North x East North x East North x East is a blog about business and entrepreneurship, blogging, marketing and startups. 
Articles
How important is design?
2007-03-07 10:04:02 People always approach activities from the standpoint of their own world. If you are starting a business and you start it with an accountant, the first thing they will want to do is talk numbers. If you are starting with a marketer, they will first ponder the marketing strategy. If you start with a copy-writer, they’ll be coming up with slogans and catch phrases before anything else is done. Once you notice this fact, you’ll see it again and again. And there’s no reason not to do it really, start with your strengths and work outwards. The reason I mention this is that my background is as a designer. I worked as a web designer, graphic designer and art director and in that time I developed not only a strong passion for design, but a possibly inflated perception of how important design is to success. Now I know any designers among you are gasping at the blasphemy that I just wrote, because after all doesn’t design guarantee success? I write this because in... More About: Design , Port , Desi , Sign , Import
I?m not well!
2007-03-07 04:03:05 I’m not well today, but neither am I so sick that I can’t do anything. For me this is the perfect level of unwellness. I stay home and watch DVDs (and blog) but don’t feel so bad that I wish I was dead. Nonetheless because I work for myself even though I know I am sick I still have this terrible feeling of guilt being home and it is only my wife ordering me to stay here that persuaded me. When I worked for other people I can remember thinking how when you work for yourself you would have total freedom to do whatever you choose, start whenever you want, work whichever days you please. My first business was a design business which means clients, business hours and stress. What I discovered was that in fact I worked much harder, was less likely to take a day off, started earlier in the morning and worked later at night. When going on vacation I was usually stressed knowing that there was no income because the business was closed and that clients were probably emai... More About: Well
WhereHaveAllTheGoodDomainsGone.com - What to do when the domain name you we
2007-03-06 10:01:01 Yesterday I spent three hours trying to find a domain name to suit an upcoming website we are launching. Finding domain names is getting harder by the day and is amongst the most frustrating things a person can do. You come up with a brilliant name that is going to be fabulous for marketing and branding, you start to get attached to it, then you search and find that either an obscure company or nasty arbitrage site is already there squatting away your lovely idea. It can be an infuriating experience and it leads me to my post today about what to do when the domain name you were looking for is already gone. There are a series of things I do when I run into this road block, I’d love to hear what others do (so I can copy your ideas in future): Look for alternate extensions People are (very slowly) coming around to see that .com isn’t the only domain out there. I’ve noticed a rise in the number of .net’s around and also the odd things like bla.st, del.icio.u... More About: Domain , Domain Name , Main , What , Hat
Online Communities and the most Trafficked Websites in the World
2007-03-05 22:00:02 Today and for the rest of this month I am preparing to give a talk on the topic of building online communities. This means I am doing lots of research which in turn translates to you can expect to see lots of posts about community here on NorthxEast for the new few weeks. One of the aspects of online communities that I have been thinking a lot about is what benefits they provide to sites. While some sites are purely communities, others are something else - content or a product or a service - and then have a community or communal features added on. One particular benefit that they provide is traffic and lots of it. Since an online community implies things like discussion, chat and interaction there are by implication many, many more pageviews than most static sites. As many of you will know Alexa maintains a list of traffic rankings for the top 100 most visited sites, today I visited that list and decided to find out what percentage had an aspect of online community in them. ... More About: Website , World , Traffic , Muni , Site
Why I write this Blog
2007-03-05 22:00:02 I’ve been asked a number of times about why I have decided to blog here at NorthxEast and I thought I’d take a moment to write about myself and answer this question. I do this partly to inform you and partly because then I can copy+paste it into my About page and replace the rather impersonal bio I have there. So first of all a few vital statistics… I am half English, half Iranian, I grew up in Papua New Guinea and I now live in Australia where I run a company called FlashDen that I cofounded in 2006. My background is in design - both web and graphic - though I once studied a degree in mathematics and computer science through the misguided thought that I could get by on talent and not passion. These days my fascination with the visual has been replaced with an obsession into business, the web and blogging - coincidentally the topic of this blog. I have always enjoyed sharing things with others and for some reason even though I don’t know you and may never ... More About: Write , Blog , This
A Website Flipping Case Study
2007-03-04 09:58:02 Some of you will remember that I have begun a case study about building, developing and then selling a website called CSSBites.com. I’m still in the building phase of that particular site as generation of content is a bit of a slow process. Today I thought I’d talk about a second related Case Study which I haven’t mentioned yet into what’s sometimes called “Webs ite Flipping ”. Website flipping for the uninitiated is the practice of buying, developing and selling a website. Its a little like house renovation except for web properties rather than real estate. You can read a good overview in an article by Yaro Starak called “How to buy a website and flip it for profit” where he gives some pointers on what to do and how to get started. So after keeping an eye on the Site point Marketplace for established websites for a few weeks I came across what I think was a good value proposition and I purchased the site about a week ago. Here’s...
