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JimWorld Gazette Issue #41 02/13/1998
Gazette - Issue #41 - February 13, 1998
CONTENTS
-- Housekeeping-- Some Old Business - The Forums
-- Tips From The Hitman - Special Report
-- What You See Is What Who Gets?
-- Adam's Toolkit
-- Snippets
-- This Week's Gazeteer Message
-- Need Some Money For Your Net Business?
-- Power Mapping
Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g41
HOUSEKEEPING
Time for the Gazeteers to saddle up and ride to victory once again!The annual Surfers Choice Site of The Year voting is going on right now and JimWorld needs every vote it can get. We appear to be neck-and-neck with a very nice sports news site that has a web camera showing that they have a room full of employees. Sure be nice to beat them, but I need your vote. Voting is taking place at <http://surferschoice.trigger.net/vote.htm> and we don't have enough votes yet to insure victory. Time is running out, so please take a moment and vote!
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I would like to wrap up the survey of webmaster attitudes towards being paid for advertising results only. I still need another 500 of you to take five minutes and fill in the survey. I need response from webmasters and site managers of all sizes of sites. <http://jimworld.com/survey2.html> PLEASE. Last Call.
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The voting for the new Helpware look is not yet conclusive. Two 'looks' are running neck and neck, so I'm going to give it one more week. Please stop by and help me pick the best look. It only takes a couple of minutes to vote.
SOME OLD BUSINESS - THE FORUMS
I am amazed at what you folks have turned the Search Engine Forums into! I have not seen such forums activity levels anywhere. There are about 400 posts in just the first 2 weeks of existence. The level of information is very high. I learn something new every time I go through the postings to look for problems.Thanks to all of you for keeping the Forums friendly and helpful. The feeling of community and helping people is exactly what I had hoped for, and the reality exceeds my vision, as usual.
The Forums have given us all an opportunity to meet some very knowledgable search engine watchers. The Forums have given them a place to share their knowledge to everyone's benefit.
If you haven't visited the Forums yet, you are missing some very helpful techniques to significantly improve your search engine generated traffic.
I want to take a moment and beat one of my favorite drums. As important as the search engines are, do not put all of your promotion energies there. Search engine traffic is fickle. It can vanish in a day. Sites get dropped. Positions change. Life rolls on, but sometimes without your site.
If JimWorld had to exist on the amount of time I can devote to 'tweaking' my search engine placement, nobody would ever visit. It takes a lot of time and effort that I would rather spend writing and working on new tools for the site.
What JimWorld exists on is the generous number of links and endorsements that exist all over the Web. This traffic lasts and grows every month. That is why only about 12% of JimWorld's traffic comes from the search engines.
Now... that brings up another tidbit for you. The search engine promotion side of JimWorld is getting some serious attention over the next few weeks, but not from me. A very knowledgable search engine watcher is just putting the finishing touches on his new book, and is doing some serious placement work on JimWorld as a prelude to the review I will be writing about the book. It will give us a good, first-hand look at his techniques and will more than benefit the site. I'll tell you more about this as progress is made.
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A note of interest to all WebSuite users: There is now a set of nine Forums set up for you to share information about the WebSuite server. Get help. Give help. Share ideas. Reach it from the home page of SmartDesk at <http://www.smartdesk.com/>
TIPS FROM THE HITMAN - SPECIAL REPORT
Product Review: Screen RulerJim sent me a interesting little program to test out this last week. I am always a little skeptical about another shareware program, I have learned the hard way that loading up your system with every program that sounds cool results in a cluttered hard drive and sooner or latter no room on the drive or system slowdown. I had to add a second drive a few months back. But Jim said this was a cool little item so I gave it a try.
The program is Screen Ruler. What it does is put a ruler on the screen? Big deal you say. What do I need a ruler for? Well if you are like a good many of us out there on the Internet, you do your own pages. I have spent a lot of hours behind a drafting table in the past, and one of the things I have found very frustrating while doing page layouts and images is trying to decide how big something should be to "fit" on the screen and look "just so", you know, you would like that page logo to go from just about where the back button is to an inch past the stop button, but how big is that really? I have gone so far as to hold a ruler to the screen! Well no more!
