Articles

Happy New Year!  Each year we make resolutions that we stick to or don’t stick to, depending on how realistic they were to start with, or how much we really cared about them.  Perhaps this year it is more appropriate for a revolution instead.  Rather than simply trying to break old habits or stick to new ones, how about setting yourself on a whole new course altogether?

It might not be practical to drop everything you are doing and start afresh, but an internal revolution might just be the way to see some big changes take place this year.  A new mindset, a cleaning out of the closet and a new level of motivation could take you new places – beyond resolution and into revolution.

Once you decide you can do it, it can start with the smallest of steps and build to a feeling that you have truly turned a corner and set a new path.  Why not start with your own Website?  Your own online presence?  Your own computer/tablet/phone in whose company, let’s face it, you spend more time these days than with any individual person?

May I suggest that your relationship with your interfaces to the Web is critical in not only how the rest of the world now sees you, but also how you feel about yourself?  If your online presence and interaction is highly tuned, proactive, interesting and action-oriented, you and everyone you touch will be lifted, motivated and inspired.  It’s like you become one of the neurons in the globally networked mind that is active and firing, where previously you might have remained more dormant and passive.

Here is what I am doing, and suggest you do too:

• Update your copyright notice(s) to 2013 immediately
• Create some fresh new content for your Website, perhaps a review of the year that was or a new push for your future plans & service offerings
• Test your Website forms, email accounts & any other functional aspects to your online life.  Email yourself & submit enquiries to make sure everything is working.  Fix it if it is not working
• Review all of your settings, passwords, email accounts, domain names, hosting & other assets 
• Review your Google ranking & traffic
• Review your social media presences, followers & interests
• Google yourself to see how much impact you are or are not having
• Follow some of the links you find & see if you might improve or add anything
• Spend some time looking at what other people are doing, including seeking out those who you might aspire to
• Review your financial situation to see where savings can be made or new means of income can be found
• Clean up your smart phone of all the dodgy apps you purchased on impulse, so that you can focus on any apps of real value
• Clean up your computer desktop, documents, email folders, sent items & inbox
• Clean up all your digital photographs, deleting all the bad ones & collating the good ones into useful categories, renaming them & publishing any of value
• Clean out your office drawers & cupboards
• Clean up your desk, shelves, filing cabinets & boxes
• Pull out your plans & revisit them
• Ask yourself what you really set out to do when you started all of this
• Every night, before bed, write down three things that went well today and why.

It’s just the beginning, but why not make it your resolution to begin your own personal revolution?  See how you feel in 12 months time.  My guess is that you will be pretty proud of yourself for having turned things around.

We are always asked to provide fixed quotes for new Websites.  Whether they be for a small business looking to set up a site for the first time and start promoting themselves online or someone with a great idea who wants to build a Website to make that dream come true, almost invariably the approach is to tell us broadly what they are after, perhaps sending through a brief or a site map and asking for a quote.

The only problem is that a Website is not a thing.  It can’t have a fixed price because it is not something to be bought and delivered.  It is a complex interaction of design, content, creativity and business modelling, interacting with a potentially limitless array of connections on the Internet and the people who are logged onto it.

For someone looking to get a Website, what they are really after is the services required to make that Website come about.  Even when looked at as a set of services, it is still not something that can be delivered for a fixed price – not without either the Website owner or the service provider losing out.  Costing services is generally a time-based practice, so a fixed quote must be based on a fixed number of hours.  The time it will take to build a Website is unknowable before the project commences.  So, the service provider is going to have to overestimate to allow for the contingencies, or underestimate to try to get the job when the client is shopping for a competitive quote.  

Another aspect to Websites is that they are very much dependent on the Website owner as to how much time they will require their service provider to put in.  If the Website owner prepares their content meticulously, they save time.  If they expect the service provider to create, edit or organise the content, they are adding more time to the project.

There are many theme and template-based, fixed-price Website packages available these days, but they still require input from someone to create them, modify them to suit your needs, maintain them and market them.  Again, while they seem like fixed price objects, they are actually much like a lease on a real world shop i.e. a fixed price for the facility and space to run the shop, that does not give the shop owner anything else but that facility and space.  It is up to the shop owner to do all the rest.

This is where people can get led astray.   Websites are in many ways intangible and their functionality and code is often hidden or operating on levels beyond or behind the pixels on the screen.  So, it is easy to be fooled into thinking that a Website will give you everything you need.  Every Website we visit looks like it is doing just that, but behind the screen lies the code, the man hours, the creativity, strategic thinking, analysis and ongoing work necessary to make a Website succeed.

So if you are contemplating asking for a quote for a Website, perhaps the better question might be “can you help me do what I need to do for my business and if you can, what kind of arrangement would you be happy with?”

If you are looking for someone to help you with your Website, you are looking for a relationship with someone you will be working with on many aspects over many months, before and after launch.  You might like to get your hands dirty or you might expect everything to be done for you.  Either way, you will not be buying a thing, you will be creating a living, breathing, multi-dimensional business tool that you expect to make you money.

…and my guess is that the amount of money you expect to make is just as unquotable as the price of your Website.

Usually I delete all SEO spam that arrives in my inbox, but I decided to stop for a minute and take a closer look, to see:

• How much of this stuff I was getting every day and
• Just what kinds of styles and techniques are being used to try to get me to use the SEO services of these spammers.

