There are 8 Types of Bosses in the World; And What Are Yours?

Which Type of Bosses Are YOURS?

You may have seen them, sense them and get a feel of them in the course of your working life; and they may appear, in all shapes and sizes, as your boss, manager, superior and such. These are the group of people who are part and parcel of your life and you can’t avoid them. But, you can manage them.

There is a saying, “Know thy enemy, know thy war.” By understanding each unique type of boss, you will be able to deal with them perfectly well.

From my biased sort of point of view and analysis, I give you your 8 types of bosses:

1. The Micro Manager

Micro managers Feels Good Especially When They Are Monitoring

The Micro Manager usually does not have a good sense of trust on the employees’ abilities. Someone who micro manages always wants to be sure that the employees are always at work. They will usually install CCTVs in the office to ‘inspect the workers, like an eagle eyeing on its prey.

Because the micro manager wants to manage everything, work related or even non-work related; time is often wasted on doing things that are non-productive for the company.

Therefore, productivity becomes very slow for a company that is consistently under the rule of a micro manager.

When sales are low, bosses will usually transform themselves into micro-managers unintentionally, they will start check on your MC records, punctuality, how long you took during your lunchtime and all the little things one can ever imagine.

There is only one way to deal with micro-managers, “MAKE THEM BUSY” with productive work. The employee must stand up and create opportunities and growth for the company thus making your boss so busy that he or she has no time to micro manage.

2. The Fengshui Master

The Fengshui Master Loves to Add Stones and Monuments in the Office

Well, this is the easiest one to spot even at your first job interview. Count the number of crystals, good luck trees, Buddha statues that you have noticed in your office. Anything that is more than one, confirms that your boss is the Fengshui Master.

The Fengshui Master believes in ‘outside forces’ or ‘destiny’ other than its employees and themselves who will bring growth to their business. Hence, such bosses always seem to be indulged in the habit of adding more monuments in the offices rather than believing in their company’s capability to create the opportunity to spur more business.

The more crystals, rituals or stones they have, the more ‘secure’ they will be. Hence, for the employees, always make sure that your boss is not a diehard Fengshui Master. In order to deal with the Fengshui Master, you need to show them the reality of business that Lady Luck will only smile on companies with concrete plans, action and efforts.

3. The Dictator

Sometimes in reality, there do have Bosses who Acts Like a Dictator                                                                  (This Image is borrowed from motion picture)

This type of boss is the least capable of all. He or she will use fear as the weapon to motivate the employees to work. One such tactic use is the consequence of losing one’s job if job is not done well. The Dictator will usually shout and scold their employees for whatsoever reason. The Dictator feels good when people fear them.

Why I said the Dictator is useless, is because they don’t give respect to their employees and co-workers. And using fear and shouting as a means to control employees is not cool at all. Employees under the dictator are usually unhappy and afraid to make mistakes and company morale will always be at an all time low.

There is no solution to deal with the dictator, I would recommend you to quit and find somebody who deserves your respect as a human being.

4. The Smart Alec

The Smart Alec boss is someone who thinks he or she is the most intelligent person of all in the company. They are usually the intellectual types of people. They will usually look down on the employees in their particular skills, experience and education while thinking that the employees are always doing things wrongly.

True enough to say that the Smart Alec bosses are really somebody who is very talented and intelligent in their industry. However, companies under the Smart Alec will not grow big and fast if the boss does not put his or her entire trust on the employees’ talents.

No man is an island. A company success cannot solely depend on a single person; it is everyone’s effort. There is another Chinese idiom saying, “One mountain can never have two tigers”; good talents will eventually leave their Smart Alec boss, therefore, such company is not able to grow faster and bigger.

You Can’t Put Two Tigers in a Mountain Together. Good Talents will Eventually Leave the Smart Alec Boss

To deal with the Smart Alec boss, you need to dialogue with him or her, asking your boss to give you full responsibility and trust in handling your own work without any interference. Dialogue here means a two way communication while understanding each other’s perspective better.

5. The Squeezer

If You Don’t Tell a Squeezer to Stop; They Will Continue to SQUEEZE

This is the most commonly seen phenomenon especially in Singapore. It’s the exact opposite of the Smart Alec. The Squeezer is someone who knows how to make good use of each employee’s skills and talents fully. Thus, people working under the Squeezer, usually will have many good career prospects.

