Subliminal Website Text: Don't Hit 'em Over The Head

Plant the seeds. Orders will follow organically.

Back in the ‘50s and ‘60s, advertisers and movie makers gave subliminal advertising a bad name. It worked like this. Standard movie film runs at 32 frames per second. So if very few minutes you replaced one frame, 1/32 of a second, with an advert for soda or popcorn, concession sales would increase. And subliminal advertising worked. The problem was, lawmakers thought it was intrusive and passed a bunch of legislation to prevent advertisers from using subliminal adverts.

That doesn’t make it a bad idea. Just an idea that you can’t use in films and TV. But what about web sites? Well, since no one had heard of a web site back when these anti-subliminal ad laws were enacted, web sites can use subliminal advertising – not for illicit or unethical selling campaigns, but to boost sales in subtle ways.

Subliminal Web Site Messaging

The key to any subliminal messaging is that the viewer or customer isn’t aware of it. Visitors don’t realize that they’re being persuaded. That’s the danger and the beauty of this kind of advertising. It’s effective and intrusive.

So, what are the subliminal responses visitors have to your web site? It’s usually the first response, the most natural response. The visitor isn’t aware of your site’s subliminal messaging but it’s there on every page of the site. It’s persuasion by instinct or intuition. Today, some people call it a gut feeling, but you can deliver persuasive, motivational messages and your visitors won’t even recognize you’re selling.

The Elements of Subliminal Web Site Messaging

Text and graphics. That’s the way it’s always been and always will be. You must have text that stimulates those subliminal urges. The words you choose should be exciting, captivating and written in everyday English. Words should also indicate action. Examples:

discover (the world of ocean sailing)

uncover (the wealth in your attic)

save (money, time, gasoline – just save something!)

enjoy (the benefits of working at home)

Upbeat, lively words lead to upbeat lively buyers.

Graphics are just as important, maybe even more so, when your graphic artist is also doing the layout of your web site. Some general rules on selecting graphics that deliver a subliminal message to the astute site visitor.

Color scheme should be neutral with a splash of color, especially on links. Text should be easy to read against its background and the type font shouldn’t be too fancy.

Links, Buttons and Other Navigation Tools

Which has more prominence in the mind of a visitor – a text link embedded in a long paragraph or a graphic “button” labeled “Click Here for More Information.” You might not think about it (or your graphic artist not think about it) but there’s a hierarchy of site conventions that provide subliminal clues as to which is the most important content and main pathway through the site.

For example, a small graphic link is more important than a mouseover link from a list. A large button with text is higher up in navigation hierarchy than a small button. And if the large button has a call to action like “Click Now & Save $654.32 on your automobile insurance costs” the click rate will improve accordingly.

Web Site Images and Positioning

The top half of your web-site’s home page is the single-most valuable space on your entire site. It’s what most people see when they first reach your site and if, for any reason, it doesn’t capture the visitor’s attention in six seconds, you’ll get a bounce, a visitor who never gets past the homepage, because something wasn’t right about it.

Another important point about image use and placement: images can’t be read by search engine spiders and that includes gifs, jpgs, bitmaps and Flash animation, so if you have key text tucked away in a spiffy, expensive Flash opening, not only do you slow download times (not a good subliminal message), you lose any search engine benefit from the text within the graphic.

Use the top half of the homepage to make your biggest, strongest pitch:

If you don’t use our Scratch Out scratch remover

You’re wasting thousands of $$$ when you resell your car.

This headline would appear in a simple 24 point, bolded text. That indicates a high level of importance when given such prominent display. And both visitors and spiders understand that. Larger text is given more importance than smaller text by humans and spiders.

Image Quality

And speaking of images, if you’re just starting up, chances are you’ll have to use some free clip art which, subliminally, many people recognize as a cost-cutting measure and consequently, subliminally diminishes the value of your service or product to some visitors.

If you can afford to take some nice product pictures (ask a neighbor or friend with some camera experience) your site makes a better, intuitive, subliminal first impression..

Using Subliminal Web Site Messaging For Good

There’s nothing illegal or immoral about using subliminal messaging – messaging that hides its intent between the lines and pictures of your web site. People may not be aware that they’re being influenced by the shape or color of a button graphic link, but they are. Buttons are more important than text links, at least at the subliminal level.

With this in mind, your main site arteries should be button links off the home page, or if that isn’t feasible, tabs at the top of the page – another indicator of importance and priority of navigational tools.

Direct your visitor with hierarchical links, with mouseover text links at the low end of the scale and a big banner across the home page at the top. Search engines won’t get it but visitors will.

If you saw a banner that said “Save $10,000 on the sale of your home” would you click on it – especially if you were thinking of selling. On the other hand, if you see a text link in a list of other text links promising the exact same savings, you’re much less likely to make that click because it’s just a text link.

