I read an interesting post by Tayo on www.Entrepreneurblogr.com where he showed that directly asking your community or readers what they want is a great way to get products ideas.

His post got me thinking about many things.

I thought about different ways people could ask their audience questions.

I also thought about how entrepreneurs with ideas but with no audience can also ask questions.

By the way, an audience refers to the readers of your blog (that is if you have a popular blog or website). Your followers on twitter (if you have a large twitter following) and your facebook fan base (if you have a large one) etc.

Here are ways people with audiences can directly ask questions.

1.  Ask The Question Using Your Medium Of Influence

If you have a popular blog, you can ask your readers or audience what they want or what their problems are directly with a blog post.You can tweet the same question if you have a large a twitter following.

If you have a popular facebook fan page or any other medium of influence you can directly ask your audience whatever question you like.So basically use your medium of influence to directly ask your audience any question.

2.  Surveys

A survey is a great medium to get information from your audience directly. Surveys usually consist of questions.Survey monkey is a third party service that can help set up a survey on your blog or web page.Other survey tools and websites are also available. www.micropoll.com is another free one.

3.  E-mail

If you have a large email list, you can easily shoot  an email to your list and ask whatever question you want.

Pat Flynn of smart passive income does this too and it helps him with blog post ideas. I figure this could also be used to get product ideas.

Now that is for those that have a medium of influence.

How To Ask Questions When You Don’t Have An Audience

What about me and you that may be new to the game and may not have a large audience yet.

How can we ask questions?

Here is how I believe we can.

Basically we can ,go to a spot online where our target audience are, and then  ask the questions Or we can , ask the question online then pay for targeted traffic and give an incentive for people to answer the question.

Here are they spots you can ask those questions

1.   Yahoo Answers

This is quite a popular spot where people ask question and help.You can go there and ask a question.

2.  Forums

Forums are targeted spots with targeted audience. You can join a forum , ask a question and get answers too.

3.  Surveys And Adverts

Surveys can also work for people with no audience but it will cost you a little because you can rent the audience from Google.Basically, you set up a survey, buy ads and incentivize the process of

Other spots online you can ask questions and get some answers are

1. www.twitter.com
2. Targeted groups at www.Ning.com
3. Yahoo and Google groups

In fact, you can ask questions anywhere online where your target audience gather.

Do you ask you audience questions?

How do you do it?

Please share in the comment.

This is a guest post by  Britney Baker.If you want your guest published on this blog , visit my contact page and send me an email or send me a tweet @mkakan.

Online entrepreneurs will face many hurdles in their business careers. Here is a list of five of the most challenging.

Developing a Clear Focus

This is actually one of the biggest challenges that an online entrepreneur may face. You may have developed many great ideas that you want to integrate into your online business. You may also be constantly moving from project to project with each project being wildly different than the last. While this may fulfill your need for creativity, it is probably not a very solid long term strategy. Instead, try to make the focus of your online business clear and exact.

Finding and Retaining Talent

One of the most difficult challenges any business faces is finding qualified talent. Not only is this talent needed for the business to be successful from the onset, it is also integral to continued success and future growth. You have to find individuals with the right skills for the positions you need in your online business. Hiring the wrong people can be a great waste of time and resources. You must also make sure that the people you do hire are satisfied enough with their positions and future prospects with your company that they do in fact stay with you for the long term. This can become even more complicated when many of your employees telecommute as is the case with many online businesses.

The Economy

One of the greatest challenges faced by online entrepreneurs today is the general climate of the economy. Even when a recession has technically ended, economic growth may be extremely sluggish. Unemployment is always a lagging indicator. When there is high unemployment, consumers are reluctant to visit websites to splurge on goods and services. In bad economic times, financial institutions are also reluctant to give entrepreneurs the credit they need to start or expand their businesses. The economic climate should certainly factor in heavily into any online entrepreneur’s plans.

Technology

In very competitive business environments, one of the easiest ways to develop an edge over competitors is through the use of technology. In the online business world, this is even more important. Unfortunately, a lot of first-time online entrepreneurs are not familiar with all the new technological innovations in their industries. You will certainly need to implement more technology and computer software than simply purchasing hosting space for your website. Many also don’t have the skill-set needed to implement such technology effectively. New technology can also be extremely expensive. Online entrepreneurs must then be careful to only purchase technology and software that can benefit their businesses in ways that exceed the costs associated with acquiring and implementing it.

