• If you’re working with a website designer, hopefully you’ve both done your homework to make sure you’re a good fit. As a site owner, you want someone whose aesthetic range works well with your own. Just like if you’re into a traditional-looking house, you wouldn’t hire an architect who focuses on uber modern design to build your dream house, you want to make sure the designer you choose is really good at the kind of design you and your existing/potential customers prefer. Most designers have a range of styles in which they work, and they’re usually available for your perusal via their website. If you’ve received a design proposal that seems out of left field make sure the designer fully understands your goals and your target audience. As a web designer, make sure you understand the goals of the project – and if you get the sense at the outset that you won’t be a good fit for the client for whatever reason, don’t be afraid to let the client know & move on to your next project.
• Before the design phase begins, make sure any specific wants/needs are communicated. This could be things like coordinating with an existing brand, or making an intentional departure from a previous design. I hesitate to include things like a specific layout, because the goal of your site should be driving the layout, and if you hired a talented designer they’ll be able to create a layout that will work best for your project. Also, while it’s important for your website to stand out and be unique, you don’t want to create something alien to your customers. There are certain web-based standards that users look for — locations for things like search and login, or navigation, or copyright and privacy info. There’s little incentive to reinventing the wheel here. In most cases you want creativity around how to best display your messaging in a clear way, both aesthetically and through text… not creativity around how to totally reinvent the way a user expects a website to work. If you’re finding that your feedback is focused on coming up with never-before-seen ways to present information – be wary.
• When giving feedback on a proposed design, work hard to communicate what’s not delivering on the needs of the project rather than suggesting specific alternative design solutions. Remember that you (hopefully) hired a designer to come up with solutions to help you meet your goals, not to work Photoshop on your behalf. Think back to the audience for your site (who is often not you) and what will resonate with them. For example, if your site caters to a mature audience and your designer gives you something with tiny type, communicate that a mature audience will need better legibility rather than a specific font size.   Often, competing demands mean compromise – so if you’ve specifically requested a tremendous amount of info on a single page but you don’t want anything displayed below the fold, and tiny type is a method of meeting your requirements – consider identifying the *source* of the problem, or give your designer an opportunity to identify a solution for you. Perhaps it’s not tiny type that needs fixing – perhaps it’s reducing the amount of text, or breaking something out into different pages or tabs to allow for the legibility and white space that will make your site appealing and usable for your audience.  If your feedback only offers suggestions rather than identifying problems, your designer can’t do the job you hired them for.
• Remember that the client drives the project, but it’s good when a designer pushes back on something that steers away from meeting the client’s goals. As a client you are an expert in what you do, and hopefully you know your customer/audience really well. So, it’s up to you to clearly communicate your business, customer profile and business goals to your designer. If you are muddy on your goals, or you’re asking for competing notions (like a really dark, moody design for a website about a cheery kid’s book), you’re going to end up with a muddy website. Sure, it might be beautiful, but if it doesn’t resonate with your audience, it doesn’t matter how beautiful it is. Remember that your web designer is an expert too — an expert in translating what you want your website to do/be into a design that works to meet your goals. Rely on them for this. If you want someone to tell you all your ideas are great, and to create something that was really designed by a committee of you, your Mom, and the person you met recently at the grocery store, don’t be surprised if what you end up with isn’t a great design. Just like you (hopefully) wouldn’t stand over your plumber while they’re working on your new bathroom and tell them that your spouse thought maybe they should put the drain pipe slightly to the left because they heard it’ll work better that way.
• Do your homework. The more prepared you are with your goals, information about your target audience, information about your competition, and likes/dislikes, the easier it’ll be to work with your designer. Think of it this way, if you went into a restaurant not knowing what you want & expected the chef to read your mind, who knows whether you’ll get something you want? If you like Italian food & you’re in an Italian restaurant, you’re on the right track, but no one will be happy if you receive something then send it back again and again because it’s not right.  Don’t be surprised if in such a scenario if everyone gets downright upset or despondent, or things get really expensive. Being prepared means that you’re more likely to find a designer who is a good fit from the outset, and more likely to end up with a site that really works for you quickly and painlessly.
• Be realistic about your budget.  To keep the food analogies going — if you buy a sandwich from a food cart, it’ll be inexpensive and potentially quiet delicious, but it’s not the same experience as a sit-down dinner at a 4-star restaurant — if your feedback is asking for one from the other, you’re likely to be disappointed.  If you’re on a limited budget, work with your designer to get the best bang for your buck, but don’t expect 4-star when you can only afford 2 — that goes for output and service.  Also, it’s unrealistic to expect a designer to continually revise, especially when stabbing in the dark, without charging you to do so.  It’s in your best interest (and that of the bottom line) to be prepared, clear, but also realistic when it comes to your project.
• Don’t make it personal. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out, and sometimes it’s a struggle. Often that’s because someone wasn’t prepared. But sometimes it’s just the way it goes. It doesn’t do anyone any favors to make it about anything other than what’s best for the project. If both parties are open and responsive, you’ll work through any snags quickly and without any hurt feelings. Mind reading gets you into trouble, and assumptions are rarely helpful so keep your feedback focused and clear and ask questions when you have them. If you ramble on-and-on as a way to work through your ideas, you don’t need to send your ramblings to your designer. Write them up for yourself, then pull out some clear points to send on. Doing so shows respect for your designer and their time, and allows them to respond quickly with a solution.

