posted by u2r1media @ 7:00 AM   2 Comments Links to this post

Well it's a great day when you can access the internet on a plane! Talk about passing the time! All these years I've dreaded flying, I'm not much of a movie buff and I don't really like reading in moving vehicles, so when I heard that Air Canada now offers internet access on the plane I almost danced the jig all the way to Los Angeles!

I often wonder why people are so afraid of technology, it's not like it's going to harm them to learn. It's such a wonderful thing when we can communicate with people from the far ends of the earth! How much smaller has our world gotten and it's just that much more clearer that we are truly all connected.

Even though I'm heading on vacation and should not be working I'm a big believer in utilizing time efficiently. So if that means I can still work while I'm sitting on a plane opposed to otherwise doing nothing productive then to me that is a massive bonus!

Productivity and time efficiency is so key, everyone should embrace technology and learn how it can benefit their lives!

A short blog today, just wanted to touch base before I close all business communication for the next 2 and a half weeks!

Signing off from 20 000 feet in the air!

Sari.

www.u2r1media.com

posted by u2r1media @ 12:57 PM   0 Comments Links to this post

Often in life I am faced with the age-old question "What is my purpose?" as a human, as a woman, as a business owner and ultimately as a leader. Back in 2002, at the ripe age of 24, I started my journey as an entrepreneur. If I look back today almost 8 years later, the person I was back then is not even recognizable to me. Along the way I've grown and like most entrepreneurs, I have learned so much about my roll in this real life movie. Specifically, the past few years have been instrumental to my business growth as well as my personal growth. I've realized that the person I am is the person who will be present in everything I do. There is no difference between your personal self and your business self, yes, you have a personal life and a professional life; however, who you are will be prominent in every aspect of your entire life.

At 24 my goals were clear and my focus was mainly self-serving; How am I going to be successful? How am I going to make a lot of money and how am I going to be the best at what I do? Well, with age comes wisdom as they say and wisdom I so gratefully have received. Through that wisdom my ideals have reformatted; today, I wonder; How will my company make a difference in my client's businesses? How will I inspire my employees? How will we be successful based on credibility and achievements?

In my most humble moments, I know and realize I am nothing without the support of the people around me. Though I sit in my office as the one able to make final decisions and steer my destiny, I am foolish to believe that being a leader means attributing all the credit of my success to myself only.

After 8 years at the helm, I have quickly realized that living a life for ones self-alone is a very purposeless and meaningless venture, one that leaves you empty and unsatisfied. I know that as a true entrepreneur I am here to share my knowledge, my success and my love, I know that everything I do is just an extension of my greater self and nothing is ever achieved alone. As soon as I succumb to ego even for just one minute, I'm losing track of what's important and what's real and then I'm missing the point and I'm not playing the roll of the ultimate leader.

To be a leader, who is guided by ego, is to be an individual whose life is controlled by fear and blindfolds. One will be feared but never respected and certainly not loved. To become a success, I needed to understand the true meaning of human existence; it's all around us, be a person that you admire and that others will admire as well-hopefully following suit because the world definitely needs more great leaders!

posted by u2r1media @ 1:01 PM   0 Comments Links to this post

Haiti. Reactions from far and wide to start getting involved and donating to the relief funds.

Question:Where was the world when everyone there lived in poverty for hundreds of years? Why wasn't anyone manning up then! It's always easy to play the hero when a tragedy happens but in truth there are constant tragedies happening every single day. While it is wonderful to see everyone pull together in a desperate time of need this act of kindness and donating spirit should be an active part of our consciousness on a regular basis.

Had first world governments got involved at the core level then perhaps the Hatians would have had stronger housing and better care to avoid such a catastrophic reaction to nature's cleansing system. It's only going to get worse we can see the pattern of mother nature reacting to the energy shift that's building up to 2012 and it's going to be a case of "survival of the fittest" so what are we going to do then? How accountable should we actually be as the fortunate ones who live in first world countries?

No one is exempt, a perfect example is New Orleans, but lucky for them, we had the technology to warn the citizens to evacuate and save lives. The thing is though that humanity does this all the time, anything outside our daily comfort zone is just cumbersome until there is a massive cry for help, until we see others around us step up, until the accountability from guilt seeps in.