Government Regulations

One thing that many would-be online entrepreneurs forget is that your business will have to comply with numerous local, state, and federal regulations. Figuring out how to comply with all these regulations can be quite a task. It becomes even more complicated since most online businesses have clients in many different states and countries. On the plus side, subsidies and government grants may be available to you. However, you must first learn how to successfully acquire such government assistance for your online business. That can also be quite tricky.

When she’s not getting excited about new gadgets, Britney Baker writes about prepaid cell phones for PrepaidCellphones.net. Her latest article took a look at the GoPhone from AT&T.

Darren Rowse of Problogger once said that, it was

only when he started treating his blog and his blogging as a business that he started making money online.

So the big question is:

How can one treat his or her blog or blogging as a business?

Getting the answer to this question is very important as far as making money online is concerned.
So let’s get back to it;

How can one treat a blog or blogging as a business?

Let’s attempt to answer it.
The most important term in the question above is the word “business”.

So what is business?

You can read up the definition of business but the summary of the important concepts in the definition of a business is this:

It is the creation, provision or sale of goods, products and services that people pay for.

Now that we understand what a business is, how can we add it to our blogs?

How can we take our blogs as a business?

Let me rephrase the question?
How can we take our blogs as the creation of goods, products and services that people pay for that brings you or the company profits?
That may not really make sense, but you get the picture.

How Offline Businesses Make Money

If we take a look offline at how businesses make money, we can learn a thing or two from them and see how we can do same to our blogs.
These are what offline businesses do in their businesses to generate money.

1. They Have A Product Or Service

Think about all the offline businesses that you know. I bet you that they have a product(s) or service that they offer to you.
Take a look at the super market where you buy groceries. Look at the bar where you take a drink(s) with friends or your date?
Look at the local laundry shop. They all have something in common:
They provide products and services that people pay for.
So if your blog does not offer a product or service for people to pay for, you are not treating it as a business.
This is why Darren talked about the importance of having a product to sell and David Risley said poor bloggers focus too much on blog post

2. They Solve A Problem By Creating Value

Think about this, if you had no super market in your town how would you feel. If you had to travel 2 hours before you could buy cereal for breakfast, how would you love it?
You see, the businesses in your town are solving your problem. They are creating value for you and that is why you patronize them.
They are saving you the trouble of going out of town or to the factory before you can buy stuff.
If they provide a product or service that is not wanted, they will go bankrupt like Enron.
So if your blog offers products and services that is not valued or needed by people (solving problems they don’t have), then you are not treating your blog as a business.

3. Time And Schedule

The offline business in your town has an opening and closing time. Some run overnight but whatever the case, they have a time schedule. This is when the run their business.
On the internet, this may be quite different and works more in our favour. Your blog is open 247 to any one in the world. But the time schedule here refers to when you are working on your business.
When you are creating, launching, writing, promoting and doing all the other things businesses do to grow.
If you don’t have this kind of schedule, you are not treating your blog as a business. It can be as simple as planning 2 hours a day, 6 hours a day etc. if you can be specific, better.

4.They Invest/Reinvest  In Their Businesses

Offline businesses invest in a lot of things to grow. They invest in their rents, their branding, their services, their employees, adverts and promotion etc.
They do this by spending money and time. They even reinvest their profits. They might even get bank loans to finance these investments. They do it because it will ultimately grow their businesses.
On the internet and on your blog, the investments you can make maybe a bit different but your blog needs investments in order to be seen as a business.
Here are a few things you will have to invest in other to treat blogging as a business.

1. Your domain name
2. Your hosting
3. premium WordPress themes
4. Your Knowledge
5. Premium WordPress plug ins
6. Your branding(logo and favicons)
7. Software to automate your online activities
8. Paid web services
9. Paid products (e-books, online courses etc)
10. Outsourced work
11. Product creation
12. Website design/graphic work
13. Email marketing services
14. Your time(very important resource)

The list goes on.
All these things cost money and are very important. If you have a problem with investing in any of these products and services, you are not treating your blog as a business.

