This is Part Two the the Keys to an Effective Small Business Website Series

Your Unique Selling Proposition – the USP

No matter who creates your website, no matter what it looks like, no matter where the traffic comes from, you need to give the reader a reason to buy from you. This is marketing 101 and you can skip a lot of the homework but if you miss this you fail the class. Your unique selling proposition or unique selling point is what will give potential customers the reason to purchase from you. Without it, your small business website is virtually useless.

Why do you need a unique selling proposition?

If you cannot separate your business from the other businesses (or separate your product) customers will not have any reason to buy from you. They will go someplace that can give them a reason. At the very best, your potential customer will have to contact you to ask for a reason to buy from you. Often this desperate cry for a reason to utilize your services will start with the word “How much is _________.” You can fill in the blank with whatever your business typically hears. In my case, every photographer could guess the first words you hear after answering the phone:

“How much is an 8×10?”

To which nearly every photographer answers the question and the potential customer says goodbye and calls the next photographer in the phone book with the same question. This goes on until the customer hears a price that sounds good, or, a photographer that knows better.

This is true for nearly every type of business.

It does not matter what you sell or what service you provide. The product is a bit different but the rest of the sentence (as well as the conversation) is most likely the same. Many small business websites are just as bad as their phone book ads. They give the name, address, phone number and maybe an email address. The website may have some pretty pictures or flashy graphics but no real reason for the customer to do business. Of course, you can save a lot wasted time answering the phone by putting prices on your site. Then they don’t even call. The small business owner then wonders why his expensive pretty website brings in no business.

You need to get your small business website away from the phone book mentality.

You should also probably change your phone book ads. You need to give potential clients more than you name, address, and phone number. Everyone else has the same ad already. Look at your local phone book ads. They are all the same business. In 90% of the ads in a niche, only the name, address, and phone number are different. You could substitute the name “Giant Donut” for the name of many of the businesses listed and it would still make sense. Most small business websites are the same. They just add some flashy graphics.

Before you spend any time building a website, you need your unique selling proposition.

What makes your business, your product, your service unique? Why should a customer come to you instead of the business down the block? What do you have to offer?

It better not be price!

If so, stop reading now and just flush any money you plan to invest in you business down the drain. You will soon be out of business. Maybe not this month or year, but eventually someone start to beat your price. Then why should I shop with you? You need to face the fact that most likely, you will eventually be facing competition that can beat your price. That may very well be Wal-Mart and they will beat your price if they have to lose money doing it. The will also probably be open longer hours than you can, and have a nice old lady to smile, to say hello, and to offer them a cart to shop with. You will be out of business.

Before you start to really set up a small business website, you need to find your USP.

Actually, you should come up with at least 10 unique things about your business. This will be the core of your website. The reason people will purchase your product or service from your business. Tell them why they should come to you instead of your competition. While you can cheat a little on a few of them, the majority of those USP’s need to truly be unique to your business. You probably are not a Giant Donut dealer, so make sure only your business can claim them.

Also, how do those unique selling propositions benefit the customer?

Be ready to tell your potential customer how a particular USP will matter to them. A lot of small businesses will mention that they use a particular brand of equipment or supplies (Remember Kodak film fellow photographers? It really does not matter to the customer). Unless it benefits the customer, it really does not count.The customer will not be impressed by your technology unless there is a benefit to the customer. Give them a benefit, and you will win the customer (even if the competition uses better technology but fails to demonstrate how that would benefit the customer). Why should they come to you instead of Wal-Mart? Perhaps you are less expensive even though Wal-Mart is cheaper. The preceding sentence only makes sense if you show the customer the difference between less expensive and cheap.

Your mission should you accept it:

Create at least 10 unique selling points about your business. Make them as truly unique as you can. Don’t forget there are emotional selling points to your business that may be even more valuable to a customer than non-emotional reasons.

Unless you are the only Bugatti dealer within 500 miles of Pocatello, Idaho your location probably isn’t a real big USP for you. You’ll need something more unique than being the only Ford dealer in a particular Chicago suburb.

These USP’s will be the basis for you website.

You will need to build on them and create content around them. This is why I wanted to cover this topic on your small business website early so you can begin preparing your USP’s. You should use them in all your advertising and marketing. If you do, you will stop hearing the words “How much is…” and hear “I want to buy, purchase, schedule or whatever from you” instead. You will need to do less “selling”. You will find that you do not need to worry about that Wal-Mart going up down the street. You will be able to charge more for you product or service and still have more business.

Always remember the marking saying:

It’s not features, it’s benefits.

There are lots of reasons for wanting to work from home or make money online.

