First Scribe Web Design & Technology Blog

First Scribe is Omniture Support Certified

2008-05-09T22:12:00.003-06:00

Our staff recently spent a week in training at Omniture University in their headquarters in Orem, UT. At the end of the week we passed the certification process to attain the Omniture Partners-only designation Omniture Certified Professional: Support.

Omniture Agency Partner

First Scribe is the only certified Omniture Agency in the Minneapolis or Minnesota. We hold the highest level of agency certifications available from Omniture.

Our SiteCatalyst Support and Implementation certifications means that we are a full-service Omniture provider.

Yahoo Looking For Love

2008-05-06T08:29:00.005-06:00

Yahoo is stuck right between a rock and the hard place. Their stock prices, market share and respect are sinking. Meanwhile Microsoft stopped courting the princess...

Floundering In The Search Pool

The First Scribe team has been unhappy with Yahoo search for a few years. We feel their search technology is weak and ROI from Yahoo falls well behind other traffic sources.

Obviously, we were happy to watch as Microsoft made moves to acquire Yahoo in late 2007 and early 2008. Those efforts failed so now Microsoft appears to be standing by, waiting for Yahoo to drown before they swoop in for a last-minute, white-knight maneuver.

Venture capitalist Todd Dagres of Spark Capital likened this approach to that of a crocodile. "Rather than try to eat its prey while it's warm and tough, (Microsoft is) dragging it down to the bottom of the river, sticking it under a rock and eating it later when it's cold and soft," he said.

What does this all mean to us?

All we can do is speculate but we've heard a few rumors that could greatly change the picture if they bear fruit:

Yahoo to hand over ad space to Google

While this will probably equate to better PPC ROI, it will certainly harm Yahoo's already poor standing with advertisers.

Yahoo to merge with AOL

AOL is also facing difficult times. A merger between Yahoo and AOL could create a significant force.
A healthy merger creates a new way to target demographics missed by Google.

Does Yahoo Prefer Yahoo Cart Sites?

2008-05-01T14:47:00.003-06:00

Does Yahoo prefer shopping carts in the Yahoo store environment?

We've heard this issue in quite a few circles for 2 specific arguments:

· The Yahoo engine prefers the Yahoo cart.

· A Yahoo cart won’t work in Google SEO.

While both of these points may have an amount of truth to them, neither of these arguments appear to us to be *true enough* for concern. That is to say, we aren’t concerned with the Yahoo search engine, per se. And we have Yahoo carts that perform nicely in Google.

Google is the engine of choice

Google holds the Lion's share of market value and that trend grows every year. For our clients’ sites, across product vertical, Average revenue per visitor is higher for visits from Google vs. Yahoo.

We will work through the Yahoo cart as if it’s just another website. However, we migrate people off the Yahoo cart at every opportunity. The cart is difficult to use; it is a quantifiable hindrance to Google SEO; and the backend admin area is difficult.

Does Yahoo Prefer Yahoo Cart Sites?

Not necessarily. The Cart seems to have nothing to do with this question. The answer boils down to how well the site is optimized in general. Here is a Yahoo cart site that we are watching. Their site ranks better in Google than it does in Yahoo:

	Google	Yahoo	Change

Name	1	1	0
	2	2	0

Keyword 1	5	Not in first 30.	26


Keyword 2	10	Not in first 30.	21
	14	Not in first 30.	17

Keyword 3	18	2	(16)
	23		7

Keyword 4	1	Not in first 30.	30
	2	Not in first 30.	29

Keyword 5	4	Not in first 30.	26


Keyword 6	Not in first 30.	21	(9)


Primary Keyword	1	14	13


Keyword 7	23	11	(12)


Keyword 8	12	8	(4)
	13		17


Keyword 9	11	4	(7)





Keyword 10	6	3	(3)
	15		15

Keyword 11	2	3	1


Keyword 12	6	2	(4)
			147

Summary:

This client is concerned about moving from the Yahoo cart to an eCommerce Platform but they are worried that their revenue will suffer. Yahoo is their number 2 source of revenue and they don't want to lose that share.

