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You
Deserve Answers...And Now You're Going to Get Them
If
you haven't gained the wealth you crave, you need to do something
differently.
Why?
Because all change, all progress begins with a single decision,
a single action.
Are
you ready to seize the final piece of the puzzle? The missing
ingredient to coast you all the way to financial freedom?
You deserve answers and now you're going to get them.
In
just 30 days from today your life could be in an entirely
different place. Don't
delay.
-
Charlie Byrne
Can't
Afford a House in Your Favorite Neighborhood?
By
Kam Weiler
I've
been trying to find a property to invest in - a house - in
one of the more popular downtown neighborhoods of my city for
ages. Problem is, I've been unable to find anything that generates
enough rent to cover all carrying costs - which, of course,
is a deal-breaker.
That's
why I was surprised to see an ad in the Sunday paper for what
seems to be a great buy. After calling, I learned this isn't
a house, but an office condo. The asking price for three offices
and a private bathroom is $115,000. The previous tenants paid
$1,000 in rent. That's as close to cash flow as I've seen in
this neighborhood yet ... especially if I can get the price
a little lower and the rent a little higher. (Which remains
to be seen.)
Nationally,
office vacancies are on the decline and rents are on the rise.
I checked into my local market and found that it's been consistently
improving here for the past year. (Our Chamber of Commerce
publishes the numbers, as do some local commercial real estate
brokers.) The local growth rates for population and jobs are
also above the national average. This gives me confidence the
office condo is an opportunity worth pursuing. It also makes
me wonder why I have been limiting my search to houses.
Even
if this particular deal doesn't happen, I'm walking away with
a valuable lesson: By widening my search to include more
types of properties while keeping a strong eye on relative
value and cash flow, I may find opportunities to own in areas
that might otherwise have been out of reach.
[Ed.
Note: Kam Weiler is a contributing editor for Main
Street Millionaire, ETR's real estate investment success
program.]
"Most
of our assumptions have outlived their usefulness."
-Marshall
McLuhan
Make
Mine Thin-Sliced
By
David Cross
My
wife strode confidently across the yard from the chicken coop,
clutching our sharpest kitchen knife in her hand. A rivulet
of red ran down her forearm, and tiny spots flecked her dagger
hand. Both her hands were stained crimson, and a solitary feather
stuck to her palm.
"Hi,
Honey!" she chirped. "I was just seeing whether the
new chicks liked strawberries."
Assumptions,
I am reminded, are the mother of all screw-ups.
The assumptions we make are all about our perceptions and how
our brains interpret them. The human brain needs very little
information in order to synthesize the bits and pieces available
in any given scenario and immediately form a whole picture.
In
his book Blink,
Malcolm Gladwell calls this ability of ours to evaluate situations
very quickly "thin slicing." Apparently, we developed
it thousands of years ago. When our distant ancestors hunted
and gathered and danger approached, they needed to make the
decision - in a split second - whether to fight or flee.
At
heart - or, more correctly, "at brain" - we are still
hunters on a trail. But a new quarry has replaced the search
for food: Information.
The
prey has changed, but the way we hunt hasn't. When you're looking
for something online, whether through search engines, within
an e-mail, or on a website, you are tracking it. You forage,
seek, scan, and click for clues that will guide you to the
successful completion of your hunt.
You
ignore anything that appears irrelevant during your quest,
and move on quickly. Very quickly. In fact, usability experts
like Jakob Nielsen believe most people spend only a few seconds
- 10 to 15 seconds - skim-reading something that looks like
it might be useful.
I'm
not saying this is a logical approach. There is some research
to suggest that once a person is on a trail they think will
lead them where they want to go, they will follow that path
... even if it's actually incorrect. They only have to believe
it's the correct path. (Remember my chicken example, above.)
Understanding
your customers and the assumptions they make will help you
create a more user-friendly (and, therefore, more successful)
online business. But first, you have to make sure you're not
making some incorrect assumptions that are leading you down
the wrong path.
People
Are Stupid ... Right?
Many
Web designers figure that when they put a certain label on
a website button, its meaning is obvious. And they assume that
if a visitor to the website doesn't understand it, that person
must be stupid. But take the example of a button labeled "Programs." Does
that mean courses, seminars, or downloadable software?
The
problem is that most technical folk are probably not your average
customer. What appears obvious to them probably isn't obvious
to the people who matter most ... your customers.
This
is why, when improving the "usability" (ease of use)
of your website, you must strive for simplicity. If anything
requires an explanation from a webmaster, Web designer, or
technical whiz-kid ("Well, if the user just clicks on
the link and then scrolls down ... see, the sign-up link is
there. It's so obvious!"), it's probably far from obvious
and will confuse the heck out of your website visitors.
A
confused website visitor is a bad thing. He'll believe he's
on the wrong trail ... and, guess what? He'll bail. He'll exit
your website and take his money elsewhere.
There's
a Hole in Your Bucket
Businesses
spend a lot of time and money driving traffic to their websites,
but few consider what the user experience is once they are
there. This is akin to collecting water in a leaky bucket.
Don't
assume there are no holes in your bucket. Have someone conduct
an audit of every aspect of your online business, including
your promotional e-mails, website, shopping cart, and order
confirmations.
An
audit doesn't have to cost much (it can even be free) or take
long (one hour can reveal a lot to a trained eye). You don't
even have to call it an audit. Call it a "discovery." The
main thing is for you to be open to accepting anything you
find that may need changing. This means looking through fresh
eyes at your existing business. Taking a step back and trying
to forget the assumptions you made about what does or does
not work. Trying to see what your customers see when they use
your website, read your e-mail, buy from your shopping cart,
and call your telephone number.
