Gig-a-blog: Internet Business

Where to find me now...

2009-04-29T11:32:00.000-07:00

I don't do much with this blog these days...

If you're interested in finding me on the Internet, please check here:

Travis Giggy on Twitter - Daily random thoughts and pictures.

Travis Giggy at Small Business Victory - Regularly updated content, interviews, and videos about starting and running a small business.

Horsetooth at dawn

2009-03-04T05:02:00.000-08:00

Taken from my front patio - now I'm on my way to LA.

Fresh Colorado snow

2009-02-11T08:50:00.000-08:00

Woke up to a gorgeous view on Horsetooth Resevoir.

Vegas from 30,000 feet

2009-01-29T22:21:00.000-08:00

On the way from Los Angeles to Denver - Las Vegas is just a parachute away...

LA from 20,000 feet

2009-01-29T22:20:00.000-08:00

After takeoff, you fly over the Pacific then turn back over LA. This (blurry) pic is the Hollywood/Burbank area.

Hollywood Blvd at night

2009-01-15T19:34:00.000-08:00

DiggNation

2009-01-14T21:00:00.000-08:00

Only the kind of thing you luck into in LA.

Digg party LA

2009-01-14T19:29:00.000-08:00

A Time For Goal Setting and Reflection

2008-12-23T06:36:00.000-08:00

Christmas and New Year is a natural time for me to reflect and plan. It's so easy to get caught up in "day-to-day" and "to-do" that I don't spend enough time thinking about my blessings, my plans, my shortcomings, etc...

One time, not sure how long ago, I read that Bill Gates takes one week off every year just to read books and think - and formulate strategy.

And, over the years, I've read about the importance of setting goals for yourself.

So I've developed a modified version of these two things.

The last week of every year is spent largely on goal setting and reflection. I spend a lot of time with the family. I catch up on my communications. I write down my goals for the new year, and review what I wrote down last year. I reflect on the year gone-by - and ponder how I've set myself up for the next year.

Goal Setting

When I get started on this task, I just do a brain dump. I write down everything - everything I can think of that I would like to accomplish in the following year. BIG things, little things, strange things. Business goals, personal goals, travel, learning, relationships, etc etc and blah blah blah. By the time I'm done, my list is usually several pages long.

Over the years, I have been amazed at how many goals I wrote down the previous year have been accomplished. I write them down, and then pretty much file that piece of paper away and forget about it. I don't usually pull it out of the file folder until I'm ready to review the following year.

Many of the things that I wrote down, I completely forgot about until I read the paper. But... that doesn't mean it hasn't been accomplished... it is truly amazing - the simple act of writing something down on a piece of paper stores it in the sub-conscious where it is carried out as if by demand.

Now, not ALL of my goals are accomplished. Every year I write down a couple of outrageous and off-the-wall items. I don't expect everything to be done - but I'm just impressed at how many DO get done.

Reflection

In addition to writing down my goals for the upcoming year, I also try to reflect upon the past year. What went right? What went wrong? What can I learn from? What can I improve upon? What opportunities did I create for the upcoming year?

All good questions which are worth exploring... I always learn something from reflection.

I know I should probably sit down and do this more often, but... I just... don't. It would probably do me good to reflect on these issues at least once per quarter. Maybe once per month.

Well, maybe that's a good goal to set for the upcoming year.

Anyway, when this task of goal setting and reflection is complete, I roar into the new year. I feel focused and energetic. Might be that the time off just refreshed my brain and prepared me to be productive again... Might be that the goals and self-lessons focused me on what's important. But, no matter the "cause", the "effect" is one of confidence and power.

Here is to the past year - it was a good one (for me) - but most of all, here is to the New Year - I think 2009 is going to be huge!

Travis

Belamar Hotel - Manhattan Beach

2008-10-19T08:33:00.000-07:00

One night in Manhattan Beach at the Belamar Hotel. Nice place!

Do You Make These Productivity Mistakes?

2008-10-07T10:42:00.000-07:00

For me, productivity is a key to success. I only need to move one or two things forward each day to achieve success. These important things are not *required* to be done. There is nobody telling me to do it. Nobody will give that push to move my "success items" forward. Nearly always, those one or two things require devoted time, planning and execution. It takes motivation and vision to get them accomplished.

On the other hand, there are usually 8-10 smaller, less important items to complete as well. These are the kind of tasks that DO have somebody breathing down my neck. They must be completed today - and my day-to-day livelihood depends upon getting them all done to a high level of satisfaction.

And this is probably the same kind of pressure that most people face in day-to-day life. You KNOW what you MUST DO to move forward, and you KNOW what you HAVE TO do to stay afloat. The HAVE TO is a lot easier than the MUST DO.

