Arachne's Sister

You probably know that you need to have an easy way to broadcast communications to your prospects and customers. But what might be less clear is how best to go about that. Right now you may be communicating using your regular email program, sending mass emails to your list with all your customers’ email addresses in the BCC field (or, GASP!, in the TO field) of a standard email message. If the limitations of this approach haven’t yet become clear to you, I promise they soon will. The real solution is to use a dedicated Email Service Provider to handle your broadcast messages.

What Is an Email Service Provider?

An Email Service Provider (ESP) is a company you pay a monthly fee to in order to handle sending broadcast emails and managing your list automatically. There are many different ESPs doing business, all offering different features and different pricing. Choosing the right one for your needs might seem tricky, but can be broken down into a few simple steps.

What Do You Need?

The first thing to consider is how you plan to use email marketing with your business and what features you will need. First, some definitions of the different features an ESP might be offering:

Broadcast – This is the most basic functionality which all ESPs should be offering (though it might be called something different) – the ability to craft an email message and send it to everyone on you list.

Autoresponder – If you would like for your subscribers to automatically receive a message or series of messages upon subscription to your list, this is what you are looking for. Some ESPs offer autoresponders, but check their description carefully, since some are more full-featured than others (allows for multiple separate messages in an autoresponder series, with even different time intervals between messages).

List Segmenting/Multiple Lists – If you plan to send separate targeted messages to subsets of your entire list, being able to easily query data in your system and break out groups of email addresses into separate lists for mailings is necessary. Also, if you plan to manage multiple campaingns in your account (a “prospects” list and a “customers” list, or an “e-zine” list, a list of people interested in “Product A”, or “Topic B”, etc.), you should make sure that capability exists and is easy to use.

Custom Data Fields – If you want to store more data about your subscribers than the standard Name/Address/Phone info, investigate the capabilities for custom data fields. Some ESPs might offer a limited quantity of custom fields, whereas others will make it unlimited. Be sure your ESP allows enough for your purposes.

Subscription Options – Your ESP should provide an easy way to generate the HTML form code to be placed on your website for your subscribers to sign up to your list. Some ESPs also provide other ways to subscribe including: importing a list of email addresses, sending an email to a custom email address, providing a hosted form which you can direct visitors to with a simple URL, etc. Discuss your needs with your web developer to be sure the ESP you are considering will fit your subscription needs.

Email Message Composition/Templates – If you aren’t very HTML savvy and plan to compose and send your messages on your own, you should make sure you are comfortable with the tools provided for email composition. If the ESP provides generic templates for you to choose from, you can get started quickly, and if you have the capability to store a custom template (provided by your web developer, for instance) or to customize the standard templates to match your website and branding, you will find that creating your messages is easy and the look will be professionally consistent. If you will have an assistant or web developer creating your messages for sending, have her take a look at the tools and make sure she will be comfortable using them.

Other Integrated Services – If your online plans include additional things, like a shopping cart or digital product delivery system, you might consider looking for an ESP that either includes those features, or clearly integrates with other systems. Requiring your ESP to offer additional services can dramatically limit your ESP choices, so make sure the one you are looking at provides the other features you desire.

How Much Will It Cost?

Different ESPs have different pricing models, so once you find a few with the features you require, check their pricing carefully. You might end up paying more to have a more full-featured ESP, but that will probably be worth it to you over the long-term.

Most ESPs charge a monthly or yearly rate for your service. For some the price varies according to how large your list is or how many messages you send each month. Others charge for more features and functionality.

When you are just starting out, it might be a good idea to sign up with an ESP that charges less for a smaller number of subscribers, the price increasing with your list size. Look ahead, though, and make sure that with your list building plans, you will not quickly “outgrow” the more affordable levels of service and wish you were with a different ESP in the near future.

You need to balance current needs with future growth when choosing the right ESP since switching ESPs is a pain you will want to avoid as much as possible.

