Have you ever noticed that knowing something on a theoretical or conceptual level and actually being able to implement it can often seem to be completely disjointed? For myself (and likely many other designers), the presence of white space can be just one such issue. Now, I know that white space is an important element in layout and design. Yet, somehow, it seems that when that empty space is sitting there, staring back at me, I find myself struggling with the need to fill that space.
My Problem With White Space
I know it shouldn’t be that way, but I’ve myself in that place over and over again. I’ll be working on some sort of design, whether it be a promotional, printed piece or a website, and there is some empty space. I will look at that space, and find myself unintentionally wondering: what can I put there? How can I fill it? For some reason, there is a lingering part of me that simply cannot abide that vast, white emptiness.
Obviously, this is a problem. The moment we start adding things to a layout simply for the sake of filling up space, we are ultimately compromising the integrity of the design. So, I find myself in a continuing battle to overcome the problem of white space, which is what I would like to discuss in this article.
While most of what I want to talk about is founded on my own experience, I don’t think I’m entirely alone in this. All you have to do is look around the internet at the tons and tons of gallery sites that have sprung up from every conceivable corner. Though most of these are filled with really lovely designs, many of them employ colours, gradients, textures or patterns to fill in the background. Still others have complex graphical headers and footers that do a great job of filling up space.
Now, I’m not saying that there is anything wrong with these designs. That would be pretty hypocritical, given that my own site design uses some of these same elements. I just have to wonder, based on my own experience, how often are these elements used because others share this problem I have with white space?
White Space vs. Negative Space
Before going any further in this discussion, I want to clarify something. In many cases, the terms white space and negative space can be used interchangeably for the same basic concept – that being the empty space between design elements. Strictly speaking, this kind of space does not necessarily need to be white. It can be any colour at all, and could probably even be filled with subtle texture or pattern. The emptiness is defined neither by ink (with print) or light (with display), but by the distinct lack of content or other major elements.
Normally interchangeable terms have different connotations here
For the purposes of this discussion, I would like to stick to calling that particular type of space negative space. Why? Because what I’m talking about is not just negative space, though that is part of it. What I’m really talking about, is space that is literally white.
Why is this distinction important? I would like to suggest that that the biggest problem is actually that I face is at its strongest when the space in question is actually white.
But what is this problem, exactly?
The Great White Emptiness
This may sound a little odd, but I think that when all is said in done, the source of this problem is that white space is scary.
Of course, I don’t mean scary in the bone chilling, shiver down your spine kind of way. It’s more of a general uneasiness that actually exists in more than just design! For an instance, for an author looking at a blank piece of paper, an empty word processor document can be intimidating, especially when you find yourself slamming up against that thing called writers block. An author may ask questions like: where do I start? What should my first sentence be? Do I even have the skill or expertise to write this?
For the author, the emptiness can seem to reflect lingering feelings of inadequacy. The same basic idea can also be applied to the artist with his or her blank canvas, and as we’ll see below, possibly even the designer.
Yet, this problem with whiteness stretches even beyond the realms of the arts and creativity, into the natural world itself. I live in Canada, and during the winter we get this white stuff called snow. It falls from the sky, and as it accumulates, it creates a great white blanket across everything. In the city, it’s a nuisance that needs to be removed, but out in the country, well that’s a different matter entirely.
In the country, the wide open fields become that empty space. The familiar becomes obscured beneath an expanse of whiteness. It’s beautiful in its own way of course, but (at least for me) there remains something vaguely troubling about it, something that yearns for spring, and the filling in of those empty spaces.
If you think I’m being a little melodramatic here, you’re right. I am, and it’s entirely intentional, because I think it helps to reinforce my main point. White space can be incredibly intimidating, in a number of different circumstances, and design is no exception.
The Issue of Design
In the case of design, I think that part of that fear (if we can call it that) actually stems from the act of design itself. As designers, we are being paid – either by clients or by a full time employer – to create something that is distinctly visual. We want to put forward the best possible work, and I think that we often look at white space as somehow undesigned, almost like a wall that the painter forgot to paint.
This IS a design
That’s just not the case. As I wrote about in a recent article, design is about purpose, intention and content. It has nothing to do with filling in as much space as possible. Instead, it’s about making intentional decisions about what elements to include and how to arrange them, all with the focused goal of supporting some form of content.
If a significant amount of white space helps a design to achieve these goals – by attracting attention to content through visual contrast, for instance – then it is actually very well designed. In a case like this, white space is not something to be ashamed of. It shouldn’t make us feel like we’ve left anything out, or come up short as a designer!
Overcoming the Space
Okay, so we’ve established that there is a problem with white space, and that the problem is that it can be unnerving for me, and possibly some other designers. I’ve also suggested what I think to root of the issue might actually be. Now, I would like to look at some of the things that we can do to help combat this strange sense of discomfort.
Learn the Basic Principles of Design – There are some basic design concepts that every designer should know, or at least be getting to know. Things like balance and contrast, size and shape are all important to consider. If we understand how these things work, and how they impact composition, I believe that our designs will becomes stronger, and be able to stand on their own. This, in turn, will improve our confidence as designers, allowing us to stare that white space boldly in the (metaphorical) eye without feeling the need to somehow fill it.
Here are some great articles to read about the fundamentals of design:
The Lost Principles of Design – Fuel Your Creativity
The Seven Principles of Design – The Art Blog of Emily Gonsalves
The Principles of Design – Lucas Cobb Design
Understand the Use of Negative Space – Although the use of negative space is, itself, one of those basic principles of design, we might also want to take the time to look at the concept itself more closely. If we understand these principles, that empty white space that we’ve been talking about might not seem so intimidating.
Again, there are some awesome articles that can help with this:
Whitespace – A List Apart
A Negative View of White Space – FINCH
Whitespace: empty space? – Andrea Cima Serniotti
Check Out Some Awesome Websites – There are lots of beautifully designed websites that just allow negative space to remain simple, unaltered white. Taking some time to really study these sites can be hugely beneficial on two counts. First, it can be encouraging to see how these designs can work so well within their white space. Second, we can see how different principles are used in tandem to create a beautiful overall design.
Friday, June 4, 2010
Get Paid to Review Products and Keep them
It has been a while since I posted here about how you can make money through your blog. Although there are many of these sites out there on the topic, but only a few actually show you the real methods. Some just post just to flog you another copy of their ebook. In fact, research has shown that most of them are not worth the papers they are printed on.
