Archive for May, 2006
There are 2 ways to listen:
1. Use the player above to have the audio stream in now (it’s the one that says BS-Biz-Mix-2006-05-25)
2. Download the mp3 file below to play later, download to your mp3 player, etc
Click here to download and listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show # 36
Show Notes:
Increasing Sales by 400%?
On today’s podcast, we bring you a case study of a recent client of hours. We share some simple changes that we made to the client’s website, that we expect will dramatically increase his sales.
What We Did
1. Added a statistics package
Statistics on your website are essential. You can never know enough about your visitor numbers and visitor behaviour. A good stats program means you are better equipped to see where any improvements to your site can be made, and recognise the effects of any changes you make to your site. Google Analytics is an excellent free statistics program.
2. Created a Customer Survey.
While a statistics package can tell you how many visitors you have, and what pages they visit, it can tell you how they “feel” about your site and whether they feel comfortable purchasing from your site. A simple, well thought out survey can give your great information on how you can improve your site. The survey software we use is One Minute Poll, which is very easy to use and quite cost effective.
3. Added a Blog
Blogs are great for all kinds of reasons. Two main ones are: They provide an easy way to add regular content to the site and are highly regarded by search engines. We usually use free blogging software such as Blogger or WordPress
4. Simplified the shopping cart process
Once you’ve got someone as far as your shopping cart, you want to make it as simple as possible to buy. Ensure your shopping cart is as secure and user friendly as possible.
5. Simplified the Navigation on the site
You want visitors to spend time learning about your products, not trying to figure out how to find them. Learn to think like your customers, and even get a few to test drive your site for ease of navigation.
So there you have it. 5 simple, easy things to do on your e-commerce site that will help you increase your sales.
Click here to download and listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show # 36
Regards
Brendon
May 25th, 2006
There are 2 ways to listen:
1. Use the player above to have the audio stream in now (it’s the one that says BS-Biz-Mix-2006-05-15)
2. Download the mp3 file below to play later, download to your mp3 player, etc
Click here to download and listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show # 35
Show Notes:
Making Secrets of a Successful Web Development Business
Today’s Podcast is an interview with Billy Kirkley, a Brisbane web developer, on how he built his business up from a one man show to himself and 9 employees in just 11 months.
The show is longer today - about half an hour, because Tina had trouble deciding on what to edit out as Billy had so many great tips that web developers and small business owners might find useful. This is also the reason we are putting it up today instead of Friday - sorry about that, but we are sure you will enjoy the show anyway.
Resources from the Show
Billy’s Top 2 Things to Do Today that Will Help You Build Your Business:
- Pick up the phone and call 20 people you would like to do business with. Tell them why, and why you are better than the other companies out there offering similar services.
- Learn to outsource work. Your time may be more valuable spent with clients and managing your business than sitting in front of a computer doing the technical work of your business. If you can learn to leverage other people’s time instead of just your own and those of your permanent employees, you are in a far better position to pick up more clients and grow your business.
3 Websites to Visit:
- Monster Template have some great templates for web developers. Even if you don’t want to buy them, it’s a great place for design ideas.
- SEO Black Hat. A blog on some of the more dubious SEO (search engine optimization) techniques. Though a lot of the techniques on this site are not recommended, it’s a great resource for the latest news and gossip
on search engine technology.
- SEO Guy’s tutorial has some great techniques on search engine optimization, sure to give both the novice and intermediate web developer and edge on the competition.
And, of course, Billy Kirkley’s Brisbane Web Design Web Site.
Click here to download and listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show # 35
Regards
Brendon
May 15th, 2006
There are 2 ways to listen:
1. Use the player above to have the audio stream in now (it’s the one that says BS-Biz-Mix-2006-05-11)
2. Download the mp3 file below to play later, download to your mp3 player, etc
Click here to download and listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show # 34
Show Notes:
Great PR Tips for Your Business
The much awaited interview with Chelsea McLean is here. The show is a little longer today, because Chelsea had so much great stuff to say, so we thought we’d put it all in there for you.
Chelsea and I talk about why publicity is much more effective than advertising in promoting your business. We talk about effective PR strategies that anyone can use and that won’t cost anything but a little time.
Chelsea’s 3 Top Tips on Getting Quality (& Free!) Publicity
- Be prepared. Have a media release on your business ready to send to any media enquiries you receive. Know the answers to any questions you think the journalist may ask.
- Just give it a go. You won’t get any publicity if you never try. So get prepared, make some phone calls, send some emails and keep politely in touch with relevant media even if they aren’t interested first time.
- Be creative. Keep up with topical events and think of creative ways to tell a story about your business and “piggyback” on current newsworthy items.
Show Resources:
Enjoy the show & stay tuned for Friday’s Interview with successful web development firm owner, Billy Kirkley.
Click here to download and listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show # 34
Regards
Brendon
May 11th, 2006
We’re currently editing the Chelsea McLean interview - will post that up in the morning - some great info from Chelsea.
From our survey:
“Question - do you rehearse the Podcasts? The conversations beween Brendan and Tina sound very natural, yet they flow in a logical manner. There never seems to be any awkward silences or fluffing of lines.”
Answer: No, we don’t rehearse the show beforehand. We spend 5-10 minutes discussing the topic and what direction we might go in. But to ensure the show does flow and does sound natural we simply go with the flow where it takes us at the time.
I’ve noticed that over time we’ve become much more fluent and think a little quicker on our feet.
