Yes, I have been joining some of these groups. Also learning about this new way of making money – building recommender community groups on Facebook.

Correct me if I’m wrong. But it works like this:

1. Decide on your passion, such as table-tennis or reading books.
2. Create a Facebook group around your passion, such as “Malaysia Table-Tennis Network”. Decide on what you can offer your group members.
3. Invite your friends on and off Facebook to join your group. Aim for the number.
4. Keep posting useful messages to group members to build your credibility, and make sure they get something beneficial out of joining your group!
5. Once you have reached a critical mass, such as 1000 members in your group, start leveraging the number to make money!

For example, you can contact sport organizations and companies to sponsor events, contests and prizes for your table-tennis sport group. You can help these sponsors sell their products. In return, you may get a cut of the profit.

Another example I’ve witnessed a book love group are doing. They leverage on their high number of members to negotiate with MPH to gain discount for their members.

I don’t know exactly yet how to translate number of members into profits, since I’m not there yet. But since you are leading your many group members now, you have the influence over the group members and “recommendation power” to talk to businesses interested in your group as their target customers.

And once you have achieved success with one niche group, start another group (better be related, I supposed), and leverage on the first group to promote the second!

Just announce to the first group that you have created a second group, then many of them will join you since they already trust you!

Does this business model work? I don’t know. But according to one Internet guru, building recommender community groups is one of the most profitable ventures on the Internet.

And what do you think?

I was initially skeptical of the business model.  The idea seems old and uninteresting.  But after getting to know that the startup was to be backed by one of the most visited web site in Malaysia, my perception changed.  Its very high traffic is going to spill over to the new portal and bring advertising dollars to the new business.

In fact, though the idea is not new, I think the startup is going to work.  Those who joined the group are going to earn, not only financially, but in reputation and authority as well.

But unfortunately, I am unable to fulfill their requirements.  Each blogger is to blog at least one post per day.  So it’s 7 blog posts per week, 30 blog posts per month, at least.

Not that they emphasize quantity over quality.  But the founder said most successful blogs have something new everyday to become successful, though it may not be long essay everyday.

I can’t join because I can’t commit myself to blog everyday.  Currently I’m blogging only once or twice per week.  I’m not a full-time blogger or problogger, but rather an occasional one.  I even consider myself still quite a newbie in blogging.

Furthermore, it’s going to be like a full-time job to blog everyday.  It’s not only the time spent to write, but it’s the time spent to read up, research, think and organize my thoughts that is going to consume most of my waking hours, every single day!

So it’s going to be a job for me to work in rather than a business, and it’s a pretty hectic job.  My personal mission is not to create a job for myself.  My mission is to create a business.  Otherwise, I might as well work for others.

When an opportunity knocks, no matter how great it is, one may still need to think whether it is in line with one’s life mission or not.  In this case, the blogging job is really not for me.

It’s a pity for me not being able to join this startup.  But it’s OK.  Opportunities abound on the Internet.  Our job is just to be ready when they come

I suddenly came up with this weird thought.  Why not reverse the charges?  Charge RM1 for parking under 2 hours, but give it free for over 2 hours?

The purpose is to get people stay longer in the mall, and hopefully spend more as a result?  Yes, there will be those who lepak (wander around) without spending a single cent.  But in overall, more crowd means more business.

Do you think this idea works?

Trying to keep to my principle not to do what others were already doing, I proposed a new strategy to the owner.  However, I didn’t proceed in the venture as we couldn’t agree on the right business model.  At the end of discussion, the owner still preferred a business model 90% identical with the existing one!

Nowadays, many youngsters look for friendship and relationship on social network web sites, But besides casual relationships, there are others who look for serious life partner.  So there are many offline dating and matching services around.  Naturally, some of them get online and here come these online dating and matching web sites.

The problem is that, do people trust the Internet to look for their future husband or wife?  Most do not.  They don’t think Internet as a safe place.  Instead, they consider it full of cheaters.  The trust for the channel is just not there.  We may disagree, but this is the market perception, at least for my (older) generation.

