Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock
Peanuts to Profits With Thor Schrock

I had some conversations with a client recently about their websites.  This is a multi-million dollar company that operates over 12 websites that are used mainly to promote their other products and services.

Each of their websites was attracting less than 15,000 unique visitors and each visitor was consuming about 2.25 pages of content per visit.  They were not making any money on the websites and that’s why they wanted to talk to me.

Defining Success:

They thought their web statistics were great, and they thought they just needed to find the right mix of technique and opportunity to cash in on their traffic.

I was in the uncomfortable position of telling him that the stats were not that great – a good start – but definitely not capable of generating the six-figure return they were seeking.

How would You Define Success With Your Website?

That got me thinking about how success is really a relative term.  It means something different to every person based on their expectations and who they are comparing themselves against.

Some webmasters would be perfectly happy with a couple hundred dollars of income every month, while others would be looking for thousands.

What is your dream website income and how close are you to achieving it?

Developing a Plan and Executing

Obviously for my client we needed to bring more traffic to his websites before he would have any hope of generating the kind of money he confided to be “success.”

It always comes back to content.  Sometimes you can beg, borrow, or even steal it – but it always boils down to you making some of your own.

Do you generate enough content to make your dreams of website success a reality?

Last Halloween I posted an quickie video that made the argument that Barack Obama is the famed Great Pumpkin.  I am not a spiteful man, but I have to point out that I told you so!

Sorry to all of you who hate political stuff

Alpha Antivirus is the latest fake-alert virus that is afflicting computer users on the Internet.

This variant popped up in late September, but is gaining traction as injected websites begin drifting to the top of search engine results.

How Do You Get Infected?

These fake alert infections typically come into your computer through internet web searches on search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

The makers of these fake-alert infections create thousands of websites with valuable content on subjects they can easily rank in the top 10 results of popular web searches.

After these sites climb to an appropriate level, click-jacking code is inserted that will infect unprotected computers as soon as they visit the page – without warning.

Typically the only symptom of impending infection is a pop-up that warns you that your computer is infected (when it is in fact not).

How Do Keep My Computer Safe?

The best way to keep your computer safe is to have good virus protection software installed on your computer.

While technicians disagree to a degree on which program is the best to use, my opinion (based on HUNDREDS of infected PCs that Schrock Innovations has repaired) is that free antivirus like AVG is a problem waiting to happen.

I recommend Symantec’s Norton 360 software.  It offers some of the best protection on the market while also featuring the most user-friendly interface.

Those who are have had bad experiences with Norton in th past because it slowed dow their computers should note that the newer versions are MUCH lighter than the older versions (although any antivirus software will slow down your computer).

I was just informed the Schrock Innovations won #1 Independent Computer Repair Company in the Three Eagles Communications Best of Lincoln contest for the 8th year in a row!

Other winners were Best Buy and Quick Tek.  This award comes on the heels of Schrock winning the Nebraska Retail Federation’s 2009 Customer Service Business of the Year.

This year the voting for Best of Lincoln was spread over all of Three Eagles local stations.  The station group owns most of the top-rated radio stations in the city.  Voters were told to go to the website of the station they were listening to to vote in over 60 different business categories.

Listeners had to vote for a super-majority of the business categories for their vote to count.

Thank you to all of the listeners and customers that took the time to vote for Schrock Innovations.  Schrock takes its service lvels very seriously, and awards like these let us know we are on the right track.

Schrock Innovations opened its Omaha Service Center in 2003.  Due in large part to its local Omaha radio show, the service center was an overnight success.

Unfortunately, the station we were on flipped formats and we were not able to find another Omaha AM station that could match the success we initially had.

As many of our Omaha customers know, we regouped by concentrating all of our technical operations in Lincoln while focusing all of our web development services in Omaha.  This allowed us to maintain a token presence in Omaha and honor the warranties we had issued and service the customers who placed their trust in us.

In early 2009, we moved into our new $825,000 Service Center in Lincoln and found that the simple change in visibility DOUBLED our sales and profitability overnight.  That Service Center is now bringing in over 62 new customers each and every month.

