Technical Tidbits™

I know, the silence around here has been deafening! Sorry about that.

The granddaughter was here for 10 days visiting from out of town, and I’ve been super busy playing catch-up! Busy is always a good thing in business thought!

Just wanted to tell you I’m back to work, granddaughter gone, and moving forward again.

I’ve been making notes throughout my absence and have I got a TON of posts to put up here! So much has been going on! Technology never takes a vacation.

So, first up is our tech strategy calendar for the rest of the year.

August: “It’s a Small World”

If you end up having that Disney song playing in your head this month and hate me for it, it means my strategy worked! Just kidding. The strategy relates to how the techology has made our world much smaller!

September: “Back to (Tech) School”

October: “MONEY! How to make it and manage it – ONLINE!”

November: “It’s a Tech Holiday!”  (Technology as it relates to the holidays.)

December: “2011 Tech”

That being said, what does that mean to you, the reader of this blog or visitor to our site?

It means that along with our regular features related to tech developments that should concern you, there will be articles that relate to the Tech Strategy of the month also. Our Radio Show – Technical Tidbits on BlogTalk Radio, and the Technical Tidbits Newsletters also will carry the theme for the tech strategy of the month.

Just what is this whole technology strategy concept you might ask?

Technology encompasses every aspect of our life from you reading this message to your work or business and every aspect of your modern life. You are digitally connected with cell phones, computers, GPS systems, e-mail, and so much more.

Since our average visitor, student, customer or client is a person who uses technology in their job, their business (solopreneurs and SMBs), and is usually self-taught or has wanted to learn more about making technology work for them, I developed a monthly tech strategy theme to help maximize your use of technology.

I will present to you strategies – methods, if you will – that you can incorporate into your life or business that will help you use the tools available to you in the most efficient way possible.

And if you’ve been following our blog and website for any length of time, you know I do so in a very easy-to-follow way that doesn’t talk over your head or beneath you.

This is the next phase in the new look, feel, and information on our site.  Soon, you will have access to the newly designed site with information that will help move your skills and knowledge in a way you never knew existed!

And as for the other posts I need to get out here, well, you’ll just have to watch your RSS feed or check back here! Because I’m back to work!

Yesterday, I was downloading and reviewing my clients Google Analytics reports because I always like to see where I might be able to help them improve traffic.  I always leave my site reports for last.

When I opened the report for my personal/professional website – DebbieMahler.com – I was a bit startled to see the following search term that led someone to my web page!

(Click the image to see the full size)

I was a little taken aback when I saw that! It’s like reading your Obituary when no one told you were dead yet!

I immediately proceeded down to my roomies office in the lower level and said to him, “I’m a bit creeped out!”  Of course, he wanted to know why.

“I was just looking over my own Google Analytics report for Debbie Mahler. com and someone got to my site by searching for the terms: ‘radio show host woman death debbie’.” I replied.

My roommate started laughing and said, “Now there’s someone who knows you and knows how to use a search engine!”  I was stumped by what he meant. After all, I had myself dead!

As he went on to explain his reasoning for the results, it became clearer! And he was right! Not only did the person know enough about me, they also knew how to use the search engine to find me!

As you all know, I host a radio show – Technical Tidbits™ on Blogtalk Radio – and my name is Debbie. The key to what makes this search relevant specifically to me was the “death” search term!

What more and more people are finding out about me through listening to the radio show, connecting with me on the other social networks, or reading my metaphysical blog, is that I had a Near Death Experience (NDE) many, many years ago.

So, the person who actually did the search knew this about me and that’s where the “death” search term came into play.  And yes, this person does know how to use a search engine!

But there is also something telling in this search.  The person didn’t know my last name (Mahler) or didn’t know how to spell it?  And, they most certainly didn’t know my company because if they did, they might have entered MICE as a term.  And, they also didn’t know the name of my radio show because they didn’t use the search term ‘Technical Tidbits’ to narrow their search results.

Now, what does this rumor of my death search have to teach us? I’m not marketing my company nor my radio show properly! Otherwise, the person might have refined their search even more had they known more about me, my company, and my radio show.  So, I can guess from this search that the person is one of my social networking followers or a student from my Introduction to PC Security> course, or the Advanced PC Security course with Ed2go.

Why do I arrive at that conclusion?

1. I rarely, if ever, do self-promotion on my social networks – with the exception of the radio show.
2. I am restricted by contract from pointing my students to my personal or business website with Ed2go.