The other ironic and slightly devious thought I had was that I could use these SEO spam emails and actually get some value out of them.  After all, they have cost me in wasted time and annoyance.  I can post them all on my Website and get Google to index all their keyword content, and get some real SEO value out of them!  Or not…

It’s all very informative and entertaining stuff!  A mix of badly written copy, badly programmed automation scripts and offers that I must refuse, because half the time, I can’t even tell what the offer is.  I guess I am just supposed to phone them and give them my credit card details to kick things off… : )  SEO

Spam #1

Stefan.net.au Team, I thought you might like to know some of the reasons why you are not getting enough Social Media and Organic search engine traffic for Stefan.net.au

(I actually don’t want any social media and organic search traffic.  I don’t know why they presume that I do)

1. Social profile is not available in top Social Media Websites.

(Actually it is.  I have facebook, blogger, twitter, MySpace, YouTube and about 10 others)

2. Your site has 0 Google back links, this can be improved further.

(It has a few back links.  ‘Zero’ is a bit harsh!)

There are many additional improvements that could be made to your Website, and if you would like to learn about them, and are curious to know what our working together would involve, then I would be glad to provide you with a detailed analysis in the form of a WEBSITE AUDIT REPORT for FREE.

(Of course I can improve my Website.  Every Website in the world can be improved – Even Facebook just upgraded their interface, and though they might need a better share price, they certainly are not short of search engine traffic.  If I would like to learn about them, I could always Google ‘how to improve your Website’ or, I could audit my site myself.  Perhaps I should ask for that free report and find out what working together would involve…)

Our clients consistently tell us that their customers find them because they are at the top of the Google search rankings.  Being at the top left of Google (#1–#3 organic positions) is the best thing you can do for your company's Website traffic and online reputation.

(Ironically, the reason I am getting this email is because you found me in Google, and I have received this kind of email from more than three people… so if four or more of you are telling me you can get me in the top three ranking, someone is winding me up)

Sounds interesting?  Feel free to email us or alternatively you can provide me with your phone number and the best time to call you.

(That is a strange request, as my phone number is on my Website)

Best Regards,
Nancy Brown SEO Consultant

(John Smith?  Susan Jones?  Mary White?  Fred Flintstone?)

SEO Spam #2

It’s a fact:  more people find out about your business on Facebook or Twitter than on search engines.

(I am wondering if it might have been worth providing some data to support this ‘fact’.  And do you mean my business in particular, or businesses in general?  Because either way that would be hard to prove…)

Making these sites work may be tricky for you, but it’s business as usual for us.  Let us improve your visibility and enhance your image.  It’s part of our complete Internet Marketing package.  We’ll be more than your friends – we’ll be your partners.

Stella Fair

(“Complete Internet Marketing package”?  That is a bold statement.  Complete Internet Marketing is essentially infinite in scale.  When you said we could be more than friends, are you talking love and marriage?)

SEO Spam #3

The Web is getting more crowded all the time.  If you’d rather not get lost in the crowd, we can help you be a whole lot more visible.  The system is easy:  Search Engine Optimisation is the key.  Help us help you get more business. Best SEO Company Ivan Ballard

(At least that is clear and to the point.  I’d almost get back to this guy, except that I Googled his name and found an empty LinkedIn profile and no mention of SEO.  In fact, if I type in “Ivan Ballard Best SEO company” all I get is numerous versions of this same email posted all over the Internet as comments to blog posts.)

SEO Spam #4

Hi Sir/Madam,

We are happy to announce a very attractive Christmas and New Year Offer on our different SEO packages discount ranging from 10–25%.

(But I don’t know what the packages and prices were to start with!)

In brief, we are a Delhi-NCR, India-based, leading Web services and Google certified partner company that specialises in SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).  As an outsourcing vendor we have partnered with many reputable SEO agencies based in USA, UK, Canada and Australia.

(I would like to check your credentials, but you haven’t identified the name of your company, even though you say you comply with the Can Spam Act of 2003)

We have a dedicated team of 300 professionals who are backed by experience and expertise.  We provide both SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and SEM solutions to achieve top rankings on major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing for your Website and requirements.

(Again, I would love to know more, but there is no Website to check)

(offer is valid only for the month of December 2011)

(What offer?  I don’t know what the packages are.)

Our principles on which we base our work:

– Ethical processes and white hat techniques

(That’s a relief, I would hate to hear that you practice unethical black hat techniques, like spamming)

– Agency or client oriented approach in our process

(In other words, we pay you money either way)

– Ready to sign NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements)

(You sign ours, or we sign yours?)

– White label for client re-selling and re-branding

(Can I re-brand and re-send this white label email to 10,000,000 people?)

– Facility to provide effective Online Project Management tracking tools

(Show me)

– Frequent reporting with required formats and information

(For example?)

– Timely and smooth communication

(This email is certainly ‘smooth’)

We can ensure that you will enjoy high SERP (Search Engine Result Page) rankings with our high track record of success.  Our SEO solutions will help increase the traffic and sales of your Website.

(Sounds good.  Where do I sign?)

Please get in touch with us to discuss your SEO requirements and more details about our Christmas offer.