5.Get Paid

If a business man sets up a supermarket and allows people to pick whatever they want without paying, is he running a business?
No, he is a philanthropist which is very commendable. But the fact still remains that he is a not a business man (as far as that supermarket is concerned).
Only when he starts charging money or gets paid in another way, that he makes money and can be considered to be a business man.
Okay, I know sometimes offline businesses act like philanthropist during bonanzas, discount sales and other activities. But these are all marketing activities that still help in growing the business. And they don’t usually do it forever.
On the internet and on your blog, this also holds true.
I know giving out free products and information is important for growth of the blog(I do it a lot too). It is cool to give out free reports and e-books. It is good to teach people stuff for free (it is highly recommended and I know, teaching sells). But just teaching without having something to get paid for does not earn you jack (or Jill).
If you do it to build and e-mail list or to grow your blog, it is fine but until you find a way to charge for something or get paid for something, you are also a philanthropist (which is still fine).
And what you get paid for doesn’t have to be your product, supermarket don’t sell their products, they sell products made by manufacturers (call it offline affiliate marketing if you like) on your blog you can do the same.
Affiliate marketing works even better online, so if you don’t have your own products, get paid by selling other people’s products (like the supermarkets)

6.They Market Their Businesses

Businesses offline do a lot of marketing to succeed. They use the print and electronic media to advertise their businesses.
They use the internet too.
If you want to treat your blog as a business, you need to do this too.
But internet marketing may be different from what is obtained offline but whatever the case you need it to grow your blog and business.
So learn internet marketing and use it.  It is how to treat your blog as a business.

7.Get Help ,Outsource ,Employ Others

Offline businesses usually have workers or employees. These people help to run the business and makes sure things go according to plan.
A business where the owner tries to do everything on his own doesn’t grow well and is usually inefficient.
Online many people think of business and blogging as a one man show. This is possible, you can handle many things but to really treat your blog as a business you need people who can do stuff much better than you.
Entrepreneurs don’t try to do everything and you can’t really do every thing. For example, if I have an idea for a WordPress plug-in, I wouldn’t try to make it myself because the only thing I know about coding is “NOTHING”.
I would rather outsource it.

8.They Own Assets

Robert Kiyosaki in his book “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” defines an Asset as
“Anything that brings in money to your pocket”
In addition to that, I would say “an asset is also anything that has the potential of bringing in money to your pocket in the future”.
An asset can also be anything you can sell off at a higher price (it brings in money)
Many offline businesses own assets. Their business first of all is an asset. They can sell it off as a single entity. They own other types of assets like their brand (intangible assets), real estate property (if they have one), and others.
If you want to treat your blog as a business, you need to also own assets. So what can of asset can your blog have or can bring in money to your pocket.

1. Your domain name
2. Your branding
3. Your products
4. Your list
5. Your service
6. Your website or blog(it must be making before you can call it an asset, or has the potential of doing so)

9.Take Risks

If there is anything I know about business, it is the fact that you are taking a risk and you need to take a risk to succeed.
Offline businesses take a lot of risks in order to succeed.
They risk includes:

1. Wasting your time
2. Losing money
3. Incurring debt
4. Failure

If you want to treat your blog as a business, you need to also take some risks.
You need to take bold steps, you need to try new things, and you need to try ideas, you need to risk failure.
I am not advocating that you just take a sure fail risk, I mean calculated risks but like we know even calculated risk do fail. All the analysis and research and due diligence can only be confirmed when we actually go out and try our ideas.
And they may fail because nothing really goes according to plan.
Summary:
To treat your blog as a business you need:

1. To have products ad services sold on your blog
2. You need to solve a problem by creating value
3. Have a time and schedule
4. Invest in yourself and your blog
5. Get paid for something
6. Market and promote your blog
7. Get help, employ others
8. Assets

Are there other ways to treat you business as a blog?

If you have noticed,on this blog right now,i am not practicing all what this article says…There are so many things i am not doing yet and right…for some blogs you need to grow an audience before you can actually practice these things and trust me ..they work . I am practicing some of this on my other niche blogs i will make a major change on this blog very soon so stay tuned…thank you

To easily read more helpful posts in future, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS , follow  @MkAkan and sign up for MkAkan’s newsletter. Read my free blog post development guide and learn how to write and develop blog posts for your blog.

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Thank you.

Recommended Resources Mentioned In This Post

1.definition of business

2.importance of having a product to sell 

3. poor bloggers focus too much on blog post

4.Your hosting

        Business ideas are everywhere.

They stare us in the face when we surf the web.

They stare at us when we have a difficulty online or offline.

Here are some ways to find them.

By the way remember, ideas are a dime a dozen so having an idea does not make you money; what you do with the idea is what matters.

Here are a few ways to find ideas for your online business.