We don’t in any way doubt that a large portion of their business is derived from Yahoo visitors. The Yahoo demographic matches nicely with people who would go out and buy their product line.

What is the real question?

The real question is different than they think…

It would be really nice to know if revenue per visitor is higher from Yahoo versus Google. If the average is the same, then open up Google traffic and forget about Yahoo.

Yahoo traffic and revenue might well suffer with a push in Google. But the net gain should be a significant increase in revenue.

Google Crawling Past HTML Forms

2008-04-17T13:10:00.004-06:00

Regular readers of our blog will probably attest to the idea that we are big proponents of the Google search engine. Let's face it, we abide by Google's suggested rules of engagements and our efforts result in quality listings for our clients.

It is rare that we speak negatively of the Google "system" outside of rising Pay Per Click costs and a general lack of competition.

We have a new gripe.

Google Is Crawling Past HTML Forms

A recent post to the Google Webmaster Central Blog tells all about how Google is programming their spider to explore content behind HTML forms. The main reason for this work is to "discover new web pages and URLs that we otherwise couldn't find and index..."

They go on to speak about adhering to good Internet citizenry practices such as following noindex, nofollow, and robots.txt directives. They obviously won't get past a login form but they will quickly bypass a GET form pointing to database results.

This is an SEO nightmare.

Optimized Your Post-Form Pages Much?

If you've done your homework, your database site has a navigational flow to the deep content that you want indexed. Your .php and .asp form results are undoubtedly pure user functionality with little care to metatags and headers.

The forms are just a way for your visitors to get right to the goods, right?

Well, now your non-optimized, form-result pages with non-specific metatags (if they exist) are available to the Googlebot.

Don't build pages for Google!

How many times have you heard that statement? Don't build content for Google. Don't optimize content for Google. Yeah, right.

By definition their search engine looks for, and appropriately ranks, relevant content. The only way that content gets relevant is if someone makes it relevant. They're about to climb through some forms and find a wealth of unoptimized, irrelevant trash.

In their own words, "This experiment is part of Google's broader effort to increase its coverage of the web."

Unfortunately this effort will uncover some real garbage. I have a feeling most of that garbage is titled "Search Results".

Ken Spends Time With Babe Winkelman!

2008-04-09T14:37:00.007-06:00

I had the chance of a lifetime this week when prominent Rochester Goose Guide and friend, Dean Tlougan, invited me to hunt with his group in De Smet, SD. Tlougan is the owner of Premier Flight Guide Service out of Rochester, MN.

Tlougan's guides were charged with taking Babe Winkelman to South Dakota to film a program about Snow Geese.

Snow Geese

Snow Geese are heavily over-populated in Canada and they are destroying large areas of the tundra. Spring hunting is encouraged as wildlife biologists attempt to lower the population.

A Rare Chance To Meet A Celebrity

I am an avid hunter and I grew up watching all the hunting and fishing shows on TV. I especially like the format by Babe Winkelman and company.

Winkelman's programs are much more about conservation and enjoying the outdoors with your family versus the classic "kill" shows on cable TV. His wife Kris is often present in his shows, as is his 11-year-old daughter Karlee.

The Winkelmans really seem to be having fun enjoying the outdoors.

Truth In Advertising

The Winkelmans are downright good people. They have fun and genuinely enjoy what they do.

Over 3 days we hunted hard, ate a lot of junk food and we had a lot to fun. We tried hard but we didn't have an affect on the population of snow geese.

Nate and James, our camera crew, filmed a great deal and they hopefully have enough to make a show of our adventure!

Kudos

Great kudos to Dean Tlougan and his staff at Premier Flight for a great weekend.

