E-Biz Booster Blog

Better Let Your Prospects Know About You

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 17:39:00 -0700

That’s me,
John W. Furst.

I just have read a not so bad blog post. However, when I checked out the about page I got turned off.

“This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress.”

Come on. You can do better than that.
And you should.

Anybody who is getting serious about putting your blog in their RSS reader or subscribe to your e-mail list will want to know more about you.

The about page is a great place to let your readers know who you are, what you can do for them, and why they should listen to you.

But first things first.

Some Ideas For An Entrepreneurial About Page

You have a name, haven’t you. Use it. Introduce yourself with a short bio. … or introduce each team member who writes in the blog on a regular basis.
Of course we want to see your photo(s). A nice photograph makes it more personal. You do not want to miss this step.
What problems can you help the readers with?
Why are you qualified to help them?
Tell them how they can stay in touch with you. An optin form on the about page i snot such a bad idea. However, remember the good rule of thumb: “One page, one action.” Don’t offer too much.
By the way: Have you ever thought of putting a personal video message (↑) on your about page? I guess, it’s time to do that.

Now go to work.
You don’t have to get it perfect.
5 % better than your competitors will do.

Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: I just realize I should update the about page of my own as, well.

P.P.S.: In the context of legal issues with online publishing, you MUST NOT have an anonymous blog anyway. Pen names are fine, but readers, customers, and the government must be able to contact you based on the information on your website without having to go through hoops. (I’m not a lawyer. This is not legal advice!)

P.P.P.S.: Do you have anything to add? Any comments? I am sure you have. Let me know.

Copyright ©2010 by John W. Furst. Some Rights Reserved. Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0. - If you find this content on a site that is violating our copyright, please, report its URL to us. Thanks for fighting copy scrapers.

What Fuel For Your Business Growth?

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:05:18 -0700

When you get stuck, you have two options.

Do something.
Do nothing.

Check out this video.

It made me laugh out. Before you call them idiots, think about… metaphorically most people are a bit like this when it comes to life.

click here to watch it(You might need to enable Javascript in your browser.)

Rich Schefren outlines the right fuel and a strategy that gets you back on track with your business growth.

What Single Trait Separates…
The Winners From The Losers?

THINKING!

Winners Spend Time Thinking

Are You Spending…
More Time Learning Than Thinking?

WHY?

Get To Work!

Check out Rich's post if you want to learn more:
Business Growth… Fueled By The Power Of Thought! (↑)

Yours
John W. Furst

Online Events in the USA 1 Hour Earlier

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 23:59:00 -0700

Daylight savings time has started in the USA (↑) today.

In Europe it will begin in two weeks, and it will end in Australia in three weeks.

Especially if you are in Europe you could easily miss online events in the USA during the next two weeks.

Be aware of those time changes when planning or attending online events.

Here is why.

For example, when it is 1pm in New York it is usually 6pm in London. Between March 14 and March 27, 2010, however, it will be 5pm in London, only 4 hours later.

Then on March 28 daylight savings time will rule on both continents and time difference will be the usual 5 hours till the clocks will be reset in fall of 2010, again.

Life could be easier if daylight savings time were changed on the same weekends all over the world, but that's not the case.

To make things worse, Hawaii (and many other regions in the world) don't observe daylight savings time at all. On top of that Australia and New Zealand are on the southern hemisphere. While we start daylight savings time in the North, Australia will end it on April 4, 2010.

Tip: TimeAndDate.com (↑) offers detailed information and tools. Like a timezone converter, etc., …

Personally I am adding timezone information to event details. Don't leave room for assumptions. Don't assume your readers are educated about timezones, it's your job to communicate in a way they understand easily.

Here is an example for unambiguous event information.

Webinar starts on Friday, March 12, 2010 at 3:30 p.m. EST (UTC-05) as in New York, USA

or

Teleclass starts on Wednesday, March 17, 2010 at 3:30 p.m. EDT (UTC-04) as in New York, USA.

Note: EST is Eastern Standard Time and EDT is Eastern Daylight Savings Time.

Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: Especially US marketers seem to be unaware of — or lazy about — timezone issues that go beyond Eastern versus Pacific time. Check out my previous post on this subject: Email Marketing And Troubles With Timezones.

One More Reason Your Prospects Don't Buy

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 16:05:00 -0700

Derek Sivers (↑) is best known as the founder of CD Baby (↑).

Do you remember the reasons why people do not buy from you?

Here are the main three reasons:

• They don’t want what you sell.
• They don’t have the money.
• They don’t trust you.

Let’s focus on the first reason for a minute or two.

They don’t want what you sell.

In many instances this can easily be translated into “They don’t understand what you sell.”

Direct response copywriters and advertising experts taught us the importance of “getting into the head of our customer”.

A piece of marketing which generates a lot of response is not a monologue, it’s a dialog between the copywriter and the reader—the prospect. A writer needs to join that conversation in the head of the reader. Therefore, the writer needs to understand the market and the prospects she is writing for very well.

Derek Sivers gave a short 6 minute talk at a
TED (↑) conference in India, in November last year. He reminds us of the many reasons why the person listening or reading might not understand what you are trying to communicate. His multicultural example makes it quite clear.

Derek Sivers: Weird, or just different?

Derek Sivers at TED Different Perspectives? (Pop Out)

That’s just the icing on the cake. Culture is not the only potential barrier that interferes with the meaning of your message and its perception.

“Despite the Internet being a global medium, your audience usually wears a very local head.”
~ John W. Furst

Enjoy the video and start becoming more aware of dangerous pitfalls in your communication and marketing.

Yours
John W. Furst

What Drives Us? Bob Poole Asked Daniel Pink

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 20:37:59 -0700

Bob Poole (↑) lives his life following a path with heart. He writes about Sales, Marketing, Creativity and Leadership.

I just noticed my blogging colleague Bob Poole put the audio recording (mp3) of his interview with best-selling author Daniel Pink online.

“Interview With Dan Pink (↑).”

Bob has a sales background and, therefore, they also touch on the subject of motivating sales people quite a bit.

Check it out. The interview is about 16 minutes long. A transcript (↑) is already available on Bob's blog.

Enjoy.

By the way: I already put Dan's book on my Amazon wishlist.

“Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (↑).”

Learning about human psychology and applying this knowledge has been always helpful in sales and marketing. Remember the old saying?

“People buy what they WANT not what they NEED.”

Yours
John W. Furst

Email Marketing or Social Media in 2010?

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:18:54 -0700

Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian (↑),
Heart surgeon and social entrepreneur

I joined the discussion on Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian’s blog quite late, but since I gave it some thought, I decided to share my response with you.

In mid November last year Dr. Mani published a list with his predictions about what will be IN and what will be OUT in 2010 (↑).

The first item on his list

1.) Email Is OUT, Social Media Is IN

I am buying the second part of his statement immediately, but “Email OUT”?

I had to think about it a couple of seconds longer than usual, ’cause a couple of respectable experts like Chris Brogan (↑), Warren Whitlock (↑), and Willie Crawford (↑) already had left comments on Dr. Mani’s blog post.

Here is the re-print of my reply:

I don’t think email is OUT in 2010.

I rather would say, we have to use and nurture email marketing differently than in the past.

A strong email list is still an asset, like your website. I hope you have purchased your own domain.

Who owns—and most importantly who has jurisdiction so to speak over—your social media profile?

The inherent benefit of email is it’s independence from any given email marketing service provider on the sender side. Maybe the Google Wave protocol will push email type communication into this century and at a same time allow a merger with social media. I am looking forward to it. Maybe in 2011, 2012.

What’s the deal with email marketing in 2010?

You would be crazy to stop building an email list. But on the same token you would be insane not building your social media presence.

In case you are sitting on the fence and don’t know whether you should put the subject email marketing into the IN or the OUT bucket. Think about why businesses are complaining. You hear two main reasons:

Low open and response rates resulting in less sales.
Deliverability problems.

Now ask yourself or your team a couple of questions and revisit the response rate issue. For sure you will find a couple of areas where you can improve.