So the question becomes this: How do I get the HAVE TO --> AND <-- the MUST DO done? I'll get to that...

We all have the same amount of hours in the day. We all have too many things competing for our attention. So, why are some people more productive than others are? How do they get ALL THAT done?

That is a secret to success. It is physically easier to be productive, but psychologically harder. What I mean is, to be productive is to single task (as opposed to multi-tasking). So really, you only have one thing to do at a time. But that takes planning and focus - two things which are not easily accomplished by most brains. This is because most people's brain have been trained to be a chronic multi-tasker and skip around from one thing to the next, never focusing on a single item for too long. Hence...

The productivity equation:

Productivity = Dedicated Time + Focused Attention + Deadly Execution

In other words, you are productive when: You have a block of time to accomplish a specific goal (important that the goal be specific and small enough to accomplish), and you can focus your attention exclusively on that goal, and you are proficient enough to complete the tasks involved.

This is not easy... every piece of this equation involves work... and to be honest, most people don't like to work at anything. They cruise through life and collect a paycheck and complain about anything/everything they can. Occasionally, they get tired of their life and decide to do something about it. But, since they aren't used to this kind of focused brain-work, it is not easy or natural for them. It creates a state of stress and confusion and they assume they can't do it. They must go back to their natural state, which is laziness and boredom. (I consider people who only do the HAVE TO as lazy. It's easy to do something which somebody else is telling you to do. It is difficult to do that which you don't HAVE TO.)

In a generic sense, those that truly want success create an environment to facilitate the productivity equation. While there are some gifted individuals in this world that can truly multi-task (I think I've met a couple of them), most of us need the time, attention, and execution to move our MUST DO's forward and at the same time, complete our HAVE TO's.

----------------

This is the end of the rant! Following this point are a few of the things that I do to try and create an environment for the productivity equation in my own life.

Email = Swirling Black Vortex of Inefficiency

You’ve heard this time and again: Email is an enormous time suck! And, least of all for the physical time that is spent checking email. The greatest expense of email is taking your eye off the ball. When you are cruising along and being productive, an email comes in and the little notification popup appears at the bottom right side of the screen. Your attention is immediately broken by that little popup and the sound - it takes you out of "the zone". It arouses curiosity and you think, "it can't hurt to take 5 seconds and see what that's all about. I'll be right back to what I'm doing." That is never the case. At least, not for me. First of all, if the email is even slightly interesting, I'll read the whole thing. If it makes me think, or requires action, I'm off onto that thing. Who knows how long it is until I'm back to my original task and fully focused on it? It *may* not happen! The best case scenario is that I get back to my task at hand, but it takes several minutes to re-gain my focus and prior efficiency.

With few exceptions, we are all executioners. We get stuff done for people. I get stuff done for myself. I don't need to respond to every email immediately. I don't need to overload my brain with news, gossip, jokes, newsletters, blah blah blah.

Emails are not as important as your brain thinks they are. It's the little popup notification - and the accompanying sound, that breaks your concentration and destroys your focus.

Unless I'm expecting an important email that I know needs to be read/addressed immediately, I try to check my email only twice a day. NEVER before noon. That time is a sacred "kick ass" time. It is the time that I do my very best to complete the most important task of the day (my MUST DO). Important: Turn those damn notifications off!!

I also reduce my subscriptions and lists to an absolute minimum. I no longer need to stay up on the latest daily news and marketing techniques. If it is important, it will filter down through my contacts and friends. Otherwise, it's just a time-waster.

Expect serious backlash from your brain when you reduce the email dependency. This is not a habit easily kicked… but stick with it and you’ll soon realize how much more productive you are with less email.

Pre-scheduling

I never charge into the day without an idea of what must be accomplished. This sounds obvious, but I always try and create a list of items to accomplish for the day. I pick out one item that MUST be done before the day is out. This is my MUST DO - and I'll bust my ass to get it done prior to noon, when I check my email and respond to the masses.

If I have time, I try to set this schedule before I quit work the previous day. That way I can bite right into the meat of my tasks the next day. Otherwise, I put the list in writing in the morning before I get started for the day.

Outsourcing

There are a few items on my plate that I'm just not excited to do. Like writing emails to my list. Like scheduling interviews with people I don't know. Like sending invoices to clients. I'm just NOT into it...

Lately (and this is a new thing for me), I have been trying to use outsourced help to accomplish the things that I just can't get motivated to do. It's very easy to find an outsourced virtual assistant on Elance. My recent job posting drew 16 bids with rates ranging from $5-$40/hr.