However, as the word Squeezer implies, such boss will tend to squeeze every single drip of ‘talent blood’ from each employee even until they are ‘very dry’. For most of the times, the employees are physically and mentally tired under the management of the squeezer. They will usually complain about the lack of work life balance under the management of the squeezer.

In order to satisfy the thirst for more business, the squeezer usually gives the least amount of rest days for the employees and at the same time giving them the maximum amount of work each day; so that he or she could continue to squeeze and squeeze.

In the long run, good employees may tend to leave for jobs that will give them better offer, more leave benefits and most importantly giving them a better work life balance. However, before you even submit your resignation letter, give the Squeezer a chance by telling him or her about your ‘limit’ or you can also negotiate for a higher salary to justify for the increased amount of work and responsibilities given to you. Most bosses should be able to understand and empathize with your situation.

6. The Shadow

Now You See Me, Now You Don’t!

As the word suggests, the Shadow is somebody who is always not around or never exist at all. The Shadow is also known as the sleeping business partner. The Shadow might be also working or operating others businesses such that he or she has no time to concentrate on one. This type of boss tends to lose focus and its employees have no clear direction as to where the business is heading. Such business without a concrete direction will never do well especially if it is a newly set up business. Unless the business has already been making profits confidently and automatically, bosses should never become a Shadow yet.

Being a shadow in too many businesses, not just wear ones out physically as well as mentally; and business may not go very smoothly as well.

7. The Peacock

The Peacock boss has a very big ego. Take a look at the prospective company’s website before you go for their job interview. If the website shows too much of the boss portraits and pictures, it is ‘telling’ you that this boss is the true blue Peacock. You might need to reconsider joining that company.

Peacocks usually places vanity more than anything else. They usually like to show off their talent, fame, recognition and wealth such as luxury cars, jewels and such. They will always want to win everything.

Having ego is good as it improves business competitiveness, however, having a very BIG and insatiable ego can be very bad especially when the boss does not know how to control and contain it.

The More You Feed Your Boss’ Ego, The More Your Boss will Lose Their Corporate Focus

For example, if a particular business competitor moves to a bigger office; the Peacock will want to move to an ever massive office than the competitor. Although moving into a massive office might satisfy the ego within, the Peacock might forget to factor in the huge investment costs involved and also may face the possibility of not able to sustain the business in the long run.

To deal with the Peacock boss, you may need to have the courage to speak up your own opinions and thoughts so that your bosses are able see the realistic consequences of their business if they continue to feed their ego.

8. The ‘Perfect’ Boss

In my opinion, what constitutes the perfect boss is never the Mr Nice Guy either. The Perfect Boss is somebody who has 10% of each type of characteristic mentioned above except for the Dictator.

Just like eating and drinking, we always do it moderately; anything that is too excessive may be harmful to our health.

Hence it is OK to be a little bit of micro manager so that quality control can be done. Be a little bit of the Fengshui master, as it might make you happy and at ease at times. Be a little bit of Smart Alec so that you could impart your intelligence and talents to your employees and trusting them to perform equally well or much better than you.

Be a little bit of a Squeezer so that you can realize the individual potential of your employees that can contribute greatly to your company. Be a little bit of the Shadow, for that is what the purpose of setting up a business is all about; to ‘free’ you and make you be on the business instead being in the business.

Be a little bit like the Peacock, so that you can continue to challenge yourself to outsmart your competition and win your market share.

However, never try to be the Dictator. Don’t even think about it.

The remaining 40% of the Perfect Boss should be summarized into one word, “Respect”.

Mutual Respect is still the Best Way for a Perfect and Long Term Employer-Employee Relationship

Respect your employees, learn from them and help them get what they want and they will work hard for you, making you rich thus making your business dreams come true. The employee and employer relationship must always be mutual; learn to speak up so that it will make work happier and businesses more prosperous.

“The teacher needs to be taught in order to teach others.”

Be humble and continue to learn new things from the people around you including your employees so that you will learn to be a better superior.

