The Bing craze is slowing down now and people aren’t talking about it as much as they were.  So now it’s time I had my say.

I am going to go ahead and tell you that I like Google. Very few companies will ever win my loyalty.  Google has done well for me and they have mine.  But of course, I have to play around a little bit with every new toy.  I don’t care who makes it (even Microsoft).  And I played around a little bit with Bing when the noise started.

Here is what I think

I think Bing will be about like every other release by Microsoft (except for maybe win 3.1, 95 and XP);  heavily touted, billions spent on marketing, and then not really survive.

Let’s face it, MS has a couple products that have survived but the majority just aggravate people.  Can anyone say Millenium? Or would you prefer to say Vista?

And who needs a freaking Decision Engine? Do you really want some techy lab idiot who is so busy programming algorithms that he can’t find a date to make decisions for you about what you really wanted when you typed in “grandma riding a horse.”  Yeah, I didn’t think so.

And what is all this they keep saying about search overload?  Have you seen these ads?  They make it look like when you use Google you just can’t sort through the overwhelming amount of information.

Seriously? Have you ever felt overwhelmed when you googled?  If you have, perhaps it was time for a xanax.

No, I think I will remain loyal to Google.  I will say though, that I do like the random image that bing offers on the home page.  It is fun to waste a little time learning about something new by scrolling over the areas of the image.

Thing is though, when I am really in search mode, the last thing I need is another distraction.

Sorry Bing, you look cool, but you don’t get my vote.

Now, before I get going, you should know that I am in the middle of a series on Time Management.  But I realized that I really needed to discuss cloud computing to make some of the concepts that are coming up make sense.  So if you are following that conversation, this is highly relevant!

The Story

There used to be this period in history when people wrote things down on paper.  These barbarians kept file cabinets in the corner of their offices in order to store these ancient documents in case they needed to refer to them again.

Along came computers.  Some people had a hard time moving into this era.  Some of these people, resistant to change, continued to use paper files by using the “print” button in a repeatedly random fashion.  These was no real reason to do this.  With the advent of computers, file cabinets were moved onto the physical drive of the computer.  Thousands more documents could fit there than ever would have made it into all the file cabinets in all the offices in all the world!

Those stubborn folks who kept using the , they just never came to understand the benefits of computer storage files.

Well, they missed out on that wave, and now the computer era is gone as well.

Enter Cloud Computing

You may have heard this term before.  Instead of managing your file cabinet and all your documents on your actual computer, you use the Internet.  All your files are out there in the ether of the world between the worlds.  Your calendar, to do lists, journal, all your documents and spreadsheets.  EVERYTHING, is out there in the world of the Internet.

Now I realize that this might be scary to you.  If this idea frightens you, then, well… keep using the little .

Cars scared people too. Today, their ancestors are called Amish.

So if you want your great grandchildren to speak in a funny accent and carry file cabinets on their backs every where they go while their peers are carrying around a tiny device that takes notes, writes papers, and makes mint mojitos - then you just go ahead and stay afraid.  Otherwise, join the cloud computing era and leave the old world behind.

The Rant

We don’t quite accomplish that much.  Maybe its because we have come to understand the value of specialization.  By the way, since you can’t really hear the sarcasm in my voice when I say “value in specialization,” I will just tell you that I feel a good deal of sarcasm writing it.

Specialization is another word for dehumanization. I am an author, a marketer, a blogger, a husband, a father, and hopefully a pastor soon.  I want to do all these things well.  And so to ask me to specialize is to ask me to do only one thing well.  So If you think I should specialize, Screw You! By the way, neither should you.

The Point

Now on to the point.  If we are to effectively manage our time in a digital world, we need to find the best tools to do so.  I am going to throw out a few options to you.  Try as many as you wish, and see what you like best.  Over the next few days we will be exploring each of these options for managing your time.

All are free, all are online. There will be no paper.  There will be only iphones, keyboards, blackberries, and laptops.  So here are a few choices which we will explore in greater detail.

Remember The Milk

Todoist

hiTask

Springpad

Why not go ahead and sign up with some of these and take them for a test drive?  In the coming days we will explore some of the pros and cons of each and how to best use them.  I invite you to use my contact form or the comments below to let me know of others that you like and why.

