Figure Out Customer Profitability:

Insight Squared and Profitably: Both of these companies seem to be aiming at the same problem, which is, “How do I tell which of my customers are profitable?” They pull in data from your CRM, quickbooks and time tracking to give you insight into where you are wasting your time and what customers lead to the greatest profitability. That, plus pipeline forecasting, can be very powerful for companies serving high-touch customers.

Simplified Financials:

60mo.com, Pulse and The Sunny Trail: While different in their focus, these companies allow you to keep track of 1) the cash coming in and 2) the cash going out. 60mo and Pulse have designed a simpler way to keep track of your small business’ financials while The Sunny Trail’s focus is on analytics around a SaaS web business. It lets you calculate Lifetime Value, ARPU and other stats important to any subscription business.

Funnel and Event Tracking:

Kissmetrics/Mixpanel/Performable:

These companies are wonderful for tracking event funnels. So if you want to see the path between a user signing up, taking an important and arbitrary event (say, inviting his friends) and completing a purchase, these tools are for you. I’d argue that every company needs to use either Kissmetrics or Mixpanel or Performable for optimizing how users get into their site or app. Performable even lets you drill down into a user by user level of detail.

Click tracking:

Clicktale/CrazyEgg

Both of these services let you see the distribution of clicks on your website. Clicktale is CrazyEgg on steroids in that it lets you record your users down to their mouse activity. I see these being a useful addition to the new eye-tracking companies out there like gazehawk and Youeye.

Aggregate Your Stats:

Metricly/Statsmix/Geckoboard:

So you have all of these stats (and this isn’t even including your Facebook ads campaign, Pingdom, etc.) and you need to aggregate them into one, coherent and accessible place. Enter Metricly, Statsmix and Geckoboard. Using APIs, these services pull in your key data from the variety of stats you generate across the web and serve them up on a pulsing, live dashboard. Geckoboard even lets you view all this data on an ipad when you’re on the go.

Google Analytics for Your Database:

Chart.io/Gooddata

Finally, your database is a crucial source of important information. Essentially, you track what you care about. But for most businesses, the database is more of a black box than a transparent source of insights. My company, Chart.io, along with Gooddata help you analyze, slice and dice and track your database data in real time.

While I have invariably missed some of the other cool startups out there solving tough, analytics problems, I mean this as a sample list of the great services I have come across. While they do in fact solve different problems, they each help you run your web business in a better, more informed fashion.

About the author: David Beyer has been a fan of technology ever since his dad gave him his first Star Trek phaser replica. About 17 years later he graduated from Brown with a degree in pretty much everything (Brown lets you do that).

At WorkersNow, our #1 core value is GSD, which stands for Get S(tuff) Done.  Web 3.0 is about getting stuff done.  It is the transformation of the Internet from information businesses to execution platforms.  I suspect that the companies that win in the coming years will be the ones that use technology tools to execute real solutions to real problems.  Note that this is not what many of today’s “hot” companies are doing (Zynga, LinkedIn, or Facebook just to name a few).

Reid Hoffman, whom I greatly admire, recently claimed that Web 3.0 is about data. While I agree that data is important, I would argue that it is not the defining characteristic of Web 3.0. Using data well is an asset to any business, but this alone is not a game-changing assumption.

Web 2.0 has been all about social connections and user-generated content.  Tremendously successful companies like Facebook and LinkedIn were built around the notion that people want to be connected and express themselves. Web 2.5 saw the injection of powerful mobile devices as a way of accessing the web, which added location capabilities and gave users even more flexibility.

The problem is that Web 2.0 companies are, by and large, terrified of friction.  What I mean by this is that most web platforms today are about information, much more than they are about execution.  Facebook friends invite each other to parties, LinkedIn connections recommend each other. But Facebook does not organize events for people, and LinkedIn does not place people into jobs (although people do use their tools to hire people).  Most companies in Silicon Valley love to traffic in information, and then they let users do with that information what they will.

Web 3.0 will introduce friction into the equation. More and more internet platforms will interact with the physical world in real ways. The GSD Revolution will yield companies with expertise in using technology exceptionally well to execute and to solve real tangible problems.