What will I eventually have my VA (virtual assistant) do? A lot of the stuff that I currently do for myself (but don't need to).

· Research and list management
· Writing
· Invoices
· Customer support
· SEO (articles, links, etc...)
· Compile reports
· Book airfare, hotel, car, etc...

If, in the future you see more regular blog posts on this site... it's probably my virtual assistant ghost-writing on my behalf!

Reminders up the wazoo

I'm a forgetful bastard. I know this about myself. It's not an excuse, because I spent a good portion of my 20's trying to figure out a way to better remember things. Didn't work. It is just who I am. So, it's a good thing I was born into an age of technology.

My memory crutches are Google Calendar and Remember the Milk. I use these services to remind me of any and everything.

I use several calendars on Google Calendar. This is good for events which are time-based - they must be completed at a specific time. I have a default public calendar which my wife has access to schedule into. This is where all meetings and events occur. One is my "reminders" calendar which sends text messages all day long reminding me to stay productive, to check email, to call people, ... even to go home. (I get so wrapped up in work that I don't look at the clock...)

I use Remember the Milk to schedule any task that MUST be done or the world will stop rotating and fall out of orbit. RTM allows me to easily see which tasks are due today and which tasks are overdue. RTM will also send me reminders - and has a Firefox plugin to GMail (super cool).

Thanks for reading! This post/rant is constantly changing as I continue to find out what works for me. Everything in life is an experiment. You try it out and see if it works for you. Hyper-productivity is not for everyone. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I may, someday decide that I want to be less productive. But for now, I’m hooked. I’m addicted. I like what is does for me – every day I can see something that would not have otherwise gotten done. And that, for me, is a cool feeling.

Robert Collier Letter Book Notes

2008-08-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

Notes taken from the notes taken from the Robert Collier Letter Book 20080808

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Study your reader. Find out what interests him. Then study your proposition to see how it can be made to tie into that interest.

find one thing your prospect is interested in and make that your point of contact, rather than rush in and try to tell him something about your proposition, your goods, your interest.

It may have everything else, but if it lacks that faculty of arousing the right feeling, you might as well throw it away. It will never make you money.

Appeal to the reason, by all means. Give people a logical excuse for buying that they can tell to their friends and use to salve their own consciences. But if you want to sell goods, if you want action of any kind, base your real urge upon some primary emotion!

Lead him gently from one point of interest to another, with word pictures so clear, so simple, that he can almost see the things you are offering him.

Getting your readers attention is your first job. That done, your next job is to get your idea across, to make him see it as you see it.

So few letter-writers have that knack of visualizing a proposition - of painting it in words so the reader can see it as they see it.

Make him want the thing you are offering more than the money or trouble it costs him.

They revel in emotion at any and all times. So give them a thrill! If you want to describe your mustard, weave it into a story.

Show what it will do for the reader, what it will add to his prestige, to his power, to his comfort, to the well-being of those he loves.

Six prime motives of human action: love, gain, duty, pride, self-indulgence, and self-preservation. Frequently they are so mixed together that it is hard to tell which to work on more strongly. The more motives you can appeal to, of course, the more successful you will be.

Supply the impulse that will make it EASIER for him to go FORWARD than to stand still or draw back.

Don't decide on the main proposition now. Instead put his mind to work on some minor point - and you will find that a favorable decision on it will, in 3 case out of 4, carry the major proposition along with it!

If it does not tell him what to do, if it does not provide a penalty for his not doing it, your prospect will slip away from you like a fish off the hook.

There is one reason why anyone ever reads a letter you send him. He expects a reward. That is they key to holding his interest. All through your letter you keep leading him on, constantly feeding his interest, but always holding something back for the climax.

2 reasons for doing as you say:
1. You made him want it so badly he can't help it
2. You aroused the fear that he will lose something worthwhile if he doesn't do it

Make your reader feel that this is his last chance - keep your penalty dangling before his minds eye, the money-saving lost, the opportunity missed. Put into your close the fear of consequences.

It is essential that you put a hook into that last paragraph.

Every good letter contains six essential elements:
1. The opening - gets the readers attention
2. Description or explanation - word pictures
3. Motive or reason why - create a longing
4. Proof or guarantee
5. Snapper or penalty (hook) - get immediate action by threatening loss of money, prestige, opportunity
6. Close - tell what to do, how to do it

We gave him a reason why he must order at once, or lose a really worthwhile premium that wold otherwise be his free. In short, we aimed first at making the reader want the stories for themselves alone. When we felt we had succeeded in that, we gave him as many excuses for buying them as we could think of, and a real reason why he must do it right away. And lastly, we made it easy.

