In this interview, Chad discusses the top things to consider before hiring your next web company.

When registering your domain name (URL) the one I recommend you secure, that is the most important and popular, is the one that ends with a .com extension. Assuming then that you have secured the .com extension, you are in great shape. However, you may want to also consider registering the following extensions: .net, .org, ,info, .biz and .us if you are in the US.

For example, my blog name is hosted under www.ChadBarr.com which is registered and owned by me. What if someone decides to register one or all of the other extensions, such as the .net which would then make www.ChadBarr.net available for them to populate with their content. This could and would create a situation that when my clients search for me, they would most likely find the other domains that are actually not associated with me and my company.

So the primary reason you want to consider this, is to avoid others from trying to take advantage of your success and then registering and owning the other domains associated with your company name or brand names.

One final point of consideration is that once you have registered and own all these extensions (URLs) is to redirect all of them to your .com domain so when one tries to type the others, they will end up on your main domain.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

Many people spend their resources and energy trying to attract visitors to their sites. That seems reasonable and achievable. However, there are two aspects to “site power” that often defeat site owners who are investing heavily to attract visitors. In fact, we have one word for it: retention.

It’s insufficient to merely attract people, you need to retain them. Not for hours or days, but fore minutes and for repeats visits. We call this a “sticky” web presence, because people don’t want to leave (and, yes, we make it difficult for them to leave—to get rid of us—because we’re offering so much value, so many options, so much interest).

Here are a different type of “sticky keys”:

a.    Site must be responsive and quick to load and display pages. Otherwise visitor will quickly grow impatient and leave. We once say a site with the “floating head” of the owner, which took over a minute to make its message and clear!

b.    Interesting, fresh and dynamic content, such as diagnostics and self-scoring tests and challenges for the visitor.

c.    Make sure the landing page answers what they came there to do with minimal amount of clicks or clutter. In other words, what are the typical results for the client or customer?

d.    Reduce stagnation. Three strikes and you are out.  Keep it fresh and review your content for timeliness and relevance. If there are three things that are dated, the visitor is probably out.

e.    Enable visitor interaction though email, contact forms, comments, sharing with others. Don’t play hide-and-seek, or protect yourself more from prospects than you do from spam. For goodness’ sake, list your physical address in case someone wants to mail you something!

f.     Community connections with peers and successful colleagues. Demonstrate that you’re connected to the profession and the community.

g.    Others’ recommendations.  Include video and print testimonials and not merely on a “testimonial page.”

h.   Ability to subscribe to newsletters, email notification alerts and RSS feeds.  Allow people to gain a continuous access vial other platforms.

i.     Create incentives such as: “You will receive instantly… Let people download text, audio, and video.

j.     Promote your best content “The best of …” This can often be a list of Twitter posts you’ve made on common subjects, recycling and repurposing your intellectual property in new ways.

k.    Show them additional resources on each page and what other visitors have liked. Amazon is great for this: “Others who read this book have also purchased….”

l.     When people leave comments, respond as quickly as possible and also thank them for stopping by and for their feedback. No inquiry should go unanswered for more than 24hours.

m.  Create a continuing series (sequels) that builds on interest, suspense, and more intense future knowledge. Such as episode #1, #2, #3 …  or Part 1 of 3.

n.   Repurpose older content by adding new life to it. Include videos, or graphics, or case studies of how you’ve since applied it.

o.    Easy way to access the latest announcements, what’s new and upcoming events. Margin real estate is quite effective for this.

p.    Upsell products and services during the checkout process by offering related items and other bundles.  This is the checkout line at your local Staples or Best Buy with all kinds of impulse items for sale as you stand on line.

Customer engagement and relationship building should continue long after a site or non-site purchase. Keep them aware of current and future promotions. We capture every single book, video, audio, workshop, and related buyer and mail to them once a month. Here’s an example below.

One of the slippery slope, stickiness removers, is overly complex design and difficult navigation. Also, too many “orphan” pages, which require no action at all, and go nowhere, tend to turn visitors toward the door. Make sure the visitor is compelled to do something. But keep it local. We generally use no links directing the buyer elsewhere (to another site). We want our sites to be cul-de-sacs where the buyer can stay put.

This is an excerpt from my new and upcoming book Million Dollar Web Presence - Leverage technology to build your brand and transform your business, which I am coauthoring with Dr. Alan Weiss and which will be published by Entrepreneur Press.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

Traffic to your site comes from many sources such as when your visitor:

• Enters your site address (URL) into their browser when looking at your business card.
• Enters the web page address (URL) that was shared with them (through other marketing efforts) into their browser.
• Enters your site address into their browser when receiving your company’s paperwork such as invoice, purchase order, check.
• Clicks on your email signature links.
• Reads your newsletter and clicks on one of the links.
• Views your blog or site and clicks on links.
• Reads your guest contributor content, such as your article or your column on someone else’s site and then clicks on a link.
• Views your video on YouTube and clicks on the links to your site in the description area.
• Listens to your podcast on iTunes and clicks on the link to your site.
• Reviews your social media profile or content and clicks on the link.
• Sees your answer on LinkedIn and finds it interesting and clicks on your profile name.
• Finds interesting links on social bookmarking sites and clicks on one of yours.
• Finds your book on Amazon and clicks on the link to your site.
• Reads your article on article directories or an online community.
• Finds you on one of the trade associations you below to.
• Sees your comment on a blog and clicks on your link.
• Notices your press release and clicks on a link.
• Clicks on one of your banner ads or affiliate links.
• Is encouraged to bookmark your site for private use or for social media sharing use.
• Uses search engines and clicks on the organic results.
• Uses search engines and clicks on the paid results.
• Uses Facebook paid advertising and clicks on the link to your landing page.

How many of these are you involved in and are there others worth mentioning?

This is an excerpt from my new and upcoming book Million Dollar Web Presence - Leverage technology to build your brand and transform your business, which I am coauthoring with Dr. Alan Weiss and which will be published by Entrepreneur Press.

