#theprep – MOJO Marketplace Blog https://blog.mojomarketplace.com DIY Website Guides and Tips Tue, 12 Dec 2017 18:40:16 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.5.3 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/cropped-blog_profile_480-1-32x32.png #theprep – MOJO Marketplace Blog https://blog.mojomarketplace.com 32 32 Going live with your idea. — #theprep Lesson 8 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/going-live-idea-theprep-lesson-8/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/going-live-idea-theprep-lesson-8/#comments Wed, 09 Aug 2017 15:00:19 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=2250

If you just started following #theprep ,we’re about to finish up with launching your website. To get the full experience, go back to the beginning!

#theprep

 

If you’re reading this, hopefully you’ve made it through #theprep, and you’re ready to launch your idea. In this last episode, we’re going to talk about taking your idea public and what to do next.

Make a List for Your MVP

Before you begin marketing your business or website, you should have a working list of things you need. We’re talking about MVP or minimum viable product here. What does your site need to accomplish the goals you’re comfortable with?

Get a full list of features together. Do you need appointment scheduling, an email opt-in, or a social media sharing plugin? What’s going to make your business or blog unique and completely functional?

Here are some things you might consider right off the bat.

These are good things to have, but there’s a lot more to think about in terms of being ready for the public eye.

Polish Your Website and Test

Before you go live, you want to work out as many kinks as possible to make the best first impression. This comes down to two big initiatives: reviewing and testing.

There’s no better way to find bugs, errors, and typos than getting eyes on your website. Send your project out to as many people as you can and get their feedback. Depending on how big your site is, how much content is on there, you may need a lot of time to review and correct things.

If need be, hire someone who’s a pro to proofread your site. It’s worth it for creating the best first impression you can.

Now, testing. If there’s a feature on your site, test it thoroughly. Make sure that item really gets added to the shopping cart, and the thank you email sends. Look for inconsistencies across browsers or under different conditions.

Basically, do your best to make sure your website visually and functionally makes sense and works at a basic level–going back to the MVP. Can it do the minimum that you want it to do. This is a starting point, but you don’t want to start too low.

Optimize Your Website Now

Before you launch, make sure your site runs like a top. This is another check, similar to polishing the surface level, that won’t go unnoticed by your audience or users.

Test your site’s performance with a speed testing tool like Pingdom. Look for ways to optimize your loading time.

Test Your Site Speed Before Launch

There are plenty of awesome WordPress plugins for optimizing site performance. Look for areas to improve, such as compressing image sizes, caching, and how your site loads. You don’t have very long to convince users to stay on your website, so it better load before their attention span gives out.

Aside from performance, your site will need to be responsive. When you promote your idea on social media, it’s likely that people will be looking at it on their phones. So, chances are, the first time they see your website will be on a mobile device.

Check your entire site at different sizes to make sure there are no glitches or inconsistencies. At the minimum, all the functions available on your desktop site should work on mobile.

One last optimization you must account for is security. Especially if your site is handling customer data, such as names and addresses, you should do all you can to safeguard your site against cyber attacks.

In fact, Google’s search ranking takes security into account, so it’s important to have an SSL security certificate. You can purchase one from your hosting provider, such as bluehost. In addition, there are security plugins you can install to further safeguard your website.

Plan Your Campaign to Launch

Before you go telling everyone about your site, and spreading the word, you should have a strategy to maximize publicity and ensure the message comes across correctly.

For example, when we launched MOJO Marketplace, it was March Madness and the iPad had just come out. We centered our launch on this idea and called it March Padness to build up hype and piggy back on trending topics.

March Padness Campaign to Launch MOJO Marketplace

We set up a contest to get as many themes uploaded to MOJO Marketplace as possible. Whoever uploaded the most would win an iPad. This helped us boost our inventory so we could launch.

This is a good example of setting up a relevant campaign, with a specific goal, around your launch. Think about the core idea you want people to walk away with from your launch communications and advertisements. In our case, we needed items to sell, so we focused on that.

In addition to creating effective campaigns, make a content strategy and start producing free content that adds value to your product right out of the gate. If someone lands on your site and there’s more for them than just a sales pitch, you’ll start building an audience and a following right away.

Whether you can do videos, blog articles, photos, graphics, provide something that’s relevant to back up your launch. What do people need to learn or know to make the best use of your product or website?

Take the strategy you developed in the early stages and apply it to now.

The Next Step

Okay, so we’re done with #theprep. We appreciate you taking the time to walk through this with us. And we hope it provided some insight and actionable items for you to use.

But there’s a lot more where this came from. Please reach out in the comments below and let us know what was valuable to you. We want to make this a great experience for our readers, and we want to see you succeed!

Once you’ve launched, you’ve barely started your journey, even though it seems like you did so much. That’s why we called this series #theprep. It’s just the first step!

As your idea continues to grow, there is a lot more work to be done, which is why we’re kicking off #theclimb. This will be an ongoing series designed to help you in the moment with your business. We look forward to forging ahead with you and hearing about your ideas!

Please leave comments below and let us know how we can help, or tell us about your idea!

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Telling Your Story Through Content. — #theprep Lesson 7 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/telling-your-story-through-content-theprep-lesson-7/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/telling-your-story-through-content-theprep-lesson-7/#comments Fri, 28 Jul 2017 15:00:47 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=2248

Have you started #theprep yet? If not catch up with lesson 1 of #theprep. It’s simple — in 8 lessons I want to to help you take your idea to launch. Enjoy!