Is my aging email list outgrowing my content, my offers?
Do my offers mature in-sync with my subscribers?
Am I (trying to) milk my members or am I graduating them?
Does my offer evolve over time and stay fresh and state-of-the-art that it appeals to new subscribers as well.
And now probably the most important question: Am I sending brochures, pitches, or am I building a relationship with that person who reads my email message. (Hint: Even outside of internet marketing consumers already can smell automated follow-up messages.)

One kind of email marketing campaigns did especially well in 2009. It’s called customer reactivation. But that is just one tactic that worked.

Maybe your email marketing activities need that sort of a botox treatment. (LoL)

Lots to think about.

Don’t dump your e-mail opt-in box, yet.

Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: [Admittedly I have procrastinated (check out the edutaining video) with this blog post for some time.]

Procrastination is a Marketers Worst Enemy [Video]

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 22:48:39 -0700

I thought you will like this little video. Before I have looked into that I wanted to write a post about email marketing instead, but I procrastinated.

Did it every happen to you? I am sure it did. If you are not quite convinced yet, watch the video, and I promise you will recognize certain patterns in your behavior as well.

The video explains in an entertaining way what procrastination is.

Procrastination (↑) from Johnny Kelly (↑) on Vimeo (↑).

If you think about it, watching this video might be procrastination.

What do you think?

Leave a comment and let me know.

Enjoy

Yours
John W. Furst

FREE Adwords Tele-Seminar With Perry Marshall Today

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:08:00 -0700

Perry Marshall - #1 Google Adwords Expert

I’ll keep this very short because time is running out. You have seen me writing about Perry Marshall before.

Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 3pm EST / 2pm CST / 12pm PST / 20:00 GMT
The teleseminar is over. However, you still can sign-up and check-out Perry's special offer. It reads as, “Don't miss the $200 quick action discount (click here)”

Perry is the #1 Google AdWords expert in the World.

Most people are stuck in a Google Ad-Writing RUT.

Most markets have B-O-R-I-N-G, predictable ads. (And that’s the unseen opportunity)

Most people are frozen at 2.4% CTR. You know that a 5.5% or 9.5% CTR would push you straight to the top but you don’t know how to pull it off.

Turns out you don’t need “creativity”
… you just need a step by step simple method.

Free Teleseminar: Bionic Google Ads, Facebook PPC & the Content Network Gold Rush (↑)

Perry Marshall has developed a NEW method for generating Bionic Google ads with hi-power CTR’s. He calls it “The Swiss Army Knife.” It’s systematic, it’s scientific, and it’s endlessly creative.

Bionic Google ads are like tractor beams that drag peoples’ eyeballs away from the center of the page to YOUR ad. It pushes you up in the rankings so you get more traffic and cut your bids. You get new visitors who’d have never clicked before.

You get blade #1 of the Swiss Army Knife during this free teleclinic on Thursday:

Free Teleseminar: Bionic Google Ads, Facebook PPC & the Content Network Gold Rush (↑)

BTW - Go look at the digital download you get after you register… when you see it you know this one’s going to be GOOD.

Oh... and this call is NOT being replayed. So make sure you mark it on your calendar.

Sounds good (very good) to me. I will be on the call for sure.

In case you wonder why Perry gives this information away for free. It’s part of a promotion he is doing. However, I know from my own experience that Perry always lives up to his listeners expectation. You’ll get solid content in this call.

And even if the Maui CD’s are out of reach for you right now, Perry has a whole library of training products that get you up to speed with your marketing fast … from exactly where you are at right now.

Don’t miss it.

Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: The difference between “making it” and “not making it” could as well be the stupid habit of trying to figure it out on your own. Learn Google AdWords from the expert. Cut the learning curve and get the financial rewards you and your family really deserve.

101 Reasons for Personal Change (More or Less)

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 10:00:00 -0700

Old Linchpin on a Shore

Once again Seth Godin has bet the farm and seems to have won, already. (Probably not the farm, but you get the point, don’t you.)

He decided to bypass the traditional act of sending out dozens of review copies of his latest book to journalists of main stream media. The book title — you might have heard about it already — is

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Instead he sent preview copies to people who care, members of his tribe.