When we were raising capital for WorkersNow (formerly WorkerExpress) in Silicon Valley, one of the chief objections we heard from people who did not fund us was that there was too much friction in our model.  WorkersNow directly places blue-collar workers into temporary and permanent jobs.  There is friction in what we do — workers have to show up at a job site, do a good job, and not injure themselves or others in the process.

However, we don’t see this friction as a reason not to do things.  This friction is at the very core of our purpose: to have a real impact on society by having real people work in physical jobs.  In the 18 months we have run WorkersNow we have learned that friction is scary, but friction also creates real barriers to entry.

I believe that the GSD Revolution will impact many different sectors, many of which are outside of technology.  There are dozens, if not hundreds of industries that are begging for a GSD Revolution web company to disrupt them.  To do this, startups will have to become more comfortable with friction, and that is easier said than done.  To succeed, companies will have to embrace hurdles, not avoid them.

I am personally most familiar with the way labor is being disrupted by GSD Revolution companies such as ReadyForce, Samasource, Souktel, Babajob, oDesk, Elance and CrowdFlower.  What examples can you share of companies that are leading the way in the GSD Revolution?

About the author: Pablo Fuentes is CEO and Co-Founder of WorkersNow. He likes dogs and high fives. You can read his personal blog at http://rotarypayphone.tumblr.com/

For my money, I have to say that I don’t mind being a commodity to these companies.  I don’t give out more information than I choose to on the internet, so I am not really worried about identity theft issues or other security concerns.  I understand that if I want to look at quality content for free on the internet then I will be bombarded with ads; I’d much rather the ads be relevant to myself than keep seeing the same headlines about how to whiten my teeth and eliminate my varicose veins.

In fact, Google and Facebook are not the only ones who are doing this.  Countless online businesses currently engage in the very same practice to varying extents.  Many employ tracking cookies to monitor browsing habits so that they can then tool their own web pages to your interests, thus increasing the odds that you’ll find something to buy from them.  Privacy-conscious users have lots of different choices of programs that have been specifically designed to remove these tracking cookies (my favorite being Hitman Pro).

These tracking cookies, which are installed on your computer the moment you visit most websites, represent a much more insidious version of what Google and Facebook are doing.  When a user creates a Gmail or Facebook account they understand (or should understand) that the business providing these valuable services for free can afford to do so because they are going to dump a certain amount of ads on their screen.  We sign agreements to this effect, although nobody actually reads these.

But what about the tracking cookies?  To a certain extent, they are harmless.  We need to remember that even if every company knew everything about everyone that this would be an absolutely ridiculous amount of information.  We are not as significant as we think we are.  To a company that is monitoring the internet surfing habits of all its clients we are not people — we are numbers with a list of interests attached that they use to make an educated guess about our identity.

Still, the attitude that companies have the right to track their clients’ other activities on the internet (or with their smartphones) without asking first is presumptuous at best; unethical at worst.  The growing number of privacy concerns voiced about Facebook and Google these days is evidence of the fact that people are getting weary of just how much these companies know about us and what they are doing with that information.  People use these services because they trust them.  If that trust evaporates then so will the use and in turn the profit.

A wise man once said that the best asset his company had was its name and all the positive connotations that come with it.  In accounting terms this is called “goodwill” and it is an estimation of how much value is added to a company by its reputation. Often this number will actually exceed the physical assets of the company by a considerable margin, which should give you a good idea of what a precious thing your business’ reputation is.

Of course we know what happens to businesses that are obviously unethical.  Look at Enron for a great case study.  Those at the top may have reaped huge profits temporarily, but where are they now?  Google and Facebook must know that a similar fate awaits them if they betray their users’ trust, for even if they don’t do anything illegal they could easily fall from grace in the fickle world of online business.

It may be tempting to try and gather as much information about your website’s visitors any way you can.  After all, you need to have some basic information.  If you’re not running any analytics then you’re putting yourself at a tremendous disadvantage.  But people are not idiots, and fewer and fewer people these days are technologically illiterate.  Employing concealed trackers or other similar devices on your website may help you in the short term but will likely be met with opposition in the long run.

If you really want to learn more about your visitors, perhaps the best way to do it is to ask them.  Facebook allows you to close ads that users do not like and provide a reason so that they can choose better ads in the future.  Google allows you to click a link entitled “About these ads” at the top of your Gmail browser.  In short: they let people know what they are doing and invite them to participate.