(Merry Christmas to you, too)

Kind Regards,
Priyanka Jain
Manager of the Marketing Department Delhi-NCR, (India)

P.S.  This is an advertisement and a promotional mail strictly on the guidelines of CAN-SPAM act of 2003.  We have clearly mentioned the source mail-id of this mail, also clearly mentioned the subject lines and they are in no way misleading in any form.  We have found your mail address through our own efforts on the Web search and not through any illegal way.  If you find this mail unsolicited, please reply with "Remove" in the subject line and we will take care that you do not receive any further promotional mail.

(I am pretty sure that to avoid being accused of spamming, you must identify the name of your company, not just your occupation and geographic location)

SEO Spam #5

It’s an old truth:  people won’t beat a path to your door if they don’t know where your door is.  If you’re high on the Google list, the door to your business is right there to see and to use.  We can improve your rankings so the door stays open.  Email us now and we’ll tell you how our expert Search Engine Optimisation staff can provide you with the key.

(I love the door and key analogy, I hope you don’t mind if I use that one in my own marketing materials…)

Homer Castaneda

(I Googled Homer and the only place he comes up on the Internet is as posts of exactly the same material on various blog comments, or people saying they received his email.  Surely Homer would be all over the Internet as an SEO guru, with everyone beating a path to his door, if he really did hold the key.)

SEO Spam #6

Dear Webmaster,
Greetings of the day!

(Greetings of the day to you, too, even though it is 11pm)

My name is Jones, and I work as an Online Link Building Manager with Mosaic ITES Service Pty Ltd.  I would like to discuss a business opportunity with you.

(Alias Smith and Jones?  I Googled them and they actually do exist!  They have a LinkedIn and CrunchBase profile and everything.  Their Website does not look great and has quite a few technical issues, like broken images.  That is not the kind of thing that gives me confidence with letting them get their hands on my Website’s code!)

Link Building is one of the most significant aspects of the Off Page Optimisation process.  It is a major determinant of the popularity of your site and given maximum weightage by Search Engine algorithms.

(Actually, you must be careful, because Google has become quite wary of excessive link building and you can actually harm your ranking if your external links are of consistently low quality – it is almost at the stage where you ought to hire a company like this for your competitors to send them down the Google ranking list!)

Keeping in mind the latest developments in search engine algorithms and industry trends, we have launched two new services:

1.  Geo-specific Link Building:  Thematic one-way links with high PR from specified country/continent.  We provide links from whichever domain you require; we are the first Indian company to launch this service.

(That claim is a big one and very hard to prove, unless you have some evidence of a newspaper report or something

The links will come with the following parameters:

– Theme-based relevant link
– Manually built, without using link farming/link harvesting/automated back-linking techniques.
– Only from quality sites
– Permanent links
– Search Engine friendly
– Full report of the exact placement for verification, as well as a dedicated Account Manager for each project.

(That does sound very good, however, one wonders just exactly how they plan to do this.  Those parameters imply that the SEO company has way more control over third-party sites than one imagines possible.)

2.  Dedicated Resource Hiring:  We will provide a dedicated Link Builder with at least 3–4 years of experience, who would work exclusively for your project, more like an employee and would be able to provide you with:
– Thematic One-way links
– Contextual links
– Link wheel
– Blogs links.

(More like an employee – at least I don’t have to pay PAYG tax, super and Workers Compensation.  I hope you have good OH&S.  Somehow I suspect that my ‘employee’ will only be getting a tiny fraction of the money I send to this company, so may harbour a deep resentment to his employer and not care as much as I might hope)

For search engines, back links or links pointing to your Website indicate that you are ‘hot’ in the online marketplace.

(Or it might also indicate to Google that you just paid someone to do link-building for you, as Google is very clever these days and can tell genuine links and genuinely ‘hot’ online properties creating a real buzz)

We have a fantastic track record of building more than 2, 00,000 links in the year 2011 and have successfully completed more than 400 campaigns, all one way.

(Is that a typo of a missing zero, making it 2 million, or an extra comma and space, making it 200,000?  Maybe the 400 is a typo too, then it is actually 4)

If you are interested, we would be happy to share our proposal, recent works and client testimonials.

(Probably would be good if you just sent them first, oh hang on, there is a link below… I’ll check that)

Looking forward to your reply!

Best Regards,
Jones
Online Link Building Manager
seotechnologygrouponline.com

(seotechnologygrouponline.com – “This account has been suspended” – I guess it was really 4)

SEO Spam #7

Online enquiry form submission:

Your Name:  Maria Wilson

Email Address:  webfirms.service@gmail.com 

Company/Organisation:  NA

Phone:  (347) 329-2976

Message:  Team, I thought you might like to know some of the reasons why you are not getting enough Social Media and Organic search engine traffic
1. Social profile is not available in top Social Media Websites.
2. Your site has 9 Google back links.  This can be improved further.

There are many additional improvements that could be made to your Website, and if you would like to learn about them, and are curious to know what our working together would involve, then I would be glad to provide you with a detailed analysis in the form of a WEBSITE AUDIT REPORT for FREE.  Our clients consistently tell us that their customers find them because they are at the top of the Google search rankings.  Being at the top left of Google (#1–#3 organic positions) is the best thing you can do for your company's Website traffic and online reputation.  Sounds interesting?  Feel free to email us or alternatively you can provide me with your phone number and the best time to call you...........

(This is the same email as we received already, from ‘Nancy Brown’.  This time ‘Maria Wilson’ has provided a phone number.  I Googled it and the top Search Engine result for her phone number is a site called “Rip Off Report” along with other sites like “Stop Forum Spam”.  Not quite the best reputation I would expect from someone I might entrust my SEO services to)/em>

Stay tuned for more Spam!