Make Sure you Subscribe so you can keep up with the conversation.

He has just released a helpful tool called 31 Days to a Better Blog.  This is a guide that will help you improve your blog.  He says that this is for three type of folks.

1 - its for people who “have just started a blog but who don’t know what to do next”

2 - its for people who “have had a blog for a while but it’s stalled in its growth”

and

3 - its for “bloggers with bloggers block and lacking inspiration”

You Need to Read This

Now let’s just pause her for a second shall we?  If you are a small business owner reading this blog then you have a blog.  If you don’t have a blog, then shame on you! You need to start one!  Why are you so far behind the curve?

I assume you would like to promote your business, and without a blog you simply are not doing the best job of marketing your business on the Internet.

Just a note here, if you have not yet started a blog, Darren says that his guide is NOT for you.  In that case your best bet is to take a look at my book on Earning an Income with a Blog.  In that extensive document I cover everything you need to know in order to start a blog.  Even if you are completely technically illiterate.  In fact, I will create a free blog for you!

But assuming that you already have one and want to promote it, you will want to grab this handy 31 Days to a Better Blog.  He gives you daily tasks to perform each day and then one large task each week.  I can’t give it all away, but it is extensive, helpful and definitely worth your time if you want to have a better blog with more readers.

Here’s a quick quote from, their site:

We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. So we’re building here a clearinghouse that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.

The other night I was watching the video below and it made me stop and reconsider my own life for a minute.  This brilliant guy has some great ideas that most of us just can’t stand to hear.  He suggests that we s-l-o-w  d-o-w-n.  He says we are too busy running after some finish line which never seems to come .  Because of this we are so busy moving through life that we never enjoy it.

Any good entrepreneur needs to learn the value of stopping for a little while and enjoying their life.  So many of think that in order to fully appreciate all life has to offer us, we need to be on our own yacht enjoying a mint mojito or some other ridiculous dream.  What we really need to be doing is sitting with people who we love and enjoying their company.  Some squatters living in abandoned apartment buildings have a better life than many of us, because they appreciate what they have more than we do.

Slow down a second, watch this short talk, and learn to appreciate the things you have right now.  This will put you one step closer to living your dream.

Lately I get these followers who have these profile pictures of some half naked chic.  They are following something like 5,000 people and they have 1 update.

Let’s see here, you’ve been around twitter for awhile huh?  No thanks.  Not gonna follow you back.  Have a nice day.

Another one that irritates me is when you have one post and it says, “hey there, take a look at my blog!”

First of all, if you are going to go that far, at least have the decency to post a link to it! It’s in the profile settings.  Did you just not take time to figure that out before you threw up a post and started following people?

Second, no thanks, don’t think I will.

So my little rant is to illustrate this simple point.  If you want people to follow you back how about contribute something of value that would make people want to follow you back?  I will follow you if you have something decent to say, otherwise, my twitter stream is full enough, thanks anyway.

That was a twitter tip for today.  Now go contribute something and follow me.  I might just follow you as well!

Why Businesses Slump

Markets change, new competitors arise, and the tastes of your customers change. The American consumer is the most fickle living thing.  If you are not constantly looking at your market and keeping in touch with them… well… you will lose touch!

I talk to people who honestly believe they can market to consumers in 2009 like they did in 1999.  This simply is not possible.  Given the rapid redevelopment of internet technology, web 2.0 has made web 1.0 tactics pointless and archaic.  You need to stay on top of the market you are reaching and all the new ways to reach them.

You also need to keep up with what they want.  You may be promoting products that lost their value several years ago.  In today’s internet culture, you might be promoting products that lost their value last week!  Remember, American Consumers are fickle.

Understanding some of these basic reasons that businesses slump is important to understanding how and why you need to reevaluate your business plan on a regular basis.

If you constantly re-evaluate your business plan you can stay on top of these slumps and never feel the full shock of these changes.

How to Re-evaluate your Business Plan

You need to look at three things in order to effectively re-evaluate your business plan.

First you need to keep an eye on your conversion ratios.  What percentage of people who visit your site are actually purchasing something?  You ALWAYS want this to increase.  You NEVER want this to decrease.  To keep your conversions as high as possible, consider editing your sales text, or improving your traffic methods.  If you are running Google adwords to get traffic, maybe consider changing the text on the ads to make it clear that you are asking for a purchase decision.  This will keep the folks out who have no interest in pulling out their wallet.

