Whether you’re a multi-national corporation or an aspiring entrepreneur, webinars can play an instrumental part in reaching your target market and growing your business. They provide a platform for you to engage with your core audience and allow you to showcase your expertise to your target market at the convenience of you and the listener. You can easily record webinars and post them online so that your audience can listen to them whenever and wherever. You can let your users help you promote your brand by encouraging them to share the webinar on their social media channels. In this post, we’ll talk about webinar best practices, and provide a comparison of the best webinar platforms online.
July 27, 2011
January 02, 2011
February 20, 2010
Find the best freelancers - ODesk vs eLance vs GetaFreelancer vs RentaCoder (now vWorker)
One of the biggest challenges of a startup or growing small business is to find the right people for the right seat on the bus. You often find yourself with a part-time need from a very qualified individual.
Can you take advantage of the Global effects of Web to help with your search?
You bet you can! There are a number of platforms for sourcing freelancers or contract hires. As you can see from this graphic, many of these platforms are drawing hundreds of thousands of visits each month. That translates into a ready pool of talent for you.
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/guru.com+elance.com+odesk.com/
Here is what we can share from personal experience.
oDesk - This is the latest platform that we tried and we love it. There are so many ways to search, there is such a rich group of contractors and you can find incredibly cost-effective offerings. We're going to deep dive into oDesk shortly.
First, lets take a quick look at some other options.
Guru - They claim to be the world's largest online freelancer marketplace, with over 1,000,000 freelancers to choose from. We've used it before and found some great project teams... and some not so great. For a while, we offered a service to help with freelancer screening process (We did a series of posts on how to effectively screen freelancers ). Guru was our favorite for a while and we wrote a blog comparing Guru with elance and rentacoder.
eLance, rentacoder (now vWorker.com) and getafreelancer - We've heard of good results for these but haven't used them personally. They appear to be an especially great source for copywriters, coders and web designers. The Compete graph above shows eLance to have the most traffic of the sites that we surveyed in Compete.
As for oDesk, we were impressed by the ability to search across so many different criteria - areas of expertise, feedback from other clients, number of tests passed, test scores compared to their peer group, experience in hours, rates and more. Take a look at the dashboard below illustrating a search for SEM professionals. We recently posted an entry on "ODesk vs Elance" and how they compare.
With over 300 qualification tests available on oDesk, there are a wide range of hard skills you can use to sort out the freelancers you'd prefer to work with.
Properly finding a freelancer needs a significant time investment. Beyond finding your ideal candidate based on qualifications, tests, references and rates, you need to check references. You should also gauge responsiveness and communication. We recommend starting with a small project and growing from there.
Have you used any of these platforms? If you have, please share your experience with us. Are there other freelance platforms, freelance marketplaces or freelance forums our readers should know about?
October 07, 2008
Quiz: Are you ready to launch your Web Business?
You have a great idea and you are ready to move it forward. You have your tech team lined up. Your web designer is ready to go. Your business plan is nearly finished and you're at the point where you're ready to launch your new Web business.
Are you SURE you've thought of everything?
We've found that there are a number of common pitfalls that Internet startups encounter when starting out. To help you determine if your business is ready to launch, we put together a quick 15 point Web Startup Readiness assessment to help you with some self-examination. (It takes about 15 seconds to load... so please be patient!) The graphic shown here is an example of the quiz output, tailored to your startup. You can have your custom profile emailed right to your inbox.
If you don't have time to take the assessment, check out the fast five pitfalls we've seen below. The more you answer "Yes!" to, the stronger your odds for success.
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Have you refined your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) to be simple enough for your mother to understand? Understanding your USP indicates how well differentiated your offering is in the marketplace.
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Have you talked to at least three potential clients or suppliers/sponsors? Primary research provides a measure of how well you understand your customers, suppliers, and partners in your market. It is also important in building your product/service.
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Can you point to others who have been successful with your business model? Researching similar models measures the intensity and appetite for your service in the market.
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Do you know your top five competitors? This research can be instrumental in identifying differentiators, go-to-market strategies, pricing models, business models and much more.
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Do you have an idea of how you'll make revenue? A monetization strategy - even if not implemented - must be understood before launch.
Take our full Ready to Launch Quiz (give it 15 secs to load) to test out the readiness of your startup. The quiz will further help you evaluate your team, business model, market, financials, value proposition and much more.
If you hesitated in some of your responses, join us in our first complimentary webinar, "Getting Ready to Launch." In this webinar, we'll focus on the "Ten Things to Ask Yourself Before You Launch" listed above and provide specific examples of tools and resources you can use to improve your chances of a successful launch. Space is limited – so take our quiz and register today. We have room for twelve entrepreneurs to participate live in our Webinar and we'll be selecting newly launched startups as case studies to profile. The webinar will be recorded and made available on our website for those who did not have the opportunity to participate.
"Getting Ready to Launch" Webinar Details:
- Date: Monday, October 27, 2008
- Time: 7PM Eastern
- Duration: 1 hour
June 20, 2008
Experimenting with Omnisio, Riffing on Virtual Teams
I ran a fun little experiment with Youtube and Omnisio this afternoon to see what a little "Do it Yourself" elbow grease might yield. After a friend sent me the presentation "The Secrets to Making Money Online", I decided to give it a Omnisio a try on my own (well my 14 year old son helped. Thanks Nick!).
Since our newsletter this month is covering Virtual Teams, I decided to use that as my topic. The result can be found below ... but PLEASE realize it was just an experiment and not meant to represent a professionally produced video. See the lessons learned below for how we can improve next time!
