Tag: amazon

If You Can Help Someone…

I usually have
a YouTube video
playing in the background
on mute
as I work.

I’ve created a playlist
of videos
by creators
who are seeking
sponsors.

And I play that playlist.

These creators
attract sponsors
and earn funds
from their sponsors
based on how many subscribers
they have.

They gain more subscribers
if YouTube shows
their videos to more people.

YouTube shows
their videos to more people
if more people watch them
(it is circular, I know).

So I ‘watch’ their videos.
That costs me
very little
and it helps these creators out.

Is that ‘cheating’
the system?

Yes.
But all helping
is cheating the system.

My friends buy my books
to help my Amazon rankings
so Amazon shows my books
to more people.
That’s technically cheating also.

If you can help someone
and it costs you
very little,
help them.

Make their world
a better place.

Under Promise

One thing Amazon does
exceptionally well
is under promise.

I was told,
for example,
that some Easter chocolate
I purchased
would arrive a month
AFTER Easter,
two full months
after I had ordered it.

It arrived
a couple days
before Easter
and I was overjoyed.

That was almost
a full month
after I had ordered it.
That’s an obscene
length of time
for an online order.

But I was happy
with it
because it was a month
before Amazon had promised
it would be delivered.

The balance, of course,
is to under promise
enough to make customers happy
but not so much
that customers go elsewhere.

Consider under promising
a little bit.
Manage customer expectations.

Omitting Necessary Information

Amazon sent me an email this morning.
They said they shipped order # X
worth Y dollars
and that it would arrive
by Z date.

They didn’t say what they’d shipped.
To figure that out,
I have to log into my account.

This omission of key information
is done deliberately.
It drives customers to their site.
Once customers are there,
Amazon has additional opportunities
to sell them more product.

Amazon can do this,
without explanation,
because they’re the dominant player.
People assume the omission is deliberate,
isn’t merely a mistake
or sloppiness
or trickery.
Customers might justify it
as a privacy issue.

A smaller business has to be
more careful about doing this.
Perhaps there’s a statement
in the email
saying the items ordered could be viewed
via a specific link.
Or some other indication
is used.

Omission of key information
CAN be a powerful strategy
but wield it carefully.

Power By Connection

I recently attended
a live presentation held by
a certain online bookstore
given to writers.

The presentation was billed as important,
as being a means
to make a connection
with people in that organization,
to learn things
few other people knew.

The presentation could
have been recorded.
Everything said
was taken directly from
their website.
There were no ‘insider secrets’
or revolutionary tips.

During the question and answer time,
the presenters
looked up data on the website
and relayed it.

They weren’t powerful.
They merely worked
for a powerful company.

Seth Godin
shares

“Google and Amazon used to invite
authors to come speak,
at the author’s expense.

The implied promise was that
they’re so powerful,
access to their people
was priceless.

But the algorithm writers
weren’t in the room.

You ended up spending time
with people
who pretended they had influence,
but were more like weatherpeople,
not weather makers.”

Merely working for a powerful company
doesn’t mean that person
is powerful.

Ensure you’re connecting
with the right people.

Special Delivery Instructions

In the past,
when something I ordered for my beloved Mom
was delivered,
the delivery person often couldn’t find
the buzzer code
on the apartment building’s ‘menu.’

That created delays in delivery
or canceled deliveries.

So I used one of the extra
address lines
on the order form
and added the buzzer code.

That solved the problem
and made the process easier for everyone.

If you’re designing
input forms for deliveries,
always add an extra address line.

If you’re ordering something
and have special instructions
for the delivery person,
use that extra address line.

Curation Vs Freedom

A couple years ago,
I gave myself the project
of updating the entries for my romance niche
on Wikipedia.

Every input I made
was deleted by the moderator.
Every single one.
Even though I cited sources.
Even though I was clearly an expert
in the niche.

I gave up.
The Wikipedia entries remain horribly wrong.
And, knowing that,
I don’t rely on Wikipedia
for anything
anymore.

On the flipside,
I remember when Amazon
would allow anyone to leave reviews.
Ethically-challenged writers
would spam their perceived competitor’s books
with 1 star reviews.
It was a mess.

As Seth Godin
shares

“Too much curation
stifles creativity,
opposing viewpoints
and useful conversation.
But no curation inevitably turns a platform
over to quacks, denialists,
scammers and trolls.”

Seek a balance
between curation and freedom
on your social media accounts
and sites.