Thanks to the developers of Reel Wings and Flagman decoys for giving us the opportunity to field test their latest products. Maybe they can send Ken some more products to "test"!!!

And a special note to Kris and Karlee Winkelman. I can't believe they put up with the weather, boredom, and locker-room talk for 3 days. They complained less than Nate the cameraman!

A Web Application Developer Joins First Scribe

2008-04-02T16:11:00.005-06:00

My name is John Malone. I’ve just come on board here at First Scribe as a web application developer and I am stoked to be at such a dynamic and energetic company. I will be leading the wave of new web application development for our company.

I received my BS in Computer Science from the University of San Francisco right when the Dot.com bubble burst. It was brutal to watch, but I learned a lot about how the web works, or doesn’t in that case. After a stint with a non-profit publishing company, I joined up with the US Peace Corps. I served almost two years in the beautiful country of Samoa teaching computer studies in various secondary schools. It was a crazy, hot, exhausting experience, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. But I can tell you from first had experience that you can in fact get tired of hanging out on the beach.

Once I got off the island, I worked as a web application developer and software engineer on various projects from brochure sites, large scale e-commerce sites, and foreign currency arbitrage. I come to First Scribe from MoCo, Inc where I was a web developer and project manager.

I will be assisting Jason Barney with the numerous development projects in First Scribe’s hopper, always with an eye on creating bigger, better, faster, and leaner web applications. I bring with me intimate knowledge of PHP, Agile Development, Test-Drive Development and the Symfonyframework. Now I just hope I can keep up with these guys.

First Scribe is Omniture Certified

2008-03-26T15:09:00.006-06:00

We have spent the last 4 months training on the Omniture platform and migrating our NetTracker clients to Omniture SiteCatalyst.

Our efforts paid off this week with the official stamp of Omniture Certified Professional: Implementation.

Omniture SiteCatalyst v13.5 (Traffic Analysis Software) –

The official word:

Omniture is the worlds leading analytics provider and provides analytics solutions to premier companies such as Microsoft, Wal-Mart, General Motors, Sears, PayPal, Major League Baseball, GAP, etc.

Omniture SiteCatalyst™ provides organizations with actionable, real-time intelligence regarding their online strategies and marketing initiatives. Omniture SiteCatalyst helps organizations quickly identify and understand the most profitable paths through their Web sites, where visitors are dropping off, what's driving critical success events, and how different segments of visitors interact with the Web site.

What does it mean for First Scribe -

Omniture SiteCatalyst takes a revolutionary approach to traffic analysis – It collects everything. We administer the software to track all data relevant to the website audience. In most cases we zoom in on all points between entry to the website and eventual action resulting in a purchase or booking.

Omniture SearchCenter V3 –

Omniture SearchCenter is unlike any other product we have reviewed. The software ties Pay Per Click(PPC) efforts to website performance like no other we have ever seen. Simply stated –

If something positive happens on the website, SearchCenter is able to take action in PPC. We create a business rule in SearchCenter and the software automatically controls our Pay Per Click efforts as the rule fits. We over-see the process but SearchCenter automates the daily efforts.

For instance – We tell SearchCenter to decrease the ad spend of each keyword that does not directly lead to contacts or orders.

The Old Way -

Many types of software exists to control PPC terms based upon click-through. But does a high click-through rate actually show profitability?

SearchCenter will control PPC based upon the highest Return On Ad Spend. No other tools are so complete.

We can assure you - there will be much more to come.

Another Search Engine Gives Up

2008-03-06T10:39:00.004-06:00

What is it about the "Winter Blues" that causes search engines to give up the race with Google?

Yahoo Gives Up

January, 2006 - Yahoo concedes 2nd place:

“We don’t think it’s reasonable to assume we’re going to gain a lot of share from Google,” Chief Financial Officer Susan Decker said in an interview. “It’s not our goal to be No. 1 in Internet search. We would be very happy to maintain our market share.” (Story)

As it turns out they lost significant market share in 2006 and 2007. Now they're fending off takeover attempts by MSN and others.

