Mar8
March has delivered me a lion share of web development, but that hasn’t stopped me from discovering a fun little site.
This is what the Englund Studio website looks like after being brought into Wordle. It‘s as easy as copying your most text heavy (or keyword heavy) page and paste it into the wordle text field.
Now I need to get back to work!
-David Englund
Feb24
Here’s a list compiled by Michael Dunlop, a blogger entrepreneur friend that I met at the Continuity Summit last year. This is where all the money is being spent online!!!
-Dave Englund
Feb13
Niche internet marketing is about solving a problem, or filling a need. The big hurdle is finding a truly profitable idea. So how do you find one? Well, the first thing you have to do is get into the mindset of other people – or as someone once said “get into the conversation in your potential customer’s head” Think about what problems people would go to the web to find a solution for, or what information do they go to the web for, but really find a lack of quality information or solutions. In short, find a hungry market and feed it!
Ever stay up late and see those infomercials about buying real estate with no money down, no credit, no assets, and making a million dollars a second overnight? Of course, intelligent people have enough common sense to know that if this method really worked, this guy would be out doing it himself instead of selling it to everyone else for twenty bucks, right? Right. What’s the point? The point is, these infomercials rake in the cash, if they didn’t then it wouldn’t be on TV every night. There are a lot of people in the world that act on pure emotion, without thinking. They buy on impulse. They have a problem, or a need, and this guy is providing the solution, providing the fill.
Niche marketing solves problems and fills needs as well. The first thing you can do to start looking for a niche to promote, is to go to Google and search for terms in quotes and add the “+forum” on the end, so Google spiders retrieve “forum websites” for your term. For example, one search you can do is “I can’t find any info on” +forum and you will get results of people talking in forums who have that exact phrase in their posts. This is a good way to explore solutions for new problems. Another good one would be “Anyone know where I can find a” +forum, which would get you results of people making posts such as “Anyone know where I can find a book about designing logos?” Then, you could do some research and see how much info is out there on the web about logo design, and see if creating a website about it would be a good idea……hmmmm, (note to self; check that search out)
Another good way to get some niche ideas is to watch the search trends for the major search engines, like Google and Ask, to see what people are searching for the most lately. Most of these sites have a history section where you can query the search history for at least the last couple months. From the search terms you can elaborate on variations of them for ideas. For example, if people have been searching a lot for “baseball hats”, then maybe you could use the Google Keyword Tool to get more variations on the term “baseball hats,” maybe terms like “Red Sox Baseball Hats,” or “Wool Baseball Hats” and so on. It might take you a while but if you keep at it, you are bound to come up with a good idea for your next niche internet marketing site.
Good luck, and if this went a few inches over your head, get in touch with me here – I LOVE showing people this stuff
And remember Everything is Marketing and Marketing is Everything!
Feb10
I’ve been following the scary attack stories featuring the underwriters at Visa and MasterCard, it seems as though they’re shutting down all Forced Continuity sites that have questionable sales tactics….it’s been a long time coming – and I’m glad something is being done.
What’s been happening is Visa and MasterCard are putting the breaks on and in some cases killing merchant accounts that pitch “Free with paid Shipping”, “Free Trials”, and “Opt-Out (They call it “Negative” Continuity).
Here’s what Ryan Lee said during a recent webinar about Forced Continuity Sites – I took some notes while I was listening and thought I’d share them with you:
1) IMPORTANT LEGAL STUFF: A lot of businesses that are continuity sites (sites that have a “sign up” for a monthly product and/or service) are being shut down by the underwriters from Visa/MC/Discover because of suspicious and deceitful practices.
2) These businesses have lost all their monthly paying customers in a SPLIT SECOND! NO QUESTIONS ASKED! – THIS IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!
2) No more “FREE TRIAL” verbiage, it’s a taboo phrase now, instead use $1 trial (or something similar). The problem is customers think Free is Free when it’s not, they get billed after a period of time. No more “try it free for 1 month”…those days are over, unless you want to suffer the financial damage that will follow.
3) This text (see below) or something like it, needs to be 100 pixels close to the order button and in at least 12 point type (not at the bottom of page in 6 point type like many deceitful companies have been doing)
4) You can’t have pre-checked boxes anymore (i.e. a box already checked with text next to it that reads “I will be billed monthly”) If you use a box for the customer to check, it needs to be unchecked in it’s natural state.
5) Test the context of the campaign by asking someone who knows nothing about online marketing to read it (mom, dad, grandmother) ask them what they think will happen if they were to sign up….My opinion is that this is the BEST acid test.
THE GOOD NEWS:
6) The Gold Rush of Continuity Sites is happening within the next 1-3 months, those who are shady are getting out because of fear from these new tight restrictions, which is BIG NEWS for those of you out there who are considering running an honest online business with sales being generated by way of a continuity system. it’s a great time to dominate niche markets….so many niches have not even been touched – selling e-books are good, selling CD’s are good but the BIG $$$$ is in continuity sites!…always was and always will be!
