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Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner
March 13, 2009 in 5 out of 5 stars, A podcast, Expert Advice Stanford University Well, because it’s bite-sized nuggets of inspirational goodness and expertise that we all need. I like as well how it’s broken out by topic, by speaker, or by date. Free Reviewed by Carson McComasWhat is it?
Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner: A collection of short, potent videos and podcasts by very well-known successful entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerburg, Larry Page and Michael Dell, as well as some less well-known, but still inspiring and successful entrepreneurs. They've been doing this for a few years, and new additions are added regularly.
Who makes it?
Why is it the killerest?
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Happy Quote
March 9, 2009 in Happy Quotes“My life has been a series of well-orchestrated accidents; I’ve always suffered from hallucinogenic optimism. I was broke for more than 10 years. I remember staying up all night one night at my first company and looking in couch cushions the next morning for some change to buy coffee.”
—Evan Williams, CEO of Twitter
Discussing Website Conversions
March 4, 2009 in Expert Advice, TipsReading through this (quite long) discussion about conversion rates and found these nuggets inside:
They recommend having a refer-a-friend program.
Aaron: What type of traffic converts best?
Karl: Existing customers convert very well, as do visitors from refer-a-friend programs.
I’ve had mixed success with this myself, it’s very audience dependent (and works better with women than men), but it’s not hard to set up and when it works, it’s free traffic. I’ve had the most success with a program of incentivizing the referrals. It’s a bit harder to set up, but can be significantly more productive. An example I’ve had good luck with is: “Refer 5 friends and be entered in a drawing.”
They also touch on the value of giving your site extra credibility by using press mentions.
While working on a weight loss website that generates $5 million/year, we noticed that the company had a fantastic press testimonial that wasn’t prominently displayed on their website. By moving this information “above the fold”—and reformatting it—we managed to create an overnight 67% increase in sales.