Archive for the ‘Marketing’ Category

10 stupid online business ideas which brought millions

Before starting a business - you have to give birth idea - the idea of their business. And do not be afraid that at first glance, your idea is stupid or absurd. Sometimes it is these business ideas and bring a lot of money.

I submit to you 10 business ideas - at first glance foolish ideas of business. Nevertheless, they yielded to their creators millions!

And so:

Idea 1. Million Dollar Homepage

1000000 pixels, you need to pay one dollar per pixel - is perhaps the most dumb idea of an online business, which could come in the human head. Nevertheless, the 21-year-old Alex Tyu (Alex Tew), which came to mind this idea, now millionaire.

Idea 2. SantaMail

But this is not a bad idea. Find a mailing address at the North Pole (a city in the state of Alaska), pretend that you are Santa Claus and take on $ 10 from parents who want their children had a letter? And what do you think? Since the start of their business in 2001, Byron Reese (Byron Reese) has sent more than 200 thousand letters that made him a couple of million dollars richer.

Idea 3. Doggles

Develop goggles for dogs and sell them? Tupeyshaya business idea. And how they can become a millionaire and was able to sell their development of the world? This is beyond my understanding.

The idea of 4. LaserMonks

LaserMonks.com - this profile office Cistercian Abbey of Our Lady - the monastery, where only 8 monks, located on the hills of Monroe County 90 miles northwest of Madison. Yeah, real monks illicit your cartridges. Hallelujah! The level of sales for 2005 amounted to 2.5 million dollars! Praise the Lord!

The idea 5. AntennaBalls

You will not be able to sell antenna balls online. No way. And of course it does not make you rich. But it did Jason Wall (Jason Wall) and he now millionaire.

The idea 6. FitDeck

Take a deck of cards with pictures of various physical exercises, and begin to sell them for $ 18.95. In my opinion, no idea, a catastrophe. However, a former Marine “bear” and fitness instructor Phil Black (Phil Black) zadeklariroval last year’s revenue of $ 4.7 million. Of course, is more than pay for military service.

The idea of 7. PositivesDating.Com

You would go to visit with HIV-infected person? Paul Graves (Paul Graves) and Brandon Kochlin (Brandon Koechlin) decided that, yes, can, so last year created the site visits to HIV-infected. Net profit for 2006 amounted to 110 thousand dollars. They hope that over the next two years on the site would be more than 50 thousand users.

The idea of 8. Designer Diaper Bags

Christie Rein (Christie Rein) tired to carry a separate portable diaper bag. 34-year-old mother always suffered from the fact that she had to pack diapers for my little son’s bag so that they do not pomyalis in her handbag. Rein wanted something compact, beautiful and stylish, so in November 2004 together with her husband sat down and decided to establish an ad for the diaper bag, which would have been sufficiently spacious to ensure that it vlez whole range of travel and 2-4 diaper. With sales for 2005 of more than 180 thousand dollars, the company Christi Diapees & Wipees is developing 22 different styles of bags that can be purchased online in 120 boutiques around the world for $ 14.99.

The idea of 9. PickyDomains

To hire another person, that he thought you beautiful domain names? Browse for anything will pay for it. In fact, the process of finding domain names for other people began developing a thriving business, especially when there is no risk. There PickyDomains currently awaiting a list of people who want to ZAPLATIT their blood money for Nice and easy to remember domain name. The company expects that PickyDomains this year will reach the sum of sales for the six mark.

The idea of 10. Lucky Wishbone Co.

False plastic “pits the desires of a chicken. It seems that this stupid idea destined to fail. Yes what normal people would buy counterfeit KURINYE KOSTOCHKI? As it turned out, many are willing to buy it. Currently, the company produces 30 thousand balls a day (worth it for 3 dollars apiece) and its founder Ken Ahroni (Ken Ahroni) anticipates that sales for 2006 reaches 1 million dollars.

How? :)

Yes, after such ideas vystrelivayut and bring creators amounts of money - these ideas are beginning to clone all of whom are not laziness, a whole army of followers, more kolichechestvo same sites.

BUT … Only the original idea can bring a good return. Following the trace, you’ll get only crumbs!

Therefore you, my board - write down their ideas, whatever they were - even silly, wet, nobody at first glance do not want. And write - they start to sell! And perhaps it was your idea will bring it to you huge money!