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1. Getting your domain name(s) and web hosting organized

And they’ve been effective for the most part – but wouldn’t it be nice if you could put your notes right in place over the actual website, then easily send that to someone?

Well, technology is a wonderful thing, and I’ve discovered this wonderful tool called Bounce (http://www.bounceapp.com/).

Bounce lets you easily add notes right over an image of any web page – you just enter the URL, they take a picture of the page, then let you make notes on it & send it on to someone. It’s simple, it’s elegant, and makes life just a little bit easier. Who could ask for anything more?

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1. Design (and possibly implement) an engaging, usable, website design to sell a product or service, or to act as a resource.
2. Help the owner of the website understand their goals, so that their website helps them achieve said goals.

It’s often easy to assume that someone looking to have a website fully understands and acknowledges their overall goals.  To create a successful website design, not only does the client need to fully understand their goals, but the designer needs to as well to create something that helps meet them.

The aesthetic of a website is a big part of it – it sets the overall tone, maybe it needs to coordinate/match existing branding, it sends a powerful message about intention and personality, and it helps the site visitor know if they’re in the right place.

Frequently, however, people quickly and insufficiently address what they want site visitors to take away from their experience with the site (eg: a purchase, a signup to a service, a brand clarity, an overall warm & fuzzy feeling, etc…), and then spend lots of time worried about whether some specific text should be slightly less blue (for example).  In some cases, it’s important to be concerned with an exact blue.  Maybe you’ve already got a Pantone blue you use for branding throughout.  Or maybe it’s an issue of prominence, priority of information or clarity.  But many times people get wrapped up in details like this that are mostly about their personal preference… because at the end of the day, it won’t matter to the user, it’ll only matter to the person/people who owns the site and is making the decisions.

And it’s a tricky line to navigate as a designer.   While on the one hand you want to say, “it doesn’t really matter” — that’s not entirely true because it matters *to them*, and they’re your client.   Do you have a duty as a designer to tell them when they’re focusing on the wrong thing?  How much time are you willing to invest in helping someone achieve their specific vision for something before you are no longer a designer and are just pushing a pencil (so to speak)?

In my experience, the answer is to gather lots of information up front & to ask the right questions.  This gives the client has a chance to really think through their goals, and then during the design process you can weigh decisions against whether they’ll help meet them.  But that doesn’t always work out the way that you hope.  When all is said and done, sometimes making the client happy turns out to be the goal.

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1. Client Spotlight: Diane Pinkard, author of Just Treat Me Like I Matter: The Heart of Sales
2. Client Spotlight: Diana Raab, author of Regina’s Closet

Do not settle for an old school “under construction” page, or for the domain parking page that your registrar puts up there to make money off of you while you get your site underway!  The page you create should have some basic, but critical information on it.

Here’s what I mean…  lets say you’re an author creating a book website:  You’ve been focused on getting the cover design just right, and the final touches to the content… the galleys are about to go out with your web address printed on them, and there’s no way your website will be finished in time.  But there are some basic things that you already have:

1. You have your cover design. So even if you don’t know what the overall look & feel of your website will/should be, you can work with the aesthetic that’s been established by the cover art.  And you don’t need design too much at this point — just keep it super clean and simple and it won’t matter if after you launch the site it looks quite different.
2. You have your contact information. You want to make it super easy for people to get in touch with you about your project.  Include at least an email address here.  If you’re already using social media for self promotion, include a link to your Twitter and Facebook pages, or widgets that show the latest content from your feed and allow people to friend you.   If you have a blog, you can place a small feed of your blog’s content right there on the page, and a link to subscribe.
3. You know what your project is about. A short synopsis to help people know they’re in the right place and to leave them intrigued is very helpful.  After all, you want them to come back after the site fully launches – so leave them wanting more.  Some people have an email signup so that interested parties can be notified when things change, or they can receive a newsletter with updates — this is a great way to stay in touch with people who you can then encourage to come back and see the site after the launch.

