Saturday, June 25, 2005
What would you do with a website?
I got word today that one of the online businesses I've greatly admired is offering a summer sale on their flagship product. I've long been intrigued by this product. From what contact I've had with it, it seems to pull together A LOT of web marketing tools all in one interface.
Over the years, I've picked up a lot of specialized tools to create, evaluate, and market websites and auctions. And I've always wished it was possible to have all those tools communicate with each other. It's such a drag creating interfaces that allow me to combine information I need to pull together from multiple tools. A little programming skills would serve me well there, but, alas, programming is neither my forte nor my interest.
So a web building tool that has all these tools, or some semblance thereof, built in... VERY intriguing to me—if nothing more than to see how effectively each module stacks up against the standalone tool it emulates and how well everything meshes together.
So news of the sale (buy one website and get a second at a fraction of the price) has me salivating. Not that I don't have enough to do. Far from it! Especially with a trip all next week to help my wife Joanne's parents break up their housekeeping of 60 years as they enter a nursing home.
But the thought is intriguing—what would I do with two additional sites if I went ahead with this? Build more of a feeder site to bring traffic into One Stop Web Support? Expand my eBay store into a broader gift and decor site outside of eBay? Go for more of a niche market on something like food, that Joanne could feel more a part of than the foreign language of computers and web marketing that I speak in when she asks how work is going? Set my son Joel up with a soccer website that he can use to pay for his college education?
With one day before we leave for Jo's parents' house and plenty to do in that day, I doubt that I'll make any move before we leave, but it sure will be on my mind—and in Joanne's and my conversations throughout the week.
This is one opportunity that may be too intriguing to pass up.
Incidentally, if you're looking for a good way to build a website or two of your own, you may want to check this offer out while it's available. Just click on the "Summer Sandals" banner a little way down the page.
Jeff
I got word today that one of the online businesses I've greatly admired is offering a summer sale on their flagship product. I've long been intrigued by this product. From what contact I've had with it, it seems to pull together A LOT of web marketing tools all in one interface.
Over the years, I've picked up a lot of specialized tools to create, evaluate, and market websites and auctions. And I've always wished it was possible to have all those tools communicate with each other. It's such a drag creating interfaces that allow me to combine information I need to pull together from multiple tools. A little programming skills would serve me well there, but, alas, programming is neither my forte nor my interest.
So a web building tool that has all these tools, or some semblance thereof, built in... VERY intriguing to me—if nothing more than to see how effectively each module stacks up against the standalone tool it emulates and how well everything meshes together.
So news of the sale (buy one website and get a second at a fraction of the price) has me salivating. Not that I don't have enough to do. Far from it! Especially with a trip all next week to help my wife Joanne's parents break up their housekeeping of 60 years as they enter a nursing home.
But the thought is intriguing—what would I do with two additional sites if I went ahead with this? Build more of a feeder site to bring traffic into One Stop Web Support? Expand my eBay store into a broader gift and decor site outside of eBay? Go for more of a niche market on something like food, that Joanne could feel more a part of than the foreign language of computers and web marketing that I speak in when she asks how work is going? Set my son Joel up with a soccer website that he can use to pay for his college education?
With one day before we leave for Jo's parents' house and plenty to do in that day, I doubt that I'll make any move before we leave, but it sure will be on my mind—and in Joanne's and my conversations throughout the week.
This is one opportunity that may be too intriguing to pass up.
Incidentally, if you're looking for a good way to build a website or two of your own, you may want to check this offer out while it's available. Just click on the "Summer Sandals" banner a little way down the page.
Jeff
Friday, June 24, 2005
Back to normal
Things are pretty much back to normal again after the replacement of my dying hard drive and the reinstall of my software. Granted, I still have a lot of the specialty software to reinstall and I still have to take time out occasionally to reconfigure some things to get my preferred settings back. But, overall, it's beginning to feel like things were (except with a much more stable hard drive!).
I got far enough along to get this Sunday's newsletter ready to go. This one features the following articles:
Things are pretty much back to normal again after the replacement of my dying hard drive and the reinstall of my software. Granted, I still have a lot of the specialty software to reinstall and I still have to take time out occasionally to reconfigure some things to get my preferred settings back. But, overall, it's beginning to feel like things were (except with a much more stable hard drive!).