Personal note:
All in all it was a great webinar and an eye opening education on my part over the last few months, it will help me to protect my clients from unexpectedly being shut down and losing all passive residual income. The exciting news was that continuity sites are being considered THE INTERNET GOLD RUSH!
If you want more information or if I’ve spoken a few inches over your head, please get in touch with me, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE teaching people about this stuff!
-David Englund
Feb5
Listen to this quick Englund Studio Commercial featuring my 4 year old daughter Alina!
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Jan30
I don’t get why the word “iPad” is so funny! I’m married and I know all about feminine hygiene products and still don’t see the humor. Maybe because as a designer and an illustrator I use a “pad” every day, or because as a business owner I use a “pad” for my “to do” list or maybe as the host of cool parties I invite friends over to my “pad”…someone please help me, has anyone really chuckled and let out a belly laugh when they first heard the word “iPad”??…is it the “i” or the “pad” or the combination that’s funny?…help me, I’m losing my sense of humor!!!! OR perhaps people are out to get Apple….hmmmm, can such a small stone made up of 4 little letters really take down this innovative giant?
-David Englund
Jan25
I have a side business that sells t-shirts to emo girls (how’s that for an opening sentence?) My wife and I and two other partners started this in July thinking we’d be selling to teen boys and girls who fancy themselves emo (short for emotional) If you never heard of emo then google it, it’s a very interesting culture, anyway over time we realized that 90% of our customers were female so we’ve been marketing to our fan-base by using teen girl language on our site as well as our FaceBook page. Immersing ourselves in this sub-culture has been eye opening; from the fashion, to the language, to the way they see the world…it’s all been a wonderful experience!
So I’m writing this blog in response to an interesting phone call I received the other day, it turns out that the owner of Glogster has been searching for companies like ours to advertise on his website….85% of their “gloggers” are teen girls and 90% of them are emo!…so naturally I had to check out Glogster and boy was I surprised. The “G” in Glogster stands for “graphic” as in “graphic blog” these girls make posters that include mp3’s of their favorite songs, they can add video to their glog, upload graphics and add text of their favorite poems…you really should check it out (I’m in my 40’s and I was glogging in no time – very addicting) My first experience visiting Glogster.com was not unlike discovering MySpace or FaceBook only waaaaay better (listen to me!) I was off an running designing my fist glog, you can even type sideway, and they give you tons of backgrounds and themes and graphics to get you going, I know I sound like I’m promoting the site – and I guess I am (but not being paid) anyway, when I get excited about something – I simply can’t keep it in. So check out Glogster and let me know your thoughts!…and yes, we ARE going to advertise on their site!!!
-Dave Englund
Jan19
I was reading this at Smashing Magazine (great blog) and thought about passing it on.
#1) Splash pages display disclaimers or warnings which are supposed to restrict access to content such as pornography, advertising, or gambling (as is required by law).
#2) It is necessary to draw visitors’ attention to an important message such as approaching deadline, critical update, latest release, news, slogan etc.
#3) Visitors are supposed to select the language they want to use or the country they come from — to direct users to the appropriate version of the site.
#4) Visitors can choose between a low-bandwidth version (HTML — Dial-Up) and high-bandwidth version (Flash — cable, DSL). Sometimes one can also choose the “accessible” version containing only text without images.
#5) The designer informs visitors about site requirements such as used browsers, screen resolution as well as used Flash, Java, Quicktime etc. and suggests to choose the “right” configuration and download plug-ins for “optimal” site presentation.
#6) Visitors can select the preferred view mode – for instance, standard mode and fullscreen mode.
#7) Multiples sites share the same domain. Or a large site tries to communicate its most important sections directly.
#8) Splash page is supposed to include hints for browsing the site and explains the main sections.
#9) Designers use splash page trying to awake excitement for the actual content of the site.
#10) Sound is announced. Visitors are asked to turn on their loudspeakers to enjoy the Flash-show or Midi-experience (yes, apparently Midis are still alive).
#11) Splash pages are used as an additional form of advertising.
#12) The decision to use a splash page is design-driven and realizes some designer’s idea.
Jan16
I’m just getting over the flu, big reason why I didn’t post a blog on Wednesday. Wow, first week into the new blog and I already blew it!…I’m sure you understand. So I’m feeling better, my energy is coming back and work is starting to pile in..this is all good. I wanted to mention something that happened to me while the flu was in high gear (it might have happened to you as well) when you have a foreign alien bug traveling around your body the mind can come up with some weird things…here’s my flu inspired idea that found it’s way to my head last week….ready?….DogBook!
I must have been dreaming of FaceBook when my mind went there…so think about how many dog owners would create a profile of Miffy and Fido? what would their updates be; “just woke up and ripped through a fresh garbage bag in the kitchen” How would they connect to other dogs?, imagine the videos, imagine the clubs (“1,000,000 dogs can’t be wrong” or “Bark if you like Obama” or “Pugs Rule”) heck imaging the ads! Purina, PetCo…this is BIG MONEY people!…what’s my point?…we should all get sick every now and again, it might make you RICH!……as for now I’m feeling better and have to find new ways to inspire myself…talk soon!
-David Englund