Carlos On Web :: Going techie without going broke

When starting a new online venture, a beginning entrepreneur would probably do three things first:

1. Buy A Domain Name
2. Get a Web Designer and craft the collest web design on earth
3. Create five pages or so containing an overview of his products and services, his business, mission and vision, some photos here and there, etc.

After a few days, he could be laughing already confident in his ability in getting a cheap web designer after dumping the high-profile professional aside.

A week or two later, he begins to invite his friends to take a look at his latest business innovation. He would even tell his friends to tell their friends about the website — an experiment on word-of-mouth marketing. But will they do it? Heck, no!

Months past, he is wondering already why his website has only three constant visitors daily: he, his wife and his web designer (who would probably be still doing a few tweaks here and there).

Sounds familiar?

Small businesses still don’t get it. Like other professionals in any field, not all web designers or web developers are equal. If they are, they would all be probably long-haired by now.

When it comes to having a website, small businesses still don’t get it. A website is not just an online business card or electronic company brochure that you only update once in a decade.

A website is (or should be):

• A money-making machine minus the friction of the moving parts real machines have.
• A salesman who never sleeps and best of all never complains about it.
• A PR Officer that invites the visitors and sells them the benefits of doing business with you.
• An electronic catalog that visitors can use to find the products that interest them – not you.

The list could go on, but you get the picture. If you want to get the best of what your website can do for your business, there are basic things that you need to grasp so you can be on the right track.

You can do it right the time if you carefully follow the 5 Steps to Website Success below.

Five Steps To Success For Any New Website

1. Get A Domain Name That Sells

At the minimum, your domain should reflect what you are offering to your clients. It must be easy to remember and even easier to type on the keyboard. If you are a professional and your name is quite popular, get domain name that is based on your first and last names. If you are a company, your domain name should be based on the brand that your company is known for or a brand that you want to promote on the market.

2. Perform A Keyword Research and Analysis

Many small businesses have no idea about this.

When a web user wants to get information on something, he relies, almost always, on the search results generated by the search engines after typing some words and phrases on the search box.

There are millions of searches performed every single minute. It’s mind-boggling to know each one of them. But you don’t have to. You are only after the keywords that are related to your services or the products you are offering.

Think about those phrases. Do you have them on your pages? How about your competitors, are they doing a good job on placing the right keywords on their pages?

In essence, that is what keyword research and analysis is all about. It’s getting a snapshot of what the visitors are searching for when they needed information; hopefully, your information.

There are tools on how to perform this very important task. Don’t ever launch another website without having an idea of the keywords relevant to your business.

3. Prepare Your Killer Content

Content is the king. A good content is educational and information-rich. They should be related to your business or products and services. The content must be in an easy-to-read text format. Use graphics sparingly and only when they help convey the point of you text. Video and Audio may be good, but remember search engines can’t index the information contained in your video and audio streams.

One more thing on content: Never promote your website if it lacks the basic content that the visitors would expect. Putting the sign that says, “This website is under construction,” is a fastest way of telling your visitors, “Don’t come back here anymore.“

4. Get A Top-notch Web Design

One of the biggest mistakes small businesses make when deciding to get a Web developer is to award the contract to the lowest-bidding web designer who knocks on their door. Don’t do it. Cheap, even free, can be even more expensive than you originally imagined. You should understand that anything worth having always comes with a price and if you are dead serious about getting it, you should be ready to pay the price. Are you ready to pay the price in exchange for the things that you wanted the most?

Another mistake is to get the one with the cutest web design. Cute maybe nice, but it doesn’t always translate into positive cash flow or business savings. Worst, the graphic design could turn out to be just an expression of the designer’s artistic talent, which is totally unrelated (even hurtful) to your marketing campaign.

Tip: A lot of Web Designers out there are frustrated artists and painters experimenting their way into the digital media. Sure, they can come up with really creative and out-of-this-world designs. But would you rather run an online digital art gallery or a business website? It’s your call.

5. Promote the Website

I can’t emphasize this highly enough. Promote your website or it will die a natural death. Web Promotion is everything.

There are many ways of doing it: forums, email campaigns, newsletters, RSS, etc. The advent of social networking sites makes web promotion a snap.

If all you wanted to have is just a website, it’s ok not to promote it. But if you want the benefits of owning a popular website, positive user feedback, money from traffic, then web promotion should be a consistent activity of your business.

If you are an owner of a small business, this article is for you.

It’s driving me nuts. A lot of small businesses are still clueless about the benefits of doing it online. And for the few that jumped into the techie bandwagon, many are doing it wrong. As a result, they end up spending money on it instead of having the technology bring them the money. Technology then becomes a liability for them instead of an asset; sucking money out instead of pouring it into their business.

Take owning a website for instance.

The following as very common symptoms of small business website failures:

1. The website is owner-centered instead of user-centered. If this is you, don’t be surprised why your website has only three frequent visitors: you, yourself and you alone.

2. A fancy graphics design that demonstrates the graphical talent of the web designer more than his ability to promote it. Ever wondered why your website doesn’t appear on Google? Tip: Don’t ask your web designer.

3. Poor content including: ineffective copy, grammatical errors (of which I admit I am guilty of), articles made only to boasts the company’s already inflated ego and disorganized navigation. You may not be guilty of it all, but at least you get the point.

Remembering Mario

Mario was the visitor who came to ask how much I would charge for making a simple website. For the life of him, he can’t believe I actually charged a whopping $650 that consists of the following: Web Design, Setting up Ecommerce Account, and Search engine optimization.

Was I overcharging?