In summary, by understanding the 8 common types of bosses in the world today; you will be able to appreciate your bosses no matter which category they are in.

[Remember, just in case, you have ‘Like’ my article on Facebook or Tweeted it when your bosses happened to be inside your Friends list; please make sure you tell them that they are the 8 th Type of boss mentioned in this article.]

{This article is first published on Singapore Business Review}

How to “Seduce” Your Audience With Your Writing?

Tips on Becoming a Good Writer

As the saying goes, the pen is sharper than the sword. A good writer is able to influence their readers into their train of thought; he or she is able to encourage and motivate the reader, gain their trust, and make the readers practice what they learnt from them. What it means to you that, whether you are aspiring to be a author of a bestselling novel or you are a marketer representing your company products and brand, being good in writing can put you in many advantages.

However, it do takes a lot of effort and time to train yourself into a capable writer; to be someone who can ‘seduce’ your readers easily with words and phrases.

Here are some tips which may be helpful for you.

Use Words That Motivates Emotions

Recently, I read “The Tipping Point” from international bestselling author  Malcolm Gladwell. Have learnt that the word, “Yawn” is a very powerful and influential word. By repeatedly thinking of the word, ‘yawn’ in your head, somehow you will be ‘influenced’ to yawn naturally. If you see somebody yawn, you will automatically yawn as well.

Are You Yawning Now?

Good writers knows what are the right words and when to place them well in their writings, on purpose. One of the ways to do this, is to write in the reader’s point of view and thinking. The writer needs to think of what will most of the readers think or react when they read a particular phrase in your writing. Put words that will drive people into action and  write words that will ‘paint pictures and images’ in your reader’s mind.

Use a Grabbing Title

Grab Your Audience Well, ……… Kindly

The title of your book or your article should grab the attention of your readers immediately. Especially if you are writing an online article where readers online tend to have a shorter attention span. If the title is not ‘grabbing’ enough, the probability and chances of your article being read will be pretty slim. Example of this article title, if I were to name it as “How to write a good article.”, I might not be able to grab more readers. So, I named it, “How to seduce your audience with your writings.” So, GRAB well.

Ego is No Place for a Good Writer

To be a Good Writer, We May Need to Throw Away the Ego

When it comes to writing, you got to put off your ego. Everyone is the same, it’s just that the author puts in more effort and time than others. Ego here simply means that the author shouldn’t think that he or she is one level above the rest just because he or she has written a book before. Ego begets arrogance; and arrogance may lead to ignorance to the constant changing world around us. Ego will stop the writer from learning from other writers and therefore will stop them from producing a bestselling book in their lifetime. What I learnt from one of my marketing heroes, Seth Godin, is that he will sometimes selflessly share good pointers from other writers’ teaching with his readers in his books, thus making him one of the bestselling authors of today. When readers read an article, they may also sense the ‘attitude’ of the writer; hence a good writer will not show any signs of ego to the readers.

Write for the Benefits of Your Readers

Connect Your Thoughts and the Reader’s Benefits, with a Bridge

Make use of links or ‘bridges’ in your writing to connect with the readers. When you  write out your thoughts, continue to emphasize on how your thoughts or teachings can help and benefit your targeted readers in their way of lives. Always consider ‘what is in for them’ when you write. If you are marketing a product, do not just list the benefits and features of a product; your prospect won’t care at all if you do not ‘link’ it to their benefits. Use descriptive words that readers can link the benefits easily in their minds. For example, “this mattress is very firm such that you can still sleep soundly and peacefully like a  baby even if a ‘Yokozuna’ is jumping on the other side of the bed.

Accept Criticisms Openly

Since There May Bound to Have Difference, You Should Accept Criticism Positively With Open Arms

Face this reality. You cannot please everyone in the world. Somebody will have a different train of thought than yours. Hence, a good writer needs to be aware of this reality and prepare to accept criticisms with an open heart. Never argue with your critics. The more you defend, the more you will open yourself to more arrows of criticisms. There must be a reason why there’s critics to your thoughts. Try to think in the shoes of your critics and learn from them. They might be right in  a way or another. By understanding a different point of view, you’ll be able to write better articles that may win over your critics as well. That is one reason why many good writers can better writers consistently.