What do we do after Haiti? what lesson can we learn from Katrina, Sri-Lanka, China and now Haiti, it's not going to end until we start behaving as humanitarians every day of our lives. Small amounts create big results but the point is, that it should be a daily active thought and action just as much as it is for us to close that deal, or take care of our own families. Lest we forget our extended families that live across towns and boarders and oceans.

You want to help Haiti? don't stop at Haiti..."Be the change..." that's the only thing that's going to get us out of this turmoil and move us towards a more peaceful and harmonious planet earth.

Heartfelt thoughts go out to the Hatians in their time of need.

Do something small today that makes you a hero in your own life :)

Sari.

www.u2r1media.com

posted by u2r1media @ 6:31 AM   0 Comments Links to this post

Happy Holidays! From U2R1 Media!

posted by u2r1media @ 11:15 AM   0 Comments Links to this post

Continued from Part 2

In Part 2, we covered some of the stages during development and just after the launch of a website.

8. Operations

I've frequently seen websites launch successfully, only to lose steam rapidly, once the obvious difficulties in actually running a web-business come into play.

Operating a successful web-based business can be a lot of work, no matter how much effort is placed on automation.

A website that sells a product can have a major time commitment required in order to fulfill orders (i.e. package them up and mail them), or to answer queries.

Content-based sites can be even harder to maintain, particularly when the general public has the ability to participate in the content creation process - large social media sites often have a significant number of staff dedicated to removing content that contravenes the terms of service.

I've recently worked with several customers who have partnered with fulfillment centers in order to offload a portion of the order fulfillment process onto specialists. The websites have been designed to integrate with the fulfillment center's systems in order to keep the order statuses current. I'll eventually post an update here when I've seen how well this works in practice.

Creating a plan - possibly even as early as the business plan stage - for how operations will work, the amount of time needed to keep a website running, and whether any staff are required for this purpose (and particularly how much that would cost), is an effective way of making sure that the resources will be in place to run things after launch. It also gears owners of web businesses up for the long, ongoing task of running an online business.

9. Maintenance Cycle

Most web developers approach the ongoing maintenance of a customer's site as a form of additional revenue after a project has completed.

Few owners of websites appear to budget for ongoing maintenance related issues - which could include bug fixing or building additional functionality - before or during development.

For developers, there's a risk associated with the maintenance cycle, given that an ongoing series of invoices (unless well justified) could result in the customer leaving for another development company.

Ensuring that new owners of web businesses understand what is involved (particularly with regards to costing) in maintaining a website over time will go a long way towards forging a better partnership between developer and customer.

10. Creative Destruction - When to Scrap It and Start Over


I've worked on a number of websites where the site had some initial success, which dropped off over time. Unfortunately some products are faddish in nature, which means that there is a very well defined life cycle for the product.

The products or services sold by a website may not be the only things subject to this inherent life cycle.

A website built today may not work as well in the future. Technologies change, people's design taste changes, and websites do become outdated over time.

As some point in time, a decision may need to be made to scrap a site and start over.

This often seems to happen on an ad-hoc basis, where a customer becomes infuriated with a developer and leaves for another web development company; the new company will typically try to sell a complete start-over, as opposed to modifying somebody else's work.

By ensuring from the start that customers understand that there are inherent lifespans involved in a web business (just like any other), developers can potentially develop a longer term relationship with their customers that lasts beyond a single project.

Conclusions

There are a few quick conclusions that can be drawn from all of this:

*A web business involves a lot more than just throwing together a website and putting it up on the internet. If you ignore the fact that its a business like any other, you may be setting yourself up for failure.

*Web development companies are only part of the "supply chain" involved in building a successful web business. Other companies that are often involved include: business consultants, accountants, lawyers, loan companies or investors, PR people, SEO/SEM companies, supply chain management or fulfillment centers, phone support companies and many more. It makes a lot of sense for web developers to cultivate relationships with each of these kinds of companies, in order to be able to provide a full "package" to their customers.

* It takes time and extended effort to build a successful web business. Both you and your vendors need to have tenacity, because a lack of staying power won't cut it. Despite anything you've seen in the news, most successful online businesses are the result of many, many years of hard work.

Thanks Jeremy for such an insightful article! - reference: www.lichtman.ca

Please feel free to visit our site for further information on a "full package" to help grow your business.

www.u2r1media.com

posted by u2r1media @ 8:32 AM   0 Comments Links to this post

..Continued by Jeremy Lichtman

In Part 1, we discussed that websites need to be viewed from the perspective of the business cycle, rather than as a simple project.

