WHAT IS SUCCESS? (AND WHY DON'T MANY GET THERE?)

Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal. Put another way, only about 5% of Americans have reached financial independence or better by the time they reach retirement age. In the richest country in the world, 95% of us don’t manage to take advantage of all the opportunities available to us. Why is that? If someone is working toward a predetermined goal and knows where he or she is going, that person is a success. If they are not doing that, they are failures. In Rollo May’s Man’s Search for Himself, May writes, “The opposite of courage in our society is not cowardice… it is conformity.” Try this: Set aside an hour or two to review your life plan. Do you know what goal you are working towards? Not your next promotion or career step, but your ultimate goal. Say you want to retire by 55 and travel the world for 5 years before settling down in your seaside cottage in Maine (hey, we’ve all got dreams!). Do you know what financial resources you will need in order to make that happen? And are you working toward them? "All you have to do is know where you're going. The answers will come to you of their own accord." – Earl Nightingale

MOBILE IS THE WAY TO GO

What Does a Mobile First Design Look Like

Remember when the only way you could reliably access the Internet was on your computer? By and large, that meant that you had a reasonably large monitor in front of you. Then, we moved to a point where you should have a “mobile-friendly” version of your site. That’s when people started creating subdomains or subdirectories with “m” or “mobi” or something similar. More recently, we moved toward encouraging “responsive” designs that adapt to the user’s screen.

But even then, for most of us, “responsive” simply meant have a desktop-oriented web design that could “respond” to fit the smaller confines of a smartphone display. That is no longer enough. Google has made it very clear that “mobile friendly” or “responsive” is no longer enough. You need to adopt a mobile first approach if you want to stay in Google’s good graces.
It used to be that you’d cater your blog design to the lowest screen resolution with a significant amount of traffic. That still meant a desktop-oriented design. Now, the approach is completely reversed. You design for the mobile display first, and then you have that design adapt to the larger space of a desktop monitor. But what exactly does that mean? Here are some key elements and considerations to keep in mind.

Single Column

For a time there, many blogs had sidebars on both sides. It was so common, that it was a whole category of WordPress themes on many sites. There were also many themes that had “double” sidebars on one side, so you’d have a wider main content column, one sidebar to the right of it, and then another sidebar to the right of the first sidebar. Crazy times, I tell you. Design people then often debated about whether the sidebar should be on the left or the right side of the screen. Most designs ended up settling for right sidebars, but even that is beside the point today.

More and more, what you’ll find is that the simpler, single column design is increasingly preferred. The reasons are numerous, but one of the biggest motivations is the mobile-first approach. When the screen of a smartphone is only so wide, a sidebar is completely unreasonable. The compromise with many responsive designs is that the sidebar appears on the desktop version, but when you get the narrow space of a phone, the sidebar gets pushed below the main column. But a true single column, with no sidebar at all, is quickly increasing in popularity.

Hamburger Menu

By and large, the traditional navigation you’d find on most websites would take on one of two forms. You’d have some main navigation running lengthwise across the header, oftentimes spanning at least half the width of the site’s design (if not more). Alternatively, a lot of navigation would be pushed into the sidebar. Neither scenario follows a “mobile first” approach.

The preferred “mobile first” approach is the so-called hamburger menu. That’s the button with the three horizontal lines. Click or tap on it to expand the navigation menu. We see this in mobile sites, but we’re seeing it increasingly in the “main” desktop versions of sites too.

Paragraph Length

This has less to do with the WordPress theme you might have running on your blog, and more to do with the actual content you decide to publish on there. If you’re more of a “pure” writer, then you mostly only think about paragraph length in terms of the storytelling or how you want the narrative to be received. And that’s perfectly fair.

But when you’re writing for a particular format and audience, as is the case with blog posts read on the web, HOW the words look is almost as important as the actual words themselves. From a “mobile first” perspective, this means keeping your paragraphs relatively short, because you don’t want a giant block of text to cover the entirety of a smartphone screen.