Web Action Steps

• Think about your email marketing strategy, both short-term and long-term:

  • What features do you want to use immediately?

  • What features will you need in the future?
  • How large is your current list?
  • How large do you foresee your list growing within a year?
  • What are you willing to spend on your email marketing each month?
• Now research Email Service Providers looking for those that meet your criteria and will fit your budget.
• Sign up for a trial, if you can, to get a feel for their user interface and tools, and send a few test messages to yourself before committing to a service.
• As soon as you have decided and have your account set up, get your new sign-up form onto your website.

Signing up with the right Email Service Provider will make your email marketing go smoothly and grow with your business. If you are totally befuddled by the choices and need help, please contact me today.

Once you have a website up you might want to consider accepting payments for your products and services online. These days there are tons of options for accepting credit cards for your business, and selecting the right option can be a challenge. These are the most important things to consider when making your selection.

What Are You Selling?

The first thing to consider is what exactly you are planning to sell. Are you primarily interested in accepting payments from clients you work with one-on-one? Are you setting up a group coaching program, or having an event you want to sell tickets to? Are you planning on selling a self-published book, or a physical product? Is it an information product, like a collection of videos, audio recordings, or an eBook? Are you establishing a membership or some other type of regular subscription? Knowing what sort of payment processing you need up-front will help you make the right choice. Also, don’t just think about your current plan, but what you plan to sell later as well. You might be able to find a payment solution which will cover most of your current – and future – needs.

The basic types of sales you might be making and want to think about include:

• One-time payment (“Buy Now” button)
• Multiple items at a time (Shopping Cart)
• Automatic billing on a regular basis (Subscription)
• One-off requests for payment (Invoice)

How Are You Going to Deliver?

Distribution is an important factor in your online payment processing strategy. If you are shipping a physical product, this is especially important. Assuming that you are using a fulfillment house for your product, you need to make sure your payment system has a way to alert your fulfillment house of the new order and share the customer information that they need in order to ship out the products. If you are providing an electronic product, your payment system needs to handle the distribution automatically. The simplest way is to either use a system designed for secure product downloads, or to have it hooked-up to an autoresponder which will email the purchaser a download link. If you are delivering a service, you just need to have yourself notified of the payment, then you can begin whatever your standard process is to fulfill the service.

Certain payment services exist to handle specific types of product/service needs. For instance, event ticketing, membership websites, and self-published “print on demand” books. Whether you should use a specialized service depends on things like their fees, the volume of sales you expect to make, the complexity of using a more general solution, etc. The advantage of these specialty services is that they often include helpful tools and advanced features. Explore all the fees and features before making a decision.

What Is Your Expected Sales Volume?

How many sales you expect to make will also be a factor in your decision. Some payment processors will give you better rates for higher-volume, whereas others will cap the amount of money you can take in each month before they start investigating your business for fraudulent activity and possibly putting a hold on your account.

Depending on your products and distribution plan, volume might be a major deciding factor in whether a specialty processor is worth the extra fees. For example, if you plan to offer many events with high attendance at each, using a dedicated system for event ticket sales might make a lot of sense, because the extra management capabilities will save you so much time and headaches, whereas if you are just having a single local talk at which you expect to get 25 attendees, a simpler system will likely be just fine.

Similarly, offering a couple eBooks for sale versus a full line of 50+ products will make a difference in the type of Shopping Cart you will want.

What is Your Larger Marketing Plan?

If you have a larger marketing strategy around your online sales, it might require a more sophisticated setup. For instance, if you plan to have affiliates help sell your products, your shopping cart needs to keep track of them. If you are using a multi-step sales process, you will need to have a system that can handle simple free opt-ins in addition to paid sales. You will need a way to contact your buyers after the fact, and for high-volume sales, your shopping cart can manage your customer list as well as email marketing and autoresponders. If you plan to deliver your product via a membership website, you need to have a payment solution which integrates with your membership site software. Talk to your technology providers for help selecting the right solution based on your more complex needs.