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What’s more profitable: TV or the Internet?

Everyone knows that measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns on the Internet is easier than to assess the impact of television, outdoor advertising and advertising in the media. Then perhaps Russia’s advertisers is to spend the entire advertising budget on the Net? - Asking «Official». Despite the fact that at the moment of Internet users in Russia is several times smaller than the TV, Internet advertising is indeed effective television in terms of investment.

According to the think tank «Video International», in 2007, Russian companies spent on the internet about 2% of advertising budgets, but by 2012 the proportion of spending on online advertising will reach 6%. However, a number of corporations left in RuNet much more - 15-20% of advertising budgets, but some - not even half. Without progress in the Network, argues the president of the board of directors IMHO VI Arsen Revazov, no cost, no advertising campaign, except for those that focus exclusively on the housewives.

First of all, advertisers are responding to the growing Internet audience. In March this year, according to TNS Gallup, Runeta monthly audience of about 24 million people, or 39.1% of the Russian population over 12 years. In early 2005, Internet users were 2.5 times less.

Audience Yandex in Moscow and the Internet advertising market in the country - TNS data

Audience 1st channel in Moscow - the data TNS But viewers in Russia, of course, in times greater than Internet users. For example, the first television service in April saw 33.4 million people, and all sites «Yandex» in the same month daily visited 8.2 million users.

Internet audience for advertisers like much more than the audience. First of all - at the expense of their youth. When comparing the same «Yandex» and the first channel, the two-thirds of TV viewers in the capital over 40 years, but the portal, their share does not exceed one third of all visitors. And in regions where the penetration of Internet access less users even younger. In addition, the online audience is easier to segment. If thematic channels in Russia until the unit is on the Internet you can find a site for every taste. But the company attract advertisers on the Net, not only «correct» audience, but also an opportunity to get an immediate reaction to the proposal.

The most common way to assess the effectiveness of advertising on the Internet - to measure the ratio of clicks on a banner ad or on search results and the number of impressions (click through rate, CTR). Now, says director of marketing MindShare Interaction Julia Udovenko, on average Runetu CTR - about 0.2%. That is, if the banner saw 1 million users, it is believed that click on it to go to the advertiser’s site 2000 people. With saturation advertising sites CTR is falling - even two years ago it was 0.4%, said Udovenko.

But by itself CTR is not too revealing, many believe the Russian advertising agencies. It is important to understand not only how many users have moved to the site, but then, how many people there late to see a few more pages. This really shows the potential client’s interest: it can click on the banner accidentally.

As an example, Udovenko led the campaign to move the car in RuNet middle class, which spent $ 150 000. During the four-week advertising saw 7 million people clicked on it 65 200 times, and moved to the site of the manufacturer 57 400 times. Thus, obtaining almost 60 000 potential customers (assuming that the site each time went different people).

Advertising manager IBM Tamara Meshcheryakova indicates that the use of specialized IT-CTR sites, and can reach 0.3%. If used to advance the business of the massive portals, the figure is reduced down to 0.16%.

You can track not only the number of referrals to the site, but the so-called «action» visitors to the site. For example - the number of orders online. «Step» could also be filling out a questionnaire on the site, write to test-drive a car, etc. According to Udovenko, the real «action», reflecting the desire of the client to buy or order the service, commits an average of 3-4% of visitors to the site .

But all these methods of evaluating the effectiveness of working only if the advertiser is aimed at promoting a specific product or service and expects a potential client’s immediate reaction. If the purpose of advertising - to improve the image of the company or to raise awareness of the brand, the CTR is not so printsipialen, said Meshcheryakova from IBM. That is why IBM is using to advance not only specialized sites, which are collected aytishniki, but also the sites of news agencies, portals, etc. CTR there will be lower, because the banner will see a lot of casual visitors, but «correct» image of the site positively affects the image of the company .

About the same said marketing director «Komkora» Vadim Vankov: «Our placement on the front page rbc.ru little impact on sales, because there is little clicks, but increases brand awareness». Yet, Meshcheryakova continues to maintain the image more suitable specialist and business media: «People are still more confidence in the paper the press than sites». Therefore, IBM, which spends this year in RuNet nearly half the advertising budget, the remaining money to distribute among the print media and naruzhkoy. But oflaynovoy verify the effectiveness of advertising is far more complex than the Internet. There are only indirect ways to do this - focus groups and surveys.