If you plan to build your site in Wordpress (my CMS platform of choice), there are even free themes or plugins that make having a “Coming Soon” page super easy:

• http://changingroom.wordprezzie.com/ — super basic theme that allows people to subscribe to the feed which will let them know when the blog has been updated in the future.
• http://wparchive.com/ice-breaker-wordpress-theme/ — has slightly more functionality than Changing Room (above).
• http://themeshaper.com/wordpress-domain-parking-theme/ — sells itself as an alternative to Domain Parking by your registrar.
• http://sw-guide.de/wordpress/plugins/maintenance-mode/ — this is a plugin that allows you to create a custom page to display while you’re working on your site.  It’s great because site admins (if logged in) can see the site-in-progress, but regular site visitors see the holding page.  Also, should you ever need to work on your site in the future, going back to it is just the flip of a switch.  I like this best because you can customize the page completely.

If you don’t plan to use Wordpress, you or your web designer can easily (and quickly) create a holding page for your website that has exactly what you want on it.

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3. Finding your online identity.

There are lots of reasons that I’ll enumerate below for this redesign, but the most important is the evolution of my business based on the needs and wants I hear about from my existing and potential clients.   The last time I redesigned my website, I was moving from doing both user experience design for software and web design & development, to doing mostly web design & development — so the website reflected that.  I kept the Portfolio section as updated as possible with recent projects, but otherwise it remained the same for about 2 years.  That’s a long time in the life of an online portfolio!

Since then, along with the evolution of social media platforms and people’s understanding of them, blogging platforms have also made huge advances, and as many people are looking for partially-custom budget-friendly websites as are looking for bespoke, unique websites.  Additionally, more and more people better understand how important web marketing is, and how social media can help spread the world about their businesses.

Based on all of the above, here are the things that will change about my website and why:

1. There will be much less text on the Home page: The text on the Home page will be streamlined to efficiently explaining what I do and how to get in touch with me. I had already streamlined text on the last iteration of the design, but I wanted to do it even further in this case to get down to only what is essential. There will be further details in other places on my website, and the job of the Home page is to engage people enough so that they click through to read it. In most cases, people visiting my website want to see examples of my work, know a little bit about me & what it’s like to work with me, and decide whether they want to contact me to work with them. This is different than visitors to my blog, who are looking for information about how to do something, or resources for their project(s). I know this because I’ve regularly checked in on what people are checking out on my site via Google Analytics.
2. The services I offer will be much easier to identify: There’s lots of overlap when it comes to the skill set necessary to design and develop web collateral. And not every designer and developer does the same thing. Often, it can be very confusing for people looking for someone to hire — they don’t know exactly the skill set they need, they just know what they want the end result to be. So, it’s important to be as clear as possible about what I do, and talk about it in terms of what people want the end result to be, eg: blog, website, logo, etc…
3. There will be a better & more efficient way to know how much something will cost: Since there are so many variables to consider, it’s very hard to give someone an estimate without having a conversation about what they need and want. But the form they fill out to get in touch with me can gather more specific information to help me get them a quote more quickly. Also, I can offer semi-custom packages with very specific elements that can be added a-la-carte so that people with a limited budget can choose only what they need/want.
4. The blog will be a part of the site, rather than a separate entity: Beyond the technology change of having the whole site built in Wordpress, I want the blog to be an integrated part of the site rather than a stand-alone entity. Since the blog content I create is closely tied to my the work that I do, and because I want it to be easier for people to jump from the blog content to my portfolio and back again, I’m presenting a consistent navigation across the whole site.

Next time, I’ll talk about the decisions that went into the aesthetics of the redesign & any changes that happen while moving from design to development and why. Stay tuned!

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1. Your Own Worst Critic: Designing for Yourself
2. Finding your online identity.

You likely have an “About Me” or “About Our Company” or “About Us” page on your website. And you certainly have a thumbnail image that you use for your social media profiles (if you’re not using a logo or brand). Occasionally you might be asked to be interviewed on a blog, or an article may be written referencing you. In each of these circumstances, you may want a photo of yourself displayed. In a physically disconnected world, where many of your networks and connections are made online, it’s more important than ever for people to sense your authenticity and your personality.

And you don’t want a terribly lit & untouched-up photo of yourself taken at a friend’s wedding, or a snapshot of your vacation to Costa Rica to be the way you represent yourself to the world via your business. I once had a client who wanted to use a photo of himself at an event where he was clearly snozzled – yikes!

If it’s your personal Facebook profile and you regularly update it to show something recent & cute, that’s one thing, if it’s a headshot of you on the website of your business, that’s another thing entirely. This isn’t to say it needs to be stuffy, or nostalgic for Sears photo shoots circa 1981… you want it to reference your personality and that of your business.

