April 15, 2004
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in this issue
-- Member Spotlight (featuring CSLs)
-- Seminar Tips - 11 Seminar Leader Tips Based on Thomas Edison's Belief's
-- The Big Picture
-- Get Focused
-- Congratulations to New Certified Seminar Leaders

Dear Subscriber,

Letter from the ASLA President:

If you have a penny and I have a penny and we exchange pennies, you still have one penny and I have one penny.

But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange ideas, you now have two ideas and I have two ideas. Ideas are a dime a dozen. People who put them into practice are priceless. This is one of the greatest benefits we can offer, sharing ideas and getting information. It's also an excellent way for us to reach the thousands of professionals who want to add to their opportunities in speaking.
Great Success to all!
June Davidson, ASLA President

FREE SEMINAR PREVIEW APRIL 29th, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
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Learn more about "How to Become a Certified Seminar Leader "

• Learn how to market your business with the use of seminars

• Attend a free preview session and learn specific strategies and techniques that will enable you to make money and achieve your professional goals

• Increase your profits immediately.

• Network with other business people who are using the proven formula.

Sign up here

Member Spotlight (featuring CSLs)
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Web sense By: Sally Falkow

Bill Gates said recently that soon there will be only two kinds of businesses: those with a website and those with no business at all. Having a website has become a point of credibility and most entrepreneurs know they have to have an online presence.

With the majority of people turning to the Internet for information, to be competitive you must have an online presence. Now it is whether your website is effective that makes the difference. Companies are under increasing pressure to defend the money spent on their website.

Just as every business owner should be keeping statistics to see how their business is doing, so should you be keeping track of what is happening on your website.

Measurement tells the story - and gives you direction. Without statistics you don't know where you are and you can't assess how far you are from your goals.

The Web has moved from being a new technology information medium, to being a sales channel and your marketing department should be intimately involved with your website - they should know exactly who is coming to the site and why.

The measurements you keep have to fit your business and your audience. The days of just getting a website up and counting eyeballs and hits is long gone. You need to know where they come from, what they came for, how long they stay, which pages they visit, what their click path is and if they ever reach your "goal page." And you should know which page they leave from.

Now is the time to update your Web measurement strategy with new metrics and analysis tools that can help analyze customer behavior and improve your site's business success.

"There is no one metric that a company can rely on for its website," said Randy Souza, an analyst at Cambridge, Mass-based Forrester Research, in an interview with CIO magazine. "Metrics will be different from company to company."

Your metrics will depend on what you are trying to do with your site. Before you do a revamp of your site, do your research and formulate a strategy for the site.

If you have an e-commerce site you should be focused on conversion ratio (number of visitors to buyers), while a business-to-business site might be measuring visitor response to information. The number of reaches into the company as a result of the website will still be of prime importance.

A mid-size, family-owned company in California revamped their website recently and started to keep track of their visitors. Analyzing user behavior led to website tweaks and they just got their first million dollar deal as a direct result of their website.

Usability guru, Jakob Nielsen, reports that user testing and analysis of traffic on your site can increase your ROI by an average of 135%.

( http://useit.com/alertbox/20030107.html)

Once the site has been researched and user tested, put a reliable, simple to use traffic tracking system on the site. Clicktracks is one that any entrepreneur can afford. In my opinion it is one of the best in terms of value and information. It is visual and interactive and can be put on any website.
(http://fal koweb.com/web/method.html)

Measuring a website's success is becoming vital as ebusiness spending has to be defended. Many companies are now getting serious about Web metrics. "Until the recession hit, there wasn't much urgency around Web metrics," says Forrester Research's Souza in the interview with CIO.

The focus has shifted to getting business results, and quickly. Jupiter Research estimates that by 2006, annual spending on site analytics will reach $1 billion.

Marketing Departments and Information Technology Managers should be working together to take control of their website content and visitor click streams. With the valuable data on visitor behavior you can get from the metrics, you can consistently improve results from your website.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sally Falkow is a communication strategist in Pasadena, CA, USA. She specializes in communication strategies and metrics, in order to consistently improve the quality of communication and the results attained. She is the author of the Effective E-book series: "Your Brand of Expansion - Effective PR strategies for entrepreneurs" and "Web Sense - Effective Website strategies for entrepreneurs". An ex-PRISA member from Durban, Sally has lectured on website PR strategies at Back on Track America, in both Palo Alto (Silicon Valley on the AOL panel) and in LA on the Entrepreneur Magazine panel. She publishes various newsletter on PR strategy. For more, go to her website: http://www.falkoweb. com or email her: sally@falkowinc.com

Seminar Tips - 11 Seminar Leader Tips Based on Thomas Edison's Belief's ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1. 3 greatest essentials to achieve your success, as a seminar leader is hard work, second stick-tenseness, third, common sense.

2. A successful seminar leader is a talented person who does their homework.

3. Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with preparation.

4. In your seminar think about the solutions it will give to your attendees.

5. Top seminar leader is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

6. Start where the last person left off.

7. Absorb ideas from every source give commercial value to the brilliant but misdirected ideas of others

8. Everything comes to one who hustles while one wants.

9. Find out what the world needs and go ahead and give it to them.

10. Stick to one thing until you get there.

11. Restlessness and discontent are the first necessities of progress
     

The Big Picture
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Coaching is an excellent Back of the Room product. When the seminar is over, everyone wants to take you with them to continue with your support and training.

Consulting is a one time contract for a specific solution.

Coaching is ongoing walking, encouraging and inspiring their journey to success.

Get Focused
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Be passionate - care about your audience and the message you deliver. Remember your audience doesn't care what you know until they know you care. Using the seminar format your audience should create rhythm through the Q&A and other involvements. Each audience develops a personality. Listen to their group personality and respond as you would to a friend. Hesitate or pause to focus on your topic. There is power in the pause. Don't be bored from the front of the room but engage your audience. Build on your stories and experiences. That is what your audience will remember and know that you are great! You need to be happy and let your face know. Be in the present for your audience. They know if you are thinking about something other than your message. I look forward to working with you at the next University training!

Alina Pogaceanu, University Director

Congratulations to New Certified Seminar Leaders
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Other issues of the ASLA's newsletter

Contact Information
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email: info@asla.com
voice: (626) 791-1211
web: http://www.asla.com
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