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

In a recent presentation I delivered in Rhode Island I was asked what are the components I consider when reviewing the effectiveness of web sites for my clients and prospective clients. Here is the list I have quickly come up with:

• Does the site clearly incorporates the three elements of web success which are: world-class design, remarkable content that supports an effective strategy and tactics? Remember my philosophy: “Strategy first, technology second!”
• Is there a strong list of clients you’ve done business with?
• Are there many testimonials from your clients discussing the successes you have helped generate for them in the form of written, audios and videos?
• Does your site show the results you have generated for your clients, listed as bullet points and are substantiated with testimonials and case studies?
• Are there interesting case studies discussing the challenges your clients face, your intervention to help resolve these challenges and then the outstanding results created?
• Can I easily find your intellectual property manifested through articles, checklists, process visuals, audios, videos, surveys and more?
• Are there audios and videos segments that intrigue me to listen, watch and learn?
• Are you demonstrating good products and services for me to consider purchasing or inquiring about?
• Does the site incorporate call to actions for me to click on and direct me to other interesting areas on the site?
• Does it answer the key question of “What’s in it for me?” and demonstrate an overall value for me, the visitor?
• And finally, does it look as the site is stagnant or constantly evolve with new ideas, innovation and creativity?

Let me also suggest the following items to consider:

• Is there a strong value proposition that is pithy and succinct that articulates the way you dramatically help improve your clients lives and businesses?
• Is there way too much text on your home page?
• Can I easily recognize your key offerings in an engaging way?
• Is there an easy way to contact you on all site pages?
• Are there interesting links to click on to provide additional information for me to explore and decide to contact you?
• Are there provocative titles and provocative content that will create great interest for the visitor to explore or will the visitor say “so what?” and go elsewhere?
• Is there a site map and an ability to easily search the site?

I could just as easily have come up with quite a few other points. Yet if your site and strategy incorporate the list above, I will acknowledge that you are ahead of your colleagues and competitors and are leading towards greater success.

So where are you and how would you rank your site?

© Chad Barr 2011. All rights reserved

A while back I wanted to check out the newsletter of Jim Cramer of TheStreet.com and the Mad Money TV show on CNBC. Big mistake! I can’t get off his newsletter. I have attempted to unsubscribe by opting-out numerous times as I also emailed his organization directly but no response and to no avail. You must be asking by now: “Chad, why are you not setting up a filter to remove his email into the trash folder?” Well … I did! But this is not the point. I should not be expected to do so from what appears to be a credible individual and company. Yet, after doing a quick search on the net I found out that Jim apparently has been getting quite a few complaints about this practice.

Although I realize that I may be generating free publicity for his organization, my hope is that my readership takes notice and also recognizes the following Lessons:

1. Make it easy for your audience to subscribe (opt-in) and immediately honor their unsubscribe (Opt-out) requests.
2. Test your various aspects of technology.
3. Make it easy for your audience to contact you.
4. Quickly respond to contacts emails.
5. Don’t take success for granted.

Below is a snapshot I captured to illustrate my point:

(Click on image to enlarge)

This is a great podcast interview I just did with David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing & PR and World Wide Rave among other books. In this interview we discussed: Viral marketing and thought leadership strategies, the new / old rules of marketing, best practices for consultants, where do ideas come from, how to best leverage social media and much more.

Click below for podcast to start

and now also on iTunes

http://www.chadbarr.com/chad-barr-interviews-david-meerman-scott/

Click Here for entire podcast series table of contents

I view the web as an important component of your overall marketing effort and driving interest to your organization. Seldom, would your Internet effort alone drive the proper interest and success to your organization. However, combined with the following list below and you are looking at the recipe to success:

• Speaking – Is one of the best ways to deliver value to your audience and engage with your presentation. It is especially effective if you leverage your web content during your presentation. Why not reference an article or a position paper: “Let me share with you the top 3 mistakes organizations make …” or perhaps display a chart or graph.
• Publishing – I referring here to both digital and non-digital methods. A hard copy booklet or book and a digital version of such are a very powerful way of complementing your web efforts. This may happen on your site, your blog or on others as well as appearing in various other publications.
• Body of work- The Internet today makes it extremely easy to publish a variety of media formats. Be it the written words, photos, charts, audio podcasts and videos. This creates an interesting variety for people to choose and process at their leisure, when they want and using the technology of their choice: Laptop, desktop, iPod, iPhone and so on.
• Products and services – This is a critical item to create interest in you, for people to be able to engage you and create mutual success. From the promotion of consulting, mentoring, speaking, training, booklets, books, DVDs, surveys, workshops, retreats, webinars, teleseminars and more.
• Provocative – If you want to get noticed, you have to be able to stand out in the crowd. Yet if you sound like everyone else, you won’t. One of the best way to have others notice you and become an object of interest is to become provocative.
• Strong relationships – None of this intended success is possible without the creation of strong relationship and partnership with your clients and always looking for their self interest.
• Delivery of value – The driving force in all of this is the ultimate value the client receive.
• Shamelessly promoting yourself- You can not remain a best kept secret and expect success to knock on your door. Nor could you expect to build it and they will came. These stories usually take place in fairy tails or modern movies. You’ve got to promote yourself, your brands and your products and services and become successful.

“It’s hard work you say?” Yes, it probably is. Yet there is no short cutting the system. Place these components effectively together and amazing Internet results will come your way.

I have recently received the catalog from Johnston & Murphy which does have some nice selections I must admit. What also caught my attention was actually the back cover which I scanned below. Notice how they promote their page on facebook with the enticement of finding exclusive offers and news.

Are you leveraging the various aspects of social media such as facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and others to communicate with your clients?  You should.

Are you providing exclusive offers and news with these social media tools? You should.

Are you paying attention and taking notes of what others and your competitors are doing with social media and beyond? You should.

Are you offering your own genuine value by exploiting social media concepts? You should.

Here is Chad’s definition of social media:

The connection of people online to explore mutual interests, share ideas, wisdom and expertise, build relationships, have fun, provide and solicit answers to questions and conduct business.

Below is a recent testimonial I have received from Libby Wagner, President of Libby Wagner & Associates.

“Don’t think for a minute that having a great, value-laden website is a nice-to-have business tool but doesn’t really impact your business results or revenues. My website has increased my brand and credibility, created opportunities for new business, including a six-figure contract and two keynotes just in the past 6 months! Potential clients are calling with their buying decision already made!”

