WANTED: Your Participation - The info in this post could make you money

Phil,

Thanks for the resources.

Focusing & Starting just One business idea is the Real Problem for Many

I don't know if this is actually a Problem, per se.

Let me explain...

People get a job. If the job fulfills their requirements of that job and the negatives can be Handled, the person will Stay.

Only They are the ones who know what their Requirements are and whether the job fulfills them. And their requirements could range from Income Level, Skill Utilisation or New Skill Learning, to Proximity To Home, Perks and other elements both Tangible and Intangible. And the requirements are different for all of us. And some requirements could Outweight others. Such as maybe earning less money as long as the other requirements were there, or sacrificing some of the other requirements in favor of extra money.

Also, what I could get satisfaction out of another person might not be able to stand. And vice versa.

For example. Ages ago I wrote a piece about Digging Holes for a living. And I had the line... "dig holes for a living IF...". Whatever comes after that IF are my Conditions, my Requirements. *I* could do physical hole digging as long as other requirements were met, while other people couldn't do anything physical as that is a primne requirement of theirs.

Based on this, my induction/deduction concludes... people chop and change ideas because those ideas (what they Imagined from those ideas) do not, or did not, satisfy their requirements. Maybe the idea satisfied all requirements except Amount of Money. Or all requirements except Time At Home With Family. Or all requirements except Moral Allignment. Or all requirements except needing to sell face-to-face.

As often, what they will get from the idea is only imagined and not experienced before they go into it, their delusion is shattered as Reality shows its face. Reality arrives and they discover their Requirements don't match what they Imagined from the business, and so they drop it.

Going by the kids of today... this is going to be a greater issue in the times ahead. As they seem more out of touch with reality now than ever before. The truth is, everyone is NOT a star or champion at everything they do. They live in a deluded dream world far from reality and they cannot Handle reality - look at the American Idol auditions to see how unstuck the grossly out of tune people become when reality arrives and shatters their delusion.

A way to Soften the Reality Blow is to Lower Your Expectations about any idea you think of following. To put less stock in it as Working or being Easy and a Cash Cow. Then, when reality arrives, you can make an unemotional decision about sticking with it or not, or even getting into in the first place.

Also, I feel much of the ideas concentrate too much on What to do and not actually How to do it.

For example: In Skips Free Report he wrote "Use a software program to get the misspellings of those two phrases and use all of them for your keyword list in your PPC campaign."

That is WHAT to do - good What, but still What. HOW do I do this? Who knows? I don't know what this software is called, where to find it, how to search for it, nothing. And so I end up coming off the rails at that point. I know WHAT to do but not HOW.

The How is known by the writer but the Action Steps are Assumed to be known. Such as "When a visitor arrives, make them a cup of tea". That is a WHAT, but unless I Already know HOW to make tea, I am unglued and cannot continue.

So in addition to the Delusions and Requirements of the person, the idea might present them with things requiring How Knowledge which they don't have. Three reasons why a person will chop and change business ideas. One a problem with them (delusions) and the other a problem with the idea (what/how), with the third being the benchmark by which they pass it all by.

Money is important. And with a job the person knows it Before going into it. So they cannot be delusional about that. If the money earned satisfies that requirement and it was a Prime Requirement, the person will Put Up With "Job Crap" and stay. Otherwise, they will chop and change and leave. Just like jumping from one idea to another.

Michael Ross

Michael,

Thanks for bringing up a great point.

Also, I feel much of the ideas concentrate too much on What to do and not actually How to do it.

For example: In Skips Free Report he wrote "Use a software program to get the misspellings of those two phrases and use all of them for your keyword list in your PPC campaign."

That is WHAT to do - good What, but still What. HOW do I do this? Who knows? I don't know what this software is called, where to find it, how to search for it, nothing. And so I end up coming off the rails at that point. I know WHAT to do but not HOW.

I agree with you about the "What" and the "How" but let's look at this from the writer's view.

I don't know about others but when I write a report almost every sentence lends itself to the question should I expand on this point. In fact just the point you make above "Use a software program to get the misspellings of those two phrases and use all of them for your keyword list in your PPC campaign." I though about expanding on when I wrote it.