In conclusion, to seduce your audience with your writing, you will need to constantly produce, learn and improve your writing skills with an open mind.

3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Work for ‘Shooting Star’ Companies?

Shooting Stars Companies Rises and Falls in an Instance

‘Shooting star’ companies are what I defined as brand new, short lived and ‘Big Time’ companies which invested heavily on marketing and advertising campaigns without a clear direction of where the company heading in the long term. These companies usually focus on getting quick profits.

Shooting Companies Always Invest Heavily in Massive ‘Air Bus’ Liked Advertising

Just like a shooting star, it shines the brightest among the other stars in the dark skies but only for a short while before it descends into nothing. Some of the signs of shooting star companies are, overnight massive branding and advertising campaigns in all kinds of online or print medias, sudden rush to get IPO within less than 3 years of business operations, where company’s business model is easily ‘copied’ by competitors with heavy advertising budgets with months.

It will be too ‘dangerous’ for a marketer to work for a shooting star company as it will be like venturing into the unknown without a clear vision of the future. Here are 3 reasons why.

Too Much Short Term Strategies

Shooting Star Companies are Usually ‘Short Sighted’ in their Marketing Strategies

Shooting star companies spend too much time and money on short term advertising campaigns. They tend to be over focus and overly dependent on massive advertisements for their business survival. Such dependent on mass advertising will not work for the business survival in the long run. This is because the cost per acquisition of a customer may be very high due to its heavy investment  on massive interrupting advertising. It seems that the company wants to become famous quickly without building its foundation well. A strong foundation is not just include getting the advertising or sales right but also all the other little things that makes up the whole business. Such little things are its employment policies, HR structure, customer support team, customer service team and so on. Hence, focus on both short term and long term strategies for the business can make it become a brand in the long run eventually.

Consumer Trust Lacking

It Takes Time to Win the Hearts of the Customers. So, be Patient.

Consumer trust on a brand new product or a brand is not built overnight; it needs time for people to learn and to appreciate it after a period of using it. Therefore, massive advertising campaigns only raise awareness of the product or the brand in the minds of the consumers; consumers are perhaps curious to find and try out the product and brand and see if it benefits them or not that’s all. It is only after a series of awareness and satisfied transactions, then the consumer can trust the particular brand or product.

When most shooting companies focus on getting large amount of sales in the short run, they might fail on getting things right especially when during the after-sales. Customers who have tried their products and services may not be unhappy about it. These companies may not have a support team to do damage control and handling consumer complaints. Hence bad word of mouth marketing will spread, making cost per acquisition of a consumer much higher in the long run.

No Product Uniqueness

Create an Unique Brand or Market Where Competitors Found it Difficult to be ‘Copycat’ for it

If the uniqueness of the company is anything but its massive advertising budget only, then it actually means that it does not have any product uniqueness at all. This is because any company, so long it has a huge advertising budget, can become a competitor to the shooting star company anytime. Anyone can just duplicate its business model so long they have the money. Hence unless the particular shooting star company can come up with a new strategy to make its product different from the rest and  make something that is not easy to be copied; then it can retain its market share for a relatively longer period of time and eventually marketers can help to make such product a lasting brand in the economy.

Be Sharp Enough to See the Signs of a Shooting Star Company in Your Competitive Market

In summary, open up your eyes and be sharp in spotting signs of a shooting star company appearing; and with that in mind, by understanding the know-how of a shooting star company, you will also know how to deal with such company should they suddenly appear as a competitor in your market.

7 Ways Small Business Could Succeed With Facebook

Is it a Myth of Fact? Small Business Cannot Have a Successful Facebook Page?

Many marketers believe in the myth that it is easy for any brands that are already established to do very well in Facebook compared to small business whose brand is still not well known to many people. However, this is half truth. True in the sense that it is pretty easy for established brands to grow their numbers of Facebook likes immediately as they would have large marketing dollars to invest on their campaign.

But it is not true that small businesses cannot succeed with Facebook. You need to know these 7 golden strategies and take action on it.

#1: Established Your Niche 

You may be a small business owner with a small marketing budget, however, you can be ‘big’ and live larger than life on Facebook if you established your own niche well.