We seldom try to sell merchandise. We sell ideas. The wording counts for little. It is the way you adapt the idea back of the letter that counts. Words are empty sounds. It is the images back of them that counts!

It is merely a matter of finding the primal human motive your book appeals to - be it love or gain or fear or ambition -- and then directing your appeal at that motive.

If you can tie in with twhat people are thinking about and interested in, you can sell anything

You need a convincing reason why you can make a lower price than your competitors - mere reductions are not enough.

If you offer one article you will get twice as many orders as if you offered a choice of two or more articles!

In selling by mail the customer who hesitates is lost to you. I have seldom known that rule to fail.

Many times the most successful pieces were those on which we sold the quality or comfort or usefulness of the product and then brought in the money-saving as an after-thought.

We tried the device of offering the slippers as a free premium, if customers would send for and try out the bath robe! You would be surprised how beautifully it worked. those 10,000 robes melted away like snow before the summer sun!

We put into that first draft everything that we should want in the product if we were buying it. Then - after we had our mental picture of the ideal product from our point of view as a user - we took the product itself, studied it, and determined how it compared with our ideal.

While most people lack the courage for real leadership, few there are who do not long to be looked up to, as being a bit above their fellows. We all like to feel important, Anything that raises our ego, that makes us feel more necessary to the general scheme of things, is sure to please us.

As to the motives to appeal when you have won the readers attention, by far the strongest, in our experience, is Vanity. Not the vanity that buys cosmetics, but that unconscience vanity which makes a man want to feel important in his own eyes and makes him strut mentally. This appeal needs to be subtly used, but when used properly, it si the strongest we know.

Next to vanity is the premium or "Gift" idea - starting your letter with the gift of some unimportant article to lead your reader on to the buying of your real product.

One of the strongest traits in human nature is the desire to be somebody, to feel important, to be necessary to the community and those around us. This harmless strain of vanity is in all of us.

The only difference between an expensive product and one of ordinary price is usually one of degree. They look alike, made of same material, do the same things. The idfference is in the degree of pleasure or stisfaction they will bring. And this is largely in the mind of the buyer.

So your job is to build a picture in his minds eye of what he will get from your product or service. Build it with bricks he can handle, i.e., with words and mental images that are familiar to him.

Do not make the mistake of trying to stress in your letter all the points of your pdouct. You can list them in a separate folder and make your letter the stronger for it. But find the one point on which your sale is likely to hang and build your letter around it. Let that be the focal point of your mental image, your picture, and let every word in it be a brush stroke that adds clearness and power to that one focal point.

If you set a time limit say positively that no orders will be accepted beyond that date. If you announce a raise in price tell them that there will be no last minute concessions. Be definite -- and be positive! You will lose a few last minute orders, but you will gain ten times the number in those who are impelled to act the moment they read the letter -- while the order card is in their hands -- for fear if they lay it down they will delay and be too late.

Always remember that the point which sells your customer is not what your product is -- but what it will do for him!

"What do they want ~ " What is the bait that will attract your fish and make them bite? Find that -- and you will be as successful in bringing back the orders as any angler can be with a properly baited hook in bringing in the fish.

Google SLAP(ped me silly)

2008-05-28T14:00:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, the Quality Score for my entire Adwords account was reduced to 'Poor', with $10.00 minimum clicks.

I have campaigns for keywords, content network only, placement targeted, max CPC, max CPM, Conversion Optimizer, etc... Pretty much every imaginable way to advertise on Google Adwords, I have something in place to take advantage of (or experiment with) it. This account has been open for about 5 years, and many of the current campaigns have been running for a long time.

Every single campaign, no matter the setup, landing page, sub-domain, etc... they were all reduced to a 'Poor' Quality Score.

In the last several months nothing had changed on my web site. The only things that had changed in the adwords account were a few new campaigns.

So after freaking out...

I used the new "Chat live now with an Adwords Specialist" functionality. The first agent that I spoke with told me that he could find no reason for the reduction in Quality Score. He would do a little more research and get back to me "in a couple of hours".

The next morning, I log onto the chat again, this time connecting with another rep. She said that, basically, the first guy was still researching my account and would be responding to my query shortly.

Same day, after noon, I log onto the chat again. This time connecting with yet another rep. She said that it takes up to 24 hours to research Quality Score issues and that I should be patient. But, also that she would contact the first two reps and alert them to my inquiry.

Firstly, I feel a little mis-led. The first two people indicated this would be a quick process. Third person basically told me to chill out.