Screen Ruler to the rescue. When activated, Screen Ruler appears on the screen in either the horizontal direction, or in the vertical. And, since the we deal in pixels in both image and HTML code, the default scale is in pixels (you could also use inches, centimeters, picas or define a custom scale) So if I wanted to know how far it is from the back button to about an inch past the stop, I put the ruler on the screen, drag it over so the zero is at the stop and now I know it is 500 pixels.
This is only the beginning of what the ruler does, it has many nifty little features you do not notice at first. For instance, if it is sitting at the to of the screen and set to the width of the screen (you can drag the ruler ends to change the length) as I move the mouse cursor, there is a little read out on the ruler that tells me how far the cursor is left or right of where the zero end of the ruler is on the screen. If you want to measure up and down, you click on a icon button on the ruler and it flips from horizontal to vertical ruler. Click on the right mouse button, and you get the menu of options including the scale, flip, slide to zero (puts zero at edge of screen) the help files and more! It evens measures a diagonal distance from the zero to the cursor point when you push F7.
So now when you are trying to get your page to look as cool as JimWorld and need to know how many pixels wide your table should be, pop up the ruler on the screen and measure. If you ever wondered how Jim gets his pages to stay so orderly with everything in it's place, he does it using tables with the widths specified in pixels. Using height and width designations on all images, and on tables speeds up page loading, and controls the way the page will look on any screen and at any resolution. If you want to maintain control by percentage of screen width, guess what? Yes, the ruler has a scale for percentage of width also!
So, after playing with the Screen Ruler for a few days, I give it two thumbs up, even if this causes some difficulty using the space bar!
Screen Ruler is from Micro Fox Software <http://www.infinet.com/~microfox/>, author Jesse Carneiro version 2.1 for Win95/NT ($15US) and version 3.1 MAC ($10US)
Hayden Mitchell <http://www.webthemes.com>
---Jim feels compelled to jump in---
This is one of those tools that you can't imagine doing without about 5 minutes after you first use it. I wish I had been able to use it when I first started compulsing over multi-column page layout and controlling the right margins of pages. I would still have a lot more hair on my head. I'm pleased to designate Screen Ruler as a JimTool, the first one in a long while. It has joined the very short list of tools that have a shortcut icon on my desktop.
WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT WHO GETS?
A "graphic artist" visited me, asking for some of the business I contract out. He critiqued my home page, and continued on to show me his. When he pulled it up, his graphic artistry cascaded disjointedly down my screen. He informed me that my Windows 95 workstation was obviously inferior to his Mac equipment, and I would need to upgrade to a Mac if I wanted to view graphics arts as fine as his.I didn't tell him that my screen resolution was set to only 640 pixels wide, and that he apparently created his page to fit his screen - which is probably set to a different resolution. Since he didn't seem to know what screen resolution was, I didn't tell him about it, or about the icon on my desktop that changes my screen resolution on the fly.
And this is demographics - the characteristics of a target population. In this case, it's not only what your target audience looks like, but also what you look like to them.
Using Monitor demographics from the 8th GVU survey:
- 40% of survey respondents did not know what their monitor resolution was,
- 40% of respondents who did know what it was said theirs was higher than 640x480
- 12 % reported it was 640x480
On the color versus mono issue, there's good news. Almost no one has mono monitors anymore, only 0.2% of respondents. (21% reported neither color nor mono, and 3% reported that they didn't know. Keep in mind, they were completing this survey with their web browser. Sounds like tech support hell to me.)
On to monitor size:
- 4% on laptops,
- 21% on 13-14 inch,
- 18% on 15 inch,
- 50% on 16 inch or greater, and
- 7% need to go out and spend a buck on a ruler.
Another important issue here, in my opinion, is age. Almost half the respondents to this survey are more than 35 years old. The average age of the Internet population is getting older because more older people are getting on-line, and because you and I are not getting any younger. (In fact, the average age of respondents in this survey increased 6 months between their 7th and 8th surveys, which were 6 months apart).
And this explains why my 17 inch (viewable area measured diagonally) monitor is set to 640x480 resolution most of the time. These eyes first began viewing computer code on keypunch cards, and now spend anywhere from 6 to 12 hours a day reading video monitors.
Consider that about 40% of survey respondents use 13 to 15 inch monitors, and consider what 800x600 resolution looks like on a 14 inch monitor, (even when I get real close). Programming to 800x600 on a 14 inch (or less) monitor is another challenge unto itself.
Again, I have to re-iterate my disclaimer that the GVU survey data can be very misleading if you're not familiar with the survey's methodology, and the resulting limitations. To put the GVU data into context, you can review part one of this series at <http://jimworld.com/gazettedecember19.html>.