#theprep

 

 

You hear the phrase content is king thrown around a lot. What people mean is content is an opportunity to add value to what you’re selling. We just finished up the website design portion of #theprep, now lets dive into how you can drive traffic to your site and create more value with content marketing.


Content is about adding value to your products. Here’s how to do it via @mojomarketplace
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Tell Your Story Through Content

What’s your story, anyway? As we discussed in the identity episode of #theprep, your brand is how you talk to your customers. It’s the way you want to be perceived.

This is a big part of content marketing. Nailing down your voice and the pillars of content you focus on with your business. Optimizing content on your site for keywords related to your products. And finding what matters, what adds value to your audience. That’s all part of telling your story, building authority, and earning trust from your customers.

There are three big ideas about content to learn: strategy, adding value, and context.

What is Content Strategy?

Content strategy is a very complicated system of production and distribution across different channels with a specific goal in mind. The high-level goal should always be to add value, but that can be broken down into smaller, more specific goals. After you publish, you measure and tweak your strategy based on the results.

We can break this down even further. Think of it this way: who are you, what do you sell, and who is your audience?

Next, you look at ways to add value to your product by providing content for free.

That’s what we’re doing right now. Our customers create businesses and they need websites. So we must be WordPress and website experts, selling website products and services that will help our customers succeed at building their business or website. That’s why we write WordPress tutorials and create videos for entrepreneurs

That’s how you add value. You don’t just create a product and assume that people will find it useful. You make sure that you are talking about how it is useful, and actually help your customers get the most out of it.

If you want to learn more about content marketing and the mechanics of building a content strategy, check out the Content Marketing Institute and CoSchedule.

Adding Real Value with Content

Let’s talk more about value. It’s a two way street. On one hand, you’re providing information, resources, and guidance around your industry. On the other hand, you’re getting more eyes on your site, your products, and your content.

When we talk about content pillars, that really comes from the world of SEO, or search engine optimization. In a nutshell, a content SEO strategy involves finding keywords that are most relevant to your business. Then, you can identify pillar topics related to those words to structure your content strategy around.

You would then write some evergreen content, something that never gets old, like a guide on how to build a website, for each pillar. And then you continually produce supporting content, every week. Eventually, you build a reputation and a footprint on the internet in your space, and you’ll start ranking better in search results for those keywords.

The goal can be visualized like this. You’re an HVAC company. You want people to call you when their systems go down, of course. But what about air conditioning maintenance?

Who thinks about that in the winter? So you can start targeting questions about A/C maintenance and answering them with your content. This will drive search traffic to your site, provide useful answers for people who land there, and enable you to convert those people into customers.

But how do you make that conversion happen? Sales copy.

How to Turn Free Content Into Sales

One word: action. Just as sales people must always be closing, or ABC, your content must always be active, ABA.

Be cautious. You don’t want every article or video you produce to be selling people on how great your products are. That doesn’t sound authentic, and it doesn’t add value. It merely repeats what’s already there–the features of your product.

Your content is about turning people who need your help into real customers. And that can be a long journey in some cases, but it always pays off.

Instead of listing features or coming up with fancy jargon that makes your product sound intelligent, think of concrete actions your customers can take. And funnel them through your content to those actions.

Here’s an amazing example from CoSchedule. This article is about how to write headlines. It’s useful and relevant to their product and audience, and it’s one of their content pillars–content marketing.

The article goes in-depth about writing headlines, the strategy, the execution, etc. And it provides you with a free tool, the CoSchedule headline analyzer.

CoSchedule headline analyzer for content marketing

This analyzer is just a small part of CoSchedule’s overall product, and they give it for free. This is the perfect pairing of content and product, and the customer doesn’t even have to buy anything.

This is an example of what a customer lifecycle can be with content marketing. Drive your customers to act with quality content and solid sales copy and ideas.

Distributing Content and Finding Appropriate Context

A common mistake a lot of content marketers make is distributing content to as many places as possible with no context. Imagine that you have a blog about dog walking and you create some 10 minute tutorials about training your dog.

If you post that to snapchat, no one’s going to pay attention–it’s a ten minute video! The attention span isn’t there. But, what if you did a 10 second video of a dog doing a funny trick? Now you’ve created the right context for snapchat, and you can funnel that audience into other channels they might be interested in. Or, they can just stay engaged watching your weekly dog trick video. Maybe in 5 years when they get a dog they’ll remember you and come back for your products.

Another part of achieving the right context is your audience. Using the same dog example, you want to focus on audiences within your channel that are genuinely interested in dogs.

An additional content marketing mistake is pumping out your content to as many people as possible, no matter what. This creates bad vibes and makes people feel like you’re spamming them. Don’t try to convert cat lovers into dog walkers.


Don’t try to convert cat lovers into dog walkers says @mojomarketplace
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Before you achieve world domination, start with the small stuff by targeting people within Facebook, Instagram, etc. who are already looking at dog videos. Finding a niche to establish yourself is probably the fastest path toward bringing in your best customers.

What’s After Content?

The answer? More content.

There will never be a shortage of ideas that can build your content engine and keep it running smooth. You can do a YouTube series, like #theprep, Podcasts, Guest Posts, Instagram stories, Pinterest boards, Holidays… the list goes on and on. A single Google search can yield a handful of content ideas.