Everything Counts

Everything! Color combinations, the type face you select, the pictures and images you choose and where they’re placed on a page, the size, shape and selection of navigation buttons, the ease of use of the navigation bar – all of these and more send subliminal messages to your visitors and if visitors don’t land on a page that looks and feels right (for that particular demographic) bounce, bounce, bounce. You have less than seven seconds to impress a first time visitor.

Subliminal messages to visitors may make or break your site. Give everything careful thought; don’t decide on a whim. Identify the needs of your target market and use words that have positive connotations: health, wealth building, family and about a million more connotative words that will keep first-time visitors interested.

It’s subtle (that’s good) and an effective means of keeping a low advertising profile so it doesn’t look or sound like you’re hawking your wares.

Hit your market’s subliminal hot buttons with the right words and the right pictures and you’ll achieve the site success you envision.

Need more information on developing effective site text - site text that CONVERTS! Call or clcik webweordslinger.com to discover how good site text boosts conversion ratios in over a half-dozen ways. Yeah, for real.

Webwordslinger.com

Is It Time To Switch To A Dedicated Server? Pros & Cons

Is Your Site Fast? It Is With A Dedicated Server. Zooooooom.

For those new to web hosting services, a quick recap. The lowest cost service is shared hosting where you rent a certain amount of disk space on a server from a web host. You can find this kind of service at a low cost because web hosts can place over 1,000 shared hosting clients on a single server. Very economical and ideal for start-ups and sites that don’t anticipate much traffic.

VPS (virtual private server) is a hybrid between shared and dedicated hosting, providing both the pros and cons of shared hosting and dedicated or managed hosting.

Dedicated servers are just that – dedicated. One server one company. Dedicated severs cost more and are only cost efficient for active commercial sites and business sites with international clientele.

Deciding when it’s time to take your on-line business to the next level isn’t always clear. Monthly costs are higher. Visitor expectations grow daily and, frankly if you don’t offer some bells, whistles and interactivity on your circa 1999 web site, you’re going to be left in the dust.

The biggest problems with dedicated servers have always been maintenance and software compatibility. Many hosts figure that if the client is able to pay hundreds a month for super-supreme hosting, s/he must be working with a site design or SEO company and they must know what they’re doing. This isn’t always the case. In fact, there are many successful, on-line entrepreneurs who rely on web pros for most of their technical services. Oh, and the more services and products there are, the more costly those outside services become. As-needed tech support can really nibble at those margins.

Check out a few SEO or design companies to see what it’s going to cost you to bring your site up to date or improve conversion rate when you move to a dedicated server, and keep the smelling salts close at hand. It’ll cost thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars to design, launch and administer an active and interactive web site.

Plus You Have to Take Care of the Thing

Many web hosts leave the client hanging after that client has signed a nice long contract for a dedicated server. They must use an outside design service. But what about maintenance? You have to take care of the thing!

When you upgrade to a new checkout, are you going to be certain that you won’t wipe out your entire customer database? Or lose that hard-earned Google PR only to slip into the nether regions of the world wide web? If you don’t know what you’re doing installing, deleting and moving sensitive data and software, wouldn’t it be nice to have someone knowledgeable to walk you through it step by step, or better yet, who just goes to your server, inserts tab A into slot B and you’re done with it.

Then There’s Managed or Dedicated Servers for the Digitally Challenged

Do you have a clue what z/OS is? Do you know what a services manager does? If not, don’t take that leap to the one-company-one box model until you ask a bunch of questions (expensive, lots-of-money types of questions).

If you have (or are) a computer professional (most growing companies can’t afford one), no problem. Go with the bare bones hardware and let your technician do his stuff. You can stand right over his shoulder and make changes on the fly. But if you don’t have your own geek, don’t worry. If your business has grown to the point where a dedicated server is required, and you know diddly about digital technology, the solution is managed hosting.

Let Someone Else Do It

With managed hosting, your company enjoys all of the benefits dedicated servers have to offer – a huge amount of disc space, whopping bandwidth for really active sites and complete freedom to load or unload whatever software you choose. Nothing like it and essential for growing businesses.

However, with managed hosting, glitches are taken care of by the hosting service. In fact, part of the web host’s job is to deliver the highest level of service in the shortest amount of time to keep that existing customer base in place.

Here’s What You Want from Dedicated Hosting or Managed Service (same thing)

First, look at the company’s history. Have they been around for more than a week? How many clients do they serve? How many dedicated servers do they maintain?

You also want constant monitoring of your site by the web host’s 24/7 on-site staff. Let them stay up all night watching your site so you can sleep easier. Even better, look for a company that maintains its own warning software to alert the techies that your server needs some attention.