Two more comments on monitor size and resolution, not drawn from the GVU survey. In computer stores, I usually see the 14 inch monitors on display set to 640x480 resolution. The bigger monitors might be set to 800x600. In people's homes and offices, I sometimes see 14 inch monitors set to 800x600. But I think the GVU survey may be overstating the number of people with higher resolutions, based on my own observations. I keep an informal tab on my customer base, observing processor speeds, monitor sizes and resolutions, and modem speeds. (Know your customers, I think the saying goes).
There are a few conclusions I draw from all of this.
First, I don't usually program screens above 640x480, unless there's a good reason.
Look at the people who you would think know what they're doing, like Yahoo (ok, ok, maybe a bad choice, but they still have the most active web site on the Internet). Two top search engines are now programmed at 800x600, BUT they put banners and stuff to the right, so you can view their screens and use their service just fine at 640x480. Microsoft has some web pages at 800x600, but they put a navigation bar down the left hand side (without frames) so you can just page right and use the screens easily at 640x480.
Secondly, I find out what a customer's monitors are set to, and if I do a web site for them, I make real sure it looks great on their screen. (This is a good reason for me to go above 640x480 - see point one above, and then see the following paragraph).
Last, make sure your screens look good at various resolutions. Wallpapers and tables can be especially troublesome from one resolution to the next. If someone gives me a web site as a reference, I'll pull it up and look at it at several different resolutions. It's surprising what you see!
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Paul Fuhrmeister is Vice President of CommerceStreet.com, an Internet Service Provider in Arlington, Texas, who remembers when keypunch meant putting little holes in cards. His web site, best viewed at 640x480, is at <http://www.CommerceStreet.com>.
ADAM'S TOOLKIT
Jim asked me to write a new column devoted to webmaster tools. While what I discuss here won't always directly relate to promotion, using these tools properly can reduce the amount of time you spend on other tasks and free up some time to work on your reciprocal links or visit the Search Engine Forums.I'll kick off the column with a series of articles on Microsoft's Active Server Pages.
Active Server Pages (ASP) is a technology developed by Microsoft to make it easier to create interactive web pages. ASP is not a language. You can use almost any scripting language--including VBScript, Perl, and JavaScript--to create ASP pages.
To put it simply, ASP is a tool that allows you to mix HTML, server side scripting, and small programs into a single document.
ASP files are plain text files that don't need to be compiled and can be managed just like your regular HTML documents. If you need to make a change to the page design or content, you can just make the change, save the page to your server, and the changes are visible next time someone looks at the page.
Big deal. CGI scripts built with Perl don't need to be compiled either, right? While CGI does the job, a program or script executed through CGI is slow. ASP pages run as part of the web server, so they load almost as fast as static HTML pages. And ASP separates the script from the page design and content. Changing the look and feel of your page doesn't require changing your program. Not only that, CGI scripting hacks like me can continue to use our favorite scripting language.
Right now you may be using JavaScript to do simple tasks like validate form fields, create and read cookies, and determine browser differences. While JavaScript works great for this, it only works on some browsers. All ASP code is executed on the server, returning only plain HTML code which any browser can read.
Even if you have no programming knowledge or experience, you can still do useful things with ASP by using pre-built components. Instead of learning Perl just so you can use a CGI form mailer, just copy a few lines of code into your HTML file and your ASP page starts emailing you with the results of your form. Or learn a few simple commands that can deliver different HTML to different browsers, depending on what each browser can handle.
To use Active Server Pages, you need a server running Windows 95 or NT 4.0 and web server software that can translate ASP. ASP servers include Microsoft IIS and Personal Web Server, O'Reilly and Associates WebSite Pro, and SmartDesk SmartSuite. Chili!Soft has created Chili!ASP, a server plugin adds ASP to many other popular web servers.
In my next article, I'll discuss what scripting languages can be used to create ASP files, show you the basics of an ASP page, and alert you to some side effects of using ASP. I'll also give you a list of a few websites and books you can use to start learning ASP.
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Adam Kalsey, Technical Director
the marketing store! <http://tmsonline.com>
Jim jumps in again--- Welcome aboard Adam. Technology tools that are available to help us develop interaction with our visitors and turning them into community members has been on my wish list and now it has found a home. To those of you that have been active in the Search Engine Forums, you will, of course, recognize Adam as the tireless fellow that makes so many helpful posts in response to problems people are having with the search engines. Drop by his site and get to know him.
