Vince Runza Online

A Mighty Force of Slow Growth

2007-02-05T14:56:00.000-05:00

A simple acorn isn’t much to look at, really. I used to find tons of them as a kid. The wonder that this little “nothing” could become the giant tree that produced it really didn’t hit me until I was at least 10. By then, I had my own garden, and knew full well how long it took a carrot seed to become a little carrot.
    Over the years, I’ve been involved in businesses and hobbies that proceeded much the same way. Progress is painfully slow at first, with bursts of activity and growth, followed by what appear to be plateaus. I say, “appear to be”, because underneath, things are happening which are not visible to the eye. Much like a plant sends down roots, seeking water and nourishment, ideas and endeavors need to dive down into the subconscious, the “Matrix”, the whatever-the-hell-it-is that comprises our reality.
    It’s that might force of slow growth that moves mountains. There’s this mushroom called an Ink Cap. It’s very delicate, doesn’t last more than half a day, wilting in the noonday sun. Yet the underground body of this evanescent growth can crack concrete.
    It’s the same for new ideas, businesses, creations. On the surface, they may appear to be nothing special. Underneath, they’re changing the foundations of the World as we will perceive it. Day by day, bit by bit, they grow strong enough to rock those foundations.

The Seduction Files

2007-02-02T13:34:00.000-05:00

For a while now, I've wondered if telling people I'm part of that community that knows how to effectively seduce women was a good idea. The feedback I've gotten has been overwhelmingly positive, even from middle-aged housewives. Once I explain the participatory methods I use, folks just want to hear more.
Naturally, "How to Pick Up Hot Girls and Get Laid Fast" is not exactly a PC headline, but that's what I know how to do. Sugar coating the message just might make someone feel mislead when I reveal all the secrets, tips, pitfalls and methods for bypassing the whole "dating" dynamic and getting to the really fun part. The women who participate invariably say they wished more guys knew this way of interacting effectively, without fumbling or misleading. Hey, hot girls need sex, too!
I have another blog on this subject -- mature audiences only, please. This is the real thing, not just a "dating tips for lonely hearts" checklist. No guesswork, no locker-room tales -- just the resources for finding and using field tested and proven tactics, techniques and strategies for getting results. Enjoy.

Writers Who've Starved Long Enough Learn to Adapt

2007-01-29T12:58:00.000-05:00

One of the advantages of age over youth is having no shame in learning from the mistakes of others. I certainly made plenty of 'em (and will continue to do so), but I'm much better at "course correction" now. You might like me to give you all the dish on what and where I've screwed up, but that ain't gonna happen!
    In my previous post, I mentioned Desperate Buyers Only, a publication by Alexis Dawes. I found it (and her) at the Warrior's Forum, a resource for Private Label Rights publications, Marketing, Joint Ventures, etc. Anybody interested in producing, selling, marketing (as a primary or affiliate) or learning more about Information Products needs to go there. Not this instant! Soon...
    The funny thing to me is how many writers haven't asked themselves the question: Have I starved long enough? They keep running through the same steps they've done before, with no results. They keep writing about general topics, "hot" niche markets or, worst of all, follow the advice to "Do what you love and the money will follow.” Unfortunately, they resist noticing that the money has not followed. If we lived forever, perhaps that method might work. We don't.
    By targeting products for desperate buyers only, you put yourself in the enviable position of having people standing in line with their wallets out, ready to buy. In fact, the greater the urgency, the more of a premium they'll pay. It's essential to provide full value for what you're offering, or you'll not only eat a lot of refunds, you'll have an angry mob chasing you with torches and pitchforks!
    These folks come online to search for the answer to their urgent, burning questions. That means they believe there's an answer "out there". If YOU are there, you can become the answer. If their problem is as urgent as a painful toothache, these desperate buyers will not only pay, they'll pay your top-dollar price and, perhaps, ask you for more!
    If you want to get run over by a fast-moving vehicle, wander on the Freeway, the Autobahn or the Interstate. If you want to get run over by people with too much money and not enough answers, supply those answers! Target desperate buyers ONLY. Or, perhaps, you're not hungry enough, yet.

