Internet Business The Magic of Working Together

In this world, Ken Blanchard, the famous author of several strategic management and motivational books, could not have said it better ‘none of us is as smart as all of us’.

This slogan can be applied to any aspect in life, whether it is business, sport or pleasure.

In any business this slogan is of particular importance as this is where team work or working together can mean the difference between success and failure.

Let us look at internet and affiliate marketing business sector where by applying this slogan specifically can grow your business significantly.

Any person that runs their business primarily on the internet knows that this business environment’s most reliable aspect is change. Change happens continuously in the world of the internet.

So, what you may say? If you are in this business thinking you know everything you’re screwed to be blunt. In this ever changing environment it is virtually impossible for you to know everything. This is where strategic partnerships or alliances become an essential part of your business strategy.

Here is 10 key tactics that you can apply and use to create strategic partners and/or relationships:

1. Start by identifying areas in your business that you are not good at but need. Example; web site design, logo design, article / content writers etc
2. Apply the age old 80/20 principle where 20% of the effort can give you 80% of the return
3. Look for businesses who you can give (outsource) these areas to and that you would like to work with
4. Where possible look for partnerships that you can give back to. Perhaps you have a skill and/or competency that you can trade with?
5. Very important to get to know the business / company that you have identified before you approach them. Spend time finding out who they are, what they stand for, what are their values and goals and more importantly, what their reputation on the internet is
6. To get a partnership, do not be afraid to ask. You will be surprised at the answers and remember no, does not mean never
7. Look for businesses that cater to the same audience / market that you do, but who are not direct competitors. Perhaps you can share your mailing lists?
8. Once you have setup a partnership it is also important to manage and maintain this relationship. Treat it like a marriage. It always takes two to tango
9. Make sure that both parties understand what to expect from each other
10. Lastly, remember that you can create a partnership even if the other party is a competitor, as joining forces can push both businesses into a bigger success than if they tried on their own. (This point is of particular importance when both business are still relatively small)

Where possible try and form a partnership with a company much bigger (perceived or otherwise) than yours, do not be intimidated as you will push harder to achieve higher results for your own business.

 

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Generation XYZ to G How and Why?

So tell me, when did we move from the baby boomers generation X, to Y, to Z and now G?

When everyone was branding the various generations X, then Y then Z I was wondering what tag we were going to come up next. Alpha, beta..? I guess it was the same crazy person that tagged generation X after the baby boomers.

I keep looking for some logic but there clearly is none.

Generation G after Z?

Let’s take a quick history lesson to understand the various branded generations.

The Baby Boomers were between 1946 and 1964. Those brash and confident bunch that  pushed their values and political views on anybody that would listen. A whole bunch of them became very successful and rich benefiting from all the post war demand for anything and everything.

And yes, they are still around, lots of them are our managers, bosses or our politicians. We can definitely brand them as a bunch of know-it-alls and who love doing, pushing and competing . We keep thinking that they will retire at 65 but no way, as long as they have their health we will not stop them.

From 1965 to 1979 we got Generation X. Oh man, what a laid back bunch. Straight from Woodstock. They made love freely, studied harder than their parents and when it came to relationships commitment was not high on their agenda.

Low and behold we got generation Y from 1980 to around 1997/8. These were our risk takers and our computer bof’s. They loved the internet and their communication skills evolved around it.

Ok, so now we have our current rug-rats born from 1998 to-date, Generation Z. Wow, do they live in the age where information flows at an all time high. These rug-rats play a major influence in the buying economy as they are the driving force behind all parent decisions.

With this generation I am not sure what happened to childhood, but they certainly stepped right over it.

Now that brings us to Generation G. Unlike the other generations, G is not characterized by age but spans across all the generations from Baby Boomers to Z.

Generation G covers any age, where you as an individual have come to the realization that the most important aspect of any business is its generosity to society as a whole.

What caused this shift?

1. The recent economic melt down caused a lot of people to realize how greedy and disgusting society has become.

2. We started to look for and want more from the corporate world than bonus payouts. We want corporates to care about us and our fellow citizens.

3. As individuals we have started being less selfish and caring more for others. We are a far more generous society than before.

4. We have also grown very aware of our planet and our environment and the damage we do each and every day. We try harder to be kinder to the environment and we are changing our bad habits.

So there you have it, G for Generous. Go to my web site and download some free ebooks.

And, yes, let me know what you think about the various generations.

 

How to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone

I worked at this amazing place where for many years I had one challenge after another. This was why I loved my job and could spend many hours at it with complete disregard for friends or family.

But one day I started realizing that I was going to work hating every minute of it. On analysis of my day to day activities I came to the realization that the reason for this discontent was, that I was in my comfort zone.

What happened to the challenges? Was I missing opportunities because the job was too easy? No, that was not it. I looked around my environment and had a good look at my job.

My job started feeling like a jail sentence. Why was that? The same beautiful office environment now started feeling to me more and more like a jail. Walls started closing in on me on a daily basis. Yet, I could not leave. Was I too scared to change, too comfortable in the environment that I have been in for more than a decade?

Yes. I loathe admitting it but there it was. I desperately wanted out, but did not have the guts to go. I was too scared to leave this comfort zone that I had worked myself into as the thought of failure sent my thoughts straight back to the “I cannot leave because..” and there were a million reasons that I would come up with to justify why I could not leave.