This testimonial was also featured in our most recent newsletter.

Pretty powerful stuff you would probably agree. Not only do I take tremendous pride in receiving such testimonial, but the true essence for me, is our ability to lead and help our clients generate powerful results and reach higher level of success in their business and be rewarded for that.

So with that in mind, how effective are you in soliciting testimonials from your clients and how do you then leverage it in your business. Here is my take:

1. It is great to receive unsolicited testimonials from your clients. The way I believe to increase such is to share stories with your clients of the ones you have received. And when that testimonial arrives, I like to follow-up with a thank you note to my client.
2. When I hear my clients share their success story with me, it is the trigger I need to hear to request a testimonial. The language I usually use is: “Thank you for sharing your success with me. It delights me to hear this. If I may, I would like to share something with you. The way our business grows is when others hear success stories, such as the one you just shared with me. It would me the world to me, if you would be willing to write us a testimonial outlining the outcome we have generated for your business and place it on your letterhead.”
3. When presented with the opportunity, I would also ask my clients for their willingness to video record a short testimonial. I would suggest you bring a professional videographer or use a flip video to do it yourself. The perfect opportunity to do this is at the end of your speeches such as in my previous post.
4. Pull out the most powerful sentence or two and display on your testimonial page as well as on various applicable pages. If the testimonial refers to your consulting, why not place it also on that page.
5. Scan the testimonial letterhead received and place a link for the visitor to be able to view the entire scanned testimonial.
6. Why not frame the testimonials and hang them to display proudly and prominently in your office.
7. Include them in your PR kit when you need to send it out.
8. Blog about them.
9. Refer to them in your discussions and speeches. “I was chatting with one of my clients who proudly shared with me that …”
10. Finally, make sure to share with your clients what makes for an effective and powerful testimonial. Let them know that it is not the one that talks about how many years your are in business or how nice your new web site looks. You are looking for the one that describes the outcome and results you have generated for your clients.

You’ve built a great looking web site (well, let’s start with that assumption) and announced it to the world. Yet, several months later you are starting to get desperate as the phones are not ringing, no emails inquiries are coming in and no products are being ordered from your site.

You are probably wondering what went wrong and what are the most effective ways of changing this. Well, here are some points to consider before you pull the trigger:

• There is no one silver bullet approach to creating success on the web.
• Engage in as many effective marketing activities that allow you to connect with your clients. Such as: creation and participation of various web sites, blogs, press-releases, online forums, newsletters, social media activities, Radio, TV and podcast interviews, teleseminars, workshops, speaking and more.
• Strengthen your brand and credibility and become an object of interest.
• Nurture and grow your audience and your databases. From results reported by many of my clients, one of the most effective marketing techniques is to consistently send emails containing valuable offers and incentive to their database. This means that in addition to your content driven newsletters you need to also send announcements of your products and services. This is often overlooked by many.

What have you found to be effective?

It is quite obvious that one of the keys to the business success of many, is their ability to offer valuable products on their web sites. When I demonstrate, review and discuss this with my clients it is quite common to hear them share with me their aspiration to create such products to promote on their own web sites. The unfortunate thing is that such aspiration is often associated with an immense sense of frustration and the rudimentary challenge of how to make this a reality. The other obstacle is how to get their knowledge and ideas out of their head and into a completed product such as a booklet, book, CD, DVD workshop, Teleseminar and more.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

1. Interview other thought leaders, record the conversation and create an audio file that is available as an MP3 download off your site or a CD.
2. Have others interview you or even video tape the conversation and make it available as an audio or video file.
3. If the objective is to increase your audience by providing free value, interface your audio recordings with iTunes and your videos with YouTube and such services. Also make your transcript available as an eBook in a PDF download.
4. Hire a content writer that will help you get your great ideas unto paper or digital files.
5. Assemble some of your best articles into a powerful collection and create a new eBook that is also available as a hard copy.
6. Create a weekly podcast series.
7. Create a monthly video series.
8. Invite your audience for three free teleseminars, deliver outstanding value and announce your new monthly teleseminar series.
9. Get together with your Internet company and layout the strategy and tactics to implement and promote these products successfully.
10. Chart your way to success – Determine one of your desired products, pull out your calendar, write down the date it will be completed and available, determine all the steps necessary to accomplish this and schedule them accordingly. Now repeat for the next product.

Unless you have already mastered the creation of such products and are doing so effectively, consistently and profitably, the key is your discipline and creating a powerful support system to help you get there. To become successful at creating products, you may need to select an accountability partner, a mentor, an Internet and a business strategist, a content writer or someone who has done so successfully and learn from them.

Since it is that time of year when making resolutions is popular yet only few follow through with, why not take a moment, determine a product your customers need that you are passionate about and have the knowledge and expertise. Then, pull out your calendar and take your first step by taking action now. You’ll be glad you did. I promise.

A question was asked today on an online forum I’ve implemented and help moderate. Here is the question:

“I’m doing a redesign of my site based on comments gleaned from an earlier post. (thank you to all). A point was made that too much is buried and buyers are not compelled to dig any further. My worry is having the home page crowded with too much info. I don’t want the buyer to work too hard. As if this isn’t enough, I have three services which i really want to highlight so I have to make sure those are front and center. I plan to include links / topics such as “client results” / “case studies”, “testimonials”, etc. , but what other elements do you feel are essential for the home page?”

I was surprised that all answers from various members focused primarily on tweaks to design and some minor words enhancements. Here was my reply:

Assuming your objectives are:
1. Create credibility and strengthen your brand.
2. Improve and increase your contact with others, increase your distribution list and potential clients.
3. Make it easier for your clients to do business with you.
4. Implement technologies to easily and consistently deliver your value to your clients

And assuming you want to position yourself as a world-class act, then your site does not need a facelift, it needs a major surgery.

