2. A Community Is Not A Business (or How Do I Monetise My Web Business)

In Short:-

Oink, It’s All About Growth – is about an App (Oink) that Kevin Rose (co-founder of Digg) created and after 5 months of launching has closed.

When so many people are registered users of the app, the question is why would they close it?

The answer is in viability. Yes, there were some 5-10,000 users signing up for the app per month. However, when you look at the statistics and trends of what people are doing – is it really worth it?

How This Article Influences You

Are you happy with what you are doing? Do things seem to be progressing like you want them too?

However, when you look at the statistics and long term viability of your online business – is it really worth it?

Do you need to close it? or re-think your approach?

[With OutsourcingQueen.com - it is making me re-think my approach - so look out for some major changes. It's no longer going to be a 'blog' site]

A Community Is Not A Business

If your site does not have a way of earning an income, then it is not a business – it’s a community.

There are several ways you can monetise your business from offering services, to affiliate marketing or selling a product.

Most people are afraid to sell something. However, you need to make money or your community is not sustainable. Money is what helps keep things operational.

How This Article Influences You

Are you building a community or a business?

What do you need to do to offer a product or service?

What purchasable solutions are you offering?

[With OutsourcingQueen.com we offer the occasional affiliate product and have been working behind the scenes as a Virtual Assistant Project Manager. While we are still going to do this, we are in the progress of changing this from blog to membership site. Basic Membership of course will free and filled with great content]

Business is a game of Angry Birds. Sometimes it can take between 3 – 8 years to build. Once it’s launched, you have to continue to grow and expand, take it to RIO or the Jungle. Add new surrounding or challenges, to keep your customers engaged and involved.

How Have These Articles Influenced You?

Would love to hear from you so please tweet or email me.

Until next time,

Grow, expand and play

As the guys at Rescue Time’s tag line says

“It’s only if you are serious about productivity”

I have no idea on how to monitor where your staff spend their time.

Because I don’t have staff that I need to do this to.

However, I’ve seen a lot of my friends and other big internet marketers use Rescue Time. Enough times that I thought I’d add this product to the list of cool services you should try.

As I can’t help but be upfront and honest. I’m only pitching Rescue Time as I often get asked “how can I monitor and make sure that my staff are working on the right thing”.

You Can’t Make Sure Your Staff Are Doing The Right Thing

If you don’t know what the “right” thing is.

As good as rescue time is for telling you statically where your staff (virtual or instore) are spending their time. You need to define within your business:-

How long is too long?

Especially with facebook and other social media platforms. Are they wasting time or being productive?

What programs do they need?

If they don’t need a program and used it, why are they use it

What are their responsibilities?

How they use their time, on whichever programs is largely dependent on the responsibility of their role. You need to define this.

What they should do next?

While some of us think it would be common sense to ask for help. Some staff are to afraid to ask. So when they’ve done everything you’ve asked of them and there role has been fulfilled,  what do you want them to do next with their time? Communicate it clearly to them.

Rescue Time can help you see where, what time and how your staff spend their time. However, you need to set the precedence and guidelines for the code of conduct you expect your staff to work by.

Where I find Rescue Time Most Helpful

Is in managing my own time.

At heart I’m a creative and information addict. I can get distracted quite easily.

By being able to monitor my own program usage. I am more aware of where I spend my time and new habits that need to be created to use my time better.

I think my epiphany moment came when I read this on my cousin’s facebook wall

What are you going to do with your 86,400?

If you need a little help, experiment with Rescue Time.

They have a free version you can use. However if you want the nifty added features of website blocking for busts of time, then can free trial the pro version for fourteen (14) days.

Otherwise, send me a tweet or an email – I love to hear about your cool ideas and projects you are working on.

Until next time,

create, play and have more fun!

Once you get use to this update, you’ll find it intuitive an easy to navigate.

However, the process I have been teaching and the system I presented last week at the Australian Institute of Management, has now gone to down the drain.

So here is what you need to know about facebook…

Test, Measure, Tweak

Yep, that’s it… just test, measure and tweak.

You don’t own facebook pages. Facebook does, you are free lessee. This means your “lease agent” Facebook has the right to change your page functions.

Read the terms, understand your obligations and plan how to use Facebook for your business.

While changes are annoying, you have to keep growing and adapting to what ever is thrown at you. [am sure there is a life analogy hidden in here somewhere]

If you need help wrapping your head around Facebook Marketing, check out the Endless Loop Experiment they help business owners sell more stuff, to more people, more often for more margin.