As a result the Internet is already flooded — in a good way — with blog posts, tweets, videos, … all sorts of real world testimonials about how much they love the book.

Is there anything else that could help sell the book better?

I do not think so.

Are You Indispensable?

What type of people are indispensable in those difficult times, in which we are very close to the edge economically and environmentally.

I have assembled variations of short excerpts and thoughts from many conversations between Seth Godin and his readers who have received a preview hard-copy of Linchpin: Are You indispensable?.

101 Reasons For Personal Change

Now I have promised to give you 101 reason why you should change. Well, what about this,

“Imagine you could be one of the persons described here. Wouldn’t that be enough reason to change?

Here is the secret, You can!”

People who bring art to work, people who reach out, make a connection, cause change to happen.

People who refuse to become an interchangeable part, someone who merely follows the manual.

People who love their job.

People who can spread ideas, build a tribe. … if you can get your ideas to spread, you get to build what you want.

People who are brave enough to do marketing.

People who make decisions.

People who are motivated.

People who can steer, innovate, provoke, lead, connect and make things happen.

People who will do art, will be brave and are willing to fail (often).

People who solve a new problem in a new way. And all of us have done that at least once in our life. Even if it goes back to our kindergarten experience.

People are not the standard resume they give you. Standard resumes are out.

People who have projects, not resumes.

People who are the great engineers of our time, programmers, materials specialists, inventors.

Everyone is leadership material! The only question is whether they’ve practiced or not.

People who lead. Leading gives one charisma, not the other way around.

People who choose to do the work necessary to become indispensable at something. They will succeed.

People who start with making the choice.

People who create what matters.

Answer by Seth Godin: I think that industries that are based on commodities and on repeated life or death deliverables are probably not the best places for artists, for people making change or doing new work.

I’d stay away from Exxon or a pacemaker factory.

John: Can you imagine a story that if you hear it you would say about, “If only that had happened because of my book, it would have been enough reason to do all this work and write this book.” What would that story be?

Seth Godin: I’ve already discovered everything I was hoping for… people are telling me that the book has given them the last push they needed to do something important, something worthy of their effort. That’s the whole point!

Thanks, Seth.

Now check out the many interviews and reviews about Linchpin (↑) which have inspired me to this post.

Really, go and check it out.

I hope you are getting something out of this blog post. In case your mind just has gotten hungry for more… Here is my review of Linchpin.

I only have received Seth’s preview summary so far. That’s one disadvantage of living on an island in the Atlantic.

Now tell me how you want to change respectively what or who you would love to change.
Leave a comment below.
And share the post, please.

Thanks and
have a nice day.

Yours
John W. Furst.

________
Additional Image Credits: mumchancegaloot on Flickr.com (↑)
Some rights reserved — CC-BY-NC-ND 2.0

Change, Progress, Excel, Lead (2 inspirational videos)

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 14:04:00 -0700

Progress Makes You Happy

It seems that striving for further improving with personal development will be a key factor for being successful in 2010. When I say I will reach out more to other people in 2010, that is a statement for personal development, isn't it.

And Seth Godin also has devoted his latest book Linchpin to be a very personal one.

Two long videos about

Taking a Stand
Change
Law of Attraction
Challenges
Success
Leadership
Passion
Engagement

I just have put a couple of tidbits and gems in my personal vault.

Pick or watch all.
Enjoy; yes, the videos are long.

Timothy Ferriss: “… I have fear this is dangerous. There is a thin line between being brave and between being foolish.”

The First Time Online — Enjoy While You Can (↑)
Trial by Fire (~45 min)

Video by Kevin Rose starring Tim Ferriss

Tony Robbins: “Progress is what makes us happy”

New Year, New Life-Don’t be trapped by the calendar. Create the life you want right now. Here’s where to start. (↑)
(~20 min)

Video is embedded in Tony's blog post and will open in a new window.

What do you think?

Feedback welcome.

What were the one or two highlights, quotes for you?
Do you want to share them? Yes, you want.
Come on.

Brevity is king!

Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: Thanks a lot for your feedback.

P.P.S.: I know it's a lot at once. Why not bookmark this page and come back in your leisure time.