That said, if you're serious about making money without having to buy anything, then this is for you. Pick one of the products you like, in some cases, you already have them in your home. So and get paid just for posting your opinion in the product. If it's book you like, you can also send them your review and get paid for it . What they expect from you though is a honest and impartial comment.
If you think you have a few minutes or hours to spare, then this is definitely something you should seriously consider. The last time I checked they had over 80 jobs available. So you're sure to find something there that you've used and can write about.
I've included a screenshot so have a look and leave your feedback and comments below.
Good luck
That said, if you're serious about making money without having to buy anything, then this is for you. Pick one of the products you like, in some cases, you already have them in your home. So and get paid just for posting your opinion in the product. If it's book you like, you can also send them your review and get paid for it . What they expect from you though is a honest and impartial comment.
If you think you have a few minutes or hours to spare, then this is definitely something you should seriously consider. The last time I checked they had over 80 jobs available. So you're sure to find something there that you've used and can write about.
I've included a screenshot so have a look and leave your feedback and comments below.
Good luck
7 Internet Marketing Secrets That the Internet Marketing Guru’s Will Not Share With You
You know, it never ceases to amaze me how much people want there Home Business, MLM, AND Internet Business to succeed, but they will never seek out the proper expertise and Knowledge that will Turn there Business around and bring change to their lives.
Even when the world could be falling to pieces around them, because of there ‘Old Ways’ of doing things… humans will still continue to HANG ON for dear life, and to their ideas or habits, out of pure fear of the unknown.
The sad part is (for those who do that), the other side of that equation are usually $35,000 Per Month, Online Part Time”.
The fact of the matter is, if you are going to succeed in any business On-line, You must first be willing to do two Things:
1) Be willing to try New Thing and Tactic, if the one you have right now is not working.
2) At the beginning stages of your internet or Home based business, you must be willing to invest as much time as possible. You must be willing to research and find out what is out there that is working for other Internet Marketers in you Niche.
This Article is meant to help reduce your mistakes and stop you from wasting your Money, Time, AND Resources, buying Internet Marketing programs from Guru’s that hardly know what Internet Marketing is all about. Before we continue, I want to take a little time, to thank you upfront for reading this ARTICLE. I’m sure you will enjoy it and find it beneficial to your business. But first, and foremost who am I? and Why should you even listen to me? What can I truly offer to help you and your business?
I was involved in Internet Marketing for a number of years barely making ends meets; in fact, my Expenditures outweighed my profits by a few thousand dollars over the course of three+ years. No matter what I was told at meetings, /trainings, from On-line Guru’s I’ve Subscribed to or, from the company who’s product am selling; nothing, was working. I was told to i.e. make a list of 100 people I know (family, friends, colleagues), maintain your company website, hand out 5 DVD’s every day with sufficient brochures to supplement, business cards, etc., etc., etc. These techniques were fruitless and frustrating. Lots of time and energy was invested for little or no results. Nothing worked for me, and it hardly worked for anyone I knew. That’s why I am providing this information today. I spent thousands of dollars on tools that always over-promised and under-delivered (and I have a closet full of souvenirs to remind me…ugh!). So I want to give you some great information to help you put some cash back in your pocket OR before you spend it unwisely. Beyond this article, I will be discussing many other subjects and strategies to help you grow you business. Things like:
– A functional outline for the online marketing of your products and services
– How to use the 3 greatest business growth tools that you have at your fingertips to your greatest advantage
– How to position yourself as an expert in your product or service
– How to find THOUSANDS of people that are demonstrating a need and desire for what you have
– How to master copywriting skills that will have your prospects watering at the mouth
…But before I get ahead of myself, the first step is to Show you 7 thing you can do now to Place you Home Business, MLM, Network Marketing and Internet Marketing Business on the Fast Track. Enjoy it, and stay tuned for more great Knowledge information to turbo-charge your business.
“7 Simple No-Fail Methods To Earn Yourself Towering 5-Figure Monthly Commission Checks And Rake In Piles Of Cold Hard Cash…Marketing ” Whatever You Want!” Does that sound impossible? At least a little unbelievable? It’s not. It’s more than realistic, even conservative. And I’m about to show you why.
1. Target Your Market! Since you can’t rely on your warm market for long-term growth, who are you supposed to talk to about your business? The answer: Your target market. Who is your target market? It depends on what you are marketing. Your target market are those people who are most likely to buy from you. You have to resist the temptation to be too general in the hopes of getting a larger slice of the market. That’s like firing 10 bullets in random directions instead of aiming just one dead center on the mark – expensive and dangerous if ignored, lucrative and rewarding if heeded. Here are some questions to get you started:
o Are your target customers male or female?
o How old are they?
o Where do they live? Is geography a limiting factor for any reason?
o What do they do for a living?
o How much money do they make? This is most significant if you’re selling relatively expensive or high-end products. Most people can afford a $20 bottle of health juice. You can’t say the same of a $500 anti-aging treatment.
o What other aspects of their lives matter? If you’re marketing a telecom service, your target market probably already have some sort of phone service.
o What is important to them? What are their fears, hopes, desires? Once upon a time, business owners thought it was enough to market their products or services to “18- to 49-year olds.” Those days are a thing of the past. These days, you have to be specific, and you have to understand what your market looking for.
2. Stop Selling — Start Sorting It’s easy to slip into the habit of convincing people that what we have is legit. We are taught that we have to “sell” everyone on our product and opportunity. We have to beg, plead, and follow up endlessly, until they finally relent and say “yes”. That’s a great way to burn out fast. Convincing and selling take a lot of time and energy. It’s a painstaking process, and it’s very uncomfortable for most people to try and “sell”. I hate selling. I never sell. I sort. Here’s the difference: Selling is trying to create demand, and convince people that they need what you have. Sorting is about finding people that are already interested, and simply creating the urgency to buy from you. Sorting is fun. And it pays much better than selling.
So how do you sort? You sort by filtering your prospects. In your Sales funnel, you design different “check points” that require a prospect to take an action before proceeding on to the next phase of the sales funnel. That process weeds out the people that are NOT interested, and leaves you with the people that are interested. When starting, the top of your sales funnel should be a prospecting script that screens and qualifies your prospects. If you design a script that sorts out people that are curious from people who are serious, then you can qualify your prospects, and put the odds in your favor that you are spending your time with a future associate. Really, prospecting is all about sorting, about qualifying, and about spending your time with people that truly want what you have. At this point, you’ve probably been taught to talk to anyone who will listen to you about your business opportunity, and that’s the wrong mindset to have. You should never spend your time with someone unless you know that they are interested or have the tendency to purchase what you are offering. This is why your friends and family doesn’t work — you don’t qualify them, and they don’t respect your time.