For example, if you’re an investment banker, you’d likely meet your potential clients face-to-face in some level of business attire. Maybe not a suit, but something appropriate. If you’re a bee keeper, you’re likely wearing something appropriate for that work, etc… In each of these cases it’s not much of an investment of time or money to hire a photographer to take a professional-looking headshot of you in your environment.

Usually, a headshot session either takes place in the studio or in the field. Personally, I like shots that aren’t against a blue-screen in the studio, not ones that are too contrived. I prefer shots taken in an appropriate environment – maybe in your office, or maybe outside…

Here are some great examples:

• Lorrie Thomas, founder of Web Marketing Therapy uses a great, genuine, professional-yet-casual headshot of herself throughout her collateral: http://www.lorriethomas.com
• Dr. James Hansen, author of Storms of My Grandchildren, and famed climatologist, uses a sincere, casual-yet-sophisticated headshot for his site(s) and his book jacket: http://stormsofmygrandchildren.com
• Chelsea Cain, NYT Bestselling author, has some great tongue-in-cheek shots throughout her site: http://www.chelseacain.com

These people did nothing more than find a photographer to take some shots of them, then think to use them effectively on their site(s). There’s no magic formula. You don’t need to be an actor. You don’t need $1 million dollars or an entourage.

So, how do you find someone local to do this for you whose work you like? Well first, if you see a headshot you really like, and you know that it was likely taken in your area, find out who took them! Sometimes there’s an attribution, and other times you can just send an email and ask. Secondly, search for someone & review what you find! I did a search in my metro area and here’s what I uncovered: http://www.google.com/search?q=headshots+portland+oregon

You can expect to pay anywhere from $50 to $500 depending on how many poses and/or outfits you want, where you live, and the experience of the photographer. The most important thing is that you find someone whose work shows the kind of headshot you’d like to end up with.

So, throw that modesty out the window, find the right photographer for you, and be happy when you’re being represented in your best light online!

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1. Present information to your users in a clear and concise way.
2. Remove any ambiguity regarding the consequences of an action e.g. clicking on delete/remove/purchase.
3. Organize your content so that it’s obvious how to use the site.

…there are also specific usability & user experience guidelines for each web niche, including author and book websites.  Having designed many author and book websites, and tracked analytics to determine design success, here are some guidelines I’ve come up with that help create a great user experience for author and book website: 

• Be sure the site visitor knows who you are.  Even if your website is designed to mimic the universe created by your story, people still want to know about the person behind it.  It’s a way of building trust with your audience, and a way for them to further invest in what you’re doing.  For example, Chelsea Cain’s website does a GREAT job reinforcing her genre through the design of her site, while also celebrating her as the author:
  
• Write the text for the site in a similar tone to your book.   Did you write a self-help book that offers advice in the first person?   Or, a romance novel filled with beautiful, lengthy descriptions?   Website text should follow some specific guidelines itself, but you want a continuity of experience between your presence on the web, and your presence within your book(s).  Jacqueline Mallorca, The Gluten Free Cook, does a great job writing her website content in the same friendly, approachable manner as her cookbooks:
  
• Design the site as an extension of the brand you have built through your cover art.  You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to your site navigation or layout, but make sure the design of your website enhances your book cover(s) without overtaking it, and has the same attention to detail.  Whether your cover design is clean and modern, or moody and painterly – you want the experience with your site to envelop the user with that same feeling.  It’ll help the experience on the web *and* brand recognition.  Here’s a great example:
  
• Say what you mean & make your links explicit.  This is not a time to be vague and mysterious – if you’re offering a top-ten tips list based on advice in your book, say something like “Discover my Top Ten Tips for ________” and make the entire thing a link.  If users know what to expect, they’re more likely to click the link – as opposed to a link that says, “What are you doing to help _______?”  This idea can be used in lists, on buttons, within the text, etc…    Don’t hide high-value things away on other pages of the site without clearly telling your user about them on the Home page.  Here’s an example that highlights the excerpt, an interactive timeline, and the author’s social media links in an unambiguous way:
  
• Give people an easy way to get in touch and/or participate, including (and especially) the press.  Everyone hates a website where you have to hunt around for a way to get in contact (hello cell phone companies!), but when you’re marketing something it’s even more important that people find it easy to ask questions and get more information.  You don’t have to give our your personal email address – maybe you have a publicist, or you create a web form, or an 800 number people can use to leave a voicemail…  there are many options, but you don’t want to cut yourself off when opportunity comes knocking.  In addition, you want to provide the press with the majority of what they need right on the site – this includes a press release for the book launch, whether you’re available for interviews, some see interview questions, and an author bio.  Make it as easy as possible for people to promote you!  Malcolm Gladwell’s site doesn’t do the best job of titling the page, but once you’re there it provides all the info people might need:
  
