Articles

By Stefan Sojka

It’s easy to believe that the Web has transformed over the last few years into a high tech Grand Slam, where the only contenders are the mega-corporations with Internet superstars providing the pre-match entertainment.  There’s still plenty of action away from centre court.

I was a huge Deep Purple fan when I was about 14.  Please keep in mind hip-hop, electronica, R & B or grindcore had hardly been invented.  Three choices:  Rock, Pop or Country & Western.  Besides that, I was trying to learn guitar and Smoke on the Water enabled me to instantly play a hit song with no lessons …or practice!

In those days, Rock superstars were about as inaccessible as today’s celebrities, not because they had a wall of agents and publicists protecting them, but simply because there were no means of communication.  If you didn’t find them in the local phone book, they were out of reach.  You could join the fan club, but that meant becoming the pen friend of the band’s single most obsessed and deranged follower and still never meeting the band.

This could become a column about how to follow your favourite artists online, but I only have one page, so I’ll get back to my point:  I recently contacted the bass player and keyboard player from Deep Purple and they both emailed me back personally.  This got me thinking…

According to www.internetworldstats.com, there are over 3 billion people using the Internet.  If you can imagine applying any ‘bell curve’, or ‘long tail’ graph to this population, you will find a massive swell around the YouTubes, Mashables and Lolcats, with thronging hordes milling around Internet superstars like Ashton Kutcher, Justin Beiber and Community Channel.  These destinations are largely one-way streets, more like mass media.  Huge audiences eliminate your opportunities to interact personally with the object of attraction.  It’s out in the ‘burbs where the real action is.

Every has-been, wanna-be, could-be, also-ran, did-run-once-or-twice and going-to-do-it-again is out there – you and me included.  We don’t get a million hits a day to our blogs and videos, but maybe 10s or 100s, even 1000s.  We get a couple of emails a day/week from people who stumbled across us while Googling something else.  Think about it – everyone is out there!  And the ones who aren’t being bombarded with attention are more than likely quite happy to get some.

Scientists, musicians, sportspeople, business owners, charity workers, teachers, inventors, builders…. need I continue?  Whatever you want in life from the Internet is available and it is extremely likely that it is not happening in a high-traffic supersite.  Network science dictates that, like the deeply profound and effective work our subconscious does all night (and all day, for that matter), the less clicked regions of the Web are where we are going to find the answers, make friends, collaborate, instigate and activate.

Think of exactly what you would like to know, do and become in your best-lived life and I bet you will find the people to help you if you start looking and asking.  For me, it begins with old rockers like Deep Purple’s band mates and probably ends with me inviting a whole bunch of them to guest-feature on my concept album by simply emailing me their contributions to my tracks as MP3s.  For you, it might be a super-talented 3D artist who can render your invention so you can win your pitch to those venture capitalists to get it made.  Or perhaps a massive niche market in a non-English-speaking country accessed via a local bi-lingual micro-blogger.

Your ultimate personalised network is out there.  Get off the beaten track and start clicking.

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

In this age of information overload, everyone is desperate to push through the crowd to find whatever attention space is left on humanity's virtual Bondi, lay down their digital beach towel and bask in the sun.  I need a good strategy.

It must be the Antarctic chill of winter that’s causing me to think of beach metaphors, or maybe it’s the increasingly icy despondency I’m feeling as I realise that I am a member of a species who now has to compete with billions of others for any recognition and validation, while my biology is programmed to be satisfied with finding a mate, a spot on the beach and perhaps a little respect from the head of the village.

Now, maybe there is very little separating my fingertips from world domination, except perhaps my own incapacity to manipulate the world to my ways.  Surely the entire planet wants to read my blog, laugh at my YouTube videos, buy my stuff and be swayed by my politics?  If only they weren’t all thinking the same thing about themselves!

What makes it so infuriating is how easy it seems for some people to crack it.  That “Evolution of Dance” guy, Mr “Leave Britney Alone” or even such luminaries as Twitter’s Biz Stone or the YouTube creators.  Film yourself doing a stupid dance or build a stupid Website that mimics SMS and the world is your oyster.