Most of them don’t have the heart to tell you flat out that they aren’t interested, because they probably care about you. They just don’t want anything to do with your business. That’s a good thing! There are too many other qualified people to be speaking with that would like to do business with you. Besides, once you are successful, most friends and family members will actually approach you, and want to know how to get involved. Let’s say you are marketing a travel service and business opportunity. You could use a very simple script that goes through, qualifies your prospect, and then you can ask them something like “if I could show you a way where you could travel to Hawaii for free or even get paid to travel, would that be worth about 30 minutes of your time to learn how to do that?” Then, you know that they have an interest in your business, and in your service.
3. Leverage The Internet Ok — so the Internet gets hyped up all the time about how amazing it is, how fast it can explode your business, blah blah blah. Well – it’s true! Make no mistake about it — the Internet has the ability to explode your business faster than any other tool on the planet. Before we even talk about the Internet, let’s talk about your company. Many companies will tell you that they forbid you to advertise, that they have to approve of anything you do if you market on the Internet or anywhere else. This is absolutely true — if you use their trademark names or the name of the company in your advertising.
That’s how you market online without having to have everything run through the “company” -you just don’t mention the company. You position YOURSELF first, and talk about the benefits that your product can offer. For example: Let’s say John Doe is a distributor for XYZ company, and they offer a health juice that helps diabetes. John’s natural inclination is to put up a website that says: “Hi, I’m John Doe, and I’m a distributor with XYZ corporation. XYZ is a great company that is changing lives. They have a juice that cures diabetes! Call me for a presentation!” This is bad. Really bad.
You might think that John would have to be an idiot to put this kind of stuff on a website or in an ad, but Major businesses have to prevent their distributors from doing this all the time. Their distributors get carried away, and make all kinds of crazy claims to market their product. Let’s say John Doe has the good sense to talk to me before he publishes that ad or website. After we chat, he changes things so that it reads: “Hi, I’m John Doe, and I provide people with powerful information that has been shown to dramatically reduce the chances of developing diabetes. If you are suffering from diabetes, and if you would like to know of a way that could drastically reduce or even eliminate the symptoms, then call me for a free needs-analysis report”
Now this is a totally different ballgame. First, John Doe is not speaking in the name of his company — he is speaking in his own name. He’s not making any crazy product claims, he uses words like “has been shown to reduce” and “could reduce”. He’s not blabbering about the company at all, which is good – people like to buy from expertise, and it does John no good to talk about how great his company is, because at this point, HIS PROSPECT DOESN’T CARE. Remember, his prospect is just thinking WIFM – what’s in it for me? John is also offers a compelling reason to take action – he is giving a free needs analysis. This is 100% legit with any network marketing company or home-based business. So long as you don’t mention your company and make claims in their name, you are protecting them from being sued and legal liability, which is why they publish their policies and procedures in the first place. Now let’s talk about the Internet. There are two parts to succeeding with the internet — the traffic, or your web visitors, and your website. Let’s talk about traffic first.
The power of the internet is that it allows you to dramatically leverage the number of people that are exposed to what you are marketing. You can drive hundreds or thousands of visitors to a website every single day, and you can target it so that only people that are actively looking for what you have see your site. There are 3 primary ways to drive traffic: PPC — or “paid traffic” SEO — or “organic traffic” Social Media — or Web 2.0good news is… First, PPC is one of the fastest and easiest ways to gain massive exposure and drive high quality visitors and prospects to your site. One of the key steps here is that you need to know how to buy your traffic wholesale. Paying full price on Google Ad words or Yahoo Sponsored search will drain your bank account. PPC is all about using their paid advertising networks to expose your ad to targeted visitors. The best part about pay per click is that only people who want what you have right now are exposed to your ad. That way, you can qualify your prospect before you ever pay a penny, and they have to respond to your message before you pay.
There are some very simple strategies you can use to master PPC, but you must know what you are doing, because you can also get hurt if you just start buying traffic ignorantly. The second way to drive targeted traffic is with SEO, or search engine optimization. This is powerful because it is free traffic, but you must have the technical skills to understand what a search engine is looking for when it ranks websites. Search engines have bots, or web crawlers, that go out and search the websites out on the internet. And if you know what these web crawlers are looking for, you can blow by your competition and get ranked at the top of the search engines. There really is a formula for this, and it works time and again. Finally, the third way to drive traffic is with Social Media, which is commonly called Web 2.0. These are popular websites such as Squidoo.com, MySpace.com, YouTube.com, and many others that have become popular online hubs. What is interesting is that social media traffic is some of the highest-quality traffic online today, but it is a very different kind of marketing.
In order to succeed with Web 2.0, you have to learn how to provide quality content, and build a loyal fan base with your material. If you do this right, you can have 200, 300, or even 500 people per day reaching out to you, asking for more information about what you have. This type of traffic can be presold, so that when they actually see your website or your web message, they are ready and eager to work with you personally. You are already positioned as an expert before you ever even speak with them. There is a downside to web 2.0 though – if you don’t know what you are doing, and just start blasting advertising on these sites, then you will be shut down and lose your account. Like ppc and seo, there is an art and science to using these tools.
But the good News is… Anyone, with the right knowledge, can take these tools, dominate their market, and separate themselves from the competition.
4) I know you want your On-line Business to grow quickly, and one of the best way to do that is to start bogging. A blog is a website that you can update with quality content on your particular area of expertise. It is highly recommended that you update your blog regularly, whether that is once a day, once a week, or once a month. Whatever the case, we highly recommend that you are consistent with your updates. This is the KEY to success with the blog – consistency. On top of that, you can make money off your blog! If you host advertising on your blog, then advertising networks will pay you for it. So you can blog about the benefits of your product, service, and opportunity, generate leads that are reaching out to you, AND getting paid for advertising. It’s a nice tool to have
Some of the best advertising networks: Google Ad Sense Ad Sense is a must have to make money from a blog. Google displays simple text and image ads on your blog that are targeted to what you’re writing about. You can sign up for a free account at: AdSense.Google.com Bidvertiser Bidvertiser is one of the best ad networks. They sell text links that you see under “Featured Sites” on websites. Bidvertiser is a CPC ad network that competes with Google Ad Sense. The good thing about Bidvertiser is its low $10 payout. With AdSense, you will have to reach $100 in ad commissions before they will pay you – with Bidvertiser, you only have to hit $10 before they pay out. You can get an account at: bidvertiser.com NetKlix NetKlix is another great CPC ad network for publisher (bloggers) to get paid. They pay out each month directly into your checking account. You can get an account at: NetKlix.com Blogging can be very lucrative, and if you are able to build a fan base that frequently visits your blog, you can generate a significant income. I know bloggers who pull in $40,000 per month just from the advertising revenue of their blog. It’s no joke, and it should be implemented if you hope to make money from home. Now there is one last thing I want to talk about – and it’s the most important business growth tool you’ll ever have. And that is — a successful mindset.