And keep in mind that design, look & feel and navigation are only one small component of desired success. Some of the others are:

1. What valuable content (article, position papers, case studies, booklets, books, teleseminars, workshops …) is on your site to benefit your current and future clients?
2. What are you doing to increase your content consistently and how do you leverage it?
3. What are your strategy and your tactics?
4. What elements of marketing gravity have you committed yourself to and how does your site leverage them?
5. What does your accelerant curve look like (products and services)? how does it evolve? Any chasms in it? How does your site support and leverage it?
6. Are you a speaker? If not, should you be? If so, how is your site promoting you as such?
7. Should you leverage social media? If so why or why not and which one(s) should you embrace?
8. Does your target audience search for you and if so should you engage in search engine optimization (SEO) or paid listings (PPC)?
9. Should you create a blog or build a community around your work. Should you create videos and podcasts and place them on your site and on YouTube and iTunes and others?
10. Should you have an affiliate program?
11. Are you evolving and reinventing your business and your site?
12. How would you rank yourself on my Internet strategic profile and where do you need to be tomorrow?
13. I could go on and on …

Focus on design and you will probably end up with a pretty web site that most likely has missed its mark and objectives. But then again, some say: “if you build it, they will come.” I say: “will they?”

Let me share this with you. The ones that have taken my recommendations seriously and work hard at consistently executing the strategy, recognize the highest success. The others, have pretty web sites!

Best,

Chad

Earlier this year I visited Alan Weiss to discuss several projects we are working on and to also leverage the opportunity to tape quite a few video segments for Alan’s site. It just so happened that I landed on the day he was scheduled to tape the next five segments of the Writing On The Wall (WOTW) series. Since I am always looking for interesting and valuable content, I pulled out my video camera and taped the “behind the scenes” of Alan’s production. What I found most fascinating is that in less than the 90 minutes session, which mostly was interrupted by me, he was able to tape five segments for the WOTW series and four video testimonials for people in his hall of fame program.

Enjoy,

Chad

http://www.chadbarr.com/the-writing-behind-the-writing-on-the-wall/

I am constantly intrigued by what generates success for entrepreneurs so I may coach and apply this blueprint for my clients. During a fabulous dinner with Alan Weiss this past Wednesday evening at The Spiced Pear in Newport, Rhode Island and over an amazing 2001 Chateau Margaux, we discussed some of the components of such success:

1. Internalized Knowledge and experience.
2. Intellectual fire power which is gained through additional learning, reading and experience.
3. Innovative and creative ideas.
4. Mental discipline to get out the intellectual capital (between your ears) into products and services which become your intellectual property. This transfer process is done through instantiation, which is your  ability to take complex concepts and simplify them.
5. Constant daily creation and addition to your body of knowledge and body of work.
6. Passion demonstrated in your work and your contacts with your clients.

Below is a process visual I have just created at 32,00 feet, on my way to Rhode Island to speak at Alan Weiss’s Million Dollar Consulting® College:

There are several elements to the chart above: On the horizontal axis is your “Strategy, Tactics and Execution” (referred below in short as strategy), which are the components of what your business and internet should look like, how will you do it, the steps to get there and your fierce commitment to execute it. On the vertical axis is your “Intellectual Property (IP), Content, Products and Services (referred below in short as content). The plus sign(+) represents the high of each quadrant and the minus sign(-) the low.

Quadrant 4 – Create, innovate or get out – This represents low strategy and low content. These individuals suffer from low or no success and are usually struggling quite a bit. The solution (as in my heading) is quite obvious. If you fall into this quadrant and assuming you have the wisdom and passion, start creating and innovating while developing and executing your strategy or find another occupation.

Quadrant 3 – Best kept secret – This represents high content and low strategy. These individuals have outstanding content and lack the strategy to make them extremely successful. Although, some do see some success, the majority struggle to reach that next level in their business.

Quadrant 2 – The emperor has no clothes – This represents high strategy and low content. These individuals are good at the strategic aspect of their business and may even be somewhat successful for a while but they lack the wisdom or the knowledge of how to do it or they use fraudulent techniques.

Quadrant 1 – It’s good to be the king – This represents high strategy and high content. These individuals are great at what they do, their content is good to remarkable, they execute powerful and effective strategy and are extremely successful.

The solution is pretty straight forward. Focus on creating and innovating while increasing your IP, content, products and services while making sure you have a clear strategy and tactics that you execute well and with great discipline.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Upon review of probably thousands of web sites over the years, I have come to the conclusion that in order for your organization to be successful on the Internet, 3 key elements must be accomplished to generate such success:

Design: Your site ought to be professionally designed, attractive and engaging and be easy to navigate in order to quickly gain the visitors’ attention and interest. Good use of images is important as well as the use of action shots of you with your clients.

Content: Your site must focus on your visitors’ interest and addresses the question of what’s in it for them and how to improved their businesses and lives. To accomplish this, strong content must be developed in the form of products, services, and intellectual property while constantly evolving.

Strategy & Tactics: What should the business look like and how should it position itself online. What Internet components are critical to make the business a success. How should you reach and communicate with your current and future customers? Should they be able to purchase products, read articles, subscribe to newsletters, communicate through blogs and online communities?

With that in mind, please review the chart below and notice the obvious at the points of interaction of the circles:

1. The Missing Map – This organization has a site that is well designed with great content yet no defined strategy and tactics to create an Internet success. It’s like driving a great car without a GPS system or an effective map to follow. You’ll be wondering why you are not reaching your destination.
2. The Ugly Book Cover – This organization has a site that has great content and powerful and effective strategies and tactics yet the site is poorly designed and navigated. Most visitors would either close their browsers or press the back button to go to their previous site.
3. The Boring Show – This organization has a site that reminds me of going to see a theater show that was well advertised and promoted with great and colorful posters. Yet when you get to finally watch it, there is nothing there. Just a terrible and boring show. Some site unfortunately suffer from the same syndrome.
4. Success - This organization is reaping the most benefits of effective web strategies. Any missing element and success is either delayed or non-existent. Yet when all three circles and elements intersect that ultimate success is achieve.

Where are you?

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

Last Thursday I received an urgent email and a voice mail from a consultant and speaker, who is also a colleague of mine whose identity I will keep anonymous who is not my client and is not hosted on our server. She reported to me that her web site was infected (see slide below) which presents a serious risk to all visitors arriving to her site. Upon further investigation, not only did we find out that her own site contains serious viruses but the server her site was hosted on was reported to contain thousands of viruses and malicious content.

This is an example of a credible, competent, successful professional who is using the services of amateurs and a hosting company that threatens infecting all the sites hosted on their server if not already done so.