A single Google search can yield a handful of content ideas via @mojomarketplace
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In many ways, once you’ve created a product or business, your job stops being about the product and starts being about the people who need it.

Good luck! Reach out if you need a hand with your content strategy. We’re here to help because that’s our job.

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Design — Lesson 6 of #theprep https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/design-lesson-6-theprep/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/design-lesson-6-theprep/#comments Fri, 21 Jul 2017 15:00:21 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=2183

If you’ve been following along we’ve just wrapped up the platform section of #theprep. Before jumping into learning about choosing your website platform make sure you start from the beginning of the #theprep.

#theprep

 

You make a lot of choices on the path to creating a business. We just talked about why WordPress is the best website platform for entrepreneurs.

Now, you face another set of difficult choices–the design of your website and the WordPress theme you choose to build it with. Your theme is where your site design starts, and where it stops too. If you don’t invest in a solid theme, you will have trouble executing on your vision.

Let’s look at ways to choose the right WordPress theme for your business.

Paid vs. Free WordPress Themes

A WordPress theme is essentially a template. It’s a base of code that uses the WordPress software to publish a website.

Different types of customization are built in, and no two themes are created equal. There are two types of WordPress themes from a cost perspective. There are free WordPress themes and paid or premium WordPress themes.

I’ll tell you right now, the biggest difference you’ll notice is support. Premium themes, such as the ones on MOJO Marketplace, offer way more support and features than free themes, bottom line.

Also, free themes tend to limit your options for customization–because it takes a lot more time and effort to build more features into a WordPress theme. Also, many free themes are not ready-made for integrating plugins–an extremely useful tool–such as WooCommerce, which expand the functionality of your site.

Basically, you can’t build a great business with a free WordPress theme without rebuilding that theme yourself. So save yourself the trouble, and put yourself ahead of the competition by choosing a quality theme. Here’s what we look for in a solid premium WordPress theme.

Mobile First – Responsive No Matter What

First things first–and this shouldn’t even be an issue with a premium theme–you need a mobile-ready website. Responsive simply means that your website design will adjust to different screen sizes on different devices.

Most, if not all, premium WordPress themes have this by now. However, some themes do it better than others. Make sure that you check the responsiveness of your theme demo before you buy. Typically, you can check the quality as shown below by clicking the different device icons. If not, you can also scale your browser window down and see how the site responds.

How To Check WordPress Theme Responsiveness

Plugin Compatibility

Plugins are a huge help. They can solve all sorts of problems, such as spam, allow integrations with tools like OptinMonster, or help you create a storefront and checkout system as with WooCommerce.

However, not all themes come ready for all plugins. Some of the more advanced plugins, such as the Visual Composer, a drag and drop page building tool, won’t work on themes that aren’t designed with the plugin in mind.

Plugins allow you to add amazing features without creating code from the ground up. Many plugins are free, and a lot of the premium themes on MOJO Marketplace come with paid plugins installed. Here’s an example of what you can do with visual composer–build awesome pages without any code simply by adding and arranging elements.

 

When you’re shopping themes, think about what plugins you’ll need. For example an eCommerce site will require a storefront plugin or theme. A magazine style blog might require a featured content slider. A hotel or travel agency may require booking software. Google a bit to find plugins, and make sure that the theme you choose can support them.

Customizer or Page Builder?

The way you customize and assemble your WordPress site also largely depends upon your WordPress theme. Some themes utilize page builders, such as the Visual Composer plugin mentioned before.

Most themes also feature custom settings from the front end of your site, using the built-in visual customizer that comes with WordPress. However, those settings usually only apply to general site configuration, not a page by page design.

And other themes house a lot of custom settings on the back end in an admin panel. These can be a little more difficult to work with if you’re a visual thinker. It really depends on how you work.

Also, some themes come with pre-designed demos, which you can import with one click. What that means is you can start off with a complete design and tinker from there. Or, you can build your site (visually) from the ground up. Either way, you don’t need to know any code. But it will be an important choice, especially if you’re going to spend a lot of time in there.

SEO or Search Engine Optimization Ready?

A critical piece of creating an online business is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. This is bigger than Yellow Pages. Google and other search engines are where most people are going these days to get their questions answered. This provides you a business opportunity.

If you can answer those questions for your industry, you will drive more traffic to your website. And hopefully more sales.

It boils down to two equally important parts.

First, you have to ensure that your site structure is built properly for search engines like Google to index your site correctly. For example, if you sell headphones, but all Google can find on your site is a title that says your name, you won’t show up in search results for headphones. Second, the content you write on your site needs to be optimized for certain keywords. That’s a story for the next episode of #theprep.

But what this means for your theme is that the core code has to be SEO ready, with the proper tags and markup for search engines to read. Make sure your theme at least lists “SEO Ready” or “SEO Optimized” as a feature. This tells you that the developer had SEO in mind while building the site.

You might think you can always jump into your theme code and change SEO structure, but it’s not that simple. Even if you know what you’re doing, changing the core code can affect other parts of your site you might not expect. So it’s best to get the most SEO-ready theme you can find.

Also, the Yoast SEO plugin is indispensable for managing SEO without touching the code.

Translation Ready or Not?

Another feature that is becoming increasingly valuable is translation-ready software. If you’re marketing to people who speak different languages, you’ll want this. It provides a framework for translation that will make it easier to optimize your site for different countries and users. Every site should have at least some kind of translation-readiness.

