First Steps
When I first talk with a potential client, I am sizing them up. Yep, that’s what I said. I promised total honesty. I’m initially looking for a couple of things– how computer literate they are and are they good listeners or tend to interrupt or get distracted. Depending on what I find, these two points will immediately drive the price up or down. If a client doesn’t know how to surf the net, email, turn on their computer (you get what I mean), I know I will be spending a tremendous amount of unbillable
hours getting them computer literate just to have a simple discussion. If a client asks questions and then talks over me when I try to answer or jumps from topic to topic arbitrarily, I know that I will have to document all the processes in writing and spend twice as long getting a point across due to their lack of focus. These aspects absolutely effect the cost. If I speak with a potential client that is organized, polite, and has done a little research before our first talk– they are my dream client. Because I know I won’t have to spend additional time repeating myself or teaching them how to use their computer, I know I can give them an excellent, competitive quote. Some of you might find this unfair but the reality is designers have a finite amount of billable time to make a living– if half of that time is used on unbillable issues– I’d be eating ramen for the rest of my life.

Aesthetics, Goals, Expectations
Let’s say I come across a wonderful potential client, what are our next steps? Well, I want to learn more about their aesthetic, their goals for their site, and their expectations for their site and working together. I’ll ask questions like, “Can you show me some of the sites you really like and some you don’t like?” “Can you tell me why or why not you like a particular site?” “Do you have branded marketing material in place or are you still developing your brand?” “Do you want your site to be an online store, informational site, or an interactive community?” “What is your time frame for completion?” “Do you need help marketing your site?” I’d ask many more questions in addition to these but these are a few to start. Before I get into the real nuts and bolts of the site (like content, images, navigation, etc…), I need to understand and make sure our aesthetics, goals, and expectations coincide, otherwise, we’ll both end up frustrated and unhappy. It took me awhile to learn to say “no” but saying “no” to the wrong client can be the right business move.

As the Client
OK– so I’ve given you the designer side. I’m going to flip the tables and talk with you as the client. As a client I want to basically do the same thing I did as the designer! I want to make sure we are able to communicate easily, we share the same aesthetic for design, our goals and expectations are aligned and that I’ve found a designer that won’t cop an attitude or take off. I also want to make sure that my designer understands that I’ll be running the show– it’s my business, I will have all rights to the materials and files created and I have final ye or nay on the design decisions (listen to your designer’s suggestions because they have a tremendous amount of knowledge around design but in the end– you decide). This sounds a little aggressive but I urge you not to back down on these points. This website is your online identity, an extension of your business and at the end of the day– you are investing a chunk of your marketing budget for the development of this site and you should be thrilled with the final product. And I mean THRILLED!

How Does This Post Apply to My Site?
For my site, I’ve ok’d the designer

- I am looking to expand my site from just an informational site to an informational site and an online store.
- I also have a separate business that is strictly an online store supported by Etsy, Ebay, and CafePress.
- And I have a blog about my dog that I’d like to monetize.

I’m breaking a cardinal rule here and if I were sitting in the designer’s seat– red flags would be popping up all over. Why? Because this client appears to be all over the place and isn’t focused. As a general rule, it is most successful to focus on one business and make that business AMAZING instead of focusing on many businesses that are just good. But as I said before, I’m not following this rule right now. I’m going to work these three businesses so you can see how they differ when marketing.

Till we meet again…

My Epiphany
So it got me thinking… If I place myself in my clients’ shoes, what do I see? Well, I see a lot of information and tools coming my way without a plan for implementation– which is just plain overwhelming! If I remain in my clients’ shoes, I also see my “web expert” giving me all kinds of advice but I don’t necessarily see her using her own advice for her business.

Ding, Ding, Ding! The light came on for me. “Practice what you preach.” I know this sounds elementary but a little secret about web designers is that they spend a LOT of time working on other people’s sites and tend to let their own lag a bit. I always put my clients’ sites before my own and as a result, it does us both a disservice!

So What’s the Answer to My Conundrum?
Well, I am going to put “my money where my mouth is” and work my business using my own advice. You can follow the progress on this blog and see if the things I do will help your business. You’ll see how I implement them and whether or not they work. I’m going to start from the very beginning and walk you through every step I do when I work with a new client. Send me your questions or topics you’d like me to cover.

I’m going to let it all hang out– I’ll be as honest and open as possible. If I don’t feel like doing something, I’ll tell you and then I’ll tell you how I get around that obstacle. If I get too wrapped up in something (like spending the entire day doing social networking), I’ll talk about why it happened and how I solved the problem. I’ll use the advice and tools I suggest to my clients and see how they work for my business.I’ll openly problem solve regarding my business.

So there you have it! “The proof will be in the pudding.” Ok, I’ll stop with the silly phrases– you get what I mean…

SIZE
Try to keep your domain name fairly short. Why? Well, consider a client that really loves your services or product. Giving them a short domain name makes it easier for them to remember it, spell it correctly, and share it with others. Consider your marketing– you want a domain name that will easily fit on your marketing material as well as a name that is easy to say if you choose to advertise with media such as radio and TV. While short is important, make sure the domain name is relative to your business name and branding.

