Regardless of what the late night television commercials or the one page web sites might claim, the internet is not going to make you rich overnight. Sure there is a pot of gold to be found but it’s not going to jump into your lap, it’s going to take hard work and a good map to find it.

In theory I don’t think business and entrepreneurship on the web is any different than the traditional form of business you might be used to. Sure the avenues through which you foster and realize success may behave in a drastically different way, the tactics are not what you are used to, but the principles by which you succeed remain relatively unchanged. If you are willing to adapt. It is going to take hard work, dedication, and a good plan. Just like you had to learn how to market your business through traditional avenues you will again need to learn to market your business through the rapidly changing avenues that make up the world wide web.

The amount of cash need to fund this start up may seem minute in comparison to what you may have doled out to start something similar brick and mortar style, but the building of the business is the same none the less. You wouldn’t close up shop at the first sign of trouble on the outside, you can’t be so quick to close up shop in the inside.

Devise a plan, put aside time and money for marketing, take time to learn the business and get all of your ducks in a row. Business is business, regardless of whether it be conducted on the internet or on the street.

One thing that I am not terribly afraid of when approaching my own business is the thought of making mistakes. In fact over the past ten years I have made mistakes in business on a fairly frequent basis, some that have certainly cost me money. Call it lack of experience but none the less it doesn’t bother me, I am ok with the thought of failure. Still to this day.

The reason I tend to be embracing of failure is because when I look back at the failures I have had, I can not think of a single instance that has not taught me something. Not a single instance that has not helped me to improve the next time around.

In all honesty I would say that I have learned more from a single failure than I have from a handful of successful attempts. If you are not experiencing failure, no matter how minute, then you are not pushing yourself to take the necessary risks. It is the necessary risks that will help you to move forward and take the next step.

Sure you would rather not make it habit to consistently fail in what you do. You would prefer that the success far out weight the failure, but learn to embrace the times you do make mistakes. Don’t give up because there is one bump in the road. Take that bump and learn to mold it into something more useful for the future.

Failure can be harnessed as a lesson which in turn teaches you how to do it right the next time around. Failure shapes a better product and a better business.

So you finally have your chance. You have a nice looking blog, it’s hip to your audience and you are all set to start pumping out article after article. You know your audience and you know what they like. So let’s have at.

A few weeks go by and it’s just not hitting the mark, something must be wrong. Is this thing on?

That advertising you paid for definitely kicked in, the dollars are moving out and it shows right here that it is sending traffic to the site. You check the stats and the visitor numbers show promise. Wait, the last 30 visitors came in through your main page and only stayed 2 seconds or less?

Let’s have a look at that page. Hmm the site title tells me that this is Bob’s Blog The Marketing Guru, might be interesting. Let’s find out. Scanning, scanning, scanning. Wait a second, I don’t get it, the “logo” says marketing but not a single title here gives me any indication that I am about to dive into a genius marketing article. Ah well time to move on, after all I have things to do.

People are scanning, sifting, shifting and moving fast. They rarely have time to decipher cutesy and creative. They want a headline that is going to grab and convince them that reading through this article is totally worth the risk that they might get caught taking a little too long of a lunch hour this afternoon.

Be concise, be direct and get some attention.

Oh and search engines forget it. They came to your site expecting market trends, ROI, and social media. You have given them red ball, green banana and blue sock?

Ok this was a bit harsh but it makes you think about what you’ve been writing doesn’t it?

I would be lying if I were to say that I am not guilty of this myself. I to have often found myself clearing a space on the shelf for my award having just been recognized for this clever piece of genius I have written.

Oh yeah back to reality. People are not scanning to see how clever you can be with that play on words you passed off last week as a title, they want you to get to the point. They want to know why the hell they just landed on your blog after endless searching and they want to know now.

Exercise Forget, for a second, what it is that your blog focuses on, clear your head of the articles you have published in the past week and take a quick glance at your front page. From the viewpoint of an outsider, is there anything that grabs you? Can you figure out what is there for you to read?

It’s ok, happens to the best of us. Now focus on how you will make it better in the weeks to come.

To start I am guilty of this myself. Back when I started my graphic apparel business some 4.5 years ago I tried to jump in every direction I possibly could. I thought I could tackle all of the trends, incorporate all of the latest technologies and take on the big guns from the starting gate. Wow, what was I thinking.

The problem here was that I tried to take on too much at once. I started with what I thought to be a pretty unique idea. Although I was not necessarily the first one on the scene with the idea, I did seem to recognize something early on. It would soon be apparent that many of the larger companies in this space had been working on similar ideas.

What did I do wrong? I failed to focus my efforts on that one thing. I let the trends around me dictate what I did. I ended up trying to stretch in too many different directions and please too many audiences with barely the resources to please one.