A Desperate Need -- and a Solution that Pays

2007-01-27T21:39:00.000-05:00

Today marks a turning point in my marketing focus. Until today, I really didn’t have a methodology for getting my profitable (more than 99 cents US) items listed and presented in a way that would motivate buyers to buy. Sure, those items are worth the price I charge (In My Not So Humble Opinion), but only a select few were eligible for top dollar. Those items have one thing in common: they fill a need, not a want.
    Ironically, my “bestseller” is a recipe book for Fruit Smoothies. That’s not exactly a burning need, and promoting it would have distracted me from focussing on selling the items that can help pay the bills for listing, store fees, etc. Fortunately, I found a resource that explained, explicitly, what gets people to spend.
    Desperation creates a desire for action. It also creates an emotional reaction that is reliable, predictable and dependable. That emotional reaction is a sense of urgency: either to move closer to something good or away from something bad. You MUST get to a dentist to have that tooth pulled. You MUST find out if you can learn to attract that one, special person you’ve been pining over. You MUST find a way to get rid of the smelly foot odor problem you have. You MUST increase your income SOON.
    I had been wondering what to create in the way of how-to information that would be profitable. Looks like that question is answered: target desperate buyers. Now I must produce genuine value, not just sucker people into buying by playing on that sense of urgency.

Web 2.SLOW?

2007-01-21T23:55:00.000-05:00

[As his Squidoo page loads, Vince mumbles, “Bloated code crap! Why am I ‘waiting for Squidoo' to download its stuff?!!! It's a freakin' machine! Shouldn’t *IT* wait for me?!!! I'll give ya a freakin' "drumroll"!]
    Obviously, dealing with these “feature rich” environments means a certain amount of aggravation. Just because you *can* do something doesn’t mean you should.
    As I’m editing this post in Word, because typing it into the blogger interface is jumpy, kludgy and annoying, I can’t just type a *, then a word, then another * without Word deleting both *’s. So, I have to type the word, add the * then move back to the beginning of the word and insert the second *.
    Undoubtedly, some genius (who passed up a promising career path in packaging technology) decided that little function was useful, just like the genius who decided that jumpy JAVA inputs were a good idea.
    I wonder if those two met the genius who makes me insert “nbsp’s” so I can indent my paragraphs, instead of hit the freakin’ TAB key and have it WORK?!!!
    Going to either Squidoo or Wordpress to even log into my dashboard is a waste of time, as all the “feature rich” crap loads without even the courtesy of showing a splash screen. Attempting to modify or update either one is boring: I can go make coffee waiting for the new screen to load, stop back to enter [YES] to tell the thing to stop running a script that’s broken, go shave, then come back and try to do something useful.
    This is clearly a case of reach exceeding grasp. The only question is: will we live long enought to see the time when all this “feature rich” crap will actually work in something resembling real time?

Feeding at the same trough - Google

2007-01-21T18:44:00.000-05:00

My sister is an employee of Google, working on the "plumbing", as she calls it. Her work involves the machinery and codes to run it, from the BIOS on up. Next time you "Google" something, it's the work of her, her team and many others that make that search happen in a gazillionth of a second and return umpteen million "hits". Never mind weeding through all that stuff for the answer you really want.
    She's a supporter of my efforts at publishing - even bought my DEVIL'S DICTIONARY for quotes she can foist on others! Here's her current favorite:

QUOTATION: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.

While I'm still new to this whole business of monetizing myself, my blog, my RSS feeds, etc., I still had the dumb luck to put up Google AdSense advertising here. It's not a roaring success yet, but I'm learning every day.
    Furthermore, I've invested a bit in eBooks on using AdSense in an effective manner. They're actually helpful, as opposed to all the fluff pieces out there that cover general information and have TONS of links to other products the author insists one must have.
    AdSense for Beginners, The Google Adsense Empire Handbook and AdSense Revenue Exposed will be offered separately and as a "bundle" for a bit of a discount. Even though they're intended to boost the income of the publishers, they all offer real value, simple explanations and useful links that aren't going to make the publishers any real money.
    Now that I'm getting store traffic, it's time to put up products that'll get me some real income, not just pay for their fees and expenses incurred by opening a store!

