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THIS WEEK
What I Wish I Had Known About Websites When I Was Just Starting Out
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
| What I Wish I Had Known About Websites When I Was Just Starting Out |
I have been around computers for years (I will show my age here - I started out hand-marking cardboard program cards for Fortran back at Uni in the 1980's), but only really started to embrace websites in the past 5 years.
As I have learnt and grown there is a pile of stuff that I wish I had known about websites when I was first starting out. Recently a number of start-ups have been asking my advice for beginners, so here are a few of the things I wished I had known when I was starting.
Domain names and web hosting are two different things
Starting from the simplest things – your domain name is just like your registered business name. It is the name of your business on the web. It can be your regular business name or it can be your keyword or keywords.
Your web hosting is the electronic equivalent of the landlord who leases you office space for your business. Your web host is the location where your business lives.
The other big lesson about domain names and web hosts is it pays to shop around. You can and will save thousands per year by doing your own research. Check out the forums and reviews for the most reliable companies with the best prices. Don't take your web developer's word as gospel – generally they want to sell you their own package (with a huge cut in it for them).
The other thing I wish I had known is to buy more bandwidth, email accounts and domains than you think you will need. 1GB storage, 3 emails and only 1 domain will get you nowhere fast and if you are like me you will max it out at the most inconvenient time.
I use Hostgator and couldn't be happier with the service, price and reliability. It's not that big a deal to change your hosting. If you find a good one, they will manage the transfer for you, making it all quite seamless.
 80% of all web designers don't know what they are doing (but will charge you a fortune to do it)
This is the most frustrating thing I have learnt. Most web designers (especially the ones at the budget end of the market) cannot build a website that will generate good search engine rankings if their life depended on it. They have absolutely no clue about SEO (search engine optimisation) and will sell you designs that are search engine poison.
The problem is most of them can talk a good fight and will baffle you with jargon that hides that they have no idea what they are doing. You may get an attractive site, but it has no way to be found in search engines.
Here is the ultimate example. One of the most stunningly beautiful websites that I have seen in ages ... that is the biggest disaster of all time. It will never rate in search engines ... which means clients will never find them. http://www.ethosthespa.com/. This is the perfect example of what I am talking about. The site is all in flash, the keywords are useless and there are no decent metatags. And it would have cost the poor business many thousands of dollars to do.
If any of your web designers tell you it will take at least 6-12 months for search engines to find you – run away. A good SEO designer can have you ranking in search engines in less than a week.
If your designer insists they will make all the edits for you and that you can't do it – sack them. They are just trying to keep you hooked in to them.
If your designer insists on building you your own personal programs to run the back end of your database, newsletter or autoresponder – generally they are ripping you off just to make you stay with them. Leave now.
If you have been caught out – don't panic! You can choose a new web developer to update your site or hire an SEO expert to go over your site and improve things. If you are not sure who to hire I have a few fantastic ones in my links pages that I know get brilliant results.
Good SEO Copy is vital to your website
Your website has 2 audiences – humans and search engines. Unless you write in a way that search engines like and "get", your human audience will never find you to read your information. But ... if you write only for search engines, then it will appear stilted and unnatural.
You need to write your copy so that it is persuasive to both humans AND search engines. This is an art form and a science that takes many years to master.
Most copywriters are not trained in SEO, so while you may get great persuasive copy for your human readers, you may not get the search engine results you are looking for. A good SEO copywriter (from Heart Harmony) will cost you, but they are worth the investment in terms of business and search engine results.
 Buy pre-packaged rather than tailor made
Wherever possible buy commercial pre-packaged products for things like your auto-responders, affiliate programs, shopping carts, newsletter broadcasts.
This means that the bugs in the programs generally have been ironed out before you get to them, they work with the features that you want and need, and they are cheaper!
They also make it easier for you to change designers over the years and won't keep you hooked into expensive monthly designer "maintenance" fees.
The most critical piece is your auto-responder. You get one shot at choosing the right one, as every time you change your auto-responder program due to tough anti-spam laws, all of your lists must elect to resubscribe to your mailing list. You can kiss up to 75% of your list good bye each time you shift.
I use Get Response.com for my autoresponder and am about 90% happy with it. There are a few quirks that bug me, but in general it does what I need it to do at a great price.
