SiteSell Blog

Small Business Trends in 2007. Ready?

Ken's Blog

"Ken, what are the major trends that will impact online small business people in 2007, and what should they be doing now to get ready for them?"

Wow! A great question during a recent interview.

Out of all the "noise" that bombarded us in the 100+ blogs, news feeds, e-zines, and Web sites that we followed during 2006, what was the "signal" mixed among all that noise? What are the major trends that will have a tangible effect on small businesses, and what can they do about it?

Could it be Google and its ever-improving search algorithms? Only if small businesses depend on SEO for traffic. SEO-driven sites are doomed to chase the algorithm.

What about Google's frequent new product launches? No, Google is already learning that they have to simplify, to make the Web accessible by a single search through its home page.

Is it Google at all?  Blogging? Web 2.0? YouTube? Yes and no. Here we go, black and white, no vague predictions... Here are the trends for 2007, extrapolating what we have witnessed during 2006...

Video Love

Ken's Blog

We spend a great deal of time on our sitesell.com Web sites trying to explain what SBI! is and does, trying to answer the age-old "What's in it for me" question.

We spend even more space proving that small business people really do succeed with SBI!, unlike the vast majority who fail using conventional methods. We have to prove it, beyond any shadow of a doubt, because we don't start out-of-the-gate with the brand credibility of Yahoo! Small Biz. And, I guess...

We must be doing something right, or more specifically our customers must be doing a whole lot of things right, because SiteSell has been growing steadily, regardless whether "e-commerce" is at the hysterical top of a BOOM or at the "Net-is-dead"-bottom of a BUST phase. Our customers thrive, so we do, too.

But it's not easy to communicate Site Build It!. It's big, all-encompassing. It sounds too good to be true. So it's not the easiest message to convey, not "tightly," anyway.

Until now.

Nothing has ever allowed us to communicate as well as video.

Here are just two examples...

1. SBI! Video Tour
This clean presentation of SBI!'s who-what-when-where-why-and-how has dramatically increased our Conversion Rates.

2. Customer Reaction
Take a peek at these SBI! videos at YouTube. Site Build It! connects emotionally -- folks get emotional when their lives change. Video shows emotion far better than any million words I could ever write (and I've been known to write a million or two ;-) ).

Where the Heck Are All the Commencement Addresses?

Ken's Blog

So why are we talking about commencement addresses in December? I'm not sure -- guess I couldn't wait until May. ;-)

Thanks very much for your comments on the "Steve Jobs's Commencement" post. And thanks very much especially to George Appiah, who has found and passed along one superb commencement address...

Thoughts on Steve Jobs's Commencement Address at Stanford University

Ken's Blog

Steve Jobs's famous Commencement Address to Stanford grads (June 2005) goes to the heart of the SiteSell philosophy about work and life. If you've not read it yet, it really is must-read material.

Print it. Read it. File it someplace where you'll find it again, because we all tend to forget thoughts that deserve to be remembered forever!

And share it. Share it with everyone you care for.

Recently, an SBI! owner pointed out the video version of it at YouTube.

I don't know why, but today it sparked four random but related thoughts...

The World Is Passing SEO By

Ken's Blog

Jason Calacanis, founder of Weblogs, Inc. which he sold to AOL for $25,000,000, said the following at the Dec/2006 Search Engine Strategies conference in Chicago...

"SEO is bullshit, if you generate a web page with good content Google will rank the page properly."

Now, a simplistic generalization (such as the one above) is meant to make a point, not win a debate. It is, of course, a great way to start a debate and win tons of publicity, especially if you make it at a conference full of SEOers! And so...

Mooch Marketing

Ken's Blog

The "dark side" of Direct Marketing is fully online, more effective than ever. So far, so boring -- we all know that.

Even when SiteSell first started in the late 90s, we were in the midst of direct marketers. A clique of talented but unethical marketers worked together, cross-selling each others' "Internet Marketing Secrets" for ridiculous prices.

We stayed clear of that cabal, and built a business based upon underpromising and OVERdelivering. We're still around, growing steadily. But you don't see the "old outfits" anymore. I guess they've made their money and moved on. So...

LESSON #1 Only the scammers get rich. Their customers? They are missing thousands of dollars.

We are now seeing a second major round of the dark side, a new wave of hucksters selling nebulous products and services for ridiculously high prices. And sure enough, gullible people continue to fall for irresistible copy that manages to convince them that, somehow, this one time, this proposition is different. The killer doubt...

LESSON #2 "Geez, what if?" That question lures folks into the same bad decisions over and over again. Some of them have been burnt before and will be burnt again.

The sad part is that they are good people, motivated to get ahead. But they get so excited (because they WANT to believe) that they fail to consider that no serious business person would really sell a goose that lays a golden egg.

One of the top masters showed me the inside of how this game works and it's brutally relentless. Let me open your eyes a touch...