SNIPPETS
If you work with an associate program, this is for you. Associate programs are products and services that pay the advertiser (you the webmaster) for sending them business. This is one rapidly growing method for you to make advertising money from your web site. But how do you find these programs?Allan Gardyne <http://www.aia.net.au/success/tips-tricks-tools.html> has a growing site of all kinds of information that webmasters are always looking for. His newest addition is a directory of Associate Programs that you can sign up for to earn money. A great trick is that he only publishes any associate program once and gives credit and link to the person that submitted the program to him. Imagine being the person that submitted LinkExchange? Of course, I got there first with Link-O-Matic <http://www.linkomatic.com/index.cgi?10097> which is a great way to generate lots of traffic for cheap.
OK. Commercial over. Back to Allan's new service. Get over there and submit any associate program that you are involved in. Or stop in and find some new ways to make a buck. Remember, money is a good thing. It lets us do the fun stuff.
Allan included this in his notice to me:
'Listing is FREE. The service is Helpware. I got the idea for it from your newsletter. If you like it, the only payment I ask for is that you mention it somewhere in a mailing list, newsletter or newsgroup.'
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If you want to see a great example of what you can do on your site with animation and RealAudio, stop by at Real.com. It even looks and sounds great on 28.8 dial-up.
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To try out the new version of the Ultimate Bulletin Board (like the software driving the Search Engine Forums) I installed it on the StarWest site that I built a few weeks ago. It took me less than 20 minutes to get the Motorcycle Forums up and running and it hasn't hit a glitch.
Star West is a site for the world's best selling motorcycle calendars, Dream Girls and Men and Machines. Great looking bikes. Great looking models. Check it out and take a look at the Forums. <http://www.starwestinc.com/>
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If you are looking for really cheap mailing list or discussion list hosting, try <http://www.esosoft.com/mailinglist/> Up to 2,500 subscribers is only $5 per month. Up to 8,000 for $14 per month. That's cheap. The downside is that it is hosted on Majordomo list server software. It isn't very easy to use and isn't very friendly to your subscribers. But it does get the job done if you can take the time to learn it.
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Top Ten Links, which is a directory of the top 10 sites in each of 180 categories. Take a look at <http://www.toptenlinks.com/internet/promotion.vote> and submit your site to try to get on the list. JimWorld is still listed as #1 in the Internet Promotion category and it is generating a lot of traffic.
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With the added market size that comes from doing business comes a few little things to trip us up. Hayden found a solution to one that plagues me on occasion, but not often enough to send me in search of an answer. You get a message from someone in an area code that you've never heard of. Are they already gone home or just going to lunch? When should you call them? Now you can visit <http://www.nwrdc.fsu.edu/nwr/gdqf/accode.htm> enter and area code and get the location immediately. Great tool. Deserves a bookmark.
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The purpose of RAWS is to rate web sites with Advanced Dungeons and Dragons role playing content. Visitors can submit sites for review, and a panel of judges will visit the site, and rate it. According to the webmaster, it is the only service of its kind on the Web for AD&D Sites. <http://members.tripod.com/~Melvidar/raws-index.htm>
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allECommerce is a news and information site with a wealth of information about doing business on the web. Pour a cup of coffee and visit when you have time to read. They have a lot of info for you. <http://www.allEC.com/>
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Work Options Inc. <http://www.workoptions.com>
Get your boss to say "yes" to telecommuting, job sharing, shortened work week or other flexible work arrangement. Features practical resources for writing a solid proposal, strategies for overcoming objections, and tips from individuals who have successfully restructured their current job into a flexible schedule for better work/life balance.
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Net Worth <http://www.meep.com/magazine/biz/>
A monthly online magazine focusing on business and Internet related information. Topics include: sales, marketing, Internet consulting, e-commerce and much more! The new E-Commerce Section includes articles, bookmarks, reviews and an online discussion forum. Join Net Worth's mailing list today and receive regular updates on the site.
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Jim
Cannnot tell you how much I appreciate and value your newsletter. In developing Bodywise <http://www.bodywise.net> our editors have used many of your tips and we have forwarded a copy of Wendy's editorial on writing for the web to everyone on our staff.
Thank-you.
