Google Analytics, Mixpanel or Kissmetrics are good tools that allow you to do it. The only inconvenient thing about the last 2 is that you need to set up "events" to understand your flow it and it might just take too much time. If you've configured your ecommerce module on GA you will probably receive this data now and can sort with a good level of detail when a conversion/transaction happens and where it came from. Banner Ads when run on Google Adwords are easily tracked by your GA account. Email is a little bit trickier because it requires that every single link within your email comes with a campaign tracker, but that also can be built on a fly with Google Url builder https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1033867?hl=en Let me know if you want to expand on the subject :) If URL campaigns are not an option then you might need to set up "event" on GA to track something like a referral.

You can either dissect the inner workings of ajax calls (if the website has any) or write a regular full-page scraper which traverses the product catalog. Popular choices for scraping are casperjs, beautiful soup, mechanize, etc. Each having its strengths and drawbacks - casper for instance can emulate the browser behavior, while the rest are much less resource intensive but often require going through extra hoops when the website is complicated.

Personally, I'm a fan of sales comp plans being tied to ongoing performance. Sure, the salesperson should get some of that long tail, but only while he continues to work productively at the company. Once he leaves, he should lose the tail, since someone else will likely need to step into the relationship with his customers. But there are too many variables to give a universal answer. The true answer is this: You need to pay your salespeople enough so that they are motivated to keep working for you rather than seeking alternative employment. This means you need to analyze at-quota pay, and ensure that your base and commission structures provide a market-level of compensation at quota. You can muck with anything you want as long as that goal is met.

Having a smart call to action at the end of each blog post is generally a good practice. Make it stand out, and make sure to add value to the visitor by signing up. I strongly recommend A/B testing (also called split-testing) your sign up call to action. That's the only way for you to improve the results of the signup rate. In regards to the conversion rate it's extremely difficult to predict. Depends on your value proposition, quality of content, your industry and so much more. Best advice is just to get started and be smart about the a/b testing. If you are running Wordpress I can strongly recommend OptinMonster to manage your call to actions. Unlike other solutions you won't have to pay a fortune, and it's very good. I'd also like to throw some flame to the fire on the ever ongoing discussions about popups. They receive a lot of flak, but are extremely effective. You can expect up to 200% more signups by using exit intent popups. Again - make sure to offer value to the visitor.

I have been working with creatives for years and the ones who refuse to follow standard business practices such as planning are normally the ones you don't want on your team. Creatives are great but if they don't understand the importance of business planning, resourcing, money management they are not going to be partners... only employees.

I've used the Foursquare API for a lot of different kinds of applications, both web and mobile. In my opinion you should not store any venue information in your application for a couple of reasons. First, I think the terms and conditions you agreed to when signing up for an API key prohibit you from doing so. Second, That data is subject to change at any moment so you're better off just referring to them to get it whenever you need it. If you have any other questions about the Foursquare API I'd be glad to talk to you and see if I can help. Thanks

Hi there! 1-. Keep on asking for feedback for your product and adjust it 100% to what your first users want 2-. Go for the wow factor. Make their product amazing (think about an iphone design) and last 3-. Make sure these early adopters use your product everyday (or as many times per week as they can). This will make them talk about your product with others. Others: - give discounts to the early adopters and to the new users when an early adopter refer to someone the product All the best! Laura

If you're in Canada, there are two options: - Some insurance companies will offer employee benefits coverage to companies with as few as 2 employees. - You can join an association plan (there are many out there), where you're part of a larger pool of many small companies and the claims & premiums are spread across the entire pool.

Any suit run by a competent lawyer will ensure that the parties named in the suit include everyone who might be able to pay. So, while your LLC might own some products, it may not be the only entity sued. You might be sued, along with all kinds of other people and companies. I'm not saying there's nothing you can do, but you certainly cannot escape having to defend a suit. Anyone can sue anyone else, even if the suit will ultimately be unsuccessful. You ask how can you handle being sued without going to court? The answer is negotiate a settlement that results in the lawsuit being dropped. So, what have you got to trade? What damage could you do if they continue to sue you, and so on.