• Offer more than just the basics.  Whether you wrote a novel, a how-to guide, or a cookbook, there will be something else you can add to bring your book to life.  How about a free recipe?  Or a worksheet for getting something accomplished?  Or a snippet of extra content?   Just like everyone loves the Special Features on a DVD, your website is an opportunity to enrich the experience for your audience, and keep them wanting more.  Your value add doesn’t have to be a huge investment, but you can be quite creative with it.  Dr. John Telford’s site about his memoir offers images of the events covered in the book, an interactive timeline of major events in his life, and a video of him talking about his experiences:

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Putting a face and a voice to a name brings an instant connection that may not have been there previously. It also gives you the chance to share goings-on in a way that enhances your customer’s experience…

For example, if you’re opening a restaurant, add photos and videos of the process of creating the venue to your blog posts – or even create just a photo-blog as a way to start building publicity. People are often invested in and excited about what you’re doing well before they set foot in the door. Or, if you’re building a small business around dog training, offer up some free video tidbits of you and your pup in action. Be creative! If you’re reluctant to be the star of the show, collaborate with someone else – or keep yourself behind the camera. There’s no right or wrong way to go about it.

Bringing your business to life like this can make it, and you, much more approachable & lowers the bar for initial customer contact. It also allows you to spread awareness to audiences who might not otherwise have discovered your offering. With user bases in the millions, using targeted tags and linking back to your website on YouTube & Flickr is fantastic way to bring a new audience to your offering.

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3. Are you leaving money on the table?

1. Keep it short: Website readers are impatient, so they scan website content – it’s often too much work to really “read” on the web & there are so many sources of information that people will find another source if yours doesn’t immediately deliver. Also, because of the nature of the medium people read more slowly and avoid large blocks of text. You can deliver a longer message below the fold or on other pages of your site, but avoid information overload on landing pages.




2. Keep it organized: So, if you work hard and have found a way to delivery your message in short, punchy bunches – how do you display it so that it’s visually appealing? You could try a list, or a grid. Either of these options give people’s eyes a chance to rest on a single item before moving on to the next one. Also, consider placing information in places where people might need it – even if it’s not in a consistent place on each page, or is tangental the current topic. For example – if your website is about nutritional deficiencies and you’re planning the content on the page that talks about Iron Deficiency, place a testimonial or patient profile that has to do with Iron Deficiency there on the page. There’s no reason that shouldn’t also be on a page of testimonials, or patient profiles, but placing it where it reinforces your message helps build your authority.
3. Keep it meaningful: No one likes a hard sell – and web users are a particularly skeptical bunch. Most people have become immune to the exaggerated hyperbole that exists on the web & ignore it when they see it. Rather, keep your headlines short and clear, and make sure your content is offering something to your user. It might be instruction, it might be support, it might be laughter – but make sure you write it while thinking of what your audience will get out of it, not what you will get out of it.

With those tips in mind, check out what your competition has done . . . Is there a common method for grouping your type of content? Are there common navigation elements your users will be looking for? What about the level of language?

Now you have the information you need to start writing! Figure out the major categories of content, and assign a location (ie: page) for each one. Then, think how you can simplify. You may not need all of your pages linked from the primary navigation along the top of each page. You may not need a full page of just testimonials if you can strategically place them throughout your site where they’ll have more impact.

Whether you’re building your site yourself, or have hired someone to do it for you, the time you spend editing and organizing your content now will make the build much more efficient & the end result much more successful!

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Recently I’ve worked on projects for clients who happily have their hands in multiple pies. For example, they might have a consulting business and also be an author. Ideally these projects start with an established web presence for the consulting business, which can then be leveraged for marketing the related book – and a new site can be created specifically for marketing and selling the book. But what if the book came first? And what if a single person consults about Topic A, and writes books about Topic B? What to do then?

Unfortunately, there’s no single answer here – but there is a overall approach to figuring out the right way to move forward: Think strategically about your brand, then develop it and follow through.

It’s not difficult to do, but I often see individuals struggle with this idea because they haven’t planned ahead – they create a bunch of websites before thinking about how they will all work together.

Let’s say you’re a consultant who authored a book about the same theme as your consultancy, but you also authored some other books about a totally unrelated topic – let’s say fly fishing…

For the consulting side of things, think about whether you want to be known as an author who does some consulting, or a consultant who has authored a book. The analysis here is to determine how you will present yourself to the world through your web presence, including your keywords, and links back to your site. This is how people will get to know you, and how you build your brand. If you’re Suze Orman, you’re all set – you have the name recognition you want. But if you don’t have name recognition, think about whether you want to develop your name or your expertise as your brand. You may want your name and your expertise always paired – but how do you get there? Well, if you wrote a book with the goal of gaining name recognition as an expert, then I would start with a web presence focused on the book – make the domain name the book’s title, or other straightforward keywords that will bring in your target audience. On that site offer yourself, the author, for speaking engagements – build your name as an expert associated with the book, then create a web presence around what you have to offer as a consultant with that expertise. Over time, the book will become one of many offerings you make available through your consultant site – but you have to invest in branding yourself as an expert with regards to the book content first.