1.   From Our Daily Difficulties

When you find it difficult to do something online you may be sitting on an online business idea.

Odds are many people are having the same difficulty or problem like you. If you can think up a solution to that difficulty, you can start an online business with it.

For example it used to be a bit difficult to find blogs to guest post on but Ann Smarty started a business from the problem of guest posting and founded www.myguestblog.com   .

2.   From Other People’s Ideas

It is a crime to copy a patent or copyrighted material but it is not a crime to copy or improve on an idea.

Ideas are free and are a dime a dozen.

There are many websites (ideas) online.

Can you improve on what is already available? Do you have a unique way to provide the same service?

www.techcrunch.com usually has a yearly competition where entrepreneurs with ideas compete for funding. It is usually called techcrunch50.

This is another great place to find ideas for online businesses.

3.   Adapt An Old Idea To Your Country Or Location

The internet is global but some ideas may work in one country and not in another.

Another reason this happens is language difference.

So you can pick an idea that works in another country or region and adapt it to your language or region.

But don’t make the mistake of picking ideas that does not have any benefit to people or don’t just out rightly clone or duplicate an idea.

4.   Do Normal Things In A Unique Way

  Many entrepreneurs are earning money by doing normal things in a unique way.

They I wear your shirt dudes are making money through the already known idea called advertising and promotions. The only difference is that they are doing it in a very unique way.

Hugh McLeod of gaping void sells art to make a living.

Art or selling of art works is nothing new but McLeod’s art is very different and unique: he does his on the back of business cards.

These somewhat stupid ideas are now successful businesses.

So think of normal or usual things people want then think of a way to give it to them uniquely and different from another person.

5.   Automate A Process Or Event

You can find a good business idea by automating a process, activity or event online. There are many things online dying for automation. Think of the usual activity you do online? Can you shorten the time it takes to do them?

Can you think of a software or website that can help automate the process?

If you can, then you just have a business idea.

6.   Take  Something Offline Online

There are many things happening offline that can be brought online. For example all forms of dating and social networks (like facebook) are offline activities that are brought online. Finding friends and connecting with people is nothing new but the internet makes them very effective.

I now have friends in all around the world.

The internet can help bring other offline activities like that online. Can you think of some other ones?

7.    Help Connect  Demand And Supply

Many online businesses just do this simple action.

They help create a market place for demand and supply to meet.

Outsourcing websites like www.elance.com , www.Odesk.com , www.ebay.com   and others are just providing a market place for demand and supply.

  Space still exists for other market places. Can you think up one?

What kind of demand offline can you create a meeting place for online?

Think of what appears hard for you to find online. Can you create a platform for it to be easily found by using the power of the internet?

Conclusion

These are just a few ways to find ideas for online businesses online.

A book, Internet Riches: The Simple Money-Making Secrets of Online Millionaires
by Scot Fox will help you think up ideas for getting online business ideas.

But remember, ideas are ideas and you need to know if they are viable.

This very important entrepreneurial questions will help you decide if and how to proceed with your idea.

Are there other ways one can find entrepreneurial ideas for online businesses?

Please share in the comments.

If you love this post and would want to read more posts in future, don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS ,follow @MkAkan and sign up for MkAkan’s newsletter .

Please retweet this post and share it on facebook.

Recommended Resources in this Post are

1. Business

2.business from the problem of guest posting

3.www.myguestblog.com  

4.www.techcrunch.com

5.I wear your shirt

6.gaping void

7.stupid ideas

8.www.elance.com

9.  www.Odesk.com 

10. www.ebay.com 

11.Internet Riches: The Simple Money-Making Secrets of Online Millionaires

12. very important entrepreneurial questions

Problems Nigerian Customers Face Everyday Online

I got very pissed off the other day when I tried to order Socrates theme for WordPress. When I click on the order now button, it was redirected to ClickBank. I shook my head in disappointment.
I could not make the order because it was sold from ClickBank.com.
This is what I and many other legit Nigerians pass through everyday.
If you don’t know already, ClickBank does not accept legit business/customers from Nigeria.
So I sat down on my PC with the Prepaid Visa Card I just loaded a few days back and was filled with thoughts.
I was annoyed.
I made a call to Chuks, a fellow Nigerian blogger; he also confirmed that he had never bought anything from ClickBank because of the same issue.
I decided to search Google for answers.
I typed in “How to buy products on ClickBank from Nigeria”.
The search result revealed a lot of things.
It showed that many legit Nigerians businesses and individual were having the same problem and they desperately needed solutions to it.
I even stumbled on a discussion thread on Warrior Forum that had a marketer asking for how he could receive money from a genuine Nigerian customer.
I read it.
I didn’t really help.

