He said the world would never be the same again. He wrote this from the perspective of being the founder of the MIT Media Lab, already well-known for its pioneering work, funded by all sorts of companies. It had literally hundreds of researchers and staff, so Nicholas Negroponte was very well-placed indeed to make observations about how the digital world would change communications. For example, in Being Digital , he says there will come a time when people will stop reading books in paper form, they will be reading books on a screen. That is quite remarkable — this was Now it has actually happened.
In the US, the Kindle outsells hardbacks, so for book readers it has made a huge, huge difference. It enables you to take far more books than you were previously able to do. He also made the observation that there would be touch screen interfaces, which we have now become terribly used to. He is one of the leading tech visionaries and I think this is the book that set out almost an agenda for the digital revolution. This is, I think, the quintessential insider look at what happened in the internet meltdown of the first part of this century. The internet business got an extremely bad reputation which it is only now shaking off, as something that combined management incompetence with grotesque corporate excess and total failure for shareholders.
For me, this book, which describes an American internet company called Value America, says it all. There is a British equivalent about the decline and fall of boo. They made every conceivable mistake that a dot.
Net Profit: How to Succeed in Digital Business - David Soskin - Google Books
He was so taken with his huge success that he thought he would take a run at the presidency, because his own self-belief was such that he thought he could take this business talent and use it to good effect in the White House. So, to me, this is an insider look at everything that was wrong with the initial internet era. John Battelle is a very well-known technology writer in the States, and Google is really the company that single-handedly has enabled the Internet to shake off the bad image it developed through companies like Value America.
What the book does is explain not only how Google managed to do that, but also explain very clearly why the Google search algorithm outclassed the other search engines of the time. They invented a system of search based around the way in which academic papers are rated. Page rank is the key to understanding why Google search is so much better than the others.
It developed a sophisticated algorithm to show why some websites are more relevant than others. It also took links and looked at how important those links were to any particular website. If that review was written by the chief executive of Google you might not take it as seriously. If a skier wrote a book on technology you would probably think he should stick to the skiing. So they use the algorithm to see what the relevance of the links are. That is why when you look at the Google results one is so often impressed that the results are amazingly fast and amazingly relevant to what you want.
It manages to create, out of the disorder of the internet universe, relevant results. People have forgotten that when you searched before Google the results were pretty terrible.
They have a corporate culture heavily centred around innovation. That was a very radical thing to do. It was true a couple of years ago. Now it has become such a huge international corporation that I suspect some of those things may have changed in that very rapid rise. Tancer is head of research for a company called Hitwise, one of the companies that provides research on websites.
Why does it matter what people are doing online? Clearly some people are looking at porn, and Bill Tancer does mention this in the book, but there are an awful lot of things that people do that have become very fundamental to the way they live their lives. Hitwise can pick up all these things, so it can see if people are booking flights, betting, spending time on kids sites.
There is now a whole plethora of possibilities for internet users, and Hitwise tells you almost in real time what billions of users are doing. There is a lot in the book about the surprising ways in which people behave. The example that I love is that he can analyse the demographic data and say that the Republican states of America are more likely to visit wife-swapping sites than their Democratic counterparts, which I find very amusing. Well, I have to have a book about Facebook.
20 Steps To Starting Your Own 6-Figure Digital Marketing Agency Today
Kirkpatrick is a brilliant journalist and he writes extremely well. He deals well with that.
They both come from very well-off families, both are computer whizzes, both were at Harvard, both dropped out to start their companies and took Harvard roommates with them. Do my images leap off the page? Heck, some of the most popular million dollar websites , are ugly as hell. Actions have, and always will, speak louder than words.
Which is why having a strong, result driven portfolio is paramount for generating new business. A portfolio is now considered a minimum requirement for an agency to have. A good portfolio is made up of:. Showing people that not only you can deliver the results, but you will continue to deliver them to people continuously. While starting a digital agency feels like it should be expensive.
The more people that are putting money in, or are sharing your company, takes away from what you actually own. Yet, with the right mindset, you can find ways to do all of this cheaply. You could always ask other online marketing companies how they get their workers, too. And, as the old saying goes, Marketing is like sex only losers pay for it. Find ways to build word of mouth, marketing that you can rely on.
Offer unique sales points, add a value that nobody else can, or provide a service that people will scream about. There will come a point where you need employees.
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- 20 Steps To Starting Your Own 6-Figure Digital Marketing Agency Today -!
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But the key to making sure your business survives the need for employees is to scale how, and when, you hire them. This will vary from agency to agency, and the type of service you offer, but I find a good way to survive these transitions is to work in these steps:. You could, theoretically, stop here and become a successful six figure agency. At least at the lower end of the six figure world. Which would look a little something like:. But, as with everything in SEO, timing and precision are key here. Because you always have the option to learn on the go, and build your expertise over time.
The nature of the beast in our realm is that SEO is always changing, growing and evolving.
Net Profit: How to Succeed in Digital Business (Unabridged)
And one small update from Google can turn even the most ardent marketer into a blubbering beginner all over again. Make sure you learn the basics and have an understanding of why doing x, y or z will deliver a result.
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Then, you can learn the rest of the techniques as you go. They give a crap about results. They give a crap about cash flow. They give a crap about ROI, and traffic and having more customers. A key piece of the puzzle for agencies, since the social-age boom in , is to have social media channels in place. Find what you want to rank for and make sure you build it into all of your content.
by David Soskin
Pricing shows how you value yourself to your clients. And, nothing is more valuable than yours or your employees time. But, to achieve six figures, you need to look at it from a different angle. Because he started attracting the right people for his agency.
Being Digital
Worry about charging the price you think is right for your service, and the clients you want to attract to your business. Google Docs is a good second option, but you run the risk of things getting messy and disorganised quickly. But, you need to keep tabs on what you make, what you spend and where all of your money is going.
While a simple spreadsheet of your monthly incomings and outgoings can work wonders to making sure you know where all your money is at all times. Knowing how your business is going to grow over the next year, both in how you want it to grow and how it looks like it will grow, are big factors in your success. There will come hard times, and there will be good times. Knowing when each of them is going to happen is important to managing your time, money and finances. There you have it, the complete quick start guide to going from your back room, to a six figure digital marketing firm, in no time at all.
Let me know in the comments…. The Basics… These first few steps are your foundation and platform. The road to a 6 figure agency is long and hard. Who knows, your biggest hit could be just one more rejection letter away? Be clear about what you want to do. But, over five years, why the heck not? Set a clear, specific, time frame to achieve your goal in.
Find Your Focus Goals allow you to focus your time and effort. What is your niche? Who is it that you want to work with, and why? Is it small independent businesses, Fortune companies, fashion brands? Knowing this will help you narrow down where you go looking for contracts. Who do you want to appeal to? Are you here for the geeks, the wizards, the whizz-kids, the hardened professionals or the new kids on the block?
What makes you unique? There are thousands of agencies out there, so what is it that makes you different? What do you or will you value, care about or do differently to others? What your promise is: What do you and your audience value? What does your brand stand for? Pick your fight and run with it.