Allowing people to choose whether or not they want to be profiled and targeted for specific advertisements is the best way to let those who care about their privacy keep it and those who want a more specific array of ads on their browser to get it.  Technology allows people to have a more personal experience when they go online, but that doesn’t mean you should force it on them.  This kind of arrogance will be seen as a focus not on the consumer but on profit, and that is a dangerous perception in the business world.

John J. Walters is a freelance associate with WasabiVentures

About the Author:

While experts agree vision and planning are essential, my qualifier is revision and planning are key to your success.  Many fail to come to terms with the fact that some processes and/or services may be out of date or flat out did not work well.

My advice is to take time to review everything you have in place for either interviewing or building business.  Have you received or even asked for feedback?  If yes, what has worked best?  Keep those.  If you had valid criticism, own up to it and tweak what you must.

For all endeavors it is important to remain current.  Remaining current attracts more interviews, prospects and clients.  It’s a little more difficult if you have been out of work for a while.  My advice is to read up on your industry, call associates who are working and perhaps you might find a complementary type job to provide a wider scope of your profession or a temporary job to get you back in the game.

A conversation last week validated the importance of keeping up to date.  Our daughter shared that only 10 years ago when the internet was picking up steam, she once had a comical interview. Laughing hard at the remembrance, she recalled that the mission of the then company (now out of business) was to compile a hard copy Yellow Page Directory of Internet sites!  Obviously this was before Google came into being.

What may not be quite as funny is if any of us were to review all of our laid out services and descriptions of such on our web pages only to find some are similarly outdated.  Should any of your offerings be “borderline,” determine whether they may be saved with a little tweaking or if they truly need to be discarded.  Should the latter be the case, this would be the time to implement your new idea or soul search what will be the next best route for you to take.

All the while, continue to build relationships and you will experience a Smooth Sale or more readily hear HIRED!

About the Author:

Is it the buyer or seller who should “beware?”

If you own, operate, or work for a business, you will want to keep in mind the following:  Caveat emptor; Latin for “Let the buyer beware,” and caveat vendito translated as“Let the seller beware.” Both these truths apply to the development and success of a viable business.

As the owner, operator,  manager, or employee of a business, integrity is essential if you hope to run a long term, profitable business (or in the case of an employee, have your employer remain in business and retain you as an employee)!

Anyone can start a business that lacks integrity and operate for a period of time “successfully,” but most often this will catch up with him and the demise of the  business (and their personal reputation) will follow.

Case in point: I recently entangled myself in an online scam with an entity working under the business name of DCA (Direct Commerce Academy).    My initial inquiry was on behalf of a friend who is struggling economically and had sought my insight as to the benefits of joining said company.  I decided to check them out prior to offering any advice to my friend and invest the $2.99 required to understand their “spiel”.    Investigating what sounded  “too good to be true,”  I learned that indeed it was.

For a mere $2.99  Direct Commerce Academy promised to get me started with my new “at home business.”  This quickly elicited a follow-up email asking for all of the additional money you would need to invest to actually get started.  At that point, I told my friend, in essence, “don’t go there…”

It was not until my bill arrived with the $2.99 charge that I noticed an additional $149.99 in charges.  These fees were buried in the fine print of their $2.99 offer.  Efforts to work with Direct Commerce Academy proved fruitless and very frustrating.  Want a clear picture – click http://screenr.com/xG4

Now, if  I (as the consumer) had taken a moment to research DCA I would have found an ever-growing list of hits that speak to their lack of integrity, dishonest tactics, scam offerings, etc.  So in my case: caveat emptor, shame on me — should have done my research!

I suppose the only consolation I have is that  for Direct Commerce Academy,  eventually their business will find their demise (with any luck, very soon). In the meantime, their management, owners and employees will continue to give their integrity away in little pieces, if they ever had any to begin with.

As the owner, operator, manager or employee of a business purposed to profit by taking advantage of others, caveat vendito; you will come to experience firsthand the fruit of your efforts.

Let me finish on an up-note and some good advice: the beauty of the internet is the simplicity of the search.  As a consumer, do your homework; as a business owner, protect your brand and reputation!