Sincerely,
Sao Ricardo, publisher
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As the publisher of a humor based web site (and a subscriber to VPG), I thought there might be several other people out there who would appreciate a banner exchange site that is dedicated to Humor/Comedy based sites. It is the Comedy Banner Network <http://www.bcsdesign.com/cbn/> and I have been using it for a couple of weeks with good results. I have it linked to my "RealAudio" audio comedy page <http://home.att.net/~gordon.rogue/samples.html> if you want to check out what they "serve up".
Thanks, as always, for the great service and information you provide in the VPG. I devour every word when it comes in.
The Gordon and Rogue Home Page. <http://home.att.net/~gordon.rogue>
THIS WEEK'S GAZETEER MESSAGE
I would like to share a success story about how the internet has helped our business grow and become more profitable. I realize that the web is still in its infancy, and more times than not, stories of failure are far more common than the story I am about to share. But, given enough creativity and patience, I truly believe the internet is a gold mine waiting to be discovered.Our company, MicroVision Computer Products, designs and manufactures computer accessories. Primarily we sell our products to companies who place their brand name on our products and sell them in the retail and distributor channels (this is known as OEM). Our products will generally be found in a Staples, Office Depot, Office Max, under the brand names of Kensington, Curtis, or Fellowes.
Our sales had grown to about 4 million dollars annually, but began to level off in 1995. The problem was that the retail industry had begun a dramatic consolidation. Many of the retailers in our industry were either merging or shutting down their operations as competition became fierce. As a result over a 10 month period, in 1995, the computer accessory industry was reduced to 6 major competitors (Office Max, Office Depot, Staples, Comp USA, Circuit City, and Computer City). What was once a vibrant industry with over 100 retailers distributing our products, was now controlled by six retail chains. This small group of buyers represented over 90% of our revenue.
With a dramatic consolidation over such a short period of time we were not prepared for the changes. As with most industries that consolidate into a small group of buyers, it is not uncommon for each buyer to change the conditions of how he or she purchases a new product. All of the sudden, the product development and creative new ideas we produced, were less important than the overall programs that the buyers began demanding. It was not unusual for a retail buyer to ask for several hundred thousand dollars just to place our products on their shelves.
Previously a new product would be placed on the shelf based on it's uniqueness and salability . Until now, It was unheard of to be charged for shelf space.
With so few competitors and the high price of doing business it became necessary for us to look at other alternatives to increase our sales.
With that in mind, we began researching the opportunities that the internet offered as a sales and developmental medium.
In late 1995 I began researching the internet to see how we could utilize this growing arena. Quickly I found out that we had two things going in our favor. First, our computer accessories could benefit anyone who accesses the web. The reason is simple, everyone who accesses the internet is using a computer. Second, our products were new and different. We have always focused on creative space saving solutions for the desktop that are not only functional but unique. Many times over the last 12 years, our products have been copied by our competitors. I guess that's the highest form of praise, even if it does cost us lost income.
In my research I have found that the internet is composed of an amazing group of individuals. Information that tantalizes while educates is what the average netcitizen is looking for. This unique individual is highly educated, and has been over exposed to every offer known to man. Junk mail, with messages promising riches, has dulled their senses. Despite their savy, they are unable to differentiate between a valid offer and a con. Just selling something even if it's a great idea cannot always guarantee success online.
With all that I had learned at the end of 1995, I decided to take a eight step approach to setting up our business on the Web.
First, I created several new accessories specifically tailored to our target audience.
Second, I set up a professional website to feature these new products. I made sure to pick a short address for my website name so that it would be easy to remember. I chose one of our product names, and listed the site as <http://www.webpads.com/>.
Third, I added stories to the website that entertained and educated my audience about my products.
Fourth, I had several editors of computer media publications review my new products for credibility. I then took excerpts from the reviews and put them on a review page.
Fifth, I posted messages all over the internet on bulletin boards, usenet, and other websites to ask people to come to my new site to read my reviews and stories. I was very careful not to just advertise my new products (people are turned off by advertisements).
Sixth, I ran a small contest weekly. For each person who registered I took the opportunity to send a return e-mail inviting them to visit places on my website that they may have overlooked when they filled out my form.
Seventh, I wrote a personal message to my audience explaining our company goals, and I provided a company information profile. I knew it was important to let people know more about us, not just about our products.
