Ravi's Rants

Rndaom, Yet <Well Formed/>

Better Than Disneyland

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How Your Online Course Can Be Better Than Disneyland

How Your Online Course Can Be Better Than Disneyland

So recently, along with my family, I visited Disney California Adventure.

And a few months ago, in December 2016, during the holiday break, my family and I went to Universal Studios.

Now, I live in San Diego, which is about 1.5 hours from Anaheim, which is where Disneyland and California adventure are located. And about a 3 hour drive from Universal Studios in Los Angeles.

Universal has something called “Front of Line” access. It is about $100 dollars more on top of a regular ticket, which by itself costs about $100.

So when you pay an extra $100 for front-of-line access, you basically get to go to the front of the line for every single ride, only once per ride, of course. And even if you go on a week day, let alone going during a major holiday, the lines are absolutely crushingly long. 1 to 2 hours wait for each ride. And because we paid extra for front-of-line access, we were able to get to the front of the line for every single ride, thus saving us at least 1 hour per ride.

So paying $400 extra for 4 front-of-line passes, was totally worth it, considering we saved about 4 to 6 hours in total of standing in line. Now that’s a win-win, if you ask me. Universal wins because it gets to squeeze out an extra $100 per ticket for the front-of-line access, and it was a win for us because we saved so much time, and that made it so much more enjoyable, and we were able to get to all of the rides, and it only enhanced the experience.

But here’s the problem with what Disney does, which is completely the opposite of what Universal Studios does. And here’s why you shouldn’t make the mistake of following Disney’s model, and should instead use Universal’s model….

Listen to the rest of this via my podcast episode above.

How To Over-deliver

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Imagine the little girl in the beginning, dropping just a few coins in your hat, as one of your customers.

And the musicians as your team.

Now imagine how thrilled your customer would be if your team could over-deliver like in this video.

Think you would get a standing ovation (great ratings and testimonials) and everyone flocking towards you (viral marketing, social proof) and have happy customers (repeat business)?

“But.. it was all planned”, you say? Well, who’s stopping you from executing a well-planned service like this?

Who said it has to be on-the-fly?

Who said it’s not OK to generate a “planned WOW!”?

DigitalAccessPass.com’s 1st Birthday

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1 year ago, I launched a membership plugin for WordPress, called DigitalAccessPass (DAP).

It had some ground-breaking features – many firsts for its niche. Like “Content Dripping”, for example (I even coined a new word: ContentResponder :-).

Yesterday (October 11, 2009), DAP celebrated it’s 1st birthday!

Just some proof that with a lot of focus, hard work, persistence, passion, great customer service and a little bit of smarts, it is possible to create something a lot bigger than what was in your dreams 🙂

Click here to see how the birthday party went down…

The Power Of A Brand (Revisited)

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Did you know that the incredibly famous Nike “Swoosh” logo was created by a graphic design student desperate to pay for a dress for an upcoming party, for a stunning total of $35 (at $2/hour)?

I watched a Nike documentary recently, where they interviewed  Philip Knight (one of Nike’s Founders), “His Airness” Michael Jordan, and the legendary designer of all (or most?) Air-Jordan shoes.

Knight talks about how when he first met the folks at Wieden+Kennedy (the media company that helped launch Nike as an international brand, with mainly remarkable marketing), he told them that he didn’t believe in advertising!

There is a clip at the end where LeBron James, one of the highest paid basketball players in the world today, says he grew up watching Michael Jordan, and how he and every single kid he knew felt that if they wore the same “Air Jordan” Shoes that they saw Jordan wearing in the commercials, they too could “soar in the air” and make all sorts of magical moves on the court – Just Like Mike.

Did the kids know deep, deep, deep inside that just wearing a specific brand of shoes won’t make you a better player? Of course, they all did.

But did they still convince themselves (and their parents) against reason and common-sense, that the shoes were really what counted? Of course, they all did!

How much did the association with Michael Jordan help Nike become the sports-wear-juggernaut that it is? Probably a LOT.

That just proves one thing: When you have a really strong brand (remarkable shoes, remarkable computers, remarkable prices, remarkable advice), people are much more likely to  buy your products – AND your recommendations – without thinking too much.

My hero Seth Godin recently recommended a book called “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions“. All he wrote was, (paraphrasing) “It’s remarkable, just go buy it”.

Had never heard of the author. Didn’t read any reviews. Didn’t care about the price.

I just went and bought it  – just because Seth Godin thought it was good (yes, he has worked hard to build that level of trust, and I’m sure he knows better than to dilute it by recommending purely in return for money (say, commercial endorsements?).

If you read only one book this year, then make sure it is this one.

What Happens When You Get Too Good At Marketing

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WARNING: SHOCKING LANGUAGE FROM CUSTOMER BELOW

Ok, so maybe the title was a little dramatic, but still, I didn’t know I was *this* awesome at marketing 🙂

Over the weekend, when I thought of giving away my best-selling book on Amazon for free on the book’s blog, I never imagined that my copy writing style & marketing prowess would bring out such strong emotions in people… 🙂

So, on one of the email groups that I’m a part of, I announced that they could get my book for free. And apparently, one guy wanted to just buy a digital copy right away. And when he couldn’t find a “buy” button on the blog, here’s what he wrote:

“You have no Fucking idea how to sell – you are a third world CUNT – when a prospect has already made a decision to buy you should provide the click button to buy – you have failed – because you – do not believe that you can succeed – am I right cocksucker?”

Now that is an EXACT copy-paste from his email.

Now here’s my dilemma:

I was so furious initially, that I wasted most of my day yesterday plotting revenge on this guy, and how to ruin his career and online reputation. I wrote up an entire blog post spending several hours, detailing every email exchange we had. But didn’t publish it.

See, on one side, I wasn’t sure if going ahead with my revenge saga would do me me any good at all. Too much time wasted non-productively, too much negative energy – the usual “law of attraction” stuff.

But on the other side, jerks like this can’t go on without facing any consequences, and go on like business as usual after such a racist rant.

But then peace prevailed. And I have decided to let go.

But feel free to comment below and let me know what you think.

(Here’s the offer that started this all: http://NBLEB.com/blog/ )