It all depends if there is room for arbitrage, meaning if you spend $100 will you make $150 or $200 or whatever your conversion rate would be for your business. That requires that you need to have some sort of knowledge on how to create an adwords account, selects the copy for you ADS (text or display ads), select if it is search or Google's display network and then run the ads by bidding on keywords or the alternative targeting methods google offers. Run $50, $100 or even $500, target specifically based on geo location, target age and be sure you have the proper tools on your website to measure conversion. That is, you know how to build url addresses that track when you make a sale? get a call or whatever the activity you are trying to convert for. I happen to have a free $100 credit on google adwords: hopefully no one will read it before you do :) 3K3WH-AFKNW-ES3F And if you want to test other growth hacking ideas more than happy to hop on a call :)

This is a tricky question as you are entering a gray area if you are using material from Book Z to inspire your own book. Derivatives works are highly litigated and there is case law that you could turn to to help you make this decision but based on your example its going to be a fine line. You would have to be able to distinguish the products as two very separate works. Since the original book Z is inspiring your new book this may be hard to do. It might actually be easier to talk with the original author about your future plans and develop an agreement between the two of you where he waives any claims he might have here in exchange for recognition in your book. Just an idea--FYI- this is NOT LEGAL ADVICE. You should consult with an attorney in more detail here.

If you have already validated the product, I would suggest you to do some market research. What is the high and the low end that the consumers are willing to pay. 1. How many "Bulk Buyers" are out there and how much do they pay you per home compared to how many "High-End Buyers" are out there and how much do they pay you? 2. Whats the Acquisition costs on both these markets? 3. Can you target both at the same time? The point being that you will need to understand your market better. Allow me to compare my business to yours and explain. I provide Services in Digital Solutions. In our Market we have clients who are willing to pay $1000 for an iPhone and then I have my clients like CitiBank who paid in excess of $1,000,000. Theres only one Citibank but theres 100's of 1000's "$1000 clients" You need to decide is it worthwhile to pursue and deliver on those small clients or go for the big fish. I will need to deliver a 1000 Small projects to compare to what I made in revenue to that one Single big project. It just doesnt make sense for the overhead I will need to put in to manage a 1000 clients. In the end you will need to get that same ratio out for your business and then choose the market you want to target.

Before hiring someone you would do yourself a big favor by running through some early low-fidelity prototyping. Start by sketching it out on stickynotes, get the flow down and get into the experience. You can move to a high-fidelity clickable prototype after a few iterations, possibly hiring a graphic designer to simply lay it out for you. Load this prototype on your iphone and show it off to real life possible customers for feedback. Listen and iterate. Now you may find that people don't care or you have a set of features (typically a few of them winning) that you can take into development. This becomes your specification and you can more easily find a programmer on oDesk or such. My advice is to do this work yourself or work very closely with a firm that specializes in this process. Good luck!

All 3 options. That way the users can choose which is more convenient to them.

Will you share more details? Are you exhibiting at a trade show?

In our new book, Entrepreneur's Guide to The Lean Brand, Jeremiah Gardner and I tackle how relationships build passionate customers. In our view, products should fulfill a utility promise -- this functionality solves a that specific problem. But fulfilling the promise can only create 'satisfaction.' (Not always true, but generally.) It's the relationships between company and employees with customers that potentially creates 'passion,' which is required for scalable growth. So how do you measure passion? Probably not in one particular way. Some combination of things like Net Promoter Score, Must-Have Score; social-media campaigns that measure participatory behavior; increase sharing of content; increase in viral-coefficient (OK for non-network effect business < 1!). Early on, the best way to establish relationships is by meeting customers in person, in order to understand them deeply and develop empathy. Hypothesize 'what behavior can I expect from a customer with whom I've developed a relationship?' Measure whether that behavior is occurring.

Sorry to keep it short. We can speak and go through the specifics, but keep in mind that IP is the lifeblood of business valuations. In a variety of cases companies both large and small are purchased for their intellectual property and the talent . You would have to go through a market discovery to identify the potential value of the IP. I would have a plan with what you are going to do with the IP when you enter into your agreement so you don't handcuff your future strategy in the initial contracts. You have a lot of potential paths to success here.