When anyone thinks about developing a new Website, or revamping their old site, they understandably come at it from the perspective of a Website user – from the ‘front end’, so to speak.  Even if they have administered a Website in the past, they have usually experienced that administration through a ‘back end’ user-interface that was created for them, allowing them to do what they needed to do.  So, when it is time to create the brief for their new Website, almost always, the brief tends to be written almost as if written by one of their visitors, offering opinion, advice and feedback.  

‘Easy to use’, ‘professional look and feel’ and ‘must have feature X or Y’ are common requests in a Web design brief.  Business considerations usually cover aspects like ‘must be search engine friendly for this list of keywords’ and ‘competitor sites A and B have such and such a feature and we want our site to have the same feature but better’.

Often the solution has already been decided upon, perhaps on the suggestion of another developer that the business owner may have already received advice from and quite often a budget has already been set.  If a budget has not been set, then the typical request is to build the site with price as a major consideration.  

Rarely does a potential client come to us with a platform-independent functional specification, that lays out the exact requirements of how the Website will work, what processes will be needed and specific details of the way the site will be, programmed, managed, integrated with the rest of the business (including the marketing strategy) and how a visitor will actually use the site.  The supplied brief is almost always a high level overview of the kind of site it needs to be in terms of quality and style, but the technical details are left to the Web developer to simply make happen when they build it. 

This leads to some potentially risky and costly problems:  

• It places all the responsibility of many of the strategic business outcomes on an external service provider who may not be experienced in anything more that design and programming
• It ignores the potentially disastrous issues that might arise if the Website project is undertaken on the requested platform that turns out to be unsuitable for the business requirements
• It assumes that a price and scope can be determined before the price and scope can possibly be determined
• It leads to the business owner being provided with totally disparate proposals as each provider bidding for the project tries to second-guess the business requirements and budget in order to secure the contract
• It leads to providers under-quoting in order to get the job or over-quoting to cover themselves for the huge risk of scope creep and cost blow-outs that will inevitably happen as the true scope of the project is realised through the development process. 

This does not serve the business owner or the service provider well.  Business owners, who are understandably none the wiser when they prepare their brief, expect quotes and proposals for Website development just like they might expect for printing or other production services.  Web service providers are caught out either agreeing to take on a project at a price they can’t support or not getting the job at all, because of the under-quoting firms who convince the business owner that they can develop the Website cheaply. 

It is difficult for a Web developer to risk losing the lead and throwing cold water on the business owner’s plans by suggesting that perhaps the brief is not enough information to provide a quote, when other firms are providing quotes.  It is equally difficult to find a diplomatic way to suggest that perhaps the business owner is ill-informed, or simply doesn’t understand what they might be getting themselves into.  

Business owners often believe that they don’t need to know the gory, technical details, as that is the job of the Web developer to take care of and deliver a user-friendly solution.  To leave that responsibility in the hands of the developer and expect them to do it well, is the difference between hiring a builder to build your house, or an architect to design it and oversee the building process.  When the brief is going straight to builders and implying that they also need to be the architect, without allowing for that process in the cost, or assessing the builder’s capability to do such a thing, the risk of disastrous outcomes is great. 

The only way to ensure a Website – particularly a complex one, such as an eCommerce site – will be developed successfully in line with all of the business and technical requirements, is to start with a functional specification.  Don’t go straight from an overview brief to a quoting process and straight into development by a successful proposal writer.  Take the brief to someone who can develop a full specification that takes into account every aspect of a Website:  How it will work, how it will be marketed, how every little detail will function, from form fields to product variations, postage and fulfillment. 

Once you are certain that the functional brief addresses and considers all aspects of workflow, ongoing site maintenance, customer experience and any other consideration, then and only then should you take that detailed brief to potential developers to offer solutions and estimate costs.  It is the only way to ensure the right technical solution, the right business outcomes and a realistic quote for the work that will be specifically and explicitly stated as being required.

Even if it is impossible to develop a completely detailed functional specification, because maybe some of the details cannot be determined until the project is developed iteratively, still one ought to do one’s utmost to detail as much as possible in order to ensure the best outcomes for the project and that as little as possible is left to chance.

As the Internet evolves, two things are happening at the same time.

On the one hand everything is seemingly getting slicker, simpler, more elegant and easy to use.  Just think of iPhones and iPads, where children can manipulate applications with the swipe of their fingers and where in a few short minutes an owner of a new device can have it fully configured to check their email, surf the Web, synchronize their calendars and contacts and perform any number of hundreds of thousands of tasks and games with instant app downloads.

On the other hand, the very fact that the hardware is able to be so slick and efficient is as a result of an incredibly complex world of programming, not to mention a totally mind-boggling level of complex interconnectivity.  Behind the slick façade lies the operating system, network protocols, Wi-Fi, ISP accounts, servers and domain names all over the world and armies of the brightest minds of our generation getting paid stupendous salaries to make sure that it all works.