For the fly fishing side of things, don’t expect that your consultancy and your fly fishing expertise will ever be completely separate – with minimal investigating, people will know that you are the source of both fly fishing books and an online consultancy. But think strategically about how you will or won’t bring those two things together. Perhaps you decide your name is better utilized for the marketing of your consultancy, so you create a title for yourself for your fly fishing books – eg: the fly fishing expert. Your name will still be associated with the fly fishing books as the author, but you can determine how prominently it is or is not featured. Also, you don’t need to have anything on your consultancy site that has anything to do with fly fishing, but you may consider ways your experience in one might affect the other – that way you can acknowledge that you do both, but capitalize on how one might enhance the other.

At the end of the day *you* are the one who determines how you represent yourself online – so make sure you’ve thought through your options. If you have a little bit here, and a little bit there, and you’re not managing how it works together, it’ll be difficult to go after a larger, cohesive success.

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3. Ways to interact with your site visitors

• Polls. Polls are a way for your readership to feel involved in your story – they allow a reader’s voice to be heard, however anonymously, but are also a great tool for finding out more of what your readership wants from your site. Rather than wonder if your readership wants more content about subject “x” – either mine your data to find out whether it’s successful, or just ask them through a poll. There are a number of free, simple, poll generators, but PollDaddy is a great place to start.
• Photos. Just like you can use a Flickr RSS feed to place your own photos on your blog via tags, you can invite other people to tag their photos with a keyword you will use to display photos on your blog. This is a great way to invite audience participation whether it’s around creating something, going somewhere, or any number of common experiences. If you’re concerned that people might take advantage, then create a Flickr group where you approve membership to add photos to the group, then base your feed on the group’s content. Photos are a great way to feel connected to an audience, and videos as well!
• Competitions. Ask your readers to come up with the best way to do something, then give an award for the best answer/submission. It doesn’t have to be a big giveaway – people love to get stuff for free, no matter how small, and if a competition brings you a large audience, it’s well worth the investment. Your giveaway could be some free time with you if you’re a consultant, or a copy of your book if you’re an author, or a coffee mug with your logo on it no matter who you are.

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It’s challenging to create the right text content for your site – you want to make sure you’re providing all the important information to your site visitors, but you don’t want to scare them away with lots and lots of text. Let’s break it down into three stages:

1. Getting the right people there in the first place. No matter how brilliant your site is, if your target audience/market isn’t finding it, it doesn’t matter what you do. There are lots of solutions out there to bring lots of traffic to your website, but if that traffic isn’t targeted to your niche, they won’t stay on your site. So the first thing is to figure out how to be sure you’re targeting the right market. If you’ll be using ads, get down to the nitty gritty of choosing the right places for your ads to go. This may mean targeting specific websites to buy ad space rather than using something like Google AdWords. Or, if you are using AdWords or another ad-placement service, getting down into the nitty gritty of what’s paying off for you and what’s not. Just like with your retirement investments, if it’s not paying off within a certain amount of time, you need to unload it and consider it a learning experience while you invest in something that works. It’s a mistake to think that signing up for an ad service will be the answer to your lack of website sales – it’s the FIRST STEP in a process to find a way to bring the right people to you to make a sale.

   In addition to ads, you need to think objectively & strategically about what key words will work best for you & what’s special about your business. For example, if you’re business is creating boutique dog treats, you don’t want to go head-to-head with the likes of Purina in the search results. So, “dog biscuits” probably isn’t the right key word for you. It’s too broad. Thinking of key words always reminds me of the big fish, small pond theory. If you’re a small fish in a big pond, it’s very hard to get noticed. However, if you’re a big fish in a small pond, it’s hard not to notice you. So, what’s your niche? If your dog biscuits are especially good at promoting healthy teeth, you’ve got a a niche market to explore. Don’t go after a saturated market, go after a market where you can actually make a difference. This theory was proven by the company Greenies – they make dental chews for dogs. You can now find them in just about every pet store in the country, and they come in a variety of shapes & flavors. Greenies didn’t start out as just another dog treat company – they figured out that there was a gap in the market for what they were offering, and then became THE company to fill the gap. This is what your key words are all about. Think about what your specific keywords are, and then sprinkle them on every page of your site, especially your landing page(s). Be sure they’re used straight away on your landing/Home page, and that they’re linked back to your site when you’re referenced elsewhere on the internet. Do your research – what comes up when you search for the keywords you’re thinking of using?