Internet presence might work for an offline matching service using the Internet to promote their service, automate some business processes and value-add to their offline offerings.  But how about a purely online matching service?  Will it work?

If you were to operate such an online matching service, how do you make it big on the Internet?  Difficult, if not impossible.  This calls even more badly for a blue ocean strategy.  Let’s not be so bounded and bondaged by the same old thought just as other competitors in the industry.

Alex, a student years ago, intended to raise money for his education. He thought of a very good idea, to sell advertisement space on Internet pixel by pixel for $1 each. He successfully sold all pixels in the 1000 x 1000 pixels space on his web site, and became a millionaire!

Since then, many web sites surfaced hoping to copy his success story. Any similar attempts from Malaysia? Yes, Million Ringgit Malaysia is one of them.

Two years ago, a teenager contacted me and would like to partner up with me to develop such an idea. I immediately saw it’s a copycat idea and didn’t go ahead with him.

Years have passed by and I have not heard anyone become another Alex Tew so far, either from Malaysia or around the world.

Recently, I came across TwoMAds.com owned by two young Malaysians. It seems they not only want to go for one million, but two million! I’m not sure how they are different from the original Alex’s idea. But from the statistics they publish online, it seems they are not selling too well as yet.

But just as two years ago when the youngster proposed to me, I still maintain that such idea to earn big money through pixel advertising does not work any more, not without changing some if not most elements of the business model.

But I venture to say that it may work under at least two circumstances. Firstly, the idea is not used for profit making, but to raise fund 100% for charity or a social cause.  How about use it for venture capital for social entrepreneurs?

Secondly, the idea maybe applied to other things that may generate such income. To start with, just list down all kinds of measurements you can think of, and see how you can sell one unit each for $1. But this is still “thinking inside the box”.

Any idea?

I was in the workshop to learn about how to generate and evaluates new business ideas.  Actually I already have some ideas myself,  some even few years old!  I want to know how to choose the best idea to work on, or as the speaker said, which idea to sell my house on!

At the end of session, we were told to submit a one-page summary of our business idea by next week in order to apply to MDeC’s (the organization behind MSC Malaysia) pre-seed fund for up to RM150,000 in order to further develop.  Never did I notice that the workshop was aimed for the fund applicants.

But now I’m seriously considering applying for the fund.  It’s a grant, free money!  The money will help in bootstrapping the new business and shorten the time to market.  Also, I will go through some process and learn things that I never learned.  In fact, I will be paid to learn!

Perhaps most importantly, this will instill discipline in me to act on my business idea now, rather than letting it collect dust for another few years.  Since it is a conditional grant, I must achieve certain project milestones and develop a prototype within certain time period, failing which I will need to pay back!

So now, which idea should I submit?  Well, this is not play play and I think I will submit the best one.  Wish me luck

Daniel Cerventus of Entrepreneurs.my led a session in FOSS.my and shared what businesses can learn from the open source.  An open source movement, or any movement for that matter, is all in and about its community of people believing in its cause and collaborating together to move it forward.

It makes me think that an open source movement is like a religion, or even a cult with its own sub-culture.  The people are crazy for the idea, work tirelessly to build up something for the good of all, and become “evangelists” to promote the software.  In fact, the term “evangelist” is a religious term, isn’t it?

Daniel likens the community to the supporters of a restaurant who strongly believe the food and beverages it provides.  I have a real story to tell here.

A customer recently asked me to join a cafe restaurant business as “member”, having joined herself.  The idea is that, the café owner offers “shares” (not real shares) of profit to all members of the public who invest into the business.  In return, the owner shares the monthly profit back to the members, with minimum fixed returns guaranteed.

In effect, these members will naturally want to help the restaurant do well and become “evangelists” for the restaurant.  It’s a “community café restaurant”.  Isn’t it a good idea?  What a different business model for an F & B business!

By the way, are you interested in investing in the café? Let me know and I’ll gladly connect you with my customer.

Now what if the members also help to develop every part of the café, from the decoration to the menu, just like the software developers help in open source software development?  Will it not become a real “open source café restaurant” then?

Is this achievable?  So what can we learn from open source movement for business?