So when users experience the ‘front-end’ of this phenomenon, even though they may still encounter glitches and issues and varying standards of quality between Websites and apps, connections and configurations, one definitely gets a general feeling of satisfaction and ease.  This is starkly apparent if you look back 10 or 15 years and recall the days of having to insert modem strings to make your connection work, pouring through untold other settings and crossing your fingers in the hope that it all hangs together, and once you got online, on your big old chunky computer with an 800x600 pixel resolution screen, having what could only be described as a mediocre experience on most Websites.  We have definitely come a long way.  HD video streaming, facebook updates, Soundcloud uploading and checking Google Analytics from bed while the office computer magically backs itself up without you even thinking is a pretty nice place to be.

Herein lies the paradox.  When a business owner decides to switch from being a user of the Internet today and get involved as a producer, things take on a radically different dimension.  Suddenly they are entering the world of the technology that runs everything.  They enter this world with the mind of a user, often believing that what goes on behind the curtains is just as elegant and simple as what goes on onstage.  It is a forgivable delusion, but it is still a delusion.  Sure, there are products and services out there that enable people to set up basic Websites without any technical knowhow, and sure there are plenty of business tools available that are relatively straight forward – but almost always, the business owner ends up requiring customisations and integrations that immediately put them out of their depth in the technology whirlpool.

Elegance at the front-end involves a great deal of planning, strategy and architecture in the back-end, not to mention a consistent content creation process, to ensure all the text and images are formatted and fitting the layout and style of the delivery medium.  Websites now need to work on desktops, mobile devices of all shapes and screen sizes, as well as tablets and even televisions.

Interactions and integrations between Websites and social media platforms are becoming commonplace, yet each one requires a certain level of control to ensure it is doing what the business owner wants it to do.  Websites are not just information resources any more.  They need to engage, call for action and response, share information from diverse locations, provide downloads or even videos, podcasts and webinars.  They might require logins to secure areas, track usage, charge for access to certain files, hook into third party systems, allow subscription and account management or any number of other functions – all seamlessly and elegantly, as if the entire thing was dreamed up by Steve Jobs himself.

The bottom line is the bottom line – all of this takes time and costs money and is almost always unable to be done to a satisfactory level by a business owner, as it requires high levels of programming expertise and understanding.  More and more we are receiving enquiries from prospective clients who are coming to us having seen all kinds of amazing things online and wanting to do those amazing things themselves.  Almost without fail, their expectation of what is involved to make things happen is completely out of alignment with what is really involved.  They cite Websites that might have cost $200,000 to launch and a further $500,000 a year in staff salaries and overheads to maintain, yet they expect that this could be achieved by one person for under $10,000 and half an hour of dabbling on the weekend.

This is the paradox: The more elegant and awesome the Internet becomes to the end user, the easier everyone thinks it must be to get involved, when in fact it is becoming more and more complex and more epic a challenge to create a real successful online presence.

It doesn’t help when we are being told by companies offering cookie-cutter solutions or simple package deals that you can do anything you ever dreamed of online for $15 a month!  These people never seem to tell you what the limitations are, just that the product or service is totally amazing.

There are two ways to go here – 1) Accept the paradox, accept a compromise and make the most of what you have got in terms of money, time and tools or 2) Accept the paradox and plan your business accordingly with sufficient capital and resources to achieve what you hope to achieve.

If you ignore the paradox, you ignore it at your peril.  Making everything look so easy is not so easy at all.

The old phrase, “you don’t know what you are missing out on” is definitely one to consider applying to old business Websites.  The Web has been around for long enough now that many businesses are starting to outgrow their Websites, without realizing it.  Many Websites that were built in the early 2000s are still around.

Certainly, if you ask a business owner whether they want to outlay a large amount of money to completely rethink, redesign and rebuild their online presence, they might wonder why they should fix something that does not seem to be broken.  The uninformed economic decision might always be to keep maintaining the old site, with the occasional update, rather than start again.  They might have moved premises a couple of times in that time, replaced their car two or three times, replaced pretty much all of their computers and printers, phones, fax and coffee machine, but the most critical face of their business – their Website – sits there chugging away year after year without being given a thought as to how it might perform better, as all their other shiny new acquisitions have been.

So here are a few reasons to consider whether it might actually make good economic sense to invest in a new Website.

1) New standards
Website standards have changed significantly in the last few years.  For starters, old websites were designed for 800 pixel wide screens.  Now the base line is 1024 pixel screens.  This a) makes old Websites look too small and b) gives new Websites a whole lot more screen real estate to deliver content to the viewer.  The code behind Websites has evolved a great deal as well.  With the release of HTML5 and CSS3, an entire new level of Website creativity and content delivery can be achieved.

2) Changing expectations
As we all well know, when we visit Websites on the Internet, we are getting more opinionated and judgmental about what we see.  It is most likely as a result of information overload, but our tendency to hit the back button within seconds of seeing a Website is getting stronger.  We also expect more of any Website that we have decided to spend more than a few seconds on.  We want the navigation to be intuitive, the information to be comprehensive and the overall look, feel and style of the site to be professional, friendly and appropriate.  Older Websites, which were often built on limited budgets, by people who might have been programmers rather than communications or business experts, may not be good enough any more.  You may very well be losing business without even knowing it, as more people hit the back button a little bit too soon.

3) Keeping up with the Joneses
Each day you leave your old Website as it is, is another day that you give your competitors an opportunity to forge ahead of you and win new business from discerning clients.  Sitting pretty might be a good strategy while your site is bubbling away in search engines and getting reasonable response rates, but over time – and without you knowing – you may start slipping down against other Websites.  Web usage is surging, so if your site traffic is remaining flat, chances are your competitors are picking up the extra business with their more sophisticated, social-media savvy and dynamic Websites.  When customers are comparison shopping (which we all do online as it is so easy), your site and your competitors' sites stand side by side in the visitor’s mind and they will most likely return to the sites they consider to be more user-friendly, more informative and more professional.