Updates, Support, & Documentation

The last point, and the most important, is know who created your theme. Check out their websites and social media, and make sure they’re still engaged.

If you buy a theme that has been left in the dust, you’ll have a hard time maintaining it. Your theme should receive updates frequently, especially as new versions of WordPress are released.

Many of the creators selling themes on MOJO Marketplace keep their themes updated to fix bugs and improve upon the foundation. The updates are typically free once you buy the theme. Follow the section of our blog for news from theme creators on MOJO Marketplace.

In addition, make sure that your theme comes with great support and documentation. Themes come with some basic written documentation, at the very least. Many theme authors create video tutorials and step-by-step guides, as well. Check for support and tutorials or documentation with your theme. This will go a long way toward knowing how your theme works and what you can do with it.

What Are Your Goals

Before I leave you to make the call, one last piece. The theme and the design you choose for your website must reflect your goals.

That’s why we’ve covered so much about your vision, strategy, and identity for your company. Because in moments like this, when you have to make a critical business decision, you need those things covered.

Consider why you’re building the website in the first place, and what you need the website to do. Then, along with these tips, it will be easier to find and set up the right WordPress theme.

Of course, if you need some extra guidance, ask us in the comments or give or WordPress techs a call at 855-464-5345.

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Website Platform. — Lesson 5 of #theprep https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/website-platform-lesson-5-theprep/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/website-platform-lesson-5-theprep/#comments Fri, 14 Jul 2017 15:00:22 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=2094

If you’ve been following along we’ve just wrapped up the identity section of #theprep. Before jumping into learning about choosing your website platform make sure you start from the beginning of the #theprep.

#theprep

My #1 recommended website platform your idea? WordPress.

Failed to load media. URL not valid. Please check WordPress Codex.

 

Choosing the correct website platform doesn’t have to be hard. Sure, there are a lot of choices out there. But in most cases I would say WordPress can provide just about any solution you’re looking for.

I’m going to break down why I think you should choose WordPress to power your website.

Speed.

In my opinion, the number one thing you need when you’re starting with an idea is speed. Often times it’s better to run forward and figure out a plan along the way. Speed wins every time. Larger organizations lose speed with detailed processes, risk mitigation exercises and over-complicating a lot of ideas.

By choosing WordPress, you can get up and running with a site focused around your idea in minutes. From there, it’s on you to start adding your content and customizing your site.

I can’t think of a quicker way to get online with a more complete solution.

Make it your own.

Once you’re done installing WordPress for your website, it’s time to make it your own. With WordPress, customization typically takes place with themes and plugins.

With WordPress themes, you can change the design and layout of your site. With WordPress plugins, you can add more functionality to your site, such as an online store with WooCommerce or an email optin tool like Optin Monster.

Here at MOJO Marketplace, we offer all the above. You can shop for WordPress themes and plugins. We also offer WordPress services where you can hire our WordPress experts to setup your site for you. The choice is yours!

Take it with you.

Sounds simple but it’s true. Once you’ve setup your hosting account and install WordPress, your website content is yours and yours only.

You can move your site to any host at any time. Again, with other website builders you can’t move your site to another host if your traffic gets to a point where you need more control of your speed and performance of your site.

With WordPress, you control your site from the design files, the content, the database, to the servers it’s sits on. Sorry, I’m getting more technical but if you’re serious about your idea or business this will be important to you.

SEO for days.

One of the biggest reasons why I chose to use WordPress for the first time back in 2006 was because of how sound the platform was for SEO, or search engine optimization.

The benefit of WordPress from an SEO standpoint continually increases. Right out of the box, WordPress does one of the best, if not THE best job and delivering a rock solid optimized website for SEO.

In addition, there are several SEO plugins you can install for free to get more advanced with your SEO techniques.

With the right SEO strategy matched with a well structured WordPress site, you will pack a serious SEO punch for the keywords you need to rank for.

WordPress will scale as you grow.

Like I said, there are plenty of website platforms to choose from, but they are essentially a “walled garden.” And once you reach a certain point of growth with your business website you can get boxed in.

You’ll most likely be forced to move to another solution because there are limits. With WordPress, as you grow, you’re not constrained with any limits.

Sell online — Physical products. Digital Products. Memberships. Courses.

Whatever you want to sell, you can sell it with your WordPress site.

The most popular plugin is of course WooCommerce, but the possibilities are endless. In fact, almost 8 years ago when we launched MOJO, we used WordPress to power the entire marketplace. Back then, we didn’t have the tools that are at your disposal today.

The numbers don’t lie.

If you’re worried about security or how stable WordPress is, let me share a few things around that.

In terms of security, WordPress has several mechanisms built into it’s core to minimize your risk.

On top of that there are many security plugins you can download or purchase to secure your site. Additionally, you should always make sure your site is using an SSL certificate. Hosting companies like Bluehost offer a free SSL with any new WordPress site.

At the time of this post, the latest version of WordPress is 4.7 and it’s been downloaded over 57 million times. That’s a staggering number.

Not only is WordPress trusted by millions of sites but more and more enterprise level companies are using WordPress to power their websites. You can have that same control at your fingertips.

I hope you’re enjoying #theprep series. If you have any questions about launching your idea, ping me any time! 

Ask JR
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Lesson 4 of #theprep: Lock in your identity–name, brand and domain. https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/identity-lesson-4-theprep/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/identity-lesson-4-theprep/#comments Wed, 14 Jun 2017 21:00:10 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=2019

Welcome to lesson 4. We’ve just wrapped up the strategy section of #theprep. Before jumping into the identity make sure you start from the beginning of #theprep.