Second you need to make sure your traffic is staying high.  Watch your monthly page views.  Are they trending down, holding steady, or trending up?  Which of these do you think is most favorable?  Seriously, if you just said down - you need to rethink that janitorial job.

If your traffic is not trending upward, something you are doing is not paying off enough.  Consider you social networking strategies, and your SEO.  What can you do to get more traffic?

Third and certainly not least, you need to keep your goals clear, reachable and IN MIND.  I keep my goals in front of me all the time  - literally - on paper.  This way I can see what it is I am trying to accomplish and never lose sight of those.  When you start blowing your time away playing with StumbleUpon, you are not reaching your goals.

Whenever you re-evaluate you need to ask the question, what can I do that will help me to reach my goals more effectively?

Goals do not come to you

I talk to a lot of entrepreneurs.  Some are unbelievable successes while others are miserable failures.  One thing that  is true in many of the cases where people fail is that they somehow believe that if you form excellent goals, then they will magically appear on your doorstep like some fairy godmother promising to make you happy.

As much as I enjoyed the Harry Potter books, there is no magic.  If there is anything to the law of attraction, it is simply that it motivates the human spirit and provides a sense of meaning that helps us to get out of bed and accomplish our own goals.

Goals do not just come to you. I am sorry to annoy you with this horrifying reality, but no… you must work for them.

You Have to work for Them

Now that you are sufficiently P.O.’d at me for shaking you out of your slumber, let me tell you what you need to do in order to accomplish your goals. You need to have a strategy.

Almost all of business is a numbers game.  Every website will convert traffic into sales.  Either 1 in a million visitors will purchase or 5 out of ten.  You have a two fold task in getting websites to convert traffic into sales to reach your goals.

The first is to get your conversions as high as possible.  If you are converting one in a million, I am betting there is something wrong with your sales text.  Maybe you should tell the customer what they are buying.  Or at least mention that there is a link on the page.  My point is, if your conversions are low, consider a rewrite of the text.

The second task is to raise your traffic. If you have 5 percent converting to sales, it stands to reason that if you want to sell 100 products a week you need to get 2000 visitors per week.  So what can you do to get more traffic?  Gee I wonder.  Try reading some posts I have written about Search Engine Optimization or getting better traffic with Social Media.

I have more to say on those topics, but that will sure give you a great start.

The idea is that you need to have a plan to acheive your goals.  Try a little math.  See if you can figure out your conversion ratios and work up from there.  Either change the text of your page, or get more traffic or both!  And see if you can convert more browsers into buyers!

Take a trip over to twitter and follow me.   My wife could have a baby any day now, and when she does I hope to have to time to post a couple of tweets.

My followers will be among the first to know the gender, weight, size and name of this new addition to the Lee family.

In the meantime, subscribe here, because I am scheduling some posts to publish over the next week or two.

Have a great day!

Now, I usually talk a lot about using a blog to make a site successful.  Blogs have a ton going for them when it comes to making a site successful.  No need to repeat myself here, but I will anyway.  Search Engines love them because they are dynamic.  They are easier to market in social networks, because they are dynamic.  People will come back because they want to see what you are saying new today.

But there are other options instead of a blog.  A good example is this site about credit card applications.  The site owner began contacting me lately to discuss some ways he could more successfully market his site.  I took a look at the site, and I was impressed with a couple of things.

1 - Design

This site is laid out nicely.  It’s not just two colors, rather it is laid out with a variety of colors that help the eye to understand the lay out.  This is an interesting point.  The human eye tells a person more about a website than their brain does.  Usually, what a person decides to read on a page is already determined, the minute their eyes hit the page.

2- Content

The content of this page is marvelous!  Lots of information about credit cards, and how to apply for them.  This is important.  You don’t want to just be some random list of links, rather you want to provide value and benefit.  This is one reason I usually tell people to start a blog.  But here they have done a nice job of accomplishing that.

While they do alot well, the one thing I question is the niche!  I dont know if credit card applications is a great thing to be promoting in an economy like ours, although when we come out of this mess, they will be in a good position to grab a good portion of traffic looking to apply for credit cards.