Secondly, I feel powerless. I know I'm a small fish to Google - but also that I've done nothing wrong. My site is rich with content and user experience. My ads are not mis-leading. My pages load super-quick. In a matter of an instant they can cut off the power and leave you twisting in the wind. Which sucks...

So now I wait... no ads running. No reason for it...

And that's no fun...

But that reminds me... I need to log on to Yahoo and set up some more campaigns...

View of Century City - from Hollywood

2008-04-17T10:44:00.001-07:00

View from my hollywood office

2008-03-14T00:44:00.000-07:00

I was at my client office in Hollywood and leaned way out over the balcony.... This is a beautiful location.

Sleep is NOT for me. Biphasic sleep - 45 day update

2008-03-10T04:03:00.000-07:00

I'm not a big fan of sleep. Nothing exciting or productive happens when you're sleeping. Nobody looks back on their life and says "I wish I got more sleep." ... There are no fond memories of "that time I was sleeping." Life happens when you're awake! I sleep 6 hours a day - and I would sleep even less than that if I could figure out a way to maintain it...

I have been on a loose biphasic schedule for about 45 days now. I'll try to run through the perceived advantages and limitations as far as I see them.

ADVANTAGES:

For me, the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. I am a big fan of biphasic sleep - thus far it has been a tremendous experience.

Flexibility

As opposed to biphasic sleep, when somebody adopts a polyphasic schedule (many 15 minute naps throughout the day/night), the major no-no is to deviate from the planned sleeping periods. Also, it takes a couple of weeks of major pain for your body to adopt to the new schedule. If you don't stick to the schedule your body will revolt and make up the lost time with a marathon sleep session. And you lose all the work you did to train your body for less sleep...

My experience with a biphasic schedule shows that there is no "adaptation period". Plus, I am able to move between biphasic sleep and traditional sleep. More about this in the "drawbacks" section below.

Productivity

A biphasic schedule allows me to get 6 hours of sleep instead of the 8 hours normally required - and still feel real good.

The two fewer hours does make a difference. But the biggest difference may be the many hours of productive time I have before anyone else in America is awake for the day. This means: no phone calls, little email, no external interruptions - just productive time spent on the day's most important tasks.

Time to Excercise

I have grown extremely fond of my early morning workouts. I mean, I look forward to it eagerly.

Many mornings I'll get up, work for an hour or two and go for a workout. I'll get bundled up with a hat and gloves and a windbreaker and be on the road logging miles by 4:30 am. Two hours later I'll have run 10 miles, get back to the house, take a warm shower, and get my son out of bed. I spend a couple hours with him every single morning - all before getting to work for the day!

There is some kind of a perverse pleasure in having gotten something done and run nearly a half marathon before the rest of the world is awake.

I LOVE to watch the sun come up over the mountains. When I start my run it is pitch black out. All I can see is my breath in the cold air and the ground immediately in front of me. So the beginning of my run gives me time to ponder the greater questions of life, like what I'm going to have for breakfast later on (ha!). But once I get all the fleeting thoughts out of my mind and settle into the run, the sun starts to come up over the horizon. It bounces off the lake surface, or canyon walls, and filters through the pine trees. Amazing. Beautiful! The beauty of my life is revealed and I am suddenly appreciative of all I have.

DRAWBACKS AND LIMITATIONS:

There are a few things that will keep me from a biphasic schedule:

Scheduling Conflicts

I've come to realize that my schedule is not completely controllable - but it is predictable. I almost always know what's coming up the next day - can't always control when my event(s) will occur. But, this is perhaps the best thing about a biphasic sleeping schedule - it is quite flexible.

If I have a series of important meetings in the middle of the day, or if I am planning to spend the entire day with family, I will sleep for a whole session the night before and go without a nap.

Occasionally, something unforseen comes up and I'm forced to move my nap around. I might have to take an early or late nap. This is a difficulty - but not a showstopper. I've moved my nap forward and backward by several hours with only minor consequences (harder to sleep, more tired than usual in the evening as a result).

Hard Workouts

My long run is up to 9-10 miles per day. Or, sometimes, I actually (try to) run up the mountain behind my house. When I really exert myself and push past my current limits, my body reacts by sleeping! Makes perfect sense - it needs to repair, needs to recover. But I didn't know this in advance and tried to fight through a couple days of little sleep after a hard workout. It wasn't very successful... I now know full well that when I do a super-hard workout I need a little extra sleep to recover from it.

Illness

A bout of the head cold came and went through my house a few weeks ago and everybody was sleeping longer than normal. Same thing as above - when the body calls for more sleep there is a good reason for it - and I'm not fighting that natural reaction.