#theprep

 

What is an Identity?

I’ll admit for anyone unfamiliar with design and branding, some of the lingo can all start to sound the same. It’s a little intimidating, as well. But that doesn’t mean it’s not important to understand what an identity is. And for that matter, how to get it just right.

An identity can span across your logo, brand, social media handles (@yourusername), packaging, domain name, and more. In other words, it’s everything that represents you and your idea.

Even something that seems small–the type of photos you post on Instagram–makes a big statement about who you are. All of the touch points for your brand add up to create a perception of who’s behind the brand. It’s like telling your story a little bit at a time in different ways.

The Difference Between a Brand and a Logo

When thinking about your identity, it’s easy to confuse your logo with your brand. The reality is, these are two very separate ideas.

Your identity is made up of your brand and logo.

your identity is comprised of your brand and logo

In short, the best way to think about identity is to imagine a large box and inside that box actually sits your brand and logo.

Your logo is is a mark, icon, or some sort of visual representation of your identity. And your brand is what drives the way your logo looks, your voice, your messaging, your color palette, the style of the bar stools in your restaurant, and even down to how your packaging looks.

For example, think about Apple. The Apple logo, store, website, products, and packages share a common style. It’s all very polished and techy. The logo is iconic because of the brand.

So, as you further develop your brand and choose a logo, the two will work together to establish your identity. This is the north star of your company, and should represent the feeling your customers get when they interact with your products.

Defining Your Brand

Start with your brand. You want your brand to communicate who you are and what you want to accomplish. Like Southwest Airlines. Their longest running CEO, Herb Kelleher defined Southwest as “THE low fare airline.”

Everything else follows from that. Think about how simple and direct that is. It’s something any employee can understand, throughout the company.

Let’s say you have a strategy, which you can communicate in 100 words or less (as discussed in the last episode of #theprep).

Now, take that strategy and start molding it into an identity that your customers can understand. Remember, your customers don’t need to know about your competitive analysis. They need to know who you are, and identify with the story you’re telling.

Brand Checklist

Imagine what you want your customers to experience and start throwing ideas on the whiteboard. Here are some initial questions to answer:

  • What makes you unique?
  • Who are your customers?
  • What kind of experience do you want to create?
  • What adjectives would you use to describe your company?
  • Imagine your company as a place. How would it look, feel, and sound?
  • At the end of the day, what’s your goal?

Answering these questions should get you to a point where you can make what’s known as a creative brief. This is a document that communicates what you want to accomplish as a brand. It distills that idea into a game plan for designers and creatives to execute your vision.

You can download our creative brief template here, and get started on your branding.

Designing a Logo

A logo is a lot like a name. It’s the visual representation of your brand. Think about the most iconic logos: McDonald’s, Apple, Starbucks, Nike, etc. Those logos are fairly simple, but because of the brand, they’ve become iconic.

Here are some simple targets that you must hit with your logo design.

  • Recognition – The logo should be something people can understand. A complex diagram is the wrong way to go. A symbol people can recognize that is related to your name is the right way to go.
  • Simple – Remember that your logo will have multiple uses–site icons, app icons, hats, clothing, stickers, websites, billboards, videos etc. It should be fairly simple–a bold icon with little or no text, or simply a stylized version of your company name.
  • On Brand – If your branding is all about being colorful and loud, your logo shouldn’t be black. In other words, make sure the style of your logo will fit into the vision you’ve created for your brand overall.
  • Powerful – Your logo should make a statement and grab your customers’ eyes right away. Don’t copy other iconic logos if you want to be unique.

These principles should help you bring something to the table. Also check out this article about more of the visual aspects of designing a logo.

Securing a Domain Name

Domain names are fairly straightforward, but can be tricky. But still, I’ve seen domain names gone wrong and wondered how it happened. Like your logo, the domain should be easy to understand and communicate the essential idea behind your brand.

First things first, get a basic idea of your brand down so you know what the key takeaway is for your customers. Think about it. Your customers are searching for something online. What do they type into the search bar that takes them to your site? It doesn’t have to be related to that, but it’s something to consider.

Above all, make sure that your customers can remember and spell your domain. And that it communicates the feeling you want your brand to represent.

Sometimes you will have to compromise if your domain is already in use. Check to see if your domain is available on domain.com and use the availability as a brainstorming tool.

Follow the Process

Before you jump into logo design and buy a domain name, remember that this is a process. Between taking the idea you came up with walking down the street and turning it into a brand there are a lot of challenging steps you have to take.

If you haven’t yet, review the idea, the vision, and the strategy episodes of #theprep to catch up. And before you spend time and money designing a website–lock down your identity.

I hope you’re enjoying #theprep series. If you have any questions about launching your idea, ping me any time! 

Ask JR
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Building a strategy to execute your vision. — Lesson 3 of #theprep https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/building-a-strategy-to-execute-your-vision-lesson-3-of-theprep/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/building-a-strategy-to-execute-your-vision-lesson-3-of-theprep/#comments Fri, 05 May 2017 19:27:24 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=2101

If you’ve been following along we’ve just wrapped up the vision section of #theprep. Before jumping into the vision make sure you start from the beginning of #theprep.

