Meet Marie. Marie is the owner of Marie’s Ceramic Palace, a workshop where customers come to create artistic masterpieces of their very own. It’s in a prime location and does very well bringing in local community members. About three years ago, Marie decided that it was time to take her shop to the Internet hoping to bring in customers from a wider radius. Once her website was up and running, she purchased advertising at restaurants, in the penny saver, in the newspaper – everywhere – and included her new website address. And yet, business did not pick up. She was ready to give up.

This is not an uncommon experience. Many of my potential clients come to me with the same story and 99% of the time my answers are as follows:

(1) your website address is hosted at a free website provider. Many people look for the easy way out. They decide that they do not wish to pay for a domain name and go to a free hosting site. This is a big no-no. If you want customers to take you seriously you must spend the ten dollars a year to purchase your own domain name and then pay to host your site somewhere. For example, Marie’s Ceramic Palace should be located at www.mariesceramicpalace.com and not at http:// mariesceramicpalace.free-web-host.com. Just look at the difference. Customers will judge you based on your domain name and if you have not proven that you are serious enough to buy one of your own, they will not think you are serious about doing business.

(2) your domain name does not accurately represent your company. On the most basic level, your domain name should match your business name. Sometimes, that is not possible, but your domain should at least match the general idea. This is where branding comes into play. Hire a professional to find the best solution for you especially if your exact business name is not available as a domain name. Don’t try to get cute and choose a domain name that is ambiguous or one that can be mistaken for something else. And remember, before you decide on a domain name, make sure that you understand what the domain name suffix (the part that comes after the dot(.)) means.

(3) you think a website is the same as a blog. This is such a common mistake. Blogs have become so popular that every business owner thinks that he/she should have one. The thing is, not every business needs a blog. A blog is a conversation between you (a person) and other people. It is an extension of your website providing practical information or tips regarding topics important to your business and your target market. It is a tool to get to know your clients/customers on a more personal level. In addition, it allows your customers to put a “face” to the business. It is a sub-site to your website. Before you add a blog, decide if what you have to say is best heard by another medium.

(4) you designed your website yourself. Stay away from What You See is What You Get (WYSIWYG) editors (think Microsoft’s now abandoned FrontPage) and HTML for Dummies books unless you actually know what you are doing. Creating eye-pleasing, artistic, functional, and accessible websites takes more than just slapping some Clip Art (which should NEVER be on a business website anyway), colorful fonts, and a textured background on a page. In fact, if you have done any of the above on your website you have probably caused more harm than good. Web designers and web coders (especially good ones) are skilled in creating sites that compliment your business. Web developers follow the standards. Your website is the face of your company created by piecing together your best assets.  Web developers and designers are like plastic surgeons and you get what you pay for! In addition, it is always obvious if a website is using a free template. To stand out, hire a professional.

(5)your content on your website is stale. Even the most attractive, well-planned website will cause customers to go running in the opposite direction if the content is boring and lacking in creativity. If you want your potential customers to become current and recurring customers, you have to use engaging language that subtly pushes the sale. You have to know what to say and what not to say. In addition, you need to update your content as the products/services offered changes. There is nothing worse than contacting a business about something on its website only to be told that it’s no longer being offered.  Hire a copywriter and if possible, a content manager to update your website content as needed.

Originally posted on BrightFuse.com

If you are running a website it is imperative that you are aware of your user stats and that you use those stats to revamp the way you do business both online and in real life. Unfortunately, it can be rather confusing if you are just getting started. Here is a list of “must know” terminology that will help you figure out what you are doing.

PageRank: how important Google thinks a page is on the web. Google assigns every page a number based on a somewhat complicated algorithm. This number is out of 10.

Page Views/Page Impressions: the number of requests to load a single page. This is recorded when a person clicks on a link to a specific page and is usually what advertisers are concerned with.

Page Hits: the number of times a file is sent to a browser by a webserver. If you have a page with 10 pictures that needs to load it will send be sent 11 times to the browser (10 for the images and 1 for the html file). This is not a reliable way to track site traffic because it includes bots and other non-human requests.

Visitors: when a person visits a site his/her browser accepts a cookie (a small data file placed on the computer when visiting a site). If this cookie is not javascript:void(0); accepted, IP address is used.

Return Visitors: a person who views the site but does not need to accept the cookie as it is there from previous visits.