Web Action Steps

• Make a list of all the products and services you plan to sell, along with what you need for the distribution of each.
• Sign up for a free Business PayPal account to use for simple online sales.
• Ask your fulfillment house or print-on-demand provider for recommendations about which payment systems work best with their fulfillment process.
• Estimate the number of sales per month and the total sales in dollars per month for the things you wish to sell. Make sure these numbers will work with the payment system you choose.
• Check out the Whole Web Impact Recommended Resources page for payment processors and shopping carts.

Accepting payments online is a great way to get paid faster, and expand your business. Consider your business needs when choosing a payment processor. If you need customized help deciding how to set up your products or services for online sales, consider a Website Analysis & Strategy Session with me.

When you are running your own business, it’s important to do whatever you can to make your business appear professional. Especially when you are starting out, you don’t have years of business history or hundreds of glowing testimonials to act as strong credibility boosters. This is where consistent branding comes in.

One simple thing – having consistent, attractive branding – will boost your credibility even if you just opened shop a month ago.

Why?

Because it sends a message.

The message it sends is “I care about my business. This is a serious operation. I have invested for the long-term and details are important to me.”

This is powerful. It works on a sub-conscious level more than anything, but what it does is reassures your prospects that your business is important and professional. This translates to suggesting high quality in everything you do – including providing services and products to your customers.

So, What Do You Need?

The first step is a company identity. This would be a company name and a logo. I recommend having a professional design your logo unless you are artistically talented. You don’t necessarily need to spend thousands on a branding expert, unless you want to at this stage. Just spending some time thinking about who you serve and what feeling you want to convey to them will be a great basis for your logo design.

Another thing you will need is an excellent professional headshot. Not only will you likely use this in your website, but also on your social media profiles and in PR materials. Having a great headshot or two will give you so much more confidence to reach out to organizations for speaking and publishing opportunities.

Of course, you need a great looking website. If at first you can’t afford a full website with professional custom design, use clean templates and perhaps just brand with a banner which includes your logo. Make sure the design coordinates with your logo colors!

Make everything consistent. Use your logo and “company colors” on everything you produce – stationery, business cards, sales pages, blog, website, videos, brochures, etc. Even more than the “fanciness” of your branding, consistent application will convey professionalism.

Web Action Steps

• If you don’t have a logo, get one designed. Lean toward a simpler design, especially if you feel you still need to define your target market or positioning better.
• Once you have your logo, select 3-5 colors from the logo design to act as your “company colors” use these whenever designing communications for your business.
• Have professional photographs taken. Get a few different shots – full length, 3-quarter length, headshot, and facing both right and left. Keep the background as simple as possible.
• Purchase your domain name and get at least a basic web page up with your logo, some info about your business, and your contact info.
• Order business cards that include your logo, and possibly your headshot. Don’t forget to put your website on them also!
• As you start adding to your online and offline marketing materials, keep your graphics and colors consistent. Everything doesn’t need to be identical, but it should “go together” if set side-by-side.

Consistent, attractive branding will improve your professional image fast. If you need help getting your business online fast, check out my Online Quick Start Package.

A great article about formatting your website text for easiest reading and maximum effectiveness. In Summary:

• Sans-serif fonts work the best for online reading
• Using a larger font size is not the best strategy
• Try to limit larger fonts to headings/subheadings
• Different colors should be used with care, contrast is best
• Shorter paragraphs are better than long ones, due to the way people scan text when reading online
• Shorter pages are also easier on readers, with links to different pages for more in-depth information

Read the whole article here: SiteProNews: Consider Font and Page Size When Writing for the Web

When creating or redoing your website, though your website’s graphic design might be the thing you are focused on and excited about, you should definitely spend some time considering how you structure the true work-horse of your site: the content.

Clients often ask me about how long their content should be. The truth is, it should be as long as you can reasonably make it – but it needs to be presented in a way that is not overwhelming to the visitor and puts the essential information first.

