Micheal Gerber – Climb The Mountain

Check out this clip from Michael Gerber:

Is Twitter Really Worth The Time?

Okay, i first want to say that, Yes, I am on Twitter (http://twitter.com/fredhopkins) but I don’t quite get all the hoopla.  I know people have made some coin with it, but I haven’t heard anyone doing significant money with it, outside of major companies.

I’ll keep looking for an angle with it but I don’t ever see it being a major business tool.  There are just too many ways of getting traffic to your site that’s WAAAAY better and WAAAAY less time consuming and easier to scale!

Do you disagree?  Leave a comment!  I would love to hear someone doing anything of any significance that they can actually trace to Twitter.  In the meantime, check out this video below.

$343B In Consumer Spending For December

I recently read an interesting article in Forbes about the 10 things that people are still spending money on at increasing levels.  They also dropped a number that is absolutely staggering, $342 billion in consumer spending for the month of December 2008.

I don’t know about you but I sure as hell don’t need to make that much for me to do just fine in this economy.  That’s over $11 billion dollars a day! $459,677,419 an hour, $7,661,290 a minute, $127,688 a second!  Whenever you hear another news story where the reporter is talking about how no one is spending any money any more, thing of this statistic.  During the course of their 2 minutes on air, consumers would have spent another $15,322,580 on all kinds of stuff.

Think of the post I wrote on ecommerce a little while back and again ask your self, how you can get a piece of that.   Now think of this, by the time you finished reading this post, consumer will have probably spent another $5,000,000 or so.

E-Commerce Still Up Despite Economy

I love it when I come across information the bucks the norm of what we are fed through our traditional news channel.  I recently saw this article from Marketing Charts that showed ecommerce being up 6 % from 2007 to 2008.

Although 6% is good it is a great deal less than the double digit gains seen in years prior.  Where there was a down trend was in comparing  Q4 from the same 2 years.  In that case ecommerce was down 4%.

It is important to put things in perspect because these number deal with macro-economic conditions of the web.  How this is usable for you as an individual business owner, or someone looking to get started, is that now is still a good time to get started on the web!  Take a look at the specific commerce categories that are still experiencing double digit growth. . .

Many companies out there are cutting back on marketing or delaying expansion place because of their fears.   Take advantage of that by moving in the space that they are unwilling to serve.  That will leave many unsatisfied consumers out there who are looking for someone to give their money to in return for the merchandise they want.  Will you be there for them?

Have You Done SEO? Ever Felt This Way?

If you are as anal about checking your ranking almost constantly then you will relate to this cartoon.

Thanks Aaron!

How To Micromanage Like A Pro!

Have you ever been micromanaged to the point where you swore that your boss followed you into the bathroom with a stop watch?

We have all had bosses that were a little over zealous in their approach to trying to get stuff done and get projects moving.  Have you ever wondered why?  (Other than they fact that they were probably insecure, self-absorbed, a$$es.)

Well I believe I have found their secret training video!  Check this out:

If You Stay Ready. . .

Alright this is comin atcha Big Willie Style!

I am a fan of Will Smith, not because his movie or albums but because despite all of his popularity he seems completely down to earth.

A little while ago my son and I were watching the making of Hancock.  One of Will’s directors mentions that he has a favorite Willism, “If you stay ready, you ain’t gotta get ready!”  Since then, I have been applying that to the way I go about business.

I have had my fair share of missed opportunities and general missteps along the way but I am going to do my damnedest to ’stay ready’.  You would believe the multi-million dollar possibilities that I crapped out on in the past, and I am not being symbolic about that.

Anyway, check out the video of an interview with Will Smith and Tavis Smiley.   Leave a comment and let me know what you think!

I Believe I Can Fly

Alright this one is straight out of the, damn this would be amazing to do if I wasn’t so scarred category.  I ran across this video on Twitter that Kevin Wilke posted.  I have always dreamed of flying, like many people have, and so I envy what these people are doing in the video below.

Take a look for yourself.  Simply Amazing!

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

You’ve Got To Be Hungry! Thank You Les Brown!

Here is a little reminder from Les Brown about what it is you have to do especially during these economic times!  The video is about 10 minutes long but it doesn’t seem that way.  Think of his message whenever you feel inadequate, small, unsure.

Enjoy!

If you want a thing bad enough To go out and fight for it, Work day and night for it, Give up your time and your peace and your sleep for it

If only desire of it Makes you quite mad enough Never to tire of it, Makes you hold all other things tawdry and cheap for it

If life seems all empty and useless without it And all that you scheme and you dream is about it,

If gladly you’ll sweat for it, Fret for it, Plan for it, Lose all your terror of God or man for it,

If you’ll simply go after that thing that you want. With all your capacity, Strength and sagacity, Faith, hope and confidence, stern pertinacity,

If neither cold poverty, famished and gaunt, Nor sickness nor pain Of body or brain Can turn you away from the thing that you want,

If dogged and grim you besiege and beset it, You’ll get it!

Success by Berton Braley

Amazons Record Holiday Sales

First off, Happy New Year!

Now I want to jump right back into things with some news that will be contrary to all the doom and gloom that we are fed on a daily basis.  If you haven’t seen this news story, Amazon posted the best Christmas selling season ever!

This wasn’t the case across the board as many retailers suffered as sales in general were down however you have to take a closer look at how Amazon does business versus the other guys.  How many of you knew that Amazon was the largest drop shipper on the planet?  Many individual companies sell their merchandise through Amazon so their supply lines are a lot longer!

As traditional online retailers were running out of stuff to sell, Amazon had hundreds of backup sellers providing a seemingly endless supply of stuff for you to buy.  How many times have you seen Amazon show something out of stock?

Amazon also offers fullfillment and management services for many large and not so large online retailers such as Target.

Lastly, Amazon has a very extensive affiliate program.  During the Christmas season large retailers such as Best Buy decided to drop their already abysmally low commission down to a horrifyingly pitiful 0.25%!  Who is going to waste time sending traffic to any site for a paltry 0.25%?  Amazons commission, although not earth shattering, start at 4% and go up depending on your unit volume.  That is a 1,500% better return for the affiliates effort by sending traffic to Amazon!

Amazon was good to me this holiday season as an affiliate!  Nothing dramatic but enough to make me focus more attention on them this year!