Last week’s post actually turned out to be more of a success than I thought it would be, so I decided to keep talking about how much I love Twitter for at least one more week.  I thought it might be useful to expand on the idea I brought up before about how “the best marketing is marketing that doesn’t feel like marketing” and perhaps give some examples from my own experience, if you will indulge me.

But let’s back things up a bit.  We must remember that Twitter is more than a utility that teenagers use to brag about how they’re not paying attention in class or to share funny pictures of cats.  If you craft your twitter feed right by following certain people and organizations, you can actually get a lot of news and updates on your twitter feed before they even make it onto the Big League sites.  You can even sort those you follow into lists by category so that you can stay on top of the latest updates in particular domains with ease.

Okay, hopefully you knew that already.  If not, you do now.  Now let’s take this a step further: if you know this, then your average Twitter user knows it too, and they’ve probably already done it — if they’re not doing it right now!  What can we do with the knowledge that there are millions upon millions of users out there who are using Twitter to keep abreast of the news, pass the time, and provide a little entertainment once in a while?

The obvious answer: get your company on their radar screen.  That’s where the “marketing that doesn’t look like marketing” comes into play.  People choose who they follow by the content provided, so once you start a Twitter feed for your company you need to keep it updated, regularly, with interesting and compelling content that is “worth a click.”  You need to remind them you exist, make them interested in you, and not insult their intelligence by hustling them constantly as if they’re at a monster truck rally.  This is a delicate balancing act.

My three tips:

• Keep to a schedule that provides quality updates at predictable times by using a post scheduler.
• Don’t lump your updates by posting a lot of random stuff each time you sign on!  This looks like spam, and we all know how easy it is to ignore spam.
• Use #HashTags and @UserNames in your post whenever possible to connect your posts with related content and build your network.

The trick is, you need to get followers somehow, and while I firmly believe the best way to get “good” followers (by this I mean people who don’t just follow you and then immediately forget about your existence) is to provide them with relevant, interesting, and unique content on a regular basis, I must admit it certainly does take some time.

And so I open up the blog post to discussion.  Anyone have any tips for recruiting a vast legion of loyal followers right out of the gate, besides by being a celebrity already?  IdeaOffer seems to be doing alright with their feed.  What can we learn from them?  What can we learn from the success of others?  Feel free to respond with a tweet.

About the Author:

Forrester Research, an independent technology and market research company reported that by the 2016, 43% of the population will telecommute, i.e., work from home to some extent.  How this will play out across industries is yet to be seen but one thing is certain: the future  promises exciting opportunities pertaining to technological applications.

In addition, Forrester Research estimates the current growth rate of software platforms that facilitate internal and external collaboration  at 21% annually, and,  that 54% of companies are looking to implement such collaboration.  This trend towards SaaS (Software as a Service) is commonly referred to as “Cloud Computing” ,  Web 2.0 software services  hosted and operated by a third-party provider, often referred to as a wiki.

From a business standpoint, Web 2.0 platforms  promote collaboration with internal and external clients in a way that up to recently was not possible. In addition a few of the tremendous upsides of web based collaboration is the potential to reduce the reliance, dependence and proliferation of email as well as reduce time expended in document tracking and version control. Did you know that statistically 50% of your initial and secondary searches for digital information will be unsuccessful?

Online platforms such as iPEP powered by PBWorks provide the ability to collaborate on documents without the utilization of email; streamlining the process exponentially while at the same time reducing the risk of error and improving efficiency. Rather than emailing information to multiple individuals, monitoring, tracking  and culling through multiple varied responses,  documents are placed on a web-based collaborative platform for review (at anytime from anywhere in the world).  History trails track the date, time and edits made within the document and all document attributes and content (including PDF’s) are fully searchable allowing for seamless access.  Additionally, the platform supports real time editing, social media functionality and instant teleconferencing.

A simple search of the internet reveals high praise for Web 2.0 Collaborative platforms:  “Wikis are one of the fastest and most effective ways to aggregate information from a diverse range of sources or people.” (Peter Williams, CEO, Deloitte Digital).  “iPEP’s collaboration with PBWorks will revolutionize how we store and share information that relates to physical filing system and our electronic information.” (Tamara Meyer, Certified Productive Environment Specialist, Santa Cruz, CA.)