Predicting the Future
2007-03-04 09:58:02 What would you be able to do if you could predict the future? I often thing that if I could go back in time a few years and buy the then seemingly nonsensical ‘blog.com’ how much profit I could have made. On a more practical level having some idea of what the future holds is key to having a really successful business. My father who was born with a wonderful business acumen often told me: Figure out where you think things are moving and position yourself there. When the rest of the world catches up they’ll look to you as the expert who’s been there longer than anyone else and you will be able to profit from it. So hypothetically if you think that in the next few years portable computers that emulate the experience of reading a book will be available, then it would be a good idea to position yourself in the field of online publishing in some way. Perhaps you would create a catalogue of classics in some sort of e-book format, perhaps you would work on a secure e... More About: Future , The Future , Predict
And for my next trick!
2007-03-04 09:58:02 Much has been and will be written on starting blogs and yet the experience of starting one has been surprising for me. It was a much harder task than I’d imagined - I suspect I had delusions of the masses flocking to my keystrokes - and yet nonetheless more rewarding that I’d thought. Naturally the hardest thing was writing to what can feel like an empty space, particularly when subscriber numbers are low. Until this Monday the numbers were slowly but steadily increasing and had reached 35 - a number that felt epic considering the effort it took to get to. Although logically I am aware that it takes a long time to make a huge readership, it still feels a little discouraging sometimes to put all that effort in without feeling like you are effecting your environment. Two days ago a reader named Blaine Moore very thoughtfully wrote to me to let me know that I had two different feed URLs on the site (one Feedburner one and one generic WordPress one). With the aid of a handy ... More About: Rick , Trick , Next
Establishing a Beachhead
2007-03-04 09:58:02 Today Philip Liu from iHelpYouBlog.com wrote an interesting post called “How To Really Differentiate Your Blog” in which he basically describes finding a niche or segment to aim your blog at - thereby capturing a specific audience and not echoing other, more successful blogs. I thought I would expand on Philip’s premise a little in the broader context of business. That is its not only a good idea to target and dominate a single segment of the market so that you can achieve success in that area, but that in addition you can then use that same success to try to capture a larger market. Lets say you are starting a new business, just as an example let us say you have the kamikazee desire to get into the search TYPE business. So here you are ready to knock Google off their pedestal, how do you go about it? Here are three strategies you could potentially employ: Strategy 1: Do it better The straightforward way to beat Google is to do to Google what they did to Altavis... More About: Beach , Tabl , Head , Shin
A Review of ReviewMe
2007-03-04 09:58:02 Although most of my traffic here on NxE is organic - a big part from my Black iMac getting shown on some famous Apple Websites - a significant portion also came from two paid sources - StumbleUpon Ads and from three Review Me reviews I paid for. So I thought I would write a quick review of the ReviewMe service since I have a feeling that three reviews makes me one of their best customers! Who Reviewed Me I paid for reviews (in date of review order) on the following three blogs: JohnChow.com - $250 for a review Blogtrepreneur.com - $60 for a review Entrepreneurs-Journey.com (only 48 hours ago) - $250 for a review Fortunately during February ReviewMe had a 50% offer on the second two so I didn’t spend quite as much as I could have! All three blogs wrote really great reviews, with lots of link backs, positive words and the odd piece of constructive criticism. The Traffic and Benefits In terms of traffic generated it looked like this: JohnChow.com - 301 Visitors - 2.4p/v Blogt... More About: View
The Social Network Factory
2007-03-04 09:58:02 The other day I was writing about how I’d been asked for a quote to make a MySpace site with style in less than 6 weeks and how it was a little optimistic to say the least. Today I learnt that a service called Ning.com lets you build your own social network in about…oh 15 minutes! Ning has been getting some coverage from major bloggers like TechCrunch today and with good reason, the service is a little like when forums first became something anyone could create, except instead of forums its social networks. I need to look through the service a bit more, but at first glances it does look both impressive and a bit scary - because I feel like there was already just about enough social networking going on on the web. To test out how easy the site was to use, I created my own little social network for reality TV show Survivor (which I love incidentally). Setting up took less than 15 minutes and you can see it at http://survivortv.ning.com/ … of course there isn’t... More About: Social , Factory , Work , Network , Fact
Got something great to say? Wait until Tuesday to Post it?