4) Mobile is booming
The statistics on people accessing Websites on their mobile devices are staggering, and growing every day.  Old sites almost certainly are not very mobile-friendly, especially when many new sites now are designed with dedicated mobile versions.  It is now possible to have a completely separate ‘style sheet’ to deliver your Website to mobile devices.  Clearly you are going to be better off if the growing mobile audience is going to be able to view your site easily.  Anyone using mobile Apple devices is not going to be able to view any Adobe Flash content by default, so if your old site has any Flash (and some old sites are all Flash), all your Apple-using visitors are going to be disappointed.

5) Websites are now part of the social media landscape
Old Websites were built as stand-alone entities.  They might have had databases and other functionality, but they tended to be built without regard to the wider Web.  Nowadays, Websites form a dynamic connection to the social Web, not just with like buttons and links to Twitter, but as conduits of content from all over the Web.  You can be feeding the most relevant, live, dynamic content from a multitude of sources, both your own and from others in your industry and beyond, to enhance your Website’s information and appeal.  You can also provide the tools so that others can easily spread the word about your Website.  This amplifies your presence greatly and is another thing you are missing out on by hanging on to your old Website

6) You have evolved, why hasn’t your Website?
Many Websites are now only vague reflections of the actual business they represent.  Someone many years ago, sat down and wrote a few pages of text about their company, grabbed a few images and asked a Web designer/developer to put it online.  Meanwhile, their business has grown, evolved, expanded into new areas, re-defined, consolidated and changed their customer base and service offering.  None of this is reflected in the Website, because it was all too hard to sit down once again and come up with a whole new Website full of content.  This is verging on negligent.  People make up their mind about your business when they see your Website, yet you are telling them that you are the same business you were 8 years ago!  No wonder you are not getting the right kind of leads from the Web.  Websites define you and they also qualify leads.  Your Website must be brought up to date to re-define your current operation and attract the customers you want now.

7) It’s not that expensive
How much has your Website cost you?  Not much, if you haven’t touched it for years.  The original cost would have amortized many times over and no doubt with just a few new leads it would have paid for itself years ago.  However, the thought of spending a big chunk of money right now may not seem that appealing.  It seems strange, but many businesses, even when they know their Website has been a big asset to them, still baulk at forking out the investment for a new one.

Perhaps it is because Websites are so virtual and their benefits seem intangible.  In fact, the benefits are both intangible and highly measurable.  Branding, positioning, reputation, communication… all of these more intangible functions are performed by a Website.  To achieve the same things without an online presence is very expensive.  Printing, print advertising, point of sale, expos and conferences all cost a great deal more in total than a Website.  Their impact is even less measurable, too, yet many business continue to sit on their old Website and spend far more money on traditional media and marketing.

When it comes to tangible benefits, Websites are unbeatable.  With tools like Google Analytics, every single visit is tracked, every search term used to find you is logged and over time a massive amount of rich, interpretable and informative data is collated to help you continually improve your Website and measure the effectiveness of all your marketing activity.  The value a modern Website can bring you far outweighs the setup and maintenance costs

It is hardly surprising that larger companies invest millions of dollars into their online marketing, including setting up entire teams of in-house staff to manage the assets.  They are not doing it for fun, they are doing it because it makes economic sense.  Smaller businesses need to realise the cost benefit of online marketing and invest proportionately to get the desired returns.  It won’t happen if you don’t do anything, but it will definitely happen with the right help and support from a speciality service provider and consultant, combined with a little bit of time, effort and investment on your behalf.

8) It’s not as hard as you think
Just like any project, a new website is just a process that needs to be embarked upon with a clear vision for the desired outcomes and a methodical step-by-step approach.  It may seem daunting, or you may be remembering last time you did it and shuddering, but with the help of professionals who know how to manage the process, it really is quite easy, once you break down the steps and address them one by one.  There are many elements to a successful modern Website and you will have to spend some time thinking about your business and defining what you do and what you want.  This can be a lot of fun and is actually an awesome opportunity to take stock and think about where you are going and where you want to be.

Your Website can become your tour guide for your business into the future as it defines where you are going, what you want and how you are going to get there.  With great design, content, navigation and interactivity, your multi-dimensional, multi-media presence can become a beacon, lighting the path and guiding people to your door.  All you need to do is bite the bullet and do it.  Just like it is easier to sit on the lounge eating chocolate than it is to go to the gym, it might be easier to keep your old Website than create a new one, but as we all know, in the long run, we are all a lot better off if we get off that lounge chair and hit the exercise mat.  The long-term gain of doing something far outweighs the short-term gain of avoiding what you know is the right thing to do.

If you want to find out more about taking the big step and rebuilding your online presence strategically, professionally and wisely, contact us.  We can show you, as we hope this article explains, how valuable a decision it could be.

By Stefan Sojka

In some ways it is hard to believe I am writing this post, but there seems to be something very strange about human nature that we keep needing to be reminded of the most mind-numbingly obvious things.

Google.  A single text input field and a button.  You don't even need to click that button, just hit your "Enter/Return" key.  It is probably even sitting there in your browser, so you don't even need to go to Google's Website.   