Alchohol

A couple of drinks is all I need to sleep in. If I go out for a couple of drinks with buddies, there is no way I'm getting up at my normal time. If I DO force myself to get up at my normal time, I'm much more tired than usual the next day.

Alarm Clock Issues

One annoyance that can't be ignored is the alarm clock issue. As in - and annoyance to my wife and newborn son... When the alarm clock goes off at 2:30am and the baby (who sleeps in his bassinet or in our bed with us) is awoken, he doesn't go back to sleep! That's a no good!

I now set the alarm on my cell phone in vibrate mode and put it under my pillow. I'm looking for a good vibrating alarm clock, but haven't had much luck yet.

All in all...

I've gotten a few bewildered looks and responses when somebody learns of my sleeping schedule. It's definitely not for everyone. But then again, not everyone is as driven or persistent as me. If I perceive something that helps me get to the finish line, and is not destructive - I'm going to take advantage of it.

The bottom line is this: Sleeping less at night and taking a nap in the afternoon allows me to have more productive time to do what is important to me. Spending more time on the things that ARE important to me (family, entrepreneurial ventures, running, etc...) is a very rewarding thing to do.

"How do I get started in such a venture?"

2008-02-07T10:24:00.000-08:00

Last night, I received an email from Bob in Illinois. Bob asks a question that I get often - "how do I get started?". So, with his permission, I am posting the original email and my response here. I hope it is helpful.

On Feb 6, 2008 8:20 PM, <p......b@c...t.net> wrote:

Travis,

I read your blog entry regarding StubHub.

I was interested to see you mentioned vacation spots as an example of a possible application. I've thought about that aspect for a while. My idea focuses on Timeshare. It seems there are numerous sites that ask for fees up-front without delivering. As a timeshare owner myself, I'd love a place that is well publicized where I could post my timeshare, like I've done with my Chicago Bears tix on StubHub.

Trouble is, I haven't the first idea how to get started. Where can I learn about the basics of starting such a venture?

Thanks,

Bob M....

Plainfield, Illinois

Hi Bob,

Thanks for the note!

I think to get a venture like this off the ground you need three primary skills.

The first is the easiest to acquire, and that is basic Internet technology implementation. You'll need to know about programmers and designers and online marketing options.

The second is market research. You need to know if people with timeshares (or looking for them) are willing to engage you and build a relationship. You need to know if there is a pain point that you can address and solve. For this, I must recommend Glenn Livingston's survey model. It is extremely thorough - it will give you the data on your market you need to succeed. I have used it several times now - and if you can handle the intensity, you are WAAAAY ahead of the game.

http://www.howtodoubleyourbusiness.com

The third is the less tangible, which is basic business sense. I just finished reading a book called "Jump Start Your Business Brain" by Doug Hall that goes into great detail about crafting a business idea that can succeed. I highly recommend it!

http://www.amazon.com/Jump-Start-Your-Business-Brain/dp/1558706070

In addition to these skills, you need a whole lot of determination and fortitude. When I first got into e-business I was looking for the silver bullet. And I sometimes still find myself trying to take the easy way out. But the thing is - that never works. It takes years to build a successful business online, just like it does offline. If you're not committed and "in love" then you're not likely to succeed!

Hope this is helpful.

Travis

Wish I was a little bit taller...

2008-02-07T10:09:00.000-08:00

Biphasic Sleep Log - Day 8

2008-01-31T03:54:00.000-08:00

I skipped a few days, because it was just more of the same. In fact, this is all starting to become quite routine. Which is nice.

Here is my usual day:
* I wake early, it takes a few minutes to feel alert. It's hard to hit my sleep cycle just right yet so some mornings are harder to crawl out of bed than others...
* I have an extremely productive morning, get an early workout in (on workout days)
* I get to hang with my fam for a little longer than usual
* I start to get physically tired in the early afternoon, but my mental capacity doesn't seem to fall-off
* I take an afternoon nap, and it takes a few moments to feel alert (but not as bad as the longer night sleep)
* I feel fantastic the rest of the day
* I get tired right before bedtime at night

One thing of note for Day 8. Usually during the week I can control my own schedule. But today I had an early afternoon meeting that would go right through my normal nap time. So I decided to take my nap in the late morning instead of mid-afternoon.

I usually nap from around 1:30-3pm. Or 2-3:30pm. Sometimes a little bit earlier, sometimes a little bit later - all depending on how I feel and how busy I am.

Today I took my nap at 10:45-12:15pm. I didn't have too much problem getting to sleep. But I woke frequently, wondering if it was close to time to get up (because I didn't want to be late to my meeting). I was also woken by my phone once (note to self: turn that damn thing off when you go to sleep). So the result was not a very good nap!