Ask.com Gives Up

March, 2008 - Ask.com Abandons Chase

We were excited to see Ask.com abandon the old "Ask Jeeves" look and feel in 2007. They shifted their aim to become a quality all-purpose search engine with relevant results. Their efforts were noticeable in the search engine rankings and we shifted efforts to their engine.

That is no longer the case. Yesterday they announced they have shifted gears. The new target is on "finding answers to basic questions about recipes, hobbies, children's homework, entertainment and health." (CNN.com Story)

We are very disappointed with this turn of events.

Disappointment

Google is a good search engine and we rely on their relevant results. Unfortunately they have a monopoly within the search industry and it has (and will) stifle innovation through competition.

Cost per click rates continue to sky-rocket as competition falls to the way-side.

First Scribe Designs AJAX Drag and Drop Application for Suttle

2008-02-20T22:23:00.005-06:00

Suttle teamed up again with First Scribe to create a unique online application which allows users to virtually drag and drop Suttle’s SOHO Access™ structured wiring modules and position them in an enclosure of their choosing. The application allows users to then purchase their entire configuration online or print/email a bill of materials.

"The intuitive design of this exciting new resource makes it almost effortless for designers or installers to plan and layout their structured wiring system," remarked Jay Kilby, Director of Marketing. "This creates value for the installer by not only saving them time and money, but also simplifying the buying process."

The configuration tools is entirely AJAX based and built using a combination of JavaScript Frameworks from several sources, including Prototype and script.aculo.us. It’s powered by a custom PHP back-end and interfaces with an OSCommerce based cart installation. AJAX based web applications allow for a plug-in free interactive user experience that is at the heart of Web 2.0.

Mac OS X market share continues to rise

2008-02-03T09:02:00.000-06:00

According to this Apple 2.0 Blog over at CNN Apple's OS X operating system continued it's trend of taking market share from rival Microsoft. While Microsoft still maintains 91% market share each year Apple and Open Source alternatives continue to cut into the software giant's territory by providing consumers and businesses with feature-rich, low cost alternatives that perform better than the Microsoft counterparts.

I think Apple's combination of a robust operating system, high quality hardware, and solid marketing will see that this trend continues.

SEO Isn't Just Metatags

2008-01-02T19:31:00.000-06:00

What do you think of when you hear or read the acronym SEO? Is it good metatags? Rich content and links? Or maybe Pay Per Clicks (PPCs)? Well if you put all those together in your website you would have what I might have said was good SEO.

That was until I joined the First Scribe Team. I knew when I accepted my position with them I would have the opportunity to learn and grow as a web developer but never thought I would see so many new ideas and techniques in the realm of SEO.

While some of it is a "Why didn't I think of that?" type of scenario, there a lot of technical, behind the scenes, ways to improve websites that I didn't know about.

Savvy Visitors

As the Internet matures and users become more sophisticated, sites that used to perform well just don't rank as high as they used to. It is far more than looking pretty and giving users enough information to buy something from you. It doesn't mean anything unless the user can find your site.

Let's be honest here for a moment -- When was the last time you searched for something and you went past the first page of results from your favorite search engine? Once or twice, maybe. If you didn't find what you were looking for on the first page, you probably went back to your search terms and modified them.

SEO Works

I have looked at traffic reports from some sites that this team has taken over and improved from an SEO standpoint. The results are remarkable. I can say I have never seen such a drastic improvement in traffic in such a short period of time. All due to the SEO techniques used here at First Scribe.

AOL Drops Netscape Development

2008-01-02T09:40:00.000-06:00

AOL is planning to stop all development on the Netscape browser beginning February 1, 2008.

Netscape spent the mid 1990s at the top of the heap of web browsers holding a 90% share in users. By the end of 2006 the usage share of Netscape browsers fell to less than 1% of total users and the end was in sight.

