where profits come? There are two ways: either you promote on the mini sites your own products or services, either you build them up around an affiliate program or a joint venture association. A short look around the Net life will tell us that we have a winner on the second one — by far this is the most used method today.

When it comes to mini sites, most folks think at a web site with 1-4 pages. This is totally wrong. It can works for some niche markets for a period, but on a long run I’m certain will not. That’s because of the search engines and their continue improvements. And what would be a mini site without getting free traffic from them?

Let me explain!

It’s all about your web site structure and your ability to build search engine friendly web pages. And you have to understand that your niche market will not live forever. Through the time, more and more people will come and build web sites around your niche market. Don’t make the mistake of considering yourself the only smart guy on the Internet.

To assure always top 10 positions on your niche market, you have to build a proper web site, with a very flexible structure and compelling information.

By “flexible structure” I mean an internal web site dispossess so you can easily allow search engines to find your new web pages. Ideally would be to start with 5-12 pages and a maximum of 2-levels deep. This will allow spiders to index your site quickly and to score ALL your internal pages!

Even more, if you use an affiliate program on your mini site, consider that your merchant company will always try to build new products. Better will be to do businesses with a company which frequently create/improve new products related to your niche market. More products is equal to more separate web pages.

With multiple pages on your site, you’ll concentrate each page on a different keyphrase, thus increasing the number of ways people could find your site!

Better yet, if you find more affiliate products for the same niche, consider to build multiple mini sites and link them together. Build a mini net empire around a niche market and watch how your profits will soar from the thin air.

Nothing beets your competitors more rather then your own mini site niche empire!

The great thing with mini sites: their running totally on autopilot. Even if you do nothing, it will continue to generate sales month after month using the search engines. Well, at least as you score well on the top 10 of major players. But could it be another way to generate profits faster using mini sites, since a good listing for a new web site can take up to 8 weeks?

Yes, by using the pay-per-click search engines, which by far are the most targeted ways of bringing prospects to your web site. In this case, just forget about search engine optimization and try to focus on compelling ways to pre-sell your merchant product(’s). But PPC is a number game and if you use them from the start, you are half blind.

So if you want to play the niche marketing and mini site game, I would suggest first to start generating traffic from common free search engines. Once you’ll know exactly how much a visitors will “worth” to your new mini site, you can go on PPC promotions or other profitable Internet marketing strategies. But never BEFORE!

Final Thoughts:

Mini sites build around a niche market has been and will be a successful financially from a poor numbers of visitors. It depend only on YOU to convert a higher percentage of them into buyers. And of course to get as many as you can of their personnel informational and to follow-up them later down the road (I bet you miss that!!)

Phil Wiley, the author of “Mini Site Profits” book, considered by many Netpreneurs (including me) to be the definitive work on mini sites, and a must-buy for anyone who wants to know more about the subject, explain into a recent interview:x

“A mini site doesn’t have to be made to sell a product, but the kind I build are designed to make sales… to make a profit! I think mini sites will survive as long as search engines survive in their current form.

If they all end up becoming pay per clicks you might not want the hassles of handling 20 to 100 sites, but that’s not to say they’d stop working. Even if you had to pay for all the traffic, that wouldn’t really matter too much once you know that the site makes so many dollars for so much spent you can just leave it running on autopilot.”

Further, when potential customers do internet searches for broad terms like these, they’re usually in the very beginning stages of their buying cycles. People usually do lots of research on products before they buy, narrowing down their search words each time to be more and more specific, until they find exactly what they want. You want to catch people at the end of the buying cycle, once they know what they want and are ready to purchase it.

The more specific you can get with your market focus, the better chance you’ll have of attracting buyers. So, instead of focusing on “wedding dresses,” focus on a very narrow market, like “maternity wedding dresses” or “spring wedding dresses.” It will be easier for your marketing efforts to stand out when you use niches like these, and your chances of making a sale will be much higher.

It’s also best if you can find niche markets that have a lot of hungry buyers. In fact, the more desperate the buyers, the better your chances will be of selling to them.  Finding hot niche markets with ready buyers isn’t difficult. All it takes is some basic research. Scan the headlines of magazines and see what themes develop among the article titles.

Chances are, these are the topics people are interested in. Then, search the Internet for information about these topics, using narrow search terms. If you get lots of results returned to you, including paid ads, then you’ve found a hot niche.

Donald Trump, America’s biggest real estate tycoon shares in his book: Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life:

Do not view any failure as the end. Learn from your lessons quickly, then move on. Do not dwell on the failure. Start thinking big again. Fill your mind with thoughts that make you feel good, plans for the future, past successes, good things your friends said about you, anything that puts a positive spin on your inner dialogue.