From my personal productivity standpoint, I can attest to the fact that  iPEP powered by PBWorks has streamlined my ability to manage business information and work effectively with external clients and internal teams, quickly, efficiently and safely.

About the Author:

Are you suffering from being at the bottom of the pyramid with no one taking you seriously? Well here’s how to overcome the “pyramid syndrome.”

Step One: Simply stated, when you are at ground level, learn as much as you can by asking appropriate questions. Recognize what works and what does not work and only implement the best advice that is consistent with your personality.

Step Two: Once you have the information you need, take the unusual leadership stance by going it alone for a while to experiment with what you believe will work best. Avoid nay-sayers. Trial and error as well as persistence will get you moving to the top.  Continual education will help you leap-frog over where you began.

Step Three: Do a return check to the original group to see if you still belong. Most likely you will be in, near, or at the top of the pyramid — able to offer a helping hand.  Distinguish yourself by offering to help!

As the economy tumbled last year, I knew I had to change my business model. So with a leap of faith, I joined WhisperingEnergy.com, (two of us at the time), which grew into an international online collaboration and social media university. I learned how to collaborate. Soon Sharon Hooper and I joined forces to bring a complete author program to the public, WEeBooks4U.com. My part is teaching authors how to write a book and sell more copies online while Sharon helps the author secure the right graphic design, format the book for digital readers, and upload the finalized book to Amazon and our site. We foresee our site becoming the go-to-site for buying and selling ebooks given the power of our collaboration and knowledge of social media!

After a long quiet period, I returned to a group convention where I was once at the bottom level. We soon recognized I was the only one who is conversant with social media! Many of the highly paid business coaches were not familiar with the basics. It appears I have a new opportunity for business where none previously existed.

My motto: “Believe in yourself, envision what you want and pursue it.”

Believing helps you to communicate with clarity and confidence.  When you listen to your intuition and heart, you will attract more prospects, clients and sales, and enjoy the Smooth Sale!

Q: If you were starting all over, what one thing would you not do as you started your online store?

Craig Wolfe, President, Celebriducks

I’d definitely put more attention into getting the exact look of the site I want from day one. Because we kept evolving, it was more like adding on additions to a house and never really getting the final look and feel we should have started with from day one.  So eventually, we know we are due for makeover even though people enjoy the site.  We can do better now!

Betty Miller, Manager, Magic Senses

I would probably not look at my business as a hobby, like I did in the first couple of years… but as a luxury brand that’s growing as we speak!

Lisa Sorrentino, Head Boob, X-Chrom

Underestimate the number of competitive threats that can quickly flood the online environment.

Eileen Parker, Cozy Calm

Underestimate the number of competitive threats that I tried to make my product offerings too broad.  Online, people are looking for something specific that they can’t get in a brick and mortar store—or not at the right price.  I would not have made the same market assumptions as my competitors can quickly flood the online environment.

Deb Babcock, Blue Sky Pottery

The one thing I would have done is been more careful when I listed my shop name. This site does not let me change the name from when I first signed up using my email address. Therefore, now I have to spend a little more effort with my avatar and other tools to make sure people know that a shop called, ‘dbabcock’ is really a pottery shop named Blue Sky Pottery, run by an artist named Deb Babcock.

Kevin Ward, Global Crafts & Gifts With Humanity

I would probably not use an open source shopping cart – while the open source nature of a cart such as oscommerce has enabled us to tailor the system with modules to our needs in a way most bespoke carts can not be adapted, the reality is that developing and maintaining the cart in-house does create sustainability issues. We would also look outside of our own brand and seek partnerships with other shopping channels much earlier.

Sandy Raddue, Striking Graphics & Embroidery, Inc.

I wouldn’t throw the site out for general consumption, with a huge publicity and advertising push, without a LOT of usability analysis. Our launch didn’t go well – not because we offered the wrong stuff – we just offered it in the wrong way. It was very difficult for our customers to input their CUSTOM orders.

Teresa Fritchi, Managing Director/Chief Creative Officer, Thistle & Broom, Limited

Probably not mix our efforts with educating people down to the tiniest nuance about Scotland and the importance of what’s behind this products – I would just sell great stuff from Scotland.