We are sad to see the end of the Netscape era. Competition is sorely needed in the browser ranks and this signifies the end of a quality player.

The First Scribe folks rely heavily on the Mozilla Firefox browser for every-day use. Firefox provides good usability, solid security as well as HTML standards.

We take pride in testing all sites on Mac and Windows in Internet Explorer 6 and 7 as well as Firefox and Safari.

Most Popular Google Searches

2008-01-02T09:05:00.000-06:00

Each year we Internet Marketing types take a break after New Year's to blog about some of our findings from the previous year. A "2007 post-game show" as it were.

No single organization provides us with more Post-game fodder than Google and Google's 2007 Zeitgeist is no exception. What better way to decipher the past year than through the keywords entered into the largest search tool in history?

Our favorite tidbits from 2007:

Top "How To" questions - "What is Love" search volume eclipsed "How to Kiss".
"How to Levitate" makes the list! If Google can define love then it can teach you to levitate also...
Viral marketing works - Transformers is a top keyword for 2007. Producers created stunning visuals, enticing commercials and a viral marketing tactic for their target audience. They created a web interface where visitors could submit a web form and servers would deliver a customized message to a cell phone, directly from Optimus Prime. The interface has been off their site for over a month and people are still searching for the form.
Kids are in charge - Hannah Montana search volume makes the Rolling Stones tour look like it is - over...
The iPhone - The iPhone is everywhere.

Happy New Year from all of us at First Scribe!

Craig Davis Joins First Scribe

2007-12-21T13:22:00.000-06:00

We are happy to announce the arrival of Craig Davis as our newest member to the First Scribe team. Craig is a welcome addition to the web development and search engine optimization teams.

Craig joins us from the mountains of Colorado after spending 4.5 years with Blizzard Internet Marketing.

A lot of people say they know search engine optimization when they really do not. Therefore it's a relief for us when we can find someone who is actually experienced in SEO. Craig is one of those people.

How do we know? Our Lead SEO, Ken Kralick, was the manager who hired Craig to work for Blizzard Internet in 2003. We heard the news that Craig was no longer at Blizzard and moved quickly to add him to our team.

Craig's Experience

Craig received a certificate in Computer Information Systems from Regis College and spent 15 years working for IBM as an Application Programmer on LEASCALC, a program used to calculate hardware and software lease options and rates.

Five years ago he went back to school to learn web design and he's been expanding ever since.

He started working in the Design Department at Blizzard in 2003. He worked in design, development and optimization before being promoted to positions in management and marketing in 2005.

He really enjoys the web world because it is a blend of different skills - creativity, attention to detail, customer service and support, and technical knowledge - and not just writing code, as he did with IBM.

Welcome aboard Craig!

First Scribe is Growing!

2007-12-20T16:55:00.000-06:00

We trust you have noticed some new names and faces at First Scribe this year.

John Keller joined us back in September.

John has various degrees and certificates in business and web development from St. Cloud State, MCAD and Brown College. His skills have quickly been put to use in the area of Internet Marketing for First Scribe.

John will be updating and optimizing websites, submitting directory submissions and performing other Search Engine Marketing duties as his repertoire expands.

John spent 7 years working for Target corporate performing various business functions. Our small company is a big change in philosophy from Target Corp. but John's fitting in nicely.

Thanks to all of our clients for making 2007 a very busy year for us. We look forward to an exciting year in 2008!

First Scribe Holiday Closure Information

2007-12-11T14:30:00.000-06:00

First Scribe will be closed in observance of the holidays on the following dates:

Monday, December 24th
Tuesday, December 25th
Tuesday, January 1st

Please also be aware that you should expect limited services on Wednesday, December 26th and Monday, December 31st.

Servers are monitored 24/7, regardless of office closures. For our VIP clients, First Scribe Support will operate on emergency weekend services. If you should have a hosting emergency, please contact the technical support staff via the contact information listed in your hosting agreement.