5) “Someday”? Do you know how to tell a successful person from an unsuccessful one? The easiest way is by how they talk. When you talk to a successful person about their goals and targets, they will tell you what they plan to do and when it will be done. When an unsuccessful person talks about their goals (assuming they even have any), you’ll hear something along the lines of “I hope to do this someday” or “I really wish this would happen”. Here’s a clue for all you losers out there — “someday” never comes. You know why someone with a loser’s mentality always uses words like “someday”, “I hope” or “I wish”? They do it because it gives them an out, and allows them to not be accountable for their words. If they have to place a time limit on the goal and they don’t do it, they fail, and a loser hates to fail. Winners have no fear of failing, because they know success is made from strings of failure. Everyone has dreams and goals. Do you know the only difference between a goal and a dream?
A goal is a dream + action. We all have dreams, becoming financially independent, having a family, helping charities, making an impact on the world, etc. Have you ever made a goal to achieve your dreams? If so, did you place a time limit on it, or did you just say “I hope it happens someday”? Can you imagine buying a presale home and not knowing when it will be completed? Can you imagine if the developer just kept telling you “I’ll get it finished someday”. Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is required in order to succeed. You won’t find a successful person who doesn’t have a few stories to tell about their failure (I know I do). Making a tremendous income with your home-based business is something that lots of people would like to do. Something that many people dream of doing. The question is -Will It Happen “Today” or will it happen “Someday”?
Are You Ready To Make It Happen — Starting Today? If so, then You need to know something about the law of Attraction. I can only scram so many strategies into one Article. There are some basic laws of attraction that you have to follow and know to start making your dreams and goals a reality.
6) One of those laws is VISUALIZATION Visualize Your Goals Clearly If you consciously believe that you have the ability to be successful and achieve your goals and Dreams, then you need to hold a picture of those goals clearly in your mind long enough and hard enough, till eventually your outer world is correspond with your inner world.
7) Finally, guard your thoughts carefully. Whatever you think about, combined with the emotions of desire or fear, you will attract into your life. Be sure that you are attracting what you want by continuing to think only about what you want. keep feeding your mind with new information, ideas and pictures of the person you want to be and the life you want to live. By creating this inner attitude of mind, you change the outer aspects of your reality. The success of you business is dependent on you Positive mental State.
Even when the world could be falling to pieces around them, because of there ‘Old Ways’ of doing things… humans will still continue to HANG ON for dear life, and to their ideas or habits, out of pure fear of the unknown.
The sad part is (for those who do that), the other side of that equation are usually $35,000 Per Month, Online Part Time”.
The fact of the matter is, if you are going to succeed in any business On-line, You must first be willing to do two Things:
1) Be willing to try New Thing and Tactic, if the one you have right now is not working.
2) At the beginning stages of your internet or Home based business, you must be willing to invest as much time as possible. You must be willing to research and find out what is out there that is working for other Internet Marketers in you Niche.
This Article is meant to help reduce your mistakes and stop you from wasting your Money, Time, AND Resources, buying Internet Marketing programs from Guru’s that hardly know what Internet Marketing is all about. Before we continue, I want to take a little time, to thank you upfront for reading this ARTICLE. I’m sure you will enjoy it and find it beneficial to your business. But first, and foremost who am I? and Why should you even listen to me? What can I truly offer to help you and your business?
I was involved in Internet Marketing for a number of years barely making ends meets; in fact, my Expenditures outweighed my profits by a few thousand dollars over the course of three+ years. No matter what I was told at meetings, /trainings, from On-line Guru’s I’ve Subscribed to or, from the company who’s product am selling; nothing, was working. I was told to i.e. make a list of 100 people I know (family, friends, colleagues), maintain your company website, hand out 5 DVD’s every day with sufficient brochures to supplement, business cards, etc., etc., etc. These techniques were fruitless and frustrating. Lots of time and energy was invested for little or no results. Nothing worked for me, and it hardly worked for anyone I knew. That’s why I am providing this information today. I spent thousands of dollars on tools that always over-promised and under-delivered (and I have a closet full of souvenirs to remind me…ugh!). So I want to give you some great information to help you put some cash back in your pocket OR before you spend it unwisely. Beyond this article, I will be discussing many other subjects and strategies to help you grow you business. Things like:
– A functional outline for the online marketing of your products and services
– How to use the 3 greatest business growth tools that you have at your fingertips to your greatest advantage
– How to position yourself as an expert in your product or service
– How to find THOUSANDS of people that are demonstrating a need and desire for what you have
– How to master copywriting skills that will have your prospects watering at the mouth
…But before I get ahead of myself, the first step is to Show you 7 thing you can do now to Place you Home Business, MLM, Network Marketing and Internet Marketing Business on the Fast Track. Enjoy it, and stay tuned for more great Knowledge information to turbo-charge your business.
“7 Simple No-Fail Methods To Earn Yourself Towering 5-Figure Monthly Commission Checks And Rake In Piles Of Cold Hard Cash…Marketing ” Whatever You Want!” Does that sound impossible? At least a little unbelievable? It’s not. It’s more than realistic, even conservative. And I’m about to show you why.
1. Target Your Market! Since you can’t rely on your warm market for long-term growth, who are you supposed to talk to about your business? The answer: Your target market. Who is your target market? It depends on what you are marketing. Your target market are those people who are most likely to buy from you. You have to resist the temptation to be too general in the hopes of getting a larger slice of the market. That’s like firing 10 bullets in random directions instead of aiming just one dead center on the mark – expensive and dangerous if ignored, lucrative and rewarding if heeded. Here are some questions to get you started:
o Are your target customers male or female?
o How old are they?
o Where do they live? Is geography a limiting factor for any reason?
o What do they do for a living?
o How much money do they make? This is most significant if you’re selling relatively expensive or high-end products. Most people can afford a $20 bottle of health juice. You can’t say the same of a $500 anti-aging treatment.
o What other aspects of their lives matter? If you’re marketing a telecom service, your target market probably already have some sort of phone service.
o What is important to them? What are their fears, hopes, desires? Once upon a time, business owners thought it was enough to market their products or services to “18- to 49-year olds.” Those days are a thing of the past. These days, you have to be specific, and you have to understand what your market looking for.
