Archive for PersonalBack to my Blog: The Hardest Thing About Blogging is Keeping MotivatedPosted by: Jonathan Ouellet Well I’m back from the dead…well at least my blog is. I have to admit that the hardest aspect of keeping a blog is to consistently post on a daily, weekly or even a monthly basis. I am making a conscious effort to try and re-invigorate my motivation to post on a daily basis. We’ll see where it goes. Jonathan. Basically: Blogs make people remember what they write about.Posted by: Jonathan Ouellet Remembering all that has been learned by documenting nuggets of knowledge in this blog has made me realize the great gift ouelletblog.com has given me. I remember every topic that I have ever posted on clearly, where as the heaps of recent information from the past 3 weeks is a state of disarray in my memory. Basically: Blogs make people remember what they write about. The hardest part of having a blog is remembering to write in the blog. I have not been keeping up to date in the last 3 weeks in my posts which is unfortunate. In the past 3 weeks there have been so many new developments regarding my corporation and general business knowledge that I regret not have documented them. So I will force myself to track back all the valuable information and document it here so that I can remember it. I would suggest you follow closely because these bits of information will benefit your quest to success I have made great advances in understanding the following fields: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Affiliate Marketing, E-Commerce, Content Creation, Copywriting, Split Testing, Layout Design, Traffic Qualification, Traffic Conversion and much more. Unfortunately the traffic that my site has accrued over the last 3 months has dropped off to nothing but a handful of uniques per day. I will be changing the focus of this blog, and I will be using it as a test bed for various marketing techniques that I will put into practice. This means that I am going to have to find my niche in order to succeed. Stayed tuned to this site to follow it upcoming progress. Saving Money: Exporting Your Dental and Medical Needs Abroad to NicaraguaPosted by: Jonathan Ouellet
My two trips to the dentist this week really got me thinking about the differences between the cost of living here in Canada versus down in Nicaragua. The two trips that I made to the dentist (One for my annual X-Rays and the other for a cleaning) cost me $495.99 (221.88 + 274.11) which in my opinion is absolutely ridiculous ($250/Hour). It would have cost me only about half as much back in Vancouver due to the fact that I have been seeing that dentist for over 20 years, and had I been in Nicaragua about $25. What I am wondering is where is the extra value and how can a dentist justify charging 20x what the most expensive Nicaraguan dentist charged me when I went last September and again in March. What I find funny is that the Nicaraguan dentist that I see is educated and trained in the US and is equally as professional in what he does as the one here in Toronto. There are only a negligible differences between the workmanship as well as equipment and technology, so once again I am confused as to where the additional value lays. I am currently in need of getting all four of my wisdom teeth pulled which means that here in Canada I will be paying out another $1,600 minimum (unfortunately my company does not offer extended dental and medical insurance ;). What I have thought of doing is flying down to Managua and getting my teeth pulled down there because the dentist I see is equally as good at his job as my Canadian dentist. Another thing to note is that should any health complications arise, the Vivian Pallas Metropolitan Hospital is on par quality wise with what you would expect here in Canada or the US (at about 1/10 the cost). Although I would never trust them with heart bypass surgery or anything as technically difficult as that, I would with any surgeries that don’t have immediate ‘life or death’ consequences. When I do the calculations and I figure out all the costs flying to Nicaragua and having all four of my wisdom teeth pulled costs me just over half what it will cost me here in Canada.