All non-emergency calls left at 952-915-1600 will be returned on the next business day.

Happy Holidays from the staff at First Scribe!

Christmas Sales Building - Will It Be Enough?

2007-12-10T11:19:00.000-06:00

Cyber Monday proved to be the start of a high-traffic week with lackluster conversions for our clients. Thanksgiving kicked off a flurry of excited shopping but it appears American wallets are pinched and shoppers are looking for discounts.

The Official Word On The Street

Internet research company comScore Inc. reported this week that total online spending from Nov. 1 - Dec. 7 has reached more than $18 billion, up 18 percent from the same period a year ago.

"It was a terrific kick-start to December, but we expect the upcoming week to be the heaviest online spending week of the holiday season as the procrastinators and late-season deal-seekers come out in earnest," comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni said in a written statement.

Our Numbers Are Growing

We are seeing online Click Through Rates and Sales Conversion numbers increasing as we approach Christmas. The Monday nearest Dec. 15th generally proves to be the peak of online shopping. The 18th should prove the peak of Christmas shopping in 2007.

Trim The Fat

As we stated in our last post, now is the time to trim the fat from your marketing campaigns. You should have enough data in your PPC campaigns to know what is working and what is not. Cut anything that isn't working - put the money where the buyers are.

Use your traffic data to turn any "Red" marketing efforts into the "Black".

Marketing Tip:

Think Accessories - 2007 budgets are tight so make sure you're selling pushing your accessories and add-ons.

Writing Effective PPC Ad Copy at Christmas

2007-12-05T10:20:00.000-06:00

Christmas season is the time for buying online but you need to be smart about your tactics. For online retail sites, traffic is often 50% higher this time of year than any other time. If you aren't careful, your traffic (and ad spend) will raise significantly but it may not lead to sales.

Branding Issues

We often run PPC ads for vanity search terms throughout the year for branding purposes. This practice will often lose effectiveness *for product manufacturers* around this time of year.

Why?

It's difficult to say exactly but I can tell you one thing - we've noticed traffic on the terms go up sharply and the sales rarely follow. ROI drops sharply.

Remember, you don't need to spend PPC money on branding *if* you are #1 on your name in organic listings.

Reconcile Your Data

Example: You may drive more traffic and eventually sell more men's product than women's by a good margin.

Are men buying the men's product? Are you sure?

Christmas time in the fashion industry tends to show women searching men's terms and buying men's product.

So, why do we care? Ad copy, ad copy, ad copy...

Women shoppers have different hot buttons versus men. You need to check the invoices against your traffic and PPC data. Then, write multiple ads around all the hot buttons and refine it every day.

Google PageRank Algorithm Change

2007-11-13T14:54:00.000-06:00

It appears that Google has updated their algorithm behind the PageRank (PR) bar in the Google Toolbar.

This would appear to be the second time they have worked on the PR algorithm in the last 2 years. The previous update did little other than dropping PR across the board. This change is targeted and has some marketing folks in a tail-spin.

Bad Links

According to Matt Cutts, a Google insider, the algorithm change is targeting "bad links". Google repeatedly says that you should not rely on traded and purchased links to boost your PageRank. They say that the best links are one way and freely given.

I'm here to tell you that idea works really well for Google but it rarely happens in reality...

How should you react?

If you are actively buying or trading links via an affiliate program you need to reconsider and quick. Google is highly sophisticated and they can tell if links to and from your site are mixed in with links to gambling, porn, cartographers, etc.

Do you sell Adsense content-network ads on your site? It's possible you will see a PR drop for links outside of your industry...

How Will First Scribe React?

We won't. We don't sell or trade links. We are listed in some small business directories and I can't see that as a negative impact on our site.

Our PR has fluctuated between a 5/10 and a 6/10 over the last 4 weeks. I'm seeing similar fluctuations on our competitions' sites so I'm not alarmed.