At Team and a Dream, we like to do a "lessons learned" after any new project and ask "What Went Well" and "Even Better If". After Nick and I finished filming two clips on my Kodak EasyShare DX6490 (refurbished off of eBay), I transferred to my tablet... (where hardware gremlins ate an hour of my time) and uploaded to YouTube's teamandadream channel. I tried to download Microsoft's PDF converter (three times but the PDF format never showed up in the "Save As" filter) and ended up using PDFonline.com to convert my PPT to PDF (required by Omnisio). Omnisio just wanted a Youtube link and the PDF. The editor was self explanatory. I published and generated code to link into this post.
What Went Well (WWW)
- It worked!
- The Omnisio tool is really easy to use - and I think could be addictive.
- Only two trials were used - and the 2nd one improved the lighting considerably. The whole exercise took about 2.5 hours (not counting 1 hour in which my machine-camera interface froze)
- Cheap - my "cameraman" charged me $10. Everything else was free!
- I already have 1 subscriber on our new "Team and a Dream" video channel on YouTube (Sign up by clicking here)
- A good way to give people who don't know me a better sense of who I am and what I'm like.
- PDFOnline saved my butt from the failed Microsoft PPT add-ins.
Even Better If (EBIF)
- We had a tripod to steady the camera.
- My old video camera wasn't so blurry.
- I didn't experience those periodic "tongue slips" which I think additional practice would have helped.
- More editing of the content - sharper, shorter, funnier
- I looked like Brad Pitt
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I'm looking forward to your comments, reactions or opportunities for improvement. I'm no Brad Pitt, but it was fun getting out there in video. I look forward to what comes of this... if anything!
June 19, 2008
Quiz: How Open Are You?
Our business demands that our team members have a strong entrepreneurial spirit. A key element of success is how open each of us is to new approaches, new business models and new markets.
We had a couple crack Ruby developers, Dinko and Greg, put a tool together that generates quizzes. Our first quiz helps us to challenge ourselves on Openness. This five question quiz is available for anyone to try - and it gives some suggestions on how to make yourself more open.
Note: You'll probably be able to figure out which answers are considered "more open" - but if you answer truthfully, you might get some useful advice from the tool.
If you try the quiz, drop us a line or a comment and tell us how it worked for you.
We're currently working on a screening assessment for potential members of a virtual team meshwork to see how well they fit with our projects.
Happy Quizzing!
January 01, 2008
December 29, 2007
November 17, 2007
Top 12 Books for Entrepreneurs
There's no doubt that knowledge is power and the books below are a must read for those starting their own online business. In fact, these books have been selected exclusively for Internet startups. They're divided into two categories – those for startups in the concept stage and for those startups in launch mode. With Christmas around the corner, they also make great gifts! Note: These are in no particular order.
Concept Stage:
The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki - Guy Kawasaki is a Silicon Valley icon who knows how to start businesses. His "pitch deck" format has become a staple in most Team and a Dream engagements. He also talks about the rough road of dealing with Venture Capitalists.- Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore - How do you identify your early markets and your earliest customers? How do you get to that market quickly and grow to a "real company"? This book provides the roadmap.
- Good To Great by Jim Collins - The home of the Sweet Spot Analysis used in many Team and a Dream conversations. Jim Collins calls it the HedgeHog Principal. Find out why some companies have continuing growth and some don't. What is it that makes them different? Based on 5 years and thousands of manhours of research.
- Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey - Covey details seven habits, if implemented, help people improve themselves. These habits can also help entrepreneurs deal with the unstable and unpredictable world of startups.
- The World Is Flat by Thomas L. Friedman - Important reading for anyone wanting a good overview of how the world is changing in dramatic ways. Globalization is here. You decide what to make of it.
- Founders at Work by Jessica Livingston - A look into the minds of the founders of Apple, PayPal, Flickr and many more as they tell in their own words what life is like hour after hour behind the keyboard, developing technologies and bringing them into market.
Launch Stage:
- The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell - Eye popping insights into viral marketing, the world of cool and why some things catch on and others don't.
- Artful Making by Lee Devin and Robert Austin - What managers need to know about how software teams work. Taking lessons from the theatre and other art venues, authors Rob Austin and Lee Devin drive home some important ideas of working in a more creative way, while still making deadlines.
- The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida - Big trends book on how a new breed of the knowledge worker is coming into its own.
- The Flight of the Creative Class by Richard Florida - Why America needs to be wary of the cultures it creates for today's knowledge workers. We want to encourage creative people and growth of cultures around them. Instead, we are chasing them from our shores.
- A Whole New Mind by Daniel H. Pink - Left brain and right brain will combine to create the ideal worker of tomorrow. Dan Pink outlines some terrific ideas on how to get your creative side in gear for today and tomorrow's business world.
- Guerilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson - Find out how to achieve successful marketing results using non-traditional marketing tactics to make your company stand out.
Honorable mentions go to The Long Tail by Chris Anderson and Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. No time to read? Pick up an audiobook version and listen to it in your car - you'll save some trees as well!
Are there any other books you would recommend? If so, let us know by posting a comment below.
By: Yasmine
November 11, 2007
SEOmoz's SEO Expert Quiz
How well do you know SEO? Enough to do it yourself instead of hiring someone to do for you? To find out, take this SEO quiz by SEOmoz. It's 75 questions and should take about a half hour. See how you rank and then decide whether or not you can do it yourself or if you need to hire a professional!
Previous SEO posts:
"25+ Free (and Useful) SEO Tools"
"Does SEO work? See for yourself!"
By: Yasmine
Skip Shuda, Chief Cheap Revolutionary
If you kick it around enough, it starts to look like a ball.
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