I have also cobbled together all of the other parts of my back-end software ... but it has taken me many many late nights and weeks of work to have it all integrate.
If I was starting all again tomorrow I would choose 1shoppingcart as it has everything already done (and yes it costs more, but it is worth it if you don't want to fiddle with the techno end of the website!)
Akismet and Captcha are your best friends
If you have any forms on your website, comments sections on your blog or other methods of interactivity, insist on some form of human identification such as Akismet or Captcha. They are the boxes down the bottom that ask you to type in the letters you can see (or hear).
75% of all comments on blogs these days are spam. Akismet or Captcha reduces the number you see, so you are not manually deleting them every few minutes.
If you don't have something like these on your website and you have a form, expect your email box to attract the attention of spammers when their robots (yes they have their own versions of spiders out looking for vulnerable sites) find your address. I didn't know this to start with and am dealing with the consequences!
Host your own blog on your own website
Blogs are brilliant – but don't be tempted to host your blog on a site such as Wordpress or Blogger. If you are going to go to the trouble of hosting a blog, do it on your own site (and not just publish to your site).
I used to use Blogger and publish to my website via FTP. My blog rated a 4 on Google, but all the Google juice was directed to Blogger (and not me). By moving to my website I have lost all of the lovely rankings, even though I have redirects in place. It is painful, but I need to rebuild all of my hard work.
You CAN learn to do it yourself
There are piles of courses out there to help you learn – some are great and some are very expensive wastes of time. The Thirty Day Challenge is still the best training on the net (and it's free).Complete the challenge before you sign up for any other course – you will be eternally grateful that you did! 
| HR Tip - Retaining women on maternity leave |
 Many women in business who go on maternity leave feel disengaged from their business while on leave.
When they return they no longer feel part of the business, feel they are being left out of decisions and often tend to leave for another company. Some great workers walk out the door as a result.
But it doesn't have to be that way! Some simple strategies you can put in place to help retain women who are pregnant and who go on maternity leave include:
- Talk with them as soon as you know they are pregnant, explaining their rights and how you are willing to help them while they are pregnant and beyond
- Help them think through information they may need such as social security & childcare (I used to provide all my mums to be with a special maternity pack with government agency information).
- Before they go on leave sit with them and ask them what information they would like to receive while they are on leave. Do they want copies of newsletters, staff briefings, updates on their projects? Just ask them and put in systems to honour their requests.
- Call them every few weeks just to touch base and see how they are.
- Welcome the new baby with a thoughtful gift from the workplace
- Invite them to social functions, lunches and birthdays.
- When they are due to come back either visit them (if appropriate) or invite them in for a coffee to talk through how they would like to be reintegrated into the workplace.
- Remember the workplace has changed while they are away, and so have they. Re-check all assumptions in terms of project interests, full-time vs part-time, graduated return to work arrangements and any re-training required.
Business of the Week - Cafe Mama
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Today I caught up with a colleague of mine who had a small baby, so we met at Cafe Mama at Newmarket. This is regular cafe with a twist - it is designed to welcome and encourage mums with young kids to come and take a break.
It was done in the simplest of ways - a sturdy play area full of interesting toys, colouring in pages and pencils and bright colours. The area was not huge - but it was effective.
The menu had wickedly wonderful cakes and muffins as well as kids meals.
... and the place was packed to the rafters (even in the pouring rain) with mums and kids, while the regular Gloria Geans coffee next door was empty.
Mums were happily breastfeeding while chatting with their friends, while the older kids played.
Scott who runs the place has a huge personality and a warm welcome to everyone who visits.
So what makes it business of the week? That word again - niche! They have identified their niche as mums with young kids. The changes they made to their business to encourage their niche were minimal in cost, yet maximum in result.
I remember taking my kids there when they were little (8 years ago now), and it still amazes me that there are not more cafes in Brisbane embracing this unique niche.
In this post I talk about the results of a recent blitz by Industrial Inspectors in cafes and restaurants in central and north Qld. More that 50% were not complying with workplace laws ... and they were surprised! Ok ... I did a little rant about the stupidity of the legislation in the post and why small business needed a hand.
Great lines to hook your reader's interest and force them to keep reading
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's Small Business Tips blog also included posts about What You Can Learn from Wizard Home Loans, Make my Logo Bigger, Marketing - It Really is All in Your Head.
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