Visitors (aka potential customers) will all have different needs and desires when it comes to the information on your site. Some people want to get the facts quickly and make their decision without spending a lot of time reading and researching. Others might want to have more information so that they can feel comfortable that they are making the right decision to hire you or buy from you. You want to make sure that you are offering both types of visitor the content they each want.

The best way to accomplish this is to organize your site clearly, offer paths for visitors to follow, and write like a journalist.

Organize Your Site Clearly

By having your content well organized and labeled, it should be easy for visitors to find exactly what they are looking for. By following common website conventions and keeping your site organization pretty simple, your visitors will move around your site with ease. As tempting as it might be to get “cutesy” with your section names, please avoid this sort of obscurity. There are better ways to get across your “theme” or personality.

The basic sections you should have for your site are ones that most of your visitors will be expecting to see: About, Contact, Products/Services, possibly a FAQ (frequently asked questions page). Your business might have a structure which lends itself to some other organization of pages, which is fine, but make sure you stay reasonably consistent and don’t mix up your navigation taxonomies too much.

Offer Paths for Visitors to Follow

You might want to offer some specific paths for visitors to follow through your site, based on their demographic (if you serve more that one target market) or their main problem, issue, or interest.

If you choose to go this route you should present only a few options (no more than 4) and the choice for the visitor should be obvious. (This is not where you want to stump your potential customers!)

This “path” might be going to only one page which is directly written to the option chosen, or to a short series of pages which makes a sort of “presentation” to the visitor. The key is to keep it simple.

Also, if you are using this technique, use it only as a supplementary navigation – be sure your main navigation menu is always visible.

Write Like A Journalist

Journalistic writing for newspapers is organized like a pyramid, with the shortest possible description of “just-the-facts” at the front of the article, and then more and more details added as the article gets longer. This is done so that a reader could look at just the first paragraph or two to get the news, and continue reading for more details only if it is of interest.

You should think about your website content like this as well. Wherever possible, put the important facts up front, and link to more detailed pages “for more information….” This could mean that your “services” page has only a brief summary of each service, with links to other pages focused entirely on giving more information about each offering individually.

This will allow “skimmers” to find what they are interested in quickly, while also providing the backup materials that “researchers” will enjoy.

Web Action Steps

For a new website or redesign:

• Plan your new website structure according to the tips above.
• As much as possible, break content down into topic-focused nuggets which you can link together at higher levels of the site structure with “summary” pages
• Make your detailed content pages longer, broken into easy-to-skim paragraphs with clear sub-heads and the most essential facts at the top of the page

Tweaking your current site:

• Is your site structure clear and easy to understand? Do the names of items in your main navigation menu make their content obvious?
• Which pages can you add more information to?
• Which pages could you break up into separate pages and provide instead a “summary” page with links?

Good content that is easy to navigate will really help your visitors to get to know you and feel comfortable buying from you. If you are considering a new site or a redesign and would like to make sure your new website follows best-practices and is easy to update with new content, consider a custom website from Whole Web Impact.

If you are somewhat new to online marketing, you might be a little confused about the different purposes of a blog and an e-zine. They both contribute in different ways to the success of marketing your business and understanding their unique purposes can help you use them both more effectively.

The first thing to keep in mind is that it is very likely that your blog and e-zine serve different people. Some people may follow your blog and your e-zine, but not all of them. Because of this fact, you should feel free to duplicate your important content in both mediums.

The second thing to be aware of is where people will see your content. Your blog posts are publicly available online constantly (unless you delete them). If you post something on your blog today, it is quite possible that someone new will read it 3 weeks or 3 years from now. Our e-zine will primarily be viewed in your prospect’s personal email account. If you send an e-zine today, only the people currently on your list are likely to read it, and unless they save the message, are not likely to be reading it again in 3 weeks or 3 years.

With those practical considerations explained, now we can focus on the strategic purpose of each.