One of my main personal reasons for wanting to be self-employed is from an incident that is very personal to me. Something happened while I was in high school that made a profound impression on my life and what I want to do for employment.

I will be naming the company involved. However, if I could remember some of those who were supposed to be leaders of the respective parties involved, I would. I have little respect for those involved on both sides. While the company, and those in charge of it, I feel is worthy of my disdain, I believe the leaders of the opposing side are also self-serving scumbags.

I will also be naming a well known national politician that also tried to use the situation for his own personal advancement.

I hope that those of you who are probably thinking of supporting the presidential nominee his party will be proposing this fall will take notice. Nearly all the promises (or even day to day statements) made by any politician of his party are not only the same, but made with the same self-serving interests at heart. It makes my stomach retch every time I hear these people talk.

Now, on to the story that drives me to be self-employed.

While I was growing up, my father worked for the Patrick Cudahy meat processing company.

That is the company involved. My father worked as a foreman. He was a dedicated employee. He had an excellent attendance record. He had even received several mugs for perfect attendance. The only time I remember him needing to miss any work was when he had needed an operation on his thumb. The operation was to fix a nerve in his thumb which had been cut with a blade at Patrick Cudahy. As a foreman, my dad was sometimes not paid as much as the union workers he was overseeing.

Before I get nasty, I must tell you that I have no complaints with union workers in general.

My Grandfather was a union worker at Patrick Cudahy before my dad worked there. We had many personal friends that worked for the union at Patrick Cudahy. They were hard working folks that were trying to provide for their families. At the same time, my dad needed to work extra hard as some workers did not earn their pay and he was responsible to see the work was done. But not even that is the cause of the situation.

Back in the 80′s, the union and the company started to have some major disagreements.

There were a few small, short strikes but during my senior year at high school things got really out of control. The union leaders claimed they needed more. The company was really beginning to threaten to simple close the plant and move. The city of Cudahy is named after Patrick Cudahy just like the company.

A long strike began.

During this strike, I even went through the strike lines a few times to pick up my dad from work. Why they feel the need for strike workers to march around a Mazda GLC at 10:00pm at night as you enter and leave is beyond me. I really wondered how intelligent the strikers were calling anyone going through a “Scab” when they called me one and I was not doing much more than the bus driver down the street. That is one of the better terms they used. Of course, some of these honest workers had been throwing rocks and eggs at vehicles going through at times.

I have not gotten to the ugly part of the situation yet.

The union leaders were really good at convincing their workers how “unfair” their wages and benefits were. The company was the great evil capitalist and they should let themselves be taken advantage of. So, the workers striked. For months. For a strike pay in the tens of dollars per week. Probably close to an hour or two’s wages. This went on for months. I can see why they would be grouchy on the picket line. I still don’t understand how they think this was helping them.

During this time, the union leadership really failed to represent them.

There were several meetings where the union leaders failed to show up at all. I wish I could remember the moron’s name. I guess he was just to busy making a slide show he was supposed to be creating on the Civil War or something else to represent those guys on the picket line properly. Maybe, he didn’t really feel that he had any responsibility to do his best for them. His failure to show alone added weeks to the strike.

For those union supporters out there, stick around, I’ll get to the company also.

I have noticed a real lack of responsibility for the workers by a lot of union leadership in this country. So many times,  you see union workers forced to strike by the union for nothing that will profit them. More often than not, I see union leadership just increasing its own control of power. I have my own beefs about how Wal-Mart does business, but the hypocrisy of the way the unions hire picketers is almost comical. Union leaders are very much guilty of convincing workers to strike for reasons that mostly profit union leaders and increase their control over the workers. Union workers nearly always seem to lose far more than they gain. Kinda like voting for a politician that is going to tax “the rich” and give the money to “help the poor and needy.” It is all for the better good of all.

That brings us to none other than the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

Yes, he was trying to be nominated for president at this time. The Reverend Jesse Jackson came to show his support for the union strike. He even came to one striker’s home. Now, I do remember this workers name and am not going to give it out. Nice guy, but he really fell for Jesse Jackson’s speil. The man was a very active union supporter and was sure in the rightness of his cause and the strike. For those who listen to those who are always ready to hold out and keep a strike going longer just to let the company know who is in charge, this man had a successful side business. A business that, by the way, was at least partially enhanced by government grants. He could afford to strike a bit and still by fun toys like new cameras while some of our personal friends were having problems with groceries.

Back to the Reverend Jesse Jackson.