I’m starting to work out the secret.  It’s the same secret AC/DC stumbled upon back in the 1970s when the guys first started out.  They’ve continued doing pretty much the same thing for over 35 years.  Keep it simple, and play it loud!  Simplify, then amplify.

Regardless of my field of endeavour, I must refine and perfect it, optimise and distil it to its purest form, to give it the best chance of catching on.  MacDonalds did it with its franchise system, Apple did it with the iPod, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV and Eric Banadinovi? did it with their stage names – in fact, the more I think about it, anything that has struck a chord with the masses and found its day in the sun has this fundamental quality:  a perfect form, able to be repeated, replicated and broadcast.

Even the most complex idea can succeed when its essence is simple and its processes refined.  Man on the moon.  Google.  Sat-Nav.  Word™.
Less mess, more elegance, less instructions, more usability, less clicks, more downloads.  Simplify.  Amplify.

If I am to have half a chance at getting anything to go viral, catch on, hit the charts and make the news, I’ve got to get this right – and so do you.
De-clutter the office and home, avoid anything we know is a waste of time or dead end, then take what we have of value and perfect it.  Make every email, flyer, blog post, press release and domain name more succinct, readable, usable and catchy.  Hire designers to improve aesthetics and other professionals to re-engineer every aspect of what we do, if we can’t do it ourselves.

Learn from nature, the ultimate engineer of efficiency and economy facilitating abundance.  Extreme complexity exists; our grand plans no doubt contain labyrinthine sophistication, but the underlying formulas by which they are created must be forehead-slappingly pure.

Imagine.  I have a dream.  Just do it.  Think different.  Intel inside.  Six Hats.  Linux.  E=mc².  Om.

The universe expanded from a single point.  What’s my point?  If I find it, I’ll go off.  With a bang.

By Stefan Sojka

The Web is increasingly my go-to place for everything; advice, support, intel and inspiration.  Is my traditional bull-dust detector up for the task of discerning what’s good for me?

It is the best of times, it is the worst of times (I can feel a novel coming on... dammit, I’ve only got 500 words!)  The world seems to be plunging ever deeper into chaos and crisis at precisely the same time as mind-boggling scientific breakthroughs are occurring.  Financial, social and economic disasters abound, while the Internet explodes with individuals and orgs purporting to have all the answers.

Pre-Web, there weren’t many people to turn to in times of need.  My solicitor?  Priest?  MP?  GP?  Bank manager?  Now every ‘consultant’, ‘expert’ and ‘coach’ is Twittering and blogging their personal contribution to solving my problems and creating my (their) Utopian future.

The problem Web-based advice and information is that there are a few additional dimensions that affect both the advice itself, the delivery of it and my perception of its usefulness.

Like, do I not trust someone just because they haven’t got time to update their Website regularly?  Or, if some ‘guru’ or other is highly active online and seems to have a lot of followers, sponsors and links all over the place, does that make what they have to say any more credible?  Does my style-over-substance sensibility dismiss an expert’s proposition out-of-hand because his/her site looks like crap?  Do I not even bother to read it, because it has no fancy graphics, bullet points and roll-over effects?

I need to keep a few extra wits about me, now that new media carries the message.  The simple task of discerning anything of value in amongst the sheer volume of information is a daunting one.  Judgment criteria go way beyond the content:

How did I find it in the first place?  A lot of sites get traffic thanks to nothing more than their search engine friendliness.  Google, Bing and Co. are working ever harder to bring you quality results, but they are a long way off passing too many value judgments and opinions on the links they deliver.

Is the self-appointed ‘opinion leader’ a sycophant who is just very good at recruiting followers through powers of persuasion, rather than the substance of their message?  It’s amazing what a blogger can cook up with a teaspoon of fawning and a few cups of self-aggrandisement.

Are they literate?  Even in today’s wrld of txting & ROFLMAOing, I maintain that someone with a reasonable command of the Queen’s English probably has most of their other faculties intact as well.

Is the thinking part of a groundswell?  Ideas whose times have come tend to pop up independently in multiple locations.  The best way forward is most likely going to be through ideas that many people are now beginning to expound, rather than one nutter banging on with his/her manifesto.  Does anyone agree with me here?  Oh the irony!  This is your NETT nutter, signing off for another month...