No doubt, people will usually recognize and remember brands of big corporations immediately; but as for the small business owner’s case, always link your company brand with a common niche that people can recognize immediately.

If Your Business is an Expert in Donuts, Tell it on Facebook!

For example, if your business is dealing with pastry, create a Facebook page on things about pastry. Put your brand name beside the word ‘pastry’ so that Facebook users who came into your page will at least link you as an expert in pastry. People may not remember your company name but they know about pastry; hence if you do it right, you can definitely build up your brand

#2 Share Your Contents Around Your Niche

What's Your Contents? Are They Interesting For Your Facebook Fans?

Content is very ‘sacredly’ important. You should put up contents around your niche. Talk about it, upload photos, give trivia, ask questions and share customers’ testimonials on everything about your niche. Do remember not to share any contents that are non-related to your product niche or contents that are only meant to show off your ego and not helping your prospective customers.

#3 Guerrilla “Likes” Campaign

Apply "Guerrilla" Marketing Tactics on Facebook to Target the Right Audience

Likes on your facebook page is one of the important things you need to have, the more your likes, the higher the probability of word of mouth marketing. Rule of the thumb, try to hit your first 1000 Likes from your targeted audience. And then aim to hit 2000 and 3000 likes.

Initially, as a small business, you have to work very hard to garner the likes due to marketing budget. If you have a decent amount of marketing dollars, putting Facebook ads is highly recommended if you want to garner your first 500 Likes in say, less than 3 weeks or so. As your likes increase, you can then gradually decreases your ads on Facebook since more people will help you spread your brand.

#4 Interaction and Edge Ranks

Facebook Edge-rank is just like Google Page-rank; somethings to Increase Your Positioning on Facebook

You need a lot of interaction so as to increase your Facebook Edge Rank; the better your edge rank, the higher the chances your facebook page updates will be prominent on your fans’ news feeds and profile.

Interactions in Facebook means people liking your posts, people comment on your posts and people share your posts. The most easiest way to get people talking about your brand, is to ask question to your fans. Put up questionnaires, IQ Test, contests and nice photos that create interactions in your Facebook page. Make your page very interesting but still, always remember to link to your niche.

#5 Maintain a Good Social Interaction Rate

Always Check and Double Check Your Social Interaction Rate

Social interaction rate, in my theory, equals to

‘Number of People Talking About Your Brand divided by the Number of Likes in Your Facebook’ x 100%

Try to always maintain at least 15% social interaction rate, the higher of course the better. So this case, you will understand that having a very high number of Facebook Likes is not that important than having a high number of people who talks about your brand. 300 people out of 500 Likes talking about a small business brand is much better than 500 people out of 6000 Likes talking about an already established brand.

So small business owners need to consistently improves their social interaction rate.

#6 Strategise Your Photos

Picture is really worth a thousand words. Try to cleverly upload nice pictures that make people feel good and want to ask questions about it. Cleverly edit your photo albums title with these 2 purposes in mind. Number one, and I will repeat this throughout my article, is to link to your niche. And number two, ask people to Like or Share your photos.

Strategise Your Photos With the Intention to Garner Likes and Interaction

For example, create an album called, “My blueberry cheesecake collection – LIKE Us if You like Cheesecakes!”

Then upload and post 2 photos into the album so that your wall post will appear to have the 2 photos with the album title on it. If someone likes your photos, he or she may also like the album. Hence, this person’s friends will see on the news feed, your album title, which may eventually prompt them to like your page.

#7 Everywhere, Be Facebook

Make use of whatever resources you have now especially when your marketing budget is very low. The most easiest way is to ask people you know to like your page. Put your facebook page URL on your namecard, presentation folders, email signatures, outdoor banners and so forth. Take every opportunity to let people know about your  Facebook page whether it is online or offline. Ask your existing satisfied clients to like your page, share your page and put a testimonial on your wall as well as their wall.

Use Whatever Resources You Have to Attract More People to Like Your Page

Creating a successful page requires time, creativity and lots of updates and interaction. It may seem as the playground for the big boys with big marketing budgets, however even for small business and newly start-up, if they do the things right with a clever strategy, they can also have a very successful Facebook page.

Don't Worry About Your Business Size; So Long You Know Where You're Heading, You're Safe.