Omaha’s Time Has Come

With all of our efforts going toward staffing, equipping, and launching our new Lincoln location, Omaha went without significant attention for over 12 months.

That is all about to change now.

Yesterday was the last day that our present Omaha location was open for business.  We have closed the Omaha location at 3032 N. 93rd and transferred all web development services to competent staff in Lincoln.

We are still honoring our warranties and serving our Omaha customers – we are just bringing our service to them rather than making them come in to us.

New Service Center in the Works

I can’t say too much about it at the moment, but I can tell all of our Omaha customers that a new Service Center is in the works.  This location will operate similarly to our famed Lincoln location with one notable exception.

This location will be geared toward mobile repair services rather than in-shop repair.

Our new location is tentatively set to open for business in the late first quarter of 2010.

Award Winning Service COntinues in Omaha

If you are a Schrock Omaha customer, you can still call our local Omaha phone number, 934-9423, and we will schedule an appointment that works with your schedule to come to your home or business to repair your PC or to take it back to our Lincoln Service Center for repair.

New York Times best selling author Chet Holmes is renowned for his business growth strategies. He’s perfected them over the past two decades, working with over 60 of the Fortune 500 and countless small to mid-sized companies and is now helping businesses of every kind and size implement these strategies to achieve breakthrough growth for themselves.

In his New York Times Best Seller, the Ultimate Sales Machine, he shared some of these strategies.

I am pleased to announce that the Computer Repair Business Weekly podcast has scheduled Chet Holmes to talk to our subscribers about the importance of a revenue model in your PC repair business.  Chet will also talk about some of the methods he uses to transform average companies to award-winning powerhouse organizations.

The Computer Repair Business Weekly podcast will be featured on the topITshop.com website and will begin posting in December of 2009.  Chet is a VERY busy man and is in high demand as a speaker and as a consultant.  We are fortunate he found the time to spend with us and I can promise you this is a podcast you will not want to miss.

Follow topITshop on Twitter to receive a notification as soon as the podcast goes live!

This week Schrock Innovations started a new series of commercials running on three different radio stations in Lincoln (KFOR, KZKX, and KIBZ) that talk about the features of the 2009 Holiday Special and the benefits of choosing a Modular PC.

Chris Goforth and I met up to make the spots and to be honest I was just not in rah-rah marketing mode that day.  I knew what I wanted to talk about, but did not have a script or even a bulleted list for that matter.

Chris and I were talking about what we wanted to do and I suggested that rather than the traditional commercial that we style the commercials in the same tone that we do our weekly radio show.  Chris agreed so he hit record and we went to work.

I have to honestly say that these commercials were the easiest, least forced, and most informative spots I have ever done for any product.  A couple days later Chris and I ran into each other at the studio and he even commented that when he hears the spots its like he has been teleported into our show for that minute.

Take a listen to these two spots and tell me what you think of them.

Spot 1 – The Features of the 2009 Holiday Special PC

Spot 2 – The Benefits of Choosing a Modular PC

We have a third spot that will begin running on Monday, that talks about Schrock’s award winning service.  I am not allowed to talk about that just yet, so subscribe to my RSS feed to hear all about it in your email Monday morning!

Schrock Innovations is sponsoring this year’s Lincoln America Recycles Day Celebration by donating a new $1,300 Modular Computer to one lucky winner.

There are some really great prizes, and you can enter as a business or as an individual.

Here is the release that was sent yesterday:

PUBLIC WORKS AND UTILITIES DEPARTMENT

Recycling Office, 2400 Theresa Street, Lincoln, NE 68521, 441-7043, fax 441-8735

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 12, 2009

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Gene Hanlon, Recycling Coordinator, 441-7043

CITY ENCOURAGES PUBLIC TO PARTICIPATE IN AMERICA RECYCLES DAY EVENTS

The City Recycling Office encourages the public to participate in America Recycles Day November 15, an effort to encourage recycling and the purchasing of recycled products. Residents have the opportunity to make a pledge to improve their recycling efforts and to participate in several special events.

“America Recycles Day is an opportunity for people to shape part of the environmental impact they have on our community and the world,” said City Recycling Coordinator Gene Hanlon. “By making a pledge, residents have an opportunity to make a commitment to increase their recycling efforts and help reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.”