So, the take-away point of this post is that when you are reviewing your Google Analytics reports, look at more than just the basic information that it provides.

We all have a tendency to look at how many new and repeat visitors we have, what browser they’re using, where they came from, and the time they spend on the site.  What you might be missing – as I have until this search popped up in my report – is that the actual search terms may be telling a different story unrelated to SEO; as with my death!

The rumors of my death may be greatly exaggerated, but failure to get the word out about my business and my radio show could accelerate my professional demise much more quickly!

Now, go back and look over your own analytics report too!

This is a reprint of a recent article under our Business Bits section of the Technical Tidbits™ Newsletter. I was asked by a subscriber to put it online so it can be accessed by non-subscribers.

If you like the article, I recommend that you fill in your e-mail address on the upper right and click the subscribe button to subscribe to our newsletters.

I was agonizing over what to write about in this portion of the newsletter when a conference call this morning provided me with the content!

This particular call involved me, a staff member that we call our resident marketing guru, and a gentleman he had connected with that needed some help. As it was explained to me, the man needed my help because he had all this content and was not selling a thing.

The first warning signal I received about this man’s issue was that he had published two books on his area of expertise and refused to sell them on Amazon because they require a commission. I asked if he had sold any on his own, to which he replied, “a few.”

Before I could hit him with the fact that Amazon would be much better at reaching an audience then he could ever hope to reach, he said something that made everything quite clear. He said that much of his accompanying material was not perfected yet and therefore he couldn’t proceed with his sales of the books or his courses until it had been “perfected.”

Now, to back step a moment here, my degree is in Applied Behavioral Science and I/O Psychology (Industrial/Organizational). I took that educational path because it is what corporate trainers do, which was what I wanted to do in my career – train people in technology. Much of what I learned was not only about how people learn, but barriers to learning. Often times, these barriers can be emotional or psycho-social within the person themselves.

For example, I was once hired by Motorola Corporation to personally tutor 1-on-1 an executive assistant in the fine art of using PowerPoint. Within two visits to this young ladies desk, I told Motorola that she was un-trainable. There was nothing wrong with her mind; she was a very bright young woman. What was wrong was she was unwilling to learn. She had a mindset that PowerPoint presentations were beneath her and therefore had no intention of ever learning it. Administrative assistants did PowerPoint presentations – not executive assistants!

That being said, I recognized a pattern in this gentleman on the conference call. So I probed further. The man has literally hundreds of training courses and material available but has not sold a single item. His insistence on the fact that none of the developed materials had been “perfected” and the constant reaffirmation that his content was so unique that it couldn’t be sold the way I was suggesting (online) led me straight to his problem.

So, I asked him if he knew of some very powerful people in his field and I named the names of 5 people I knew carried a lot of weight in his area of expertise. He agreed that he indeed knows of them and that they were fine examples of the field. I then went on to inform him that these 5 people were selling EXACTLY the way I was telling him to sell his material. These people were involved in online marketing, had a website, engaged in social media, and so on.

He reiterated that he could not sell online.

I know many of you reading this are shaking your head because you know how well online marketing and sales works and you know that your business probably lives and dies by it!

But the point I want to make is that this man was not blind to the opportunities technology is offering him, he’s suffering from Perfection Paralysis.

One of the comments he made during the conversation was that he was spending much of his time packaging and shipping his content. (To who, I don’t know because he still said he wasn’t selling anything!) So, I diffused this objection and told him to go check out CafePress.com. They have an excellent print-on-demand program that could free up his time.

But again, objection after objection when our marketing guru pressed him to take one step forward into the online arena, was always the fact that it needed “perfecting.”

I don’t know about you, but I know I’m guilty of that same paralysis in my own business. The newsletter has to be just perfect or I can’t send it. The course has to be just perfect or I can’t post it and sell it. And so on…..

When you get caught in the trap of Perfection Paralysis in your business, there is a tip you can take away from Bill Gates and Microsoft. If Bill Gates and Microsoft waited for the operating systems and products they produce to be perfect, do you think you’d be reading this on a Windows operating system?  Do you think Microsoft would have become such a large corporation?

Now don’t get me wrong! I’m not telling you to plan your business model around Microsoft and issue products that require patch after patch and only works some of the time. That’s not my point.

My point is that sometimes it just has to be GEFN – Good Enough For Now.

And with that closing comment, I’m going to take my own advice and get this newsletter sent!