Some Useful Resources

247Grad.de TabMaker 

This helps create fan gates (a way for people to have to “like” your page or opt-in to receive information from you), plus other useful tabs to use on your facebook page.

Please Note: the site is in dutch (I think) so you may need to use Google transcribe to navigate around the site and read any terms of service to make sure the site is safe.

As far as my research has gone, I believe it to be a safe site. However, you need to use your best judgement when adding such applications to your Fan page.

Post Planner

This tool will still help you preschedule your updates.

At the moment does not have the “pinning” (having your most popular posts stay at the top for 7 days) function, however I am sure in time will.

Pinterest

Pictures are the most powerful tool you can you use on Facebook. With the new timeline feature, it is the first thing that grabs the “scanners personality” eye.

Wufoo Forms

Capture email address and/or have people purchase products from you online.

Make the most of it

All Facebook and Mashable have a fountain of free information and tips on how to use social media for business.

Use these resources, plus your own situation, to plan what you need to do to make Facebook work for you.

The initial set up is time consuming. However once it is up, you’ll be able to test, measure and tweak. Through this process you will find a system that works best for you and your business.

Don’t want to wrap your head around the fiddly set up of facebook? If you want to discover more tools, resources or tips on outsourcing and online business management, please subscribe to our e-newsletter.

Until next time,

Enjoy uncertainty!

Need help “getting” Social Media? try DIY Social Media for an easy step by step guide

Any whooo, just want to kick of this blog post by saying…

Outsourcing is simple

For example:-

I need blog post.

Don’t mind who does it, as long as it is full of value. Ideally, should feature me

Needs to be done by today (Tuesday), cause it’s the day I’ve told my audience I’ll have to done by.

Solution: Embed a vodcast (video/podcast) done with Tyrone Shum of OutsourcingLive,  on minimalistic outsourcing!

Serendipitous! Eveybody wins

Outsourcing is the art of delegating work that needs to be done. To people, services or products that want to do them.

Ok, was cheating with this blog post. However, the process is the same for anything you do.

Break things down to smaller pieces, and do what needs to be done. The rest will sort itself out when the time comes.

Products and services you might be interested in as a result of this vodcast

Mass Outsource - How To Outsource To The Philippines

Hootsuite – Social Media Manager

Dropbox – Online File Storage

ShortStackApp – Facebook Page Creator

Until next time,

Have fun!

PS. this post is littered with affiliate links

PPS. tweet or email me – I want to hear your stories and progress!

• keep me motivated;
• in-tune with what I want to achieve; and
• make me take an action towards my goals

Michael Hyatt

Is the blogger that I read almost religiously (pun intended).

Every year, I find new industry leaders to follow and learn from. For 2012, Michael Hyatt’s blog has helped kick my professionalism and leadership focus up a gear. While centreing  around the base principles of the Bible.

While I don’t go to church. Could not call myself a protestant or a catholic. I do believe in God and so having straight talking leadership blog post, laced with a little bit of bible reference helps keep me centre.

Zen Habits

I know I moved from Christianity to Buddhism…but I don’t really care. At the heart of any religion is people and it’s those people’s behaviors and attitudes that help model and shape the life you live.

Decluttering, minimalism and simplicity are the reasons I read Zen Habits.

My head is probably the most cluttered workspace, that I can not escape from. Often filled with over thinking, under executing and worry about things that are not being done. It’s in reading Zen Habits, that I realise nothing is as complex as it seems. I’ve just added emotions and ideas to spin it out of proportion.

All I have do is bring it back to it’s core purpose, function and role…then everything (mentally) is at one with the world.

I Will Teach You To Be Rich

The website title is something I would normally stay away from, as it sounds a bit too spammy. It was only because a friend of mine worked with him directly, that I decided to check it out.

Ramit is not a get rich quick scammer. He is a straight shooter, who teaches the general law of reciprocity. When you give, you shall receive.

He might come across as arrogant. However, what I have learnt, is he is no different to anybody else. He has things he is embarrassed about, things most people would not bring attention to.

Yet, what does do differently that sets him apart from anybody else, is that he presents the information with a positive spin on it. That you end up laughing with him, not at him.

This comes back to fear, things we say to ourselves to stop us achieving what we want to. When we change the wording and how we spin it in our head and to others, makes a world of difference on the outcomes.

People are natural born learners

We have the ability to soak in information, model it into a new idea and then execute that information to make positive changes to the lives of others as well as ourself.

Having [virtual] mentors is important for your personal and business growth. Whether they are expert ‘bloggers’ or hired coaches, find and surround yourself with people (even mentally surround) who are already walking the walk you want to take.