P.P.P.S.: Share with your friends if you liked it, please.

Is Email Marketing OUT in 2010?

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:13:00 -0700

Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian,
Heart surgeon and social entrepreneur predicts,

“Email is OUT 2010”

I joined the discussion on Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian’s blog quite late, but since I gave it some thought, I decided to share my response with you.

In mid November last year Internet infopreneur, author and social entrepreneur Dr. Mani published a list with his predictions about what’s IN and what’s OUT in 2010 (↑).

The first item on his list:

Email Is OUT, Social Media Is IN

I am buying the second part of his statement immediately, but “Email OUT?”

I had to think about it a couple of seconds longer than usual, since a couple of respectable experts like Chris Brogan (↑), Warren Whitlock (↑), and Willie Crawford (↑) already had left comments on Dr. Mani’s blog post.

Here is what I have replied with.

I don’t think email is OUT in 2010.

I rather would say, we have to use and nurture email marketing differently than in the past.

A strong email list is still an asset, like your website. I hope you have purchased your own domain.

Who owns — and most importantly who has jurisdiction so to speak over — your social media profile?

The inherent benefit of email is it’s independence from any given email marketing service provider on the sender side. Maybe the Google Wave protocol will push email type communication into this century and at a same time allow a merger with social media. I am looking forward to it. Maybe in 2011, 2012.

You would be crazy to stop building an email list. But on the same token you would be crazy not building your social media presence.

In case you are sitting on the fence and don’t know whether you should throw the topic email marketing into the IN or the OUT bucket, let us revisit why businesses and marketers are complaining.

You hear two main reasons:

Low open and response rates resulting in less sales.
Email deliverability problems.

Now ask yourself or your team a couple of questions and reevaluate the response rate issue. For sure you will find a couple of areas where you can improve.

Is my aging email list outgrowing my content, my offers?
Do my offers mature in-sync with my subscribers?
Am I (trying to) milk my members or am I graduating them?
Does my offer evolve over time and stay fresh and state-of-the-art that it appeals to new subscribers as well.
And now probably the most important question:

Am I sending brochures, pitches,… or am I building a relationship with that person who reads my email message?

(Hint: Even outside of internet marketing consumers already can smell automated follow-up messages.)

One kind of email marketing campaigns did especially well in 2009. They are called customer reactivation campaigns.

Maybe your email marketing activities need that sort of a botox treatment. (LoL)

Another observation in 2009 was that “mailing dead trees” in the form of letters and postcards can outperform internet classics like PPC, email, or banners even in these days and age. I just mention that to counter the many experts who have proclaimed direct mail will be dead in a couple of years. That was,… well, a couple of years ago. (Another LoL)

Lots of issues to think about, aren’t they.

Don’t dump your opt-in box yet.
I hope you have any.

Any comments?
What do you think?

Yours
John W. Furst

How This Awareness Test Can Help Your Marketing

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 20:04:00 -0700

Attention, Please!

Just discovered this little test on Youtube and it made me think. It made me think about marketing, advertising, and copywriting.

Probably you should take the test first. It's easy, the instructions are in the video, and I promise you will learn something.

Take The Test

click here to watch it(You might need to enable Javascript in your browser.)

Okay, you might say, “I knew this of course.”

Then I will ask you, “Well, but are you using that knowledge to your advantage in business or not?”

This example demonstrates actually a lot…

It seems everybody know that, but so many vendors are not doing it or are doing it wrong.

What is the main point in the video?

What is it that you as marketer must do? Any clue, any ideas?

Let me know in the comments. I will reveal the solution on Monday or Tuesday. And I'll have a little surprise for the one who comes up with the best answer first. I will rather go with the better answer than the earlier one. Just to let you know.

Did I say, I will have a little surprise for you.

Here is the deal: It will be something that helps your business or helps you with your job. I have a lot of things in mind I could give you, but since I don't know you, yet…

This might be probably the weirdest contest ever.
Anyway.

Let's do it.

You don't have anything to loose.

By the way top copywriters do that all the time.