May 10th, 2006
Thanks so much for completing our survey for Tailored Podcast.com. We are pleased to announce that the winner of the $50 Amazon.com voucher is Gary M. Congratulations Gary!
We thought you would all like to know the results of our survey, so we have summarized them for you.
How do you listen to the podcast?
- Via the player on TailoredPodcast.com 57.89%
- I download the show to iTunes/other RSS reader 28.95%
- I download the show to my iPod/mp3 player 31.58%
How often do you listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix?
- Rarely 2.63%
- Once a month 18.42%
- Once per week 50.00%
- Several times a week 31.58%
What do you like best about Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix?
- The conversation/dialogue between Brendon and Tina
- Use of real-life examples
- The business advice and “how to” tips.
- Good marketing advice, especially on networking.
- The new shorter format, 3 times a week.
What do you like least about the show?
- The opening music and introduction.
- You want more detail and less chit-chat.
- The new shorter format, 3 times a week.
Assuming the content remained interesting, how long would you like the podcast?
- 5 minutes 7.89%
- 10 minutes 39.47%
- 15 minutes 31.58%
- 20 minutes 36.84%
Your Ideas to Improve the Show
- More real-life examples
-
More detailed How To’s
- Guest interviews
- Create a show transcript
- More detailed marketing advice
- More website marketing topics
We also got a lot of encouraging comments telling us to keep up the good work. Thanks so much for that, it makes all the hard work worthwhile to know that you are enjoying our shows.
As a result of all your feedback, we are going to do the following:
- Create a new intro/outro
- Have guest interviewees on the show occasionally.
-
Include more detailed How To’s in our podcasts.
- Come up with more real-life examples for you. (We are very careful with the privacy of our clients’, so although we won’t always mention the names of the examples we use, we will try and include other examples of what we are talking about in the show notes so you can have a look.)
- Come up with more good stories for you.
- Include some more marketing and website marketing topics.
So stay tuned over the coming weeks for all of this, starting with our upcoming guest interviews. On Wednesday, we interview PR queen Chelsea McLean on how to get great publicity for your small or medium business.
On Friday we interview successful Web Developer and small business owner Billy Kirkley on how he has built a successful web development business.
Cheers eveybody,
Tina
May 9th, 2006
There are 2 ways to listen:
1. Use the player above to have the audio stream in now (it’s the one that says BS-Biz-Mix-2006-05-08)
2. Download the mp3 file below to play later, download to your mp3 player, etc
Click here to download and listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show # 33
Show Notes:
The Value of Customer Surveys
We have had a fantastic response to our survey with some really useful feedback. Thanks everyone for your contribution so far. Today we share the tools we use to conduct our online surveys, as well as some useful tips on getting a good response. We also discuss what you should do after the survey, something which even more important than doing the survey. Most importantly, you need to let your surveyees know that you appreciate their feedback, and explain what action you will take as a result of the survey.
May 8th, 2006
There are 2 ways to listen:
1. Use the player above to have the audio stream in now (it’s the one that says BS-Biz-Mix-2006-05-05)
2. Download the mp3 file below to play later, download to your mp3 player, etc
Click here to download and listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show # 32
Show Notes:
The Best Free SEO Resource on the Web
In SEO (search engine optimization) contests, webmasters compete to rank best on Google for a given (usually nonsense) keyword or keyword combination.
Following these contests is a great way to see how the best SEO experts go about SEO, and a good test of what really works to get your website to the top of the search engines.
One contest running at the moment is the contest for the term “V7ndotcom Elursrebmem”, and there are some great resources on both wikipedia and the contestants’ webpages that explain why the winners pages are ranking so well, and the steps they take to rank well. Best of all, most of the info is free!
Enjoy the show and don’t forget that we are running a survey on how we can improve this podcast. There is a $50 Amazon.com voucher to be won just for completing it.
Click Here to take the survey. It closes 12 midday May 9, 2006 Eastern Australia time.
Click here to download and listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show # 32
Regards
Brendon
May 5th, 2006
Next week we’ll be interviewing brilliant publicist Chelsea McLean.
Chelsea is one of my city’s leading boutique publicists and has done work for us before. Work that has simply blown away any result we’ve ever got from advertising.
We’re recording the interview on Wednesday so will post it on Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning (depending on how long it will take to edit).
Chelsea has some fantastic tips for getting publicity for small to medium businesses with a tight budget - like they say in those cheesy commercials, if there is one interview you should listen to this year, it’s this one!
May 4th, 2006
There are 2 ways to listen:
1. Use the player above to have the audio stream in now (it’s the one that says BS-Biz-Mix-2006-05-03)
2. Download the mp3 file below to play later, download to your mp3 player, etc
Click here to download and listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show # 31
Show Notes:
Asking the Right Questions
Today’s show is about how asking the right questions can help you negotiate business deals and help you provide better solutions to your customers, as well as help you with a whole range of other situations you may come across. We also have some great examples of how not asking the right questions can lead to some pretty tricky situations.
Enjoy the show and don’t forget that we are running a survey on how we can improve this podcast. There is a $50 Amazon.com voucher to be won just for completing it.
Click Here to take the survey. It closes 12 midday May 9, 2006 Eastern Australia time.
Click here to download and listen to Brendon Sinclair’s Business Mix Show # 31
Regards
Brendon
May 3rd, 2006
Simply take our quick survey and fill out your name & email details to enter.
We’ll use your answers to improve the podcast.
Click Here to take the survey.
Gotta be in it to win it 
Competition closes at 12 midday May 9, 2006 Eastern Australia time.
Regards
Brendon
May 2nd, 2006
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