You want a telephone number (preferably toll free) with instant access to a system administrator or at least a techie who gets the problem and fixes it – like now! If your managed server only communicates via e-mail, you are not going to be happy with the attention you think you’re paying for. And if you get stuck in automated telephone answering system hell, you’re going to be steamed at what you’re paying each month. This is your business and you need help now!

You also want automatic updates of the software you use. Very nice, seamless and easy. Upgrade PHP, Perl, MySQL, Apache, Sendmail and other data storage and business administration software without giving it a thought.

Did you ask about data security?

That’s part of the deal with managed hosting. That oversight of your server includes constant tracking and monitoring to identify suspect activity. Monitored service should also include patches and updates when they become available for the security software the host employs and you employ.

Also ask about data recovery in case of some on-line catastrophe. The host backs up your entire hard drive(s) (all of them) for recovery in case you’re cracked or hacked, or your hard drive fries during a wicked thunderstorm. How is data storage and recovery managed as part of your managed services package? Good to know.

Finally, to monitor your host’s activities, you should expect an advanced level control panel or console that delivers the precise information you need with a couple of clicks. Expect to pay an additional fee for a control panel but, if we’re talking about your livelihood and getting the server management services you’re paying for, it’s good to have one. A couple to look at are Virtuozzo Advanced Control Panel and Plesk Reloaded Control panel.

Managed Hosting to the Rescue

With managed hosting, you get the technology to watch your business grow and you get the knowledgeable support from a staff dedicated to your dedicated server. You don’t have to know anything about the technology behind your site and even better, you don’t have to worry about it.

With managed hosting to the rescue, you can focus on more important matters – like the successful growth of your on-line business.

If you’re with a web host that doesn’t offer a complete managed hosting option, time to migrate your site to a host that watches out for you. You’ll feel confident knowing that an expert is just down the hall (eating a doughnut) when the alarm goes off that your server is experiencing an anomaly or just acting hinky.

If your business is growing and a dedicated server is in your future, don’t wait. Start shopping around for good prices, and even better management of your server.

Yeah, it's a lot to think about, but if you'd like some advice on whetehr dedicated hosting is for you, call or click me. (It tickles.) There are other solutions that work just as well.

Later, gator,

Webwordslinger.

Website Features: What Do You Really Need?

What website features do visitors expect? You decide.

You just registered your domain name. You’re one step closer to that dream of your own website and finally, financial freedom. But now what? Well, if you’ve signed on with a good web host (one who values your site’s success because it ultimately means the web hosting company’s success) you’ve got a box full of goodies to play with in designing your website.

You don’t need a pricey site designer. But you do have to decide on what your website will display and which features will be left out. There are lots of options which means lots of decisions – and there are pros and cons to each one.

A Secure Checkout

Pros: If you sell a product or service, and you accept payment over the web, you don’t have a choice. You must have a secure checkout with SSL encryption to ensure that sensitive personal information isn’t snared by a bad guy. The alternative is to use PayPal or some other payment service but the more payment options you offer, the more your offerings will move out of the warehouse.

Cons: Cost, for one. If your web host doesn’t provide free checkout software, like osCommerce, it could cost you a bundle. On the other hand, people want to pay with credit cards as long as they believe the transaction is secure.

Also, opening a merchant account – one that allows you to accept credit card orders – is going to cost you – sign-up fees, per charge fees and a percentage of every sale, so if you’re operating on tightrope margins, these additional percentages may mean the difference between a viable business and one that shuts down after three weeks.

Web hosts should offer free checkout software. And, a premium service will let your site piggyback on the host’s SSL certificate, saving time and money.

A Blog

Pros: Blogs are great for keeping a site fresh with new content. A closed blog (one in which posts are limited to your control) is easiest to maintain. They’re also useful for a couple of other reasons. First, it’s easy to post new content when you have a blog module as part of your site’s infrastructure so you can update daily with a couple of clicks.

Blogs also create site communities. Once a reader begins a thread, others follow the lead and in no time, you’ll discover the same people conducting conversations and debate on your blog. These are visitors who return to your site often. A very good thing.

Finally, blog software should come free as part of your tool kit. If it doesn’t, look for another web host that does offer freebies by the pound at a reasonable price. They’re out there.

Cons: Conversely, if you allow visiting readers to leave comments to your posts, maintenance may become a problem. There’s always some foul-mouthed, trouble-maker who stirs up more interest in his online antics than the topic at hand. As the boss of the blog, you can block these distractions, but that doesn’t eliminate the need to monitor threads. You want an active blog but you also have to maintain it with regular posts and constant oversight of readers’ comments. This means part of your day will be used up in editorial duties, a real con.