By Stefan Sojka

As my life becomes increasingly interwoven in a tangled web of networks, gaining a perspective of how I fit in has become my life’s mission.

Network science is very new.  Sure networks have been around forever, but no one really stopped to think about just how complicated and powerful network behaviour is, until the mid 90s when the Internet kind of shoved it in our faces.  Albert-László Barabási’s book ‘Linked – How everything is connected to everything else and what it means for business, science and everyday life’ is an easily digestible summary of the Princeton Press scientific publication he co-wrote, “The Structure and Dynamics of Networks”.

The mathematics is staggering, describing how the simplest of connections and interactions can evolve structures and behaviours as phenomenal as our very own selves.  Individuals within a network need only perform the simplest of tasks to make this happen.  This is how civilizations, viral outbreaks and multinational corporations come to be.  Networks cause FaceBook, Beached Az, spam, Google, blogging and crowd-sourcing.

The more I think about it, the more embedded I seem to be.  So, it’s time to use these networks to my advantage.  The best thing I can do inside a network is to be active.  The simple tasks of emailing, clicking, posting, rating, linking and uploading are my means to participate.  My networks co-exist on- and off-line.  So here’s how it works and can work for you, if:

I join my local Rotary Club, a member invites me to join my local Chamber of Commerce, the local council holds a “Home-based Business Week” workshop and emails the Chamber asking if anyone would like to present.  I put my hand up.  At the talk, someone from NSW DSRD (Now Industry & Investment NSW) is there and invites me to speak at another event.  Someone at that event from the Department of Innovation invites me to a Hong Kong Trade and Development Council event in Sydney.  HKTDC asks if I would like to attend a trade show in Hong Kong, sponsored by AusTrade.  Much net­working ensued there.

Two months later.  I get a call from the Sydney Morning Herald asking me about my experience.  I get a decent sized article in the SMH business section.  Someone from Crikey.com.au calls me to ask how I do my PR and how I managed to get publicity in the SMH.  I tell them “it just happened because I work my network”.  They are intrigued and are interviewing me for an article about PR.  I will post that interview on my Website, along with all the other news stories about this chain of events.  I start popping up in Google for all kinds of searches because of all these activities.

I am now writing about all of this in this column, which I landed as a result of meeting the editor on a chat channel in 1995.  This column will become another news story on my Website.  Someone will read it and contact me about something.

And on it goes.  Such is the science, and behaviour of networks and what happens when I work them.

Perpetual promotion.  Try it for yourself.

By Stefan Sojka

Lately I have become fascinated with three things:

1. The recent discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting stars in our galaxy ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extrasolar_planet )

2. Advances in understanding of life on the microscopic scale.  Watch this ( multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/anim_innerlife.html ) and prepare to freak out when you realise this is going on inside you in 100 trillion different locations

3. Henry Markram’s Blue Brain project – an attempt to build a detailed, realistic computer model of the human brain                        ( www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS3wMC2BpxU )

I guess I am quite fortunate to be a member of the only species on earth capable of even beginning to comprehend the nature of the universe and to wonder about my place in it.

Here we sit, on the wafer thin surface of a tiny planet, after 4 billion years of evolution, where cellular life forms have tried and tried again to self-organise into the best co-operative self-perpetuating civilizations they can – without a brain between them.  Now our planet owns trillions of brains, including 6 billion big enough to organise the civilization we live in today.  Great apes, aping the same net­working capacity on a global scale that our cells have been using microscopically for eons.

Yet sometimes we seem so dumb.  We struggle in relationships, battle with each other and worry ourselves sick.  When are we going to ‘get it’?

If you ask me, it is when we finally surrender to the process.  Life got us to where we are, so it’s time we started living.  Whatever I am doing, wherever I find myself within society’s matrix, I really have no other choice but to try to be the best ‘me’ I can be.

As I take stock of the year that was and get set for the next orbit around the sun, it’s time for this revolution’s resolutions.  I am going to honour and obey my cellular civilization and I am going to maximise my contribution to human civilization.  In other words, I am going to be healthy and do good work.