This is also an example of what happens when one selects a cheap solution that may have greatly damage their repute. Can you imagine being the client visiting this site, only to find out that the consultant you’ve trusted over the years, has just infected your computer and potentially your organization with viruses?

Not only should you do business with people you trust, who are extremely competent and highly recommended but you ought to think twice before you select your hosting company.

(Click on image to enlarge)

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

The power of the internet is that it is ubiquitous – which can be a good thing if you are maximizing what your website says about you and your business. Does yours reflect Walking your Talk and Talking your Walk?

Often times during my seminars I ask for volunteers to allow me to demonstrate their sites effectiveness. Most cringe and avoid any eye contact with me. You can almost read them silently say: “please, not my site.” In fact, that may be just the reason why many become our clients since they know that they need to invest in getting their talk and walk in sync.

Your Walk is who you are, what you do, how you do it, why you do it and so forth. It is the action you convey. By being aware of what messages you are sending through your actions, you can adjust them in order to align them so that what you do also tells your customers how your products and services meet and/or exceed their needs and wants.

Your Talk is what you say, the language, that connects you and your customers with what you can do for them. One of the most powerful ways to talk about your business today is through your website so that it says what it needs to say and how it needs to say it. The quality of your website speaks volumes about your business through your powerful language, audio, video and visual messages. Another and probably even more powerful ways of talking about your business, is to let your customers do that through testimonials and commentary.

Here are a few tips to help you analyze both Your Walk and Your Talk online and offline. Go through each of the tips and individually consider Your Walk; and then repeat it with analyzing Your Talk. Make a list of action steps you can take to get them in sync so that your online and offline walk as well as your online and offline talk are synchronized through and through.

1. Is your value proposition (VP), which defines how your clients are better off by virtue of working with you, prominently displayed on your home page? What sections of your site demonstrate and prove your value proposition? If your VP talks about dramatic growth of your clients, you should incorporate testimonials and articles demonstrating and explaining such growth for you and your clients.
2. What is your vision and mission statement and how does your site substantiate them? A client investing six-figure investment with us shared with me that he felt we have similar philosophy. When I asked him to articulate further he said that it was based on similar vision and mission statements that he read on our web site.
3. Are you using effective language to increase credibility through your clients’ list, testimonials, case studies, client results and your intellectual property and expertise? Do your articles show examples and how-to tips based on successful track record with your clients?
4. Who is your audience and what is your market and what are the products and services that may greatly benefit them? Are you constantly adding new such products and services and receiving happy clients’ testimonials that are displayed on your site?

By refining and aligning what your website is saying about you and your business, not only will you eliminate the cringe, but you may find that you are finally proud for the whole world to see it.

© Chad Barr 2009. All rights reserved.

To develop fresh ideas I would recommend the following:

1. Read the Wall Street Journal, Business Week and such publications and pay attention to what is reported and discussed both in print, online blogs and online forums.

2. Read books on the topic of innovation, Internet marketing and such

3. Attend workshops / seminars

4. Follow blogs of successful thought leaders

5. Meet smart and interesting people, ask questions and start a dialog

6. Create or join a mastermind group

7. Write often

8. Solicit the advice of experts

9. I get tremendous amount of powerful ideas from an online community my company implemented and I moderate http://www.alansforums.com

10. Speaking in conferences or webinars has always generated tremendous mount of great ideas for me when listening to my audience questions

Ideas are all around you, all you have to do is start paying better attention.

1. Unless you have good, interesting and valuable starting content on your forum why would anyone spend time there or consider joining? They are not going to.
2. I would suggest you create a repository of intellectual property (IP) that is available to forum members only and is uniquely position with how-to information.
3. Market to all of your current and previous clients, prospects and anyone you know and share with them the exciting new place / community you have created (after you built the initial content) and invite them to check it out and join.
4. I would charge for membership yet select a smaller group of subscriber that would become the initial group (for free) to start the momentum of posting going.
5. Promote and market your new site and forum in every possible media: news release, networking events, verbally with anyone you talk with, speeches, newsletter, blog, your paperwork (invoices, correspondence), get people to interview you on their blogs (written, audio and video podcasts).
6. Feature the best of the posts in your monthly newsletter (assuming you have one) and create enticements to have new members join.
7. Strive to become “the place to go” for the greatest and latest of your industry wisdom.
8. When possible discuss “success stories” and share on your site and inside the forum.
9. Create a referral network both domestically and internationally that would send your target audience to the forum and to you.

So what is your blog good for? Here are some ideas: It …

1. Enables you to publish your knowledge and wisdom for others to benefit from.
2. Allows you to promote and refer to it on your web site and newsletter and reference interesting threads.
3. Makes it easy for your visitors to subscribe so they may automatically receive your posts via RSS feed.
4. Gives you the flexibility to react to other blogs, news, current events and interesting posts.
5. Lets you promote your products, services, speaking engagements, articles and white papers.
6. Entices others to engage in a conversations and debates with you and others.
7. Positions you as an object of interest, an expert in your field and have other bloggers and web sites refer to your blog and posts.
8. Makes it easy to summarize your presentations and email the notes to attendees prior and after your event.
9. Creates the tool to allow the discipline to produce content to strengthen your brand and marketing gravity.
10. Evolves into a repository of interesting information – a knowledge base.
11. Sharpens your knowledge as you focus on developing and delivering interesting, new and valuable content.
12. Becomes fun as it evolves and once successful creates a community around your work.
13. Permits you to capture your clients’ questions and respond by writing a new post or refer to an old one.
14. Expands your network to reach out to clients, prospects, colleagues and business partners while allowing them to reach out to their network featuring your wisdom.
15. Pushes the envelop by augmenting the written words and creating additional channels of delivery methods such as audios and videos.
16. Strengthens your Internet strategy by adding another domain that creates content for Google and other search engines to find and index.

What are your thoughts?