I have to decide what to expand on and what not to expand on otherwise my report gets out of control. I mean I could start every report with how to search the web, how to copy and paste, etc. I have to decide on Who my target market is and write to that crowd. On the point above I thought instead of expanding I could put a link to the information. But that again causes problems by taking the reader away from the report and breaks the flow of the report. ( I know what you might say to that statement. Skip, what is more important the flow of the report or giving me the information I need.)

In most of my reports I try to answer the questions that I think might arise in the readers mind but cannot do that for every level of every person.

Not that one report as much as other reports I write. I wrote that as a quick answer to a post and was not trying to "Tell All". In most reports I try to include the information needed and balance it with what the reader needs to do on their own. If I answered every question to every level the report would not make much sence to me or the reader. And to leave a link to every question would make the report boorrring by them flipping back and forth.

I do leave a lot of links in most of my reports to answer questions and give the information they need and at the end of ALL my reports I ask them to email me if they have a question. Then I take the questions I get the most and update the report to include the answers.

But you would be suprised to know the number of emails I get asking questions. About 1 out of every 500 reports I sell. You see even if I don't answer the question of "how" on one point I give them a source to get that answered. All they have to do is ASK. I have also over looked a "how" question in my reports because of what you say: The writer "Knows the answer and is taking it for granted that all others do to".

When that happens to a reader, if they are really interested in making the program work, they should contact the author and ASK. It help the writer to update the report which will answer the how question to future purchasers.

To balance the report with the readers level is a hard thing to do for me anyway. I try to include the most information on the nuts and bolts of the idea and Yes I do gloss over some points. My Bad. I will have to do better in the future with the help of my readers.

I have some reports on my computer that will most likely never see the light of day because of this very problem. I have wrote so much to make it so detail that the reports have gotten out of control and I would have to charge much more for a report that started as a $10 report. Which means, I will price the report out of the reach of my core customer.

Luckly these out of reach reports are on subjects that I love to talk and write about so I enjoyed every minute of it.

Anyway that is the view from my side of things. I write to my market which I believe is like the knowledgable Sowpubbers here that know the finer technques of searching the web. That way if I mess up and don't give the how details they can do the research on their own and get the answers. If not Please, Please ask.

Best of success,

Skip Rosell

Skip,

Thanks for explaining.

I don't want you to think I was Having A Go At YOU. I was merely using your Text as a Super Convenient Example of a Problem which is Rife in the How To field.

By Pointing It Out readers may now understand why they don't go ahead with something, or even feel Disappointed in some Works - and - writers can know what they need to do to make their work More User Friendly. And it applies to Forum Posts too.

How often does someone ASK about marketing their business and get advice like, run classified ads, send press releases, do a flyer drop, etc. All good WHAT, but greatly lacking in the HOW. How do I write a classified ad, where do I run it, what kinds of things do I put in it? How do I write a Press Release, who do I send it to - or find out who to send it to? And so on. Each Statement generates its own list of HOWs which follow.

Granted, some HOWs would take a Long time to answer, while some could be answered with a short sentence "Do a Google for 'how to write a classified ad' and read as many articles on it as you can", for example

But also know, maybe the HOW of something can also be its own work. So while the list of Ways To Market would be a Work, individual Works could be created which go into Greater Detail for each of the ways on the list. Helping the writer Come Up with an Additional Work to offer.

I do like offers of help or Assistance from an author. Though we all know most people who do need such help will not ASK - I bet most don't even know what they need help with. And some will simply Shut down with the info. As Robet Allen says, "A confused mind says "no"".

It's like those Game Shows where the contestant has Helps - maybe they can Phone A Friend or Ask The Audience. They don't know the answer but won't use a help, and get it wrong and are out.

I've not given the reason for not asking, any thought. Though I'd say it's more than just "appearing dumb". I think it goes deeper than that. Maybe as deep as our Instinct to Copy as a way to learn - we need to learn this way because we aren't born with full language comprehension and speaking ability. And so we actually have to learn to "learn by ASKing" instead of "learn by observing and doing" which all animals do instinctively. But as we aren't taught to "learn by asking" we tend not to and rely on our fallback method of learn by observing and doing.

Michael Ross