Unique Visitors: visitors who return to a site more than once during a 24 hour period (although the time frame differs depending on the tracking program used).

Log Analyzer: tracks activity to a website but does not distinguish between human activity and spiders and bots which are sent out by search engines. Not an accurate indicator of traffic.

Tracking Services: tracks activity to a website but does not include the following as unique or human:

• repeat unique visitors (after 24 hours)
• hits
• robot and spider traffic
• rotating IP numbers (i.e. AOL)

Originally posted on BrightFuse.com

Like many web designers and social media addicts, I spend a exuberant amount of time on my computer. I usually tell people “if you want to get in touch with me- skip the phone and email me instead.” After all, talking on the phone requires that I stop doing whatever it is that I am doing and focus on the phone. Even if I can put a person on speaker, it is sometimes too cumbersome to use and you often lose sound quality.

Now, unlike most people, I don’t have a cell-phone. Actually, my husband and I share a cell-phone. I work from home so spending a lot of money on a mobile phone seems silly when my home phone is cheap, contract-free, and has the best quality service around. The thing is that I need a business line- a way of allowing clients to get in touch with me without giving out my home number on business cards or on the net.

Enter Skype. I have been using Skype for years. I started back in 1999 and used it to discuss web design with Sarah, who worked on several projects for me when I was learning the ins and outs of web design. We lived miles apart and were broke but we needed to communicate. Skype allowed us to call other Skype members for free- so it was perfect. Now that I have my own design and consulting business and often need to speak with clients, I have a business number with Skype. For $26.95 paid every 3 months, I get:

• Unlimited calls anywhere in the world and calls to Mexico at discounted rates
• Voicemail
• a Skype-to- Go number (a local number that I can use to call abroad from a land-line or mobile phone. I am charged for a local call which is unlimited in my Optimum phone plan rather than an international call.)
• a discounted online number which I use as my business line
• call-forwarding

So, since I am always encouraging my friends and business contacts to use Skype, I thought I should provide my recommendations for getting the most out of it:

1. First and foremost sign up. Choose a user name that reflects the level of professionalism that you need. I am Leaderladyk (a name that has stuck with me from my years as a project manager).
2. Decide if you want Skype for Business. While Skype is free, you can pay for unlimited calls to landlines on a monthly basis. This is great if you want to be able to call people from the web without them having your home or cell number (precautions are good).
3. Get a headset (with a mic and headphones). I prefer USB headphones over wireless or mini-jacks. This way I can use them with any computer. I recommend that you buy a good set too because I tried to skimp and went through 3 headsets in 4 months.  Many computers come with mics, but the background noise is annoying. A headset combats that.
4. Get a good quality web cam if you plan on doing video conferencing. I have only ever used Logitech cameras. Most recently I am using a Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000 that I received to review from MomSelect. This is a USB camera and I use it both on my desktop and on my laptop.
5. Once you have everything that you need and you have installed the necessary software, play around with it. Call your friends. Adjust your voice and web cam settings, and store your contact numbers before using it for business calls.

The best part about Skype is that once you input your information it is available no matter what computer you use. As long as Skype is installed on the computer, you will have access to everything. Let me know if you have any questions and I will talk about more specific uses for Skype at a later date.

Now more than ever business are relying on word-or-mouth to generate business. However, consumers are relying on WOM to spread the word about poor customer service practices. It has become too easy to sour the opinions of hundred with a simple 140 character tweet or, as United Airlines learned, a YouTube video.

A musician named Dave Carroll recently had difficulty with United Airlines.  United apparently damaged his treasured Taylor guitar ($3500) during a flight.  Dave spent over 9 months trying to get United to pay for damages caused by baggage handlers to his custom Taylor guitar. During his final exchange with the United Customer Relations Manager, he stated that he was left with no choice other than to create a music video for YouTube exposing their lack of cooperation.  The Manager responded: “Good luck with that one, pal”.

So he posted a retaliatory video on YouTube.  The video has since received over 5.5 million hits.  United Airlines contacted the musician and attempted settlement in exchange for pulling the video… Naturally his response was: “Good luck with that one, pal”.

Taylor Guitars sent the musician 2 new custom guitars in appreciation for the product recognition from the video that has lead to a sharp increase in orders.

See the Dave Caroll’s video here.