Early this week I submitted a proposal (among several others) to a prospect interested in our web site development. Shortly after I sent the proposal the prospect emailed me and asked me to further articulate what I mean in the proposal by suggesting to incorporate strong call-to-action techniques on all site pages. I thanked the prospect and suggested the answer is clearly articulated in a previous post on my blog: “what’s your call to action” and I then suggested they might find several other articles on my web site and blog to be of value:
How the 3 strikes rule applies to your web strategy
The importance of web site evolution
Blogging in the new year

So what are some simple and basic ideas of marketing your blog?
1. Include it in your email signature file.
2. Print it on your business card.
3. Verbally mention it in your discussions and presentations.
4. Mention it when writing your articles.
5. Leverage in your emails especially using my idea above of driving direct value to your current and future clients.

This prospect is not a dear new client.

A question was asked on one of the online forums we implemented and I help moderate: “How often does one need to add a new entry to a blog? How long or short should a typical entry be?” Here is my answer:

This is one of the topics I study, track, research, write about, consult others and help develop. So let me share my bias with you.

I am writing an article for my blog with the title of: “The slow death of blogs” and please don’t misunderstand me, blogs are a powerful business tools and are here to stay and evolve. I am referring to individuals that were convinced by someone or thought it is a good idea to start a blog. But they rarely post on it. Not only is it a poor reflection on them but it is also a sad underutilization and a waste of this powerful tool. Their blogs are doomed by google and more importantly by their possible readers and will eventually close down – It’s only a matter of time. Unfortunately, some are members of this forum and some I personally reached out to and recommended they start posting on their own blog. Well guess what, they did for a short while and then stopped. They may get their last minute of fame and get featured in my article.

So if you are thinking of starting a blog here are some pointers:

1. Minimum 3 posts per week but if you missed a week here and there, not a big deal.
2. Length of each post from one sentence to an article length (1.5 page) although I recommend you keep it short and with bullet points. Write effectively and don’t over think this point.
3. You can always break your posts into sections or to be continued which may create anticipation.
4. The key is INTERESTING and VALUABLE stuff. But you already knew that I am sure.
5. The other key is that there is much more to putting together a successful blog than just starting to blog.
6. A blog is a tool for rapid publishing giving 100% of the control to the author of the blog enabling you to basically fire your web master (well not quite but almost.)
7. Finally, the power in creating a rich experience for the user is by combining text, images, audio Podcasts and videos on your blog. See Alan Weiss for a great example of a fascinating blog. Mine is another of course.

There are other members on the forum that have interesting blogs. Ed Poll, Aviv Shahar, Dan Coughlin, Pam Harper and Michael Harrison among others.

Here are some articles I wrote that you may find of value before you make your final decision:

Blogging in the new year
How to make your blog posts more interesting
The importance of web site evolution
How to improve your marketing exposure

My colleague, Dan Janal, runs a great operation with his company PRLEADS. His company focuses on helping individuals get quoted in top-notch publications. I know many people that use Dan’s company and get great results and are quoted in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times and Business Week to just name a few. I met Dan and he does run a great operation that provides terrific value.

Some time ago, Dan started a new blog by the name of: Cool Book of the Day, which actually is a great idea, allowing authors to feature their books. However, I have two key issues with this blog:

The first is Dan’s decision to use Google ads in an attempt to possibly make money. Please look at the first two screen shots (click on the images to enlarge) and tell me how are ads about losing belly fat, quitting your job, and pushing hard the love button, help in establish strong business credibility about the book, the author or Dan’s blog. I believe it ruins everyone’s credibility. Realize that the two screen are capturing the same identical blog page but demonstrate how Google controls changing these ads at different times.

(First google ad)

(Same screen a couple of seconds later with a different google ad)

I read blogs using a blog reader, which allows me to review multiple blogs instantaneously to quickly pick and choose the entry I may be interested in reading. It also saves me the time it would otherwise take to visit each blog in order to check if any of them has anything new to read. The concept has been there for a while and it uses RSS technology, but that is for another article. The reader I happen to use is the popular Google reader. Take a look at the screen shot below, which shows the same identical blog above through my Google Reader. Notice that it does NOT show the Google Ads. This is a huge consideration if you are thinking of utilizing Google Ads in your blog.

(Same screen of above blog page displayed in Google Reader

The second issue I have is more about the content. It seems to me that the author of each book had to simply answer several questions about their book rather than Dan interviewing them and writing his own review. But that would probably take some work.

Finally, his blog uses the Amazon affiliate program. This means that you are able to click on a book, which will then take you directly to the proper Amazon page. If you are then interested in ordering it online, the blog owner (most likely Dan) will earn some dollars. I do not have a key issue with this concept since I do the same on my own blog. The difference is that I believe you need to have a disclaimer about this in order to create credibility. Mine is at the bottom of the “About Chad Barr” page, which states that I will donate 100% of the affiliate program income to my favorite charities.

This article is intended to demonstrate how some decisions have the potential to ruin your credibility utilizing the wrong Internet tools and concepts.

We are working on a client project that involves two people in my organization, the client and another business partner. In order to improve communication and make sure all people involved are in the loop, I requested we all hit “reply all” when responding to emails. Doing so is not just common sense but also good business practice. Well, you guessed right. On numerous occasions both the client and the business partner did not choose to “reply all” and hit the “reply” button only, which would then reply only to the sender and not the others involved. There are of course occasions when this is necessary, especially when you want to reply to the sender, keep it confidential and prevent others from seeing it. But this was not the case here.

An oversight? Perhaps. But if you are not paying attention to important requests that affect proper communication and project success, you are increasing the chances of communication breakdowns and failures. I realize we all may suffer from dementia at times but the fact from my experience is that this situation is ubiquitously common.

The exception to this rule is when someone, erroneously or not, decides to include me and other recipients in their distribution list. Unless the content contains an error that needs to be pointed out, or all recipients need to know that I should not be included in future email updates, I simply hit the “reply” (to sender only) and ask the sender to keep me out (opt-out) of their distribution list.

Since I hopefully got you reading this far and since I know you would agree with me that we all get tremendous amount of emails and spam let me also suggest the following:

1. Reduce the number of emails you are sending and replying to.
2. Keep your email pithy.
3. No email jokes please. Let me share with you that I either delete them without reading or reply to sender with a request to stop sending them to me. This is an example where I choose not to hit “reply all” since I want to reduce the chances of others I do not know on the distribution list deciding to become my “friend” and add me to their distribution list.
4. Which brings me to the last point. When sending an email to people who do not know each other and unless previously agreed by all as expected, use the blind copy (bcc) option when sending your email. This way you are not revealing email addresses of people who would rather remain anonymous. I am one of these people.