I despise politicians that make claims about how  “unfair” businesses are to workers. Jesse Jackson came to town for a day or two made his speeches for the media and left. I doubt he even remembers how to pronounce Cudahy (cud-a-hay). It was simply a chance for him to claim he was supporting union workers. It is the same story with nearly (but not entirely) all the members his party. Claims to provide more education, health care, fair income, equal rights, save the environment, legal justice, lower crime, and even rights to free speech almost always means that they end up with more control and you end up with less control, money, rights and freedom. Sexual harassment is terrible, but not if it is Bill Clinton. We need socialized health care, but Hillary’s last plan excluded much of those in government while giving us no choice (I believe her current plan is not too different). The environment need to be saved, but don’t inconvenience Al Gore’s luggage or think that his mansion uses too much electricity while the rest of us are forced to use CFL bulbs. Then again, there is Obama’s house (both the empty lot and the interesting loan) and his wife’s Ivy league education and cushy legal profession and claims of how terrible life is the United States (all OK now that her husband is near nomination). Jesse and all his kind always make these claims, but they never seem to pay the price they want the rest of us to.

If I haven’t made an enemy of you yet, just wait.

In a long strike like the one that occurred at Patrick Cudahy, no one really wins. Everyone loses.

When it ended, the union did not gain much if anything. Most of those that needed the job most had need to find another job to make ends meet. Some needed to move to other parts of the country. The company soon moved many of the jobs out anyway. Some out of the country. The plant ended up having a fraction of the jobs it used to have. The jobs were lost to the community along with the income they provided.

The City of Cudahy is a ghost of what it used to be.

The strip mall that used to have a Gimble’s, JCPenny, and a Sears. Now it has a dollar store and discount liquidator. Many of the once thriving small businesses down the main street are gone. I watched two resale shops fail in one year near our business. The bakery they replaced had been there all my life. Where there were local owned shops, national chain stores now take the profits elsewhere. Not even the Kmart is doing well.

I have given you a reason why I might not want to work with a union, now for the company.

I’m sure you union people will like this.

Like I said, my dad was a foreman for the company. He worked just as hard or harder than anyone that was in the union. He endured the picket lines, and even  the slight danger passing through them (the local police also belong to unions, adding someone else for me to anger with this post).

He worked all through the strike. I mentioned picking him up during the strike, passing the picket lines. For all this, and his years of loyalty, he was shortly rewarded.

A few months after the strike ended, my dad came home and told us his job had been terminated.

Just like that. I still do not understand a company that would do this even as they were still claiming the strikers were welcome back. But Patrick Cudahy was not done yet.

A year later, they offered to hire my dad back at minimum wage as a security guard!

To me, this was a real insult. Oh yes, we fired a loyal employee like you a year ago. However, if you want, we will hire you at a fraction of what you used to make. Honesty, my dad was tempted because it did include heath insurance.

I have no respect for Patrick Cudahy or the jerks that run it. So now, I will let the rest of the world something that will make them sick.

I was once in the plant a few years later, I witnessed something that should make you a bit sick next time you eat ham or bacon from them.

*I have decided to remove the incident, besides, I still like Patrick Cudahy ham.*

I will do all I can to never be reliant on someone else for my income.

While I may have a job from time to time, my goal is a steady income I can rely on working for myself. I don’t want to be at the mercy of self-serving union leaders. I do not believe there is job security from working for a company any more. I most of all do not want politicans deciding how much I should be making and deciding how to spend my money to buy themselves votes and power with it.

I want to create my own wealth.

I’ll make money online or make money offline with a home-based business. I don’t care. I’ll find a way to be successful and help as many others become successful too. I believe that wealth can be shared with as many as want to create it. The only ones that steal wealth are those that think it is a limited commodity.

No matter what you do, you have some investment in business.

Are you investing smartly?

I wrote this post after having someone literally hang up on me as I mentioned that there would be a financial investment in starting a business.

I didn’t even get to the numbers before the line went dead. What kind of mindset does a person have with no plans to invest in their own business at all? In fact, the numbers I would have told her are almost ridiculously low and even refundable, but just the mention of money turned her off. This is someone who asked for information about from home because she could no longer do her former work due to a back operation that work had caused. She had risked her time and health and lost. She will lose more because she has not learned be informed before making her decision. Any financial investment or even risk would be small compared to what she already risked and lost.

Even if you are working a traditional job, you are invested in it and you have risk.

You invest your time. Your pay is the reward for the investment of your time. You also have a risk with that investment. Your risks could actually be just as much as a stockholder of the company you work for. After all, if the company fails, you lose your income. A stockholder loses money only if he invests in stock that is overpriced or if the company fails. Your investment of time is also at risk of the whim of your boss firing you, or you becoming unable to fulfil your job duties. Maybe, this make the risk of a traditional job holder even greater than that of a stockholder.

