Archive for the ‘Marketing on the Internet’ Category

Among the most valuable, yet overlooked tools a web site owner can have are Web Site Statistics.

When talking with my clients, I find that many of the less technical minded site owners don't even know how to access their stats, let alone interpret them.

The truth of the matter is that web site stats can help a savvy business owner overcome one of the most daunting differences between Offline and Online business — getting to know your customer!

The other unpalatable truth it that YOU, the business owner, are the person best placed to interpret those stats!

Believe me when I say that I can relate to the eye rolling numbness that can overtake you when trying to make sense of all of those numbers, charts, and graphs — I am a designer by training — I like and understand pretty pictures, but numbers are my downfall!

The good news is that as Google and the other Search Engine become more and more focused on giving a web surfer a positive and useful internet experience, the tools that they are creating to do this are providing more and more interesting and useful data for those of us who are numerically challenged.

Long tail and organic search are our friends, and being an intuitive thinker is an advantage when following those stats.

The only way to learn to interpret your web site stats is to look at them regularly… and often. I liken it to watching a slow train wreck! LOL

Each time you look, the less fuzzy the overall picture will be! One of my long term goals for 2008 has been to watch my site stats carefully and regularly, and what I am observing has been a real eye opener.

I won't be teaching my Search, Search Engines and Web Site Statistics in June at TNNA, but the ebook covers most of the class material — you just don't have me at the front of the room nattering on! *VeryBigGrin*.

To encourage y'all to start following your site stats, I have given a special discount on the ebook.

Go here: http://surviveandconqueronline.com/Special.htm and use the coupon: AprilShowers

Feel free to pass the link and coupon along to others in the industries. I'll probably leave this offer up 'til the end of the month.

Sharing the Road to Success!

Tink

I got the letter last week…

I’ll be teaching at Columbus!

I submitted a large number of classes, so I am waiting for the official announcement about what I will be teaching. In January, I was scheduled to teach one class twice. It will be interesting to see if that is the case this time.

I DID submit several new classes — depending on which, if any, get chosen, I may be a busy bee, between now and then!

I really enjoy teaching at TNNA, so no matter what classes, I am looking forward to it.

I got an email last week from one of my January 2008 students. She said:

*quote*

I took your class about software for shopping carts at TNNA in Long Beach. Loved your class by the way, it was like taking a college class in 3 hrs. You rock. You’re so full of it!

*end quote*

Needless to say, I smiled for hours!

Sharing the Road to Success!

Tink

I just spent 5 days in CA at TNNA‘s Winter Market, answering lots of internet related questions and teaching a marathon of 3 hour classes about doing business online.

In the course of the show, I was asked many questions about doing business on the internet… in my classes, in the aisles, and at my booth. Often the questions are regarding how business is set up within common internet industry business models.

A common example is that most web designers handle all of the details regarding the web sites they design/develop, including registering the domain and providing the hosting. From the designer/developer’s point of view, this business model is very attractive and a good money producer.

However, from the point of view of a small business owner, this scenario can be fraught with many hidden dangers!

So… what do I do as a business consultant? Do I go with the flow and offer advice based on the common business models?

I always answer every question by first asking myself *What would I tell Lisa?*.

Lisa is my BF/Cousin and a single mom with 2 daughters in college and no financial help other than from her own business.

Lisa was the inspiration for my Disaster-Proof Your Online Business Survival Guide and Workbook.

She called me at midnight (my time) to say that she didn’t have access to her web site to change the registration for an offline workshop. Her workshops are the financial backbone of her business, so this was a MAJOR business crisis!

As it turned out, we were able to get the issues resolved. Lisa’s web developer had sent Lisa the important info when she changed web hosts, so SHE had acted responsibly. Lisa had carefully kept the email that was sent, even though she wasn’t sure exactly what it all meant, so SHE had acted responsibly.

The problems had arisen because Lisa had not realized the importance of being the person controlling the information, decision-making, and action-taking concerning her web site.

So, there you have Lisa’s story, but this post was actually prompted by a question on a quilt industry business group and the answer I gave.

Someone was asking which of two reputable companies she should entrust with her online business. She was looking at it from both the financial aspect, and from the point of view of the different services offered and benefits derived. These certainly are important considerations, but, in my opinion, they are not the deciding factors I would use to evaluate things if Lisa called with the same question…

Any way… what would I tell Lisa?

For a serious business person such as Lisa (meaning her family’s finances depend on the business), I would recommend that Lisa operate her web site from her own hosting account, being sure that LISA owns her domain AND the hosting account and that they are NOT with the same company.

If Lisa owns and controls the domain registration and hosting (at separate companies), she would be able to move her site to a different hosting company, should the need arise for whatever reason. While it may be a PITA, her business has an excellent chance of surviving long term…

If everything is is someone else’s hands, she would most likely be starting over from scratch.