Based on Mario’s emails, yes I did. But that’s his opinion. Despite the fact that I pointed him to the websites I made where I charge even three times that amount, he’s still unconvinced. You can read the whole email exchanges here.

My fault, I guess, is that I didn’t elaborate to him further enough on what he would get from those things I offered. I was not able to convince him that by using me (my skills and experience), he would recover his investment in no time and if his products are good enough that there large enough market ready to bite it to nourish their respective businesses. He could have been laughing all the way to the bank now and surf as much as he wants, all because I made him a cute, cash-generating and simply crazy website.

His fault, I guess, is he thought every web developer is like everybody else. He therefore had the website developed by his son. And oh, he asked his son’s friend to do it for him FREE of charge, because his son was busy with his master’s.

Of course it made me smile in silence. I actually wished him luck in his new business website.

Break… Some Words Of Wisdom

Enough for this blame game now. An old man once told me a long time ago that “the only person to be blamed for in any failed business deal is the guy who stares back at you when you face the mirror.” Right, that’s me.

I have so much to thank Mario. Because of that email, I was able to write a two-part article on pricing: Price 101, Part 1 followed by Pricing 101, Part 2.

The Disappointed Entrepreneur

I can hardly believe it. Mario came knocking at my door once again (read: my website) after six long months to ask if I can help him with the website his son started but for some reasons could not continue any longer. And note he did not get his son’s friend to do it. It seems like nothing is FREE anymore nowadays. He thought he has no other choice, but to have his son develop him the website. Go, go, go, kid!

But what a crap! I could almost laugh when I saw the damage done by the kid. It was not a website that you can be proud of — from a business standpoint, that is. The domain looked like some cute-little fingers just typed in the keys in random and then another one decided it would be nice to have it registered as domain name. And viola, a domain name!

Not only that, the very reason why he shot me an email was that the shopping cart software failed during checkout. The email sort of say, “Carlos, can you help me with this emergency blah, blah, blah.” Unfortunately, I’m not the type of programmer who enjoys fixing the mess that others have created in the first place. And if I did, I would ask for a premium in doing so.

Enter: Carlos, The Consultant

Of course, the Web Consultant that I am suggested some solutions that he could take. My free suggestions included the following:

1. Getting a new Domain Name
2. Doing a Keyword Research and Analysis
3. Preparing the contents
4. Do the Web Design or Get Someone who can do it (should be some other guy and not me, I’m not available no more.)
5. Promote the website

These are the areas where a many online entrepreneurs failed miserably. Like Mario, they started taking the wrong path and wonder why they are not going anywhere.

In Part 2 of this article we will explore each one of these. So hang on please.

How much does it cost to create a website? As a web developer, I often hear that same question over and over from business acquaintances I get into contact with. Some would like to build a business website, thinking that it is a cool thing to do. Others would think that building a website is much like typing a thesis paper on a word processor and therefore it should be easy and cheap. If you were to answer that question, what would your response be?

Three hundred thousand Pesos? Fifty thousand? Five thousand? One thousand? Just a cup of McDonald’s hot chocolate?

Any Web Developer worth his salt and who has been in the business of developing websites — or Web Applications for that matter — is aware that the first question raised above is actually incomplete. It doesn’t even give you a hint as to the nature of the project. So any figure you that you will come up with based on that question alone is in fact meaningless. But, on the side of the customer (the one asking for a price quotation), it is a good way of spotting the kind of web developer you are talking to – whether an amateur or a real professional.

“Hey Carlos, if you don’t come up with a figure right then and there, how will the client know if he will hire you to do the project or find someone else?”

Thanks for asking and you have a good point. First, I don’t regret losing a client who doesn’t know what he is about to do. If I should be working WITH a client, I’d like to do it with someone who awards a project not on the basis of price alone, but on the benefits he will derive in knowing that he is working with a real problem solver. Second, as a web professional, I always make it a point to remember that I am also a consultant. It is my job to dissect what my client’s real needs are and offer a few suggestions. It could be free during the initial stage, I’d be glad to do that. Just because a client wants a business website doesn’t automatically mean that it is the perfect pill for him to shallow.

“So Mr. Consultant, how do you proceed?”

If you are new to Web Development Business, read carefully. I am about to share some priced possessions that I’ve been keeping in my treasure chest of wisdom learned from being a practicing web developer and software consultant. I am assuming here that you are dealing with a client who relies on you for guidance in showing him the right way to develop his website.

Here are the five points to remember:

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When was the first time you ever saw a website? Cool, wasn’t it? Did you notice a change between the kind of websites so popular then versus the style of websites that are making big waves these days?

Hello, owner of a business website! Today I am talking to you. Let’s talk about your website, too.

I’ll ask a few questions and then you can answer me in silence or by using the feedback form provided with this article. The purpose really is to spot a number of craps that are
creeping into your website which you probably put there thinking they were cool but end-up hurting your business.

Don’t worry if at times I am harsh with my words and you are hurt with my comments. Personal attacks are not my intention. Let’s just say I am poor on vocabulary, but I want you to improve the quality of your website — is that a business website? — by pointing out the mistakes other people make on their websites, so that you can eliminate them on your own.

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Do you want to know how to register a domain name all by yourself? Do you already have a website but you are not sure whether or not it is really registered in your name? How do you check this out? How do you make sure that you have complete control over your domain name?

The answers to these questions are very important if you are ever serious about your website
Learning to manage a domain name is not very difficult, but I am a bit surprised at how many small business website owners I’ve met don’t even know how to do it. They just leave the job of handling the registration and maintenance to the web developer or the webhosting company without even being aware of the danger.

After reading this article, I hope that you will grow in confidence in being able to take
complete control your domain name.

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