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Broadband makes a huge difference!

January 16, 2010 by John Dilbeck
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Broadband, CafePress, Opinions, Sitesell and Site Build It, Squidoo Marketing

If you’ve been reading my blogs or sites for any length of time, you know I live in an area where only dial-up Internet access is currently available, and it’s also an area with old, copper phone lines so that means I’ve been connecting at much slower speeds than my equipment is capable of.

This wasn’t much of a problem a few years ago.

Now, however, it has become a much bigger problem, especially for someone who earns his living from online marketing.

For the last week or so, I’ve had access to high-speed broadband and it has made all the difference in how I perceive what I and some of my friends are doing online.

For example, I’m a huge fan of Mitch Mitchell’s I’m Just Sharing blog and Aussie Sire’s Wassup blog.

As much as I enjoy both of their blogs, sometimes it has been frustrating trying to get them to load. Many times, I would have to load a blog post two or three times before the entire page would load.

This week, however, they load the first time, every time and do it quickly. That has made it much easier and more enjoyable to read what they have to say. The same holds true for quite a few other blogs I read on a regular basis.

The benefit to me is that I’m less frustrated and can read more in much less time. That increases my motivation to participate and also decreases the amount of time I spend waiting — and playing solitaire while the pages load. (In fact, I’ve only played two games of solitaire in the last week, and there were many times in the past few years when I would play several games while waiting on one page to load, so that’s a huge difference.)

Broadband makes it much easier to edit my sites

Truthfully, it hasn’t made much of a difference in editing my own blogs and sites, because I tend to do a lot of low-bandwidth things on them and intend to continue with that approach. Still, high-speed broadband opens the door to working with video in the future, especially when promoting local small businesses on Murphy Gold. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for quite some time and I’m looking forward to it.

I can view and edit my Squidoo lenses, now

Where it has made a huge difference is being able to once-again edit my Squidoo lenses reliably and easily.

I was having a problem even seeing my own Squidoo lenses the last year or two. Editing them was even more problematic, especially some of the larger lenses such as my Site Build It lens.

The result of my problem with loading the lenses with slow dial-up was that I became more frustrated and less prone to update the lenses when people added sites to the voting Plexo modules.

The benefit of high-speed broadband is that I find it easy to view the lenses and edit them. Now, instead of being frustrated when I receive an email telling me that someone has added something to a Plexo module, I look forward to seeing what it is.

Usually, unfortunately, it’s some lame-brained spammer trying to spam their totally off-topic link on my site, but there are some nuggets in all the mud where people are suggesting excellent sites and lenses that I’m happy to add.

Publishing the lenses is much faster and much more reliable with a fast Internet connection, too.

The result is, over the last week, I’ve updated more lenses than I did in the last several months combined.

I can see my CafePress store much better now

Over the last couple of years, it seems that it has become harder and harder (and much slower) to edit my CafePress store and do all the things that are necessary to keep it up-to-date and to add new designs. As a result, I just stopped updating it.

We all know that makes a great recipe for stagnation, fewer sales, and loss of income. It’s exactly what happened.

Now, however, I can load the store in seconds, as opposed to sometimes taking ten minutes or more for pages with lots of products.

I’ve only tested editing a couple of pages, but I was able to make changes in five minutes or less that would have taken over an hour with my dial-up connection — if it were possible to successfully complete them at all.

A lot of people don’t care for my designs, and that’s okay. The good news is that I’ve sold a lot of products through my CafePress store and look forward to selling lots more. I have over 100 designs that I’ve never added to my store because it just wasn’t worth the time and effort.

I’ll be adding quite a few of them in the coming days and I’ll be promoting my CafePress store much more actively in the future.

In fact, I’ll probably be opening more stores that are focused entirely on a single niche and I’ll be promoting them heavily on several sites.

Will that increase sales? I’m sure it will. I’ll know for sure a year from now.

One of the things I’m sure will increase sales is lowering the prices.

In the past, I’ve used a premium pricing strategy for my CafePress shop. I expected few sales, so I raised the markup I’d receive on each sale.

Now that I have reliable, fast access to editing my shop, again, I’m changing the strategy.

I just lowered the prices on all the products in my store to reflect a moderate pricing strategy. I’ll earn quite a bit less per sale, but I expect that to increase the number of sales.