2007-03-04 09:58:02 If you’ve ever looked at RSS subscriber numbers or blog traffic you will know that not all days are created equal. In fact some days just plain have it up on others and research from RSS marketing experts Pheedo reveals exactly how the order falls. It turns out that Tuesday is the day when blog traffic is at its peak and by a long shot followed by Wednesday, Monday, Thursday and Friday. Unsurprisingly the weekends are slow as apparently some people still have a life away from their monitor. What does this mean for you as a blogger, well its quite simple. If you have a killer post that will have your readers squealing with delight as you categorically demonstrate how superior your blog is, then you should wait until Tuesday to post it so that you receive the maximum audience for your textual genius. Of course if everyone else is waiting until Tuesday to post their best posts, perhaps that makes Wednesday the best day since its much easier for your diamond to shine when its ... More About: Post , Great , Methi , Something
Love what you do ? Do what you love
2007-03-04 09:58:02 If there is one critical factor in how successful you will be in your work and career; it is whether you have passion for what you do. People who love what they do work longer, care more, try harder, do more and achieve greater success - not necessarily monetary success mind you. It doesn’t matter what field you are in, a person with a vivid interest in their work will always outdo a person who doesn’t really care. I would even go so far as to say that passion totally overrules talent. Years ago I completed a mathematics degree at university. While I had more than enough aptitude for the subject, I had about as much passion for mathematics as I did for washing dishes. After many, long years of study I scraped out with a degree and absolutely no prospects. There was a guy who went through university with me who really wasn’t that great at math but just loved it. He was fascinated with numbers and patterns and would sit after class counting out patterns in music whil... More About: Love , What , Hat
29 things you can do to make a blog more communal
2007-03-04 09:58:02 Communities have been around since the dawn of time, well the dawn of internet time anyway and their benefits to a site are well known: increased ’stickiness’ and return visits, a member feeling of ownership and loyalty, a userbase to tap into for anything from promotions to assistance. So what if you run a blog, that’s already communal right? People like, comment and stuff… Its true blogs are inherently more communal than say a brochure-ware site, but they tend to be communal only at the most, basic level. There are however things you can do to make your blog more communal, and here are 29 of them, split up loosely into basic and advanced: Basic Things you can Do Focus at least a portion of your posts towards Discussion as opposed to just Readership This can mean ending the post with a question - like “what do you think?” or posting on a controversial topic Create a Top Commenters List One of the key four components to community is recognition a... More About: Blog , Make , More , Comm
Working Weekends
2007-02-25 03:57:01 When I was younger my father used to run an IT firm and I recall he used to work most weekends. When I asked him about it he told me this: Every time we work through a weekend and our competition doesn’t, we get a day or two ahead of them. If we keep doing it, ... More About: Work , Weekend , Week , King , Ends
What it Takes to Start a Business Online - Part III - Knowledge
2007-02-24 09:55:01 This is the third part of a multi-post series called What it Take s to Start a Business Online. This series might apply whether you?re starting a blog, the next YouTube or just about any other business idea you might have. You can read other parts: - Introduction - Part I - Time - Part II - Focus - Part ... More About: Hat
A little weekend amusement
2007-02-24 09:55:01 I love good flash websites and i love clever concepts, so this website from creative agency monoface that puts the two together has to be one of my favourite websites. It lets you change parts of staff faces with each other to create some hilarious heads. Theres a total number of possible combinations ... More About: Men , Weekend , Week , Muse , Little
The Silent Majority
2007-02-23 21:54:15 Have you ever noticed that when a website has a forum or comments or some other way for users to make themselves heard, you find you see the same names and faces appearing time and time again? It is easy to start to believe that those are a good representative of the users of that ... More About: Silent , Major , Silent Majority , Lent
On Macs and Scoops
2007-02-23 21:54:15 Well it seems that my little mockup of what a black iMac would look like has been used on some Mac rumour websites in relation to a story about possible upcoming product lineups, you can see it here on MacScoop and additionally on plenty of other sites too… So in answer to a couple of questions ... More About: Macs , Coop
To immitate or innovate?
