The Online Investing AI Blog

Recently I have been selling old books on Amazon. I discovered that it is actually a great way to get rid of them. The Amazon Marketplace is a very efficient and fairly easy to use system for sellers. And the prices are surprisingly high.

I tend to read books only once. I have about 10 favorite books that I can read over and over, but besides those I generally never read a book twice. If it makes a good reference book about trading or programming, then I might look at it many times. I take care of them and after I have read them they are still in new condition. That means they fetch a high price on Amazon.

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Business Strategy, Internet, Money, Success Amazon, books, business, fulfillment by amazon, Internet, Money, sales, shipping, technology

One of the biggest changes to go along with technological advancement is a paradigm shift towards value creation. 50 years ago, the single goal of most companies was to sell as much as possible, of whatever it makes. The customer relationship started with a sale and ended with the sale.

Marketing became a very refined and effective tool for jamming as much crap down customers throats as possible. Magazines, television commercials, billboards and even movies became incredibly powerful tools for selling anything. And, once the sale was made, nobody cared about whether the customer was happy or not, or even if they could be sold to again!

Then one day, a very smart marketer started using the money back guarantee. This was the start of real value creation for the customer. If you’re not totally satisfied, as they say on the TV commercial, send it back and we’ll give you a full refund! This meant that the selling company was taking responsibility for your satisfaction, and if you’re not satisfied, you don’t have to keep the product.

This is a very powerful idea because it removes the risk for the consumer. The interesting thing is that the Internet has made this guarantee of value creation the standard. From Amazon’s quick and easy return process, to websites and software that you “try before you buy.” As technology improves, the guaranteed satisfaction to the consumer improves as well. How wonderful!

So here’s my question for you: as technology improves, more people buy everything on the Internet, and value creation increases, how will that affect the buying process? Where can we possibly go from “satisfaction guaranteed?”

Accelerating Technology, Business Strategy Accelerating Technology, billboards, commercials, marketing, sales, satisfaction guarantee, television, value creation

This post might seem a little out-of-place, but, check it out, it’s right on target.

Online Investing AI is about how you can use technology to master your personal finance picture and become financially independent, however you wish to define that.

Taking care of the other side of your balance sheet–spending–will be the topic of the next couple of posts. Technology can be used to help you spend your money better and, during the holiday season, you’ll probably need all the help you can get.

And, hey, deals are deals.

One of the biggest shopping days is Black Friday and, despite economic pressures, it’s likely to be the biggest shopping day of this year, too. Back in the day (and I go back in the day) you never knew where the big deals were until Black Friday hit and you could view the print ads in newspapers and magazines. So, you couldn’t really comparitively shop and plot strategies.

Some of the following enterprising web sites allow you to take a peak at the ads and circulars to get a jump on your Black Friday shopping plans.

• Black Friday Ads
• Black Friday
• Gottadeal.com’s Black Friday deals
• The Black Friday Site
• Slick Deals

Investing, Money, Online Investing AI black friday, frugal, personal finance, sales, shop, shopping, spending, thanksgiving

This is probably too early for a book review… because I’m not done reading it yet. But I’m already sold on the concept.

Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities That Lead to Business Breakthroughs, by Craig Stull, Phil Myers and David Meerman Scott, is an outstanding read if you’re interested in turning your business into an innovative powerhouse.

Using case studies and the authors’ own experiences the book turns marketing and product development on their heads, where they deserve to be. While most marketing strategies follow the maxim: find people who will buy your product, this book asks you to look at it more subtly: create a product that solves people’s problems.

The rest is resonance. If your product resonates with people, in other words, if your product answers a need, the message spreads virally and you won’t need a series of billboards, or a fancy ad campaign, or a million-dollar Super Bowl campaign.

This actually gets to my own marketing philosophy: create a great story and tell it.

The book gives a six-step process of finding, fleshing out, and delivering this resonating story.

If you want a little background on the book, the authors are part of a group called, “Pragmatic Marketing.” (That name resonates with me!) You can read their blog here: Pragmatic Marketing Blog.

Here it is on Amazon.

Business Strategy, Great Books, Online Investing AI book review, books, innovation, invention, market, marketing, product, sales, tuned in