Learn the art of forgetting. Move on and do not give a thought to the bad things that have happened to you. Do not be an idealist, wishing things were different, wishing bad things had never happened, and wishing you lived in a fairy tale world where everything turns out right. Do not wait for everything to be perfect before you start taking action again. Be a realist. It will never be perfect. Just resolve to do better, then move on, forgetting the past. View every failure as a step on the way to ultimate success. Remember, persistence plus learning from mistakes equals success.

Source -> www.deepimpactonline.com

Are coupon affiliates feeling the effects of the credit crunch as consumers close their pocketbooks prior to Christmas and ‘hoard’ their cash for perceived essentials?

These and other questions are inundating industry newsletters, blogs and discussion forums.

Uncertainty around the elections also does not help to allay fears and most retailers are expecting a slower start to the Christmas season.

This does not necessarily mean that online retail is in for a poor year, in fact I contend that this year consumers will be more price conscious than ever and may turn to the web to fond the best gifts at the best prices.

My prediction and recommendations to our clients:

• Discount your high value items
• Issue credit crunch coupons
• Focus on customer acquisitions even if it’s a very low price item
• Compete on service and delivery
• Offer free items and additional value on first purchase
• Band together with non-competitive retailers and bundle products - share the cost and the
  customer.
• Implement “bill-me-later” or a payment plan for high value items. (yes I know credit is what got you here in the first place, but discerning buyers may still want a repayment plan at low or no interest)

Communicate with your affiliates! They’re in the same boat - if your products don’t sell we’re all going to have a meager Christmas!

I may be contrary in my opinions, but I believe that online marketing is going to be the stellar performer in the short to medium term, as more companies and consumers turn to the web to find better deals, more competitive offers, more relevant service providers and yes, better prices.

The recovery may not happen overnight, or even next week - but it will happen. It’s human nature after all to want to celebrate, even in, or should I say, especially in bad times.
Our challenge is to ensure that we position the relevant offers to the right consumers and ensure that they’re comfortable in spending that which they have budgeted with us, rather than a competitor.
So, fellow affiliates and merchants, are you ready for the challenge? ]]> http://www.vipinverma.com/affiliate-marketing/economic-crisis-what-does-the-future-hold/feed/ http://www.vipinverma.com/productivity-and-self-management/get-back-20-of-your-time-lost-at-work/ http://www.vipinverma.com/productivity-and-self-management/get-back-20-of-your-time-lost-at-work/#comments Sun, 07 Dec 2008 16:56:48 +0000 Vipin http://www.vipinverma.com/?p=106 Believe me, I have been there. I used to think that being busy was extremely important, not till I found out that I was doing a lot of things, but nothing productive was done. In this world of multi-tasking, I asked myself is there something I could do to make myself more effective and yet have more time for myself?

The answer was a resounding YES! It is so simple and you could do it too. Now is the time to do less and yet be more effective. Follow these lessons and you will immediately gain back your lost time!

1. Dispel the Myth of Time Management

There is NO such thing as time management, only self management. We cannot technically manage time, but we can manage ourselves in the way we do things. We have to decide the difference between being productive and being busy. There is no other way.

2. Check your emails only twice a day

Emails are considered to be the most disruptive thing to work in our everyday work. We tend to have this compulsive urge to check out emails almost 20 times a day. When there are no emails, we tend to create them. Some of us even fall into the habit of replying emails thru and fro when it all takes is a phone call to quickly resolve an issue. If there are more than 2 emails replies going out from you, try talking over the phone instead.

My suggestion is to check emails twice a day at 10am and 4pm. This gives you the early morning to plan what you need to do for the whole day. By only checking twice a day, you also tend to clear emails faster than usual. Doing things in bulk give you momentum and you tend to be more selective in the way you read emails.

3. Avoid taking phone calls as much as possible

Taking phone calls can literally break your momentum when you do things. Have you ever got into the momentum of doing sometime and when the call comes, it just suddenly breaks your concentration? Even during meetings and discussions, phone calls can often disrupt the flow of thoughts and exchanges between colleagues.

4. Reduce Meeting Time And Set Clear Objectives For It

Long meetings with no clear objectives are often another potential time waster. It is always essential to have a clear agenda with a specific outcome you want to achieve. Eg, decide on our marketing direction by the end of this meeting or set out a timeline of programs for 2009. If you are clear on the objectives, you tend to stay focused on the topic and avoid wandering off to other issues. It is also wise to set an end time to the meeting. Instead of the usual 1 hr blocks for meeting, decide that its going to be no long than 45 minutes. Then slowly reduce future meetings to just 30min blocks. Reducing meeting durations also trains people to get straight to the point and not wander from topic to topic.

