The importance of great copywriting on shopping sites

I know that most bloggers tend to just write about blogging unto itself, but today, in honor of the fact that we're right in the heart of the Christmas Holiday buying season, I'd like to talk about what makes a good online store, and how so many companies do such a poor job that they are losing sales left and right.

I'll start out by showing what is perhaps one of the worst online stores I've seen in a while, Sled Warehouse. Don't tip off my son, but we're looking for a tri-ski sled for him because he's just that kind of young lunatic and we have a nice sledding hill right behind our house. Digging around, we found two locations online that had the kind of sled we sought, Sled Warehouse and Highlights for Kids.

How do you know when your business is ready for sale?

My friend Joyce Colson, top-notch tech lawyer, wrote an interesting article on evaluating whether your startup is ready to sell, and with her permission, I reproduce it here. It's good reading even if you aren't ready to sell because it gives you a good sense of what factors go into evaluating a company and seeing a specific worth...

The recent sale of YouTube for 1.65 billion dollars spawned headlines about the return of the dot com boom. We wouldn't go that far. However, we have heard enough conversations about the sale and seen enough stories about companies on the hunt for the next big thing to know that entrepreneurs, software or otherwise, think about selling their businesses.

How do you know when your business is ready for sale? Over the years, we've gleaned some tips on determining whether a business is ready for sale:

1. Customers: Do you have them? Do you have sufficient numbers not only in customer numbers but volume? How profitable are they? In other words, what did you have to do to your bottom line to get those customers, especially the big ones? Speaking of big ones, are you reliant on only one or two large customers? If so, how embedded are you in that large company, how many different subsidiaries do you do business with? By the way, what do those customers say about you? Are they planning on increasing or decreasing the amount of business they do with you? Are they unhappy about price, deliveries or service or all of the foregoing? Buyers will ask.

Is Wordpress the fabled Blog Police after all?

The more I think about it, the more that I'm bothered by what Matt Mullenweg and his team at Wordpress.com are imposing upon the thousands of bloggers using this hosted version of the splendid Wordpress software. As came to light through a posting from blogger Colleen on her weblog, they've sent out a letter to their customers warning that any sponsored or paid blog entries are grounds for immediately deletion of their blog and a permanent ban from using the service in the future. [to clarify, Colleen didn't receive one of these letters, it was forwarded to her by someone who did receive the C&D]

Did I miss the memo that said Wordpress was promoted to blog police?

The problem I have with their heavy-handed approach isn't its intent, which is to avoid having the service overrun by spam blogs (so-called "splogs") but the fact that the actual implementation is naive, dangerous and doomed to failure.

Cool Stuff Galore at the Colorado Inventor Showcase 2006

Next week in Denver will be another annual Colorado Inventor Showcase, and I'm please to say that I am again one of the "celebrity" judges. Last year was a great experience, with dozens of brilliant folk pushing the envelope with cool, odd and downright bizarre inventions, and this year promises to be even more exciting. If you can join us on the 14th of November, please do so: Join me at the Colorado Inventor Showcase 2006.

Here's some additional information on the event from organizer Tom Frey:

"Prepare to have your imagination come alive at the one event designed to engage the mind. Some very creative people will be turning the Cable Center into Colorado's largest inventor's workshop. If you yourself are an inventor, please make plans to participate. If you have children who are aspiring to become an inventor, this is a must see event. And for those who just want to know about all the cool stuff coming down the pike, you won't want to miss this.

"The event will include sessions to "Pitching the Product Scouts", and the "Champions of the Information Age". One very exciting evening with all the right people to satisfy virtually any intellectual craving you might have."

EVENT: Colorado Inventor Showcase
DATE: Tuesday, November 14, 2006
TIMES: 3:30- 9:00 pm
WEBSITE: http://www.davinciinstitute.com/page.php?ID=144

LOCATION: The Cable Center, 2000 Buchtel Boulevard, Denver, C0 80210 - Map
FOOD & REFRESHMENTS: Food and refreshments will be served from 5:30 to 7:00 pm

48 Celebrity Judges - Key people in the business community, venture capital, and news media have been recruited to help judge the inventions being exhibited.

How I keep track of conference meetups: LinkedIn

I go to a lot of conferences, often to speak, but sometimes just to hang out, soak up the ambience, and mostly meet new people and learn about their interests, goals and ideas. It's heady stuff, and I've long since shared that it's the "10pm at the bar" meetings, the "bumped into each other in the hallway" serendipity that really can make a conference a career-changing event.

Lots of times the people I meet are interesting but don't immediately rock my world (and probably just as well!) so I end up coming home with yet another stack of business cards and the constant dilemma of people who are professionally active: what the heck do you do with those business cards once you get 'em?

My solution: Invite everyone to join me on LinkedIn.

Here's why...

Elite Retreat: Two days with four Internet gurus!

As a professional speaker and instructor, I spend a lot of my time at conferences, and the more I attend, the more I come to realize that there's a direct correlation between the number of attendees and the value of the event:

      The smaller the event, the more valuable it is.

It's logical if you think about it. What would be the ultimate in valuable communication with a leader or instructor? One-on-one time. It's why people mob good speakers after a session: everyone wants to have that few minutes of valuable interaction, that ability to talk about their own situation and hope to gain some insight, even if just a tiny taste.

That's why my colleagues Lee Dodd, Jeremy Schoemaker, Aaron Wall and I have pulled together our own, very different, Internet marketing brainstorming, one-on-one unconference, the Elite Retreat. It's unlike any marketing and business event you've ever attended, and it's going to be amazing.

We're capping attendance at 35, regardless of how many apply to join us in San Antonio. If you're interested, you might want to apply right now, actually. We're already filling up!

Let me explain how it works and share with you the background of my co-hosts so you can fully understand why this is going to be a rockin' two days in Texas...