The Book of the Day Club

2007-01-18T14:06:00.000-05:00

Now that I’m a publisher, I can actually fulfill an idea I had years ago: use my knowledge of typesetting and layout to produce sellable information at a very low cost. Not only am I producing self-help material based on my research and experience, I’m getting out Literature that’s in the Public Domain! I can bang out a well-edited book, complete with cover art, in about two hours. That includes listing it on eBay!
Current titles include THE ART OF WAR, THE DEVIL’S DICTIONARY, DRACULA and A STUDY IN SCARLET, the very first Sherlock Holmes adventure. I’m already working on a list of authors like Edgar Allen Poe, Edgar Rice Burroughs, H.G. Wells, Charles Dickens, Herman Melville and Jane Austen to start (in no particular order), along with more by Bram Stoker and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Any suggestions are welcome as to classics you’d like to see made available as finely wrought .PDF files. Yeah, I forgot – FANNY HILL is on the to-do list, too~!

TGIJ

2007-01-17T09:40:00.000-05:00

January is normally the slowest month for retail sales. Thank God! Ironing out the kinks of a newly created anything is tough. Ironing out the kinks of this new store is especially taxing, since the combination of slow download/upload speed, even slower PC performance, entirely new area of eBay I’m unfamiliar with, new interface rules to remember, etc., means I have little time to spend on customer service.
Yes, I’ve made a couple of sales. The first was to a total newbie, from Italy, no less – first purchase, no feedback. The second alerted me to a major goof-up in my instructions for downloading eBooks, which meant revising all my listings to give the RIGHT instructions for downloading my files.
Now I’m off to the bank to open another account for PayPal micropayments on sales of less than $12 US. I’m sure there are more headaches ahead, but I’m looking forward to the eventual automation of so much that I am doing by hand – and foot!

Escape velocity

2007-01-13T09:40:00.000-05:00

It’s amazing how fast things are proceeding, now that my overload of information has “jelled” in my mind. I’m rolling out with listings that seem to have been good sellers for others. I also add on value with my own contributions, such as typesetting (I knew that printing business knowledge would eventually pay off), image creation, sales copy writing, etc.
Here’s the real hoot: due to the way eBay Store Manager calculates your inventory, my dozen plus listings (with 10,000 of each item available) is now valued at over $200,000 US! My markup at retail (the percentage of the selling price that’s above my cost of buying) is over 99%!
Life is good and keeps getting better.

Liftoff!

2007-01-11T10:08:00.000-05:00

I’m now in the process of opening an eBay Store to sell information products – eBooks, articles and the like. I found a terrific source of free information from a guy who walked-the-walk and is doing what I intend to do. His Guides on eBay pointed out my current flaws, showed how to correct them and suggested a cost-effective course of action. It should be noted that a few of the Guides need revising with respect to eBay’s rules for selling eBooks, i.e. BIN only and a few other minor points. I gave all his Guides a + vote. :)
Boy, were my eyes opened to the possibilities of getting real results NOW, with the current batch of resellable books on my hard drive, along with my own eBooklet on making your own glass cleaner. Also, I can use my typesetting abilities to re-format public domain books and put them up for sale. I can quickly build an impressive list of titles in Children’s, Science Fiction, Historical Romance, History, etc. There's also a bevy of Foreign Language books that can be put up as special auctions upon request.
I’m excited about being able to ramp up my eBay efforts without spending more than a couple bucks right now. Further, I can get some income to fund any expansions I deem necessary. This is self-organized criticality at work! Now, all the cross referencing, re-editing, adding modules - ah, well, at least ONE of my items is already showing up~!

The mixed blessing of an inheritance.

2007-01-08T14:00:00.000-05:00

I’m receiving my inheritance in batches – the stereo and hundreds of records and cassettes my wife (and I) bought. It’s a cumbersome mess, and I’ve only gotten the first batch. Two more batches are on the way. While I really love music, moving this much stuff without a couple of roadies and a truck is miserable.
The good part of it is the inventory itself. I was looking for a product source to sell that would allow me to pay-as-I-go and learn. Here it is, in my new warehouse/house, with more coming. I’m already boning up on how eBay buyers want a record listed, what pictures are important, did the seller provide a song list, etc.
I’ve also got my business partner, none other than the USPS, delivering a batch of 25 boxes appropriate for shipping albums. Free boxes, free shipping. I have no shame saying I work with the Government!
Persistence is paying off.