Google AdWords

Pros: There are thousands of site owners who create websites for no other reason than to generate PPC (pay-per-click) revenues. They put up a little content, stuff each page with AdWords skyscrapers and wait for the money to roll in. And it does. Some of these site owners see $200 - $300 a month in click-through revenue per site, and if they maintain 10 such sites, it starts to add up to some real “walkin’ ‘round” money.

AdWords is a simple, easy-to-manage way to monetize a new site quickly. You only pay when search engine users click on your link so you’re not wasting money.

Cons: I don’t care how well designed a website is, AdWords – those cheesy little blue links on the top, bottom or side of a web page, diminish the perception of quality in the mind of the visitor. And as we’ve said many times in this blog, on the W3 perception is reality.

If your law firm maintains a website (and it should) you want to project a professional, positive image, not the Lionel Hutz “I Can’t Believe It’s A Law Firm” image.

Another con: click fraud. A competitor can just click on your AdWords link and have all of her friends do the same for five minutes a day. Your AdWords budget gets eaten up by black hat tactics and there’s not a whole lot you can do about it. If you can prove click fraud, Google will give you credit, but it’s up to you to prove the fraud. Google get’s paid whether the click is licit or a scam.

Affiliate Links

Pros: A great way to make cash fast. Affiliates are companies into which you enter agreements. You agree to display the mother company’s logo and link on your site and, in return, you receive payment based on the number of visitors to your site who click on the link and perform some action. For example, put up an eBay link and collect $35 a head plus a nickel for each bid one of your referrals places.

Get a couple of hundred eBay buyers placing bids everyday and that money can add nicely to your site’s revenue stream. Also a great way to monetize a site quickly.

Cons: Same dealeo as Google AdWords. If you access a site jam packed with affiliate links, it doesn’t add much to the process of building visitor trust. The site looks cluttered and cheap.

More negative news: each one of those affiliate links takes up space that could be used to sell your products or services.

And finally, each one of those affiliate links is a ticket off your site. With a click, they’re off looking at something on an affiliate site. You may pick up a few bucks a month in affiliate revenue, but you aren’t making the real money you make selling your own goods or services.

One suggestion: As we said, affiliates do generate cash and fast, so if you’re runnin’ on empty, add affiliate links to a single page with a navigation link labeled “Our Partners,” “Our Favorites,” or “Our Picks.”

Pictures and Other Images

Pros: Pictures sell more than words. Online buyers want to see what they’re paying for and, yes, one good product picture is worth a thousand words. So you will sell more with high-quality pictures.

Carts and graphs are useful for providing a lot of information in a small space.

Cons: Unless you own a decent digital camera and unless you know how to dress a set (the place where the product will be shot) and you know that the product should be lit from at least three directions, don’t use product pictures that you take yourself.

Log on to eBay and look at the range of quality of product pictures. Some are ripped from the web so they look okay. But some are nothing more than a front-on flash that blows out the object to a hot white blur floating against a blacked out background. Awful stuff, and not a good selling point.

If you can get product pictures from your wholesaler’s marketing department you’re all set. If not, have those pictures taken by a professional using a hi-resolution camera, lit properly and attractively staged. It’ll cost you some cash but it’s a lot better than using home-grown product pictures that don’t do justice to the product.

Charts and graphs should also be professionally done, unless you know how to create images in Photoshop or some other image manipulation software.

The Choices You Make Now…

…will often determine the short- and long-term success of your site. And remember, your site will evolve. You may start out using AdWords until your site is pulling in enough traffic to make up the lost AdWords revenue. Then, you drop AdWords and…

… your site takes on a much cleaner, more professional look.

Looking for site solutions, more traffic and improved site performance? Visit Webwordslinger.com for a free site analysis. Hey, you can't beat the price and no strings attached, either. Cool.

Is Your Web Host Ready For Anything? Than Neither Is Your Web Biz!

Is Your Web Host Ready For Anything?

Just How Safe Is Your E-Business?

We’ve got drought in the midlands. We’ve got flash floods, mudslides, earthquakes and raging infernos throughout California (why don’t you people just move?). In the Northeast, there are blizzards and cold snaps that make grown men weep. Yep, you never know what to expect – but you can expect natural disasters and unnatural disasters to strike and when they do, are you out of your online business?

Web Servers – a Primer

A short lesson for those just joining the online community. Your website is delivered to the world wide web through a server owned by your web host. Now, if you have a shared hosting program (entry-level and low cost – good) you share a server with a couple of hundred other web sites.

That server, which connects your business to your customers, isn’t an abstract concept. It’s a piece of hardware. You can buy a network server from Dell for less than $1,000. No mystery. A server is just a big box with massive storage capacity that’s plugged into the web matrix so your site is visible from Singapore to Sandusky.