Keep It Simple

Going back to the core design of your site, a “mobile first” approach means that you emphasize clean lines and simple layouts. Something more ambitious might look pretty snazzy on a bigger screen, with radical lines and complex overlays, but it just ends up looking really cluttered, overwhelming, and not very user friendly on a smaller screen. Usability is critical.

A simpler design also lends itself to faster loading times, another key factor in Google’s ranking algorithm. It doesn’t matter if your site looks great if it also takes forever to load.

Video Format

Want to make it big on YouTube? Reading up on great video descriptions and integrating YouTube cards? Great. The “mobile first” approach is almost as important here as it is with your blog’s site design.

You may have noticed that some of your favorite YouTubers — like MKBHD and Peter McKinnon — have switched to an ultrawide format with a 2:1 aspect ratio (or 18:9, if you prefer). That’s wider than the regular 16:9 widescreen we’ve accepted as the standard for HD video. Why? Because more people are watching YouTube on their phones than ever before, and most popular smartphones now have an extra tall display with 18:9 or 18.5:9 aspect ratios (or somewhere in that range).

It’s better to get black bars on a regular computer monitor, which is already a larger display, than it is to get black bars on a smaller smartphone screen. The additional side to this is considering vertical video formats for Instagram Stories and IGTV, or even square videos for Instagram and Facebook. The conventional 16:9 video isn’t the totally dominant standard it once was.

Going Mobile

Simply having mobile as part of your overall strategy is good, but you should really be moving to the point where mobile becomes a much bigger priority. Everything you do has to be viewed through the lens of a mobile display, in a sense, because that’s where a growing majority of users are going to find your content. From podcasts to blog posts, social media to email newsletters, you need to be particularly cognizant of how any of that is received on a phone.

WAYS TO RESPOND TO APP STORE REVIEWS TO INCREASE DOWNLOADS

Downloading a new mobile app seems like an easy and simple thing, but most of the people take it more seriously than we think. In fact, not only is it extremely rare for a user to keep a new application on their mobile device, it’s even more rare for them to leave a positive review after such an experience.

According to a survey, almost 77% users read at least a single review before they make a new adding to their mobile app collection and remaining 13% users read at least 7 reviews to make a final decision. Those tiny yellow stars given by the app users are most important in this era of mobile technology as reviews and ratings are the most vital things that impress potential users to download and use an app.

Listening and communicating your app users are the best way to get more positive reviews and to increase user retention rate. Thankfully, now companies and app developers can reply their app reviews to build trust and to engage users efficiently.

However, one should be doing this right as providing quick and excellent customer support is not always easier even some of the developers and companies can feel overwhelming when responding to app reviews on app store. We have put together efficient ways and tips for responding to app store reviews to help you alleviate stress when replying your users.

Respond to Reviews as Fast as You Can

Everyone is busy these days and really don’t want to be ignored. So, why you leave app reviews unanswered?

When app reviews go not-responded, it shows lack of customer care. That’s why, be sure to respond app reviews as fast as you can, to make your users feel valued. For this purpose, you should monitor app store reviews regularly and reply immediately right after receiving a notification.

Carefully Understand what the Each Reviewer is Saying

Don’t be quick to respond even when you are no sure about the user’s point of view and take time to read the reviews carefully before getting your hands-on typing. A timely made response wouldn’t earn you any points if it is completely irrelevant to the review and senseless as well.

Show Care for Users

App reviewers take to the app store when they are completely satisfied or really unfulfilled. So, always try to reply in a way you understand their feelings and will probably try hard to help them in the best way possible.

For example, if you were a social networking site or had a tool that was to help marketers on Instagram, you would need to beat out a lot of competing apps. Just take a look at the many different Instagram apps out ther and look at the reviews for each.

The ones that care the most to respond to feedback, ratings and user reviews are likely going to get much higher ratings and rankings as well.