2. Yay! People are visiting my site, how do I keep them there?! First, be sure that it’s immediately obvious what your site is about, and what it does. Tell people clearly and right away. I see websites all the time that force me to dig for information about what they’re actually offering. I don’t need to know the history of your company before I know, very clearly, what your company does. Then, lead them through your site to find out more information about what you offer. Your design can be beautiful, but it should never obscure the mission of the site – rather, it should enhance it and set the tone. Make sure you’re not selling to your visitor, but offering them solutions. No one likes to be talked AT, and no one wants to sit through your sales pitch. Be honest & clear about what you offer, and enumerate the benefits. Also, think about offering something to your visitor to help them get hooked – like a free offer of some kind, or a newsletter, etc… Be careful about how your phrase your offer – people are wary of the classic infomercial “no risk!” approach.
3. Okay, they’re on the site, they’re interested, now what?! The goal of a landing page (most likely your Home page) is to explain what you’re offering, then lead people through the site to a place where you can provide more detailed information or turn them into a customer. You can do this by placing links in your text that naturally lead to more specific information, by making your navigation really easy to use and clear, and featuring specific information in the form of an internal ad. For example, if you’re calling attention to a new offering, make a little “ad” for it for your Home page, and link that to the page where more specific information can be found. Just like your grocery store brings its featured products right to you when you walk through the door, you can do the same for your site visitors. Be careful not to overwhelm them with information here – keep it clear and clean. Whitespace on your page actually serves the purpose to leaving some breathing room for people to digest information while scanning. It also helps to break up the page into logical groupings. Think of it this way: If you pushed all your living room furniture to the center of the room, it would be hard to make it functional for your family. And, if you brought all your furniture to the living room just in case you might need it there some day, it would be really hard to find your way to the thing you really need/want in the moment. Categorize your site content in ways that make sense. It’s good to provide an easy way to get from A to B if there’s a connection between A & B. A great exercise to help you with this is to create post-it notes for the different categories of content you have on your site, then draw lines between the ones that are most logically connected, or the ones your site visitors are likely to connect. Remember that your site navigation should always be available in the same configuration, so this is more about featuring information within a page that lives on another page. You don’t want to hit people over the head with it, it’s more about prompting people with what you think they might need in the moment they need it. Your site content steers people through your site with little markers along the way – treat it as such and you increase your usability, and therefore your site visitor satisfaction.

   In the course of figuring this out you find your single site is going in too many directions, consider breaking it up into different sites targeted at different things. This may benefit your business by making sure the right people are finding just what they need without having to wade through all the rest. When the average attention span lasts about as long as you can hold your breath, this may be a great solution to serve your various offerings.

To recap: Make sure you’re setting yourself up for success by targeting people with whom your website will resonate, and ensure you’re going to be the big fish in a small pond. When they reach your site, make sure your site visitor knows what you’re offering to them & lead them into the rest of the site for additional information. And finally, make sure you’re tracking your success. If you don’t follow up on what’s working and what’s not by mining your Google Analytics data, you’re missing out on a huge factor in your success!

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1. What is a landing page anyway?: A landing page can be a single page tied to a domain name that is created for the purposes of converting a site visit into something profitable, like a sale or event signup. It can also be one of many pages in a site that is dedicated to a specific conversion. For example, if you’re an author, you might already have a website that introduces you and your work; but if you’re about to publish a new book you’ll likely want to dedicate a page on your existing site to that book as well as create a whole new site just for that book. This allows you to use targeted marketing for the book specifically, which can then direct traffic back to your larger author, but not give up any potential sales from your author website either. And on your author site, you may have multiple landing pages, not just one for each book you’ve written, but your Press page and your Articles page are also landing pages. They each serve a specific purpose, and they’re each there asking the visitor to do something specific with that information (eg: pass it on -or- contact you). Landing pages are often arrived at via an ad, or a featured link, but also through search engines.

2. What’s in it for me?: This is the question you need to be asking as if you are the visitor. They’re there because they think there will be something of value they can gain because of their visit. People are very busy, with short attention spans, so make sure it’s crystal clear and very easy to get to. For example, if you’re offering a free tutorial in exchange for an email address, make your offer front-and-center, and be sure it explains how it will benefit the visitor. It needs to be attractive both in terms of the pitch, but also the aesthetics. Remember that it’s critical to instill confidence in someone giving you their email address, and if your signup looks like something your 7-year-old nephew put together you may be shooting yourself in the foot. First and foremost it’s functional, but there’s no reason it shouldn’t also be attractive, and in being attractive it may benefit you. Also, keep the bar very low – if you’re asking for their email address, only ask for their email address – not their first name, last name and home town. The more you ask of them, the less likely it is that they’ll participate. And keep your language above board – consumers are smart and have caught on to the fact that things that say, “no risk!” or “limited time offer!” are commonly a hoax, so be genuine when you explain what you’re offering in return for their contact info.