Google search result was then very much based on PageRank to calculate the “popularity” of web sites.  One main factor for the “popularity” of a web site is the number and quality of links from other web sites to it.  The more backlinks your web site has, the more “popular” it is, and so the higher ranking you will get in Google.

So how to outsmart Google?  We thought of the possibility of ranking web sites based on their traffic.  The more a web site is visited, the higher ranking it should have.  We thought of calculating “popularity” based on hits, not backlinks.

But how are we going to track the traffic?  We can’t get site owners to put a counter code on their sites.  We also can’t access their web server logs.  So finally we did nothing and dropped the idea.

But now Microsoft seems to be on similar line of thought when they proposed something called BrowseRank, which calculates popularity based on traffic and usage.  The more a web site is visited and the longer period of time it is spent on by users, the higher ranking it should have in search result.

I don’t know how they could do it.  But if they succeed to beat Google and become the number one search engine (which I think is not likely), I and my friend have only ourselves to blame for not further developing our idea.

I heard there are three kinds of people in this world – those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who don’t know what happen!  Apparently I belong to those who watch things happen!

You can be selling computer hardware, doing computer repairs, setting up computer networks, providing web hosting, web design, e-commerce services, writing computer software, doing Internet marketing, teaching computer classes, or providing any other computer-related services.

But if your target customers are the SME/SMI (small and medium sized enterprises) in Malaysia, please consider this proposal.

You can’t be providing ALL computer services yourself, even Microsoft and IBM don’t.  But from the point of view of our target market, especially the less IT-savvy Malaysian businesses, these IT-related services are all just “computer stuff” to them.  So if there is a single, one-stop portal which can provide all their “computer stuff”, why not?

All of us can congregate to this neutral online blog platform.  We can write “advertorials” for our reader.  It could be some computer tips for our readers.  Of course, don’t forget to promote your services, include your contact details, and link to your web site at the end of your article.

This is like a tech and IT business blog geared towards the enterprises rather than individuals.  You build your credibility as an expert in your IT service and get customers from your blog posts.

So if you don’t already have a blog or a web site, you can consider this. It’s zero cost to you.  Just need your time to write about your area of expertise.

But if you are already blogging, why still join?  Simply because there is strength and synergy in working together.  While keep on blogging on your site, you can also copy and post your articles on this IT blog.

Anyone interested?

In the opening ceremony, the shop gave out free breads, cakes and cookies to those who attended.

However, only dignitaries were invited. When I went there, all the delicious food was gone!

Suddenly my mind went into a series of motion. I was thinking of various scenarios for a new bakery shop. I started to do business planning in sleep!

I was thinking what if I open another bakery but instead of inviting only important people on the first day, I invite those poor and needy ones to enjoy the free food.

What if there is no price tag for all food? Again, like my previous stupid idea for mixed rice stall, what if I just let common folks donate whatever they can for each item they take?

I did think of many ideas in the dream. But I forgot them! But what I remember is that I was really planning, just like usual.

Anyway, just a stupid dream. Forget it. It doesn’t make sense

But the moral of the story is that, I realize I can do planning even in dream. While our conscious mind goes into sleep, our subconscious mind does not.

What if we can harness our subconscious mind to work for us, even in sleep? But how?

Question

Hi Ricky,

I need a favour from you, can you please advise me – How can I promote my website (http://name.company.com) as you are an expert in this.

Answer

I’m still long way to become an expert.  Anyway, here’s my brief feedback.

I have checked your web page.  However, as the web site does not belong to you, and so you have not much control over the web site content, there is not much thing you can do on the web page itself.  Otherwise, you could do some search engine optimization (SEO) to attract Internet traffic.

But I guess there are at least two other ways to promote your business online:

First, use social media like Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn and even Twitter.  Not only mention what you do, but treat these media like your “mini PR agencies” to constantly update and tell the world how you are doing in your business.

Second, set up a blog and tell the world what you do.  Although you don’t have control over the web page your company gives you, you have control over your own web site.  Use blogging not only to attract Internet traffic from search engines by SEO, but also to show your products and services, with photos and funny stories.  Those people having similar mindset as yours can get attracted to you, and maybe your business.