And if you aren’t going to do the same, then get out of the way.  I am going to start choosing my clients, rather than letting them choose me.  If they aren’t operating at least on the same level as I do, ethically, I’m not going to let them drag me down.  I’m pursuing perpetual promotion.  Onwards and upwards.  Evolution and creation.  I’m stepping up and stepping out.  I’m not going to let evolution’s efforts to get me here be in vain and I sure don’t want to find out that there are civilizations living on those exoplanets more advanced than ours.  Aren’t we supposed to be a competitive race?

We’d better start working as a team.  In 2010, let’s all lift our game, raise our standards and spend each day on our human scale, using our microscopic inheritance to fulfill our cosmic calling.

In a galaxy, 4 billion light years from here, beings just like us might be observing an exoplanet we call ‘Earth’ preparing to come alive.  Closer to home, inside my own head, I can imagine this scenario …and feel pretty glad to be here.

By Stefan Sojka

It’s not as difficult as you might think to become an Internet superstar.  The Web is engineered precisely to facilitate such phenomena as FaceBook, YouTube and the ‘Evolution of Dance’ dude.  In this simple how-to guide, I’ll show you how it’s done.  The key is to be everywhere and do everything.  In a networked world, the one with the most nodes wins!

Remember Neo, in the Matrix?  Remember how he/you felt when he/you realised he/you were the one?  “That’s right”, grinned Morpheus.  This is your ‘I know Kung Fu’ moment.  You are the Internet, and the Internet is you.  Your DNA is the meme.  You’re unique, just like everybody else.

Have Geek Will Travel
You will need your own personal nerd.  The Web, for all its point-and-click convenience, is a ridiculously complex environment.  He/she will configure your server cloud, sync your mobile devices with your laptop and ensure your Websites are cross-browser compatible, fluid, elastic and WC3 compliant.

Arsenal
Rule-of-thumb:  If it was reviewed on Wired, TechCrunch or EnGadget, buy it.  Essentials include an HD video camera, podcasting microphone, iPhone, digital pen, electric car, pocket laser projector, Adobe Everything and a DJ console, so you can guest DJ at all your own launches and seminars.

Go Viral
The best way to permeate cyberspace is by infecting it.  I don’t care whether you wipe out on a skateboard or David Hassel-scoff a hamburger, what’s important is that the video is a calculated strategic element in your self-replicating pandemic.

Blog
Blog long.  Blog often.  With 112 million blogs, you do have to work hard.  Strategy is everything.  Post comments on the top 100 blogs with witty retorts and demoralising put-downs, always linking back to your own Blog.  Fear not, once the momentum of all your other activities kicks in, your archived ramblings will re-surface like the creature from the black lagoon.

Social Butterfly
Two mantras:  1. “Add Me” 2. “Thanks for the Add”.  Set targets – say 5,000 per day, per site.  Here is your starting point:  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_net­working_websites.  Nurture every friendship, acknowledge everyone’s feelings and compliment their every photo upload.  This is your fan-base.  You are a one of their's.  It’s a 200-million-way street.  Drive it.

Authority
You are now an Internet marketing genius.  It’s time to share your knowledge.  www.squidoo.com makes it easy to build a soapbox and begin proselytising.  When you have posted enough material, go to www.lulu.com and self-publish your how-to book.

Life Stream
Upload your entire life to the Internet – and tag everything.  Quantity, not quality.  If you upload enough old photos, school reports, love letters and phone disconnection notices, you will come up on page one in Google for everything.

We live in a paradoxical universe.  Ubiquity is singularity.  If you are everywhere, you will be in one place – at the top!  ‘X’ marks the spot and you have the X-factor.  ‘Me, Star Wars Kid’, you ‘FailWhale’.  See you at the end – and on the cover – of 'Time'.

By Stefan Sojka

As business owners and consumers, we’ve all been on both sides of the complaints discourse – the complainer and the complained about.  While I shudder at the thought of receiving a complaint, I know it’s the most valuable thing my business can receive.  Bring it on.  When it comes to making complaints, I’m not exactly in the ‘grumpy old man’ category – yet – but I certainly don’t hesitate to provide feedback if I think it will lead to my service provider making real improvements.