The investment in an online business or a home business can be very low, yet many don’t want to invest.

Starting a website or blog can cost as little as a domain and hosting for a year. That would an investment of well under $150. You may need to invest in some software or training. That may mean an investment of money or an investment of time. After that, much of your investment may be time. Again, you will be investing time in the business. The financial investment is low but the time investment can be high. The risk is dependent on your ability to succeed. Risking $500 or even $1000 total to start an online business is not a large investment. It is a small percentage of what a traditional brick and mortar business would cost. You would most likely pay $1000 for a month’s rent just as a start.

Yet, I see so many who are willing to risk the time investment but completely unwilling to risk any monetary investment even a small one.

In the long run, I see this as a setup for losing much of the investment in time. A domain name is cheap. Often less than $10 a year from GoDaddy or Namecheap (I use Namecheap now for most domain names). Yet, so many start a blog without a domain. I fail to see why this is a step so many skip. Meanwhile, domainers are out there just investing in domain names alone for their potential value in a few years.

I find that many people think that there is money to be made with no financial investment.

There is. It is called a job. I already talked about your risk a little bit. Your job comes with perks like a boss and workers you cannot stand, following the same rat race every day, and the knowledge that job security doesn’t exist like it did for your grandfather.

So many people refuse to make any financial investment in themselves.

They seem to be afraid they will get scammed or ripped off. It is true there are many scams. There are many ideas for making money that require you to invest money in them that do not work. I think a lot of the eBay businesses and online store products are a bad way to invest your money in an online business. Why? Simple. They want you to sell the same piece of junk that 10,000 other people are selling and it’s junk no one really uses anyway. So, yes, there are bad ways to invest your money to build a business.

The point is to make a wise, informed decision on what to invest in and how much of an investment is needed.

Buying a McDonald’s franchise can be a wise investment, but it is a significant financial investment. Few of us have the spare million dollars that would take. Not to mention, you are also going to have a significant time investment in that McDonald’s. There are other businesses that have a very low financial investment and can make you just as much money.

I am not saying you should not be skeptical.

You should be informed before you invest. You should make a wise decision. Just do not let the fact that it may cost a little bit and have a tiny financial risk be the reason.

Sometimes, that financial investment is the motivation to use the time investment wisely.

Jim Kukral is demonstrating some great internet marketing ideas on his blog.

In fact, he has a video on his blog that he could use to market 3 different products effectively in one video.

Take a look at Jim Kukral’s blog and watch the video about Somethingstore

Can you identify the 3 products that he is selling in the video?

Actually, I think he is only promoting 2. The subject of the video, Somethingstore.com, is just being reviewed and I didn’t spot any affiliate to it. I could be wrong, but you could substitute any product and use an affiiate link.

The real products are the Flip camera and Scratchback.

The video is shot using the Flip video camera.

This is a product that Jim used to test the effectiveness of Scratchback for marketing products. A test that was profitable for him also. My only suggestion is that on the page with the video, there is no real link to buy the camera. A shame, since he does such a great job of demonstrating how useful it can be.

The other product Jim is marketing is a link in the Scratchback list next to the video.

Notice how he uses the graphic of the video to point to Scratchback. While no mention of Scratchback is made, you will notice it. This would be a great place for Somethingstore or any business featured in the video to purchase a link on Scratchback. If you are a truly evil internet marketer,  a great place for a link to a direct competitor to Somethingstore. You could also simple take advantage of traffic to the page and place any link there.

This is an excellent example of internet marketing to follow.

I’ve added Jim Kukral’s blog to my reader list. He has many great ideas for marketing that are simple and easy to follow.

Internet marketing is more than just getting traffic.

Once you get someone to your page, you need to monetize the traffic you have. Otherwise, you will be working for free. While it’s nice to enjoy your work, you will enjoy it a lot more if you make money so you can keep enjoying it. Jim is showing how to get traffic and how to monetize effectively. Here we also see an example of using graphics effectively.

I would suggest you subscribe to Jim Kukral’s blog.

If you are a ScratchBack user, the Scratchback blog would also be a good read. ScratchBack is one of Jim Kukral’s ideas and there are some good things to learn about using ScratchBack there. You will not find the attitude you see on many interenet marketing blogs. Just simple, good ideas and how to use them.

Well, almost!

Friday was the last official day in my full time business (the portrait studio).

I am now completely self-employed. Or, to put it another way, unemployed.

This is a big change for me.

I have been in the business for my entire adult life. After well over twenty years, it is a bit sad to see it go. My parents started the business while I was in high school. It has been a real education in retail, sales, marketing, as well as photography.

If everything works out, I will be working completely from home from now on.