What is funny is that this is the most expensive you will have to pay, because my friend flew down and got hers removed for $40 + the flight. So knowing that you could save a lot of money by going down to Central America for dental and medical work would you? And if you would what would you do with the extra money you saved? Recover at a hotel on the beach of 2 weeks maybe? This just goes to show how beneficial outsourcing is, and how much better off the world is with open economies…. Nicaragua: One Year AfterPosted by: Jonathan Ouellet
It has been one year to the day since I discovered the amazing county of Nicaragua and I look forward my return very soon. The people and the culture are what makes this such an amazing little country and they are what won me over. During the 8 months I lived here I grew an appreciation for Nicaragua’s various traditions and complexities, but what I found to be its most valuable resource is its people. It is the poorest of the Central American countries due to the idiotic socialist ideologies of the Sandinista regime. Despite Nicaragua’s turbulent past, there is a certain amount of charm to be found in this that you don’t find elsewhere in the region which is why I love this country so much. Their population’s ability to maintain a positive outlook on life during adverse times is what I find gives these people the warmth that is unique to this nation. I will be posting a detailed critic of the country in the near future discussing the unfortunate turn towards socialism the country has recently undertaken. I am of course also going to discuss the business environment and why it is full of amazing business opportunities although maybe not to the risk averse. A Blog is a Great MotivatorPosted by: Jonathan Ouellet I just recently started a blog 3 weeks ago in order to document the building of my apparel business, and I have to say that it has helped keep me really motivated. I link all my posts on my Facebook account so that my friends can see what I’m up to. I find that I am holding myself accountable, during times of potential distraction, to what ever I post on my blog. This I find is due to the the social pressure of making sure I keep the integrity of my word in all my posts. Let’s hear a cheer for Wordpress (for those of you who do not know, it is the software that I am using to blog). Facebook Opening Up To Google’s Crawler: Bad For Facebook? Good For SEO?Posted by: Jonathan Ouellet One of the reasons that I love Facebook and that I hardly use Myspace is because of the “legitimacy” and “truthfulness” of everyone’s profiles compared to Myspace. When I browse one of my friend’s profiles on Facebook I always find what I’m looking for quickly and I know that it is more or less accurate. It worries me that Facebook is slowly turning into another Myspace and opening it up to Google’s crawlers might invite many unwelcome changes. What I don’t like with Myspace is that a majority of the activity in my profile constituted of annoying people trying to cheaply pawn their mediocre products, services, parties, bands, or what ever on everyone… I became inundated with messages by people who seek to annoyed the majority around them with their self serving message. I draw a parallel between these type of Myspacers and pyramid marketers or religious zealots who try everything to push their products, services, or ideas onto you. Myspace has really lost a lot of credibility with me. Within the first week that I started using it I had about 30 friend requests, of which only 3 were actually legit requests from people I actually knew. It was enough for me to stop using Myspace, and I hope that Facebook will not become the same. I am Already very annoyed by some of the new applications that have been created and send out invites to friends of the person adding the application to their profile. What I find even more irritating is that some of my so called Facebook “friends” actually think I would even slightly be interested in an application called “Vampire”, “Superwall”, or “Free Gifts”. What people don’t realize is the more that they blanket the digital social landscape with their plugs, the less effective these plugs become. We are now at the point where the ‘interuption marketing’ causes such a minute impact that it only serves to irritate those around you. For those people wanting to learn more about how to successfully market your products, services, and other junk you think I’m interested in, I suggest you pickup Premission Marketing by Seth Godin and learn how to get my permission to market to me. Now there is some positive in the fact that Facebook will be indexed by the various search engines other than making it easier to browse and find information you are looking for (A.K.A. Facestalking or Facecreeping as some of my friends like to call it). By indexing Facebook it will be possible to increase the clout that your SEO efforts on Facebook have in impacting your keyword rankings and pagerank. This of course is a great thing for web entrepreneurs, and will lead to increased profits, but as stated above it will ‘I believe’ lead to the degradation of Facebooks legitimacy. Are you a publisher or a content provider…?Posted by: Jonathan Ouellet
There is definitely no such thing as bad press just bad monetization…This video was brought to my attention by a friend and it got me thinking about the media. I believe that it is wrong in coming across as if it is on a moralistic higher ground than the story it is covering. This is an news story that ABC covered yesterday and I have to say that this site will get a whole lot of exposure that will benefit its bottom line. Now this post has nothing to do with the story in the video itself, but about the fact that both ABC and vidmax.com, the stunt men and maybe you will benefits from coverage of the stupid things people do for money. The news agency (’the publisher’) will benefit because its viewers will remain entertained by watching idiots being paid to hurt themselves. Thus their able to command top dollar for ad spots on their network. The website (as a content provider) on the other hand benifits because they increase their exposure and thus increase their ad revenue through traffic volume. This website also has the same relationship with the stunt men except that this time they are acting as the publisher, where as the stunt men are the content providers. No I’ll have to admit right away that I am leeching the content off this story for my own gain, but this is my point. Before you criticize this type of social leeching I want you think about something. If at any point you mention this story or this post to anyone, then you in turn become a publisher and thus receive a beneficial payment (social benefit…aka: Wow you are an interesting person with interesting stories). Now if not with this particular story, then I know it will happen with others. The point I am trying to make is that we are all someway acting as a content provider or as a content publisher to further our own bottom line. Just make sure you focus monetizing your efforts and on maximizing your benefits. Quiznos Doesn’t Know!!!Posted by: Jonathan Ouellet