#theprep

 

Creating a strategy from scratch can feel like a daunting task. Plus, it’s a very “corporate” word that I think has developed an unfair reputation. Strategies aren’t just fluff. They also don’t need to be overwhelming. When I started my last startup, I think I spent 30 minutes developing a quick strategy. What that did for me was it gave me a runway to run as fast as I could without looking up and getting distracted. I’m hoping this lesson of #theprep will help you get that runway you need.

It doesn’t need to be scary

I get it. The word “strategy” can sound a little corporate and vague. I like to think that it’s no different than sports. The idea is a football team, with a vision to win the state championship. In order to do that, they need a game plan (strategy) to execute on that. When you break it down to it’s simplest form it’s no different with business, it just has an ambiguous word.

Short term vs. Long term

I’ll admit a vision and strategy at this point of the game can sound like overkill. Just launch your idea and create a plan later. I’ve been there, done that, and taking a day or two to plan out where you’re headed isn’t going to be the end of the world.

With that in mind, your strategy can have a short term focus. For example, strategies could range from a 3 year plan broken down by quarters. At this point, that’s definitely overkill. But what about 90 days? 30 days? With a little planning you can save yourself the hassle of having to re-work things you didn’t plan or account for.

100 words or less

When creating your strategy one of the first things I like to do is to make sure I can describe my idea or business in 100 words or less. It forces you to focus. It restricts you from trying to run before you walk. When writing down the 100 words, think through what you’re doing, who you’re doing it for and why you’re doing it.

Target Audience

As I’m writing these things down I just keep thinking this all sounds like common sense. But if everyone was doing it then this whole “launch an idea from nothing” would be a lot easier than it is. You’d be surprised how many businesses or people trying to launch struggle to understand who they are serving. When I say target audience I don’t just mean one thing.

I’m building an app for schools.

Ok cool. Are you focused on K-12? Just high school? College? Are you targeting the teachers, parents or the students? Private or public schools? Boys only or girls only schools? The list goes on. Again, when I say strategy it doesn’t have to be a large strategy session that drags out. It’s just making you stop and think about where you’re going, for who and why.

Value Prop

In short, a value proposition is a concise statement that explains how your idea or product or service solves a customer’s problem and gives them some sort of benefit. Lastly it should clearly state to your customers why your solution is better than the competition.

  1. Explain the problem you’re solving.
  2. State the benefit of the solution.
  3. Finally, tell them why yours is the best of all.

This is a very important part of your strategy to nail down. It’s your unique value proposition and it’s what drives your differentiators.

Competitive Analysis

Like a strategy, you can get really in-depth with a competitive analysis. For this series of the #theprep, I’m not interested in that. The biggest thing I’d like you to get out of this section is to make sure you’re not creating another “copycat” idea or business. If you’re only in it to do that, then you’re just in it to make a quick buck, and you’re not providing value to anyone.

In my opinion, the point of a competitive analysis is to get a feel for the landscape. Seek to understand what you’re competitors are doing, but more importantly what they AREN’T doing. If you’ve done your work with your value prop at this point, this should be a breeze and you should understand what is missing in your specific niche or industry.

Marketing Strategy

Yet another crucial component of your strategy. You can have the best product in the world, but if you can’t sell, no one will ever buy it. There are a million ways to market something online.

  • SEO
  • Paid Search
  • Affiliates
  • Social
  • Email
  • Etc

Additionally, there are a million ways to present your product. It’s exclusive only, it’s high-end, it’s cheap or deeply discounted, it’s free with add-ons as you grow, etc.

The point here is, you need to have a strategy when it comes to marketing your product. If this isn’t what you’re strength is, that’s ok. Find a partner to help. If you don’t want a partner, hire for it. Don’t make the mistake or assumption that customers will find your one of a kind idea or product.

Wrapping up

There’s a lot to cover in a strategy. Especially if this idea or business of yours is something you really believe in. You want to do it right from the start and you want to put your best foot forward. You have a long road ahead even after we get through this launch and this crucial planning will put you lightyears ahead.

To help with this process, I’ve put together a very simplified strategy document you can download. You can copy it, download, etc. You’re free to do whatever you want with it. It will help you get your thoughts down and after going through the entire google doc, you’ll have a strategy to run with. As always, good luck!

I hope you’re enjoying #theprep series. If you have any questions about launching your idea, ping me any time! 

Ask JR
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Creating a vision around your idea. — Lesson 2 of #theprep https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/creating-vision-around-idea-lesson-2-theprep/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/creating-vision-around-idea-lesson-2-theprep/#comments Thu, 27 Apr 2017 00:53:13 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=1703

If you’ve been following along we’ve just wrapped up the idea section of #theprep. Before jumping into the vision make sure you start from the beginning of #theprep.

#theprep

 

A vision is a world you’re creating based on your idea.

Let’s jump straight to it. A vision and an idea are two separate concepts. Simple as that. A lot of times people think their vision is their idea when in reality, that’s really not the case. It’s easy to confuse your idea with your vision. Let me show what I mean.

Our vision is to allow brands provide customer service in the palm of their hand.

In the example above, that’s not a vision. That’s an idea. It’s allowing business to provide customer service in todays mobile-first and fast-paced world. To be honest, it could be a really good idea that I just thought of while writing this, but it’s not a vision. If I were to create vision around the idea above it would be something like this.

With our product we want to create a world where brands can interact with their customers without friction.