Are All Nigerians Scammers?

On the thread on the Warrior Forum, a marketer complained that 2 Nigerians tried to pay him for stuff with fake PayPal accounts.
Well, I can’t authenticate that but I do know that there are some Nigerians who are involved in online scams.
Nigerian scammers exist and it is the main reason why many of these networks bar Nigerians from using their services.
But does that mean that all Nigerians are scammers?
Does it mean that 150 million people or less than a quarter of that number that go online are scammers?
Should you neglect a 150 million people market because they have some scammers wrecking havoc?
The funny thing is that Nigeria is only third in the list of countries with high fraud rates.
America and the UK seats on top of that chart. They win us hands down.
But we still get rapped for anything called online fraud.
Sad.
But lets ask and answer an important question.

Can Nigerians Legally Pay For Businesses (Products And Services) Online?

Some years ago, it wasn’t really possible but today, Nigerians banks are offering prepaid visa and MasterCard to their customers.
In fact I own two cards. My dad is into a Forex Trading and owns a Visa card too. I have many friends who own one.
My money and the Visa card is somehow useless to me because I can hardly pay for anything online with it.
Nigerians are not allowed on PayPal, fine by me but should we also be kicked out of paying for products and services legitimately when we want to pay using our prepaid Visa or MasterCards?
Does it really make business sense?
If You Don’t Do Business With Nigerians, You Are Losing Money
Joel Comm may not need my measly $77 for the Socrates theme. Maybe he makes 100 times that  daily but if a 1000 Nigerians like me, wants to order for that theme, he losses $77 000.
I don’t know if that sum is still nothing to him, maybe he still makes more than that but of course you know,  $77 000 is a sh*t load of money.
My point is, Nigerians can now pay legitimately for stuff online, so why are we still rejected by these networks.
So if you are a marketer or business man and you have a product or service, and you sell it using affiliate marketing networks that hates genuine Nigerian customers.
Then you are losing my patronage and the patronage of many other legit Nigerian customers.
And trust me, that is a lot of money left on the ground. (150 million people or a tenth of that is not a small market)

How Some Legit Nigerians Buy Stuff Online

Last 3 months, I tried to order confessions of a lazy marketer from Chris Rempel.
He only sells from ClickBank so I could not order it.
So I had to beg a friend living in the US to buy the product for me and send it to me by e-mail.
Now, that means if I ever want to buy anything from ClickBank or other networks not accepting legit Nigerians customers, then I will have to pay that friend (or anyone willing to help me) the equivalent sum of that product so he could order it for me.
But there are many problems with asking someone to buy stuff for you.

1. What about upgrades.
2. What about support?
3. What about customer service?
4. What about other things that I should get from buying a product or service?
5. What of recurring payments?

The problem with buying stuff using a friend is endless and is it not something I would want to do.

So How should I Pay for These Products and Services

In the next few months, I will be taking my online business very seriously. I will be investing in my knowledge, products and services. And will be (if possible) paying for them with my prepaid Visa card.
My plan was to buy

1.The Socrates theme (by the way: this should have been an affiliate link but I cant for this same reason)

I intend to start building niche sites with this WordPress theme. But buying this products is  proving difficult already.

2.Domain names from Netfirms

I sent them an email and the confirmed that they receive any Visa card without bias. Good for their business.

3.Hosting

Hostgator confirmed that they would need a scanned identity card and scanned copy of the debit card used to make the order before I can proceed.
I have no problem with this because it is fair enough and I am legit .I will do just that.

4.Email Autoresponder

I will be using MailChimp services to build my list and as my Autoresponder. I don’t think I will have any problem with paying for their services although I have not sent any email to confirm this.

3.Market Samurai

(This is a keyword research software that will do 95% of the job of research, seo, picking products etc for me) it is a good investment for those who want to succeed online). I decided to buy it after I read Pat flynn review of the product.
But they don’t sell to Nigerians because it is only sold on clickbank.com.