You can easily set up a blog for your business and take advantage of its search engine friendliness to bring in qualified prospects to your web site.  Just among many benefits of using a blog.

What if you don’t have to pay a single cent but get all these benefits from blogging?  It is not necessary for you to have a web site.  I’ll have one for you.  Zero cost!

If your business is the kind that you want to target foreigners to travel, buy properties, do business, or invest in Malaysia, please contact me here and briefly introduce your business.

I have a little idea to help you.

You no longer need to worry about having not enough space, incoming emails being bounced back to senders, email service being blocked because of mailbox quota issue etc.

Hosting services are normally sold in terms of hosting space. The more space you buy, the more you need to pay. Space is the main determinant in hosting price.

But what if there is such a hosting service where “space” is no longer a concern? You can add any number of web pages, images, videos, scripts, Flash animations to your web site and run them fine!

Look at Gmail. Although the service is still limited by space, have you heard anyone’s Gmail mailbox being full?

But frankly, there is no such thing as “unlimited hosting space” on a single server. There is always a limit of space in hardware.

Well, unless you can show us where in the market we can get a hard disk with “infinity” space

So you need to be careful if anyone claims to offer you “unlimited hosting space”. There is simply no such thing!

But what if there is a virtually “unlimited” hosting service that you no longer need to be worried of running out of space any more?

You just need to buy a normal hosting package, and say goodbye to all space problems!

Let’s say we start first at 5GB, when your space usage is over half of it, your server will automatically add another 5GB for you.

Again, when your usage is over half of 10GB, another 5GB will be allocated for you automatically. And it goes on and on!

No more space problem…

What do you think of this idea? Will it be a new kind of hosting service?

These are what I think make BarCamp stands out from other learning events:

It’s open – Anyone can propose to facilitate any topic. Anyone can choose to join any session he or she likes.

It’s participatory – BarCamp sessions are not spoon-feeding sessions. Rather, all are encouraged to participate. In fact, there is a “law of two feet” that if you can’t make a contribution by your presence, use your two feet and walk away!

It’s peer teaching – It’s no more one-way teaching. All can share and teach one another on the topic.

It’s web 2.0 – Content generated by participants. Everyone participates and contributes. Instant feedback by anyone!

It’s FREE – Last but not least!

In fact, I have been proposing something called the Internet Business Fellowship (IBF) where people come and learn from and teach one another on business, marketing and technologies.

These are my wish list for BarCamp and similar events:

• Make it into a smaller group so that more people can participate, not just listen.
• Make it more frequent, perhaps once a month!
• Make it more mobile so that it can be held anywhere.
• Make it available in other languages, such as Malay, Chinese and Tamil.
• Make it even more participatory!

In summary, can it be made more “agile”, so that it can be held anytime, anywhere, at any frequency, in any language, and by anyone?

In these times of rising living costs, some of us may need to be more frugal and prudent in our spending.  We may need to stop spending on luxurious items, eating out in expensive restaurants, and buying more than what we need…

Mixed rice or nasi campur is one most popular and cheapest meal we can get in Malaysia.  But you know even it has gone up in price!  A normal dish for RM3.50 can now cost RM4.00 or more!

What if we open a mixed rice shop where we no longer decide the price?  Customers just pick their food, come to the end of table, collect spoon and fork, and pay whatever amount they want into a donation box?  Perhaps the stall can even be left unmanned and labor cost saved.

For those who cannot pay the normal price, let them pay whatever they want.  For those who refuse to pay anything, let them eat. Those who don’t pay anything maybe because they really cannot afford, or they are simply shameless.  In either case, let them eat all they want.  It’s a service and blessing to the poor in the society.

But I’m sure there are also those who can afford to pay more, perhaps they may pay more to cover for others?  When counting the money, who knows it may be even more profitable than is a normal mixed rice shop?

Who knows some people may even get impressed by such shop that they become our PR to spread out to the whole world by word of mouth?  Maybe we can open even more branches throughout the nation?

Anyway, weird idea aside.  I started to think of such idea not from a business point of view, but as a service to the poor especially in such times of bad economy.