Thanks to the Web, the whole customer feedback loop is now in hyperdrive.  Word of mouse.  Disgruntled customers don’t just tell their friends, they tell the whole world.  Get used to it.  Be proactive and ask your customers for complaints so you can address them before one of them has a chance to set up www.yourbusinesssucks.com .  The Net is no place to hide from your shortcomings.

What started about 10 years ago with a few enterprising netizens using Web pages to get even with companies who did them wrong, is now a global consumer activist movement.  Consumers are empowered, businesses are held to account.  www.thesqueakywheel.com has a proven strategy of listing complaints and automatically emailing the company every time someone views the complaints page.  Naturally they have a very high success rate!  www.ripoffreport.com is another great site, as is www.complaints.com.

www.notgoodenough.org is home-grown and has a 54,000-strong membership base, actively discussing, reviewing and advising business and consumers on customer service.  If you end up on the ‘gripes’ list, all is not lost – just be sure to do something about it.

Choice www.choice.com.au has evolved fabulously from its print roots to become a formidable force.  A founding member of Consumers International way back in 1960 – www.consumersinternational.org – Choice is involved at every level, sitting on an incredible selection of boards and committees, promoting best practice, standards compliance, service and quality.  Of course the Choice Website has plenty of scope for user interaction, including nominating yourself for election to the board.

Customer complaints and comments can show up anywhere online, it’s scary.  You never know who is saying what and how deep any feelings run until you take a good hard Google at yourself.  Deep in a discussion board about ISPs and broadband has sprung up a thread about the pros and cons of BarterCard – forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/731669.html with a couple of hundred posts and many thousands of views.  This kind of stuff is happening everywhere about every business.  All the corporate marketing in the world can’t erase these opinions – it pays to find them and heed them.

Another Aussie site www.complaintline.com.au has a cool motto – “To complain is human… to get results is divine.”  One could complain that the site needs a graphic design once-over, but the content is excellent – covering 125 categories, suggestions on how to resolve issues amicably and support for businesses to better manage their complaints.

On the government front we are very fortunate in this country – The ACCC www.accc.gov.au and the Ombudsman www.comb.gov.au provide well funded top-level support, while every states’ Fair Trading department inform and encourage good complaints management and outcomes for all parties.  Just Google your state for more.

It’s a bit of a serious column this month, but I’m in the middle of some major business improvements myself, and my customers’ feedback was the major impetus for change.  With the silly season well and truly upon us, we all want that glow of satisfaction that business is good, and everybody loves us.  Any complaints?  Write to me!

By Stefan Sojka

There are certainly some similarities between Webmasters and Master Builders, though I am always envious knowing that my home pages are un-insurable against fire and flood, yet can be destroyed with one push of a “delete” button, while your buildings last for decades! Still, the feeling of satisfaction of clicking through a newly launched website with its proud owner might almost, I imagine, be as rewarding as taking a prospective homeowner on the first walk-through of your latest residential or commercial masterpiece.

One thing we can be sure about the web now is that it is a great communication tool and a great marketing tool. Regardless of how big or small your business is, a website is the best way to show the world what you do at the least, and can be used to maximize your marketing and transform your business at the very most.

A web site can now be much more cost effective than printing glossy brochures or other expensive marketing mediums (mail outs, catalogues, trade shows, promotional videos, CD ROMS) and when it comes to more complex web sites that process and manage information, there is nothing that can compete.

Whether you already have a website that’s in dire need of renovation and extension, or have not even begun to think about it, I hope this article can shed some light on some of the things you need to consider and hopefully get you motivated to make it happen. We’re talking “Clicks and Mortar” – ie how to make a website compliment and enhance a real world enterprise.

As a web design firm, we have a 4-step process to get a website established. It doesn’t matter how big or small your company or your website is, you still need to go through the same basic process in order to succeed. Since we began this article with a comparison of homes vs. home pages, why stop now?

