When A Customer Is Overwhelmed

Customers are fragile creatures. When they hire you (unless you're lucky enough to own a fancy title of a "coach" or a "mentor") they assume that their part is mostly done and expect the rest of what they want to appear as if by magic on the schedule and according to their standards.

Sometimes it's the right expectation and sometime it's not. Now, imagine for a second that the customer needs to make a major contribution to the project. Lets say, he needs to provide texts and graphics for the website you're building for him. And he doesn't have them -- yet. But in his mind he is done -- mostly. It's a paradox, I know.

Then, around the time when the deadline for him to deliver all he has to deliver for the project is about to happen, it suddenly downs on him like a ton of bricks: OMG, he has to do this, and that, and that, and it should've been done, like, yesterday. So, he starts running around trying to finish everything at once, and it gets him overwhelmed. Severely. He suddenly realizes he should've started two month ago and there's no way on earth he can finish it in a week. This thought pains him. This thought makes him tired even more than he's already tired, and he stops reading emails from you. Because your emails wake up the torturing memory of all the things he should have accomplished yet hasn't accomplished for his own dear project.

And then, he gets depressed.

Damn!

And then everything stops and nothing gets done from that point on because you're waiting for him to get over himself and finally deliver to you what he had to deliver, like, two weeks ago... In a meantime, he is overwhelmed and depressed, and it pains him to even think about it. So, he doesn't.

It's madness with no system in it!

When I just started this project I was thinking of using some project management software. I looked at a couple of services online, but they seemed either like an overkill with bells and whistles that would require ridiculous amount of time to just maintain them, or like an awkward and rather useless service that wouldn't even let you properly enter all the tasks for the project. On the third try I decided to give up, not waste any more time and simply rely on e-mails. After all, there are mainly two people involved - I and my customer. Surely two smart people can communicate effectively using e-mail and phone, right? Boy, was I wrong!

For almost three weeks now I can't make my customer send me a simple phone# without which I can't open a business PayPal account, without which I can't create Purchase web page, without which I can't finish the darn website and move on to the next one! She feels overwhelmed, so she ignores "the small" tasks she has to do.

I got it. Customers are fragile creatures. Unless they see tasks from the "outsourced" projects on their own schedule in black and white, they either procrastinate on them endlessly or ignore them completely.

Learn from my mistake, if you can. Even if there are only two of you -- you and your customer -- get your project a schedule with tasks assigned to a person responsible for it and deadlines for each of the tasks. At least that.

Even though, half of my project is done, I can't stand waiting any longer for the phone# to show up in my mailbox. I created a project in OfficeZilla.com and added that small task to the list of tasks. I assigned it to her. From now on, it'll all be there in black and white. Tomorrow I am sending an invitation to my customer to join...

Two copywriters walk into a bar...

Copywriters are making hilarious jokes in a comment section of this post in the John Carlton's blog. Although, in order to laugh at it you need to know the meaning of words "copywriter", "swipe" and "Twitter".

Dealing With Chaos (modified on 03/17/09)

One of my close friends insists that I increase the level of entropy in the Universe. I think he is tragically mistaken.

Certainly, there are some people who thrive in chaos. Chaos helps them be creative. Or they feel comforted by it. I am not one of them.

Then, there are people who are comforted by order and thrive in it. They love routines, schedules and predictability. I am not one of them either.

I hate both -- order and chaos. Perhaps, "hate" is too strong of a word. But I dislike them immensely: order for it's binding, suffocating nature, and chaos for it's lack of harmony. And if you take out of the picture these two, what's left is the middle ground -- easy, flexible, logical systems. It's a way of having some order in one's life without it smothering you into a robot-like state and, at the same time, chasing a chaos away.

To think about it, most of what surrounds us in life are systems. Our political, social, religious, professional, and even family and love life are all systems -- whether we want it or not. We use systems others created for us or create our own systems all the time, even if we have no intentions of doing so. The way we choose our clothes, brush our teeth, relate to other people, clean our house, solve problems are all systematic in nature -- that is, we repetitively do it in the same manner.

Even when we are being creative and unique -- writing a novel, for example, or painting a picture, we still follow certain system. The way we approach our subject, the way we arrange supplies in preparation for the artistic inspiration, the way we choose words or brushes, the way we see the world are systematic as well.

So, it's really not a question of whether we do it or not. It's simply a question of whether the systems we create and use in our life are good or bad.

The system is bad when:

• It doesn't feel right.
• It creates negative effect in our life.
• The efforts to sustain it is greater than the results it produces.
• It's not logical and and is hard to follow.
• It's rigid.

The system is good when:

• It feels right.
• It produces noticeably positive results.
• It convenient, easy to follow, and requires little effort to maintain.
• It's flexible and adaptable to changes.
• It's logical and after an initial learning curve (if it even exist), requires little or no extra effort to memorize/recall it.
• The result/effect it produces is much greater than the efforts required to sustain it.
  