Your Blog: Reaching a Broader Audience

The reason you should blog is to share your content with people who you might not know yet. Just like any online content, search engines index blog posts and the short, focused nature of a blog post allow you to create individual keyword-rich posts which will speak directly to the needs and concerns of your target market. For instance, if you are a nutritionist, you could write a blog post about a popular new diet, and you opinion of it. You can also stress the importance of having a nutritionist supervise any weight-loss efforts, and link to your own website for more information. If people are searching for information about the diet, and you have mentioned it by name a few times in your post (and preferably as part of your post title), there is a chance your post will turn up in a search.

The other purpose of your blog is to build your expert status online, and provide evidence of your expertise to people who are not already on your email list. You can also use your posts to encourage people to join your email list.

Your E-zine: Keeping In Touch with Your Peeps

People who have opted-in to your email list have made a small investment of trust in you. They have found your information compelling enough to hand over their personal information. You should be careful not to abuse that trust by spamming them with junk or emailing too frequently.

You have the opportunity to reach these people in their own “home” – that is, their inbox. You can take a slightly more intimate tone with your e-zine communications, and remember that these people are somewhat more interested in what you have to say and offer. As long as you always provide interesting and valuable content, you will be able to include sales messages in your email communications more frequently than you would on your blog.

Web Action Steps

• If you don’t already have a blog, set one up and begin posting to it once a week at least.
• Syndicate your blog to your social media profiles and your business website
• If you don’t have an email list, begin one using a professional Email Service Provider service & add a sign-up form to your website
• Determine a schedule for regular communications to your list (an e-zine) and be diligent in sending out your messages

A blog and an e-zine both serve different audiences and pusposes in your business marketing. Having both is a great way to leverage the unique aspects of each. If you don’t have a website, blog, or email list and need help setting them up, please contact me about getting those things done for you.

A lot of my clients when just getting started with their websites and “online marketing” are confused about the appropriate use of e-mail marketing. It is really important to become clear about who, what, when, and how often you should be emailing prospects – not only to effectively get your message across in the right way, but also to avoid getting into legal trouble because you are accused of SPAMMING people.

This article is an answer to this need for guidance. Now, keep in mind that I will be talking about “mass e-mail marketing” – also know as “broadcast messages”. Generally if you are sending a one-on-one message to someone you met at a networking event, or corresponding with your current clients, these rules don’t apply. Just use basic email and business etiquette to guide you in that correspondence.

General E-Mail Marketing Best Practices

If you plan to send out regular mailings, such as sales messages, promotions, or an “e-zine” or “eNewsletter”, the best thing to do is to sign up with a dedicated “email service provider” (“ESP” – no, not the psychic kind!). There are many different services to choose from, with different pricing models and features. How to choose one will need to wait for another article, just pick the best option and get your account set up.

While you are setting up your account, make sure your reply email address is one on your domain (for instance, ezine@yoursite.com or mail@yoursite.com) and it displays clearly who you are (your name and/or company name).

I also suggest you set up “double-opt-in” if it is an option for your account. What this means is that once someone fills their email address into your sign-up form, they will receive an email asking them to “confirm” their subscription by replying or clicking a link. This will really help you stay clear of the SPAM laws, and ensure that you will have a high quality list of real, interested people.

Your account will provide you with HTML code to put on your website which will display a sign-up form for your visitors to use to subscribe to your list. You will need to carefully copy & paste this onto your website. (If you aren’t using a CMS, you might need to get your web developer to help you with this.)

Frequency counts with e-mail marketing, so you will want to have a schedule for when you send out messages. If you plan to have a regular e-zine or newsletter, you should send it out either the same day each week (aka every Monday), or every two weeks (every other Monday), or every month (the first Monday of the month, etc). If you send it out irregularly you will get less response from it and your readers won’t know to expect it. Though more frequently is better, choose a schedule which you know you can stick to.

Standardizing the format of your e-zine is a good idea to make it easier to read, and all your messages should have your branding – to build awareness and project a professional image.