However, the benefit to advertisers, television or Internet advertising?

According to Arsen Revazov of IMHO VI, the Internet slightly more expensive television advertising, but better in terms of investment. Marketing Director «Academy of capital» Igor Tarasenko also notes that the movie showing on TV per each of the spectators will always be cheaper. But in terms of exposure to a specific target audience is less expensive online advertising.

In addition, said Tarasenko, on TV, there «threshold clipping» advertising costs: if a company spends at least slightly less than the position, she did not receive anything, but if spends correct amount - will receive a guaranteed outcome. In the same Internet, he said, can be wisely invested $ 100 000-200 000, funny television money, make a nice campaign and get a massive flow of customers.

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Major European markets opened serious decline

Leading European stock markets on Friday, October 24, opened a serious decline in the wake of Asia and led by shares of automobile companies.

Asian stock indexes sharply collapsed to 10% on negative corporate news from several leading companies. The major portion of the negative message has the second largest in the world automakers Toyota Motor Corp to lower sales volume in the III quarter of 2008 to 6.4% for the first time in seven years. European car manufacturers also failed to please investors: the second largest European automobile manufacturer PSA Peugeot Citroen and truck manufacturer Volvo reduced annual profit forecasts because of falling profits in the III quarter. Against this backdrop, desheveyut shares: PSA Peugeot Citroen (-12%), Volvo AB (-19%), Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (-6,13%), Daimler AG (-6,87%), Volkswagen AG (-7 , 64%).

Negative momentum as stock quotes show the banking sector followed by Morgan Stanley analysts lowering the annual price forecast Securities British bank HSBC. Against this backdrop, declining stocks HSBC (-9,44%), HBOS PLC (-9,62%), Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (-5,22%), Barclays PLC (-8,5%), Deutsche Bank AG (-3,64), Commerzbank AG (-3,78%).

At 9.4% collapsed shares of Europe’s largest airline Air France-KLM Group stating that it will be very difficult to achieve the target revenue for the year to 1 billion euros.

Also desheveyut shares two largest mining companies BHP Billiton Ltd (-2,31%) and Rio Tinto Group (-3,97%) against a backdrop of declining prices for non-ferrous metals.

By 12:51 Moscow time the British FTSE 100 index falling by 5.93% to 3845.46 point, the French CAC 40 - at 6.79% to 3086.17 point, the German DAX - at 7.29% to 4190.29 item pan DJ EURO STOXX 50 - at 6.98% to 2280.85 points.

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How Looks The Content

Good navigation and legibility are important to inviting customers to visit your Web site

What expect the customers to find on the Web in most - the content or the content itself? Believe it or not, it is the former. That’s definitely true - the world’s best content does not make anyone happy if they can not find it. Besides customers find the content, it must be readable too. Don’t think that’s simple. When Chesterton created 210 Web sites, it established good navigation and legibility an oddity. Worse, it also determined that minor flaws add up to a major problem a lack of trust that the site will deliver what customers want.Senior Analyst Moira Dorsey tells why good navigation is not important for its own sake—it improves the bottom line.

Question: Draw the link for me between an online client experience and the bottom line.
Answer: It is very simple: The two matters do not compete. If you know your customers, their behaviours, and the targets they are trying to complete, and after that plan your website to back those targets, they will be content. Your target is really to replace costs from a call center to website or into a phone-based self-service system, but doing it in a course that delivers a best experience to the client. There is a high correlation between good self-service and client gratification.

Question: It is the used mantra that people do not needs require to speak to another individual—they just require to here their answers. Why is this so hard?
Answer: There is an important change between seeing a client visibility, which you need to commercialize to people, and creating a website for that use—that is, planning what amounts to a product that people have to use.

Question: When they are stressing to better this merchandise, as you see it, what should companies be thinking about?
Answer: I consider you need a portfolio of tools to see how good your lines are. You need direction groups, surveys, Web analytics, and usability laboratory tests. Ultimately, you are searching at four matters: rate, navigation, demonstration, and confidence.