Maintaining focus may or may not have allowed the business to eventually realize success, however it would have given me a better chance.

How does this relate to what I do now and ultimately what you may be planning to do?

I see it often in working with businesses and building out their web presence. Whether it be chasing trends that may not fit the audience or having no clear cut path to their objectives, they are struggling to maintain focus on what they set out to do in the first place.

The point is, if you are starting small or from scratch as we like to call it, focus on doing one thing and doing it very well. Maintain your view of the bigger picture (your ultimate objective) but start at point A and work your way up.

Whether it be a tangible product, a killer service or a content driven website, focus on building it right expand when the timing is right. Create a strong foundation and you will have a better chance of weathering the storm ahead.

I was having a peaceful moment earlier this afternoon, watching a deer graze in the field and I started thinking about the decisions I have made in the past ten years and how I got where I am.

It was interesting to me to remember how many of those decisions have been rather split second. I more or less had a vision of what I wanted to be doing, believed I could do it and went for it. Sure I put thought into what making those decisions would mean and how they would effect my life, but in doing so I realized that we tend to over analyze. We start out having faith in our ability to accomplish something and then go about breaking it down until we talk ourselves out of it and instead pursue the safer, less passionate route.

In doing this we end up hurting ourselves in the long run. We hinder our ability to grow and ultimately end up becoming more fulfilled in our lives, careers, hobbies, whatever the case may be.

Not ever choice you make our opportunity you decide to pursue is going to result in the pot of gold that you envisioned, but if you fail to pursue the chance you can never learn from the hardships, the failures and the mistakes. The things that truly teach you what you are capable of and will ultimately help you to succeed in the long run.

Making the decision to join the military before an inevitable war and choosing to go with a highly deployable unit that often times finds itself in the middle of some of the most dangerous situations could have ended badly. The experience is something that I will never forget and would never trade for anything.

Creating a product in one of the tougher markets out there, dumping a lot of hard earned money into to it and watching it fail miserably can certainly set you back a bit. It is also something that I do not regret, the amount that I learned about business during this time is not something you can pay to learn in school.

Jumping out on my own instead of choosing the safer more secure path of full time employment when I had a child on the way was thought to be stupid and possibly even irrisponsible. I had faith in my ability to succeed and asked that others give me a chance to prove that. I have not taken a look backward.

Sometimes it is extremely hard to talk yourself up instead of down and away. Coming up with the idea is only half the battle, convincing yourself to take action is when it counts. Don’t be afraid to take the leap and pursue your passion, even if it means hardship you will come out ahead in the long run if only you learn from the experience.

I think there are a lot of us out there that would react by hitting the delete key without a moments hesitation. But, is this always your best bet?

Personally I think you have to learn to take the bad with the good in this case. I usually advocate approving all comments even if they are not so shiny. (I do have rules, see below).

Why would I open myself up to bad reviews if I had the choice? For several reasons.

First off, if someone is upset with something you have written, a product you have produced or a service you have rendered and you don’t allow them to voice their opinion, chances are you will only fuel the fire. This can lead them to finding other venues to voice their now even stronger opinion. Worse case scenario, they have now made it their mission.

Secondly and this follows should you decide to approve the comment. Doing so on your own blog gives you a public place to control how it is handled. My advice, handle it immediately upon approval and handle it professionally. If you are in the wrong and there is something you can do to remedy the situation, then consider offering to do so. Possibly even taking it offline via email or phone to handle the situation.

Would you prefer to handle an angry client in the comfort of your own place of business or in line at the local grocery store?

The combination of the above will show your readers and customers that you are willing to accept the minor failures of your business as well as handle them promptly and professionally. This displays a certain level of transparency that consumers are slowly willing to expect from a company.

My Rules
I do follow a few important rules in making the decision to allow the bad or downright ugly.

1. I look for a professional tone in the reader when voicing their opinion. I don’t mind if some angry shows through but to leave a comment filled with cuss-words and other forms of obnoxious behavior will probably not make it through.
2. Comments sprung from a battered ego. – You have a successful site, the product is a hit, things are going well. Along comes a former co-worker that wasn’t one of your biggest fans to start with. Unfortunately this guys leaves a half assed comment just to bash you because you are who you are. Sorry, deleted.
3. The last and final is touchy. On occasion I will review another product and once in a blue moon I will get a rather unhappy user of that product to stop by. On one hand you don’t want to discourage your readers, on the other you don’t want to cause an issue with the creator of the product. Rules 1 and 2 apply here.

This is my take on blog comments and how they should be handled, I would be very interested to here how others handle the not so nice. Feel free to comment below.

The focus ahead or as I see it happening is to be mainly on business and entrepreneurship, just as it always has but with a few new projects and ideas on the way I should have plenty to talk about.

So get ready, fire up those Rss readers and stay tuned for the next installment.