2. Stop Selling — Start Sorting It’s easy to slip into the habit of convincing people that what we have is legit. We are taught that we have to “sell” everyone on our product and opportunity. We have to beg, plead, and follow up endlessly, until they finally relent and say “yes”. That’s a great way to burn out fast. Convincing and selling take a lot of time and energy. It’s a painstaking process, and it’s very uncomfortable for most people to try and “sell”. I hate selling. I never sell. I sort. Here’s the difference: Selling is trying to create demand, and convince people that they need what you have. Sorting is about finding people that are already interested, and simply creating the urgency to buy from you. Sorting is fun. And it pays much better than selling.
So how do you sort? You sort by filtering your prospects. In your Sales funnel, you design different “check points” that require a prospect to take an action before proceeding on to the next phase of the sales funnel. That process weeds out the people that are NOT interested, and leaves you with the people that are interested. When starting, the top of your sales funnel should be a prospecting script that screens and qualifies your prospects. If you design a script that sorts out people that are curious from people who are serious, then you can qualify your prospects, and put the odds in your favor that you are spending your time with a future associate. Really, prospecting is all about sorting, about qualifying, and about spending your time with people that truly want what you have. At this point, you’ve probably been taught to talk to anyone who will listen to you about your business opportunity, and that’s the wrong mindset to have. You should never spend your time with someone unless you know that they are interested or have the tendency to purchase what you are offering. This is why your friends and family doesn’t work — you don’t qualify them, and they don’t respect your time.
Most of them don’t have the heart to tell you flat out that they aren’t interested, because they probably care about you. They just don’t want anything to do with your business. That’s a good thing! There are too many other qualified people to be speaking with that would like to do business with you. Besides, once you are successful, most friends and family members will actually approach you, and want to know how to get involved. Let’s say you are marketing a travel service and business opportunity. You could use a very simple script that goes through, qualifies your prospect, and then you can ask them something like “if I could show you a way where you could travel to Hawaii for free or even get paid to travel, would that be worth about 30 minutes of your time to learn how to do that?” Then, you know that they have an interest in your business, and in your service.
3. Leverage The Internet Ok — so the Internet gets hyped up all the time about how amazing it is, how fast it can explode your business, blah blah blah. Well – it’s true! Make no mistake about it — the Internet has the ability to explode your business faster than any other tool on the planet. Before we even talk about the Internet, let’s talk about your company. Many companies will tell you that they forbid you to advertise, that they have to approve of anything you do if you market on the Internet or anywhere else. This is absolutely true — if you use their trademark names or the name of the company in your advertising.
That’s how you market online without having to have everything run through the “company” -you just don’t mention the company. You position YOURSELF first, and talk about the benefits that your product can offer. For example: Let’s say John Doe is a distributor for XYZ company, and they offer a health juice that helps diabetes. John’s natural inclination is to put up a website that says: “Hi, I’m John Doe, and I’m a distributor with XYZ corporation. XYZ is a great company that is changing lives. They have a juice that cures diabetes! Call me for a presentation!” This is bad. Really bad.
You might think that John would have to be an idiot to put this kind of stuff on a website or in an ad, but Major businesses have to prevent their distributors from doing this all the time. Their distributors get carried away, and make all kinds of crazy claims to market their product. Let’s say John Doe has the good sense to talk to me before he publishes that ad or website. After we chat, he changes things so that it reads: “Hi, I’m John Doe, and I provide people with powerful information that has been shown to dramatically reduce the chances of developing diabetes. If you are suffering from diabetes, and if you would like to know of a way that could drastically reduce or even eliminate the symptoms, then call me for a free needs-analysis report”
Now this is a totally different ballgame. First, John Doe is not speaking in the name of his company — he is speaking in his own name. He’s not making any crazy product claims, he uses words like “has been shown to reduce” and “could reduce”. He’s not blabbering about the company at all, which is good – people like to buy from expertise, and it does John no good to talk about how great his company is, because at this point, HIS PROSPECT DOESN’T CARE. Remember, his prospect is just thinking WIFM – what’s in it for me? John is also offers a compelling reason to take action – he is giving a free needs analysis. This is 100% legit with any network marketing company or home-based business. So long as you don’t mention your company and make claims in their name, you are protecting them from being sued and legal liability, which is why they publish their policies and procedures in the first place. Now let’s talk about the Internet. There are two parts to succeeding with the internet — the traffic, or your web visitors, and your website. Let’s talk about traffic first.
The power of the internet is that it allows you to dramatically leverage the number of people that are exposed to what you are marketing. You can drive hundreds or thousands of visitors to a website every single day, and you can target it so that only people that are actively looking for what you have see your site. There are 3 primary ways to drive traffic: PPC — or “paid traffic” SEO — or “organic traffic” Social Media — or Web 2.0good news is… First, PPC is one of the fastest and easiest ways to gain massive exposure and drive high quality visitors and prospects to your site. One of the key steps here is that you need to know how to buy your traffic wholesale. Paying full price on Google Ad words or Yahoo Sponsored search will drain your bank account. PPC is all about using their paid advertising networks to expose your ad to targeted visitors. The best part about pay per click is that only people who want what you have right now are exposed to your ad. That way, you can qualify your prospect before you ever pay a penny, and they have to respond to your message before you pay.
There are some very simple strategies you can use to master PPC, but you must know what you are doing, because you can also get hurt if you just start buying traffic ignorantly. The second way to drive targeted traffic is with SEO, or search engine optimization. This is powerful because it is free traffic, but you must have the technical skills to understand what a search engine is looking for when it ranks websites. Search engines have bots, or web crawlers, that go out and search the websites out on the internet. And if you know what these web crawlers are looking for, you can blow by your competition and get ranked at the top of the search engines. There really is a formula for this, and it works time and again. Finally, the third way to drive traffic is with Social Media, which is commonly called Web 2.0. These are popular websites such as Squidoo.com, MySpace.com, YouTube.com, and many others that have become popular online hubs. What is interesting is that social media traffic is some of the highest-quality traffic online today, but it is a very different kind of marketing.
In order to succeed with Web 2.0, you have to learn how to provide quality content, and build a loyal fan base with your material. If you do this right, you can have 200, 300, or even 500 people per day reaching out to you, asking for more information about what you have. This type of traffic can be presold, so that when they actually see your website or your web message, they are ready and eager to work with you personally. You are already positioned as an expert before you ever even speak with them. There is a downside to web 2.0 though – if you don’t know what you are doing, and just start blasting advertising on these sites, then you will be shut down and lose your account. Like ppc and seo, there is an art and science to using these tools.