Something has to be said about maintaining a quality impression when your business is serving consumers. I walked into a Quiznos today and ordered a sandwich, and by the time I walked out of the door I vowed never to return to that Quiznos again. First of all the guy behind the counter was very unreceptive and non-animated when he greeted me (his opening words were “What to you want?”). I believe that first impressions are vital and will give you a certain degree of forgiveness and flexibility from your customers if something should go wrong further down the sales pipeline. If you are able to immediately establish a friendly relation with the customer he/she will often overlook minor imperfections in you service because of this relationship. Well in my case, immediately after I ordered the guy preparing my order dropped his knife on the floor and then picked it back up. Without even hesitating he went on as if nothing happened and was about to cut the bread before I spoke up and asked him “Hey, did you see that knife fall on the floor”. He did not even flinch in his response by saying “Ya!”. It was not until I asked him, “Do you think it might be a good idea if you washed the knife before you use it to cut the bread I’m about to eat?” that he actually turned around and did what I asked of him. After that I micro-analyzed every mistake that he made (which every consumer will do after their faith and trust has been violated). This included not asking me what I actually wanted in the sandwich (lettuce, tomato, CHEESE…), and with the sandwich (pop, chips, soup…). Not only was this guy bad, but the other guy at the till did not say a word to me before or after I paid except to say “Over there” (while pointing) when I asked for pickled peppers. I can say with absolute certainty that they will never see me there again. There is a chance that the 2 customers before me will never go there again, especially after walking out of Quiznos with a disgusted look on their face. They both saw the knife fall and when they grabbed their meals they did not seem please to have purchased it. This is not the first Quiznos that I have been into that I have had a bad experience with, which indicates there might be some underlying customer service issues. I’m not a difficult customer to deal with either is that is what you were thinking. What is funny is that I know now why they are the only food retailer on the only block who is not completely jammed by traffic. Anyways stay away from these guys: Criticism and Compliments Encouraged: Don’t be affraid to post your comments…Posted by: Jonathan Ouellet …I have received almost 10 private messages in the last two days either complimenting or criticizing me on my posts. Whether to make a point for or against or just to poke fun at me, I welcome all comments that you may have about me or my posts. I challenge you all to come up with witty and insightful comments that will further discussions in the posts and lead to progress. P.S. I have a thick skin so don’t worry, your “smart” little comments wont even sting a bit…but please keep them constructive for the sake of progress The first post: Welcome!Posted by: Jonathan Ouellet This is my first post on my new blog. I would just like to thank everyone who visits my blog. I welcome everyone to post comments, compliments, and critique regarding any of my posts or ideas. Without criticism a person does not develop mentally and it is in my opinion that to remain competitive we as human beings need constant constructive criticism. Think of this blog as a place where you are free to grab the floor as well as an open forum to discuss about any of the subjects that I post about. I plan to use this blog to document my experiences in relation to my startup company and document all the steps I go through from this point on. I will document through trial and error what steps are necessary in order to build a successful business which you can hopefully learn from. Think of the information in this blog as tried and tested. All the results that are derived from the various experiences with my sales and marketing (s&m) experiments will be posted here. Also if you are a budding or established entrepreneur and you would like to test out various s&m theories and ideas feel free to approach me. I’ll help you get the answers to your questions through empirical mean via my company. I will also be using this blog to post about some of my personal observations about life so that you may get insight into my character. I believe that this is important because you will not only be able to tell what kind of person I am, but you will be able to see if and how my character plays a role in my business endeavors. I will post daily (or at least try to) to keep you updated on my progress on a day to day basis. One more thing. I am welcoming anyone to become a publisher on this blog whose ideas are congruent with entrepreneur ship, sales, marketing, logistics, import & export, accounting and finance. Want to find people who are in a position to test out the various theories discussed in this blog or who would like to work with me in order to see results to our questions. This is everyones blog and not just my own, so welcome to our blog! I hope you get as much out of this as I do, Jonathan. P.S. Intolerant and uninsightful comments will not be tolerated. I have no patience for small minded people and this is a place to develop knowledge. Remember - Attacking ideas with ideas brings about insight and advancement. Attacking people with beliefs leads to hate and ignorance. [Don’t mind spelling and grammatical errors. This was posted on my Blackberry] |
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