It is only then that you can grow and change into the person you desire to be.

Until next,

learn, twirl and execute

Want to leave a comment? Tweet or Email me – I look forward to hearing from you

It is easy to get bogged down in tactics, procedures and guidelines for achieving the life you desire.

Turning everything into a game, has always helped me get through any situation that scares me.

A Story…

While most people won’t believe this, I was quite shy. Talking to people I have never met before scared me.

The way I over came this was to turn every event, into a game. At each event I take a different approach.

One time, I hijack the camera off the event host and assumed the role of “photographer” this allowed me an easy in to talk to different people, find out enough about them to write a cool blog post. But not enough time for them to find out about me.

An unintentional after effect, curiosity. Who was that girl? when people have curiosity, the go out of their way to find out more.

Another time, I hijacked tables…

I went to different tables at this gala event and said “Hi, I’ve taken it upon myself to hijack tables and have a fun night, how is your night going?” Watching people’s reactions and how they interacted with me was fun.

Score!  Three client meetings and more curiosity about what I do. Again another unintentional after effect.

Last story…

At a very sophisticated art gallery event, where “notable” people were attending, I introduced myself as the “meeter of random people”.

By doing this, I had a very fun and interesting conversation with a gentleman who I later found out was the Mayor (oops!). It’s always helpful to be on the good side of influential people.

If You Are Scared of Meeting New People, or Making “The” Phone or Sending “That” Email

Just remember, people respect:

• guts
• opening yourself to rejection
• the ability to have fun anywhere anytime

It’s not easy to do those things, and most of the time I try not to think too deeply about it. However when I do get scared, I think of two things:

1. How can I make them look awesome

2. How can I have fun with this

Making “It” Happen

Seeking extra information, tactics or tips is our stalling process to say we are too scared to take the plunge and just do it.

Embracing the fear and doing it any way does not always work. Sucking it up, isn’t easy either.

But games… well now there is no harm no foul if you don’t win. It’s just a game.

Like a game, you may have to figure out another way to land on Mayfair. Buy  all the property around it, build hotels. Grow your wealth using other means, in time you may be able to buy Mayfair or find that you have enough in your life that you no longer need it.

Either way the rules of the game are yours to make, the consequences of not achieving those goals are yours to determine. The same with the rewards, the more glorious the reward, the more cooler it is for you to achieve your goals.

So go … have fun and create a game. It’ll naturally help you from overdosing on information.

Until next time,

keep playing

Post inspired by  Mixergy with Clay Johnson author of Information Diet

then watch this TEDx - We Are Makers and see how a physicist made a barry-barra choir;

and lastly check out this 4D Virtual and Physical Amusement Park… OMG FUN!!

Create, engage and enjoy what you are doing!

Katey

Have decided to change OutsourcingQueen.com up a gear now and move onto hints, tips and ninja tricks to getting things done online.

If you are having mental blocks about getting started

Then I suggest you start at my article “Why I Quit Blogging” and read each article after that one.

If you are fired up, excited and ready to bring on the awesome… here’s what you do!

If you are looking for:-

Articles and/or content to be written for you, try Serv.io, Fiverr or TextBroker. I have also heard Ryan Deiss uses 99centarticles, but I have never used them myself.

Alternatively, post a blogger request on Problogger

Graphic Designs, I like to use Freestyldesign on Fiverr for quick easy projects. BookCoverCafe for all other graphics.

Depending on what is needed sometimes IconFinder or DesignMoo will offer cool free pre-designed graphics for you.

If you want to have little fun and see what a group of designers can offer you, then I highly recommend 99Designs.

Alternatively if you want to play and create your own graphics, but don’t have photo shop, try pixlr or sumopaint. They are both online and very similar to using photoshop. Remember to save your files as a png, as it gives your images a cleaner and crisper look.

Social Media with management of your profiles, especially for small enterprises and those with customer service agents, I recommend you do it yourself. In my next article I’ll show you how to manage your profiles in under 5 minutes a day.

If you are looking for basic tips and hints on how to get started, sign up for DIYSocialMedia.

With setting up your facebook page, I recommend shortstackapp. It’s an easy one click install and can turn your facebook page into a mini website. There are other services like involver that also do the same thing.

These are a few quick  and easy outsourcing hacks

To getting things done online, I hope they are of help to you.

If you want to leave feedback and any other hints, tips or ninja tricks you have to hacking working online. Please tweet or email me, I enjoy sharing bonus knacks to getting things done online. So, please do send them to me.

In the next article, I’ll feature a few more outsourcing hacks to do with virtual assistants, website designing and project planning.

