I buy most of my things online. Books, boardgames, an ipod, a replacement car door handle, a dvd, a pdf download, and of course more books are just some of the items from the last six months. In the next six months, I’m sure that I’ll have more online dealings. Perhaps not quite as much given that Christmas fell into the last six.

Most of those items came from one place, Amazon. I’ve also ordered from Barnes and Noble online, the Apple store, and a couple specialty shops. The specialty shops unfortunately didn’t do an excellent job and won’t be named.

Amazon remembers who I am. It’s not hard to grab my email address and set a cookie on my computer. When I go to Amazon, I see all kinds of different things. I see what is recommended based on previous purchases. I can see what is in my shopping cart from last time. I can even check out the recently viewed books and other items.

At Barnes and Noble’s online site, I can log in and there is nothing. Nothing is unique to me. There is ‘My B&N’ their social network. It is completely blank for me. You can add your favorite books, or what you’re currently reading. But it is absolutely blank. Why not add suggestions based on my recent purchases. Instead I can add new titles by searching for them in a sea of millions of books.

When I go over to the Apple store, it doesn’t matter if I have ever bought anything. It doesn’t matter if I am logged in or not. At their site I’m going to be looking at the same thing either way. Nothing is linked together and there are no recommendations for me. They could easily say, ‘we see you’re using Windows, isn’t it time to upgade to a Mac? Here are a few suggestions…’, or how about ‘Upgrade your iPod shuffle to an iPod Touch and get -some incentive-‘ They know what products I have purchased and they know what I am using to check the site.

As for now, I’m going to keep shopping at Amazon. They may be a big giant evil company (or something) but even more importantly they know who I am. They know what I want to buy and they help me do it. Most of the time, Amazon knows what I want before I even do. They are not cramming merchandise down my throat. Instead they are giving me suggestions based on my browsing and spending habits.

While it might be hard to do as well as Amazon for you and your company. The competition is very clear. You can easily tell what they are doing and honestly it’s not a big secret.

Great Service = Loyal Customers

Whereas mediocre products and services leads to
Mediocre Service = Indifferent Bargain Shopping Customers

When you do a better job of knowing me, I’ll spend my money with you.

Has anyone joined Yaro’s Blog Mastermind Mentoring Program? Katie and I were talking about joining it, but we just wanted to see if anyone has any thoughts on it.

There are two different options that he offers.  Blog Mastermind runs at $497 and the second package is the Blog Mastermind as well as a newer program of his, ‘Membership Site Mastermind.’  The bigger package runs for $997.

I think that Yaro has done a great job in the past.  He provides a tremendous amount of value on his sites and through his email newsletter.

Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts before we make the plunge here.

Those of you who clicked www.makingthishome.com after my last post when I told you I lost the address may have been a little confused.  In Part 1, I told you someone else had purchased the domain name when enom central placed me on their fraud alert and canceled my domain purchased.  But I got the name back, and the website is running.

HOW I GOT MY DOMAIN NAME BACK BY PICKING UP THE PHONE

I hate to admit it, but I had become attached to the idea of calling my blog “Making This Home”.  It sounded perfect, and it was tough to believe that someone else would have thought of the exact same name only four days after I had.  So I decided to call the man who had purchased the name.

“I was wondering what you were planning on doing with that domain name,” I told him.

He laughed nervously and said, “Umm.  Make some money?”

The interesting thing was that he had no idea which domain name I was talking about, though he seemed open to the idea of selling it back to me.  I launched into my sad story instead.  It didn’t make sense to pay the guy for something neither of us had invested anything into.

He took a little time looking up www.makingthishome.com on his computer and said it hadn’t been making him any money.  It didn’t seem like his goal was to sell the website.  I almost wondered if he was seeking profits from residual traffic.  I really have no idea.  But he was very kind to me and said that he would give up the domain name; I could have it back.

The next morning, just as he promised, the domain name was available again.  I bought it, and now www.makingthishome.com is mine, and I do hope you’ll come visit me!