There are several things I will be doing.

My Websites.

I will be concentrating on this blog and on my photography site for the most part. I also plan to start a few more sites. I have seen some interesting ideas recently and I want to give a few of them a try. Still, most of my focus in Internet Marketing will be centered around this blog and the photography blog.

I will also be doing another home-based business.

This will probably be the long term focus for income. I just have to make up my mind and do it.

I am planning to see what I can do with photography.

For a few months at least, I am staying well away from portrait photography. I look into doing it again sometime in the future, but for now I will look into other types of photography. Besides, I do not have a studio now and it is not very good weather to do portraits outdoors here in Wisconsin. In particular, I intend to develop my stock portfolio a bit for the next couple months.

We may have kept the studio open if we had the business we have had the last few weeks last year.

Why is it once you decide to close, customers seem to come out of the woodwork? My last week in business was probably the largest single week we have had in several years. I had to turn away many potential clients. There was no time to get them in before our lease was up.

I still have some work to do at the studio over the next few weeks.

Our landlord was very kind and has given us the month of December to clean up. After 20 years, we have a lot of things that either need to be sold or thrown out.

Lessons to learn.

Watch the industry you are in. Take notice of changes and make sure you change with them, when the time is right.

Do not change too early.

Sometimes, the early adopters pay a lethal price. Often, early generations of technology have serious flaws.

Do not change too late.

Failure to change will leave you too far behind to catch up. Our failure was not shutting down our film lab soon enough. It was actually costing us money to keep the equipment running.

Marketing your business is the real business.

Everything else is secondary. Make sure your marketing is designed to bring you business, not just get noticed. You are better off sending 3 letters to 10 clients than 1 letter to 30 clients. Also, always be ready to repeat a last successful marketing campaign. Don’t put all your cards on a new method till you see results.

Finally, and probably most important.

Your list is worth it’s weight in gold.

BACK IT UP!

5 ways to make money with ScratchBack on your site and 4 ways to make money using ScratchBack on other sites.

What in the world is ScratchBack?

Maybe you have seen the widgets like mine around inviting you to be a Top Link or TopSpot?

That is the ScratchBack widget. It works a bit like a PayPal donate button. In this case, whoever tips you also gets a link on your site. That is what separates this from a typical donation to your site. I think it is a good idea.

The links are nofollow.

That should keep Google off your case. You do not have to worry about linking to a "bad neighborhood" as far as the search engines are concerned. You also keep complete editorial control over the links. You set it to let you approve links first or you can cancel links after they are up.

You can also offer small banner-like image links.

It would be nice to be able offer both,but you have to decide which you will have. I think that if you want to offer images this could discourage someone that does not have an image from buying a link. It would be nice to have a text only option for this.

My understanding is that a marketplace is in the works for ScratchBack users.

This should really help blogs sell a few links. I am hoping that it will work a bit like Text Link Ads system. I think TLA is missing a chance by not offering a nofollow option with them. They already have a huge market and I think many would welcome the options they could offer even with nofollow links.

I feel a little more comfortable knowing the links are nofollow versus the links with TLA.

I don’t have to worry about the quality of the site. While I would encourage anyone that might think their link would be controversial to check with me first. I don’t have to be too concerned. As long as the link does not lead to something obscene or a scam, I am most likely to let it stay.

Five ways for making money online with ScratchBack on your site.

1. Keep the cost low and let it bump off, using it as a tip.

The lowest you can set ScratchBack is $1.00. After PayPal fees and ScratchBack’s cut, you get about $.60. That will be a bit less when ScratchBack raises it’s percentage after the Beta.

2. Use it as a moderately priced tip.

Raise the price of a link as they get bought. In a way, you will be auctioning the links off till you find a bit higher price that still seems low enough for others to pay for. The more traffic your site has, the higher this will be. In this case, you may still want to allow newer links to bump off older ones as long as the price is not too high.

3. Use as a replacement for Text Link Ads.

With ScratchBack, you can also set the links to expire after 24 hours, 7 days, or 30 days. In this case you will need to set your price accordingly. Right now, it is unreasonable to expect the same amount for a nofollow link that you would have gotten for one that passed PR. Still, if you have good traffic, it should be as useful as CPC text ad on your site to an advertiser.

4. Sell image link ads for higher prices.

I mentioned the trouble with the image ads above. Right now, if you offer image ads, they are all image ads and someone who just wants to tip you will need to make and image that is the correct size first. Still, for the right market, this is a nice option. In graphic niche it should do better. Still it does limit your market. I would go with the monthly expiration for the advertisers. So I came up with a fifth way for making money online with ScratchBack on your site.

