“Seven Questions For Your Publishing Success”—Part III: What Are YOUR Guiding Principles? By Rev. Richard Boeck
If you’re still with me at this juncture, reading Part III of this series, I’m going to assume that you’ve pretty well answered the question, “Who Are YOU?” You’ve reached a conclusion about what makes you tick and what values and principles you believe in and will uphold in your business and publishing.
The same would hold true, I would hope, with the question we examined last week, “Why Should YOU Publish An Ezine?” If you’re interested in reading about today’s question, then I’m going to assume that you’ve answered, or are on the verge of answering, last week’s question.
So then, let’s continue our mental, emotional, philosophical, practical, and moral journey of discovery leading to YOUR publishing success. And let’s do so by seeking to answer the question: What Are YOUR Guiding Principles?
Well. What Are YOUR Guiding Principles?
Perhaps to better answer this question, it would help to make certain we understand the question.
Principles are, by definition “an accepted or professed rule of action or conduct.” They are further defined as “fundamental doctrines or tenets” and “right rules of conduct.” In other words, principles are those things by which we govern how we do things and by what standard we do them.
When we ask the question, therefore, What Are YOUR Guiding Principles?, we are seeking to discover what rules of conduct are going to guide your actions and your interface with your constituency on the internet.
What Are YOUR Guiding Principles?
How you’re going to do business with people on the internet is very much a part of your guiding principles. The internet is one of the most impersonal forms of commerce and business in the world.
Yes, it’s true that there are chat rooms, forums, email, blogs, and a myriad of other means to communicate with your customers. However, none of these is the same as standing at a counter in a store and looking the customer squarely in the eye and getting a feel for the person and his or her needs.
There are a million ways to fool someone and take advantage of a customer on the internet. It can be a most impersonal place, unless you do your level best to make it personal. There’s a lot to overcome in creating a sense of value in the customer for your product or service when you can’t see them or hear them. That’s why “YOUR guiding principles” are so important to your success.
What Are YOUR Guiding Principles?
Integrity strikes me as being an important “guiding principle” for any business, no matter whether it’s offline or online. If people are getting the best you have to offer and they get 100% of your efforts in their behalf, then you’re going to make a big difference in their lives.
This means that if you say you’re going to do something, Do It! If you promise a bonus for a purchase, give it. If you offer that bonus, make sure it’s value is what you say it is. If you can’t follow through, let your customer know why you couldn’t and then offer them an alternative of equal or greater value.
A person’s word need to be his/her bond. In the last century, and for many years before, a handshake could seal a deal, because the vast majority of business people stood by their word. Integrity was their watchword and it solidified their reputation.
With the dawn of the Twenty-First Century, and the popularity of the internet, we’ve gotten to a point where people, who do almost everything on the internet, need to be assured that the people with which they do business are honest in their dealings. We no longer have even the benefit of a handshake. We’re all anonymous, unseen persons, saying things that may or may not be believed by someone else, who is also unseen. That’s where Integrity comes in.
What Are YOUR Guiding Principles?
Truthfulness is another thing that strikes a chord when I think of “guiding principles.” There an old saying that “your word is your bond.” It was coined as a way to allow a person to go free without bail if they had been arrested. The judge was saying that he believed the word of the defendant, allowing the release on the person’s “own recognizance.”
People who do business with you want to know they're dealing with someone who is truthful. If you’re going to publish on the internet, whether it’s an ezine, an ebook, a website, or a sales page advertising a particular product, tell people the truth.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve purchased an ebook only to discover that what the sales page said about the ebook wasn’t even close to accurate. In one case I remember, the web sales page gave the information that the author would welcome calls about the product if I had any question about whether to purchase it or not. What I got when I called was a recording and an opportunity to leave my name and phone number. After two weeks and repeated attempts to reach the author, only to get his voicemail again and again, with no call backs, I decided that his ebook probably wasn’t worth the electrons is was written on.
If you run a Joint Venture with another publisher and they make some product sales for you, make certain you cut their commission check when you say you’re going to do so. There is nothing that gets in the way of your word being “your bond,” more than failing to pay what you promised and when you say you’re going to do so.
If you tell a customer that they can get their money back for a purchase they’ve made, then give it back to them, pronto! Don’t sit on it and make them wait. It will go a long way in establishing loyalty in your clientele.
What Are YOUR Guiding Principles?
Service is also an essential “guiding principle.” If your business and personal dealings with others are self-serving, then you need to reexamine the principle of “Service.” Effective publishers and other business people know that the only way to be successful in their endeavors is to provide “service” to others.
Service puts the needs of the customer ahead of your needs.
Service is concerned about how the customer’s purchase can be made more useful and beneficial to him or her.
Service means swallowing your pride and seeking ways to solve a customer’s problem or concern.
Service is the glue that puts the meat on the bones, as it were, of the “guiding principles” of Integrity and Truthfulness. Service provides support and confirmation to the customer that what you say and how you do business is in fact what you’ve said and done all along. That integrity and truthfulness are in fact at the very heart of your business dealings.
What Are YOUR Guiding Principles?
Providing Quality stands right up there with integrity and truthfulness as being terribly essential to your publishing success.
Quality defines who and what you are and what your product or service is all about. It’s the embodiment of the results of integrity and truthfulness.
Quality determines what type of publication you’re going to have. It determines what products you choose to sell, or what services you choose to provide.
Quality means that everything you publish is the best you can do and the best you can find. It means that you don’t just throw something together, but take the time to determine what will best fit your customers’ needs. It means that if a product is shoddy or a submitted article doesn’t meet your standards you don’t promote it or print it.
Quality means giving people more value than what they paid for, more “bang for their buck,” and a product or service that truly delivers on its promises.
What Are YOUR Guiding Principles?
I encourage you to examine this question for yourself. I’ve shared some of those “guiding principles” that I believe are integral to being a successful internet publisher and business person. There are more that could be discussed, but these four are basic.
As you take a long, hard look at your goals and plans for your future publishing success, you might also want to take the time to think about what other principles might also apply to you, personally. In the end, answering this question, “What Are YOUR Guiding Principles,” is going to lead you to discover the best ways for YOU to reach your goals. You will then have guidelines by which to your assess your success.
--Rev.Richard ****************************************** Rev. Richard Boeck is co-editor of "Publish & Profit." He is also writer and publisher of “Today’s Devotion,” a brief, daily devotion that brings the grace and love of God in Jesus Christ to bear on the events of the day and people’s lives. It is a free publication, with no advertising. If you wish to subscribe please send an email to:revrboeck@netscape.net and put “Please send ‘Today’s Devotion’” in the subject box and include your first and last names in the body. You may also address any questions or comments you may have about this article to the same address. Copyright @2003. All rights reserved. *******************************************
