Vision Of Success

What if you had a ton of expertise in online search engine tactics, and wanted to change the way search is currently being performed online? You’d start a new search engine of course.

Enter Cuil.

Cuil, an old Irish word for knowledge, has just entered cyberspace, and is ready to compete with the big sites. With a ton of experience between the founding members, and $30 million in start up funding, it’ll be interesting to see how big they truly get.

So of course I had to play. Yes, I’m number one under Lori Osterberg, and most of my other big sites are there too. But I did have to do some submitting for some of my smaller sites, and if you’re a current client, you’ve been submitted as well. 

So is it better than Google and Yahoo? Well considering it’s just days old, it’s still hard to say. Cover your bases, and stay tuned.

I love reading about the success stories in the world of marketing. And today I found a very interesting site that really amazed me.

StuffWhitePeopleLike.com is a tongue-in-cheek look at, well, what white people like. The authors have strong beliefs, share their opinions very well in their various posts, and have received a huge amount of exposure.

Like over 23 million hits since they started in January 2008.

Like a book deal by Random House that will be available in August.

All by talking about daily things.

Why can’t we all think of things like this? Don’t you wonder that sometimes?

What it really comes down to is creating an idea, and having it go viral. By some twist of fate, they hit on something perfect, someone finds their site, and turns it into an immediate best seller.

It may sound easy, and it may sound like luck. But what really happens is they have a great idea that they are passionate about, and that they can share that passion with their followers.

Sometimes a site will be so different, it just makes you laugh.

I love the motivational sites, and read a ton of books every year. I enjoyed The Secret, love reading Jack Canfield books, and am even teaching my daughter the power of self motivation.

But sometimes you have to turn it all around - and have a good laugh. Check out Despair. This is an amazing site that really makes you want to order something - because it’s all so much fun.

You can get great a great t-shirt (my favorite is “more people have read this shirt than your blog”) or you can even build your own calendar with unmotivating sayings.

Building a successful website isn’t always about conforming. Sometimes it’s about stretching the limits. This site makes it easy to buy - once you’ve spent time designing your own calendar, why wouldn’t you order it?

Just think differently.

I was out surfing today, and ran across a very interesting PDF file on a blog. Usually PDF’s are used as text only files - a way of “freezing” informatin in a document to allow people to look at it exactly how you designed it. And you can have ways of creating an ebook, and password protecting it for security.

I’ve used PDF’s for years, but I never considered adding sound. Now you can. 

Visit http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/tutorials/pdfsound/ to read how to imbed sound in your PDF’s.

Lori

I found another fun site to help you become a social networker.

Gooruze is a social networking site for people in the online marketing field. It’s full of advice, news and tips specifically for those in the online world.

Want to check out the site? Head over to my profile:

LoriOsterberg.gooruze.com

I was reading an article today about the owner of the website Koloroo Like a lot of today’s entrepreneurs, he works a full time job, but decided to build a side business to make some extra cash. So he built a few widgets to use on an iPod - and the rest as they say is history.

So I had to head over and check out the site. Check out his demo at tipkalc This is a great example of how you should be showing your cliens what your product can do. You can interact with the iPod to try it out, and you can see how it works by mousing over the numbers in the layout dissection area.

Does this give you any ideas?

Lori

If you are like most small business owners, chances are you use QuickBooks for your accounting program.

I love QuickBooks, and use it all the time. I print off my invoices, and mail them to my customers. But I just found BlinkSale that allows you to create customized invoices, and email them to your customers. Pretty cool - I love technology!

Ikea is sponsoring a contest for small business owners - their Small Businesses, Big Dreams video contest. It gives you and your community a chance to win.

Deadline is July 26th - so head over now to find out more.

Lori

Have you tried Craigslist.com to advertise your products or services?

Have you ever posted a video to YouTube.com to gather attention?

Now you can combine the two efforts at http://www.realpeoplerealstuff.com/ Create your video showcasing your product or service, and place it in the appropriate category. It’s really easy - and because there isn’t a lot of competition yet, you have a good chance of being noticed!

Lori

If you’ve been following any of the online buzz, you know social sites are the rage at the moment. You’ve probably been to digg and delicious, but what about DailyHub?

DailyHub is designed to offer you information directly related to running a small business. It’s great if you need some help running your own small business - and if your target market is small business owners.

Lori