The Hannah Montana Fans Blog

2007-01-07T13:21:00.000-05:00

I found this interesting blog at MyBlogLog: Hannah Montana, and felt it deserved some attention. While I am not an avid television watcher, Hannah Montana is a name that I recognize. Obviously, there's more to this than simple name recognition.
I'm very curious to see if this particular link will affect my ratings at Technorati, since links determine authority, and I DESPISE authority, other than my own and those I respect.
I'll pop over to my Squidoo lens and add the link there, along with my WordPress mirror. [Vince dons a lab coat and takes up a clipboard] Let the experiment begin!

Zeroed in on a Web host.

2007-01-06T01:30:00.001-05:00

After some serious searching, I've decided to give my money to HostMonster. At first, BlueHost looked good, but a blog entry from a guy who researched the two found out they are the same - except HostMonster is bigger, faster and with newer equipment for less money. A no-brainer.
It’s $6.95/mo. if you sign up for the two year package. Okay, it’s all payable in advance, but there’s no contract and you can receive a pro-rated refund if you decide it isn’t for you. Plus, you not only get unlimited domains for free (no fee, yearly or otherwise, as long as you're with them), they have a blocking feature that prevents the nosy from finding out who owns your domain. There’s a ton of features available, so check ‘em out at the link below V.
CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR HostMonster.COM NOW, and I'll pick up some change for recommending them. Also, feel free to give feedback if you're already using them. UPDATE: I've been using them for a while now, and I've got no complaints. Customer service has been good. When I had questions about certain things not working, they "intuited" I had been playing around with settings better left untouched.

This blog is MONETIZED!: Update...

2007-01-05T07:44:00.000-05:00

So, I'm checking my bank account online when I come across this line:

01/04/2007 ACH CREDIT GOOGLE ADSENSE REVENUE SH $0.64

Now, as it turns out, that money was to verify the payout account. Their haven't been any REAL clickthroughs yet. So, to help that along, I'll be putting up some affiliate links that I've researched.

More soon.

Where's the beef?

2007-01-03T14:51:00.000-05:00

The late Sarah Peller, (in)famous for the line in the title, nailed it. When you want something of substance, you ask for it.

I just posted a blog entry over at eBay - you'll probably see it in my eBay blog links on the left. In it, I was asking for feedback (but avoid using that word in eBay blogs - you get a lot of comments about EBAY feedback, which is a touchy subject to many) on two listings I am testing through Sunday.

The silence was deafening. IMNSHO, most bloggers over there are social animals, beggars for bids or compleat lunatics. The notion that I would ask a marketing question to a bunch of marketers and buyers and get NOTHING is telling.

Perhaps postcards2go will notice and respond to that and this.

[Sigh]

Another customer service tale.

2007-01-03T08:00:00.000-05:00

After a busy, productive day with much good feedback from others online, I drop by the corner market just before work. I chat with the counterman, who's the spitting image of a guy who is the most miserable person I've known in quite a while. As I turn to leave, Bill, the counterman asks, "You have a minute?"

My default response, when asked this is, to silently start counting down: 59, 58, 57, until I reach 0 and cut 'em off in midsentence. Bill reaches into his pocket and says, "You made a purchase a few weeks ago." He pulls out his wallet. "You forgot your change." He handed me a five dollar bill.

This made my day. Talk about each employee being a "brand manager"! And his name! Oh, the irony/synchronicity!

ARRGH! I forgot I'm choosing my own fonts to display Web pages! The horror! The Horror!

2007-01-01T19:20:00.000-05:00

Gee, I thought I had "tweaked" the look of my background, link colors and fonts. Then I noticed the blog title font didn't change when I switched it to Georgia, just to see how it looked. I had forgotten that I used the "impose my will upon all Web pages" checkbox in my browser.