Small hosting companies have a few servers all chugging away. The big web hosting companies have dozens and dozens of black boxes (servers) all spewing forth the stuff we see on the W3.

Now, like all electronics gear, web servers aren’t partial to the elements. Leave one out in the rain and watch the sparks fly. Leave a network server outside overnight in International Falls, MN and you’ve turned a perfectly good server into a door stop. Get the picture? These pathways to the web are delicate, and they require protection.

What’s Your Web Host Doing to Protect Against Floods?

What’s the worst that can happen?

The building housing your server floods, cooking your site’s server in the process. Umm. You’ll be down for a while, that’s a fact. But wait, if the water cooked your server, all of the other sites on the server are in trouble. All need fixing fast.

Now, imagine the backwash from a busted water main wipes out 30 servers. Man, you are going to be down well past the holiday shopping season and you know that’s going to hurt.

A responsible web host prepares for the worst contingencies. For example, in the case of flooding, servers should be elevated at least a foot off the ground. If we’re talkin’ a Noah-sized flood, nothing is going to help, but that 12-inch buffer between your server and the raging tide may just keep you online – even during a flood at your server location.

Web Servers and Power Outages

Power outages are a commonplace annoyance but we accept them as we eat a barbequed dinner by candlelight. Tree limbs fall. But hurricanes and tornadoes also hit, uprooting trees and tearing down electrical wires in the process. Hey, if you happen to go for a low-ball web host, your server could be in a hut in Bangladesh for all you know and electricity may NOT be taken for granted.

Ask your web host how it handles power outages. Most will tell you there’s nothing they can do about the loss of power until power is restored. Ahh, but the good host is ready for any contingency. If the host loses power from the local grid, the host’s back-up generators automatically kick in without missing a beat. Online visitors won’t even see a blip.

It’s not always easy to tell where your host server is. Resellers by disk space in bulk from web hosts and sell it in smaller chunks to retail customers like you and me. So the company, our web host, may be red, white and blue and call itself The All-American Web Hosting Company, but for all you know, your host server is just west of Katmandu.

Ask your host for the physical location of your server. If it’s not at least in the U.S. keep looking for a host. Believe it or not, web hosting has become popular in Iran. Yea, that’s a good way to start your online business – with a server in Iran.

Fire! Fire!

What kind of fire suppression system does the web host have in place? Is it designed to protect non-involved servers, i.e. a smart system, or does the server room simply fill with fire-retardant foam, taking your database with it.

Don’t think it’s a problem? Servers use electricity and because they do, they create heat. Lots of it. That’s why server rooms are air conditioned. If they weren’t, there’d be so much heat build up you could cure hams in there.

Be sure to ask your web host what kind of protection they have in place to fight a small electrical fire or a catastrophic fire that melts 50 servers into plastic lumps. Hey, that’s your site on that lump!

Site Sabotage

So, okay, you’ve checked that prospective web host and found that all servers are on the 40^th floor (let it rain) and the company does have back-up generators on site to cover for power outages. So far so good.

But what about the proverbial “disgruntled employee.” The tech head who was just passed over for a promotion, or the new guy who’s just testing his hacker chops at the server level. Who’s working on your server?

It’s not a common problem among well-respected, long-time hosting companies who do background tests, random drug testing and take other proactive measures to ensure all of those who have access to the server room (the Mother Lode) are properly checked and rechecked.

In addition, quality hosting companies limit access to the server room and security is reminiscent of a Level 3 Max security prison. There’s usually a keyboard or some type of biometrics device used to gain access to the server room, and the entire place is under constant video surveillance. It won’t stop the major whack job, but whack jobs are usually detected before they reach the trusted level of server technician.

Beaucop Bucks?

Hardly. You should expect this level of security and protection for pennies a day. Literally. Pennies a day.

You can purchase quality hosting from a web host that has contingency plans for everything from massive flooding (elevate the servers) to hoards of locust (Please shut the door so the locusts don’t get in. Thank you.)

Hosting is competitive. Just Google “web hosts” and you’ll get the idea. The premium web hosts have a long history (at least 10 years), near-perfect uptimes (accept nothing less than 99.9%) and both security and contingency plans in place. The small timers have a single server in Mumbai and during the annual rainy season service is…umm intermittent.

So spend a little to get a lot. A lot of protection. A lot of security. And contingency plans for any event. (Okay, maybe not a UFO attack, but if that happens, you’ll have more important things on your mind.)

When shopping around for a web host or a new web host, go with one willing to spend the time, money and effort to provide multiple layers of protection for your website. You may not need it today, but when those locusts hit, you’ll be glad you spent a little extra to get those locust-proof doors at your server site.