Did I follow my rule number 2 of being pithy? Well, this is not an email and you decide.

This was my rant for the day and I do feel better now … I think.

I know that I keep talking about delivering genuine value through your blog. But how do you make your text come to life? Simple. Incorporate picture images, audio and video in your posts and throughout your blog. I visit too many blogs where the author did not realize this simple rule. Unless the message strongly captures my attention, I find most blogs to be quite boring.

When talking with one of our new web clients today, he said that he really likes the way I utilize pictures and videos on my blog. Another colleague emailed me a copy of his blog to comment on. It was painful. Not a picture in sight, just text upon text.

Think about powerful papers and online publications such as The Wall Street Journal and Business Week. Both, among many others, are loaded with outstanding text content accompanied by pictures, audios and videos.

So add some sizzle to your blog and remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. It will break up the monotony of your blog and will make it by far more interesting and unique.

Now where is that picture I wanted to place here?

It was great when one of the participants in my recent speaking engagement in Rhode Island, came to me after my presentation and reminded me that I did not mention a concept that resonated with him when he heard me speak last year. So here is the concept and thanks for the reminder:

Imagine visiting a web site or a blog for the first time, finding it interesting and book marking it for future visits. Then, on your future and subsequent visits, nothing has changed, no new content, nada. How many times would you keep on visiting this site before giving up? I say probably no more than three times.

To further illustrate my point, here is one final story that happened to me just recently: I am quite busy helping my clients leverage software, technology and the Internet to grow their business. Busy enough that I somewhat neglected to frequently update my own blog. When talking recently with one of my colleagues and discussing a point I wrote about on my blog, he went to my blog to check out my point and then said: “oh wow, I see that you are now posting much more than ever before, I will now then subscribe to your blog.”

And by the way, the same logic applies when subscribing to receive the content of other Blogs posts via RSS feed. How long before you remove the feed from your reader if no new posts have been entered?

I suggest you get into the discipline of posting interesting new content, at least once a month on your site and at least three times a week on your blog.

(Note: My definition of RSS technology – It enables people on the web to subscribe and automatically receive content from all the sites they are interested in. They may read, listen or view text, audio or video content immediately when it is published on the various sites. This eliminates the need to manually and separately visit all these sites to see if new content has been published.)

I am here at Rhode Island where I will be presenting today “How to Leverage The Internet for Improved Success in Your Business” to the attendees of the Million Dollar Consulting College, held by Dr. Alan Weiss of the Summit Consulting Group.

While chatting last night with several of the college participants, I came to realize that most entrepreneurs do not recognize the awesome power of progress and evolution, especially when it comes to their own web site. By that I mean, the commitment to the continuous addition of valuable content, products and services to your site and your business. I am referring to content such as:

As well as the possible implementation of:

So think about fast-forwarding 24 months from now. Your evolved web site now has at least 24 more articles, 4 checklists, 6 booklets, 4 Teleconferences, 2 workshops, 2 e-Books, 800 new registrations to your newsletter, and 20 new clients’ testimonials. Get the point?

What would possibly then be the impact on your business if you did that?

For evolution to take its place and be most effective, the best time to start is right now.

One of the successful concepts of Internet marketing is called Viral Marketing. This concept helps spread an idea very quickly among its recipients.

One example of the success of this concept is with singer Marie Digby. She video recorded several famous songs and uploaded them onto YouTube. When visitors searched for the song by the original artist they also found her videos, which quickly brought her fame and the signing to produce a new album.

Seth Godin also talks about this concept in a couple of his blog entries:

“What makes an idea viral?”

and

“Is viral marketing the same as word of mouth?”

A study conducted by Outsell Inc., a market researcher in Burlingame, and reported in the San Francisco Chronicle, reveals a huge fraud charging customers for erroneous clicks. Here’s an alarming summary of the finding as published in the original article:

Clicks believed by advertisers to be fraudulent: 14.6 percent

Money paid by advertisers for bogus clicks: $800 million (2005)

Advertisers who said they were victims of click fraud: 75 percent

Advertisers who said they reduced click-based advertising or plan to: 37 percent

Revenue lost by Google, Yahoo and other Web sites, as a result: $500 million

Advertisers who request refunds because of fraud: 7 percent

Average refund: $9,507

Source: Outsell Inc.

This article appeared on page C – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle. Click Here to read original article.

According to Stephen Farthing, instructor at the Univ. of Arts in London, (reported in the wsj) the average time a gallery visitor spends in front of a painting is no more than two or three seconds.

As I so often speak about when delivering my speeches, the majority of web visitors spend only few seconds on your home page. These visitors would only spend more time if you successfully and quickly grabbed their attention with points of interest and valuable content and products.

Read my current month article: “Is this your site I’ve just seen driving by?
Why most web sites reject their visitors”

According to the WSJ, it is Online news. And according to Nielsen/Net Rating April 2007 top unique visitors:

MSNBC.com = 33.14 Million

Yahoo.com = 33.12 Million

CNN.com = 27.9 Million

It is the affiliated Internet portals that send visitors to these sites and give them their current edge.

In my current article for our newsletter this month, I discuss the components that create credibility for your web site. Read “Should I use you or how should I use use?” and learn what are these elements.

One of the things that irritates me is when a colleague sends me their stupid jokes and on top of it decides to CC me and the rest of their “favorite” list. Not only do I not care to get additional emails in my Inbox that are stupid, waste of my time and my Internet bandwidth, I now am potentially exposed and on the email distribution list of everyone else that was copied on this email.

My recommendations: When sending your emails to a group of people outside your organization, consider the blind copy option (bcc) before you press the send button.

I vented and I feel better now.

Chad

p.s. Did I mention you keep me off your jokes distribution list?