All the messages you send out should have subscribe, unsubscribe, and “change preferences” links at the bottom. Generally your ESP will automatically append those items to your messages.

Who Is On Your “List”?

Be careful about how you build your list of email addresses. If you are already doing business with someone (you would call them a customer or client), it is generally safe to add them to your list, though asking permission first would be considerate of you. You might also want to keep separate lists – a purely opt-in list for your e-zine and a customers list, which you add your clients to.

It is very tempting to add everyone you know to your e-mail lists, and if you do so, it is quite possible that only a few people will complain, however, this is technically a violation of CAN-SPAM laws. Think about this carefully, and check the rules with your ESP as well, since if too many people report you as a spammer, you could lose your account or have all your emails banned from delivery.

Purchasing Lists – Just Say No

There is really no reason for you to send messages to an email list which is not your own opt-in or customer list. Period. This is very clearly a violation of law and is also a waste of your time. Your chance of getting any positive response is so slim as to be not worth your time in constructing the message, let alone the cost for the list.

You might be offered the opportunity to send a message to an opt-in list owned by a colleague or friend. This can also be tempting, but though it might not necessarily be against the law (depending how you do it), it most likely won’t produce the result you are looking for. After all – no matter how you get the names, if they don’t know who you are, in their view it is unsolicited email from a stranger – the classic definition of SPAM.

A better way would be for your friend or colleague to send out a message themselves to their list personally recommending you and giving information about how they could get in touch with you or join your list for more information.

SPAM Laws

Here are some resources for learning more about SPAM laws:

CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 on Wikipedia (USA)

Spam Laws.com (Laws from various countries)

Web Action Steps

• Decide what sort of email you would like to send, to whom (prospects / current clients), and with what frequency.
• Research email service providers and sign up with one
• Put the sign-up form code on your website
• Follow good “netiquette” and your local SPAM laws as you build your list and send out messages.

Having a high-quality opt-in email list to mail to on a regular basis is a great way to stay “top-of-mind” with prospects and clients, as long as you are using it appropriately and following the law. If you need help choosing an ESP, setting up your list and sign-up form, or otherwise getting your own email marketing strategy in place, consider contacting me for help.

If you’ve got a blog, I’m sure you’ve seen comment spam – barely literate gibberish that adds nothing interesting to your blog post conversation and is only used by unethical marketers to build trashy back-links to their websites. A quality blog doesn’t let comment spam build up. There are some easy ways to cut back and clean up your comment spam.

1 – The Correct Blog Settings

The administration interface of your blog software should offer you some options for managing comments. Look for a section called “Comments”, “Discussion”, “Settings”, “Options”, or “Preferences.” Different blog software will give you different options, or phrase options differently, but here are some options which might be available to you:

Commenting On/Off – You always have the option to turn off all commenting on your blog. This will eliminate the legitimate feedback in addition to the spam.

Close comments after a certain time period – Since it takes spammers some time to find your posts, whereas your real readers might be more up-to-date with your latest posts, it can be a good idea to set an automatic time limit on commenting. After the chosen time has elapsed (since you published your post), no one will be able to post additional comments to the post. For example, if you set this option to “7 days” and published a new blog post on Monday, people would only be able to leave comments on that post until the next Monday. After that time, comments that had been posted would be visible, but no new comments could be added to that post.

Moderate comments = Yes/No – Unless you don’t care that your blog will become a spam free-for-all, turn comment moderation ON.

Manual/Automatic Moderation options – If your blog software provides automatic comment moderation, you will likely have several different options to set for that, as well as “blacklists” and “whitelists”, etc. Generally I have found that a combination of automatic and manual moderation works best.