8 Tips on How Newly Startup Can Become a Sensational Brand Faster

How Do a New Startup Stand Out From the Competitors?

Do you know exactly how many companies there are in your country? Or exactly how many new companies are set up each day? I would say, ‘countless and infinite’.

As Long as You Have a Good Strategy, You Can Win, Even in a Saturated Market

Take a look around and you may have already realised the market saturation for each product. How many food outlets, mobile phone shops, salons, restaurants, fashion apparel shops, and business companies are there? When everyone is competing for the share of the cake, what can you do to stand out from the rest and become the most talked about brand in your country such as McDonalds’, NIKE and so on?

Here are 8 Tips That You Can look Into:

#1 Think Long Term

Think Long.... Plan Ahead and Take Action

If your goals are only to make some profit and making ends meet, it is very hard for your brand to grow because your business is no different from others. Business owners should look beyond that. Think long term; you should constantly think of the ways and strategies on how to change your company into a renowned brand in your country and work on them.

#2 Have a Converting Website

5 out of 10 companies today may still do not have their own website today. This is not that good because the new age consumers today go online and mobile almost every single day of their lives. On top of that, consumers have the freedom to choose which brand or company they want to buy from. If your company has no website, it will be difficult for your prospects to know more about or even locate your company. Companies with websites will therefore have relatively better business than those that don’t.

Your Website is Your Identity on the World Wide Web

Having a website is not good enough. The business owner needs to have a website that converts. This is because smart consumers think. They can see right through the meaning behind the words in your website, whether they are hard-sell and interrupting, or something better that make them buy your brand willingly. Hence, invest some time, money and effort on creating a good quality and user-friendly website.

In today’s context, a company should also be actively involved in social media by having its own Facebook page or Twitter so as to engage their clients and targeted audience. Social media gives businesses a personal touch to interact with their prospective clients closely.

#3 Don’t Save on Marketing  

Everything will be Just a Dream, If You Don't Do Marketing

New start ups tend to scrimp on marketing efforts due to a limited business budget. However, by doing this way, nobody will know about the brand? No one would wake up one day and say, “I want to buy your products today.” It will never happen if your company is not made known through your marketing efforts; whether the marketing efforts are big or small, it doesn’t matter; so long you take action consistently.

Companies with low business budget can focus on low budget marketing strategies with high impact. One great example is search engine marketing. This is the fastest and most effective way to get to your warmest prospects. Good marketing strategies help to bring in revenue, therefore bosses shouldn’t scrimp and save on marketing.

#4 Customer Service Excellences

Over "Deliver" is the Easiest Way Towards Customer Excellence

Good word will spread if you do everything right. Treat your customers and even those who don’t buy from you well with respect and great service. They will pass the word around. And especially with the internet, the word would be passed around very fast in split seconds. Likewise for the opposite, bad word of mouth will also be spreading fast as well.

Just remember these words, “Under-promise and Over-Deliver”, and your business will definitely soar by leaps and bounds.

#5 Franchise Your Brand

Multiply Your Businesses With Franchises

Create your unique business system, franchise it and make it easy for your potential franchisees to operate. The more franchisees you have, the more prominent your brand will be. With profits from your franchisees, business owners can have more funds to expand its brand locally and beyond.

#6 Go Global

The World is at Your Fingertip. Everything is Possible

Before digital marketing, it was very expensive to expand your business globally. However, today with digital marketing, business owners can literally go global, marketing their business to any client around the world with a click of the mouse and low cost marketing. Business can then grow rapidly and brands established even faster.

#7 Be Unique

You need to be certain that you are not just selling a commodity or providing a service that many people can also do, your products and services should be unique from others. Take ice cream for example, some popular ice cream parlors in Singapore have flavors that are out of the norm such as Chengdol (a popular cold dessert that is made up of coconut mike, malt, beans and ice) , Peanut Butter, Apple Pie and many strange exotic flavors.

What's Your Unique Selling Proposition? You Got to Find It Quickly

These somehow attracts customers, especially the younger generation to buy, because everyone is curious about what’s the taste going to be like. Hence, such unique ice cream flavors from these new ice cream parlors give them a strong playing ground in their own industry without fearing the Big Boys who are already established in the industry for many years.