Moreover, in gathering people together, we can get to know these people, talk to them, fellowship with them and expand our social network!

I know it’s stupid.  But don’t laugh at me.  Perhaps one day when I have a little more resources, I may put this into practice!

Maybe I was a bit too ambitious, thinking to help people earn more income to cope with the rising living costs. I thought of not only helping them to earn, but also equipping them the ability to earn by arranging training for them. I was even thinking of charitable giving to contribute to the society. Suddenly I became so drowned in all these seemingly “noble” purposes.

The business is a kind of affiliate marketing scheme with twist, where the members refer clients and earn money. If you know the business plan, you should know the profits are to be shared by members and given to charitable organizations. I myself maybe the owner, but I’m still one of the members who earn like all other members.

Most people to whom I shared the scheme agreed to join. Some were excited about it. Some said they would consider. But recently I met up with someone who is looking for an opportunity in Internet marketing who criticized the idea even before I went into the meat of the business.

I admit I had a really terrible presentation that night, and I failed to recognize that he came looking for a certain kind of business and with a certain motive. In summary, I just failed to communicate. On the other hand, I guess he may have judged too fast and misunderstood a few things.

But anyway he did lead me to an important discovery that now I decide to scrap the plan for now. Somehow my eyes have been blinded to see this. And I must thank him for the revelation.

While it maybe easy for the affiliate members to earn money – just refer clients, I as the coordinator will work like hell having to do the selling and manage the myriad of projects and clients. But do all these efforts justify my time and resources?

It will not be too much a problem if it is a standard product or service with minimum customer support. But a consulting business is time, labor and brain-intensive. I will be wasting much time having to coordinate among clients, web developers and SEO experts. Moreover, I would have to bear great responsibilities especially in making sure the clients are able to sell and earn money on the Internet.

The “business” actually seeks to serve the needs of the members by distributing income generated from the clients. While the income generation part of the idea maybe quite interesting, the source of income may not be sustainable. Internet business consulting service may be a wrong service chosen for the purpose. It is a wrong mean to an end.

Having decided to drop the plan, I’m now quite disillusioned and have to face the members whom I had so convincingly talked into believing in Internet consulting. Sorry my dear members. Please contact me for alternative arrangement if you are still keen.

Throughout my years doing Internet businesses, I have been resisting the idea of doing web sites and Internet marketing for others. I’ve been wondering for those “experts” who know how to market for others, why don’t they market for themselves? And for those “consultants” who teach people how to earn money online, why not earn for themselves?

But how come now I myself fall into the trap and become one of them?

The competition is so intense.  To win the price war, you have to do work for clients at dirt cheap rates.  Profit margin is very thin, if there is any.  How are you going to pay for designers, or even your own time?

Well, this is the general sentiment.  As a web designer, do you not feel this way?  But I choose to be a bit more optimistic.  Here are my humble opinions.

Internet is here to stay in years to come.  More and more businesses are going to use it as their business platform, or as a channel to reach out to their customers and stakeholders.  There is a market need for web designers.

The business environment is also changing.  So are web technologies.  Businesses need to continually update and upgrade their Internet infrastructure to suit their current business needs with the latest suitable technologies.  There is a continuous need for web designers.

The web design market is crowded with many web designers who know or care only design or programming.  Unfortunately they miss out other aspects of having a web site, such as business strategy, Internet business model and Internet marketing.  Now if you can provide these, will you not stand out?

Again, many web designers are just designers and do not know marketing.  They think once they put up a web site on the Internet, traffic, enquiries, orders and money will pour in.  But it does not work that way.  No wonder many clients complain there is no use having a web site.  Can you include Internet marketing to offer a more comprehensive service to clients?

The prices are so low that many web designers can’t really give focus and their hearts on any individual project.  Why work so hard if all you can earn is RM500?  So go for the volume!  They just take instruction and do not think and strategize proactively for clients.  They just finish the project and go on to the next project.  But you can be different.