So between an early nap time and poor sleep, I turned into a zombie around 8pm. I usually go about 8 hours between nap and nighttime sleep - and I start to feel tired right before bed. But time, 8 hours after my nap I seriously turned into a zombie (and still had a few hours till bedtime).

Moral of the story? Couple of things:
1. Try to keep the nap time in the early afternoon if possible.
2. If not possible, don't schedule anything immediately after the nap.
3. Anytime I change the schedule or do something new, the first sleep session will be poor.

Biphasic Sleep Log - Day 5

2008-01-27T21:08:00.000-08:00

Morning

I didn't get to bed until around 11:30 last night, so I didn't wake up until 4. Once again, I had a hard time sleeping. It was probably because I was trying out a new alarm and didn't trust that it was set properly. So, I kept waking up, wondering if it was time to wake up yet!

So, when the alarm finally went off at 4, it was off-time, and came from out of nowhere. It was hard to get up... In fact, I almost stayed in bed. Will power was the only thing that got me out...

But once I was out of bed everything was fine. The morning went off without a hitch. My son even woke up at 5am again. I sat in his dark room rocking him back to sleep and didn't feel the overwhelming tiredness like a couple of days ago.

Afternoon

My afternoon nap came at 12:30pm today. I find myself waking up a lot, and wondering if it's time for me to be done sleeping yet... today I woke up after a half hour and it felt like I had slept an hour and a half.

After that - no problems. Slept the rest of the way, woke up easy. Felt great the whole afternoon and evening. Good stuff!

A tale of two landing pages

2008-01-26T21:56:00.001-08:00

You wanna know what really pisses me off? When the Broncos lose. (I was angry quite often this season...)

You wanna know what really boggles my mind? Landing pages. Sometimes knows as squeeze pages.

The objective of a squeeze page is to get somebody to give you their name and email address. That's it. Usually, you send somebody to a squeeze page from a PPC click. That person is probably looking for exactly what you have to offer. That person will probably be very happy, in the end, that they gave you their private email information.

Your job is to communicate as efficiently as possible all the great things that are in store for them if they sign up.

And, of course, there are a million ways to do this. And of course, the lifeblood of your online business is getting these people to do that. If you can get a high percentage of people to sign up (generically speaking) you pay less per conversion. If you get a low percentage of people to sign up, you end up paying Google a lot more than you should for each converson (and probably lose money on each sale, and probably go out of business, and probably become a bitter old man). So, it becomes a point of much testing and changing and tweaking to get as many people to enter their info on the squeeze page.

But here is what boggles my mind:

These two landing pages are identical, with one obvious difference. In the original squeeze page, the signup form is in the middle of the page, after some interesting content explaining all the fantastic benefits of signing up. In the new version, the signup form is placed smack dab at the top of the page underneath the headline.

A simple change like moving the signup form from the middle of the page to the top of the page produced much better conversions. You can see from this Google Website Optimizer screenshot that the new squeeze page (with form at top) performed a heck of a lot better.

One disclaimer here. As you can see, not a whole lot of conversions have been run through this test. BUT, I'd say at this point it doesn't matter how many more are run, the new squeeze is going to win out.

Moral of the story? Test everything.

To be fair, as is often the case these days, I got this idea from Glenn Livingston. A looooong time ago he said to me something like:

Travis, I'm very happy that you've got a nicely performing squeeze page. Now you need to test the heck out of it. Test everything. Headlines, colors, move the form around, testimonials, .....

etc, etc, etc... And, as usual, my thick skull takes longer than it should to process what a smart man says.

So - thanks again Glenn!

Biphasic Sleep Log - Day 4

2008-01-26T20:59:00.001-08:00

Morning

I really slept well last night. Went to bed at 10:30pm. When the alarm went off at 3am this morning, it wasn't difficult to get out of bed at all.

I was very productive for a few hours, which feels really good on a Saturday morning. Then at about 5:45 I went to the gym.

I was running on the treadmill when somebody walking past me said "Good morning Sonny!" I looked to my right and Sonny Lubick, the former football coach for Colorado State University was on an elliptical runner next to me. Hey - if an early morning workout is what a downright legendary man like Sonny does early on a Saturday morning then I'm proud to be doing the same!

There was some tiredness later in the morning and early afternoon. To be expected, I think when you're having a lazy Saturday and you only had 4 hours of sleep the night before!

Afternoon

I got a nap at about 1pm today. Slept in my own bed, like a rock for one and a half hours. Awoke refreshed, feeling great. The rest of the afternoon was easy - no tiredness at all.