The biggest takeaway: it doesn’t confine you. You’re free to help brands interact with their customers, no matter if it’s from their phone, eye glasses, drones, etc. (I know, sounds crazy). In short, an idea is something you want to do. Something you want to accomplish. A vision is a world you want to create based off your idea. It’s a place you arrive at from what you created. Make sense?

It can be big or small

For some of you, a vision might be too much for what we’re building. It’s too soon or maybe you don’t know what you want “it” to be yet. That’s ok but you should at least spend some time thinking about where you’re headed to in this new world of yours. In my mind, an idea without a vision is like a baseball team without the vision of winning the World Series. They go hand in hand.

It’s important to challenge yourself or better yet, challenge the idea. By doing so, you will essentially “poke holes” in your idea and simplify the V1 of your idea.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves

While I think it’s a good exercise to take a moment to think about the vision of this idea, let’s also not get too far ahead of ourselves. At this point, it’s still an idea. We’re not really sure how the market will react to your idea or how your customers will shape it in the future. This is an important part to understand.

This is called validation of your idea.

What if you’re not a “Visionary”?

If you’re reading this and thinking to yourself — “The last thing I am is a visionary”–that’s ok. In fact, that could work to your benefit. That probably means you’re a doer. You can take a list and execute it. The world needs more people like that! A lot of times, big visionaries get caught up with the biggest of visions and get to a point where they’ve created a world so big, they don’t know where to start. Remember, the world wasn’t created over night. I know that sounds obvious but in business it’s no different.

Find a co-founder, a partner, an advisor that has that visionary thinking. Have them help you define the vision with you. Everyone has to start with nothing when building something from nothing. Don’t be afraid to ask for help along this journey.

Wrapping Up

In short, an idea and a vision are two separate things. Take time to think through what kind of world you want to create. It gives you the ability to run faster and you’ll have a clear path to follow. Best of luck!

I hope you’re enjoying #theprep series. If you have any questions about launching your idea, ping me any time! 

Ask JR
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How to execute your Idea. — Lesson 1 of #theprep https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/idea-lesson-1-theprep/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/idea-lesson-1-theprep/#comments Tue, 25 Apr 2017 23:10:13 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=1644

This post kicks off lesson 1 of #theprep. It’s simple — in 8 lessons I want to to help you take your idea to launch. Enjoy!

#theprep

 

People are giving “ideas” a bad name. I agree, everyone has ideas. Everyone has what they think is the next big thing. The problem around ideas and why they have such a bad wrap is no one EXECUTES on those ideas. On top of that, the simplest ideas really start to change and mold into something once you actually start working on your idea. The most important thing is to just start.

Now that you’ve got your idea, whether it’s just a sliver of an idea or truly the next big thing, here’s some steps to validate it.

1. Is your idea solving a problem?

For starters, let’s get real with each other for a second. Odds are you’re not building the next unicorn, with millions of dollars in funding. It’s ok. Let’s stay practical here. Practical is actually sexy. It’s sustainable.

Take a gut check with your idea, product or service and ask yourself, does this solve a problem? Even better, does it solve a problem you’re dealing with? If the answer is yes, then you’re most likely onto something.

2. Will anyone actually pay for it?

Don’t get me wrong, there’s definitely a path for those going the “freemium” route. Or if you just want to get users on board using your product. With that being said eventually we all need to make money to keep our businesses alive.

Whether you’re selling your product, a service, generating leads or promoting products to your followers, make it something people are willing to pay for. The last thing you want to do is have a few of your family and friends telling you they love the idea but no one’s actually pulling out their wallet.

Again, it’s ok if you want to run with an idea to build your following. Get feedback. Provide mountains of value without charging. But in time, you will need to find a way to make money if you want to see your idea support your dream.

3. It’s all about MVP.

When you’re first thinking about your idea, it’s easy to start thinking about everything it can be. This feature and that feature. It could work for this person and that person. Don’t get ahead of yourself or pretty soon the idea will become so big you won’t know where to start.

KISS – Keep it simple, stupid. This principle was actually started back in the 60’s when the Navy wanted to ensure success of their protocols. It’s no different with anything else you’re trying to execute. Your idea can be as big and wide as you want but in the beginning you need to keep things simple.

4. Does it keep you up at night?

It’s all about passion. If you really want to take something and make it amazing, it has to be something you’re passionate about.

Let me clarify what I mean when I ask “Does it keep you up at night?” When I’m saying that it’s from experience. When you’re working on something you’re truly passionate about you won’t want to sleep. Heck, sometimes you don’t want to eat. You’re just so focused, you get lost in what you’re building.

The other thing is, when you’re first getting your idea off the ground there are zero shortcuts. It takes hard work. Period. You will work day and night on this. Every day. Usually working late into the morning–1am, 2am. Then back up at 6am again to start all over again. The hustle never quits so you better be working on something you enjoy.

5. Are you an expert at it?

It seems obvious but when you’re creating something you can increase your chances of success by doing something you actually know something about. If you don’t know anything about what you’re trying to build it will come out in your work. There’s definitely a motto of “fake it until you make it” but that won’t work when starting a company. Whether directly or indirectly, you need to have the chops with what you’re working on.

You can work as hard as you want and solve the worlds biggest problem but if you’re not talented or great at what you’re doing, your idea will fail. That’s not to say you can’t partner with someone else that may bring that piece of the puzzle. You can absolutely do it, just don’t lie to yourself. Expose your own weaknesses and find people to fill those gaps you find.