Being a former letterpress printer, I'm very conscious about font selection, appearance and "typotecture". The font I "force" upon all Web pages is Franklin Gothic Book (18 pt., for technical reasons which have to do with how Web designers can really screw up typesetting). When I switched off the Franklin Gothic Book and saw how I was being *actually* displayed, I was amused/horrified. The closest to my favorite font was, allegedly, according to the Fonts menu in Windows, Trebuchet. That's the font I had chose for most of the layout.

ARRGH! Wrong! It looked awkward, adolescent, stringy! Arial to the rescue, since I can't import my font (at this point, anyway - I've got too much else to do and worry about). Trebuchet as the sub head to the Blog Title. That's it. Heh, the default was the best, for the most part.

Yet another chore for the punchlists of 2007 - wrestle creative control over Web pages, blogs, etc.

The "Theory of Everything" T-Shirt slogan.

2007-01-01T09:08:00.000-05:00

Physicists are striving to quantify the four forces of physics, a "Theory of Everything". Without boring you to tears, they want a single equation to explain gravity, electromagnetism, and a couple of subatomic forces you can look up yourself: Strong & Weak. One noted scientist explained that it would be an equation you could fit on a t-shirt.

Self-branding is about the same thing, without the clipboard and lab coat. One strives to sum up everything in a pithy, well written sentence. Or two. The trick is to understand what the strongest brands have that I don't - yet. And, no, it ain't a slogan. It's congruency.

Coming up with that slogan means you are committing to it. Choose wisely - the less congruent you are with it (and it with you), the weaker your brand will be. Contrariwise, selecting the perfect slogan in advance (cart-before-the-horse methodology) means you will grow towards each other in an organic, meaningful way. There's no guaranteeing you won't outgrow each other. Hope that it's you that's doing the outgrowing!

Already tried and rejected by me, as Vince Runza Online:

~~It's the customer, stupid.~~
~~I'm not for everyone, but that can be good!~~
~~Always Busy~~ (saw this one chiseled into the facade of a building in Downtown Scranton)
~~Good Products, Good Service~~
~~Bootstrap entrepreneurship~~
~~It's not work if you love doing it. It's even better if you get paid for it!~~

Okay, it's a work in progress. Feedback? Smart-alecky responses welcome!

Happy New Year.

2006-12-31T17:25:00.001-05:00

Traditions are a good thing. Despite the floccinaucinihilipilification (sorry, it's the perfect word) of those that figure January 1 is just another number, I find a positive value in holidays, special days and National Pickle Week (yes, that actually exists).

I remember seeing a cable access show hosted by a rabbi. Being a lapsed Catholic, I'm fascinated by all takes on religion. The import of this episode was the real value of Jewish holidays. Being forward-looking is a key to being happy and well-adjusted. All those holidays (which many Jews can't even spell) are designed to create a healthy sense of anticipation.

New Year's Day can really bum out those who have nothing to look forward to, aside from a few broken resolutions. By contrast, I'm actually impatient to get past this day. I've got a helluva lot to do! Let's do this!

[pop] A toast! Happy New Year!

Love,
Vince

Which superhero are you?

2006-12-30T23:08:00.000-05:00

Your results:
You are Hulk

Hulk

75%

You are a wanderer with
amazing strength.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

I'm very glad my Female Superhero ratings were below 50%! LOL

Growing by leaps, bounds and short hops - not necessarily in that order.

2006-12-30T22:16:00.000-05:00

Hit several landmarks today. In eBay:
•Made the Top 5,000 Reviewers - funny, that makes the little icon thingie smaller. How about the top 000,000,005,000?
•Got my new feedback "star". I am unsullied, at this point. No negatives.

From eBay:
•Found a self-financing business strategy which I had posited MUST exist. Replies from the Universe can be swift and apposite.
•Got some more eBooks with resale rights that actually appear resellable. Found others that showed me what NOT to do in terms of listing, re-branding, etc.
•Met a crazy guy from the Netherlands that practically fell all over himself to oblige me, customer service-wise. See post below this one.

The biggest leap forward is the change in type and kind of attention I've been getting, both here and in other venues. At first, it was friends and family. Now it's those who are new to me, curious, a little wary and much more experienced in dealing with open online environments. Most of my online experience was in static domains, where I was a big fish in a small pond. Here, one needs to be more circumspect and definitely less arrogant than I am accustomed to. I may have a lot to be arrogant about, but myriads upon myriads here trump me!