Many clients expect low prices for their web sites.  Perhaps they have been pampered by low price offers from competing web designers.  Perhaps they do not know the cost structure behind.  You are competing in cut-throat price war in a typical red ocean.  Now if you can educate, influence and change the market perception, will you not be a pioneer?

Many clients do not know the potential of the Internet.  They do not know they can use their web site to achieve much more than they can imagine.  Now if you can be their consultant to educate, influence and change their perception, will you not be a winner?

The heartening fact is that there are many companies who can afford to pay high prices (five-figure or even more) if they can see the value in your proposal.  Instead of competing with others in price, why don’t you equip yourself with more skills so that you can offer more value to them?  It may be a better strategy to charge high and command authority, rather than to charge low and be cheap.

The traditional business model of a web design firm may not work any more, at least it is not so profitable and sustainable.  Can you think of a new business model for your web design business so that you can create a new blue ocean?  In fact, I suggest you quit web design market and transform your business into something else that includes web design service.

I may not be right but these are my honest observations.  I am not against web designers but I am pro-consumers.  They are the ones who pay us money.  I just hope web designers can do a much better job in serving them.

What do you think of the web design market?  Your comments are welcome.  To stay tuned with my other thoughts, do subscribe to my blog to be updated from time to time.

Instead of thinking how to save on this and that to reduce expenses, why not think how to earn more income?

And instead of thinking of taking a second or part-time job, why not build your multiple sources of income by Internet business?

A successful Internet business can potentially earn you very good income. Let’s forget our beloved Facebook’s 24-year old billionaire founder Mark Zuckerberg for now. It may be too far-fetched.

How about just a modest RM10,000 or RM20,000 income per month? There are already many technopreneurs and bloggers earning five figure income in Malaysia. It is doable!

The good news is, once you put in place the system (business, marketing and technical), some parts of the business can be automated by software! Some Internet businesses can even run by itself! Thus freeing your time to build other Internet businesses, or just enjoy!

The problem is, is Internet business for everyone? Frankly, no. Some of us will not make through the initial stage of learning and experimenting. Some also do not possess the business acumen (Internet business is still a business!), unless we resolve to learn.

But there are still many of us who can make a small fortune on the Internet but are not doing so. Why?

Besides our own choice (not willing to learn etc.) and excuses (no time etc.), there is just a lack of resources. Where to learn how to do business on Internet?

No it’s not right. There are lots of resources out there especially on the Internet where we can educate ourselves. But for a total beginner, where to start? There is too much information!

And reading alone is not sufficient. Building Internet businesses is faster by learning from and leveraging upon others’ experiences. So here comes coaching.

However, Internet coaching can cost us a bomb! RM10,000 to teach me how to build online business? Some may be able to pay that price. But how about the rest of us?

Why not we help ourselves? Why not organize ourselves in group so that we can learn from one another? It is to be a peer learning network of like-minded people who want to make it big on the Internet.

Each learning and sharing session can focus on one topic. We may invite a speaker. But even without a speaker, we still can share among ourselves. We will be coaches to one another. We don’t have to be alone in building our Internet dreams.

No, we won’t have to pay much to get together for a sharing session. Maybe we just share the costs of the meeting place rental and food refreshment. Is this not OK?

And who knows we might strike some deal or enlist a business partner through such networking session among peers?

Let’s not suffer in such inflationary times. Let’s do something together! Let’s start a self-help Internet business peer learning club. What do you think?

However, as I browse through the web sites of law schools on the Internet, such as that of ATC (Advance Tertiary College), I don’t quite find what I want, unless I don’t mind taking a single subject in courses like ICSA. These law schools cater for those who want to be lawyers, but not working people who want to learn more about law like me.

According to an insider, the higher education industry in Malaysia is very competitive. Not many private colleges are making money. In fact, many are struggling and are on the verge of closing down. There are thousands of colleges, institutions and training centers registered with the two government ministries in Malaysia. But how large is our population?

The colleges need to seek a way out, not to fight head to head with other colleges, but to seek their own way. I guess they need their own blue ocean strategy.

One example is not to see what other colleges offer and follow suit. That is, not to benchmark others. But they are to look beyond their traditional customers and find out what non-customers want.