MAKE IT MEMORABLE
Is your domain name a tongue twister? Bad idea! When you say your domain name quickly can it be misheard as something else? Yikes! Make sure your domain name is memorable so your web marketing is more meaningful.

DON’T MAKE IT CONFUSING
Research your possibly domain name. Make sure it’s available in .com, .net, .org, .edu, .biz. If another business has secured one of these, make sure it won’t compete with your business if a customer types in the wrong address. Make sure that company hasn’t Trademarked the name because it could threaten your use and brand. Be sure to check the US Patent and Trademark Office’s database (www.uspto.gov/main/trademarks.htm).

MISSPELLING
The longer your domain name is, the more chance there is for a potential customer to misspell it. Many businesses will purchase their possible misspellings of their domain name. Securing misspelled domain names is considered a preventable measure. By holding the rights to those domains can be a smart business strategy.

VALUES
If your business name is too close to another competitor’s or too long for a practical domain name, consider a domain name that relates to your organizations core values or one that expresses emotion or attitude associated with the brand, person or mission.

SOLID SUFFIX
Try to get .com and .net if possible. Many people will assume your domain suffix will be .com– Keep this in mind…

As in anything, there are always exceptions but if you follow these suggestions in your domain name selection process, you will end up with a name that your customers can remember, spell, and share with others and that is what we want ideally, isn’t it?

Reduce! Cut down your energy usage by unplugging electronics you are not using. If that seems too inconvenient think about plugging all your electronics into a power strip. All you need to do is flip a switch instead of unplugging each one individually.

Reuse! Start using the items you have around your place creatively to start saving money and cutting down on excess. For example, reuse your juice bottles and cans to hold your solvents and brushes. Use shoe boxes to organize supplies. There are tons of sites out there that have great ideas on reusing items. This is a fun site to check out: http://howtoreuseitcreatively.com/

Recycle! Beyond recycling your cans, bottles, and paper lots of what we have can be recycled through donating and consigning. Don’t just trash the old clothes and nick knacks, donate them and let someone else get good use out of them. Check out this site: http://www.freecycle.org/

Remove! Stop the junk mail! What a great way to save some trees and relieve the annoyance of being bombarded with solicitations. How do you do that? Take a look at this site: http://www.obviously.com/junkmail/

Rethink! Rethink how you live your life. Rethink your spending habits. When you are in a store ready to purchase something, ask yourself if this is something you will really use.

Getting exposure for your brand/business is the main reason we, as entrepreneurs and small businesses, focus our attention to online marketing techniques. We use these techniques to drive people to our website and potentially convert them into a customer/client.

The drive to become an efficient online marketer can be daunting, and let’s face it, many of us would rather just pay someone to do this for us. This is great– it is how I stay in business, actually, but it’s important to know to whom you are trusting your business identity. Many online SEO companies will claim an increase of hits to your website but the conversion rate won’t deliver. Why? Because some of the tactics used aren’t to help you get real value in your numbers.

Ideally, you want to have one click through to your website with the purpose of turning that click into a conversion. Many SEO companies tout increases in traffic through linking. Be careful! What and where these links are will impact your visibility and online reputation. If done poorly, it can actually have an adverse effect to your visibility. Some obvious places you need to avoid linking are the following:

• Any pages/links relating to pills, porn or casinos. Stay away!
• Pages that have a bigger ratio of links to content. Stay away!
• Pages with lots of spam on them. Stay away!
• Pages that have more ads than content. Stay away!
• Poorly written content. It’s a sign that these sites may be using “spun” content. This means someone has taken a piece of work and used software to replace words to make it seem original. Stay away!

Granted, not all of these techniques are obvious but if you use a discerning eye and do a little research before signing on to an SEO company, you can avoid some of these pitfalls.

Do you have a blog? If you do, be aware that another way of link spamming is spamming through comments. It’s fairly easy to identify this type of spam. A common trend has been to hire spamming companies located outside the US to comment to blogs. You can identify these easily because the grammar is off and the comment doesn’t relate to the content of your post. Be wary of any comment with a link attached. In fact, I personally don’t allow any links in my comments to avoid this type of spam. Finally, check the email address of the comment. If it is an obvious spam address (like casino@gmail.com)– dump it, delete it! There are some great plugins you can use to help you sort through the spam. WordPress offers a great one in its setup package (Askimet). “Spam Free WordPress” is also a great plugin to try.

What about forums? Have you considered joining forums to boost your visibility? Be careful! If the forum is not heavily moderated, you could find yourself in a spam city. If you notice a forum is filled with spam, chances are the quality people you want to connect with have moved on and you should do the same.

Has anyone approached you to do a link exchange or be added to their resource page? BE CAREFUL! Make sure you are linking to a reputable website. Make sure you can preview the page they will be placing your link on and that it is aligned with your business and customer goals. You don’t want to be added to a page of hundreds of random links. It will not do your business any good! This goes for directories too.

My best advice is this, use your common sense and if you don’t understand what a company is telling you and you can’t get a straight, easy-English answer from them– don’t do it! Part of their marketing is to make you feel that if you don’t act now, you will damage your business online. The reality is– if you act before you fully research and understand the company you are using, the real damage to your business can occur.

Keep connected with us– Creative People Design, Inc. will be sharing valid, safe, SEO tips and tricks this month to help you increase your visibility and turn those clicks into customers!