Wealth Building with a Little Help from my Friends

With a Little Help from my Friends
To get a sense of my blind spots with the wine directory, I asked colleagues and friends what their thoughts were. The most significant one came from Nicci Scheid, a former web design classmate who now lives in New Zealand (a wine country) as a web marketing manager:

"...there's a world wide wine glut on: vineyards are actually ripping out vines in a drastic measure to get control of supply and demand. As more and more "new world" countries have jumped into the wine game, there's been an ever increasing supply. This, combined with the recession, has made prices (and profits) nosedive. It might be that SEO is not the top priority in a climate like this: pushing as many bottles out the door is.

It's not about ranking, especially to a marketing manager. It's about WHAT are they going to get out of it. It's one thing to see SEO and online marketing from a technical/development perspective, it's completely another to get it from the marketing/business perspective. When you bring those two things together it's immensely powerful."

Hallelujah!
...spoken like a true sage. This is not the first time Nicci doled out morsels of her insight and knowledge for my benefit.

All About Marketing
I still maintain that any industry directory is recession proof. The challenge is how the pitch is worded to factor-in that economic slant to make it relevant and compelling. Depending on web charges (mine is almost ridiculously cheap, being on a soft promo), getting listed on a high-ranking directory can be the biggest advertising bang for the buck. Heeding Nicci's advice, instead of saying,

"this directory is search engine optimized (SEO)...period",

it can be reworded to say,

"registry in this SEO-directory will help push your bottles out the door specially during these tough economic times because your winery will rank higher in Google, redirect buyers to your website and consequently increase sales".

Friends' Input
Other input I received from well-meaning friends were:

• unclear navigation on the gallery section
• use elegant masthead font
• make the site look more stylish (being a wine industry)...not too serious
• too stark...use background image or background color

The Architect
In an unrelated conversation with an architect (me, realizing late in life I should have been one), relayed that architecture is the obvious fusion between science and art (like wed design!), but years into architecture, he realized there's a 3rd dimension - the psychology of the end user. The 3 of them have to work seamlessly to create a well-balanced architectural masterpiece (it doesn't have to the tallest structure on the planet).

Tripping on Good Intentions
I find this revealing. Because of my good intentions, I usually default into thinking what I want is always good for the end user. I'm almost self-righteous in that zeal. Not surprisingly, I sometimes trip on my good intentions.

Everybody Happy
I also realized the directory can be more participatory and inclusive of other wineries who don't want to pay for a full-feature webpage. Solution? Provide a "free listing" feature that covers only the essentials - company name, address, phone, email and website. That way, the industry is still adequately represented. Equally important, the free listing develops an agreeable rapport with establishment owners.

Ending Thoughts
I'm really having a blast at all the small and big revelations I stumble upon in this quest for wealth building. By playing the new paradigm right, subtle layers are revealed in ways not too different from my pursuit of poverty in the last 6 years. Being on 2 ends of the same spectrum, their highs and lows could just about be the same - of course! Yin and Yang.

My life in the last 3 months has been completely different from the rest of my life. Wealth building is a new adventure unto its own - no less than the adrenaline offering of rappelling down a cliff face. I devour work with fanatical zest, breathing, sleeping, eating and waking up with fresh new ideas on how I can perfect my game. I revel in the learning process, both the business side and the technical side. I've restructured my routine to incorporate my workout, my meals, my leisure time, etc. into this new mandate. While everybody's partying, I'm on the internet working my ass off.

Again, I reiterate that my wealth building process is not just in hot pursuit of money at all cost, but perfecting the game as I inch my way into the endless refinements that challenge me along the way. The money is simply an end-result validation. Abstract? Consider an angler (fisherman). He spends the entire day trying all sorts of ways to catch fish - different spot, different lure, different bait, on the boat, on the jetty, from the shore, etc. Finally, after all that time and effort, he catches a big whopper! What does he do? He releases the fish back. Yes, it's not about the fish - he's simply perfecting his game. That's the same thing with wealth building.

I'm actually wondering....had I pursued wealth building at this frenzied pace straight out of my university days, where would I be now? At this level, money ceases to be a factor. Why? because it becomes an inevitable given. So the bottom line comes down again to the same thing - perfecting the game.

Nicci reassuringly puts it,

"I get a feeling of where you're at, and it's actually a GOOD place: you're really ready to expand your horizons and take the next step."

--- TheLoneRider

Many many thanks to Nicci, Rene, Bianca, Jan, Ran and many more.

The following people like this story:

Cha Santiago

Marko Samson

Reader Comments:

Claire Madarang
(Nov 30, 2010) Happy for you! Cheers to your perfection of the game! =)

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