I got far enough along to get this Sunday's newsletter ready to go. This one features the following articles:
- Part 2 of a 3-part article on how to set up your webpages to best match the way that studies have shown that people view webpages
- Review of the ebook WordTracker Magic, which changes the way most people do keyword research with tips and tricks to help find keyword opportunities that most people overlook
- Review of the ebook Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay, an ebook I feel is a must read for anyone serious about selling regularly on eBay
- A special guest article by Silent Sales Machine author Jim Cockrum in which he evaluates one eBay seller's auction and describes what that seller did well and what that seller could improve—a very enlightening article
If these articles interest you and you haven't already signed up for my newsletter, I invite you to sign up at:
http://www.onestopwebsupport.com/newsletter-signup.htm
Or check out previous newsletters at:
http://www.onestopwebsupport.com/newsletters/nl-archives.htm
With each newsletter I do, I find I enjoy it more. I hope you find the same.
Jeff
Back online
I'm baaaaack.
Everything went amazingly smoothly with replacing my hard drive and reinstalling all the software and files.
Except one thing. Somehow, we got totally disconnected from the Internet. Nothing worked to get us back up. We finally had to get a service rep in from the cable company to figure it out. I still have no idea what caused the problem, but whatever it was, it's fixed.
Two and a half days without Internet sure shows you how dependent you are on it! It also shows how distracted you can get by it. Our three kids at home, who are usually fighting over Internet time, read, watched videos, got outside, and generally found their daily routine to be an entirely different experience than usual.
My wife Joanne got a lot more things done around the house. And I found myself realizing constantly how dependent I am on access to the Internet. Questions that came up or tasks I needed to do for work were constantly cut short as I realized, "Oops, I can't go online to check this out."
But we're online again, and things should be back to normal until Monday, when we head off for Joanne's parents to deal with their admission into a nursing home after her Dad's latest hospitalization.
Yes, life remains on the unusual side for us.
Jeff
I'm baaaaack.
Everything went amazingly smoothly with replacing my hard drive and reinstalling all the software and files.
Except one thing. Somehow, we got totally disconnected from the Internet. Nothing worked to get us back up. We finally had to get a service rep in from the cable company to figure it out. I still have no idea what caused the problem, but whatever it was, it's fixed.
Two and a half days without Internet sure shows you how dependent you are on it! It also shows how distracted you can get by it. Our three kids at home, who are usually fighting over Internet time, read, watched videos, got outside, and generally found their daily routine to be an entirely different experience than usual.
My wife Joanne got a lot more things done around the house. And I found myself realizing constantly how dependent I am on access to the Internet. Questions that came up or tasks I needed to do for work were constantly cut short as I realized, "Oops, I can't go online to check this out."
But we're online again, and things should be back to normal until Monday, when we head off for Joanne's parents to deal with their admission into a nursing home after her Dad's latest hospitalization.
Yes, life remains on the unusual side for us.
Jeff
Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Reformatting we will go
I finally did the inevitable today and got my business computer ready to reformat the hard drive. Crashes were getting more and more frequent, so after putting it off as long as I could, I started the deed today. The main computer is reinstalling the operating system on the business computer as I write on the family computer.
So time to get back to watching the green bar advance on the install. What fun.
Jeff
I finally did the inevitable today and got my business computer ready to reformat the hard drive. Crashes were getting more and more frequent, so after putting it off as long as I could, I started the deed today. The main computer is reinstalling the operating system on the business computer as I write on the family computer.
So time to get back to watching the green bar advance on the install. What fun.
Jeff
Monday, June 20, 2005
Monday Haiku
Funny, how even when you set your own schedule (mostly), Mondays have a way of transforming themselves into the most disagreeable day of the week.
Monday has become the day of putting together the pieces from the previous week—pulling stats from a multitude of reports and then reorganizing them, stretching them, squeezing them, pinching them and trying to get them to squeal out some kind of insight.
And usually feeling that the results are more unconnected fragments than actionable insights.