Four Steps to Building a Master Home Page

1)The Foundations – Getting started – decide on a domain name, choose a web designer, have them help register the name and set up a basic “under construction” page.
2)The Floor Plan – The pages, the links, the content. Decide what the site will be used for and work out a plan that accommodates the visitors, and your business the way you want.
3)Construction – Everything from the wiring to the plumbing, to the interior decorating, functionality, trimmings, doors (links), appliances (database connections, content management systems), cladding and insulation (keywords, code to help the site get found by search engines, disclaimers and privacy statements)
4)Marketing and Maintenance – Launch, and promotion. Ongoing adjustments and reworking, the occasional coat of paint and looking for ways to increase traffic to your virtual cul-de-sac.

The Foundations

An email address and basic web address are two fundamental ways to establish an online presence. As phone bills get bigger and bigger, people are realizing how easy it is to whip off an inquiry or response via email.

Also, even though it is great PR to respond to emails instantly, it is not absolutely expected, so you can get on with your life, and set some time aside to manage all your emails at once, rather than fielding phone calls at inconvenient times.

By registering a domain name that suits your business and sticking to it, it becomes your permanent address, no matter who you connect to the internet with, or even who manages you website hosting. It is merely a matter of redirecting it if you change providers. It is best to arrange your domain name through your web developer, since they know all about the processes and requirements, and can advise on suitable names, as well as managing them as they come up for renewal.

Very early on, you may as well arrange for your web developer to set up a basic “under construction” page – at least it can be a point of contact while the site is developed, as it can take some time to finally launch your dream home page.

The Floor Plan

A successful website needs a lot of planning. Too many times we come across sites that have been hastily thrown together to some kind of imaginary deadline set by the eager owner, completely ignoring some of the obvious prerequisites – ease-of-use, intelligent architecture and lots of keywords for search engines.

Like designing a good home, you need to look at the functions you want the home to perform and accommodate them appropriately. Rumpus rooms and studies, or many bedrooms and a granny flat? There are so many things a website can do – a perfect showcase of a master builder’s capabilities and achievements. What better way to show off your awesome constructions than a photo gallery? Video footage even – of your team in action? Virtual walk-throughs? Detailed photos showing close-ups of workmanship and finish? The colour and splendour of properties and building works can be captured perfectly in a well designed website.

Above and beyond the visuals, a website allows your company to communicate your standards of excellence, your design philosophy and your commitment to customer service, by having the text and layout of the site reflecting the way you do business.

Don’t forget testimonials on your site either – always a great boost to your credibility. Then there are your awards, industry affiliations and preferred suppliers and products – all reassuring your potential customers that you are knowledgeable, experienced and trustworthy. Why not add a mortgage calculator while you are at it? They are everywhere.

This kind of expanded brochure-style website is ideal for potential clients to discover what you are all about and to help them make a decision to hire your services or buy your creations, even before they have spoken to you. This is a common scenario these days. If the website has worked its magic, a couple of emails later and a buyer or investor is hooked. Even if a client has short-listed you from a selection of competitors’ websites, it is a lot easier to make the sale when you talk to them if you have an impressive website to back you up.

All this information, and more, needs to be mapped out on paper and then worked into a design that takes into account the scale and variety of information. Ideally all the primary pages or sections should be available from every other page, and subsections should be available from all other pages in a subsection, with a simple link back to the main section.

You also need to work out how the site will actually function, like if you have customers logging in, how is the log in processed, and where do they get directed to, what information do you want to bring to their attention? Do you have a lot of data to manage? Are you wanting to have e-commerce facilities? What about harnessing information from other sites and plugging it into yours? By taking your time at this crucial stage, you can work out the perfect operation, layout and design of your site.

You should show your designer sites you like and sites that do the same kinds of things you want to do, so you can work together to get the optimal look and feel for your site. We usually give our clients a “Website Workbook”. They find it very helpful in thinking through the project.

Construction

This is where it is time to let the experts do their thing. The usual method is to use a “staging server” where the site can be uploaded and reviewed along the way, making any adjustments, whilst physically (well, with not much more than lifting an index finger) building the pages, files and images of the site. This is where the Webmaster takes over for a while to make sure all the technical and artistic aspects of the plan are carried out as expected.

