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  I want to introduce you to https web security because it is about to become an important part of your website in the not too distant future. What is http and https? Whenever you visit a website it will always begin with http:// – whether you type in the www or not, what shows up at the beginning of a domain name is the hypertext transfer protocol (http). The http is used to help deliver a web page to a visitor on your website. It links your web server (the server hosting your website) to the web browser (e.g. Chrome or Internet Explorer) that the visitor is using. Here is something you may not know. Sites that only use http:// make it difficult for the privacy controls on  a computer to work. So while you, and your visitors, may think your privacy controls are protecting you from getting access to your computer and/or personal details, chances are they are being restricted and you are exposed. That means while you are happily reading the content of a website and putting in y...

 I’ve been excited lately – very excited – about adding a new service to my list.  Suffice it to say that it has the potential of creating a very good situation for both me and the buyer. A win / win, as they say; and we’re all up for those! So I began spending a little time in my head, putting together scenarios for reaching and delivering my new service my current client base (always start at home first, unless there’s a very good reason not to do so). In effect, I was putting together my sales funnel. Note however, that I do this in my head FIRST – before ANY work is carried out. And no, of course I haven’t always done it this way. I also heard that ‘if you build it they will come,’ crap and wasted ample amounts of time and effort (and money too) putting together something that nobody wanted. I learned from that. Some things to remember when you next start working on your own big idea, is that YOU are your number 1 fan. Nobody else cares, or they care very little, at least ...

 I’ve always been of the opinion that you should keep your personal opinions out of your business, for the simple reason that we only buy from people we like. An interaction can very quickly start to plummet when your prospect discovers that you’re a die-hard fan of the football team he or she most hates. Or when it becomes evident that your taste in music is offensive to them in some way. Or that you vote for the enemy. Or that you think certain government policies are good, or bad, when they’re busy trying to convert their own friends as to the failings of those very same policies. Or that you’re religion, if you have one, gives them heartburn. We’re humans. We build anchors and attach feelings to them. A particular piece of music may remind your client of his dog’s passing away. Don’t bring it up if you’re trying to sell something. When I’m being payed as a consultant, they’re paying me for my knowledge and expertise, so I keep it professional. Yes, I share some stories with the...

  Are you dealing with new and changing information constantly to keep abreast of your industry? Are you trying to replicate somebody else’s system, or various systems, and tweak them until the work for you? If this is you, then you’ve probably hit the information overload wall several times before today. I’m talking about that feeling of total overwhelm that grinds your thoughts to a halt; that feeling you get just when you thought you were getting the hang of things and then a new piece of information pops up and suddenly you convince yourself that you know very little about what you do, about where you’re going, and about the things you need to know. That’s information overload: the affliction of knowledge workers. How to cope with – and manage – your learning curve I heard something really clever in a pddcast recently. Clever and beautifully simple. Unfortunately, the speaker couldn’t recall the name of whoever came up with this idea, or at least whoever told it to him, but her...

 Last year I came across a small business owner in a big industry full of competition, and what he did took me completely by surprise and won him my custom hands down. This is a very important lesson for every business owner: one that you can’t afford to miss. So let me tell you what this man did that impressed me so much… Whatever your business, it’s likely that you have competition. And whilst competition is a good thing for the consumer, it makes things harder for the business owner. Especially the small business owner who is competing against big corporates. And so, with this in mind, one of the only ways to survive against the Giants is to distinguish yourself. And you do this by delivering excellence. But how do you outperform the big corporates? Well, on a global basis you probably have no chance (unless you really do have something unique that appeals to everybody, like iboprofen). Small business owners operating in a local market don’t have the resources that a big corpora...

  Let me start by saying I know I have used the American Z rather than the English S but that is because if you search for ‘personalisation’ you find a bunch of stuff not related to search engine optimisation. I want to explain this term so you can go off and do your own due diligence on how this ranking factor works. For now, when searching, you will have to use they keyword term personalization. So, what is personalization in SEO (search engine optimisation)? Personalization is a major factor in local search.  It has been since around 2011 (ish). I remember co-hosting a webinar and we were searching for different keyword results. Depending on where the person was based (we were based around the world) the results were different. It caused quite a bit of confusion at the time but that was an example of the beginning of personalization in SEO. The good news is, personalization in SEO is the main reason you no longer have to obsess about being number 1 in the search engines. Wh...

  I have recently self-published my book and looked into how to market a self-published book online, which I know a little about anyway but I thought the research wouldn’t hurt, and I discovered that marketing a book online is in no way different to marketing anything else – a business, a product, an affiliate product etc. So I thought I would put together some useful information on how to market a self-published book online that you might find useful: Publishers Weekly recommends you build a web presence and mailing list. They also recommend you target blogs and prominent sites who discuss the topics outlined in your book. If your book is a story that focuses on getting over divorce, for example, they will be many bloggers who write about that topic who may be willing to review your book (if you send them a free copy) or you may be able to buy advertising space on their blog if they offer that. The book Designer  – recommends you build an author platform and that you sta...

  Appearances are everything, even in business . If you are perceived to be an expert in your field, people will respect your opinion, you can charge more and you will be in more demand. Of course, you need to deliver excellently because that is the proof of all that you say about yourself. But even when you deliver an excellent service, appearances are important. Delivering excellently alone won’t help you get very far if you are failing in the appearance department. Imagine you have a huge garden badly in need of timing you are right home one day to find that it’s all trimmed and beautifully landscaped and you immediately demand to know who the skilled garderner behind this work is, so that you can hire him to tend to the upkeep of your gardens from now on. Upon your request, the gardener turns up and he turns out to be hideous, unkempt, smelly, and worse. What do you do? It’s very hard to overcome our natural instincts and reason with logic when we are repulsed in some way about...

 Arnold Schwarzenegger is alleged to have said that he doesn’t do sequels when it comes to films, but that he made an exception for Terminator. Well, this post is a sequel to How to completely take over a niche and how my local taxi firm is driving me mad. What’s more, it’s a fantastic sequel because it proves the point I made in the original post perfectly. To recap, my local taxi firm is a joke. They run a 24-hour ’service’ in a one horse town and can’t manage to get at taxi to my door at 5:30 AM. The problem is not overbooking, nor is it traffic on the road. The problem my local taxi firm has is one of management: they have a poor system in place, and are too lazy to fix it. Maybe part of their laziness is due to complacency, because no other local taxi firm offers a 24-hour service, which makes them the only fish in a small pond. They have a monopoly, and they are failing to deliver an excellent service. In fact, they deliver an appalling service, one that I’ve had the mis...

  Once you have your   WordPress Website   set up there are plenty of things you can do to help it help your business. As well as using it to attract new clients and stay in touch with existing ones you can also use it to earn an additional income for your business. One that is passively made so you can continue to run your business. 13 blog revenue streams   Sell an eBook.  This is the first choice for most business experts. You are an expert on your business and how you help your customers/clients so why not put that into an eBook and sell it on your website. Once the eBook has been written and added your shopping cart takes care of collecting the money and delivering the product to your customers. This can happen day or night and around the world. Self-publish a book.  Similar to selling an eBook except you will have to deal with posting your book out when orders come in. Develop an information product.  An information product is more than just an e...