Yet, my discontent grew day by day as I watch my life go by. Longing for something else I could not put my finger too.

So I got up one day and told myself, this far and no further. I could not let my life go by whilst I saw hundreds of others leave there comfort zones, take risks, fail, get up, do it again and again, then success steps in.

Success never comes at an assigned date, it just happens in its own time as the universe plans for you to have it.

Yes, that was what I did. I held my breath and took that giant step out. I felt free and with renewed strength took on the unknown with open arms.

The step out is as easy as that. Here is a few simple how to steps:

• Decide what you want to do

• Put all your focus on that idea

• Throw away or talk yourself out of your fear

• Trust yourself. Remember when you fear failure you are basically saying “I do not trust my own skills. I lack confidence in myself. I don’t believe in myself”

• Be persistent. When making mistakes or if an attempt fails, ask “what did I learn from this?”

• Get up, incorporate the learning and try again. Failure is when you never tried again.

• Get a positive mantra to keep you going

Remember:

• Nothing ventured nothing gained

• All winners at one time were filled with doubt

Do not sit in your comfort zone and watch your life go by. There will be nothing worse than some day saying the dreaded”if only I..”

Reach for your future with a smile. The sum of persistent attempts equals success.

 

How Cell Phones Influence Internet Advertising and Marketing

The world telecommunications industry is expected to increase by an 11% compound annual growth at the end of 2010.

Now that is an impressive increase looking at the state of the economy over the last year and the current predictions of its recovery over the next financial year.

The revenue that the World telecom industry earns from the gross world products revenue is 3% and growing. 

In the US alone, the telecoms industry has set the following targets:

To create in excess of 212,000 jobs,

Invest $58 billion in capital investment opportunities and

To generate $113 billion new revenue streams

In China the telecoms industry is growing rapidly, with a past growth rate of 20% from 1997 to 2000. The telecoms industry’s mobile operators have invested on average US$25 billion annually. China also has the world’s largest mobile network industry.

India has enormous market potential in the telecoms industry and the government of India has enacted effective policies to allow for bigger investments from foreign companies. This accompanied by the fact that they have enabled basic and cellular services to use any modern technology has facilitated huge growth within the telecoms industry in India.

 

Now how does all this information contribute to the cell phones influence in the advertising market?

Simply, put, more and more people use their cell phones to access the internet as each new generation of cell phone manufacturer tries to perfect the handset’s ability to access the internet easier and easier at an ever reducing cost.

Let us have a look at the world internet usage stats per region.

In Africa only 6.7% of the population have internet and the majority of this growth was from 2000 to 2009. Actual growth from 2000 to 2009 was 1,349.9%.  

Another region where the internet user % to the population is under 20% is Asia with 18.5%.

Regions that had phenomenal growth from 2000 to 2009 were; Central America with 913.5%, Middle East 1,360.2% and Latin America & Caribbean with 873.1%. Yet despite this growth these regions still have less than 30% of their population on the internet.

The regions with the highest ratio of internet users are North America with 73.9% and Oceania / Australia with 60.1%.

Now if you look at the growth predications for erecting cellular towers in Africa, Asia and South America you will know that the growth trend in mobile communications will continue to be massive over the next 5 years.

These stats show us very interesting trends that we as internet marketers must not ignore.

In most of the under developed regions of the world, for example, Africa, this phenomenal growth is not based on fixed infrastructure connections but mostly wireless communications.

This in itself tells you that the majority of these users only link to the internet is via their mobile phone.

The question you must ask yourself is what do these new users want?

This is the biggest area that every internet marketer must focus on and design their web sites or blogs for this massively growing “small screen” market.

To tap into this market and for further information, visit this web site

 

Make Money With Cell Phone Advertising

We are all aware of Adwords and the power it has and still holds today in the online advertising world. Any web site owner worth their salt will or is advertising using Adwords.

There is however a relatively new market that is growing far quicker than the current online advertising market and that is the cell phone advertising market.

Currently, this new market has a potential client base of around 4.3 billion!

If you go to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) web site, they have some interesting statistics. ITU has also been the leading United Nations agency for information and communication technologies for over 145 years.

Did you know that 61% of the World’s population use a cell phone and this number is growing on a daily basis?

Most advertisers who have targeted this market markets mostly to one particular phone, which is the Apple iPhone. Doing some research on the market share of the various phones, you will find that the iPhone holds only about 11% of the cell phone market.

That leaves literally 89% of cell phone users that are not targeted.

A recent report from OgilvyOne and Acision made an interesting prediction about where cell phone advertising will be in 2020. This report said that by 2020 advertising will be far more people-centric, meaning you will not get just random ads delivered to your inbox, but far more personalised ads based on your tastes and preferences.

This is good news for most of us, who on a daily basis are receiving in excess of 50+ ads, which we mostly delete. If we can have control over what comes into our inboxes, life will most definitely be just a tad easier and less time consuming.

Now, all you web site owners, product pushers and affiliates out there, this is good news.

So, get to know what type of web sites are suited for cell phone advertising and start getting to know this new market better as it is growing. The OgilvyOne and Acisions report also predict that the proliferation of 3G and 4G networks will significantly grow the mobile advertising market from where it is today.

To learn more about this new market and its opportunities, go to MakeMoneyCellphone.com