2007-02-22 03:53:03 Yesterday I posted a quote request I received from someone who wanted to duplicate MySpace - but with more style - and Marco from Marco.org left an interesting comment that got me thinking: …Why do you need another community site that has all of the features of MySpace? Why wouldn?t your target audience just use MySpace? ... More About: Nova , Inno
Oops, I got banned from Digg
2007-02-21 09:51:03 As a 3 week old blog, I’ve been finding ways to get traffic coming into NorthxEast since inception, one of the first ways that I did that was to sign up three accounts on Digg and when submitting a post there to give it a little 3 digg kick in the butt and let it ... More About: Anne , Banned
Snap.com - a Google Alternative?
2007-02-21 09:51:03 In the many years since I adopted Googl e I have tried a few search engine alternatives, but have always felt like they were trying to be Google except not really adding anything new or doing what Google does as well. Examples include Alltheweb.com, Live.com, Altavista.com, MSN.com and so on. Yesterday I was trialling the Snap -Preview Anywhere ... More About: Alternative , Alter
Building a Web App? Be realistic with your timeline?
2007-02-21 09:51:03 As you may already know, my wife and I own a design agency here in Sydney (which she runs for the most part) called Good Creative. Because it has a really nice website (one of the best of 2006 according to NetDiver.net) it attracts a lot of quote requests. Most of the time ... More About: Building , Time , With , Your , List
24? Black iMac
2007-02-20 15:49:01 I would like to switch to a Mac , in fact I am going to switch to a Mac… However I’ve decided to wait until a black iMac is released. Since this doesn’t appear to be any time soon, I’ve decided to use my Photoshop skills to render one to keep me happy in the ... More About: Black , Lack
Dealings with Lawyers
2007-02-20 03:48:01 Yesterday I went to see some lawyers in the city. At $500 an hour for a senior partner and $300 for your day-day contact, lawyers frighten me - and these people are only a middle-tier firm here in Sydney. With that price tag you want to make sure you get the right service. ... More About: Lawyer , Lawyers , Deal , Ealing
5 Things You Can Do to Pull the Reader in
2007-02-19 21:47:02 As a blogger your one overriding goal above all else is to provide your reader with compelling and engaging content to read. The problem is sometimes as bloggers we have a tendency of making it as hard as possible for a reader to get to see that our content is compelling and engaging. ... More About: Reader , Read , Things , Thing , Pull
Keeping Track of Thoughts and Ideas
2007-02-19 09:46:02 A couple of days ago I was rambling on about my blog on the way home and my wife said to me “I’m amazed you have so many things to write about”… This got me to thinking, because I don’t always feel like I have lots to write about, in fact when I first started ... More About: Ideas , Thoughts , Idea , Thought , Keep
Blogging and the power of celebrity
2007-02-19 09:46:02 Although blogs are sometimes used for corporate purposes (on news sites, company sites and so on) the overwhelming application is still personal. In fact even on a corporate site, a blog is by definition still inextricably tied up with the main writer. As a blog gets popular, this then translates to a sort ... More About: Power , Celebrity , Celeb , Blogging , Blog
What it Takes to Start a Business Online - Part II - Focus
2007-02-19 09:46:02 This is the second part of a multi-post series called What it Take s to Start a Business Online. This series applies whether you’re starting a blog, the next YouTube or just about any other business idea you might have. You can read the introduction here. Focus Starting a successful online enterprise is not an easy task and ... More About: Hat
Are you Statistically Addicted?
More articles from this author:2007-02-19 09:46:02 This morning when I got to my computer I found myself logging on to Google Analytics to check up on user stats for the various sites I administer, then I checked Feedburner to see how subscribers were going, then I checked Alexa to see how our rankings were faring in comparison to actual stats, then ... More About: Call , Stat , Ally , Addicted , Addict 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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