There will be much to-ing and fro-ing, but amazingly the plans start to fall into place according to the timeline set out, and a fabulous new website begins to take shape. During the testing phase, there will be unexpected issues. You should always allow for the fact that this will happen. Hopefully all the planning will be enough, but as it falls into place, refinements are inevitable. A well quoted website will allow for these changes, and it is one of the great things about websites, that they are so changeable.

To run a website it must be hosted by a company that allows it to stay online 24 hours a day. Larger companies can host their own sites, but it is usually best left to specialists, especially with security issues and many other technical concerns. Economy of scale dictates that larger, well-established web hosting companies should be able to offer good services and technical support for a very reasonable price. Once again your website developer/designer would usually have a choice of hosts, depending on your needs. Once the site is approved for launched, it can be set up properly on its server and the champagne corks pop!

Marketing and Maintenance
Unless people know about your site and what it can do, it can just sit there idle. You must make sure your site is optimized to be found in search engines (there are a few tricks to this) and is listed in any industry directories (eg www.mbansw.asn.au ) and other places where you think your potential customers might go looking for you. This may involve a bit of research and legwork on your part, emailing other sites and chasing up links, but it will be worth it. You might set aside a certain amount of time each week or month to ensure your site is as available as possible. Or if your budget is more extensive, you can get a marketing company involved.

Off line, you have to get your site “out there” – put the web address on your vehicles, in your adverts, on business cards, invoices, letterheads, work shirts, caps – anywhere!

Meanwhile you should have a plan to maintain and improve your site to keep it fresh – add photos of your latest work, news, updated services and contact lists, as well as the possibility of adding whole new sections and functionality. Some changes can be set up to be done by a staff member using software or a content management system, but larger updates would most likely require your developer’s services. By tracking the success of the site, in terms of sales, inquiries, hits, downloads etc. you can make appropriate changes based on budget and anticipated returns.

Even though the building of a website is quite a complex challenge, by breaking it down into four basic steps, as we have done here, and attending to the steps methodically, the whole process can be demystified. With the help of a professional developer, what at first can seem like a mammoth job, can be built brick by virtual brick into a virtual residence any webmaster, and master builder, would be proud to call home.

Other Essentials

•Check your email regularly! Some of your biggest contracts could come through a simple email and although an emailer may wait a couple of days, the certainly won’t wait weeks.
•Visit your own site and test it regularly. Technical problems do happen and the sooner you are aware of them the sooner you can have them fixed. Maybe your inquiry form stops working, maybe there are broken links or images.
•While you are there you should also review the content and see if it might need a little updating now and then. There is software now that allows easy updating yourself, or for more complex sites some kind of content management system could be required. You might be happy maintaining an ongoing relationship with your web developer who can update your site and keep you informed of any new trends in technology and web marketing.
•Check your search engine listings. If you slip down the lists, you will not be found, so you will need to rethink your site’s use of keywords and other search engine tricks.
•Make sure you have antivirus software running on your email program. There is nothing worse for customer relations than giving all your clients a major viral infection!
•Have a plan in place for expanding and improving your site as your business grows. There are many extras you can add to your site when budget and time allows it - but remember it is only worthwhile if you can see a measurable ROI. Databases, file downloads, video, mailing lists, resources, links, affiliate programs, sponsors, humour, news, charity involvement, staff profiles (employee of the month), loyalty schemes – the list is endless and growing every day. Just as mobile phones have evolved into PDA’s, cameras and entertainment devices, so your business presence on the web will constantly change.

Website basic content must-haves:

Home Page
About Us
Services/Products
Gallery
Testimonials
Contact Info/Inquiry FormSome Optional Extras:

Colour Charts
Floor Plans
Materials Samples
Downloadable files
Links to Appliance Manufacturers
Contracts
Video
Voice Narration
Panoramas/Walkthroughs
Flash Animation
Staff Profiles
Mailing List Join Form
Subcontractors sub-sites or links

By Stefan Sojka

(This full-page article appeared in the Trading Post and published nationally.)

If you’re running a small business and you don’t have a website, then now is the time to take the plunge.