5. Offer image ads with a free graphic designed by you.

If you have any graphic experience, it is easy to make a graphic. You can do this very easily with Photoshop Elements. A free option is Gimp. The image size is very small so there really is no need for anything too fancy. I am planning to offer this service with ScratchBack advertisers for a while at www.photographybyjet.com.

4 ways of making money online with ScratchBack when it is on other sites.

1. Advertise your site!

There are many good deals right now since it is new. Find a site with some traffic that still has a low ScratchBack price. If the site is set to bump, you could have a link to your site for several weeks. The trick is finding a site with traffic. Manuel Viloria was the first blogger to buy a link here to his blog.

2. Advertise your spammy site.

Actually, my first advertiser with ScratchBack was a bit on the spammy side. It is a link to a page of different home-based businesses labeled Top Work At Home. While I would not want a full link to a site like this, it is no different than an AdSense ad for a home-based-business. If you have some type of site that would normally not be indexed by Google, this is a good option for getting traffic. Always check with the owner of the page first since they may not approve your link if they do not like it and you will be out your tip.

3. Advertise a product.

Almost like the previous way to make money online with ScratchBack, this is another case where you would not normally get a link from a website or blogger. Jim Kukral (who is behind this whole ScratchBack thing) is the first one I saw using this. Think of it as running an AdWords campaign without a CPC. Jim used a link ad here to send readers to a site selling a cool flip digital video camera that plugs right into your USB port to send the video to your computer.

4. Set up a business creating ScratchBack graphics for advertisers.

Similar to method number 5 of making money online with ScratchBack on your site. In this case set up a page with fees and some design ideas for designing graphics for others who need buttons to advertise on ScratchBack. Yep, you need a little know how and software, but it could be handy. You may be able to work out a deal for a discounted ad with sites using ScratchBack with images. It will help them get more advertisers too. I may start to do this myself.

I hope I have given you some ideas on how you can be making money online with ScratchBack.

There are so many ways to make money online. This is an exciting time to be a blogger. Those who are successful are the ones who will take advantage of opportunities as they come along and use them to full advantage.

This is something I have been wondering since the iPhone was released.

Is Apple’s practice of only allowing iPhone use with AT&T against antitrust laws?

I do not own an iPhone. I would like to, but have not been able to justify the cost (at least to my wife). Is the way the iPhone is currently being marketed against antitrust laws? I am no lawyer (thankfully) but I have seen similar situations that would seem to make the current iPhone questionable.

The industry I am familiar with is the photography industry.

There have been some interesting antitrust laws that applied to the photo  industry. Yet, the iPhone and many newer products and industries are far more restrictive to the consumer. I feel that Apple may be currently acting much worse than Microsoft.

I was amazed to find out how antitrust laws applied in the photo industry.

Did you know that a film manufacturer could not include film processing with a roll of film? You could not by a roll of film with an included mailer to have the film processed by Kodak or Fuji. The mailer would have to be sold separately.

Also, manufacturers had to sell the chemicals used to process the film.

Not only could they not include the processing with the film, but they had to make the chemicals to process it available.

Compare that to the iPhone.

I buy the iPhone from Apple. I can only use it with AT&T. In fact, attempts to make it work with other services have been countered by Apple updates.

This is far worse than the typical cell phone being locked to the cell phone carrier you buy it from.

In most cases, you can still get the same phone at another cell phone provider. There is also no problem getting the phone unlocked to use with another mobile phone provider if you want.

A locked cell phone is a bit like a film company including the processing.

But Apple has gone a lot farther than just locking the iPhone. It is very difficult to do. They have made it more difficult.

So, when I read the following article about a lawsuit and antitrust, my thought was "Why has it taken so long?"

In the lawsuit — the second in as many weeks involving the iPhone — Smith alleges that Apple violated several California antitrust statutes when it tied the smart phone to AT&T and prohibited customers from using other carriers. The result, read the lawsuit, was that Smith paid too much for the iPhone.

"Apple forced plaintiff and the class members to pay substantially more for the iPhone and cell phone service than they would have paid in a competitive marketplace either for the iPhone or for AT&T’s cell phone service," read the suit.

Calif. man sues Apple over iPhone ‘bricking’

Unfortunately, Apple and the iPhone are not the only current examples typical of this practice.

Can you think of other products place similar restrictions on consumers?

BTW, I would still like to get an iPhone. I think it would be a very useful business tool. I am really interested in the calendar function as I need an easy way to keep track of appointments and set them while keeping it with me.

As always, I’d love to know how you think and feel about the subject.

You comments on the subject are highly valued.

Or at least make it look like they do.