Wrapping up

Ideas are just ideas when you don’t execute on them. Ideas don’t work when you don’t validate them. Ideas fail when you have no business doing what your doing.  Ideas aren’t “shit.” It takes courage and hard work to see an idea through. As you work on your idea, it will change and morph into something much different than when you first started. That’s exactly what you want. You’re validating, pivoting and just like everything else, change is constant.

Don’t let anyone tell you your idea can’t work. If you feel confident your idea passes through some of these of points above, you’re onto something and you should without a doubt run with it. Good luck!

I hope you’re enjoying #theprep series. If you have any questions about launching your idea, ping me any time! 

Ask JR
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#theprep. A series to prepare you to launch your next idea online. https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/idea-to-launch-theprep/ https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/idea-to-launch-theprep/#comments Tue, 25 Apr 2017 01:46:30 +0000 https://blog.mojomarketplace.com/?p=1597

I’m excited to announce a new series on the blog today: #theprep! The purpose of the series is simple. We want to help anyone and everyone who has an idea get it launched to the world. We’re going to take you through each step of launching your idea and guide you along the way. In the end you’ll have a new site launched as you get ready for #theclimb (the next step, a follow-up to #theprep.)

#theprep is an 8 Part Series

This series will walk you through a series of steps that get you on your way to launching your idea! Each section will include a blog post and video to go along with it. That way, no matter what way you want to learn, you can tune in however you want.

We want the sections to be short and concise. The reality is that today you can launch your idea in just a few days. And the important thing to remember is that launching quickly lets you validate your idea, test your assumptions and get a head start on the real journey of having a successful product or business.

By following these steps you can get launched in a short amount of time and head straight into #theclimb.

Start by watching this video and reading the 8 steps below.

the prep and the climb step one idea

1. Idea — The big dream.

You’ve got it. The slightest of an idea. Your “aha” moment. I get it, everyone has ideas, but this one? It’s yours. It’s different. We want to help make your idea a reality.

In this first part of the 8-part series, we break down what makes a good idea and whether or not your idea has “legs.” We’ll also cover vetting your idea, competitive analysis and the next steps for getting your idea off the ground.

the prep series part 2 vision

2. Vision — Defining a place for this idea.

To most, an idea and a vision are one and the same. In my experience the two couldn’t be more different. An idea is typically something you want to do. A vision is a new place you want to create. You want to define what kind of world you want to create because of your idea. It’s meta, I get it, but you’ll understand what I’m saying when you get to this point.

the prep series part 3 strategy

 3. Strategy — Building a plan to execute your vision.

I could go into two types of strategy here. One around launching your MVP and one around creating a long-term strategy for the business. For this series let’s just stay focused on getting your idea off the ground. We want you to get from idea to launch as soon as you can.

the prep series part 4 identity

4. Identity — The name, brand and domain.

We’re cruising right along now. We’ve nailed the initial idea, vision and strategy on how we’ll get there. Now we just need lock down the identity. This will include the brand name of your product or service. Additionally, you’ll need a brand identity as well as a domain. 😉

the prep part 5 platform

5. Platform — WordPress-powered website.

Now we may be a little biased, seeing as though WordPress has been a part of MOJO since we launched in 2010, but that doesn’t mean WordPress isn’t the best platform to launch your idea on. In short, I would argue WordPress can accomplish V1 for any idea. Whether it’s launching an early prototype, online store, blog or recurring subscriptions, WordPress is the platform of choice.

We’ll walk you through setting up WordPress, with MOJO of course 😉 and getting you on your way to customizing the site around your idea and brand.

the prep part 6 design

6. Design — Choosing the right WordPress Theme.

There are thousands of WordPress themes. Why should you choose a premium WordPress theme over a free one? Does it include a blog? A store? What about speed performance and code quality? We haven’t even talked about design.

We can easily go through what to look for when choosing the right WordPress theme. We’ll give you the tips and tricks you need to select the perfect WordPress theme.

the prep part 7 content

 7. Content — Tell your story.

This is one area we really don’t want you to overlook. Content is more powerful than most people think. It can make or break your site. On top of that, the way your content is on your site sets the tone of your brand, tells your story and defines how you sit alongside your competitors. On top of just making sure you’re crossing your t’s and dotting your i’s, we’ll also talk about how having a strong content marketing plan can set you up for success in the future.

the prep part 8 launch

8. Launch — Go live with your idea.

Yes! You’ve made it. We’ve got your idea, product or service all the way to V1. It’s FINALLY to the point where you’re ready to share it with the world! We definitely want to stop, high five and maybe even cheers with a drink. Honestly, you’ve beat 90% of people out in the world that are still sitting on ideas so hats off to you friend!

 BONUS — Launch to Success #theclimb

We may as well as drop a little #teaser about another series we’re launching. #Theclimb is a new on-going series which will be a follow up from this mini series.

We’ve only just began. We took your idea to launch. Now the real work starts. You need to know how to get your idea out there. Drive traffic to your site. Find real paying customers. Sign up users on your email list. Understand your analytics. Increase your site’s conversion rate. And a million other things to have a successful company.

In #theclimb we’ll launch a brand new video show around what it takes to become successful with your idea. It’s an on-going climb over new obstacles and we want to give you the tools you need to succeed.

The best part?

It will all be free. Stay tuned…

I hope you enjoy #theprep series. If you have any questions about launching your idea, ping me any time! 

Ask JR
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