An email address and a website are two useful and cost effective additions to any company’s marketing toolkit. In fact every small business can benefit from displaying their wares online and taking inquiries by email, says Stefan Sojka, Creative Director of the Cyrius Media Group, a company firm specialising in web design.

Surprisingly, there are still a large number of businesses without a website, even though more and more people are now using the Internet as a first port of call to find the goods and services they need. The Trading Post’s own website is a prime example of an on-line presence supporting the “real world” version. Your own website can compliment your business perfectly.

“Above and beyond the visuals, a website allows your company to communicate your standards of excellence, your philosophy and your commitment to customer service by having the text and layout of the site reflect the way you do business,” says Stefan.

“If you sell products or ongoing services to your clients, a simple online store and list of services can entice them to do more business with you. Don’t forget testimonials on your site either – always a great boost to your credibility. Then there are your awards, industry affiliations and preferred suppliers or products – all reassuring your potential customers that you are knowledgeable, experienced and trustworthy.

“This kind of expanded brochure-style website is ideal for potential clients to discover what you are all about and to help them make a decision to hire your services, even before they have spoken to you.”

While not recommending that anyone jump on the technology bandwagon just for the sake of it, Stefan advises all small business to seriously consider the benefits of having a website – or upgrading the one they have.

“Sadly, many a website has been created without much thought to how it will function as a marketing tool,” he says. “Not only that, since there are no official standards of website design a site costing many thousands of dollars can actually harm your business because of badly planned content or annoying technical issues. The best sites are simple, concise, easy to use, visually appealing -- and built to an appropriate budget.”

To help you make sound decisions, Stefan has prepared the following planning checklist:

Domain name: You should have a domain name (website address) that is either your business name or a shortened form of it. It can be .com.au, .biz, .com or whatever, so long as it is easy to spell and give out to people. It can also contain a keyword or two (good for search engines), but shouldn’t be too long or hard to type. You can register domain names directly, but it is wise to consult your web professional.

Hosting: To run a website it must be ‘hosted’ by a company that allows it to stay online 24 hours a day. Larger companies can host their own sites, but it is usually best left to specialists, especially with security issues and many other technical concerns. Economy of scale dictates that larger, well-established web hosting companies should be able to offer good services and technical support for a very reasonable price. Once again your website developer/designer would usually have a choice of hosts, depending on your needs.

Web developer: You should look for a firm that understands your business requirements and has a proven portfolio of successful and satisfied clients. You should try to obtain ball park quotes, but if you have no idea what your site will be like, a quote will be impossible. You should find out what kind of process the developer will use to help you plan your site and arrive at their quote.

Planning: Look at your competitors’ websites as well as any other sites that you find appealing to get an idea of what you like and dislike. It’s getting cheaper every day to do the tricky stuff, but some things are still out of reach for most of us – remember some sites may have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Having collated all the information you require you will then need to employ a writer to tie it all together into a uniform style and the have the site professionally designed and mapped out.

Consistency: This is a great opportunity to marry the look of your website with your off-line material (business cards, logo, letterheads, etc). It is also a good time to get some great photos done of your work or products and to request testimonials from past clients.

Marketing: Your site will sit there doing nothing unless people know about it. You need to make sure your site is optimised so it can be found in search engines (there are a few tricks to this, including coming up with the right keywords) and is listed in any industry directories and other places where you think your potential customers might go looking for you. Off line, you have to get your site “out there” – put the web address on your vehicles, in your newspaper advertisements, on business cards, invoices, letterheads, work shirts, caps – anywhere and everywhere.

Ultimately, the key to success is to ask yourself what you want to achieve with your site. “Maybe you have more work than you can handle at present so your website will be mainly a branding exercise, keeping you in the public eye. Maybe you plan to market yourself aggressively and target specific groups – if so your site must reflect and support these goals,” says Stefan. “above all it is a reflection of what you are doing off-line and as such need to present you in the best possible way – professional, informative and visually appealing.”

For more information, including free initial consultation and planning advice, phone the Cyrius Media Group on (02) 9877 5544 or visit their website at: www.cyrius.com.au