For instance, a language is a great system. After we learn how to use it, we just use it all our life -- some more than others. Another excellent system is Internet. It's very easy to use and the results we get out of using are next to miraculous.

Example of a bad system? The way spelling taught in schools. Consider the amount of time an effort involved into teaching it and the poor results it produces. Another example? The way spouses relate to one another in a troubled marriage. Now, that's where the real entropy is...

As for business, everything above still applies. And, as a rule, if a business system is created in order to stroke someone's ego, it's a bad one.

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Art: Plotkin Entropy by donnabellas

The Problem With Blog Templates

All last week I've been working like a dog for my client. Not because she is pushing, but because for some reason I've been unable to stop.

I installed WordPress and needed plugins, got the menu right and the widgets, got seo-friendly permalinks, fine tuned the settings. And now all I need is the perfect theme for the customer to like:

• It should be cute as if done for kids, but be serious enough for adults to browse.
• It should have green and yellow, but not too yellow in a theme.
• It shouldn't look like a blog.
• It should be seo friendly and user friendly.
• It should look unique.

The list sounds impossible enough as it is, but now add to it the main problem hunting 90% of templates. See, the templates are either done by graphic artists, by bloggers, or by opportunists.

Graphic artists knows how to make a template pretty, but have no clue about the technical side of blogging: search engine optimization, accessibility, load time. Sometimes they don't even bother with widgets. They just overload a template with graphics and that's about it.

Bloggers, on the other hand, pay a lot of attention to the technical stuff. They make widget-ready, seo-optimized, light themes by using basic layouts and minimum of graphics. Unfortunately, they are often color-blind and have no idea about accessibility either.

Opportunist are the worst kind. They grab simple templates, change them a little bit, load with heavy graphic / photo headers, put their encrypted monetized links in a footer, and then they spread those templates without even testing them properly in all popular browsers.They don't care about anything but their golden links sprouting on the Internet.

That's why I use standard templates on two of my Blogger's blogs -- I don't want to bother with fixing someone's design and coding errors. I have enough of that nonsense with the WordPress templates.

Small Victories

I thought that a small victory would be motivational and inspirational. You know, a little one would inspire to fight for a big one... No such luck.

I got pretty good traffic on my main site, I got traffic on my second site that I just started reluctantly promoting last week, and I got a new client with a big project. That should be motivational, shouldn't it?

Maybe, if it happened 3 month ago, it would feel different. But after I already lost momentum, a small thing can't bring it back.

On the other hand, perhaps, a big momentum isn't a requirement for moving ahead and eventually winning big. Perhaps, a big momentum is like a Big Romantic Love: great to have, but most people live without it and some even live happily.

WordPress vs. TypePad vs. Blogger vs. LiveJournal

LiveJournal

Nowadays there are way too many blogging platforms. But when I started my first blog several years ago, there were just a few. LiveJournal was one of them.

An acquaintance invited me to join and I did so more out of politeness than anything else. LiveJournal is a hybrid between a blogging platform and a social network. It's designed for building networks of people who write online journals (mostly personal ones) and keeping up with your network's posting activity.

LiveJounal is a blog plus a popularity contest.

If you enjoy social networking, connecting and keeping up with your online pals, you might like this platform. LiveJournal requires no technical knowledge from a blogger. And as soon as you make an LJ friend, a connection, you get an instant reader for your blog. The more LJ friends you make, the more readers your blog will have. Joining LiveJournal is free.

LJ may be a perfect fit for someone who wants to keep a personal journal online with no technical knowledge required and either already knows a network of LJ users and is planning to become a part of it or is interested in building one.

On a negative side:

• LiveJournal allows for very little customization.
• The network of readers that you build on LJ often lacks a sincere interest in your topic and joins your network either out of politeness (because you join theirs), out of desire to be popular and create their own large network of "friends", or because they know you personally and want to make a social connection.
• LJ is not very suitable for a business blog.
• It requires you to either keep up with your network's journals or be insincere when making connections.
• No SEO optimization.
• Can't use your own domain name.
  

Personally, I was very unhappy with LiveJournal and left it after a few months. The popularity contest, which is a large part of LJ, kept me from speaking in my true voice. My audience was wonderful but wrong for my blog, and instead of writing what I wanted to write about, I was putting too much effort into being witty and interesting. And even though there were a lot of wonderful writers in my network, I was completely bored (and feeling rather resentful) reading their blogs simply because I wasn't interested in their topics. It felt like a complete waste of time for me.

Just to end on a positive note, I know many people who are quite happy with LiveJournal and either keep their personal diaries there or leverage their business blogs by keeping a copy of it on LJ.