Usability
is something you can (and should) measure. Most analytics software
- like Google Analytics, WebTrends, and the log analysis software
most Web-hosting providers install for you - can easily provide
you with usability statistics. This can help you determine
the changes that should be made to your online business to
make it more successful.
Let's
say your goal is to sell $10,000 worth of skateboard helmets
a month, and you are currently only at $5,000 a month. You
look at the reasons people are leaving your site without purchasing,
and it appears that many are bailing during the checkout phase.
So you modify the process to make it simpler, to make people
feel more secure, or to allow them to complete the transaction
in less time.
You
continue to make changes to the checkout process - one at a
time - and to measure the results. As long as the results are
positive, you keep doing it.
This
is a worthwhile exercise for any online business. If you meet
resistance when you suggest it, simply say, "Why don't
we test XYZ and see what happens?" The main thing is to
not be tied to a particular way of doing things. Results are
what matter, not whether John's or Jane's approach works best.
Remember
what I said earlier: Assumptions are the mother of all screw-ups.
An audit challenges the assumptions you've made about your
online business and compares them to the assumptions your customers
are probably making. Ultimately, you want to understand and
predict the assumptions your customers make, and do everything
you can to make it easy for them to do business with you.
Today's
Action Plan: Ask yourself the following questions:
What
assumptions have I made about the way I've set up my e-mails,
website, purchasing process, and telephone system that are
actually quite complex, require explanation, or just plain
don't make sense?
How
can I improve these things to make it simpler for my customers
to do business with me?
Does
that animation on my home page help or hurt my goals?
How
do my e-mails look in the preview pane in Outlook (where studies
suggest 65 percent of people read their e-mail)?
Do
my links work in AOL?
Any
online business willing to make changes can make significant
improvements in its results. I'll explain more about this in
my next article ... and I'll tell you how one simple change
can double the number of customers buying from your online
store. In the meantime, enjoy turning over the stones... and
watch out for your assumptions.
[Ed.
Note: David Cross is Senior Internet Consultant to Agora Publishing
in Baltimore. Meet him in person at ETR's Information
Marketing Bootcamp: "Making a Fast Fortune on the
Information Revolution." He and other Internet marketing
experts will show you how to build and/or dramatically grow
your business. Sign
up now to reserve your spot.]
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Why
HFCS Deserves Its Bad Rap
By
Al Sears, MD
The
sweetness you taste in many foods comes from corn, not sugar
cane. Which means you could be eating a lot of high fructose
corn syrup (HFCS) daily. And I'm not just talking about soft
drinks and bags of bread or cookies. You'll find the ubiquitous
sugary liquid even in yogurt, sports drinks, and herbal teas.
Why
is this a big deal? Because HFCS is linked to a variety of
health problems.
For
example, Dr. George Bray is just one researcher who's found
a connection between this artificial sweetener and obesity.
And though it's true that HFCS is not the only cause of obesity,
it's certainly one of the contributors.
Another
researcher, Dr. Meira Field, fed lab rats a diet high in HFCS.
The rats experienced significant health problems, including
anemia, delayed testicular development, and fatal heart conditions.
All of the rats died before reaching adulthood, and their livers
resembled those of alcoholics. They were cirrhotic and plugged
with fat.
Here
are a few ways to avoid HFCS:
- Drink
water or homemade tea instead of soda.
- As
much as possible, avoid pre-packaged products and eat whole,
unprocessed foods - in other words, food that grows naturally.
- When
considering pre-packaged products, read the label before
you buy.
[Ed.
Note: To see how the sugars in your diet stack up, get your free
copy of Dr.
Sears' Glycemic Index.]
Notes
From Nicaragua: Politics and Change
By
Michael Masterson
I
am in Nicaragua con familia. Once or twice a year, K comes
with me. (I invite her every time I come down, but she doesn't
like to leave Number Three Son during the school year.)
It's
really astonishing how much progress this place has seen in
the nine years since I first came here to look for property.
All
over the city, new office buildings and shopping malls are
springing up. Nicaraguans no longer have to travel to Miami
to eat America's most popular fast food. All the biggies are
here: McDonald's, Pizza Hut, TGI Friday's, and KFC. You won't
find Gucci or Prada stores, but Banana Republic and The Gap
can't be far away.
The
roads are getting better, too, as crews work day and night
to resurface and widen them. The last 17 kilometers before
our project in Tola are still unpaved. One of the presidential
candidates has promised to pave it if he wins. I'm not much
for politics, but if I could vote here, I'd cast my lot with
him.
Before
the Sandinistas came into power, Nicaragua was one of the wealthiest
countries in Latin America. After they got through with their
bloodletting and land confiscation, it was the poorest. It
has taken Nicaragua 20 years to climb out of the hole the Sandinistas
dug. And the way Nicaragua is heading now seems pretty good
to me.
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Word
to the Wise: Factitious
Something
that's "factitious" (fak-TISH-us) is produced artificially
rather than by a natural process. The word is derived from
the Latin for "to make."
Example
(as used by James
Miller in Flowers in the Dustbin): "I sensed that
it was time to step back, take stock, and try to untangle and
think through a series of events, a great many of which I had
either undergone with impassioned abandon or been asked to
write about with factitious enthusiasm (a constant temptation
for cultural critics who are expected to celebrate the new)."