Hence, be a little bit different from your mass competitors, and you will definitely stand out uniquely from them.

#8 Enjoy the Process

Come What May, Just Enjoy the Journey

The journey from being an unknown new setup to becoming a renowned brand in your industry is long and tiring. Most times, you may not be able to see results immediately. However, do not give up. Enjoy the process. Do something productive each day to make sure that you are closer to your goal each day.

Summary

Living in an age of high speed internet and the smart consumer era today, it is no longer the case of big companies winning small companies or big advertising budgets controlling the entire market. Instead faster companies outrun slower companies, creativity edge outrun the boring, and customer-focused companies win the race against those who don‘t care about their customers.

I will leave you with an inspiring quote from Dr Ron Sim, the CEO of Singapore’s homegrown OSIM’s brand, on the importance of branding.

““A brand as such must have a clearly defined DNA. A brand must have personality. Whatever characteristics, whatever spirit, they must be clearly defined.”

Define Your Brand DNA and You Will Reach Your Goals Soon!

Word of “Tab” Marketing Might be Something New for You

Word of Tab Marketing Spreads Faster from One Person to Many

Today, most people, especially those who live in developed nations, own a smart phone or a tablet. A few years ago, when most marketers are talking about the powerful effect of Word of Mouse marketing taking over traditional Word of Mouth marketing. Word of Tab marketing suddenly becoming dominant over its 2 predecessors recently. We may or may not have noticed that.

By the way, what is Word of Tab marketing?

In simple terms, it means viral influence marketing from a friend to another through internet mobile phones and tablets, with the help of social media.

Word of tab marketing passes information much faster than the mouse and traditional word of mouth marketing. This greatly enhances the freedom of distributing marketing messages and info in real time. This is can be good and can be bad as well.

Print and TV Media Will Suffer the Most During this Era if they Did not Embrace Word of Tab Marketing

The bad thing is probably traditional print and TV media today may suffer a bigger disadvantage; which could be much more adverse than the internet era before. This is because literally now, everyone can become a news broadcaster. What it means is that information today spreads even faster through mobile than the internet and much, much faster than the print.

Through social interaction on mobile social media, you can received the latest notification from Facebook, the latest Tweets in seconds without opening your pc or laptop or waiting for the newspaper to reach your doorstep following day.

Some Companies Have In-House Social Media Staffs to Provide Real Time Updates and Interaction with the Prospects

It is considered good thing for the marketer, as it gives them more things to do each day. Facebook updates, new blog posts, social interaction with clients and new tweets are probably some new things the marketer needs to do many times in a day. In the Word of Tab marketing era, the marketer needs to constantly send marketing messages and information that are valuable to their targeted audience.

If your marketing messages are interesting and thought-provoking enough, your prospects who have seen it on their smart phones or tablets, might spread the word to his or her network of friends and acquaintances by simply, a TAB. No more a click of the mouse or talking with the mouth.

However, one important thing to take note is that, no matter how advance technology is today; getting people to buy your brand is of utmost importance. Many marketers from big MNCs may rush to take advantage of the mobile app and advertising platform by sending interrupting marketing ads  on people’s tablets and smart phones, thinking that they can somehow ‘control’ the new age consumers’ market.

It is Technology that Changes, Customers' Attitude Towards Brands Remains the Same

Sad to tell you that this is not true and it will not happen at all. Customers today is just like customers yesterday or customers 20 years ago. All of them just want one thing, that is, great experience from buying your brand. What it means to any business owners, is that in order to create that vibrant word of tab or mouse or mouth marketing, the marketers must ensure that any prospect who eventually becomes your buying client must experience a great deal of relationship with your brand, your people and your product. And this goes on even after they have bought. With great customer care and experience, it will definitely induce them to spread your goodwill among their friends and acquaintances.

Bad Customers Experience will Spread Fast and Furious with the Tab. (Image Credit of Universal Pictures)

Likewise, if any prospect or client had a bad customer experience with your brand, bad words about your brand will also be spread fast and furious, instantly. Hence the bottom line is to always remember to keep up with a good brand reputation in terms of offering exceptional consumer experience.