They apply proven principles and move your prospects closer to the desired action. A good copywriter knows that there are hundreds of distraction she needs to compete with. And those distractions are different from medium to medium and market to market.

Being successful with an email marketing campaign does require a bit of different writing style as a classic direct mail piece.

Do you want to be the moon walking bear or the guy whom they give their credit card number?

As I promised, this will be a short note.
Think about it.

And let me know what you think.
Comment below and participate in this weird
contest.

No, I have not spelled out the answer here, but you might find it on my blog. But c'mon, it's really easy.

Update Jan 17, 2010

Comment #3 is close enough to the answer I was looking for.

Broomy writes:

“[…] The goal is to always direct and focus the prospects attention in order to get them to take the desired action. […] ”

Well done.

The narrator in the video simply commands the viewer to perform a task. And boom, gets 100% attention.

I will send Broomy an email to find out what I can do for him. Did I say this is kind of a weird contest.

Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: And why don't you just learn more about email marketing or get started?

Change Everything and Take Off - Looking at Linchpin by Seth Godin

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 19:00:00 -0700

Enjoying Seth’s “Linchpin” summary.

Seth Godin does not exactly have the reputation of writing How To books for dummies. And his latest book Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? (↑) — to be released on January 26, 2010 (audio book on February, 9) will not be an exception.

Let me talk a little bit about this amazing book. I also had the honor that Seth answered me a couple of questions about the book. All here in this blog post. Stay tuned.

Update January 12, 2010:
Review of the whole book by Becky Blanton
…and even more reviews by my friends from .

Godin continues his successful tradition of being a reporter on one hand, visionary and agent of change on the other hand. While Seth’s previous bestselling book Tribes was a book about leadership, this one is about personal change. The author writes,

“Linchpin is the book for the individual, it’s a very personal book […] It’s about a choice and it’s about your life. This choice doesn’t require you to quit your job, though it challenges you to rethink how you do your job.”

I agree.

Seth is the master of pointing his finger at broken systems. In Linchpin he finally pleas to you to step out of this broken box. Actually he goes so far to suggest that’s almost a survival strategy to do so.

“ It’s time to stop complying with the system and draw your own map. […] The population has been seduced, scammed and brainwashed. […]”

Why do you need to read this book?

You are probably guessing how the economy will perform this year, how secure your job really is, or if your potential customers will have any money left to pay for your services, aren’t you.

The rug is pulled away under your feet, it’s time to take matters and responsibility back in your hands.

Seth Godin motivates you to become a linchpin in your organization..

In the old days a linchpin was essential to fasten and secure a wheel to the axle. In our days and age you only will be indispensable, if you have become a linchpin.

Doing your job—even if you do a great job—isn’t good enough anymore. Forget job security or the concept of a loyal customer.

The Concept of Emotional Labor

One key concept for becoming a linchpin is creating exceptional, outstanding value for your boss, share holders, customers, whoever, … by exerting emotional labor. (↑) This creative process and its output will become your differentiator.

This is the most difficult part. That’s where the value is, the source which will make you indispensable.

As the sociologist Arlie Hochschild has described forty years ago, emotional labor is done with your feelings, not with your body. It’s the part which cannot be substituted with the output of machines or cheap labor from the other side of the planet.

As I understand the author creativity and human interactions are the main ingredients for value creation. This makes it almost a form of Art. While the author speaks to our inner artist, he points out Art is not limited to visual Art, performing Art or music.

Why should creating a new business model or an efficient algorithm for software not be considered an art form?

Imagine …

Now imagine you make that decision to change everything and start living your life on your terms, how would that feel? It’s risky—a bit—but the rewards will be worth it.

You will never forget that moment when you got going your way. Seth Godin writes,

“You are a genius and we need your contribution.”

About Seth Godin

Seth Godin, is the author of Tribes, Purple Cow, Permission Marketing, and many other international bestsellers that have changed the way business people think and act. He’s the most influential business blogger (↑) in the world, and consistently one of the twenty-five most widely read bloggers in any category. He’s also the founder and CEO of Squidoo (a successful internet company) and a very popular lecturer.

Conclusion

So far I only have read a 62 page summary written by Seth Godin, sent to me by Seth Godin early this week.