For rate, we search at whether the important content and the functionality for getting it are there. Navigation covers the practices that give to getting what clients are searching for, like search capabilities and menu design. Demonstration means that, assuming the content and functionality are available, can the client take it—is it formatted legibly? Confidence covers whether contextual help is available, and whether privacy and security policies are demonstrated.

Question: Any visible examples of this?
Answer: We get companies doing well in some of the categories, but not in others. Across our past 200 evaluations, I can show you that some of the biggest failures were in matters that have known solutions. For example, all of our brains are to some level wired the same way, and we know that text wants contrast in terms of the foreground and ground, and it should be no smaller than 10-point type. But 80 percent of the sites failed the legibility examination. In existing privacy and protection notices, 85 percent failed.

Sometimes the answer depends on the website, like in good menu design. The menu categories should be free and clear, so that people do not slow down or get down the wrong way. We know that is a difficulty, but the answer depends on the specific website. We discover incompatible reciprocal factors, or menu items that had different names on different parts of the website.

Nobody spends on all cylinders 100% of the time, particularly when you are running to get those two other attributes I mentioned: how good it supports the brand, and how good it supports the client’s targets.

Question: From a tactical standpoint, what causes the difficulties you site about Web sites within corporations? Is it an imperfect architecture, a lack of consistent design, or a governance issue?
Answer: All those matters are interrelated. If you do not consider that you need to design the website to back the people who are meant to use it, so it would not look like a bad idea to simply follow the structure of the corporation. As an answer, we find companies organize their home page based on the organizational structure of the company, unlikely that will make sense to the people outside the company who have to use the website.  Either they do not have the skills to see this or they do not have a process in place to have certain they design a website right in the first place.

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Promotion of Your Local Business on the Internet

If you’ve got a local business — or serve as a consultant or web designer for local businesses — then I am pretty confident you will want to read this 44-page guidance.Question: If I own a local business that trades with traditional goods and services, what good is the Internet to me?
Answer: If you live in a city of any size — especially in a place where new people are moving in — people are extremely using the internet to find local businesses. That may not be your method of research, but for many, basically younger people, the internet is their key to knowledge — both local and global.

In July 2004, Nielsen//NetRatings new MegaView Search service stated that 24.5 percent of searchers on major search engines conducted searches that were local in scope, averaging 4.5 searches per searcher. In November 2004, a Kelsey Group-BizRate.com study stated that more than 75 percent of respondents said they had conducted local searches and confirmed that 21 percent of all searches among respondents were local. Using the Internet to find local businesses is now actual tool and can only grow in frequency.

Some of the businesses that can be helped by local Internet marketing include: chiropractor, computer retailer, travel agent, locksmith, massage therapist, insurance agent, real estate agent, mortgage broker, maid service hardware retailer, plumber, auto repair, physician, dentist, florist, limousine service, accountant, auto dealer, lawyer, restaurant, and movers, among others.
Fortunately, for a local business you do not need a big, complex, and expensive website to be helpful. You are not competing with the best of the best nationally; you just need to submit yourself well to local residents and those within driving distance.
This guidance will explain how to use the internet to market a local or regional business. It’s not, however, created to be a dumped down guide for people who know nothing. I shall assume some understanding of how the Internet works (what a domain name is, etc.) and that you’re willing to teach yourself. There is much guidance that’ll explain the basics, so I would not cover all the basics here, but center on the exact Internet marketing methods that are helpful for local businesses.

Nor will this guidance describe all the traditional off-line ways to market your business. You will need to use many of these to market successfully locally — since the Internet is merely one piece (though a growing piece) of the local marketing puzzle. If you need a wonderful guidance on traditional local marketing I heartily recommend Jay Conrad Levinson’s Guerrilla marketing (third edition, Houghton Mifflin, 1999).
But little guidance approaches the Internet from a local marketing viewpoint. The guidance you are reading is created to be a brief, focused, no-hype how-to-do-it guide to marketing a local business on the Internet. It’s meant to be suggestive rather than comprehensive, since every aspect of the internet is changing — especially local Internet advertising — because expect to use this guidance as a jumping off point for the spots that interest you.
My hope for yourself is that you will teach yourself how to do effective Internet marketing for yourself local business and so increase many of new and returning customers 25 percent or like. How is that for a modest, but realistic target?

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