If every day could be like today, I'm sure I could keep this schedule for a long term. I slept great. I felt great.

I am beginning to realize that the quality of sleep I get is the major factor in how I feel that day. Sleep good = feel good. Sleep bad = feel bad. It just makes sense - when you're getting less sleep than you're used to, it better be good sleep!

In the past when trying to survive on 6 hours, it would catch up to me big time on about the fourth day. And since I feel pretty darn good today, this is quite a milestone. I am looking forward to the next few days to see if I can maintain.

Biphasic Sleep Log - Day 3

2008-01-25T18:59:00.001-08:00

Morning

Wow - what a terrible night of sleep! Expecting 4 1/2 hours of sleep (ie, not very much), and not yet fully trusting my alarm, I woke up after two hours of sleep, feeling like it was 4. I saw that it was only 12pm, so I went back to sleep. But I proceeded to wake up about every 1/2 hour after that.

When the alarm finally went off at 2:30am... it was a very unwelcome sound.

But I managed to drag myself out of bed anyway.

I couldn't shake the sleepiness all morning long. My sick son woke up about 5:30am and I sat in his room, rocking him back to sleep. That dark room was just too much for me! Couldn't stay awake. Once he was back down, I went upstairs and crawled back into bed for another hour and a half.

When I woke up at 7:30, I felt fine. No more sleepiness. In fact, I felt fine all the way till my afternoon nap.

Afternoon

My family was gone today, so I had the awesome luxury of napping in my own comfy bed. Fell asleep, woke up refreshed. Felt great all afternoon and evening.

Either the lack of sleep caught up with me this morning, or when I have bad sleep I'm going to follow it with a bad day.

My gut instinct tells me that this was due to bad sleep last night...

I'm not following this crazy routine to be sleepy and "adjust" for a week. I'm following it because the two sleep periods let me cut down slightly and be more productive without crashing hard. If I have a bad night of sleep, I'll probably always feel the need to make up for it with a little more quality sleep time. The hour an a half lost is way better than a whole day of being a zombie.

Tonight, when I go to bed, I'll just trust that my alarm is set and will wake me up (or not). But one thing is for sure - no longer will I wake up just to check and see how much time I have left! With this little sleep, I need to make the most of what I'm getting!

Tomorrow is Saturday. The first weekend that I will have an altered sleep schedule. This will be a real test - because my schedule is not as controlled on the weekends. Well, that's not true - it is controlled. Just, not by me - by my wife.

That means it may be hard to find a 90 minute block of time to fit a nap in. I don't know if this schedule will be possible having traditional sleep on the weekends and biphasic sleep during the week.

So, I'll do my best to maintain the biphasic schedule and find some nap time in the afternoon like usual.

Books on my desk now

2008-01-24T17:13:00.001-08:00

Biphasic Sleep Log - Day 2

2008-01-24T16:59:00.000-08:00

Morning

I awoke this morning at about 3am, after 4.5 hours of sleep, and felt pretty good. It was easy to get out of bed so I must have timed the sleep cycle right and hit the sweet spot.

Shortly after waking I felt fantastic. I love the morning - it is so productive to be hard at it when everybody else is still sleeping.

I started to get a little tired after a couple of hours but it was nothing overwhelming, just back-of-the-eyes kind of tiredness.

At around 5am I took off for the gym. I ran 3.5 miles on the treadmill, hit the showers, and headed home. --> Same adrenaline high as usual after the workout, despite the lack of sleep the last two days and the early morning workout. When I left the gym, and for a couple of hours afterward I felt pretty great.

Tiredness from about 10am-12pm. Not too bad, I can just tell I didn't sleep long last night. Looking forward to that nap!

Afternoon

My nap today came about 3pm - 4:45pm.

I got the office cot set up - pad, pillow, blanket, I'm not making the same mistake as yesterday! Believe it or not, I also got some ear plugs to completely block out household noise.

I set the alarm for 15 minutes past my 90 minute nap length to give a little time to fall asleep. Apparently I didn't need it because I woke up naturally at about 4:25. But... since I had 20 minutes left, I didn't know whether to get up or go back to sleep. Usually when I have any kind of "get up/sleep" battle in my head when I'm tired - the "sleep" option wins. So, I fell back asleep and was awoken by my vibrating alarm at 4:45 feeling quite groggy and out of it. I even considered for a brief moment going back to sleep for another cycle... (glad I didn't)

So, it took me a few minutes to get going, get the cot put away and get back online.

But now, about an hour later, I feel fantastic. Very alert and focused. I think if I can force myself to get used to jumping out of bed instead of lingering that this is going to work out very well for me.