But the good News is… Anyone, with the right knowledge, can take these tools, dominate their market, and separate themselves from the competition.
4) I know you want your On-line Business to grow quickly, and one of the best way to do that is to start bogging. A blog is a website that you can update with quality content on your particular area of expertise. It is highly recommended that you update your blog regularly, whether that is once a day, once a week, or once a month. Whatever the case, we highly recommend that you are consistent with your updates. This is the KEY to success with the blog – consistency. On top of that, you can make money off your blog! If you host advertising on your blog, then advertising networks will pay you for it. So you can blog about the benefits of your product, service, and opportunity, generate leads that are reaching out to you, AND getting paid for advertising. It’s a nice tool to have
Some of the best advertising networks: Google Ad Sense Ad Sense is a must have to make money from a blog. Google displays simple text and image ads on your blog that are targeted to what you’re writing about. You can sign up for a free account at: AdSense.Google.com Bidvertiser Bidvertiser is one of the best ad networks. They sell text links that you see under “Featured Sites” on websites. Bidvertiser is a CPC ad network that competes with Google Ad Sense. The good thing about Bidvertiser is its low $10 payout. With AdSense, you will have to reach $100 in ad commissions before they will pay you – with Bidvertiser, you only have to hit $10 before they pay out. You can get an account at: bidvertiser.com NetKlix NetKlix is another great CPC ad network for publisher (bloggers) to get paid. They pay out each month directly into your checking account. You can get an account at: NetKlix.com Blogging can be very lucrative, and if you are able to build a fan base that frequently visits your blog, you can generate a significant income. I know bloggers who pull in $40,000 per month just from the advertising revenue of their blog. It’s no joke, and it should be implemented if you hope to make money from home. Now there is one last thing I want to talk about – and it’s the most important business growth tool you’ll ever have. And that is — a successful mindset.
5) “Someday”? Do you know how to tell a successful person from an unsuccessful one? The easiest way is by how they talk. When you talk to a successful person about their goals and targets, they will tell you what they plan to do and when it will be done. When an unsuccessful person talks about their goals (assuming they even have any), you’ll hear something along the lines of “I hope to do this someday” or “I really wish this would happen”. Here’s a clue for all you losers out there — “someday” never comes. You know why someone with a loser’s mentality always uses words like “someday”, “I hope” or “I wish”? They do it because it gives them an out, and allows them to not be accountable for their words. If they have to place a time limit on the goal and they don’t do it, they fail, and a loser hates to fail. Winners have no fear of failing, because they know success is made from strings of failure. Everyone has dreams and goals. Do you know the only difference between a goal and a dream?
A goal is a dream + action. We all have dreams, becoming financially independent, having a family, helping charities, making an impact on the world, etc. Have you ever made a goal to achieve your dreams? If so, did you place a time limit on it, or did you just say “I hope it happens someday”? Can you imagine buying a presale home and not knowing when it will be completed? Can you imagine if the developer just kept telling you “I’ll get it finished someday”. Don’t be afraid to fail. Failure is required in order to succeed. You won’t find a successful person who doesn’t have a few stories to tell about their failure (I know I do). Making a tremendous income with your home-based business is something that lots of people would like to do. Something that many people dream of doing. The question is -Will It Happen “Today” or will it happen “Someday”?
Are You Ready To Make It Happen — Starting Today? If so, then You need to know something about the law of Attraction. I can only scram so many strategies into one Article. There are some basic laws of attraction that you have to follow and know to start making your dreams and goals a reality.
6) One of those laws is VISUALIZATION Visualize Your Goals Clearly If you consciously believe that you have the ability to be successful and achieve your goals and Dreams, then you need to hold a picture of those goals clearly in your mind long enough and hard enough, till eventually your outer world is correspond with your inner world.
7) Finally, guard your thoughts carefully. Whatever you think about, combined with the emotions of desire or fear, you will attract into your life. Be sure that you are attracting what you want by continuing to think only about what you want. keep feeding your mind with new information, ideas and pictures of the person you want to be and the life you want to live. By creating this inner attitude of mind, you change the outer aspects of your reality. The success of you business is dependent on you Positive mental State.
Factors for community quality
Inspired by Wolfshead's latest rant, I wanted to take a look at game community. The article got me thinking about what really makes a good community. Not that I'm a good community manager, but I sure do have opinions!
That's why you're here, right? So, let's take a look at the factors that affect the quality of a community from a developer's point of view.
Wolfshead complains that the community in WoW is terrible, and that Blizzard is to blame. He then gets upset that the core of the problem is that WoW's design has undermined the community, and that games that try to blindly clone WoW are falling prey to the same problems. He also laments that the MMO audience has been accepting this corrosion in community. Finally, he advocates a "real cataclysm" to shake things up and try to go back to the good old days.
Reaction has been mixed. I won't go into that right now, so let's assume that Wolfshead is right and the community is worse than it has been in the past. What could cause this? I can think of five different issues to discuss.
Game Design Decisions
This is the core of Wolfshead's argument, which I interpret to mean that the solo-friendly nature of teh game made it so that people didn't feel the need to form bonds. If you could find quests and the quest objectives by yourself all the way up to maximum level, there was little reason to play nice with others. This materializes in the game in the disconnect between "casuals" and "raiders" in the old game.
Recent design decisions have seemingly accelerated this process. While the Dungeon Finder was heralded as a major advancement, it seems that what it's really done has made it so that you don't even need to form bonds to get into group content. People point out that the most common phrase you're likely to hear is "Go go go", or that your group mates are more likely to treat you as a glorified NPC or a gearscore number. Even a WoW developer has said . It's hard for players to push back against this change in community standards; as Gordon asks in his post, "what exactly can you do against a rude player from another server?"
The problem I see is the old conflict between short-term good and long-term good for the community. Taking the example of the Dungeon Finder once again, we see that this was indeed a short-term benefit for the game. It allowed a lot more people to consume a lot more group-focused content, and was widely lauded for that effect. But, for anyone looking for deeper social interaction or to be able to make a mistake without people leaving the group, this was a negative thing. In the long run, we're starting to see the harm its doing to the community.
Ultimately, I think that game design decisions can make a big difference in the community. But, the problem is that sometimes the decisions that are better in the long term are unpopular in the short term. Retaining players with a better community doesn't really work out well if you don't attract those people in the first place.
But, let's look at some other issues people have brought up in other posts.