If you are like me, you probably meet individuals that may greatly benefit from your wisdom and experience working with other clients and may even become your future clients. Why not then simply add them to your newsletter distribution list? Unless you have their permission to do so, I recommend you don’t. I loath the ones that add me to their email list without asking for my permission. I am often times asked as to the proper way of doing it. My recommendation is that it must be permission-based which means that you have received the permission to do so. Here is how to do it:

When you meet them in person, seize the opportunity to let them know of your newsletter packed with great tips and value that they may learn and enjoy getting. Mention that you would like their permission to add their name to your distribution list. If after they get the first one, they do not see the value, all they would need to do is simply email you the request to unsubscribe them or do so themselves (opt-out.) I always get the warm reply that they are looking forward to getting it.

If you did not have the chance to do it in person, ask the same in an email and wait for their reply. If you wish to be more assertive, here is the email format I would use:

“In hopes that this may be of value to you and meets with your permission, I’ve added your email address to our newsletter list. This way I may stay in touch by providing you with monthly insights, tips and strategies on various web, Internet, technology and business issues. Our newsletter, jammed with resources, focuses on providing information and value to our clients. If you do not wish to receive it, just let me know by replying to this email with the subject REMOVE or click on the unsubscribe option when you receive the newsletter.”

Finally, make it easy to register to your newsletter from your web site. I prefer the one registration approach which upon entering your address, immediately adds you to the database. I do not care for the double reply method, which upon your registration sends you and email confirmation to click on to accept it again. I have not seen abuse in the single method approach and do not care to waste my time when I am the one registering.

We get many inquiries over the web, via email, the phone and regular mail, from people interested in our products and services. Here are some of the more amateurish mistakes people make:

1. No contact information such as address and phone number in their email signature. See my email signature example here.

2. No contact information such as phone number or address on their web site. View our web site and notice the bottom of each page.

3. No easy to find “contact us” tab on their web site.

4. Request that we contact them, yet leave a phone number that does not exist or a bogus email.

5. They seem to have an established organization yet they are using emails that do not end with their company’s domain name. Example: Jim who works at an established company that has a web site with the URL of: www.MyCompany.com yet he sends his emails from Jim@Aol.com or Jim@Att.net rather than from his own domain such as Jim@MyCompany.com. Why advertise someone’s else company rather than yours?

If you are making these mistakes, you are not serious about your own business.

Is your web site generating results for you?
Here are the three most important development business site objectives (desired outcomes):

1. Increase business and gain new clients
2. Improve your image, brand and credibility
3. Make it easier to do business with you

Either implement the proper strategy to accomplish all three or ask yourself whether your strategy is working.

To read the other 50 reasons why develop a web site, click here.

The way to increase the chances that your web visitors receive the value from your site and contact you is through your call to action. Each page must have a defined call to action or multiples. Here are some you may want to include on your sites and newsletters:

1. Contact us (call /email / fax)
2. Sign up today
3. Join our mailing list
4. Purchase product / service
5. Learn more
6. Take survey
7. Join our online forum
8. Download article (white paper, CD, MP3, PDF)
9. Request consultation / brochure
10. Refer site / article to a friend
11. Click here
12. Get your copy today
13. Print friendly option
14. Apply now
15. Ask the expert
16. View video
17. Listen to podcast
18. Get your score (rank yourself)
19. Read what others are saying
20. Like this product? Here are others you may enjoy
21. Don’t underestimate the power of anchor text (hyperlinked words) so for instance, instead of using “click here” to direct the visitor to another page, why not use a powerful and provocative sentence or the name of one of your article, combined with a hyperlink to send the visitor to that page. How to better reach CEOs or CFOs is such an example.
22. Here is another example. Click on the image below.

What other call to actions do you like or find effective? Please write in the comment section below.

© Chad Barr 2006. All rights reserved.

Improving your ranking in the various search engines has much to do with your keywords utilization. Keep the following in mind:

1. Select the ones people search for
2. Place near the top & rest of page
3. Place in “H” heading tags
4. Use in bold and italic
5. Place into bullet lists
6. Repeat on page < 10%
7. Links on your site as text hyperlinks
8. Incorporate in URL and filenames
9. Incorporate in title page
10. One or two phrases per page

Below are 10 components to include in your site strategy to improve search engines ranking:

1. Useful, valuable, Content rich
2. Keywords selection
3. Title (40 – 60 char)
4. Description meta tag (up to 250 char)
5. Keywords meta tag (up to 12 words)
6. Site map
7. More text less graphics and use ALT tag in existing graphics
8. Genuine links to your site and on your site
9. Register in Search Engines and Directories
10. Make sure your site is indexed

More detail explanation in my future postings. Stay tuned.

Email signature is a powerful, easy, and economical way to market your company, products and services. Include a short marketing message with a “call-to-action” that invites your recipient to take an action such as:

1. Subscribe to your newsletter
2. Read your articles and blogs
3. Purchase your products and services
4. Announce a new offering / incentives
5. Visit your web site

Also, why not include your demographic information such as address, phone number and extension. This way you will make it so much easier for your recipient to get a hold of you if necessary.

Below is an example of my own email signature:

Chad Barr
President
CB Software Systems, Inc.
Tower East
20600 Chagrin Boulevard #1110
Shaker Heights, OH 44122

Ph: 216-991-2277 x 112
Fax: 216-752-2239

Interact with us at: www.cbsoftware.com

Subscribe to our free monthly electronic technology newsletter, jammed with resources, articles, and tips by clicking: www.cbsoftware.com/etc/newsletters.php

To read my latest article, ” Blog, Blog, Blog … How to improve your marketing exposure” click on:
www.cbsoftware.com/cbnn/How-to-improve-your-marketing-exposure.php

See the work we’ve done for international consultant, speaker and author Alan Weiss and join Alan’s Forums for debate, networking and ideas exchange at: www.alansforums.com

Fully integrated e-commerce & e-business solutions such
as the one we developed for: www.sskemp.com

View Chad’s new Blog: www.chadbarr.com

Blogs (web logs) are a great way of delivering valuable content to your target audience. Very quickly, you too can start publishing with great ease on the web with virtually no technical knowledge. Here are my top seven reason why you or your organization should consider having a blog:

1. Ease of publishing
2. Central resource place
3. Newsletters archive
4. Increased exposure
5. Interaction with others
6. Market research
7. Web gravity

For detailed explanations of the above points, please click below and review my article:

“Blog, Blog, Blog … How to improve your marketing exposure”