We share a similar challenge -- visual for you, verbal for me. In my case, this often means convincing folks that cutting corners on their branded domain name or written content carries hidden costs. They often see spending more than the bare minimum on their online identity as waste. It's easy to be oblivious to the costs of bad branding or bad design. After all, they have a website already; so they've already arrived at the finish line, right? People think they're saving money simply because they're not spending money. Meanwhile, they're earning LESS. It's also tricky to point out blemishes in someone else's creative efforts. Egos are fragile. Or they're too robust! So what I typically do -- and what I recommend you try -- is this: Gather some compare-and-contrast examples. Ask your prospective clients which of 2 websites or logos they'd rather do business with or which they've already done business with. One will look professional; the other will resemble their site / logo. After a series of these compare-and-contrast examples, the person will usually grasp what's at stake without any didactic explanation from you. People want to trust their own judgment; therefore showing them is better than telling them. Frankly, I think you've got it easier than I do! Visual differences are striking, and people are accustomed to the idea that professional graphic design ought to be paid for. You will only be able to convince a small fraction of people. We human beings are stubborn, ignorant, and lazy. All of us. Good luck!

It would be nice to know what you are selling, the sales cycle, the types of buyers, etc. This is important and would let me customize my answer for you. But, here are some generic thoughts. The problem with sales meeting is keeping it interesting for the people who are not speaking or giving their "update" and to make it a learning experience rather than an update of what they did. One thing that has worked very well with me to ask each person to come prepared to discuss these topics: 1. Give me three things you did this week that you think worked really well and you want to share with the rest of the group. 2. Give me three things you did last week that you won't do any more, that you think just are not working. 3. Tell us about the biggest sale you made last week. What made it close? What value proposition did the customer buy? How can you take what you learned from that and use it for all sales in the future. I work with a lot of inside sales teams helping them craft their messages and sales process with the goals of improving close rates and increased sales velocity. Bob

The steps are simple, but podcast promotion is not easy. 1. Know who your audience is 2. Make GREAT content for THAT audience. Content that leaves them going "WOW I've go to tell my friends about this." 3. Go to where that audience is. 4. Make friends with them bringing value to every conversation. 5. Tell them about your podcast. (do not swap 4 and 5, they won't care about your podcast until they care about you). If you're looking for the giant switch that gives you 10,000 downloads it doesn't exist. Other things that will speed things up is doing interviews and having those people promote their appearance. Last never say the word, "only." As in "I only have 67 downloads." Those are people who chose your content over thousands of others. If this was a school 67 people would be 3 classrooms if not four. As for tools, twitter, facebook, google+ (look for groups in Google and Facebook), meetup.com for in person meetings. You build your audience one person at a time.

One of the most important things to have in mind is that every step in the process of entering data into the CRM should help the sales rep to advance in his sales process. To many CRMs are emphasizing on data for management and reporting on stuff that doesn't help the sale forward.

A mentor should consist of 3 things 1. Have a track record, be knowledgeable and connected in your the area of your startup (e.g. real-estate, fashion or semi-conductors, building a startup, writing a book) 2. Share your vision 3. You should think he's cool and he should think you're cool If you have all of these 3 things, then the mentor is valuable and you can think about giving a stake in your company.

The passion would be to help customers succeed. Or at least it should be. The frustration mostly has to do with the clients reluctance to change!

You are right. Any updates on site will require you to think about SEO so there is no lost traffic here is a QA wordpress you can use http://www.designwall.com/wordpress/plugins/dw-question-answer/ Also this is good seo plugin as well https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/

It really depends on your initial cash position. In my experience the most direct path to positive chase flow is a service business. If a service business is not for you I would look into a distribution company. If you are creative there are ways to set up a distribution model that utilizes a drop ship method. This means you establish the sale and get paid and the manufacturer will ship the product directly to the end user with your name on the documents. There are a wide variety of opportunities. There are many limiting factors we would have to initially identify to direct your search.