Until next time,

Remember to dance to the beat of your own drum!

PS. If you want to know where I got my signature from go to MyLiveSignature

Chinese New Year here is crazy!

Unlike the western countries, they don’t spend their time writing a list of New Year resolutions (which most people fail to do anyway). They instead invest it in gambling, eating, family, friends, setting off fireworks in their backyard and praying for a prosperous new year (aka having fun!).

What I learnt from the Chinese

They don’t spend their time wishful thinking.

Everything they do is in an action. Chinese people are one of the most highest gamblers in the world, yet they are also one of the most richest people. They are willing to take risks that other people are not.

They work hard, focus even harder and have lots of fun celebrating any and every occasion they can.

Giving away money, is a joy for them! They believe by wishing you a prosperous new year…they will have a prosperous new year too.

Yes, some of their rules and family expectations are high. However, they still achieve amazing things.

Abraham Lincoln once said:-

“I am a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down…”

I am sure everybody goes through a stage in life where they know what they should be doing and are not.

We could give excuses, reasons and justifications for this – but what use does this have?

The Chinese just go out and do. We can learn a lot from this.

BJ Fogg‘s and Ramit‘s blogs, plus John Maxwell’s book Fail Forward, have taught me a lot about behavioral changes. If you are wanting a prosperous 2012, then this is where I suggest you should start. Changing your behaviors.

You know what you should be doing… so do it!

TV, Movies and the Experts Illusion

Success, prosperity and happiness is about having a fulfilling life with family and friends, they way you know how. Not how the TV, movies or other people elude to how it should happen.

Having lots of millionaire and successful business owner friends, I have been blessed to learn through them that success did not:-

a) happen overnight

b) by a one-click install

c) sitting on a beach with a laptop

For most over them, it took 3 years before they saw any real money or growth. I also learnt that it’s about tuning out the need for other people’s validation and approval, before taking the next move.

Feedback is important. However, waiting for the “right” answer, from the “right” person before moving forward is not.

Most of the time, you know what you should be doing…so you should just do it!

As I am hitting my third year in business, I look forward to getting over the hump year and cruising on through to another awesome year.

I know if I “do everything I know I should be doing” – I will get there.

Knowledge is not power, unless you do something with it!

So what are you going to do, this year?

Tweet or email me – look forward to hearing from you!

Xi Fa Chai - Happy Chinese New Year

When I started out (my story here) in Online Marketing and Outsourcing, I was just playing with it. Turning it into some game, that I had to conquer and monopolize.

I had fun figuring out what worked, what didn’t. Why people loved it, why they hated it. What keywords and behavioral traits brought out positive outcomes…and the negative. Then learn from it.

This is the lazy man’s guide to outsourcing, because I am giving you some of the resources I have discovered and use the most. You don’t have to do anything but use them too.

So…

If you want to start outsourcing

Start small and use Fiverr

It constantly amazes me the quality of and how much work people are willing to do for just $5US.

My favorite graphic artist is Freestyldesign.

With Web management

This includes SEO, blog content and other continuous website work, use YourWebPA.

Chlea would have to be the best Filipino project manager I have ever worked with. Believe me, I have worked with heaps… as I am constantly testing different service providers. Chris Ducker’s team is amazing and best of all I don’t have to micro manage. They look after everything for you.

Social Media

Hootsuite and ShortStackApp.

The beauty of Hootsuite is being able to schedule your updates and monitor how productive they are through their analytics .

The great thing about ShortStackApp is that you can drag, drop and one-click-install a fantastic looking facebook page. Including competitions, email sign ups, photo apps.

The art of communicating with your Virtual Assistant (VA)

Is a separate post altogether.

Generally speaking, my rule of thumb when working with new people is

a) lay out your expectations clearly

This includes, but not limited to, defining their role, what results you’d like to see and the rewards for achieving this.

b) give feedback three (3) times to correct a situation

If they don’t “get it” after you have corrected them three times and it is not even semi-close to what you want. They are never going to get it.

c) smile and be open

If things go wrong always ask yourself “What was I expecting?” and “Did they know this?”

Communication is a two-way street and while some of us intuitively know what to do. There are a large group of people who need to be educated on understanding your needs and how to fulfill them.

After all, outsourcing is…

The art of being resourceful.

Resourcefulness is the art of knowing how to take action that delivers positive results.

So go on… get a wriggle on and start outsourcing today!

PS. The most awesomest book ever about business organization is E-Myth, if you have not read it…do so!

PPS. If you want to leave a comment, please email or tweet me would love to hear from you