Take my case as example. Law schools like ATC could look beyond their traditional market boundary consisting of those who want to take up law as their career. Perhaps they could offer law courses to those currently not their customers who are interested in gaining some knowledge in law, and catering for what they need.

Colleges could design new courses in response to what the market wants. They could win by devising and executing a blue ocean strategy. But sometimes you need a paradigm shift to look beyond what is being done now…

How about you? Are you able to find the course that you would like to take?

Yes I have. But very few. Now, for those bloggers who are proficient in our national language, this could be a good strategy to differentiate yourself. Blog in Malay, and attract search engine traffic from the Malay Internet users!

I feel each race has got things to share with others, and at the same time learn from them as well. By writing in Malay, perhaps non-Malays can better communicate with the Malay readers and learn from them too!

Well, should I blog in BM also? But my proficiency in the language is really rotten now!  Perhaps bloggers can consider my suggestion?

SMS is easy to implement in an online business. But it seems many people still do not know about this and so under-utilize it. Recently I helped develop an online registration system for a sports event and proposed using SMS in the system. The idea wowed many people thinking it’s one of the latest technologies!

Here are a few ways I’m using SMS to help automate my web sites and improve customer service. Let’s see whether any of these can be helpful for you too.

• Whenever you have got a new enquiry, a new order, request for support or any other matter that requires your immediate attention, use SMS to notify you. Time is money!
• Whenever your customer does something important on your web site, such as registering as member or placing an order, send an acknowledgment to them by SMS. They could be wowed by your immediate response!
• Whenever you need to send a reminder to customers, or want to do follow up, send them SMS!
• Build a permission-based SMS mailing list and broadcast to your prospects or customers for promotion and branding reasons. But don’t send too frequently.
• Use SMS so that your users can register with your service by SMS, instead of going to your web site!

SMS can be sent from mobile to mobile, mobile to web, and the other ways round. There are many potential ways of using SMS to innovate your business. Why not contact me if you are interested?

But recently I encountered problems when trying to place order online to get it delivered to a friend in another city. It was supposed to be a surprise delivery to him. But I was annoyed that Pizza Hut kept calling my friend a few times asking, “Ada order pizza?” (did you place order?), “Sudah dapat pizza?” (have you got your pizza?).

I lodged my complaint through their online feedback service (credits to them for collecting feedbacks online). Here are some suggestions I wish to put forward here, not only to Pizza Hut, but also any business planning online order and delivery service.

Allow me to order online and have it delivered to other address. I’m not able to do so now. As a result, I had to create a separate account for my friend. Better still if I can maintain different addresses online for my parents, family and friends, under one single account.

Don’t waste time calling to confirm order, especially when I had completed the payment process. Are you having any communication problem at your backend?

Have a more user-friendly online ordering system. Pizza Hut’s online order is Flash-based. While Flash is ok for me, a fallback to non-Flash site should be available, especially for those who can’t install additional software to use Flash or have limited bandwidth to access a Flash site. Furthermore, the Flash used does not add value to its user-friendliness. I really had to click around to find out how to place order and checkout.

Maintain records of past orders for relationship marketing. You can do as what Amazon does to track my preference and recommend suitable items to me to save my time. Also, you can put me into a mailing list to keep me updated on your latest offerings.

Anyway, I believe Pizza Hut would listen to customer feedback and perfect their service. Kudos to them for having such service. Keep it up!

I don’t think every business should jump on the Internet bandwagon, not without some careful thoughts. Some businesses should not have a web site, not because a web site cannot help them, but because they are not ready for it or have no need for it in their current business model. Why sell char kway teow online when the owner cannot fry more? It wastes your money gathering dust online.

Having an Internet presence is a strategic business decision. Suddenly your business is open to more than 1 billion Internet users and potential customers worldwide. If you want to open a branch in the country, you will consider a lot. Now if you open a branch on the Internet, will you not think twice?

But a web site is not just another branch. It is also not just another promotion channel. It can transform your business if you allow it to. Given the online convenience, worldwide reach, ease of information retrieval and other benefits, you can go beyond your current business model to create a blue ocean business for yourself.