5. Kaizen Approach To The Way You Do Things

How many times do we fall into this trap of busyness and we do not spend enough time to plan and evaluate how to improve things? The Japanese have this “Kaizen” principle, which means Continuous Improvement. This slow, incremental improvement is always observed at all levels of work. If we are too busy, how can we set aside time to evaluate and improve our work processes? In my previous experience working with a manufacturing company, I’ve learnt that if you could improve an operation by just 2 seconds, you literally save thousands of dollars in man hours and machinery cost.

6. Do Not Multi-Task

I know this statement will offend probably many people; however I stand by this rule. Multi-tasking actually makes us feel very rushed and we tend to shorten our attention span on things. This makes us feel rather frustrated and unsettled. Intense multitasking can induce a stress response, an adrenaline rush that when prolonged, can damage cells that form new memory, according to a research study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology by Dr. David Meyer. He mentions that multitasking actually makes a person inefficient. There is time lost between switching among tasks increases with the complexity of the tasks.

The best way approach to doing things is just doing things one thing at a time.

Source -> www.deepimpactonline.com

The translation of the revenue share principles to mainstream e-commerce happened almost four years after the origination of the World Wide Web in November 1994.

Cybererotica was amongst the early innovators in affiliate marketing with a cost per click program. During November 1994, CDNOW launched its BuyWeb program. With this program CDNOW was the first non-adult website to introduce the concept of an affiliate or associate program with its idea of click-through purchasing.

Benefits of affiliate marketing include the potential for automating much of the advertising process (accepting & approving applications, generating unique sales links, tracking & reporting of results) and payment only for desired results (sales, registrations, clicks).

Paying only for performance shifts much of the advertising risk from the merchants to the affiliates, although merchants still assume some risk of fraud from partner sites.

Affiliate marketing has contributed to the rise of many leading online companies. Amazon.com, one of the first significant adopters, now has hundreds of thousands of affiliate relationships.

There are two ways to approach affiliate marketing. You can offer an affiliate program to others or you can sign up to be another business’s affiliate. As the business driving an affiliate program, you’ll pay your affiliates a commission fee for every lead or sale they drive to your website.

And what about joining another company’s affiliate program? It’s all about extra revenue. Think about your customers’ needs: What other products or services would interest your site visitors? Join those affiliate programs. Affiliate programs can increase your sales with no upfront cost to you. It just takes a little time to plan your strategy and select the partners that will have the greatest impact on your business.

I’ve Learned

I’ve learned that you cannot make someone love you.
All you can do is be someone who can be loved.
The rest is up to them.
I’ve learned that no matter how much I care,
some people just don’t care back.
And it’s not the end of the world.
I’ve learned that it takes years to build up trust,
and only seconds to destroy it.
I’ve learned that it’s not what you have in your life,
but who you have in your life that counts.
I’ve learned that you can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes.
After that, you’d better know something.

I’ve learned that you shouldn’t compare yourself
to the best others can do,
but to the best you can do.
I’ve learned that it’s not what happens to people,
It’s what they do about it.
I’ve learned that no matter how thin you slice it,
there are always two sides.
I’ve learned that you should always leave loved ones with loving words.
It may be the last time you see them.
I’ve learned that you can keep going
long after you think you can’t.

I’ve learned that heroes are the people who do what has to be done
When it needs to be done
regardless of the consequences.
I’ve learned that there are people who love you dearly,
but just don’t know how to show it.
I’ve learned that sometimes when I’m angry I have the right to be angry,
but that doesn’t five me the right to be cruel.
I’ve learned that true friendship continues to grow even over the longest distance.
Same goes for true love.
I’ve learned that just because someone doesn’t love you the way you want them to
doesn’t mean they don’t love you with all they have.

I’ve learned that no matter how good a friend is,
they’re going to hurt you every once in a while
and you must forgive them for that.
I’ve learned that it isn’t always enough to be forgiven by others.
Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
I’ve learned that no matter how bad your heart is broken,
the world doesn’t stop for your grief.
I’ve learned that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are,
but we are responsible for who we become.
I’ve learned that just because two people argue, it doesn’t mean that they don’t love each other.
And just because they don’t argue, it doesn’t mean they do.

I’ve learned that sometimes you have to put the individual
ahead of their actions.
I’ve learned that two people can look at the exact same thing
and see something totally different.
I’ve learned that no matter the consequences,
those who are honest with themselves get farther in life.
I’ve learned that your life can be changed in a matter of hours
by people who don’t even know you.
I’ve learned that even when you think you have no more to give,
when a friend cries out to you,
you will find the strength to help.

I’ve learned that writing,
as well as talking,
can ease emotional pains.
I’ve learned that the people you care most about in life
are taken from you too soon.
I’ve learned that it’s hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice
and not hurting people’s feelings and standing up for what you believe.
I’ve learned to love
and be loved.
I’ve learned…

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