Need some help getting started with that web site you've been thinking about. Call or click webwordslinger.com. Make sure your business is really secure.

Can Anybody Build A Website? It Ain't Brain Surgery

It costs money to have a full-featured website built by a pricey digital design company on the 40^th floor – the whole 40^th floor. Somebody’s paying for all that flash. You. That’s why these pros from Dover want $20K for a website you could build – if you only had the time.

At the outset of any start up, it’s all outgo and no income. However, some new site owners have big plans and small budgets. They know where they want to go. They just need the capital, a little time and a bit of luck to make that dream an online reality.

So, you don't have, or don’t want to spend, an entire year’s marketing budget on some hot shot site design. Okay, no problem.

But are you going to wait until you’ve got all site features in place before launch? Probably not and there’s no reason to. Your ideal site can become your vision over several generations, with each generation adding new features, greater functionality, more products and services and an optimized home page.

If you’re into your sixth month of beta testing your new site and you still haven’t launched, you need to call a meeting of the board of directors (who may be you and your spouse if you’re a start-up) and kick-start this enterprise.

Keep Your Vision Clear

Even though you don’t have the scratch for every bell and whistle you’d like, plan for those additions right from the site. Develop a generational website map showing how all of the pieces fit together.

Take it a step further. Develop overlays of phase one, two, three, four and so on to see the evolution of the site – from bare bones to nicely optimized and, holy cow! – profitable. (Oh, they laughed at you but who’s laughing now?)

If you design the site as a completed, interactive concept on paper, you can begin phase one knowing that phases two, three and so on will fit your ultimate model.

Determine Your Priorities

If your’s is a retail site then a secure checkout, product pictures and complete product descriptions are tops on your to-do list. If you’re using templates to build your site (they make things nearly idiot-proof), you can construct product pages with nice pictures in no time.

So, your bare-bones basics website with products and pictures is up, along with a secure checkout, your SSL certification and a couple of trust-building logos on the first page in the checkout sequence.

You’re database is collecting client data, you’re seeing some traffic from PPC and links advertising and, all-in-all, things look good.

Second Generation Websites

They build on the foundation already in place. You’re now in a position to add some basic features to make the site more friendly and useful. You can add a site search feature to make it easier to find specific products, add a “Recommend Us to a Friend” link to stir the viral marketing stewpot, expand your product offerings and maybe even show products from different angles if it’s useful in making the sale.

Third, Forth and Fifth Generation Websites

Websites are always a work in progress. Want to have some fun? Go to Alexa.com, enter a site URL and, in the lower left corner of that site’s rankings is the Time Machine that takes you back to different iterations of the same sites.

So, you can see the first generation, second generation and so on until you see the current site. The point is, websites are redesigned all of the time. So, if you’re waiting to dot all of those ‘i’s and cross all those ‘t’s, your going to be late for the party.

So, get the site up and running, hook up your product pages, secure checkout and data base, then gradually add design elements, features, new products, a blog, today’s specials, RSS feeds and on and on and on.

Don’t wait. The countdown to launch has begun.

Stuck in the mud, huh? Yeah, it's a little scary but total idiots are making money on the web (and if you ARE one of those idiots, my apologies and congratulations). If your site ain't doin' what it's supposed to do, call me or click me. You know what I mean.

Do Your Clients Pay You For What You KNOW? They Should.

I wouldn't pay two cents for this jerk's advice. Make sure your SEO explains e-commerce in terms YOU understand.

STOP THE SEO GIBBERISH!

Recognizing the value of and building a long list of dedicated, happy clients is the goal of any web site designer, SEO, copywriter, graphic artist or any other creative type working in the digital matrix. That’s the objective.

And that means talking to potential clients – a lot. Now, if the rent is due tomorrow and you don’t have the proverbial “two nickels to rub together” you don’t have much choice in whether to take a low-paying job from a site owner who “found your name on Elance” or some other site but doesn’t want to pay the $10 fee to post a project on Elance.

Man, if the person you’re talking to doesn’t want to pay the $10 fee, how hard is it going to be to get paid when the project is finished?

I’m a nice guy, but…

…at least once a week, I get a call from a prospect who has a lot of questions. How do I do this? Who would you recommend for that and on and on. Now, I’m a nice guy and I usually end up giving away the information the caller asks for in the hopes that it will lead to some paying work down the line.

I want to show the prospect that I know what I’m doing and know how to speak webspeak, but once I get rolling, I’ve given away so much SEO, SEM and site design info the caller either (1) has the answers to the questions s/he had and therefore doesn’t need my expensive writing and SEO services or (2) after taking careful notes during our hour-long conversation, the caller can hand those notes to a much less expensive site designer, SEO, copywriter or other service provider and implement my plan.