Blogger

Obviously, I like this platform, as I keep two of my blogs here. Blogger is wonderful for "off you go" blogging, as practically anyone can set up an account and start blogging in just a few minutes.

Blogger allows for some customization but can be used "as is". It can be easily used for personal, group or business blogging. With a little tweaking you can even build a "normal" website with seemingly static pages.

Using Blogger "as is" requires very little technical knowledge. And you can host you blog for free on their servers as a sub-domain of the blogspot.com or using your own domain name.

If you prefer more control over your blog, you can also host it on your server.

Even though Blogger provides only a few templates for your blog, if you prefer something fancier, there are many third-party templates to choose from. Be careful, however, and test those templates before committing to one of them, as third-party templates are sometimes buggy.

Serious customization of a Blogger's blog requires a lot of technical knowledge and effort. If you plan on doing it, you're better off going with the WordPress platform. WP gives you better results with the same amount of effort.

Another good thing about Blogger is that it plugs right into your Google account, so you can move effortlessly between Blogger and other Google services (igoogle, gmail, google reader, google analytics, adwords, etc.)

Blogger is perfect for someone who would like to quickly setup a blog with the least amount of technical effort, host it for free, be able to make money with it and still have some flexibility in its look and functionality.

On a negative side:

• Blogger provides limited flexibility for blog's design and functionality.
• It doesn't allow you to create static pages (other than "About Me"). Though with some modifications you can produce what might look like static pages.
• Serious customization requires a lot of effort.
• Only some SEO optimization can be done.

WordPress

WordPress gives you two options: you can either publish your blog for free on wordpress.com or use WordPress software to host a blog on your own web account with your own domain name (software can be downloaded from wordpress.org or many web hosts already have WP pre-installed for their clients). The first option allows you to have the least headache with the set up and maintenance of your blog, and the second one allows you to have the most flexibility and control over your blog's look and functionality.

1. Publishing a free blog on WordPress.com

WordPress.com hosts many high-quality high-visibility non-profit blogs for famous companies and famous bloggers. So, if you decide to publish your blog there, you'd be in a good company.

You would be able to choose one of sixty available templates and start your virtually maintenance-free blog in minutes.

The two main differences between publishing a blog on WordPress.com and publishing one with a Blogger are:

• WordPress provides better flexibility over blog's design including a function for building static web pages.
• Unlike Blogger, WordPress.com doesn't allow affiliate marketing or selling products on the blogs it hosts (with a couple of exceptions). And although it promises that bloggers will be able to make money with advertizement (possibly, AdWords, Chitika, etc.) in a nearest future, at the moment blogs published on WordPress.com do not have this option. This is the reason why Wordpress.com isn't a good fit for a business blog.

WordPress.com is an excellent option for a personal/group non-profit blog or a professional "expertise showcase" one.

On a negative side:

• Allows for non-profit blogs only.
• Only some customization can be done to blog's look and functionality.
• Only some SEO optimization can be done.

2. Using WordPress software to publish a blog on your own web account/domain

Hosting WP on you own web account with your own domain name gives you the ability to fully customize your blog and use it in any way you see fit. It's the most flexible and functional publishing option available for a blog. You can have a personal, group or business blog or a website with static pages. And even though WP software comes out-of-the-box with only 2 templates, you can choose among thousands of third-party templates (themes), numerous plug-ins and widgets created specifically for WP. You can customize any WordPress template to your liking and fully optimize it for search engines.

It's the most advanced and the most technically involved option of blog publishing.

Publishing WordPress on one's own web hosting account is an excellent option for a technically inclined blogger who wants full control over his/her blog functionality and design.

On a negative side:

• The most technically involved option. Not suitable for technophobic people.
  
• Requires some (although small) financial investment.

TypePad

TypePad is another popular blogging platform, but unlike WordPress, Blogger and LiveJournal, TypePad isn't free. The basic account costs $4.95/mo and lets you publish one blog hosted on their server as a sub-domain of typepad.com. Not bad, if you consider that TypePad was build with non-technical people in mind (more specifically -- with non-technical small-business people in mind), requires no technical knowledge for setting up and managing a blog, is search-engine optimized and has 24x7 live support in case you still have questions.

It only will take you minutes to set up your new blog on TypePad, customize its look by choosing one of 3,000 professionally-designed templates TP provides for you, change colors and a header, add widgets, and start writing your first post. TP has many features and options, and allows you to make money with advertisement, affiliate offers, and by selling your products or services, thus making it an excellent choice for a business blog.

However, if you prefer to publish your blog with your own domain name, it will cost ya. You would need to upgrade to a Plus account with $8.95/mo fee for the privilege. Moreover, if you would like to have two authors contributing to your blog or be able to have a full control over your blog's design, you'd have to upgrade to a Pro account with $14.95/mo for the privilege.

Hm.