His writing style is very enjoyable and resembles the beauty of elegant mathematical equations: You don’t get tired of playing with them and, yet, always find new applications and solutions.

I am certainly very curious about the rest of the book.

Seth does not want to write books for everyone—and he admits it—but once he has the reader on his hook … Game over. You’re a fan.

Maybe some notes of warning!

Don’t expect it to be easy to change. It’s not.
It might help to give copies of the book to your spouse, friends, your boss so that they better understand what you are trying to become and understand it’s also for their benefit. I learned this from Alex Mandossian. He always suggests to get at least 3 copies of any book he recommends.
Let’s do it.
Buy three and give away two (↑).

Being generous is another important trait of linchpins.

Speaking of generosity, Seth was so nice to answer two questions about the book. So we shot some emails on a trans-atlantic mission. Here we go.

Question by John Furst: While you assert the genius is in everyone, … Are there professions, industries that are especially rewarding for linchpins and others one should probably consider exiting. Or in other words, jobs in which that genius has no other potential than being wasted.

Answer by Seth Godin: I think that industries that are based on commodities and on repeated life or death deliverables are probably not the best places for artists, for people making change or doing new work.

I’d stay away from Exxon or a pacemaker factory.

Q: Can you imagine a story that if you hear it you would say about, “If only that had happened because of my book, it would have been enough reason to do all this work and write this book.” What would that story be?

A: I’ve already discovered everything I was hoping for… people are telling me that the book has given them the last push they needed to do something important, something worthy of their effort. That’s the whole point!

Thanks, Seth.

Update January 12, 2010: Review of the whole book

Becky Blanton,
A writer and photographer with passion.

One disadvantage of living on a remote island: shipping. I still only have the PDF summary, but my friend Becky Blanton (↑) wrote a really good review of the entire book. Go, check it out:

Linchpin – embrace the lizard brain (↑)

Even more reviews on my Squidoo lens. (↑)

Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: I know the book will not be released before the 26th. Why not pre-order it from Amazon (↑) and also subscribe to Seth Godin's blog (↑).

P.P.S.: Always have fun.

Email Marketing And Troubles With Timezones

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 02:45:00 -0700

I have the feeling that I will write another post very soon. Therefore, I keep this one extra short.

How many emails do you receive each day?

Let’s cut out spam and probably transactional emails like New Subscriber, New Comment, …

I’ll usually get up to 100 a day. However, there are still individual emails that I am looking forward to with great anticipation.

Last Sunday was such a day.

I got up knowing I should receive an important email. But nothing. Not at 9am, not at 10am, 11am, … It simply didn’t find its way into my inbox or the spam folder. It actually has not been sent before Monday as I learned later.

As insignificant as this episode might be, it taught me and other marketers with whom I have discussed this an important lesson.

I really felt disappointed; Actually already had made plans to deal with the subject matter. (I know. It was Sunday. So what.)

As I see now, strangely enough, it did not come to my mind to simply grab the phone, or write an email to the source saying,

“What’s up? Weren’t you supposed to send me something?”

Sure that would have been a smart thing to do. Probably I am not that smart. But I bet your customers or members of your email list aren’t that smart either. Let me rephrase that: Just do not assume that they are that smart or even care.

Here Comes The Lesson

That’s actually a dream come true for anybody who is going through the effort of building a permission based email list when your members can’t wait to get your next message.

“Where the heck is that email? Did my spam filter eat it?”

Don’t ever disappoint them.
Sometimes it is easy to forget the always-on, somebody is always awake nature of the Internet.

When you promise an email in the future, be aware:

The more this date is in the future, the earlier during the day—actually in the morning—the recipient will expect it. (If she is one of those who do remember.)
The more likely they assume the timezone they are living in, not yours.

I mean, when you are instructed, “Check your email inbox very carefully in three weeks on the 3rd …,” come on. You know it is scheduled; it could be sent automatically Saturday night. Nobody has to get up, go into an office that weekend night and press a button. We just assume the email will be there.

In this case it was kind of a timezone, and “Oh, surprise, ‘the third is a Sunday.’ Let’s send it on Monday” issue.