What Some Companies Are Doing About Doing Business With Nigerians

Some wise companies are accepting Nigerian customers paying with prepaid Visa and MasterCard debit cards.
Some world class companies like Hostgator do so but add checks to make sure that only legit Nigerian customer are allowed in their business. This is Very, very fine by me.
Other companies should do same.
Some companies like ClickBank and other networks hating on legit Nigerian customers don’t even bother.
These companies are making bad business decisions and are losing money.
Rejecting thousands of sales from legit Nigerians, or an emerging e-market like Nigeria, is a bad business decision.
But there are many ways to make this work for you and your company.
There are many:

Ways To Receive Money And Do Business With Legit Nigerians Customers And Businesses

If you want to do business with many legit Nigerians, you can:

1. Accept Nigerians Visa/MasterCard prepaid cards

It is that simple.
Nigerian banks now issue legit prepaid cards to their customers so there are no reasons to keep rejecting them.
Now I know that most businesses use affiliate networks to sell their products and services and these affiliate networks are the ones that decide who pays for goods and services.
These networks should start accepting Nigerian prepaid Visa and MasterCard. These cards are legit.

2.Use Checks

I will be frank with you. Ones these networks and people start receiving legit Nigerian customers, the bad guys will come out blazing. In other words, the crooks will try to game the system even more.
This is when you need to act like Hostgator.
They Use checks.
Ask for identity cards; ask for a scanned copy of the card used for the transaction. Ask for anything that would help identify genuine customers from scammers.
Frankly, I don’t really mind if you charge me for going through the stress of verifying me as long as I will get the product or service I paid for.
This will ensure that you are dealing with genuine Nigerian businesses, customers and individuals.

3.Use Offline Means

If you have problem with using any of the above means, you can still use offline means to receive payments from Nigerians.
Western Union transfer and MoneyGram are services that help deliver money instantly from one country to another.
You can ask a legit Nigerian customer to send money to you for a product or service using this method. This method maybe cumbersome and may defeat the aim of running a true online business but is better than losing those customers.
The funny thing is, this method will put legit Nigerians in the position of being easily scammed by foreigners .

4.Use Networks Accepting Nigerians

There are few networks that accept Nigerian prepaid Visa and MasterCard. www.e-junkie.com and www.plimus.com are affiliate marketing networks that seem to accept Nigerian customers (I have not bought anything from any of them yet so I am not so certain).
There are many more networks that accept Nigerians customers so check them out.

Summary And Conclusion

This is the summary of the points opined in this article:

1. Not all Nigerians are scammers
2. Nigerians can now pay for products and services using their prepaid visa and MasterCard issued by Nigerian banks
3. Businesses not accepting genuine Nigerian debit cards and customers are making a big mistake and are losing money
4. The Nigerian e-market is still a young and emerging market and companies who accept Nigerians will gain from it
5. Use checks if you want to start receiving Nigerian customers
6. You can use offline means like Western Union and MoneyGram to receive money from Nigerian customers.

Finally, I have a request.
Joel Comm, I love to buy your Socrates Theme .I love to also buy the Market Samurai too. But the problem is ClickBank hates legit Nigerian customers even with legit debit cards.
How can I pay for your products?
Thank you

Do you know what social proof is? I bet you have. It is the reason why people (me inclusive) act silly sometimes. It is a social phenomenon that makes people copy or do the same thing done by others.

It is used online and offline to motivate people to take action. It is used by marketers and non-marketers. And the truth is –it works on us all. But you should be very weary of social proof. It is sometimes a big lie.

Here is a little experience

I was at the ATM stand (some days back). The ATM stand has 5 ATMS. I met a queue in front of the first machine. I join the queue (stuck by the magic of social proof). A few minutes later, someone else came do the ATM stand, walked past the queue of social proof and just checked on the other ATM, flipped out his ATM card and withdrew the amount he wanted.

Another pillar of social proof was born.

People in my queue, jumped out and immediately started building another queue of social proof.

The Lesson

Here is the thing; because people formed a queue in front of an ATM doesn’t mean it is the best ATM machine in the world. Because 100 people stood in front of an ATM machine doesn’t mean it will only pay 100 times the amount you request for (I wish this happens to me). Because 1,000 people buy a product does not mean it is going to be the best product in the world.

If you only judge or buy a product because 1,000 have bought it you may be making a mistake. Jumping on an business idea because a 100 people are already doing it online does not guarantee that it will work for you.

Okay that’s it.

Please let’s discuss

1. How do you use social proof?
2. Have you made a bad decision because of social proof?

Thanks for the comments in advance.