No-one wants to put their photo on their website. To be quite honest, I don’t. I’d rather present a little blurb about myself and leave the photo off our about us page.
So why do I have one there?
Putting a photo on your site establishes rapport and trust. When you meet someone face to face, have a chat, and hand over your brochure you’ve had a chance to build up the start of a relationship. Online, you are simply handing over the brochure. Without presenting some personal information along with a photograph, they have no reason to trust you.
Make it personal, win trust.
Ben
Posted in: Customer Service, Design, Marketing, Networking
Today I’m simply going to recommend a blog that is very much worth reading. Chris Guillebeau has a very successful blog. He offers incredible value, and writes engaging content. On top of that, he offers two well written thought provoking ebooks free of charge. Truly, he is remarkable.
"No one will give you links without you earning them. To earn them, you’ll need to do something remarkable. When you receive inbound links, it’s like getting paid." – Chris Gillebeau
Enjoy his blog.
Ben
Posted in: Copywriting
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
Posted in: Marketing
A website can be a thing of art. There are an ever increasing number of very talented artists who turn their hand to graphic art, and amaze us with gorgeous design. Ranging from simple black and white layout, to fully animated flash interfaces, there are a world of options available to the website owner when trying to revamp a tired site.
What if your website has so much artistic merit, that you win an award. Isn’t that the highest accolade an audience can bestow on a webmaster – awarding her for creating a work of art? Isn’t that what we should all strive for?
No.
If I notice your website’s design, it has failed.
Art works for the art industry. If you are a creative agency, sell art, offer fashion consulting, or even design necklaces for kittens, art is not only appropriate, it really does help. For everyone else, if your design is the most remarkable thing about your website – it has fallen flat on its face, as have you with it.
Too many people get swept along with the notion that a website must have an artistic design. Nothing could be further from the truth. The design for your website should be the framework within which your content is best placed to appeal to your users. Your content is generally text if you offer a service, or an image if you are selling a product. Design should be good (but not great), and should be lower on your list of priorities than strategic planning, usability, seo and copywriting.
Successful websites rarely win design awards. They count their winnings differently. They tend to be much longer numbers with a £ sign preceeding them.
Ben
Posted in: Copywriting, Design