If Lisa were to decide to use one of the above mentioned companies, I would tell her to register and maintain her domains herself. I would tell her to have the company involved tell her what the new nameservers need to be and then Lisa should go in and make the changes!

When it is YOUR business, YOU need to control ALL aspects of it, whether you are Lisa or some other business owner!

Most small business owners are clueless about the internet and it becomes easy to allow someone else to take control and *just handle it* . I tell my clients to think about this in the same way they think about their bank accounts. They may not know all of the Ins and Outs of banking, but they certainly make sure that they are in control!

Sharing the Road to Success!

Tink

I was working on one of my newest eBooks early this morning, in preparation for the class I’ll be teaching about it in January at TNNA.

The subject is Preparing Products for Presentation on the Web. Whoa! Try saying that 3 times – fast! I’m teaching only one session in Long Beach and the class is already half full.

My classes are in lecture format, so I put a high limit on the number of seats available– in this case, there are 50. Going by the enrollment figures, there is strong interest in the topic.

Most of the folks attending this class are not technologically sophisticated. I also know that in many cases, the attendee may not be the person who will be doing the actual work down the road.

Most of my intended audience consists of folks who own successful OFFLINE businesses that they are taking ONLINE. Every day they make business breaking decisions about the internet. Both literally and figuratively, *The buck stops there!*. Knowing all this, I am working very hard to explain the WHYs of doing something – not just the HOWs.

Today I had a blinding realization about the best way to approach the HOWs of doing business online and why the WHYs are soooo important..

There is a lot of information available about how to do business Online. Much of it is focused on solving specific problems and as a result it deals with the HOWs, which is appropriate.

However, for many Offline business owners, knowing WHY to do something gives them the knowledge they need to make the BEST decisions for their businesses about HOW to do it. Unfortunately, this is where everything starts to fall apart.

As we all know, the Internet is a technological marvel. It is technology personified. In addition, much of it also deals with technological subjects. For obvious reasons, most of the pundits are technology geeks (and I say this in a kind and loving way! LOL). As a natural progression, technology pervades almost all explanations regarding HOWs and WHYs, no matter the topic under discussion.

This is completely understandable… but not always a good thing for the unsuspecting, technologically challenged Offline business owner trying to make sound Online decisions!

What I realized this morning is that most business owners need WHYs that are Technologically Independent.

Technologically Independent? What in the world do I mean by that?

Technologically Independent means that the WHY question for any issue has been analyzed down to its most basic components.

Technologically Independent means it is a question that can be answered no matter what the current technology is and the answer will be reliable no matter what future technology entails.

Huh? Let me give a couple of examples to illustrate my point…

In my Product Preparation class, I will be discussing specific issues such as the commonly recognized need to optimize photographs for the internet. There is no point in putting up a print optimized picture of 300 dots per inch, if good resolution on a computer monitor is only in the 72-96 pixels per inch range.

The file for the 300 dpi picture is much larger than it needs to be, it will take longer to load, and there will be no appreciable improvement in picture quality.

This is an issue that most web site How To Manuals discuss and many of them explain ways to accomplish this in varying degrees of detail.

OK… that all makes sense, but let’s take a moment to look at two different ways to explain the WHY of it.

The Technologically Dependent version of WHY says:

Product images displayed on a web site should be optimized for a compute monitor, not for print reproduction on paper.

The Technologically Independent version of WHY says:

Product representations should be optimized for the medium/device on which they will be displayed/interpreted.

Let’s take a moment to analyze these two approaches in a bit more detail…

The Technologically Dependent version of WHY, stating that *product images displayed on a web site should be optimized for a compute monitor, not for print reproduction on paper* assumes the following:

1) The product is being represented by an image (at this time in technology, there is also an underlying assumption that the image will probably be 2 dimensional)
2) The image will be displayed on a computer monitor
3) The alternative version of the image is one that can be printed on paper

The Technologically Independent version of WHY, stating that *product representations should be optimized for the medium/device on which they will be displayed/interpreted* is taking the position that:

1) There is not a specific form of product representation being discussed.

We could be discussing a photo, a drawing, a video, a holographic representation, a psychically projected image or even some other type that doesn’t exist yet. Note that we are not assuming that the image is a 2 dimensional representation, either

2) The medium/device is unspecified

It could be a piece of paper, a computer monitor, a hand-held computing device, a device capable of receiving a projection of some kind, or anything else that future technology may involve!

3) There is no alternative version of the image under discussion

… the WHY has been distilled to its simplest form.

Another example from my Product Preparation discussion concerns one of the two elements needed to successfully sell products.

The Technologically Dependent version of that element states:

To successfully sell products Online, you need an effective, functional web site / blog

This assumes:

1) The product’s sales vehicle is the internet

2) The delivery method to be used on the internet is a web site / blog

The Technologically Independent version of that element states:

To successfully sell products, you need an effective, functional presentation

This can be applied to printing on paper, billboards, audio, video, holographic or psychic projection, or any method or technology that hasn’t even been dreamed – yet.

