1. Sailing
   • I have always wanted to sail. The last 5 years I have living in, land locked places that would not have allowed me to get any real practice. As of now, I will be spending more of my time in Sarasota/Tampa Bay area. This should give me the chance to get some lessons and see if I really want to sail.
2. 500k in sales
   • I think this is a very real goal. We should be able to do this by the 7th or 8th month. Everything is in place for us to do it. Let's see how it goes!
3. Keep my weight between 195-205
   • I am currently 217 pounds. In the next two months I want to get down to 200 lbs. After which I want to keep my weight between 195-205. I will check my weight every two weeks to see how I'm progressing. Also, let you know what is working for me and what is not.
4. Write 100 blog posts
   • One of the reasons that I started this is blog is to improve my writing. Another was to get better at expressing my thoughts on paper. I think this has become more important with the rise of Twitter, and other such services. (More on this on a later post)
5. Have over 1000 followers on Twitter.
   • This goal has no real purpose other that to prove that I can do it. It will make me feel better about myself. I guess it could help me with promoting whatever business I am involved with. I'll post how many followers I have with my weight updates.

These are the 5 goals that I think are the most important currently. I'm sure I will add couple of things later on.

Keep on Truckin'…,

Janis

I’ve had two days to review all the information and I have narrowed down the most important subjects to write about.

Google was the first presentation of the conference and they did a great job of explaining all the services that they provide and how we can take advantage of them. This was the most technical presentation and also the one that I knew the least information about. I learned that there are many tools available to track every aspect of your site. These tools will only help and you need to learn how to use them as soon as possible. I will not go into the technical aspects of them at this time but will leave that for a later time. As I would sound like an idiot trying to explain what all the features are… so that will be for a later time when I am more familiar with them.

The most fun/memorable presentation was from Catherine Shafer of CDS Creative. She emphasized the brand, brand, and brand. Know who your customer is. Don’t try to sell your product to the whole world. Choose a market and go after it. The phrase that we made up when asked was “We provide the highest quality performance supplements to elite athletes.” This was taken well, and spurred conversation by few people who did not want to be excluded from our products. Clearly the most important point from Catherine was to know yourself, and your customers. This was something that we have discussed before and is a big part of our marketing plan.

On the last day they had a site deconstruction presentation. This re-emphasized the importance of user friendliness or user experience, from entering the site to the check out process. They showed couple of tricks i.e. having the search bar clearly visible because 50% of customers use it to find specific items. I would have thought that the figure would have been lower. Another key to a successful site is the content that is provided to the customers, they want to be informed about why YOUR product is the one they need to buy.

This is just s quick post, I will keep elaborating on as I learn more about this business. I hope at least one person will take something valuable from this post.

JK Livin’

P.S.

Links for the Late Night Networkers

Clothing Warehouse We’ll see you in Boston!
Self Defense Products Thanks for the Protection!
Merit Card Thanks for the case of beer!

Tonight is the farewell dinner, don’t expect any updates. ( open bar…)