3. Fine tune site content over time: Like with any website, it’s not something you create and are finished. You need to check on its success rate based on your goals and tune it to meet them. Make sure you’re using Google Analytics (or whatever statistics analysis engine you choose) and try out a few different headlines to see which one works the best. Play with the language used throughout the site to make the most of your potential conversions. Make sure all the information someone wants is there, but keep the critical information easily available and featured by the design. And don’t lose focus – be sure the site content isn’t taking the user in too many directions – you want it all to lead to the same destination. The length of your page isn’t that important as long as all of the important information is there, and the actionable information is featured above the fold. And don’t just make the hard sell – your landing page content should be simple, engaging, interesting and easy to relate to. And the language you use to kick-start a conversion should not be vague, including on buttons – for example, “Sign up for a free tutorial!” is better than “Sign up!”

4. If your landing page is an island, it is lost: No matter how functional and beautiful it is, if you’re not pounding the pavement (so to speak) to get links into your landing page, it won’t be considered important enough by search engines to show up in search results where you want it to be. So, get out there and write articles that point back to it – link to it from your other website(s) and blog. Tweet about it or create a page for it on Facebook. Identify your key words and make sure links pointing to the site are using them.

There is no magic bullet here – the landing page is powerful tool in your toolbox for connecting with your market, but it is only one of many. And you need to hustle to make it work; you need to care about your audience for them to care about you; and you need to make sure your efforts are paying off by tracking them. Don’t give up! It does take time.

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But what if you want to sell your book yourself? You don’t need to make a big investment in a shopping cart service, or even spend your days waiting in line at the USPS -  you can easily set yourself up with a PayPal Merchant account, create a quick button for purchasing your book to put on your website, set your shipping preferences, and off you go!  100% of the sales of books sold on your website is profit to you (minus any printing costs of course) — so even if you can’t compete with Amazon.com on convenience, you can beat them on price.  If you sell your book yourself, offer a discount (say, 10%) off of Amazon’s cost & offer free shipping, you’re providing a huge incentive to your audience while still making much more money per sale than books sold through Amazon.com.  You can setup a channel for shipping through your distributor, or, if you’re willing to do the shipping yourself, you can also offer the incentive of a signed copy.

So, how do you bring people to this page where you’re offering your book for sale? You tell as many people as you can about it!  You can provide a link as part of a promotion for a social organization, a club, a team, an event…  you can participate in affiliate marketing (especially with those who enjoy great success), or buy ad-space on popular blogs that target your readership. Additionally, you can offer your book as a give-away in a contest for a popular podcast related to your genre, or as part of a blog-promotion.   Each of these gives you the chance to link back to your book purchase page.

So get out there and get selling!

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1. Keep it focused. Think about the person you want visiting your website, and consider why they’re there.  What do they want to know?  The mantra for solid content design is, “who we are, what we do, let us help you” – so make sure your intro text provides that in elevator pitch format.  Remember, people aren’t *reading* websites, they’re scanning them.  You want both the design and the text to convey what your website is for and what your website does IMMEDIATELY.
2. Keep it fresh. Websites aren’t something that’s done once and then forgotten about.  They need to be optimized based on traffic/visitor data, new technologies that will help your users, your evolving business, or even just keeping the design from looking stale.  The content for your site should be working for you!  To find out if it is, make sure you’re regularly checking your site stats.  If some text you poured your heart into isn’t driving traffic to the page that offers your product/service, change it!  Check out your successful competition — how have they crafted their message?
3. Don’t limit it to just your website.  Your blog, or, even better, other people’s blogs are a great way to feature your content.  And not just blogs, but article websites (like ezinearticles.com) allow you to provide meaningful content for your area of expertise…  you can do this by creating unique articles, leaving helpful comments, and also by becoming a guest blogger.  This method allows you to add value outside of the boundaries of your own website, create some authority and legitimacy on the web, and link back to your website.
4. Keep it interesting. If you’re just reiterating exactly what people can find elsewhere about your book or about you, there’s no reason for them to stay on your site.  You want to add value by offering up content that will make your readership feel like they’re connecting with you.  This might mean photos of your book signings, videos or podcasts of you doing an interview, some info about your current (but-not-yet-released) project, or a little behind-the-scenes text about your book(s) or process.

So, get out there and let your content shine!

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