Type of Gameplay
This is kind of related to developer decisions, of course, but this affects games as a whole. I'm not just talking about PvP here. Any form a competition where an edge over others gives an advantage will end in crying when a degree of anonymity is involved. It shouldn't be a surprise that misanthropic goblins thrive at bilking the morons and slackers from money in the auction hall of an otherwise team-focused game.
But, PvP does bring out the worst in a community. In traditional MMO design, players are weaker at the beginning, so you have people who will prey on the weak. The last thing you really want is some inexperienced player walking into an situation they can't escape from as one of their early experiences. You also have the problem that new players are seen with suspicion. I know in Meridian 59 new players were more likely to be seen as possible moles rolled up by guild enemies rather than the lifeblood of keeping the game alive. As such, a new player not only had to deal with PvPers preying on them, they also had to deal with being ostracized from the community for fear of being a spy.
One game that did this right was Asheron's Call, where players could mentor other players and get part of their experience. Even though this was ultimately a pyramid scheme, it made players see newcomers as valuable resources to be guided and cherished. Yes, new players could still be exploited, but this fueled an initial social contact with people.
Community Management
Here are the people that the developers simultaneously love and despise. They do an impossible job, something that no sane developer should want (or be allowed) to do. But, without a deep knowledge of the game and a good working relationship with the developers, it can be hard for them to do their job well.
Part of managing the community also means establishing the baselines for the community's behavior. A community manager is vital for establishing what is and is not appropriate behavior. But, this can turn problematic if the community manager gets too close to the community. Community managers want to be seen as the champion of the players, so it can be hard for them to be the harsh disciplinarian when required.
This is definitely an issue I face with Meridian 59's community. It was hard to set boundaries for some of the players who probably should have been put on a leash for the benefit of the community. But, there was the concern of the cries of favoritism if we temporarily suspended the account of one of the best players in one guild because he kept insulting other people's mothers in global chat. With a small team, we really always have "gentle parent" and "disciplinarian parent" roles well-defined. Plus, it kind of wears on you to always be the asshole that smacks others down for being naughty and never being the person who shares in the small in-game triumphs.
Community Size
This is one of the common issues people use, usually to defend games with larger communities. The comparison is between the community of a small town vs. the community of a large city. In the small town, everyone knows everyone. People feel a bit more safe, and do things that seem crazy like leaving car doors or even house doors unlocked. The big city, on the other hand, makes it harder to get to know others by sheer volume of other people. Screams in the night will go ignored, not merely because people are callous, but because the bonds aren't there.
I think there's some truth here, of course. Going from playing Meridian 59 to trying out EverQuest for a bit, I was struck by how much less friendly people were. People were running around and didn't take the time to really chat with others. I tried to wave or say hi to people, but they were always out of range. A big change compared to the definite "small town" feeling that M59 had. (This makes it even funnier when people refers to EQ's community as better than WoW's; a matter of perception, I guess.)
We also saw this on the internet. Some of you old-timers might remember the September that never ended. This was the one year when there were so many new internet users who came online (mostly from universities that started in September) that they could not all be taught proper "netiquette". Some of the dinosaurs thought that this degraded the level of discourse on the internet irreparably.
The problem, from a developer's point of view, is that it's hard to say what can be done if you want to run a traditional subscription-based MMO. You could try focusing your game on a niche to attract a smaller community, or perhaps going with a different business model. Larger subscription-based games have always tried to attract a larger audience in order to get more revenue and more profits. This is how they work. We would have to make some changes to the way these games are made on a fundamental level before this works. But, this is one reason why I think new business models are exciting, because they allow you to make more money without having to cater to the lowest common denominator.
Community Age
One other factor is the age of the community. As communities grow older, the start calcifying. Cliques that formed early on become inflexible groups who are wary of outsiders not indoctrinated to their way of thinking, even if there is no external pressure. As an exercise, think about high school: by the time you get to the upper grades, you know who belongs to which group: the jocks vs. the nerds vs. the rich kids, etc. You couldn't just go from being a nerd to a jock overnight without changing schools.
It makes sense that the community issues are starting to become more prominent in WoW now, because that's been the same in every game. EQ's community changed over time, especially as the game matured and and raiding became the premier activity. The community was a lot more open at the beginning; but as the different tiers of guilds settled out, you had more restrictions. Being a top tier guild on a server meant that you could be restrictive about who came into the guild. Of course, every wannabe top tier guild organizer would only want "the best". Eventually you have a situation where it becomes hard to break into the community at all.
What can a developer do?
Unfortunately, this is one of those issues that's long on problems and short on solutions. If I had the magic bullet, I'd be doing it. For me, I think the most appealing possibility is to try to focus more on niche games with smaller communities. As I said, this is unpopular with investors because it carries a lot more risk. But, it's one of the reasons why I've long been a fan of microtransactions.
But, could anything be cone for WoW's community? I'm not sure. Perhaps the genie is out of the bottle and you can't just take away some of the design decisions, like the dungeon finder, that got the game into its current situation. Given that WoW hasn't grown for several years now, at least in the western markets, this might be the time for Blizzard to try something radical. Given their history of being able to generate a seemingly endless supply for short-term beneficial design decisions, there's not a compelling reason for them to make a radical change. Sure, the community may not be great, but they're still sitting on millions of more players than other games in the same class.
What do you think? Could anything be done to "save" WoW's community? Or was it always terrible? Would you be interested in playing a more niche-focused game with a smaller community to get a better community? Would you be willing to pay more for this to support the niche game?
That's why you're here, right? So, let's take a look at the factors that affect the quality of a community from a developer's point of view.
Wolfshead complains that the community in WoW is terrible, and that Blizzard is to blame. He then gets upset that the core of the problem is that WoW's design has undermined the community, and that games that try to blindly clone WoW are falling prey to the same problems. He also laments that the MMO audience has been accepting this corrosion in community. Finally, he advocates a "real cataclysm" to shake things up and try to go back to the good old days.
Reaction has been mixed. I won't go into that right now, so let's assume that Wolfshead is right and the community is worse than it has been in the past. What could cause this? I can think of five different issues to discuss.
Game Design Decisions
This is the core of Wolfshead's argument, which I interpret to mean that the solo-friendly nature of teh game made it so that people didn't feel the need to form bonds. If you could find quests and the quest objectives by yourself all the way up to maximum level, there was little reason to play nice with others. This materializes in the game in the disconnect between "casuals" and "raiders" in the old game.