Hmm, maybe the humility thing is the biggest leap. Nah, I'll tackle that tomorrow!

A customer service tale.

2006-12-30T19:34:00.000-05:00

It's nice when you get more than you paid for. It's even better if you find an "aha" moment, and connect with someone. I was poking around eBay in the eBook category, and found a listing for 9 recipes for 1 cent. I duly made my purchase, only to find that the "eBook" was actually a list of links to the seller's Guides for recipes. I was a bit taken aback, then intrigued. This seller had just monetized his Guides. See my post below, "2007 - I'm ready".

After a bit of messaging back and forth, the seller gave me a 99 cent refund! That's 98 more penny eBooks I can buy! I also contacted eBay about the listing, wondering if it's okay to auction off your own Guide. The thought never occurred to me. I hope he PUTS THOSE GUIDES BACK UP, PRONTO! The Guides weren't any kind of violation.

It turns out the seller is a young guy in the Netherlands, who is addicted to eBay, generally buys and has a Chinese eBay store. I don't think he's Chinese - offering an eBay store in Chinese is free for a year! Plus, he's a bit NUTS! I like him a lot. Anybody who has an animated .GIF of Einstein can't be all bad!

If it turns out that auctioning off your own Guides is legitimate, I may have found a self-funding income stream. I just won't call them eBooks. That's neither here nor there, really.

The real value of this whole experience is the connection. The world really is flat.

Influence and persuasion in a Web 2.0 world.

2006-12-29T12:03:00.000-05:00

Social networking is a form of "Social Proof". Unfamilar with the term? It's one of the six principles explained in "Influence, the Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert Cialdini. Many people with malign intent use the princples of persuasion to get at those who are vulnerable. In an open climate like Web 2.0, those who try to misuse persuasion can be exposed for what they are.

I've learned and field-tested all of the principles outlined here and can attest to the fact they work. I can also tell you that an insincere person will get less out of using them than one who is honest and forthright. The influences themselves may act in a covert way, but the motive of the influencer influences the influenced. You can't fool all of the people all of the time, especially in an open network where negative feedback spreads like wildfire.

What is truly important for anyone who intends to use their social networking efforts to promote a business, idea, point of view, etc., is to make sure your approach is congruent with these principles. If you stray from the key points, you may be undercutting your efforts.

We could all be really wrong about everything we know - but that's not the way to bet!

2006-12-29T07:30:00.000-05:00

Wasn't it Bernie Taupin who wrote (for Elton John) about Levon who called his kid Jesus, because he liked the name? Well, I like Richard Dawkins, because I like his brain. Check out this commentary on creationism, evolution violating the Second Law of Thermogoddamics and the age of the Earth being, roughly, 6,000 (six thousand) years.

2007 - I'm ready.

2006-12-28T23:43:00.000-05:00

When I jumped into eBay back in November, I really didn't know where it would lead me. Frankly, I never could have imagined it. The amount of information I have crammed into my head in such a short time amazes even myself. Despite a nagging feeling that I don't know what the hell I'm doing, there are outward and visible signs I'm doing SOMETHING right:

I've gotten that Top 10,000 Reviewer logo already. In fact, I'm currently number 5,901 - I jumped twice today! My new guide on making your own glass/hard surface cleaner got two votes almost immediately. If it was "monetized", it'd be a breakout seller! I've got an idea for a guide that'll put me in the Top 5,000, irrespective of new votes on the other guides. I'm learning how to hit different markets with each guide.
I'm getting some blogger.com attention outside of eBay - and I'm not just talking friends and family!
Many of the concepts, strategies, tools and tips I've absorbed are becoming less opaque. I think I'm reaching what Stuart Kauffman referred to as spontaneous order arising from sufficient complexity (see Stuart Kaufmann's AT HOME IN THE UNIVERSE for much more on the ideas of "order for free", self organized complexity and co-evolution).
Plus, I'm primed to exploit opportunities I had no idea even existed a month ago.

More soon,
Vince