4. Design / Implementation

There isn't all that much I can add regarding the design and implementation phases of a web project. This is the technical portion of the project, and the business-owner is somewhat at the mercy of the skills of the people that have been hired to build the site.

Web developers can use this phase as an opportunity to obtain feedback from customers early and often, which may reduce the amount of time involved in the testing and "Beta" shakedown period after launch.

5. Testing

I know of few web development companies that have a formal testing process in place.

Part of the problem is that testing is labour intensive, and requires a particular nit-picky mindset that developers seldom choose to acquire.

If web projects properly budget for the testing phase (including adequately estimating the amount of time involved), then more options become available, including hiring staff specifically for this purpose, or utilizing a third-party testing company.

This avoids the prevalent (I'm guilty of this too sometimes) practice of pushing a large chunk of the testing process onto the customer.

6. Launch

Typically the launch of a website tends to be greeted with a lot of fanfare.

If the owner has engaged a PR company, there can be a significant buzz attached to the initial launch.

The critical things to bear in mind are that

a) the buzz may not correspond to a significant number of sales, and
b) there needs to be a commitment to work at building the business after the initial buzz wears off (which it usually will).

I've seen a lot of sites launch well, only to founder later on.

Its critical not to confuse the big launch with the lengthy hard work of building an online clientele, which may take years (just like with a regular "real world" business).

Tenacity pays off! Do not be discouraged if things don't immediately work on launch!

7. Building Traffic - PR, SEO, Organic Growth and Networking

There are quite a few factors involved in building traffic to a website over time.

A quick point before discussing this important issue: the "conversion" or "closing" ratio of your website - it isn't any good to obtain a large amount of traffic on your website if you aren't turning that traffic into sales (or some kind of revenue anyhow).

Keep a close eye on the closing ratio (i.e. percentage of visitors that result in revenue) over time, and don't be afraid to change aspects of your website if things aren't working.

I find that tools like the "Funnels" system built into Google Analytics do a great job of showing where a website is losing people.

I've seen a decidedly mixed bag of results in the past from both PR companies and SEO (search engine optimization) people. I've written a bit in the past on both topics, so I won't go into a lot of detail here.

Generally the process of building a significant amount of traffic on a website boils down to continually promoting the site over a long period of time; this is particularly the case where a business is looking for so-called "organic growth", which basically means people just finding the website randomly, due to it being frequently referenced elsewhere.

The process of building organic growth often is a result of "networking" with the owners of other websites. This takes both hard work and a willingness to give and take. Note: I'm not talking about lame "link exchanges", but rather the more "blog oriented" approach where people discuss each other on their sites. An example would be somebody discussing how much a like a particular site, or how an interaction with somebody at a web-based company went. You can't beat that kind of press.

As mentioned above, I've worked on a number of projects over the years where various PR companies were engaged in order to promote projects.

My experience has been that PR companies tend to have specific areas where they shine, and promoting websites isn't something that all of them do well. Partially this is because PR is oriented towards short term promotion of products, or finding ways to plug something newsworthy (and hence time-limited).

If you can find a PR person who has staying power, and can keep doggedly plugging away at something long after it becomes boring - stick with them, as they are rare.

Its also been somewhat evident that there are many PR people out there who are primarily good at promoting themselves. I don't have much ability personally to see through "BS" of this nature; my recommendation would be to get some references for previous jobs that are similar to yours, and take the time to call them.

SEO is also something of a mixed basket.

Search engine optimizers and marketers tend to specialize in particular areas, for instance Pay Per Click, On Page SEO, Organic SEO, Link Building, Social Media Marketing etc. I don’t want to go into detail on the topic of SEO, despite its importance to newly launched websites, since I've written frequently on this topic before.

The key with hiring an SEO/SEM company is a) check references, and b) start with a small, limited scale project first, and don’t be afraid to drop them quickly if they don't deliver.

As somebody who has worked in this field, I’m also aware that there's a similar effect at play to PR people - over time the effectiveness of a specific technique may wane, resulting in a loss of interest on the part of the SEO people involved. When this happens, it may be time to move on.

To Be Continued...

Referenced: www.lichtman.ca

www.u2r1media.com

posted by u2r1media @ 2:11 PM   0 Comments Links to this post