And finally, and most importantly, I needed to have patience. You must be willing to wait long enough for results. No one is sure of the time frame, but I decided to wait 6 months before thinking about changing my strategy.
With these eight steps implemented in early 1996, it was time to sit back and wait. As I suspected things were very slow in the beginning. I added a counter to site so that I could check every several hours to see if I was getting traffic. At first I only received an average of 12 visitors a day. Once the contest started my traffic increased to about 100 people a day, but sales were few and far between. I still was patient, after about three months I noticed both an increase in traffic and an increase in sales. Visitors were becoming very friendly and sent e-mails complimenting the website. I began noticing repeat customers and many referral customers.
Word of our products began to spread and sales continued to grow. People liked our new products, they liked our service, and they actually felt entertained and educated by the time they left our website. Finally, after about 5 months I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Since then we have had a continual increase in sales and traffic to our site. People trust our company, and are not afraid to buy.
This marketing approach has been very beneficial for us. I believe that the internet is a wonderful opportunity for people to succeed in business, as long as they make sure to properly target and understand the market. Oh yes, and have a lot of patience.
Michael Schriner, President
MCP <http://www.webpads.com/>
---Jim back one more time--- This is a story to take to heart. It takes time and effort to succeed on the Net. Give your plans time to bear fruit before changing. I visited Michael's site and he has some very interesting computer desktop products. Drop by and check them out. Anybody still want to whine that nobody is actually making money on the Web? ----
NEED SOME MONEY FOR YOUR NET BUSINESS?
One Gazetteer, Murray Hancock, has been quietly building a unique online community vehicle specializing in Internet business financial and strategic deals and is ready to make a bit of noise about it.
Fourleaf.com is the only online community focused solely on investment and partnering in Internet-related industries. It has a practical deal making focus on marketing, content and technical alliances, international licensing, joint ventures, investment, merger and acquisitions. Components include DealBase (searchable database which indexes Members' deal interests and detailed financial and operating information), DealTalk, (elegant threaded discussion forum on deal making topics), Directory (of supporting resources), the Fourleaf.com Letter (bi-weekly electronic newsletter), an email discussion list and other content. A true 'Net community' based web site.
Fourleaf's mission is to accelerate the sound growth of Internet businesses by facilitating partnering and investment through an interactive publishing service (not advisory or transaction-based). The fundamental value of the service lies in enabling businesses and investors to find good partners and support resources more quickly, easily and cheaply - making life easier for time-challenged entrepreneurs, executives and investors with financial and strategic responsibilities in businesses large and small.
Development of the next generation site is already underway and many valuable modifications and additions will be evident shortly, with an emphasis on integrating "intelligent" email and other communications channels to make participation by Members easier and more efficient. Practicing what they preach, a significant investment is going into customization for affiliates and flexibility to integrate with partner sites generally.
Fourleaf.com was founded by Murray Hancock, an Australian based in the UK and a seed investor in IT/new media with a mainstream finance, management and academic background. He had spent a year looking at a lot of Internet opportunities and models proposed by others, without being convinced by any. He thought of the Fourleaf concept one morning early last year, sitting in the middle of the Australian bush, which is as good a place as any to dream up a totally virtual global business I guess. It seemed to serve an immediate need and have a ready potential market, which he says was lacking in most plans he had seen up to that point. Through Fourleaf, he says, he now sees many!
There are about 80 Founding Memberships still available, which guarantee six months' free membership when the service goes fully commercial. As well as Internet entrepreneurs, there is increasing interest from Internet-savvy investors and large corporate investors, so join up your business at <http://www.fourleaf.com> and say Jim sent you. It is a great opportunity to get in on the ground floor in a very interesting application of our chosen medium to a high value business function.
POWER MAPPING
I got my start in marketing as a campaign director with the PIRGs. Political campaigns and marketing drives are roughly the same thing. One of the things we practiced was "Power Mapping." Quite simply, it's the art of determining who you need to influence, exactly who can influence your target, and who you can actually influence to start the dominos in motion.Everyone is affected by people around them. Maybe your family holds sway over some aspects of your life, maybe your church group, school chums, co-workers, favorite super models, neighbors, or in-laws hold sway over other aspects of your life. The same is true for all of them. If you combine this with the concept of "Six degrees of separation," you'll see that everyone holds a certain amount of sway over everyone else. You can use this as part of your marketing strategy.
Jim obviously understands this concept, and practices it frequently. Recently he wrote:
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