Promotions, discounts and free gifts are just gimmicks to attract people superficially in liking your brand. Some companies may even go to the extent to purchase Facebook likes illegally online. You don’t have to go through all that.

Be Unique from Your Competitors Instead of Following them by Using New Technologies with the Same Old 4 Ps of Marketing to Interrupt Your Customers

Just remember; focus on giving valuable marketing messages or information as well as giving your prospects and clients the best customer experience ever, is good enough. And all these will naturally make your brand do well in terms of Word of Tab marketing or whatsoever.

And you will definitely stand out uniquely from your competitors who only knows how to burn their marketing dollars with interrupting promotional or marketing messages to people’s tablets and smart phone devices.

How to Make Money from Your Websites?

Owning websites is just like owning properties, the more websites you owned, the more money you can make. It is a simple formula.

Owning Websites is like Owning Properties; the More you Have, the higher your Income. And this Will Grow Exponentially with Time

Having websites that generate income for you automatically can free you from being locked in the rat race; you will have more streams of income so that you may not need to depend on just your salary for living. Even while you sleep, your websites can still earn some money for you.

Hence, the most important thing to know is how you gonna make money from websites? How are the 5 steps to create great income generating websites:

1. Put in Efforts Initially

There's a Chinese Saying, "Taste Bitterness first and Sweetness will Come by Soon."

It costs very little like less than a hundred dollar to create a website but it takes time and effort to build great content that can generate interest among your website visitors. Rome is never built in a day. You need to put in more hard work initially in creating outstanding contents for your web pages. You may also need to constantly update your websites so that people can come back to appreciate your website.

2. Monetize Your Website

"Dress Up" Your Website with Adsense or Affiliate Links so That it will be Monetized

There are many ways to monetize your website. The most common one will be to insert Google adsense on your website. You can also put related affiliate links in the form of textual, contextual as well as image ads on your website. Although this may not earn you much money but sure it is better than any other form of investment. For example, if you only spent less than $100 a year to create your website and  are able to make $200 a year from one website and which this is definitely very possible, it will mean that you are already making 200% return from each website.

3. Sell Ad Spaces

Sell Your Website "Spaces" and Charge Your Advertisers Monthly

Focus on niche content and naturally you may have people asking you if they could put their ads on your website. This is because the more niche content you put on your websites, your website will most likely be indexed by Internet search engines for some of the popular keywords your niche market prospects will most likely type when they search online. Advertisers and related business owners therefore would want to put their ads in your website so that it may bring them potential business in the future. Ad spaces therefore can generate another additional monthly income for you on autopilot.

4. Market Your Services

Rather than Making Other People Richer by Marketing Their Products; Why not be a Little Bit Selfish and Sell Your Own Products and Services Instead?

You can also sell your products and your services with your website. All you have to do is to generate more contents so that you will garner more traffic to your websites. One thing to take note that if you plan to market your products and services on your website, it is advisable not to put up any Adsense ads. This is because your competitors’ Google ads will surely be there. In this way, you may be giving your prospects away to your competitors by earning a little from Adsense.

5. Create Another New One. Don’t Stop.

Enjoy the Fun in Making More and More Income Generating Websites. Do not Stop.

As mentioned above, the more websites you owned, the more passive income you will get. Once you have done with a website, go on and create another. You need to treat this like owning a business. When one is up and starting to breakeven or making profits, you should divert your profits to another website to bring in further profits. Focus on the long term. As a rule of a thumb, create one website a year.  If you want to see money fast, you can create a new website each month. It’s really up to you how you want this to be.

Then somebody will ask, how can I manage so many websites at one go? Obviously you can’t but you can outsource. There are people out there who are willing to do the design, ghostwriting and stuffs for a price that you are able to pay with a small proportion from your profits. This will free you from doing the work all by yourself. What it means to you is that, you can focus on your business direction and plan what is the next money generating website you are going to do.

All you need to do is to Keep that Momentum and Your Drive Going

Owning good websites is the most valuable investment asset anyone could have in this era where properties prices and stock investments or even setting up traditional businesses are so dear. Owning websites opens up money making opportunities for anyone, it does not matter whether they are rich or poor at present, all they need is a drive to achieve success for their websites.