Type in anything and hit "Enter/Return".  Google's multi-billion dollar infrastructure and programming code developed by the world's most brilliant coders and evolved over a decade or more, will come right back at you, in an instant, with millions of results, including maps, adverts, images, videos, tweets and PDF files.  In fact BEFORE you even finish typing, Google has already started guessing what you are searching for and making a bunch of suggestions to help you.

By any measure, this experience is phenomenal, bordering on miraculous.  Google is so ubiquitous it has been added to the Oxford English Dictionary as an official verb in the English language.

So why do we keep asking each other so many questions?  What is it in human psychology that forgets the existence of Google just when we need it most?  People seem to prefer ringing up their business supplier or associate to ask questions that they surely must know Google will be able to answer far more effectively and comprehensively than the poor victim of their enquiry at the other end of the phone.

"I'm getting an error message 'XYZ876765463543', do you know what the problem is?"  No I don't.  Just Google it.

"Can you suggest a good solution for problem X?"  Maybe I could, but maybe I am not the world authority on anything and my solution might not be ideal.  Just Google it.

Even if I did know that particular error message code, or solution, I would have to spend 15 minutes explaining it to you – 15 minutes that you will be outraged if I billed you for – when you could have found the answer in less time than it took to dial my number.  You could have read all about it yourself and actually learned something while you are at it – for free.  Through Google's search results, you could access entire communities of solution providers, consultants and advisers who are more than happy to go to great lengths explaining the subtleties of email program version compatibility issues on their Websites to anyone who stops by.

Not only that, but the more you Google, the better you get at it.  You can even Google how to be a better Googler!  There are many tricks to help you zoom in on more accurate results or dig deeper to discover hidden resources that might not always come up on your very first search.

We are all guilty of not Googling when we should have.  We simply keep forgetting that Google is there when we need it.  We sit there agonising over some issue or other, rather than realising that someone else has not only done the agonising for us, but they have posted it all on their blog.  We wonder if we should embark on a new business venture with a brilliant idea we just had, without taking the very first step of checking to see if it has already been done.

Google may be in the dictionary.  It may provide instant access to an infinite array of information, but we still haven't evolved Google as a reflex action to our thought processes.  It is perhaps a simple behaviour change, to pull ourselves up when we find ourselves faced with questions and problems and ask whether we will get a better answer from the humans in our immediate real-world vicinity or from the 2+billion crowd of helpful strangers online.

Make it a new affirmation, a mantra or simply write it on a post it note and stick it on your forehead – "Just Google it!"  It will be the ultimate 'win-win'.  You get your answer and the person you were about to call will be left in peace... : )

By Stefan Sojka

In the age of ideas, creativity might be a little overrated.

I’ve been suffering a bit of performance anxiety lately, when it comes to creativity.  It seems everywhere I look I am being told to unleash my creativity, ‘Think Different’, stand out in a crowd and think outside the square.  It’s like I am not a complete person unless I can revolutionise an entire industry, transform society or claim responsibility for one of those emails with all the Photoshopped animals morphing into vegetables.

What makes it worse is that I am bombarded daily with thousands of examples of other people doing just that; effortlessly manifesting their creative genius and splashing it all over my screen.  My own inadequacies are being hammered home with every news story about the latest viral sensation, dot-com billionaire and amazingly simple but absolutely brilliant business ideas I wish I had thought of.  Then comes the slick new gadget advert, telling me that it has unlimited potential in my hands, if only I will buy it and swipe my fingers all over it.

If I zoom in, however, I find a slightly different story.  Sure, there seems to be an explosion of creativity on the planet, but it is being done by millions of different people – each individual only coming up with a tiny sliver of inventiveness, if not simply recreating what already was and giving it a slight twist.

Most apparently brilliant ideas are just rehashed and adapted versions of what already was.  Before FaceBook, there was MySpace and before Twitter, there was SMS.  People were uploading videos of themselves doing all kinds of things, way before YouTube came along.  Look at all the latest design trends in the so-called ‘creative industries’.  The same design themes and styles are popping up everywhere.  Musically, there hasn’t been a song like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ in the charts for over 30 years... despite the ridiculously powerful creative tools everyone has had at their disposal recently.

Perhaps that old adage about 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration is true.  Thinking outside the square is not something to be done that frequently.  In fact the more time I’ve spent in creative La-La Land, the less actual work I got done and the harder life became.  I have to fight that urge (and all those marketing messages) to be more creative than everyone else in the entire world and focus on getting stuff done.  Who knows, that might just leave me relaxed and comfortable enough, one magical moonlit evening, to allow that 1% spark to kick in.

Small business, particularly online business, depends so much on mundane activities to prosper; technical implementation, keyword analysis and optimisation, mailing list management, spreadsheets, link building, regular maintenance and updating, proof reading, file management, administration and processing…. you couldn’t be any more ‘inside the square’ by renaming 100 photos from DSC0003456.jpg to keyword1-keyword2-keyword3.jpg, but that’s what has to be done.

As I surrender to this mechanical reality of my day-to-day life, I am actually enjoying the process of building the systems, habits and infrastructures I neglected when I believed being creative was the only way to go.  Now I am not only freer to be more creative in my down time, but I am much more prepared to do something with my ideas when I get them.