Imagine the one-man char kway teow stall turned into an Internet online order and home delivery service? Imagine it also sells drinks and other food items to complement the fatty noodles? How about close down the stall altogether and operate from home instead? Then franchise the business throughout the country?

I don’t know about you but I never order and get char kway teow delivered to enjoy this delicious dish right at my home. Virtually no such business exists. If there is, is it not a blue ocean business? There is no competitor doing so. The business can reach out to otherwise non-customers who do not buy from stalls.

Your Internet presence can help transform your business. Your are limited by your imagination.

Now, what can a web site do for you, especially to help expand your reach to overseas? The normal answer would include:

• Establish presence online – Many customers do research on the Internet to make purchase decision.
• Increase your exposure – Have another channel to reach your customers. What if some buyers don’t get to know you by word of mouth?
• Give good first impression – They look at your web site and form an impression before even contacting you.
• Show your products online – They can look at photos online so that you don’t always need to email them.
• Contact you online – Now they can have another channel to contact you instantly – email, instant messaging or even SMS.
• Eliminate intermediaries – The end user customers can deal with you directly without the middlemen.
• Give technical support – Save costs supporting and servicing your customers by doing it online.

Now these are the common reasons why you should have a web site. But the Internet can potentially do much more wonder than we can imagine. It can be a strategic tool to change your business model, rewrite the rules in the competition, give you unfair advantages over your competitors and even lead you to a blue ocean.

Furthermore, the Internet is not only a new medium, but also a revolutionary one. Its benefits lie in its interactivity, community building and “word of mouse”, among others. It is different from other mediums such as print and TV. You will under utilize the benefits of the Internet if you merely apply the old model to a new environment.

Imagine your customers can design the product they need online using Flash. Imagine your customers help to build a knowledge base online through Web 2.0 technologies so that they can support themselves. Imagine you use a blog to build and maintain your brand online. Just imagine…

The competition among travel agencies and tour operators is already very intense. Do a search on Google and you can see the online marketplace is crowded too. It may not help much to do another conventional web site or portal to compete with many other sites. It will be just another me-too web site.

But blogging is different. If someone in the field can dedicate some of his or her time to blog about the country, MM2H, travelling and investment opportunities and other related topics in Malaysia, I’m sure it can generate a lot of traffic, especially when blog is very much under utilized by MM2H companies at the moment.

Blogging builds up personal or company credential. It can bring in genuine visitors who are interested in Malaysia and MM2H. It is not only a new way of promoting MM2H, but also an instant one, especially when any new blog post is updated by Google search engine almost instantly!

But blogging is a new phenomena not readily accepted especially by companies. Some may ask why rock the boat while their conventional channels are working fine? Furthermore, blogging takes time and committment from the blogger. The blogger needs to blog regularly and consistently to be effective.

If you are involved in MM2H business and would like to explore blogging for MM2H, please contact me here.

Update – Check this blog post if you are interested to blog to expand your business.

I’m currently venturing into unit trust business and would like to seek your advise on the following:

i) I would like to have my own unit trust business website, that promotes the business, benefits etc how do I go about doing this?

ii) How can I promote my website to the public?

Please advise, thanks.

Reply

First of all, it maybe well to check out with your company whether you can promote unit trust on Internet or not. I’m not sure about unit trust. But I have heard other kinds of financial products where it is against the company’s policy for agents to have a web site on their products.

Your web site can be static one, interactive one or Web 2.0 one (recommended). There are many ways of promoting on Internet and I can’t claim to be expert on this. Much can be left for later discussion. The most effective ones being:

- Search engine marketing
- Permission based email marketing
- Word of mouth viral marketing
- Web 2.0 style web site (community inputs)
- Using blog

If you are looking for a quick easy start, I suggest you start a blog. You don’t have to touch on unit trust directly. You can talk about yourself, your lifestyle, your religion, your hobby or any of your expert topic to build your reputation. But let them know you are doing unit trust.

When you develop reputation and friendships, people are likely to buy from you when there is a need. After all, many businesses nowadays, yours included, depend much on relationship marketing.