Whatever your job there are times when things aren’t going well. You aren’t seeing the progress you hoped for and are wondering if things will ever get better. Solopreneur online marketers feel this more often that most, I suspect. We often work alone we don’t really know our customers or our suppliers and some days no sales are coming in. In times like these, you need to find ways to stay optimistic and charged up enough to keep doing the things that will eventually bring the success you are looking for. Rachel Rofe and her team decided a while back to investigate this phenomenon... [...]

Marketers are human, after all. We want to look like flawless experts to our clients, but we know that surface appearance usually looks better than reality. What happens when the reality becomes known, and it’s not flattering? One recent case occurred in Australia. The Asos online fashion store printed 17,000 bags and there was a typo in the printing. They handled it gracefully and earned a lot of goodwill in the process. They admitted the error, with humor, on Twitter. People loved the story and interacted with it over and over. People even are clamoring for the misprinted bags when they... [...]

We just noticed (a little late) that effective October, 2017 Google has taken action to build a more secure web by using their 50% share of the browser market to warn their Chrome customers whenever they visit a site that doesn’t have an SSL certificate. Fortunately, it didn’t impact us because we have had an SSL certificate for tears, but you might not be so lucky. Most people get worried when their browser warns them about a site they are visiting. They may choose to go elsewhere for their purchases. The warning only is shown on pages where the visitor can enter information, so squeeze... [...]

It’s been happening for nearly 25 years; sales online are growing much faster than offline sales. Indeed, many offline merchants are finding it hard to continue operations as a result of their declining dales. The explosion in online sales began when Amazon.com started selling online in the mid-1990s. Since then, many major offline sellers have seen the inevitability of online sales becoming the dominant marketing platform. Even the largest and oldest offline merchants have seen the importance of online sales. Sears, Kmart and Walmart, for example, are putting major emphasis on their online... [...]

For many years WordPress has been the premiere blogging platform. Now this is changing. Beginning in 2013, the team developing the core of WordPress has been working on a revolutionary new vision of what WordPress aims to be. No longer content to be the world’s favorite blogging platform, WordPress is intent on becoming the world’s favorite site building platform. There have been many services in the last 5-10 years that have aimed to make it easy for non-specialists to create a website. Wix, Weebly and SquareSpace come to mind. The new goal for WordPress is to become a better site... [...]

Patric Chan, a long-time internet marketer lives in Penang state in Malaysia. His country was hit with major flooding. Patric and his family are safe, but majny of his neighbors are not. Here is how he describes the situation: We have a shelter above our head, we have electricity, we are driving our cars… our lives are as normal as it is. But at the same time, there are many others who are not as fortunate as us because of a recent flood… They have lost so much. Some are now having shelters in schools, mosques, temples, churches, public halls and so on. The number of flood victims... [...]

In the last day or two, there has been an announcement by security boffins that the implementation of Wi-Fi security protections in many devices has been not quite as secure as it needs to be. As one reviewer puts it, it has been discovered that there is ” a fundamental flaw in the way Wi-Fi Protected Access II (WPA2) operates.” In the online article Everything With Wi-Fi Has a Newly Discovered Security Flaw. Here’s How to Protect Yourself, Time magazine describes the problem, “In some cases, a hacker could exploit KRACK to inject malware such as ransomware into websites,... [...]

Getting traffic to your site is not only good; it’s necessary if you are going to make any sales. But traffic alone isn’t enough. Visitors have to convert into buyers. We just came across a useful (and free) 22-point checklist on improving your site’s conversions. It was on a Shopify merchant’s site. The checklist mentions apps that run in the Shopify system as methods for implementing the suggestions. But, if you aren’t using Shopify in your business, you can use the suggestions by using other apps or doing the work manually. The point is the concept; you can work... [...]

I was just reading one of Richard Branson’s recent posts on his blog. In his post he claims that his own productivity is enhanced because he doesn’t work all the time. Every day he invests time in exercise (in his case, it’s time before his work day), in family activities and other outside activities. Only then does he feel ready to put in a good day’s work. How about you? are you working all the time? It’s easy to get in that trap. According to Branson, this kind of work schedule can kill your productivity. Maybe it’s time for all of us to reevaluate how we... [...]

Many of our long-time readers will know of pediatric heart surgeon, Dr. Mani Sivasubramanian. He operates on children with heart problems, often children who would not have any other means of surgery because their family can’t afford it. Dr. Mani, as he is called, is able to provide this surgery because he earns the money for the expense through selling training products on the internet. We have several of his training products ourselves. One of his popular e-books is Copywriting Tips To Make You Very Rich. As a long-time colleague of IM NewsWatch, he has offered to give 100 of our readers... [...]