The result? After I hang up with these callers I kick myself around the office for 20 minutes, pound my forehead against a (not-too-hard) wall and howl like some crazed, rabid wolf. Oops, I did it again.

So, how do I discreetly tell the prospective client…

…that it ain’t free? That’s a tough one. You want to demonstrate that you know your stuff but you don’t want to educate a potential client out of possible future work. You also don’t want to sound like some spoiled brat, “I know something you don’t know.”

The fact is most clients don’t know what they don’t know. And you have that information. It’s important to make a distinction, here. Yes, you’re paid for your time (though not as much as you think you’re worth) but you’re also paid for what you know.

Went to see my doctor the other day. I spoke to her for less than five minutes on a quick check-up of a procedure done a few weeks earlier. She poked my “owie” with a pencil a couple of times, looked at it with a magnifying glass, pronounced me healthy and escorted me to the door.

Now don’t get me wrong. My doctor (Hi, Jennifer) is the tops. Absolute best. But a couple of weeks later, after my insurance company got through processing my claim, I owed Jennifer and her practice $79.87 – and that was after my insurance company paid it’s itty-bitty bit.

Did I complain? (Well, yes a little, but not because of Jennifer’s bill.) I’m not paying for the office visit (under five minutes) or the pencil poking. I’m paying this professional for what she knows. Four years of college. Four years of med school. A one-year internship and two-year residency. In that time, somewhere, my doctor learned how to poke my boo-boo with a Venus Velvet #2 pencil and give me a clean bill of health.

My attorney charges $400 an hour. It costs me $40 just to wish him a happy holiday. And if I have a legal question, forget about it. I’m paying $40 every six minutes Todd and I speak.

Is it the time I spend with these professionals? Marginally. I mean six minutes out of the work day should be worth something. But the fact is, I’m paying for knowledge not time. This ain’t no Mickey D’s. Clients pay me because I can save them time and even more money. They pay me for what I know.

So, what do I say to the caller with a lot of questions…

…and won’t let me off the phone?

Be polite. Again, most of these callers don’t know the value of the information you provide. Most don’t know you have a $1,000 consulting fee. Most don’t know the difference between an SEO and an SAT, so patience is a virtue when contacted by someone unfamiliar with the world of commercial search engine marketing.

Provide answers but don’t give away the farm. It may seem so simple to you, but to an outsider it’s all geek speak.

Let the caller know you have the answers and the expertise to fulfill his or her needs but don’t give it ALL away. This is your living we’re talking about, and wasn’t there something about a rent check due?

At some point – after you’ve demonstrated that you’re a nice, knowledgeable professional – the questions have to stop and the caller goes on the clock at your consulting rate. It may feel funny but your insider information is your product and you have the right (no, the responsibility) to sell it.

Simply tell the caller that this is your livelihood and that your consultation rate is X number of dollars an hour and you’d like the opportunity to help because you really can solve the client’s problem(s).

Some cold clients will view this as a money grab, and chances are, these tightwads will go elsewhere for more free information. Bye-bye. Ta-ta. So long. But most people (new site owners or soon-to-be site owners) understand the value you, as a site designer, copywriter, SEO or some other digital savant, bring to the equation.

Oh sure, there are other site designers or wordsmiths who will do it for less. A site owner can outsource copywriting by the pound (as little as a dollar a page) but the copy reads like it was written by the Kwiki Mart’s Apu or Gregor from Romania. And you can find a site designer who can build you a site, launch it and hope for the best but, for all you know, your site designer is two pages ahead of you in reading Websites for Dummies.

Honesty is the best policy…

…when dealing with new clients. Lay it all out for them – the steps in putting together a web site. Ask questions. Do they have a secure checkout? How about an insecure checkout? (Just kidding.) Most clients call site designers, copywriters and other professionals with an idea. That’s it, just an idea.

Or, occasionally you’ll encounter the client who’s got 1,000 pages of text on liquid fertilizer stored on his hard drive that he wants you to turn into a website. Wait, did you just hear an alarm bell go off?

Don’t wing it. Develop a rate card or some kind of standard pricing. You can gradually increase your rates as you develop a larger client base of happy customers, but when someone calls, about the only thing they really want to know is “How much?”

And you want to give them an answer – and not one off the top of your head. Offer an hourly fee, a per page fee or a flat-rate based on your knowledge of how long it takes to accomplish a particular task.

Don’t under-value your knowledge. If it takes you five minutes and you earn $500, good for you – especially if the information you provide prevents the client from making a $10,000 misstep.

Once you’ve established the price for services to be rendered, it is perfectly acceptable to ask for an advance. 50% of the total project price is standard with the rest due upon completion of the project to the client’s complete satisfaction. Never start a project without receiving at least partial payment upfront. Without it, the client has no stake in the work and can simply stop taking your calls.