I can also do what all the other ‘creatives’ have been doing for centuries; borrowing and adapting from those around them who continue to be seduced by the enticing and rather unproductive realm that exists outside my humble – but very effective – little square.

By Stefan Sojka

It’s time to add Writer/Producer/Director/Actor to the résumé.

I got my first answering machine somewhere back in the late 80s.  I’ll never forget the horror of hearing my own voice on that micro-cassette tape.  I re-recorded that message at least 50 times before I was happy.  It was the first step on a long and slippery slope into business-oriented media production.

Before the answering machine, the only people who spoke into microphones were Shakespearean actors.  There was no purpose, nor facility for the average person to lay down their voice, let alone film themselves.  Humans had only barely gotten used to using phones – and not very well at that.  Without the feedback loop of listening to ourselves speak, or seeing ourselves on video, we were oblivious to how ordinary we all looked and sounded.

Fast forward a few decades and media production tools are everywhere.  By the age of three, most kids have been filmed more than any actor from the golden years of Hollywood, photographed more than Marilyn Monroe and laid down at least a few dozen answering machine messages and karaoke tracks.  Everyone is now expected to be a multi-media artist.  Every computer (every phone, just about) is a recording studio, movie production house and photo lab.

So why don’t more businesses use audio and video to communicate?  Why is it so easy to film baby’s first steps, but a guided tour of your offices with a few valuable insights into the services you provide hasn’t been made yet?

We might have the recording tools, but what about the lighting, audio engineering, script-writing, voice-over style, storyboard, green screen and a dozen other elements of good production that don’t come packaged with every laptop sold?   Making quality media is not that easy and putting in a great performance does not come naturally to most people born before the video age.

The only way to overcome your fear is to just have a go.  Write a script, rehearse it, film it, watch it back, cringe with utter embarrassment, then do it all again, slightly better each time, until you begin to like what you see.  Experiment with lighting and sound, posture and pace.  Before too long, you will learn how to look and sound great.

Without fail, anyone who actually perseveres will transform into a more appealing media-friendly version of themselves.  With a little experimentation on the technical side of things, using reasonable quality gear and the awesome editing software that is available these days, you can cut a perfectly respectable piece of promo in no time.

If it all gets too hard, get some training; voice, TV presenting, script writing and video editing.  No one really has a good excuse anymore for not picking up all the skills necessary to become a savvy and sophisticated spokesmodel for their own business.

We all know how effective great multimedia is – we consume it every day by the Gigabyte.  I know if I am researching a product or service, I will devour whatever media I can find.  Your customers are doing exactly the same thing.  You really would do well to get your personalized message in front of them.  If you have a particular expertise or specialist knowledge, the world is hanging out to hear about it.

Every businessperson is now a media performer and producer.  You just need to decide, right now, that you are going to be a really good one.  Lights… camera… mouse… action!

By Stefan Sojka

It takes a lot of hard work to make everything look so easy.

I had a potential client call recently, excited about a new e-commerce Website they wanted to launch.  The domain name sounded great and they had plans to go viral and generate big sales.

In one short phone call, they described their idea.  They had clearly been thinking about this for a long time.  I filled an A4 page with notes, as they proceeded to describe their vision; a totally customised, world-class, elegant, classy, beautiful, powerful, enterprise-level entity with enough bells and whistles to form an orchestra.

It was our first phone call, so I asked: “Have you prepared a brief?”  The answer?  “No.”  “Do you have a budget?”  “Uh… no… as small as possible, please, because I am just getting started…”

There is nothing wrong with starting off small and dreaming big – most successful businesses do – but it suddenly dawned on me that I was the first person to ever put pen to paper on this project.  It was a big idea without an ounce of actual work put into it.  These plans were hatched during a few months of daydreaming and Web surfing, dictated over the phone to me, who was now expected to make all those daydreams come true.  Easier said than done.

If you want to start any business, you usually put a lot of planning into it – why would an online business be any different?  In fact, a Web-based business often requires more planning and preparation than most ‘real world’ businesses.  This is due to the additional layers of complexity, combined with the inherent risks and costs of getting things wrong.  There are awesome e-commerce packages available and countless other great resources.  There’s a rapidly maturing industry of Web professionals too, but time is money.  The more time you can put in yourself, the better.

It is understandable, I guess.  Websites that generate millions (if not billions) of dollars all look so elegant and simple.  Everything has been carefully engineered (after 1,000 iterations) to look fresh, clean and effortless.  Add to that the use of the word “free” and “easy” in just about every online advert and one would be forgiven for getting the impression that Web enterprises were a piece of cake.  Getting ‘something’ online might be easy, but getting exactly what you want could involve a few hard yards.

Everything you want to happen on your Website needs to be told to happen that way …in code.  It is often just as hard making a site elegant and clean, as it is to make it look messy and clunky.  When you bring e-commerce into it, things can get complicated.  You are engineering an experience that ends in people handing over their credit card details.  It’s like running a shop with no shopkeeper – it has to be pretty special to get someone to willingly open up their wallet and serve themselves.

Even static Websites can take a lot of work to get right.  One site we recently launched took 7 people 266 hours.  Fortunately, the site owner put in a huge chunk of that time, saving money and delivering a far better end result.

So, if you have a great idea for an online business, write it down, make a plan, do your research, set aside as much time and money as you possibly can, define everything in intimate detail – then seek out professional help to make it happen.  That way you’ll both be on the same page and have a far greater chance of making your dream come alive.