If the WHY has been reduced to a Technologically Independent analysis, it can be applied to whatever technology is out there, now or in the future.

This means that the astute business person (either Offline or Online) has a fighting chance of being able to decide what is best for his or her business. It is not necessary to understand the ins and outs of the technology in question. Once the decision has been made, knowledgeable tech people can be hired to implement that decision!

So… what does a savvy, but overwhelmed business owner need to do?

When you are looking for HOWs to solve problems, take the time to find the WHYs, if possible. When you are studying the WHY, try to distill it down to a Technologically Independent explanation.

Technology is changing fast and furiously. Your time is valuable. Seeking out a HOW answer and ignoring the WHY will mean that a year or two down the road you will be looking for another HOW about the newest technology. In many cases, the WHY behind the two HOWs may actually be the same!

Life is short, don’t keep doing the same work over and over!

Sharing the Road to Success,

Tink

*****
Tink Boord-Dill uses her many years online, her carefully honed problem-solving skills, and her ability to explain complicated issues in an easy to understand fashion to help Offline Business Owners put their businesses Online, successfully.

Visit her online at MarketingEdgeForYarnAndThread.com and read her column, TechSupport, in American Quilt Retailer Magazine.
*****

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One of the biggest barriers to Online success is applying Offline reasoning to Online situations– incorrectly.

Online marketing (and selling) is very complex and all of us are looking for ways to decipher its complexity. One tempting method is to look for parallels between the Offline and Online worlds and then apply that Offline reasoning to Online situations.

Now, as a former Theater Scene Designer, I was trained to use metaphor as a problem solving tool. Comparing apples to apples can be very effective, but in many cases, applying Offline reasoning to Online problems is more like comparing apples to screwdrivers.

What brought this to mind was hearing (third hand, I will admit) about a company that is planning on selling digital products online. OK… that is good. I sell digital products online and know that it is a viable business model.

What concerned me was hearing (again, third hand) that this company did not plan to show the book pricing until the item is added to the shopping cart.

As it was explained to me, the reason was that they were following the example of “real books” whose pricing is located either on the back or inside the front jacket, so viewing the price requires a little work.

Hmmmm… OK, let’s think about this…

I see this as faulty logic for three reasons. (Truth be told, I quit looking after these three, because I had other things I needed to do. LOL)

My thoughts —

Problem #1 – Following the example of “real books” only works if you understand WHY it is that way and your product and its selling mechanism are the same as “real books”.

With real books, putting the price on the back or inside the front jacket encourages the shopper to pick up the books. Many times this leads to looking more closely at the book, opening it and reading an excerpt, looking at the table of contents, the index, or, better yet, any illustrations.

The potential customer is interacting with the book, building a relationship with the book, and once that happens is more likely to want to give it a good home (meaning purchase it, for any of you poor souls who are not *book people* … smile…)

With a digital product, displayed online, this won’t happen…

While a digital product may have the same intellectual content as a physical printed version, the differences in its physical manifestation – it is a file on a computer, not a physical book– make this an excellent example of comparing apples to screwdrivers.

Problem #2 – Pricing on digital products can vary greatly.

With a physical product, it is easy to guess a ballpark price.

I don’t expect to pay the same for a beat-up second hand paperback book as I would for the newest, large, lavishly illustrated and beautifully printed coffee table book.

Pricing digital products is much less obvious. Often it is difficult to separate the issues of physical creation and manufacturing costs from the value of the intellectual property that the digital product contains. As a result, it is very difficult to predict accurately what the product cost will be.

Problem #3 – Online purchasers are wary about being taken advantage of or scammed.

Many folks are not aware that it is safe to back out of a purchase even after you have products in an online shopping cart.

Many are afraid that simply starting the transaction will commit them. Will they be willing to start the process, simply to find out the price? I doubt it!

One of the most important elements of successful online selling is creating customer comfort and trust. For that reason, it is important that an online merchant provide open and comprehensive information about a transaction BEFORE the transaction begins. This includes information such as a detailed description of the item, photograph of the item (if applicable), the format/size of the item, shipping charges, exactly how the transaction will take place AND the product’s price!

I believe that asking the customer to start the transaction before establishing the price is a poor marketing strategy.

Thinks of how differences between countries and cultures can affect business. In some parts of the world, black is the color of mourning, in others, white is worn to honor the dead. To someone wishing to show proper respect, wearing the wrong clothing can send a disrespectful message nonetheless.

There are many knowledgeable Offline business people who are moving Online and bringing with them a wealth of knowledge and breadth of experience from which all of us benefit.

The danger lies in NOT recognizing that Online is a very different universe than Offline. It is important to learn about this new Online world before incorrectly applying business principles from the old Offline world.

Sharing the Road to Success,

Tink