2 – Comment Moderation

Setting the right options will reduce your comment spam, but you will still want to check on your blog once a week or so to mark comments as spam, which will improve your automatic filtering, as well as delete from your blog any spammy comments. Most comment spam is pretty easy to spot. Here are some things to look for:

• It has no relation whatsoever to the content of your post
• It uses a direct quote from your post, especially the title, but doesn’t say anything interesting
• It includes an irrelevant link in the body of the comment
• It shows very poor English grammar (most comment spamming is outsourced outside the United States to people who don’t know English well)
• The name of the commenter isn’t a real name at all, and instead is a keyword phrase

Depending on your blog software, you might manage the comments on each post individually, or you might have a section of your admin interface where all the comments are listed together.

3 – Blog Add-ins

If you want some extra power in dealing with comment spam, search online for an add-in (or “plug-in” for your specific blog software. Setting this up might take a bit more technical know-how, so you might want to have a technical VA or web developer do this for you.

Web Action Steps

• Make sure your blog software options are set properly for dealing with comment spam. Often the defaults aren’t strong enough.
• Turn on comment moderation tools in your blog. Make sure you or an assistant takes time each week to moderate comments and delete spam.
• If you are still having problems, investigate more advanced options in your blog software or look for an add-in that will help you manage the spam more effectively.
• If it seems like a lost cause, and you don’t get many legitimate comments, turn commenting off on your blog entirely.

Comment spam can make having a blog seem like more trouble than it’s worth, but by following these tips, you can regain control of your blog. If you need help setting up a professional, custom-designed blog for your business, please contact me today.

You know you need a blog, and you’re ready to commit to it, so now what? Well, the simplest thing to do is to get your web developer to get it all set up for you, but what if you don’t have a trustworthy web developer, or are more a “DIY” type?

Getting a blog these days is one of the easiest things to do online, and you have several options. You can use a free service, where your blog is hosted on their servers, or you can have your blog pages on your own website domain. I have a clear preference, but will talk about both options.

Absolutely the best thing to do is have your blog hosted on your own domain name. Quite simply, you are generating valuable content which will draw visitors and increase your search-engine exposure. You want the traffic to come to your website. If your blog is a section on your main domain (example: http://blog.mysite.com or http://www.mysite.com/blog, etc.), that means your main site will get the increased PageRank and traffic that your blog generates. If your blog is hosted on another domain you own and control, and you put links on your blog that point to your main “sales” website, you can also benefit directly. Both of these are good options.

If you are ready to set up your blog on your domain you generally have two options. You can use a service which will display your custom domain name, though the actual content is hosted on their server (Blogger can be set up to do this). All you need to do is set up a Blogger account, and put in your custom domain information. This is a very fast and simple option, and is especially good if you are comfortable using the Blogger interface.

The other option is to install the code and pages for your blog right on your website domain. Which blogging software you use will depend on what technology is available on your web host, generally Windows or Linux. If you are looking for a Windows solution, BlogEngine.Net is a good one. Wordpress is a popular option for Linux webservers, but might also be available on your Windows hosting account as well. You will probably want some geek to help you with installing your own blog software, but it isn’t a very complicated operation. There are also other blog software packages, a Google search would turn up more choices than you would ever want to consider.

My least favorite way to see a business set up a blog is one that is hosted on the blog service’s domain. It is totally possible to sign up for a free blog service and use their servers to host your blog. (Both Blogger and WordPress have this option, along with Windows Live and a few others.) But other than the complete simplicity of it, there isn’t much benefit to doing it this way. Quite simply, you don’t get to take full advantage of the search engine benefit of a blog that is not on your domain. Instead you are giving traffic to the service’s domain. If your blog’s address is http://myaccount.blogspot.com or http://myaccount.wordpress.org, etc. you are using the blog service to host your blog. I really recommend you look into transferring your blog to your own web server. This is something that a web professional will be able to help you with.

When you set up your blog you will have the option to choose a template that is already available, or create your own design. If you are trying to get set up quickly, just pick a decent-looking template and start blogging, but eventually, you are going to want to customize it to match your company branding.

Web Action Steps

• Ask your web developer about what your blogging options are, based on your web hosting
• Choose a blogging platform
• Sign up for any necessary accounts or download and install the blog software
• Customize your design, or have a professional do this for you
• Blog away!