I was already having "one of those" afternoons.

I was going to make a few call before I left to pick my wife up at work. At that point, the world seemed to start turning backwards.

I could not connect to Gmail.

Still not sure what was up with that. It is fine now. All of a sudden, all my sites seemed to have lost their CSS styling (seems to have been a cache problem in Firefox) and I was having trouble with my Internet connection. It seemed to work like dial up – not the 100 times faster than whatever Time Warner claims.

All this had me leaving late to pick up my wife.

A road near my house I usually take is under construction (totally gone at the moment – this is how they like to "fix roads" in Wisconsin). This meant I would have to take an even longer route to pick up my wife.

For some reason, my cell phone would not work.

I could not call my wife and let her know I was a bit late. I did get it to work after shutting it off for a bit.

Anyway, I did finally pick up my wife.

We had decided to stop for dinner at Milwaukee’s Grand Avenue Mall. Traffic was worse than usual for Milwaukee at 10 after 5pm on a Friday. As we approached Wisconsin Ave. we discovered why.

Some "peace protesters" were slowing up traffic at one of the main intersections with Wisconsin Ave.

Now, these protesters were not protesting the war against terrorists in Iraq. They were not even the "Bush is stupid" variety.

They were protesting against a company that makes bulldozers.

Yes, bulldozers. Somehow, they believed that bulldozers must be the primary means of killing Palestinians. They were protesting the company that made the bulldozers. I have no idea if the company even has in office near where they were protesting.

They had a unique way of slowing the traffic.

Three women were kind of tied together in plastic bags (which had slogans denouncing the bulldozer as the weapons of evil. All they had to do was wait for a walk signal and try to cross legally. Because of the way they were connected, they could not walk fast. They probably were not in a hurry either. It also seemed that their intelligences were not developed to the point that they stopped drooling, which also impeded their speed naturally. They were loosely spaced, so the three of them were equal in size to a large group.

Wisconsin Avenue is one of the main streets in downtown Milwaukee.

Now, Milwaukee is not that big of a city. With the nearly constant construction around, many of the streets are nearly just 2 way streets with parking. At many intersections, you cannot make turns during busy traffic hours because it would hold up traffic too much.

The three women made it nearly impossible for more than one car to make a turn during a green light.

All they did was go around the intersection. They would start to cross on a walk signal. By the time they were across, the light would be red. They got completely around the intersection before I snuck through, making a right turn on red (which fortunately was OK at this intersection.

It was really annoying!

It was rush hour (which is not really an hour in Milwaukee – one of Milwaukee’s strong points). It was Friday night and everyone wanted to get home or at least away from there. They were really tying up traffic. You can’t get around cars that are stuck waiting to make a turn at that intersection.

I do not usually honk the car horn unless it is an emergency.

But I really wanted to beep that horn and let them know I was annoyed! It was then I noticed a few other people standing around holding very small signs.

"Honk for peace"

Yep, I am sure that most of the people honking did not even see the signs. My wife could not even read them properly (not being a native English speaker, she could not guess what all the words were and misread them). There were a lot of people honking horns.

Now, if you were close to the sign and could read it, you might think people were agreeing with them.

Actually, who would not support peace? But bulldozers as the greatest threat to mankind? (This did not appear to be a save the rainforest thing for those environmentalists out there thinking that might be the cause.)

It would look that way on a video also.

A nice close up of the sign for cause in the foreground, horns honking in the background. If you were there, you would know what the horns were for (the three green lights you sat through waiting for the women to get across). Unless you were one of the people there with their mouth open, tongue part way out, drool coming down your chin. You might think that you had a lot of support for the cause you were instructed was so important.

Once in a while, you see a deceptive tactic like this used in business.

Statistics showing popular support for a product or company. Yet, when you really look at the situation, it is something else that really had the attention, and the product or company just happened to be around for the ride.

In those health affiliate ads you will often see the latest medical discoveries proclaiming one of the ingredients advantages.

Never mind that the ingredient is not in the recommended doses or in a form that is of use to the body. Think I am making this up? Not too long ago, it was shown that a popular garlic supplement contained little or no garlic. A lot of horn blowing about garlic, but the product did not have it.

I am sure this analogy is true in many different industries.

I’d bet that more than one paycheck shown for Internet marketing products contained income that did not come primarily from the product being sold. I also believe many of those incomes are gross and not net. They fail to show that 2/3rds of the income was used to pay for the marketing.

The truth of the situation may not be what it seems.

Sometimes, someone may be hiding the true agenda from you and you may be duped into something you are not aware of.

On the other hand, there are a lot of better ways to help peace that honking your horn.