But then again, what can you really expect of a Monday?
Jeff
Monday, dull workday
Like casserole overcooked
Thick glop on my plate
Funny, how even when you set your own schedule (mostly), Mondays have a way of transforming themselves into the most disagreeable day of the week.
Monday has become the day of putting together the pieces from the previous week—pulling stats from a multitude of reports and then reorganizing them, stretching them, squeezing them, pinching them and trying to get them to squeal out some kind of insight.
And usually feeling that the results are more unconnected fragments than actionable insights.
But then again, what can you really expect of a Monday?
Jeff
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Oops
I just realized that I had promised to run a weekly feature of my favorite weblinks in each Sunday's entry. I guess that this week, Father's Day trumps special feature. I'll be back with that next week.
Jeff
I just realized that I had promised to run a weekly feature of my favorite weblinks in each Sunday's entry. I guess that this week, Father's Day trumps special feature. I'll be back with that next week.
Jeff
A Different Father's Day
Nothing to say about business today. It was definitely a family day, and a great one at that. Tradition was decimated today and made for a very surprising and enjoyable day.
A typical Father's Day at our household goes something like this. A couple of weeks before, my wife Joanne asks me to write up a list of what I want. I know from experience not to put anything that costs more than $30 on it, so I usually list a few DVDs, a few CDs, maybe a couple of clothings items or a couple of books.
Then on Father's Day I open packages that come straight from the list and take the family out to a nice restaurant (at my expense).
This year, about a week ago, I said to Joanne, "I don't know what to put on a list this year. I'm so wrapped up in getting this business going that I still haven't watched the DVD's I got for Christmas, I'm usually too engrossed in work to slip a CD in the computer while I'm working, my closet is overstuffed with clothes, and I have five books on the shelf I haven't read. Plus, with income still in the 'growing but uncertain' stage, I don't think we can afford our usual nice restaurant.
Jo smiled slyly and said, "If you can't think of anything for a list, I think we can come up with something on our own."
So today they surprised me big-time. One thing I've wanted to do for several years is to replace our old, battle-weary grill, but always put other priorities ahead of it. So the kids all pooled their money and did just that for Father's Day. Plus, they put together enough to pay for a meal to our favorite pizza place and to take me to finally see the latest Star Wars.
Then it was home to try out the new grill and, later, to hear from the ones who are off on their own now. A great day overall, largely because it was truly from their hearts and not just our old, traditional approach to the day. I truly feel blessed to have the children—and the wife—God has blessed me with.
Jeff
Nothing to say about business today. It was definitely a family day, and a great one at that. Tradition was decimated today and made for a very surprising and enjoyable day.
A typical Father's Day at our household goes something like this. A couple of weeks before, my wife Joanne asks me to write up a list of what I want. I know from experience not to put anything that costs more than $30 on it, so I usually list a few DVDs, a few CDs, maybe a couple of clothings items or a couple of books.
Then on Father's Day I open packages that come straight from the list and take the family out to a nice restaurant (at my expense).
This year, about a week ago, I said to Joanne, "I don't know what to put on a list this year. I'm so wrapped up in getting this business going that I still haven't watched the DVD's I got for Christmas, I'm usually too engrossed in work to slip a CD in the computer while I'm working, my closet is overstuffed with clothes, and I have five books on the shelf I haven't read. Plus, with income still in the 'growing but uncertain' stage, I don't think we can afford our usual nice restaurant.
Jo smiled slyly and said, "If you can't think of anything for a list, I think we can come up with something on our own."
So today they surprised me big-time. One thing I've wanted to do for several years is to replace our old, battle-weary grill, but always put other priorities ahead of it. So the kids all pooled their money and did just that for Father's Day. Plus, they put together enough to pay for a meal to our favorite pizza place and to take me to finally see the latest Star Wars.
Then it was home to try out the new grill and, later, to hear from the ones who are off on their own now. A great day overall, largely because it was truly from their hearts and not just our old, traditional approach to the day. I truly feel blessed to have the children—and the wife—God has blessed me with.
Jeff
© 2005, 2006, 2007 Jeff Baas, One Stop Web Support