Getting your blog set up isn’t that difficult, and once it’s installed, you won’t need to do much to maintain it, just keep adding exciting new posts!

If you need a web developer to help you get your blog set up, moved to your own domain, or customized with a design that matches your business branding, contact me for assistance.

When you are setting out to build a new website for your business, it’s important to consider both who your target market is, and what information, products, and services you will be offering.

Who

Your target market and your branding will determine a lot about how your website should look, especially in terms of things like colors and mood. If you have a strong brand developed (with a logo, etc), you need to make sure your site design harmonizes with and reinforces that branding. One obvious thing is to select a color palette that doesn’t clash with your logo. The more subtle thing is to determine what your brand means and feels like – and have a design that supports that. Visitors to your site will react, either consciously or subconsciously, to your visual design, so you need the design to send a message which is truly authentic to your branding and business mission.

Audience will determine some other practical concerns – if your target market is a bit older, you will want to make sure that the text is large enough, and has enough color contrast to be easily readable. Certain design elements will appeal more to a younger demographic, and if your market has more conservative tastes, you should keep that in mind when planning your visual design.

What

If your business involves a lot of personal service – such as coaching or consulting, it’s a good idea to replicate, as much as possible, the experience a prospect would have if they met you in person, or were working with you. Make sure you have a good headshot on the site, and your personality comes though in the tone of the text. You might also want to consider your values and personality when designing your branding and visual design. If you are an outgoing and exuberant person, or if optimism is a big part of what you encourage in your clients, your design should reflect that sunny disposition. If calm and steady is more your mode, that can come out subtly in your design. The important thing is that you present yourself as genuinely as possible, so your best potential clients will be attracted to your business and recognize the fit with themselves.

Another consideration in the “what” category has to do with the information, products, services, etc you plan to offer. For instance, if events are a big part of what you do, your design should have a spot to highlight them – maybe even on every page, and at least prominently on the homepage. If you have written a book and want to promote it heavily, you might consider including it right below your navigation sidebar, so that it stands out and is easy to find. You will probably want to have a photo of the book, to make it even more compelling.

How

Now that you’ve been thinking about who your website is for and what you want to present on it, the next step is how to get it.

The first step is to find a web designer who has a portfolio that appeals to you. Bonus points if at least one of the sites is geared toward a target market somewhat similar to your own. The next step is to get in touch and have a conversation. What you are looking for here is a feeling of connection – that the design “gets you” and cares about your business and who your market is. Watch out for designers who automatically offer a generic solution without showing an interest in your particular business.

Once you have selected your designer, let her know as much as you can about the “who” and “what” you have figured out. Make sure to provide high-quality digital copies of your logo, headshot and any other branding or graphics (such as product photos, book cover, etc) you have.

In addition, it can be very helpful if you can send a short list of websites which appeal to you for whatever reason, along with notes about what specifically you like about the design – is it the colors, the layout, the amount of information presented on each page, the use of graphics? This will help you get a design that you love.

Web Action Steps

• Make a list of traits for your target market – include demographics, psychographics, biggest fears/concerns, and biggest hopes, as they relate to your business.
• Consider the mood of you and your business. What do you want your audience to feel when they see your website? Excited, soothed, inspired, etc.
• Make a list of all the information you want to present on your site – list your products services, events, etc. Think long-term – at least 6 months to a year ahead. For example, if you know your book will be published within the next 3 months, and you want to feature it prominently, plan an appropriate spot in the site for it now.
• Consider what the “face” of your business is – is it you, a mascot, a logo, your team, your clients? How can that be portrayed?
• Find a designer to work with, and share all this information with him/her.
• Have a fabulous website that represents your business authentically!

Getting the right design for your website is the first big step in online business success. If you need help exploring your target market, branding, and mood, and determining what content your website should have, or if you are just looking for that great web designer, I invite you to take a look at what I have to offer and consider getting in touch.