So, just a few minutes ago, while writing this post, I lowered the prices of every product in my shop, some of them substantially.

A fast broadband connection even makes Site Build It better

I intentionally design both of my sites that are powered by Site Build It to be low-bandwidth friendly.

I want people with slow connections to be able to read what I write and I want those pages to snap on the screen for people with faster connections.

I’m not going to make many changes in that regard, with the exception of adding a few videos.

I’ve known for some time that the popularity of video on the web has been exploding, but it was a waste of time and effort to even try to view them with my slow connection. This week, however, I’ve found how easy it is to watch video in real time with a fast connection and I know that video is more interesting to lots of people than pure text.

I still remain a text-oriented person, but I recognize an opportunity when I see it.

Another very interesting thing occurred to me this week. For all the years that I’ve been a Site Build It subscriber, I’ve always read the Action Guide and never even tried to view the video version of it.

That changed this week. For the first time ever, I watched the entire video version of the Action Guide and I have to admit that hearing someone speak while watching animation that was used to illustrate some of the processes really did make some of it more understandable. In fact, I’m going to watch the Days 2 and 3 videos again this evening.

Even though I have a good understanding of the three-tier structure of a successful website, the new tier-structure video made it much more understandable and I’ll be implementing some changes to both of my SBI sites over the coming days, as a result.

A fast connection doesn’t lessen the work, but it does make my efforts more efficient

I don’t know of anything that is reliable and honest that reduces the amount of work that it takes to be a successful online marketer, but I do know that a fast broadband connection makes a world of difference in improving efficiency.

Of course, that makes sense, but it has been a real eye-opener for me.

Back when I was a Systems Administrator for a local ISP I had direct access to a fast broadband pipe and it was nice, but that was before so many sites relied upon javascript, java, audio, video, and other things that benefit from high-speed pipes.

So, I was able to do just about anything I needed to do from home on dial-up almost as efficiently as I could do from the office using broadband.

But, that was a decade ago and things have changed drastically.

Now, there is a world of difference between slow dial-up access and high-speed broadband. That difference is much bigger and more important than I realized, and it is a very important difference for anyone aspiring to make money online from affiliate marketing or just about any other form of marketing.

Now, I’m wondering what other things I’m going to discover that will make my online marketing more effective.

What about you?

Do you have any thoughts or opinions about the differences between slow and fast Internet connections and the effectiveness of your online affiliate marketing efforts?

I’m looking forward to reading your thoughts.

Act on your dream!

Tags: Broadband, Internet connection

Comments

22 Comments on Broadband makes a huge difference!

Mitch on Sat, 16th Jan 2010 8:10 pm

John,

Faster speeds really are amazing online. When you’re doing some of the things that people do, such as uploading audio and image files, it will take forever if you’re using dial-up, which is probably why you never got into any of those things. For me, it’s imperative that I have as much speed as I can possibly get. So I have Road Runner Turbo, which means I’m at 15 MBPS download, though still only around 1MBPS upload; that’s nothing to sneeze at, I must say.

And now you can go and download my audio interviews to see if you agree with any of the goofy stuff I’ve talked about over the last year. lol By the way, where are you getting this access to high speed?
.-= Mitch´s last blog ..Are You A Lurker Or Participant In Life? =-.

John Dilbeck on Sat, 16th Jan 2010 10:05 pm

Good evening, Mitch.

Truth be told, I’m much more a text person than someone who enjoys audio or video.

Audio tends to go in one ear and out the other without making much of an impression on me, with the exception of music. Worse, I hear something that makes me think of something else and my mind goes off on a tangent and I miss what’s being said until I rein myself back in and resume listening.

Video works a bit better, especially when the audio reinforces text on the screen. Pure video, however, just doesn’t make that much of an impression. For example, I tried to watch the three videos of the woman you showed on your blog, but completely lost interest within a minute of starting them. I think that says more about me than it does about her.

Perhaps that’s why I enjoy books more than TV or movies.

However, I know I’m in the minority in that respect and I’m going to make some changes in my marketing to appeal more to the majority of people who prefer audio and video. I don’t think I’ll overdo it, however.

So, do you have a link to your audio interviews?