Recent design decisions have seemingly accelerated this process. While the Dungeon Finder was heralded as a major advancement, it seems that what it's really done has made it so that you don't even need to form bonds to get into group content. People point out that the most common phrase you're likely to hear is "Go go go", or that your group mates are more likely to treat you as a glorified NPC or a gearscore number. Even a WoW developer has said . It's hard for players to push back against this change in community standards; as Gordon asks in his post, "what exactly can you do against a rude player from another server?"
The problem I see is the old conflict between short-term good and long-term good for the community. Taking the example of the Dungeon Finder once again, we see that this was indeed a short-term benefit for the game. It allowed a lot more people to consume a lot more group-focused content, and was widely lauded for that effect. But, for anyone looking for deeper social interaction or to be able to make a mistake without people leaving the group, this was a negative thing. In the long run, we're starting to see the harm its doing to the community.
Ultimately, I think that game design decisions can make a big difference in the community. But, the problem is that sometimes the decisions that are better in the long term are unpopular in the short term. Retaining players with a better community doesn't really work out well if you don't attract those people in the first place.
But, let's look at some other issues people have brought up in other posts.
Type of Gameplay
This is kind of related to developer decisions, of course, but this affects games as a whole. I'm not just talking about PvP here. Any form a competition where an edge over others gives an advantage will end in crying when a degree of anonymity is involved. It shouldn't be a surprise that misanthropic goblins thrive at bilking the morons and slackers from money in the auction hall of an otherwise team-focused game.
But, PvP does bring out the worst in a community. In traditional MMO design, players are weaker at the beginning, so you have people who will prey on the weak. The last thing you really want is some inexperienced player walking into an situation they can't escape from as one of their early experiences. You also have the problem that new players are seen with suspicion. I know in Meridian 59 new players were more likely to be seen as possible moles rolled up by guild enemies rather than the lifeblood of keeping the game alive. As such, a new player not only had to deal with PvPers preying on them, they also had to deal with being ostracized from the community for fear of being a spy.
One game that did this right was Asheron's Call, where players could mentor other players and get part of their experience. Even though this was ultimately a pyramid scheme, it made players see newcomers as valuable resources to be guided and cherished. Yes, new players could still be exploited, but this fueled an initial social contact with people.
Community Management
Here are the people that the developers simultaneously love and despise. They do an impossible job, something that no sane developer should want (or be allowed) to do. But, without a deep knowledge of the game and a good working relationship with the developers, it can be hard for them to do their job well.
Part of managing the community also means establishing the baselines for the community's behavior. A community manager is vital for establishing what is and is not appropriate behavior. But, this can turn problematic if the community manager gets too close to the community. Community managers want to be seen as the champion of the players, so it can be hard for them to be the harsh disciplinarian when required.
This is definitely an issue I face with Meridian 59's community. It was hard to set boundaries for some of the players who probably should have been put on a leash for the benefit of the community. But, there was the concern of the cries of favoritism if we temporarily suspended the account of one of the best players in one guild because he kept insulting other people's mothers in global chat. With a small team, we really always have "gentle parent" and "disciplinarian parent" roles well-defined. Plus, it kind of wears on you to always be the asshole that smacks others down for being naughty and never being the person who shares in the small in-game triumphs.
Community Size
This is one of the common issues people use, usually to defend games with larger communities. The comparison is between the community of a small town vs. the community of a large city. In the small town, everyone knows everyone. People feel a bit more safe, and do things that seem crazy like leaving car doors or even house doors unlocked. The big city, on the other hand, makes it harder to get to know others by sheer volume of other people. Screams in the night will go ignored, not merely because people are callous, but because the bonds aren't there.
I think there's some truth here, of course. Going from playing Meridian 59 to trying out EverQuest for a bit, I was struck by how much less friendly people were. People were running around and didn't take the time to really chat with others. I tried to wave or say hi to people, but they were always out of range. A big change compared to the definite "small town" feeling that M59 had. (This makes it even funnier when people refers to EQ's community as better than WoW's; a matter of perception, I guess.)
We also saw this on the internet. Some of you old-timers might remember the September that never ended. This was the one year when there were so many new internet users who came online (mostly from universities that started in September) that they could not all be taught proper "netiquette". Some of the dinosaurs thought that this degraded the level of discourse on the internet irreparably.
The problem, from a developer's point of view, is that it's hard to say what can be done if you want to run a traditional subscription-based MMO. You could try focusing your game on a niche to attract a smaller community, or perhaps going with a different business model. Larger subscription-based games have always tried to attract a larger audience in order to get more revenue and more profits. This is how they work. We would have to make some changes to the way these games are made on a fundamental level before this works. But, this is one reason why I think new business models are exciting, because they allow you to make more money without having to cater to the lowest common denominator.
Community Age
One other factor is the age of the community. As communities grow older, the start calcifying. Cliques that formed early on become inflexible groups who are wary of outsiders not indoctrinated to their way of thinking, even if there is no external pressure. As an exercise, think about high school: by the time you get to the upper grades, you know who belongs to which group: the jocks vs. the nerds vs. the rich kids, etc. You couldn't just go from being a nerd to a jock overnight without changing schools.
It makes sense that the community issues are starting to become more prominent in WoW now, because that's been the same in every game. EQ's community changed over time, especially as the game matured and and raiding became the premier activity. The community was a lot more open at the beginning; but as the different tiers of guilds settled out, you had more restrictions. Being a top tier guild on a server meant that you could be restrictive about who came into the guild. Of course, every wannabe top tier guild organizer would only want "the best". Eventually you have a situation where it becomes hard to break into the community at all.
What can a developer do?
Unfortunately, this is one of those issues that's long on problems and short on solutions. If I had the magic bullet, I'd be doing it. For me, I think the most appealing possibility is to try to focus more on niche games with smaller communities. As I said, this is unpopular with investors because it carries a lot more risk. But, it's one of the reasons why I've long been a fan of microtransactions.
But, could anything be cone for WoW's community? I'm not sure. Perhaps the genie is out of the bottle and you can't just take away some of the design decisions, like the dungeon finder, that got the game into its current situation. Given that WoW hasn't grown for several years now, at least in the western markets, this might be the time for Blizzard to try something radical. Given their history of being able to generate a seemingly endless supply for short-term beneficial design decisions, there's not a compelling reason for them to make a radical change. Sure, the community may not be great, but they're still sitting on millions of more players than other games in the same class.
What do you think? Could anything be done to "save" WoW's community? Or was it always terrible? Would you be interested in playing a more niche-focused game with a smaller community to get a better community? Would you be willing to pay more for this to support the niche game?
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