Archive for June, 2009
June30
Chesters LLP
June30
Why breadcrumbs help
Breadcrumbs are very easy to add to a website. They very simply tell the user where they are in relation to the other pages of a site. i.e.
Home > Products > Awesome Product 1
It’s very easy to forget that people come to your site from a variety of means and angles. It’s rare that all your visitors will end up on your "home page", especially if they find you in a search engine. Adding the extra layer of help adds tremendous value.
From tales of Hansel and Gretel to the Minotaur, people use breadcrumbs because they hate being lost. Show your visitors where they are at all times.
Ben
June25
The Plug And Play IFA
June25
Make it personal
Don’t have your picture on your website? No information about yourself?
Your customers are more likely to engage if you put some personal information about yourself on your website. This is true whether you are offering one on one services, or selling to a mass audience.
People don’t come to websites trusting you in the same way they will when they walk into a shop. Showing who you are and telling people about you engenders trust.
Ben
June23
Stop hiding the info
If you’re selling something online, especially a service, is it a good idea to put your prices on your website? Surely it makes sense to skip over the information – after all, that way people have to get in touch to find out don’t they? And once they’ve made that first call, it’s all the more easy to entice them in. Isn’t it?
No.
Hiding information drives people away. Even if you’re still getting a decent number of leads and sales from your site, not showing basic information about the cost of your service or product will put people off. People are strapped for time. If you make it harder for them to get to the information they want, they’ll go somewhere else.
Ben
June20
James Computers
I hired Ben to create a web site for my business with the intention of increasing sales, customer count and overall awareness. I have been utterly delighted with the service he continues to provide.
James Girling
Proprietor
James Computers
Google Analytics is an awesomely powerful tool. In this very brief guide, I’ll explain why you should have it, and then show you how to get it up and running (it really is simple).
What is Google Analytics?
It is a tool for logging and reporting on how visitors interact with your site. You can find out how visitors came to your site, and what they did when they arrived on your home page. For instance, you can find out what search phrases resulted in your website being found, and where your visitors are coming from geographically. You can then track the progression of visitors through your site, finding out which pages they found the most interesting, and if any pages caused them to give up in frustration – thus leaving the site.
Best of all, it’s free. And it’s quick to setup.
Getting started
If you are moderately comfortable with HTML, uploading files to your server and have a static website, then this guide is for you. For anyone else, Google have some excellent tutorials here. Here the process in 10 easy steps:
- Go to www.google.com/analytics
- Below the "Access Analytics" button, click "Sign Up Now". You can skip this step if you have a google account already (i.e. for Ad Words or Gmail).
- Once you are logged in, click "Add Website Profile".
- Enter your URL and hit submit.
- This is the only technical step. You’ll be given a "tracking code", in a text box. Select it all and copy it to your clipboard.
- Download your index.html file from your server. Make a backup (just in case), and then open it with Notepad.
- Scroll down the very end and the last two lines should be</body> </html> You need to add a line just before these, paste the tracking code in and save the file.
- Upload it to your server, and check it works.
- Well done. Google Analytics is set up.
- Now return to the Analytics site, and the status symbol should be a green tick.
Provided all that works, you are ready to go. You’ll have to wait a while to get any information, and once you have it you can click on View report to start seeing how your site works. After this, it’s all quite intuitive.
Understanding how your visitors interact with your website is essential to making your website work. It’s quick and easy to setup. A wealth of information awaits.
Ben
June16
Need some Optimism?
These are gloomy days, allegedly. What with a global recession, and now more impending doom from swine flu, is there anything to look forward to? Will our capitalistic democracy crumble in the wind? Will recession carry on for years, decades?
Some days, it’s easy to get swept up in the hysteria (a lot of those days start by getting on an underground train and picking up a copy of Metro). The press makes out that we are all doomed. Are we? Is this it? Is the end nigh?
Of course not. Actually, things are better than ever. All you need is the right perspective. Here’s some things that will cheer you up:
- We’ve probably now reached the bottom. It’s unlikely to get any worse, even if it takes some time to recover. If you’ve survived thus far, then great! All you need to do is hang on a little further.
- Companies like Woolworths did not go out of business because of the recession. It was an inviable business that lost its way a decade ago. Blaming a slowing economy is much easier than admitting that you lost the plot. Surprise surprise, hundreds of other inviable businesses followed suit.
- Stop reading the news. There is nothing important that happens in the world that you won’t find out about from your family and friends. Try to completely stop consuming any news at all for a week, and see how you feel.
- Visit your industry’s trade show. I’ve been to three since the start of the recession, and was overwhelmed with how upbeat and positive everyone was. People were buoyant, excited and doing business as usual. Actually, it was better than usual, people were thriving. Every day, you’ll leave on a high, filled with optimism.
- Re-invent yourself. Business models change over time, and you cannot do the same thing forever. If you’ve been scraping by for years, then you will be struggling like crazy now. How?
- Use the internet to your advantage.
If you are a shop keeper, now must be a scary time. It’s been hard to compete with the likes of Amazon, eBay and the hyper-markets (a french expression for their massive WalMart style shops – just like our larger Tesco’s and Asda’s). You can try and resist them, and hold fast – or you can embrace the change and join the digital evolution. If you’ve got the experience of running a shop, you’ve got an abundance of skills that are necessary to making an e-shop work (cash flow balancing, stock management, customer relationship management), and if you have specialist knowledge as well, you can build a niche brand that will reach a nationwide group of consumers.
Ben
June15
South Way Financial Planning
June11
Spam That Works
I received some spam today. It said:
"Your first aid certificate expires next month, would you to book a course to renew it?"
Three years ago I did a first aid course, and got a "3 year" certificate. I filled in a form to get my printed certificate sent to me, and must have given them my e-mail address. I’m pretty sure I did not opt-in to any communications, I never do. I’m pretty sure I didn’t forget to opt out either, as I have hawk-eyes for finding those little boxes.
So they have, without my permission, sent me spam.
And it’s brilliant. Why? Because they’ve resisted the temptation to sell me junk for three years – and have only gotten in contact at the exact moment I’m likely to buy again. On top of that, they’ve helpfully reminded me that my first aid certificate is about to expire. I’d quite like to do something about that.
And because it’s sitting in my inbox, I know exactly where I’ll go.
Ben