I’ve set up a computer at my daughter’s house and I’ll be working from there part of the time. I’m putting Mom and Dad’s house and land up for sale and I’ll be moving over here next to Dena when it sells. That means I can see my daughter and son-in-law more often and spend more time with my grandkids, while still living close to Murphy.

It also means that I get high-speed broadband full-time in the future.

Act on your dream!

Mitch on Sat, 16th Jan 2010 11:09 pm

John,

I have lots of links to my interviews. It would take awhile to get them all to you, so just check out this one, which will lead you to others: http://www.imjustsharing.com/how-can-you-prosper-through-publicity/

As to the rest, I’m like you in wanting to do more reading and writing, but the occasional video or audio doesn’t hurt. I don’t have the capability to do either, which is why I’m happy to do these interviews with other people, which then gets me an audio of my doing something.
.-= Mitch´s last blog ..Do We Deserve Privacy Online? =-.

John Dilbeck on Sat, 16th Jan 2010 11:47 pm

Good evening, Mitch.

I knew that I could find your interviews, but thought you might want to link to them for anyone who happens to read this post and wants to hear what you have to say!

Promote, promote, promote!

I need to email you. I’m going to start a series of interviews on my Act On Your Dream! site and I’d like for you to be one of the first. It’ll be text only, but I’d be happy to link to some of your sites. If you’ll be thinking in terms of achieving your dream and setting and achieving goals, then you’ll get a feel for what I’ll be asking. I know that you’ve been writing about goalsetting recently.

Act on your dream!

Mitch on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 12:41 am

John, that would be fun. And I figured it out about the promoting, which is why I’m glad I’d put that post together. lol
.-= Mitch´s last blog ..Need Help Setting Goals? =-.

Sire on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 3:45 am

John, sometimes I forget how slow dial-up was. There has been a couple of times when the kids have used up all my internet allocation, 20 gigs, and I get slowed down to dial-up and it’s so damn frustrating. It’s all I can do to put up with it for a couple of days, let alone have to live with it.

I had a look at your cafepress store and I like it. Did you design it or was it one of their templates? I’ve promoted it on my blog for awhile but got rid of it when it slowed things down.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..The Honest Truth About Blogging For Money =-.

Davor Gasparevic @ internet marketing ebooks on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 9:55 am

Man, I can’t even imagine using dial-up now. I switched to broadband connection 5 years ago, and if I had to get back to dial-up now, well…

I don’t want even to imagine such a situation.
.-= Davor Gasparevic @ internet marketing ebooks´s last blog ..The Internet Marketing Dictionary =-.

Joan Adams on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 11:46 am

John, I am so happy you are enjoying high speed. I really cannot imagine going back to dial up. Is it possible you could get high speed in the mountains via a cell phone card?? A friend of mine uses such a card and loves it, but yes, depends on your location. Enjoy!
.-= Joan Adams´s last blog ..I Photograph God =-.

Brian D. Hawkins on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 1:38 pm

That’s too cool John, you sound like I did the first time I put on a pair of glasses. I had no idea what I was missing. I’ve had broadband for over ten years now so it’s easy to forget that frustration and back then we didn’t have the huge sites and files that we deal with today. I imagine my two main blogs wouldn’t even open completely on dial-up because they seen slow even on broadband at times.
.-= Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..Fine Example Of Viral YouTube Marketing =-.

John Dilbeck on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 4:29 pm

Good afternoon, Sire.

Even with everything set at 57K, my connections were more likely to be 14.4K or 16.8K – and that’s really slow!

Over the last few years, it just got more and more frustrating.

I appreciate you promoting my CafePress store! Thanks a bunch.

I designed it. In fact, I did it so long ago that I don’t remember if they offered templates then, or not. (What a dinosaur!)

I’m looking forward to adding quite a few more designs and products in the coming weeks.

Act on your dream!

John Dilbeck on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 4:37 pm

Good afternoon, Davor.

I know what you mean.

“I don’t want even to imagine such a situation.”

It sounds like a nightmare now.

Act on your dream!

John Dilbeck on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 4:43 pm

Good afternoon, Joan.

I know exactly what you mean about going back to dial-up. I feel like I’ve escaped from a “marketing straitjacket.”