And bulldozers (and the makers of bulldozers) are not the problem. People not respecting their fellow human beings are the problem.

I always honk my horn when I go through a tunnel.

My wife thinks I’m nuts. I just smile at her when I do it. The car in front of me might agree with her though.

Liz Strauss had another great article about sales on her blog.

Basically she pointed out that people like to make their own decisions for themselves. They don’t like to be told or talked to, but listened to.

I suggest a quick look over at the original article at her blog.

We’re hype adverse. Put that together with these natural human responses.

• No one likes to be told what to think.
• No one likes to lose the right to pick their favorite.
• No one likes someone else to decide what they need.

4.6: Simple Sales 101 — How to Get Customers to Sell Themselves – Liz Strauss at Successful Blog – Thinking, writing, business ideas . . . You’re only a stranger once.

Liz points out that you are far better off asking questions and letting the customer or client tell you what they want.

In learning sales in my portrait studio, I learned the magic question.

It is the most important thing you can ask a potential customer. It does not matter what the product the customer is looking at is. It works for everything.

I learned it from photographer Charles Lewis.

If you have plans to make a living from portrait or wedding photography, his sales guides and materials are nearly unparalleled. I not only learned what needs to be done in sales, but why from him.

Anyway – the magic question.

"What is most important to you about…..?"

What is most important to you about making money online? What is most important to you about the blogs you read? What is most important to you about the host for your blog?

I’ll finish this post with the question Liz finished her post with.

What do you need to give this a try?

It’s all in how you let go

I had one of the most annoying things happen with a client recently – the kind of thing that makes you want to scream.

One of my full time businesses is a service type business. I meet with a potential customer at no charge. We discuss their wants and needs, my pricing, and what I can do for them.

I let them know before they spend a cent what they can be expecting to pay for the final result.

After this first meeting, they can decide if they want to commission me to do work for them. It takes about 30-40 minutes out of my time, but I feel the results are worth it. They then pay my starting fee and we schedule the time for their work. They now know what they can expect to pay when the work is finished.

In this case, I had just what the client was looking for.

The client wanted several things that were going to take extra time so I had to schedule an extra large block of time for them to come back. This is also during my busiest time of year. She also wanted to schedule at the most popular time of day.

Several hours before the appointment the client calls to reschedule.

Actually, it was a voicemail. They cannot make it for the appointment but would like to reschedule. I have one opening left later in the week and have other clients coming in that may use that time slot.

I called the client and only got voicemail.

I told her that I had one opening yet this week. If she would like it, she should call right away. I can no longer use the time slot she had, it is too late to schedule anything else there. This costs me quite a bit of my potential daily income.

The client failed to call back.

I call her just before a appointment the next day before the time slot is taken. She was just about to call and say she did want that time slot. Great, I’ll see them then. My next appointment has to wait a week to get in now.

I prepare for the client to come in.

This usually take me 15-30 minutes of my time. It allows me to start right away and get more done while they are with me.

Then I wait.

And wait. And wait. And wait.

Nearly 45 minutes after the appointment the client calls.

Obviously, she is not here. I am now told they have changed their mind. Can they still get their money back?

What would you do?

I am out the income that I would have made for two days. It is my busiest time of year. The busiest time slot. I have had to tell others I am unavailable for those times and days. Both times, too late for me to use the time for anything useful.

Three steps for dealing with a failed client/customer relationship.

First, do not lose your temper.

At least not in front of a client. It will only make you lose respect in their eyes. Even when they know they are wrong. Keeping your temper in check will raise their respect for you. This is the hardest part. You can bet, I am angry, but the client will not know it.

Second, keep up your part.

Yes, my guarantee says they will be 100% satisfied with the work I do or their money back. It would be easy to argue that it is not my fault but theirs. They have cost me a lot of money and time and have not even let me do the work.

You will get taken once in a while if you offer a guarantee.

This is even more likely in the online world than offline where you actually meet the person and they have to look you in the eye when they come for the refund. It is worth it though. A guarantee will most often more than make up for this in the amount of additional business it brings you. Honestly, the situation would have been slightly worse if I forced them to let me do all the work and then have them say they want a refund.

Finally, do not do business with that client again.

While there may be special circumstances for a given situation this is a statement about that person. If you should decide to work with them again, expect similar treatment. They do not respect your time and most likely will waste your time in the future if you give them the opportunity.

Oddly, this could be a sign you need to raise your prices.

If you command a large amount for your time, you are less likely to have people not respect your time. Let’s face it, you are far more likely to skip a checkup with your doctor than an appointment with an expensive surgeon. It helps to be at the top of your niche.

It also helps if you can blog about it.

What would you do in this situation?