Interestingly enough - our organic search engine rankings increased as our PR moved. Some competitors are no longer on the first page...

Is it permanent?

Yes and No.

The change happened some time in the Sept. or Oct. and they will undoubtedly tweak it again this quarter. Google often makes algorithm changes that over-reach the target and then they tweak it back.

New Staff Member Introduced to SEO

2007-11-01T13:19:00.000-06:00

Before I started working at First Scribe Inc., I thought I knew almost everything there was to know when it came to web design and web development. I didn’t know the importance behind SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

There is a science to integrated web development SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Future clients of First Scribe Inc. should understand the importance of search engines and how search engines correlate to the success of their online presence. To put it simply, if the search engine can’t find your website, a potential customer won’t find your website either.

Not only does your website need to look inviting to a potential customer with immediate calls to action. Your website needs to be search engine optimized. Some First Scribe Inc. clients have us optimize their website; others prefer not to have us optimize their website.

The First Scribe Inc. clients that have their website optimized by the First Scribe Inc. team have seen increases in online sales/leads that they have never dreamed of.

If you have an online business and you are wondering why your website isn’t generating sales/leads like you expected. Ask yourself this question; “If a search engine can’t find my website, will a potential customer find my website?”

The answer to that question is a simple "No".

Vista Fails to Penetrate Business Sector

2007-10-10T11:46:00.000-06:00

Sunbelt Software, makers of the corporate anti-spyware product Counterspy Enterprise, recently released statistics indicating Windows Vista's penetration into the business sector. In their sample audience, which was generally composed of small and medium businesses and included windows only PC's, Vista adoption was a mere 0.32%. Windows XP has the lion's share (82.91%) followed by Windows 2000 (14.88%) and Windows Server 2003 (1.83%).

There are many opinions as to why this may be the case. While I can't speak for the industry in general from our experience Vista's small value add of a sleeker user interface provides very little business value considering it comes at the cost of Vista's aggressive hardware requirements, slow performance, obtrusive user account management, general incompatibilities, and poor backup utility.

With Vista's poor adoption, Apple's upcoming release of OS X Leopard at the end of October, and new distros (versions) of Linux shipping with a true, 3D accelerated user interface (Compix-Fusion) it should prove to be an interesting time for the desktop computer industry as a whole. Even PC manufacturing giant Dell has started to release desktop computers with Ubuntu, a very popular and user friendly version of Linux. Hopefully as more and more software becomes available for these non-Microsoft platforms companies will actually be able to choose which operating system they want to run rather than have the market dictate it for them.

Windows Statistics

Make your message clear

2007-09-27T14:47:00.000-06:00

What do you sell? Does your website scream the message?

Today I was told about a 70-year-old CEO who didn't like the new design of his home page. The feature areas didn't have enough "meat" for him. He much prefered a 4th level page of the site comprised of 8 paragraphs of technical content speaking about his product. Text...

How presumptious to think that early visitors care what you have to say until you prove yourself. If you want to sell on the Internet, you need to push your vanity aside and provide for the audience.

Qualify before you speak!

There are many metaphors that say the same thing -- Let them look around before you tackle visitors with information. Don't presume to know what they want until you qualify.

Visitors to a website are like shoppers at WalMart coming in from the rain. They may be buyers or they may be seeking shelter in your magazine aisle. Either way, in their mind, it's easier to head right back out the door than deal with an over-zealous sales pitch 10 seconds in.

Your website is the same. Realize what you are doing if you fill your home page with too much content. You are pitching them a white paper while they are shaking off the rain.

Stores have Aisles

If clients come in for soup you've insulted them by showing hair nets, motor oil, fruit juice, mascara, and push pins all at the same time.

WHERE'S THE SOUP!!!

Too late, they left!

Fix your home page before your next customer comes in. Organize your content and save the sales pitch until they've qualified.