Where I live, it’s hard to get a reliable cell phone connection. At least that’s what my friends tell me when they try. I don’t have a cell phone and don’t want one. I don’t like talking on the phone very much in the best of times and don’t want to carry one around with me.

I communicate much better via writing than I do via speaking and I remember what I read much more than what I hear.

My daughter views this subject differently and she uses her Blackberry as a high-speed connection for her laptop, but there are lots of places in this area where it just won’t work for her.

I don’t think I’ll ever take a high-speed connection for granted.

Act on your dream!

John Dilbeck on Sun, 17th Jan 2010 4:49 pm

Good afternoon, Brian,

Yes, I remember the first time I put on new glasses and everything snapped into focus. It’s a very similar feeling.

Yes, it’s true that your two main blogs were often difficult to load on dial-up.

(In fact, I can’t load your latest post right now. It looks like a DNS error or maybe your server is temporarily down. I’ll try again, later.)

Act on your dream!

Karl Foxley on Mon, 18th Jan 2010 6:07 am

My mum switched to broadband recently, and as a causal surfer, she would never go back.

It has made how she uses the net so very different already and with sites loading quickly, she has become more trusting of ordering from sites that accept payments. You see, the few times she tried to make payments using PayPal from certain stores she received the timed-out message where the page took an age to load. This resulted with my mum worrying about whether her payment went through, if she refreshed the page would the payment go twice instead of once, and so on. Now this problem doesn’t exist.

Warmest regards,

Karl
.-= Karl Foxley´s last blog ..15 Free Tools To Add To Your Online Business Toolbox =-.

John Dilbeck on Mon, 18th Jan 2010 3:29 pm

Good afternoon, Karl.

Broadband does make a huge difference in surfing the web — all for the better.

I understand how your Mom felt about trying to buy things on dial-up. I’ve experienced some of the same things and had some of the same worries. Did my purchase go through? Will I get double-charged? Those are legitimate worries.

I haven’t purchased anything online since using broadband, but I don’t expect to see any of those time-out or page-not-fully-loading issues.

Thanks for bringing this up.

Act on your dream!

Dwippy on Wed, 20th Jan 2010 2:07 am

FIOS is king.

I had dial up back in the stone age.

I had broadband until just recently.

I’ll never go back to either of those again. If I gotta move it’s going to have to be a place that offers FIOS or I won’t go.

Broadband was a required before my husband would commit to taking the job he currently has and the next move… well you get the idea I’m sure.

Dwippy.
.-= Dwippy´s last blog ..Mainly Social Media and SEO =-.

John Dilbeck on Wed, 20th Jan 2010 6:26 am

Good morning, Dwippy.

I can understand what you’re saying. In terms of Internet connections (and many other things), faster is better.

So, what’s the difference between broadband and FIOS?

Act on your dream!

Brandon | Metal paint on Thu, 21st Jan 2010 10:12 pm

John, I must admit I remember when I used to use dial up (it wasn’t too long ago) and the first time I tried broadband – it was amazing. Being able to load web pages faster make a huge difference to your productivity online.
.-= Brandon | Metal paint´s last blog ..Metal Paint on Surfaces =-.

John Dilbeck on Fri, 22nd Jan 2010 5:11 pm

Good afternoon, Brandon.

You’re absolutely right. Broadband greatly increases our productivity.

I’ve already done more this month than I did in the prior three months, combined, and there’s still part of the month left.

All the best,

Martin Kono on Fri, 5th Feb 2010 6:39 am

The connection speed is becoming more and more important. And there is no reasons to doubt that this trend won’t last for a long time. Still there are so many things to share with internet and still many people want more and more. Broadband is a standard now and even bigger and wider connection lines will come to life in upcoming years.

John Dilbeck on Fri, 5th Feb 2010 6:09 pm

Good afternoon, Martin.

I think you’re right. We can expect faster connections in the future and I expect that much of them will be wireless – even in rural areas such as where I live.

Act on your dream!

Kazooli on Fri, 19th Feb 2010 9:44 am

With a broadband connection you will also be able to share a video call with friends and family across the globe.

With a dial up connection a video call would be impossible to make and if you were lucky to establish connection the video would freeze and the call would be droped.

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