On the other hand, with the client who’s got $5,000 out there as a down payment to build a web site, your calls will go through. And that’s the way you want it.

You know, there's a lot more to web success than SEO. Call or click www.webwordslinger.com to discover how to drive propsects to your site. It ain't rocket science, that's for sure.

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DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR?

Data mining is the practice of collecting and storing information in humongous data bases. The information is gathered from opt ins, on-line surveys, forms and other “voluntary” means of collecting information, usually from customers and buyers and about customers and buyers.

Who uses data mining? Retail outlets, insurance companies, banks, airlines and other industries that not only collect data, but derive benefit from analyzing that data in a scientific, systematic manner to improve service and profit margins. And if it works for the big guys, it’ll work for you (only on a slightly smaller scale).

What are we looking for?

Using data mining technology, industries are looking for trends before they become trends. Relationships between customer A and widget B. Patterns of activity, unusual events – the list is endless and growing all the time.

The fact is, billions and billions of pages are stored on computers and billions of those billions of pages are available through any search engine. And while this information can help your on-line activities in a general way, data mining your own historical repository of data will reveal useful information about activities closer to home – yours!

If you’ve been in business on-line for any length of time, even a couple of years, you’re sitting on solid gold marketing data. Your database of customers and what they bought, where they live and how they pay. And you can use an analysis of this information to improve the performance of your web site.

How can it help me?

Probably the most useful way data mining will help small- to mid-sized site owners is by defining the target demographic – the characteristics of most buyers. Men or women? Age? Zip code? Income bracket? Using data harvesting and analytic software, you’ll quickly be able to develop a picture of that perfect buyer – the one who buys the most, most often.

This information equips you to develop marketing campaigns targeted specifically at your key demographic. If you’re selling knitting supplies, using a Harley-Davidson as the centerpiece of your e-mail campaign probably won’t pull as much as a nice picture of a kitten playing with a ball of yarn. Data harvesting enables site owners (and huge media and retail conglomerates) to target their marketing with pinpoint precision. (You don’t think those Gap ads were created by accident, do you?)

Interactive Marketing

Of most importance to on-line business owners, interactive marketing appeals to visitors to your web site. What can visitors do? Where can they go? What can they learn? And see?

By analyzing harvested data, you can track the movements of site visitors to determine which features draw attention and which are just taking up space. “Google Analytics” will even perform the analysis for you, indicating in GUI form which site pages attract attention and which are quickly passed over.

For on-line retailers, this kind of analysis defines your most valuable digital real estate and, obviously, this is where you’d place your most popular or profitable products, announcements of upcoming sales and other “targeted” information.

Is it working?

It would be nice to know if your Adsense program was pulling better than your banners placed on a dozen different sites. Data harvesting will give you the answer quickly once you establish a baseline.

The baseline is what’s happening now – the status quo. With an established baseline, you have a yardstick by which to measure whether your PPC program should get more dollars while your click-through rate on banners isn’t worth the money you’re spending.

Is it bogus?

Large, on-line (and real world) retailers use data harvesting to better detect fraudulent activity. For example, MasterCard will quickly contact cardholders in whose accounts unusual activity has occurred. For example, using data harvesting, the credit card company knows you’ve never made a purchase of anything in Taiwan. Then, in a matter of two hours, 23 transactions from Taiwan all show up on your card. Now that’s called an anomaly – something out of the ordinary.

The MasterCard program continues with follow through. The cardholder of the account in question is likely to get a call from a MasterCard representative to see if, indeed, you did purchase 23 racing bikes in Taiwan within the past 24 hours. If not, they can often void the transaction before it actually takes place.

Will it make my customers happier?

Much. You’ll be ahead of the curve on spotting trends so you’ll have the latest when visitors come to shop. You’ll be able to better predict seasonal buying patterns for your particular goods or services. You’ll be able to improve warehousing, order handling, inventory management and more – even if the inventory is stored in a spare bedroom.

Where do I get this wonderful tool?

You’ve got the data – or at least you should have it, if you’ve been in business for a while. That customer data just needs to be analyzed to better equip you to refine your site, better target your ideal buyer, identify trends ahead of the competition, better identify fraud and deliver the precise product at the precise time to the exact right buyer. Metrics and analytical software, like Google Analytics, will help crunch the raw data into meaningful results.

If you haven’t started using the information you have on your hard drive, you’re wasting some of the best information you’ll ever have concerning the success of your business.

Use it or lose it.

Need to put your data to work? Okay, NP. Drop me a line or give me a call.Let's get your site operating to your expectations.

Webwordslinger.com