Why Not Charging A Fair Price Is Selfish

I talk to writers
every d*mn day
who think making money
from our products (books) is evil
who believe that possibly overcharging
a reader
is fate worse than death.

That’s bullsh*t thinking.

1) It isn’t possible to overcharge a customer.
If the customer doesn’t think
the product is worth the price,
she won’t buy it.
If she buys it,
she believes the price is right.

and

2) There is nothing noble
about being broke a$$.
I’ve been poor.
I’ve had to rely on the charity of others.
I can’t see how that is benefiting society.
Charging a fair price for our products,
taking care of ourselves,
possibly taking care of others,
frees resources for the truly unfortunate.

Meg Keene,
founder of A Practical Wedding,
shares

(this entire post is awesome)

“I’m consistently trying to
make the case that
if you don’t make sure
your business is turning a viable profit,
it won’t support you,
you won’t be able to grow,
and you will burn out
and go out of business.

And that helps nobody.

Because there is nothing sadder
than a truly awesome, creative,
forward-thinking business
that you love
disappearing,
simply because
the owners couldn’t bring themselves
to take care of the finances
and make a profit.”

Don’t be a selfish beyotch.
Charge a fair price for your product.

Published
Categorized as Sales

How To Arrange Content On Your Website

How creative should you get
with the arrangement of content
on your website?

Not very,
if you want your readers
to feel comfortable.

Dwayne Bragonier*,
president of
BAI Bragonier,
shares

“The Nielsen Norman Group,
a research/consulting group
focused on the digital user experience,
recorded how 232 users’ eyes moved
as they looked at thousands of web pages.
The firm found that
the dominant reading pattern
looks something like the letter F: 
two horizontal strips
followed by a vertical strip.

The F pattern makes sense
when thinking about a web page.
The first horizontal scan,
along the top,
lets readers know the general content
of the entire website.
The second horizontal scan lets them know
about the general content
on an individual page.
Finally,
the vertical scan allows them
to navigate content
so they can decide
if they want to focus their attention
on anything specific.”

If you wish for your readers
to be comfortable
using your website
or blog,
arrange information
in an F pattern.

*August 2014
CPA Magazine

Published
Categorized as Marketing

How To Stay Motivated

We’ve zipped past
the first month
of 2015.
How are you doing
with your annual goals?

Geoffrey James*,
author of
Business Without Bullsh*t,
shares
two tips
to stay motivated

“Seek out the similarly motivated.
Their positive energy
will rub off on you
and you can imitate
their success strategies.

Stretch past your limits.
Walking the old, familiar path is
how you grow old.
Stretching makes you
grow and evolve.”

Stay motivated.
Make 2015 count.

*December 2014
CPA Magazine

White Space And Emails

As a clientk reader,
you realize that I love white space.
I consider white space
to be the equivalent of a highlighter.
It draws attention to the sentence
or paragraph
that it surrounds.

Want the reader to take action?
Isolate that prompt.
Surround it with white space.

Dwayne Bragonier*,
president of
BAI Bragonier,
shares

“The structure and layout
of an email
are extremely important.
After all,
if the presentation is not inviting,
it may not be read.
And if it’s not read,
it doesn’t really matter
what you wrote.

For example,
how likely are you to read
an email that is
15 to 20 lines
in one continuous paragraph?

Better to use complete sentences
and short paragraphs
that consist of no more
than two or three sentences.
Don’t indent the first line
of a paragraph
and leave a space
between each paragraph.”

In romance novels,
the rule is to never have a paragraph
more than seven lines long.
Readers tend to skip paragraphs
that are longer.

Use the power of white space.

*December 2014
CPA Magazine

Published
Categorized as Marketing

The Size Of The Market

It’s important
to complete a market analysis
before launching a new product.

What are you looking for?

You ideally want a market
that is already large
or that has growth potential.
If the market is small
and will remain small,
your product’s sales will be limited.

Carol Leaman*,
CEO and founder
of
Axonify Inc,
shares

“One of the difficulties
we had
[at the first start up]
was that we did not deeply assess
the product/market fit.
The market was very small
and not growing by significant amounts,
so it didn’t matter what we did,
we weren’t going to grow
by a whole lot.

I wouldn’t have started
my current venture, Axonify,
if I had not fully believed that
the market was gigantic
and growing rapidly
and that we had an awesome product
to fit the market need.”

Complete a market analysis
before launching
a new product/business.

*August 2014
CPA Magazine

Arlene Dickinson And Entrepreneurs As Artists

Arlene Dickinson*,
venture capitalist
and
CEO of Venture Communications,
shares

“The struggle, the challenges
of running a business
and your personal life
and figuring out
how to do it all well
is overwhelming.
You really are consumed by it.
And it’s not just you
— it has significant impact
on your family, friends, community
and everyone who struggles
to understand
why you are so obsessed.
And that is the word
they will ascribe to you:
obsessed.

What they don’t understand is
that you are just being who you are
and doing the thing
you feel compelled to do.

I liken entrepreneurship
to a calling.
People don’t tell an artist,
‘Put your brush down
at the five o’clock’,
yet with entrepreneurs
they do.”

Being both a writer and an entrepreneur,
I agree that these two callings
are very much the same.
The average worker
doesn’t understand either.
They view writers as crazy
and entrepreneurs as being obsessed.

It doesn’t matter.
This is who we are.
Building businesses
and driving innovation
is how we contribute to the world.

Be obsessed and proud.

* June/July 2014
CPA Magazine

Ask And You Might Receive

Doodle Jump*,
now a very successful app,
started VERY slowly.
In 2009 when it debuted,
only 20 copies were sold
on its all important release day.

Having really nothing to lose,
creator Igor Pusenjak
emailed Apple,
asking them to put Doodle Jump
in the “New and Noteworthy” app listing
on their website.

He never heard back from Apple
but they did what he asked.
A few weeks later,
Doodle Jump ‘jumped’
to the sixth most popular app.
As of today,
more than 100 million copies
have been downloaded.

If you want marketing help,
ASK.
The worst thing they could do
is say no.

*January/February 2015
The Costco Connection

Published
Categorized as Marketing

7 Tips to Manage Emails

I receive over a 1,000 emails a day
for one of my pen names.

Returning emails is a task
I complete
AFTER my fresh words (new product)
are written.

I also search the topics
and reply to the messages I know
are directly addressed to me first.

I read the email
and then, if at all possible,
reply immediately,
and then file it in a folder,
so I only have to handle it once.

Diane Peters,
in September 2014
CPA Magazine,
shares these additional email tips.

“Develop set times
to check email and voicemail
throughout the day
– only keep in touch constantly
if there’s an urgent issue afoot.”

“If you send fewer emails,
you’ll get fewer back.

Use the subject line
and EOM (end of message)
to send quick, concise notes.

Before you hit send,
be sure you’ve included
all possible information
so you don’t trigger
a chain of messages
to deal with later.”

Put a system in place
to manage your emails effectively
(or your emails will manage you).