It’s a bit slow in the making but the plan is to cover everything from making the break from employment to completing the first gig you land (and all that falls between). I hope to cover some ideas on marketing, working with clients, proposals and contracts etc etc.

Yes of course this will be geared somewhat at the freelance designer/web developer, but I am hoping to be a bit general in covering these topics. I hope that it might apply and be quite interesting to anyone planning to break off from that day to day and step out on their own.

Feel free to go check it out, starting with the announcement The Pitfalls of Freelancing: A Year In Review

Twitter Inspiration abounds on Twitter if you are following the right people and by that I am talking about the people discussing topics relevant to your niche. Pay attention to what people are talking about, follow a link or two and I almost guaranty you will find something worth writing about.

Pick Up a Book Or a newspaper, or a magazine. Over the past few weeks, with a renewed devotion to blogging, I have stumbled upon more than one topic by simply reading a book. I’m not talking about a full on book review, I am just talking about a simple chapter or even a paragraph that has sparked the imagination and given me reason to write.

Get out and see the world That’s a bit of an exaggeration, but what I mean is take some time to see what’s going on in the community around you. Pay attention to what people are talking about, eavesdropping I guess you might call it. There are always people out there talking about the economy, how they just discovered Twitter or how they can’t seem to get their business off the ground.

Watch a Video, TV Program, Movie Several Topics have come to me while watching the evening news, think about it these are the things that are somewhat relevant in the world today. These are the topics that people are interested in learning more about.

Go now, find your own topics to right about, they are everywhere!

Anyhow the point is that I had some spare time this morning and decided to spend a few minutes reading. The particular section I read through was title “Portals to Experience”. To save you my definition, here’s the jist of it:

“That’s how really well-designed products or services work: The product becomes an icon and a venue, a doorway or a portal for a specific community to a unique experience, and that’s where you start to create equity.”

The book went on to reference airlines and how even in time of unfortunate circumstance, cancellations, weather etc., the difference between a good experience and a bad experience is all in how the airline (or employees) handle it. “keep you moving with a smile on your face…”.

For someone who spent the better part of two years in and out of airports experiencing just about every airline the continental US has to offer, this struck me. Because lets face it, anyone who travels frequently will undoubtably see differences in how airlines handle these type of situations. More than likely you will begin to narrow down your favorites and all together avoid certain airlines.

Then I started thinking about how even airlines I enjoyed and for the most part always had an excellent experience while flying seemed to have certain hubs where the customer service was altogether lacking. It seemed that the more these airlines spread out the more likely it was for that “mission statement” or customer service message got lost.

So I started thinking back to some of the jobs I have held in the past. For the most part they begin with some sort of “training” session, an intro course so to speak. You watch a video or two, learn how your company handles customer interaction, basic policy and procedures etc. That’s it you are ready to go. Sure some jobs require refresher courses but for the most part you “learn” everything through that first intro and the actual interaction with the job to follow.

You can start to see how people might become complacent and lose a little bit of that “training” along the way. But, those that are closer or more attached to the original corporate culture established by the company are probably reminded more often of “how we deal with clients”. This could be the home office, the original offshoots etc.

However, as the company starts to spread it’s wings by establishing more remote locations, hubs, retail outlets etc, I think that they start to loose that connection with the “home office” and thus loose some of that original culture or mission statement that has been established.

An Example

I flew an airline, one that is quite well known for service. The service at the original hubs was simply amazing. You never had to walk more than a few feet to get your questions answered and for the most part they kept you smiling and on the move. Then they started to spread their wings a bit, suddenly I could fly with them to places I normally would have had to choose another airline to get to. Upon arriving at some of these places you see the usually big bright logo and head off to the desk because your plans have changed and now you need assistance. You expect to be greeted by that welcoming smile that you would normally receive, but instead the man in airline uniform tells you “sorry but we are closed right now come back in an hour and I can answer your question”. HUH? That’s not the service I am used to. Can I maybe see a supervisor? “Actually I am the supervisor”. Perfect.

The “mission statement” has been lost. The care is no longer there because this person is not quite as vested in the corporate identity as those back home. To him this is just another job, he is not reminded on a daily basis of what it means to be an Airline X employee.

Enter Social Media

So in todays world how can we fix this just a little bit? Here’s where I had a thought. Today it should be easier than ever to bridge this gap in communication. Think about the possibilities that things like YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook etc open up for your average company (going beyond marketing). Would it be so terrible if upon clocking in for the afternoon shift that an employee be required to watch a brief inspirational message in the form of a YouTube video? If nothing else to subtly refresh them of that message that was conveyed in that two hour training session they went through ten months ago.

There are a lot of possibilities out there for keeping your company message alive and avoiding this disconnect that I have seen happen all to often. What ideas do you have?