Ana Maria Echeverri, Owner/President, FunIQToys Inc

I would have learned more about SEO before I set up the store.   I first created my store, then learned about SEO, so now I have to re-create my pages for optimization purposes.

Ben Robinson, Bike Trailer Shop

Everything has been a great learning experience and nothing has really been a total disaster.  I really can’t think of anything I would not do, but I can think of many things that I would do earlier and more efficiently (getting serious about our blogging efforts for example).

Q: What marketing efforts have you found to be the most effective for generating sales? What has produced the lowest ROI?

Craig Wolfe, President, Celebriducks

Oh PR by far….our PR efforts have transformed the company as you could probably tell from our press kit letter.  That and doing custom jobs for professional sports teams and fortune 500 companies around the country.  It keeps feeding into the PR.

The smallest return on our investment has been in paid advertising in traditional gift magazines.  They are usually looking for what they are already familiar with!  They don’t set trends, they follow it…and here we like to think that we are creating them.

Betty Miller, Manager, Magic Senses

Let’s see… I would have to say mailing lists, coupons and “word of mouth” have been the most effective so far. Another great marketing strategy that we use on a daily basis is gaining customer confidence through excellent customer service.  When it comes to the lowest ROI, I would probably have to say giveaways.  That’s probably the most rewarding to us.

Lisa Sorrentino, Head Boob, X-Chrom

As a specialty online retailer, highly targeted online marketing has been most successful, namely in the form of email marketing.
The mass marketing efforts have been least successful in terms of ROI.

Eileen Parker, Cozy Calm

Specialize and target.  Then, go after those specific people online through social networking, blog reviews, and social media releases.  Crossover the online promotion with off-line publicity in narrowly targeted publications.  The lowest ROI is in being yet another fish in the pond and shot-gunning your efforts.  Differentiate your product from the online Wal-Marts.

Deb Babcock, Blue Sky Pottery

What seems to work best for generating sales in my shop is to constantly have new products for people to see when they stop by. I try to introduce several new items each day. I also have an ON SALE THIS WEEK section to encourage people to stop in often. Other things that have helped are hosting my own BOGO (Buy One, Get One Free) sale once a year and occasional discounts. I get the word out about them by participating in the forums, Twitter, group emails to past customers, and selected advertising. My lowest return-on-investment seems to be direct mail postcards that I used to send out to my customer base.

Kevin Ward, Global Crafts & Gifts With Humanity

Without doubt our own newsletters are the most effective and cost effective tool we have. Using Constant Contact has transformed our ability to communicate and manage our mailing lists.  Utilizing an affiliate network, Share a Sale, earlier this year is starting to show results, and from a ROI point of view we have control over the level of payouts. Well targeted vertical marketing sites have also proven good value, in our sector the site Pristine Planet has proven effective and a fairly low ROI. Google Adwords remain a constant favorite with an ROI far lower than regular shopping channels. In the end the success or failure comes from word of mouth and repeat custom, which can only be achieved through great customer service and quality products.

Sandy Raddue, Striking Graphics & Embroidery, Inc.

Search engine optimization has been the greatest bang for the buck. We’ve used a lot of advanced techniques, which have helped our customers find us without paying the search engines any money.
We also ship one or more coupons with every order, and distribute about 15,000 cards/coupons throughout the bowling centers across the country yearly.
Press releases have also worked well. We’ve done several in print magazines, a couple of joint releases, and (only) one targeted press release. We really need to do more. If I write them myself, they are an astonishingly good value!
The lowest ROI has been magazine advertising. The overall “alley cred” is upped by this advertising, but we haven’t seen a return close to our investment.

Teresa Fritchi, Managing Director/Chief Creative Officer, Thistle & Broom, Limited

When we do small ‘gallery exhibits’ featuring a selection of the products along with computers with the website navigable Thistle & Broom generally does five digit sales in less than four hours.

Traditional advertising efforts always tank.

Ana Maria Echeverri, Owner/President, FunIQToys Inc

The most effective for me have been Google Adwords and Shopzilla.  The lowest ROI has been local print advertising.

Ben Robinson, Bike Trailer Shop

Our organic search engine rankings are by far our most effective marketing effort.  We have done a few banner ads from time to time that have produced pretty dismal ROI.