Those who fill out a pledge form are entered into a drawing to win prizes, including

• computer system valued at $1,300, donated by Schrock Innovations;
• a six-year curbside recycling subscription, donated by the Lincoln Journal Star, Midwest Refuge, Recycling Enterprises and Star City Recycling;
• $100 gift cards donated by Russ’s Market and Wal-Mart;
• free Panera Bread for one year.

The pledge drive runs through Sunday, November 8. Prizes will be awarded at noon Saturday, November 14 at EcoStores Nebraska, 530 W. “P” St. Pledge boxes are located at Russ’s Markets, Lincoln City Libraries and select recyclers. Pledge forms and more information about America Recycles Day also are available online at lincoln.ne.gov (keyword: ARD).

Several other recycling-related events will take place in Lincoln next month:

• A free tire collection will take place from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday, November 7 and Sunday, November 8 at N.W. 38th Street and West Webster Road. The collection is sponsored by the Emerald Sanitary Improvement District and funded by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality.
• EcoStores Nebraska will host a usable latex paint exchange from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, November 14. Usable paint is free, and $2 is charged for disposal of unusable paint.
• Paper shredding and electronic equipment recycling events are also being planned. Locations, times and fees will be announced at a later date.

In the past, phishing scams were almost always something people using Hotmail, Gmail, or Yahoo mail had to be concerned about.  But now a new twist to an old email scam has small business users calling their IT people almost daily.

Emails like this one are being sent out on a mass basis to people who are not using any of the mass-email services:

Dear user of the schrockinnovations.com mailing service!

We are informing you that because of the security upgrade of the mailing service your mailbox (tschrock@schrockinnovations.com) settings were changed. In order to apply the new set of settings click on the following link:

http://schrockinnovations.com/owa/service_directory/settings.php?email=tschrock@schrockinnovations.com&from=schrockinnovations.com&fromname=tschrock

Best regards, schrockinnovations.com Technical Support.

If you look at the HTML code behind the “confirmation” link you will find that it is actually taking you to http://schrockinnovations.com.it1ttil.com instead of http://www.schrockinnovations.com

If you follow their link, you will see a page that looks like this:

The phishers want you to download an executable file that will probably infect your computer with a virus.

Our web staff has been taking questions from our customers as well as other confused email users who don’t have an IT person who would have sent them this kind of an email.

If you get one of these, just mark it as spam.  Whatever you do, don’t download the .exe file!

Yesterday I attended the Nebraska Retail Federation’s annual awards banquet and accepted the 2009 Customer Service Business of the Year on behalf of Schrock Innovations.

I am no stranger to political and business gatherings, but those in attendance at the NRF ceremony were not from the circle I normally meet up with at events.

At our table we were joined by several higher-ups from JC Penny.  Other sponsors of the event included Pamida, Walgreens, Target, and a few other big-name retailers.

We were among 30+ nominees for the award and some had traveled in from as far away as Kearney.

As each of the nominees was introduced we were asked to briefly talk about our company to the audience.

Its All About the Service

When it was my turn on the stage I asked the audience to raise their hand if they had ever had a computer problem.  Everyone raised a hand. Then I asked people who had someone to help them with their computer problems to put their hands down.  About 40% did, leaving a majority of people in the room with nowhere to turn for PC help.

I explained the Schrock Innovations was founded 10 years ago o help people with their computer problems – even if we were not being paid to help.  I explained that the Schrock approach was about building trust and relationships.

Schrockies in the House?

At the end of my presentation I asked if there were anyt Schrock customers in the audience.  6 people raised their hands (not bad considering there was no one from Omaha and 1/2 of the crowd was out of our Lincoln service area).

I asked them in front of the crowd if they fel;t special after they worked with Schrock Innovations.  They said that they did.

Thank You NRF

This award means a lot to Schrock Innovations and its employees.  On the eve of launching the biggest sales event of the year, our Holiday Sale, this award reminds everyone of the reason we are in business.  It’s not to sell hardware or software – we are in business to provide service.  Everything else will take care of its self if we take care of our customers.