Compare it with a completely free Blogger account, which, of cause, doesn't have all the bells and whistles TypePad offers, but provides all the basic necessities including custom domain option and group blogging free of charge. And how many TypePad bloggers use those bells and whistles anyway?

Or compare it with a WordPress blog hosted on your own web account which gives you even more functionality, complete control and customization, thousands of third-party templates (themes), tons of plug-ins and widgets, huge international community of fans, designers, developers, discussion and help forums, plenty of documentation and tutorials, but no customer support. The price to pay for all that? $6-9/mo in web hosting fees.

To sum it up, the one and only reason to publish your blog with TypePad is if you never want to think about a technical side of blogging. TypePad takes care of that for you. It deals with all the maintenance for you and presents you with a very user-friendly interface.

TypePad is a perfect fit for a non-technical business blogger, who would like to never deal with a technical side of blogging and is satisfied with partial control over a blog's design and functionality.

On a negative side:

• Group blogging or custom domain requires upgrade to premium accounts.
  
• Requires $5-100/mo financial investment.
• Third-party templates and plug-ins isn't readily available.
• Allows for partial customization only.
  

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Photo: Vasily Koval

New Year - New Client

I got my first SEO client. Actually, I did consults before. But one thing is to give a good advice and be done with it, completely different is to make things happen and impress a person who doesn't have a clue as to what kinds of hoops you have to jump through to make it happen.

Am not excited about the project. Maybe it's because I'm nervous. Another possible reason I'm not happy about this project is because it's not my kind of thing. Maybe SEO is like cooking for me -- I can do it well, yet don't enjoy the process.

I certainly would prefer if it were a consult or a training.

Anyway, good luck to me.

On Friday I started researching keywords. Autism is a confusing market for someone who has no clue as to what people might be looking for there.

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Picture: www.prikolist.biz

Impressing a Pig

"One of the most universal causes of self-doubt and depression: trying to impress people you don’t like."

Tim Ferriss

This is so true! The problem, however, is that an attempt to impress someone often happens automatically, by default, as a normal human response before we even know that we don't like the person we are trying to impress.

Perhaps, they are skillfully hiding their dislike of us while pretending to be friendly.

Or, for whatever reason, they dislike us instantly, and we haven't gotten a clue yet.

Then, there is situation with clients or bosses. If we only try to impress those we like, we either go broke or loose our jobs. And yet, there is nothing worse than trying to impress a moron who holds a power over you.

Partnerships

Probably the majority of the successful male internet marketers formed one or a few partnerships on their way to success, and after reaching it keep partnering up with other successful internet marketers for working together on even bigger goals.

At the same time, the majority of the female internet marketers tries to accomplish the same task on their own. A few form partnerships with male internet marketers, and almost none (at least, I've never heard of any) create a partnership with another female internet marketer.

The question is why?

I am guessing here.

My first guess would be that women get emotionally attached to their own business projects and are not likely to take on a project toward which they feel indifferent -- that is, someone else's project.

My second guess would be that women are less prone to taking on a risky endeavor, and partnering up with someone -- especially someone you don't know all that well -- does seems to be rather risky.

My third guess would be that it's much harder for a woman to find a business partner simply because:

• Men prefer partners who have business approach similar to theirs -- that is, other men
• It's statistically harder to find a woman-partner as there're not that many women who are interested in building an internet business (other than darn MLM), and ready to persevere at it.

And if you find this post to be politically incorrect, I don't give a damn. I am here in search of the truth, not in search of a political correctness.

Lost Opportunities

When Corey Rudl suddenly died in 2005 I felt like the sky fell down on Earth. I never met Corey in-person, but he was one of a few netpreneurs I admired and trusted -- probably the most admired and trusted of them all. He had that honest, kind, generous demeanor about him that "sells" better than any advertisement or loud pr. And I really wanted to go to one of his live seminars... one of these days.

I wasn't in a hurry. After all, if I couldn't go that year, next year would be good as well.

Shortly after Corey got married he held a free seminar -- yes, free -- to celebrate his happy marriage. An unbelievable opportunity! I couldn't go. Well, I could, but it was bad timing, stuff came up... you know. Basically, it required a really big effort on my part. So, I didn't go. There would be a better timing and another seminar, I told myself.

Then, Corey died in a car crash. And there would never be another seminar. Or another Corey. That opportunity is forever lost -- it died in that crash too.

We often feel that some opportunities -- whether it's about business, things or people -- will always be there for us. That we can get to them when we can get to them -- tomorrow, next week or next year... And it's just not so. We loose opportunities monthly, maybe even daily unless we stop taking them for granted and do something about them.

Some huge opportunities died on me last week. I didn't kill them, I just didn't use them when I had a chance. I thought I could get to them... whenever. And now I can't. By the way, they weren't about money -- they were about my dreams.