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CutList Plus woodworking software

Estimating Wizard

Why Focus?
I frequently mention the critical importance of a laser-like focus on a single product. This article explains why I feel so strongly about this.

Since the focus of this site is Internet marketing, I'll not detail the standard "bricks and mortar" rationale for focusing. You probably know it anyway: As a strategy, it's usually called "Stick to Your Knitting." 

My experience is, when marketing a small woodworking business on the Internet, there are three powerful additional reasons to focus.

How To Choose Your Product
Our on-going case study illustrates the technique for choosing a product focus through an example: deciding between Jewelry Boxes and Baby Cradles.

The essence of my approach is to get a feel for supply and demand in the product markets you are evaluating.

Fortunately, we can accomplish what we need to for free on the web.

Creating Your Homepage (Part 1)
You've done the necessary planning that goes into the creation of a successful website, and now you're ready to start building it. A recap of the steps to go through is an excellent blueprint that you can use to develop your own site.

Testing the Waters
If your dream is to quit your day job and make a go of your woodworking, you can find out if there is a market for your product before spending a lot of money. And before quitting your paying job.

SWOT Analysis
For ages, the mainstay of marketing strategy has been the reliable Four Ps: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Anyone who sells on the Internet needs to rethink this framework in light of the realities of the online experience: "Products" are complex bundles of info-services, entertainment and hard goods. "Price" is frequently free. "Place" is always ambiguous, often irrelevant. "Promotion" probably includes designing your site to get a top listing in search engines.

Instead of overthrowing an approach that has proved its worth in practice, the Four Ps need only be reinvigorated. What results is a more workable, web-enabled framework that I call SWOT: Surcharge, Website, Offering, Traffic.

Keywords is one of the HTML META tags. Keywords are the things you bid on at pay-per-click search engines. Keywords are the terms that should be sprinkled liberally throughout your web pages. Keywords are the words your target customer will use to find your site.

Keywords are many a different thing.

The way past the confusion is to concentrate on why all these different things are important, and not worry that they all have the same name.

Conquer Keyword Confusion (Part 2)
In part 1, we talked about the many different meanings of the term "keywords", and outlined a step-by-step method for generating a solid list of keywords for your website.

Now, let's put those keywords to use creating a real website. You'll see how to use the list of keywords to:
1) Guide your website content development;
2) Implement the keywords META tag in your pages; and
3) Bid on terms at GoTo.com and other pay-per-click search engines.

Auto-Responders
In this issue, we'll look at auto-responders in detail. I'll start with the basics, and then explore how this technology can be used on your woodworking website to help you sell more.

Choosing a Web Host
One of the most stressful parts of getting started with your own web-based business is choosing a web host. And no wonder. Yahoo list 2,722 web hosting companies, and they all sound the same. Let me offer some common sense advice, tailored for a small woodworking business, and born of hard-earned experience.

The Power of Delighted Customers (Intro)
what's your best source of new orders? What's the best place to get new customers? For most of us, the answer to both questions is: Existing Customers. What can we do to make sure we start out with delighted customers, and keep them that way?