Apologize for Bad Experiences

No matter the complaint or issue is valid or not, it is valid for the users and bad experiences always deserve apology. Be sure to apology and politely let them know the fact if the complaint was invalid. Doing this will make them feel acknowledged.

Reply in your Brand’s Tone

When responding app store reviews, be sure to reply in your brand’s tone. Whether you are a developer or a company with dedicated customer support team, use the same voice you use on your landing pages, website or social media profiles. 

Tailor your Each Review Response

In order to save time and effort, don’t use preserved phrases to respond app reviews. Instead, write unique responses for each of your reviews to provide users with personalized messages. Creating responses from scratch make users feel personal and ensures they are interacting with humans, not bots.

Don’t use Negative Words

Avoid negative words and phrases when creating responses for your users. Always keep in mind that a positive review response will help you restore the user’s faith and trust in your app. Don’t use words that can have a negative impact on users such as never, impossible, unfortunately and cannot etc. 

Avoid Grammar and Punctuation Errors

It is one of the vital things to consider while responding to app store reviews. Take enough time to create error-free and sensible responses that have no typos and mistakes. Try to create responses in a word processing software as it can help you prevent typos and other possible writing errors.

Be Upfront

Always be honest with your reviewers specially when they are requesting a feature, reporting a technical issue or any other thing. If any of them is encountered a bug, admit it and let the user know when a feature will be available if they are requesting a feature in your app. If you cannot admit and proceed their recommendations, politely explain why. Always be realistic and don’t overpromise while responding app store reviews.

How to Create a Review with Positive Reviews and Lots of Users

When looking at the many different apps available on the mobile marketplace today, it’s all about the end user experience. Like we mentioned throughout this list, most people aren’t going to post a positive review… that’s just the way it is.

However, if you want to increase the chances for a review to come through from a mobile user, you need to know when to ask. A good example of this might be if you had a game and after a player leveled up or beat a boss… this is often a good time for a popup to ask for a review, as the user is already engaged and likely in a good mood.

Bottom line… if you want to have a top ranking app with lots of positive reviews and users, it’s going to take a lot of time, money and effort. As hard as you are fighting for these same benefits, other brands are likely fighting even harder!

THE VOLATILITY OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Now, by contrast, think about what it’s like when you run your own business, whether that’s online or offline. If you decide to start a blog today, from scratch, you’re not going to earn a typical day’s pay on your first day. Or even your 10th day or maybe even your 100th day. That’s even truer when you look into launching a startup, whether you’re dealing with digital or physical products. For many of these companies, the founders oftentimes don’t expect to turn a dime for themselves for years.

All the money goes back into the business, investing in its future in hopes of even more substantial gains down the line. You see this with many success stories. The founders need to keep their investors happy and they need to keep up with operating costs like payroll, so they take a substantial pay cut themselves to keep the ship afloat. And maybe, at some point down the line, they find themselves running a multi-million dollar company and they start reaping huge financial benefits.

And that’s great… unless the house of cards comes crumbling down. The market can be a fickle beast, and what was once a hugely successful product could turn belly up tomorrow. But these founders can be eager to get right back into the game with a fresh idea… and so they choose to start another company with another product.

One Brick at a Time

Herein lies yet another crucial difference compared to the conventional day job. When a regular employee “starts over” at another company, they get paid on day one. When a company founder and Internet startup hopeful “starts over” with a new company, they really do have to start from scratch all over again. They don’t have the capital they may have lost in the previous venture. They have to attract new investors or raise their own funds again. They have to forge new connections and contacts all over again.

This building process can take years. Again.

And that’s okay. It just means you have to accept the fact that working for yourself is not at all like working for someone else. The upside is theoretically limitless; you just have to be willing to start from the bottom all over again. Over and over again. Until you find a house of cards that can withstand the test of time and adapt as conditions change. Are you prepared to take on that responsibility? Do you trust in yourself?