By the way: Many programmers confess that they don’t really dig timezone calculations. You’ll actually find timezone related bugs in a lot of software.

Chinese authorities have solved the issue with timezones rather authoritatively on a national scale by declaring the entire country as being part of one single timezone. The largest country with one time zone by the way. Russia has 11 timezones in comparison.

Some additional peculiarities about timezones

Because the earliest and the latest timezones are 26 hours apart each given day exists for 50 hours on the planet.

Weird, isn’t it?

January 3 began at midnight in Kiribati in the Pacific when it was January 2, 5am in New York and January 3 ended on Baker Island also in the Pacific at midnight 50 hours later when it was January 4, 7am already.

Still weird?

That also means when you are living, for example, in New York, you can find a place on Earth where it is already tomorrow; at the same time you can find another place where it is still yesterday. This is true 7 days a week, but only between 5am and 7am.

Understood? So lets bring in day light savings time and the southern hemisphere, too …

Yours
John

P.S.: The email marketing service provider of my choice, AWeber, allows you to schedule your campaigns according to local timezones of your members. This is certainly very useful in some cases. If I am not mistaken, you can try out AWeber for just 1 dollar. Check out the details of the deal.

Two Power Tips For Better Marketing In 2010

info@fcon21.biz (John W. Furst) — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:35:10 -0700

“Happy 2010”

I have recorded a short video with two tips for improving your marketing in 2010.

Actually I have already recorded it on December 28, but so far only had uploaded it to a private membership. But why not share it with everybody?

Here it is.

click here to watch it(You might need to enable Javascript in your browser.)

John W. Furst for E-Biz Booster Blog
Music: “a tu lado” (↑) by slumberlords (CC BY 3.0)

This year I will focus on improving how I use words and further build relationships.

Download the full transcript

Two Tips For Marketing In 2010 (↑)
[PDF file, 130 kibytes]

Words (like in copywriting)

Think about it.
I am an Internet marketer, “What makes my stuff sell?”

Words on a sales page
Words spoken in a video
words in a podcast
words, …

No matter what it is, it's words that make people buy my services or the services that I recommend.

Relationships

The right relationships will get you further in life. Relationships enable you to leverage your skills and abilities.

You have to nurture, build relationships to the right people to be happy and to be successful to be more successful.

Going alone only brings you to a certain point. If you want to go beyond that point you need other people to help you. … you need relationships.

Long lasting relationships are built, are based on mutual benefit. So words and relationships that are the two most important things I will focus on next year.

I hope you do the same.

No matter what position you are in in, it could be a relationship that brings you to the next, better job. It could be a relationship that brings you in touch with a business partner whom you ever wanted to do business with.

And it could be the words in your cover letter that get you the next job No matter who you are, what you are doing I think words and relationships are the two most important things.

How To Win Friends And Influence People

Dale Carnegie (↑) wrote a classic book about connecting with people. You might have heard about it.

I have read this book ages ago. It was one of the first ones in the “self help” corner which I have read, now I will read it again.

I highly recommend it.

In case How To Win Friends and Influence People is missing on your bookshelf I suggest you get it.

Get the hardcover edition from Amazon.com

This grandfather of all people-skills books was first published in 1937. It was an overnight hit, eventually selling 15 million copies. How to Win Friends and Influence People is just as useful today as it was when it was first published, because Dale Carnegie had an understanding of human nature that will never be outdated.

Financial success, Carnegie believed, is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to “the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people.” He teaches these skills through underlying principles of dealing with people so that they feel important and appreciated. He also emphasizes fundamental techniques for handling people without making them feel manipulated.

Carnegie says you can make someone want to do what you want them to by seeing the situation from the other person's point of view and “arousing in the other person an eager want.” You learn how to make people like you, win people over to your way of thinking, and change people without causing offense or arousing resentment. For instance, “let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers,” and “talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.” Carnegie illustrates his points with anecdotes of historical figures, leaders of the business world, and everyday folks.
--Joan Price

Either way, one more time:
Happy New Year 2010

Yours
John W. Furst

P.S.: What are your tips for this year.