A big part of marketing is about the image you project from inside your company as well as out. As someone who wants to come across as very helpful with a supportive and can-do attitude, I got into the habit of asking clients after my final invoice ‘How do you feel it went so far? All feedback is appreciated’

It’s a simple question but one which has proven invaluable. The latter part invited negative criticism as well. I would like to say this never happens but it does which is a good thing.

We all make mistakes… but without generalising, I make mistakes. Most mistakes I know about and fix them before the client (and in my line of work, their clients) ever notice, if it’s a big mistake I will inform the client and tell them what I’m doing up at 3am, what I’m doing to fix it and when they can expect it to be rectified. Some ‘mistakes’ go unnoticed however. Asking this question ensures that I know what they feel I did wrong, and this gives me the opportunity to put it right. When that customer is deciding whether or not to renew, that could be a make or break decision. I have so far lost only one client in 2 years.

When things are going perfectly, it instead gives me the opportunity to proudly add their comments as a testimonial or I can ask that it is submitted via Ecademy or LinkedIn.

Customer feedback is essential as there are three types of complainers:

1) Something went wrong and they tell you
2) Something went wrong and they don’t tell you
3) Nothing went wrong and they complain anyway

Number 3 is the most annoying but number 2 is dangerous for your business because they are telling someone.

This is the easy way to move number 2′s into the top slot.

The news of Michael Jackson’s passing was quickly widespread, it was probably the fastest news story ever to reach the world and it did so because of technology, namely Twitter. Within minutes of the article appearing on TMZ’s website, it was global! I was following closely using one of my favourite Twitter news tools; Twitscoop (http://www NULL.twitscoop NULL.com/) which analyses public tweats looking for patterns in real time and shows emphasis on the most common subjects.

Through Twitter, I watched accusations on Michael’s Doctor, I saw mass hatred of Parez Hilton for accusing Michael of faking his collapse.

Yesterday I saw the start of the mass moonwalk in Liverpool Street Station, I even got to watch it live online through someone’s mobile phone!

Twitter is a wonderful thing because it allows mass communication spread instantly throughout the world.

While watching the trending keywords on Twitter however, something strange happened. Jeff Goldblum’s name popped up and quickly grew. After looking into it, news of his death was spreading just as quickly. Harrison Ford also cropped up as having died or gone missing depending on the source.

News of Michael Jackson stopped people in their tracks and brought them online to Twitter. Now people are poised for news, this story went even faster!

At the time of writing, both Jeff Boldblum and Harrison Ford are alive and well (and no doubt questioning that fact Sixth Sense style)

Before Twitter, reporters researched stories before publishing. All information needed some proof before it would get published.

With Twitter, the information leaks uncontrollably and is retweeted and spread with little or no such research.

The world has become a nation of well connected, free publishers. Is this a good thing? The alternative Orwellian Internet doesn’t bare thinking about but we should learn to be ever more careful about the source of our information.

We need to learn to fight the urge to become the ‘first’ and instead become the ‘best’. I wonder where else that lesson could be applied.

… when it’s a product… not funny? it shouldn’t be, let me explain:

A man walks into DIY Emporium, he looks at spades, he chooses one, buys it and leaves. A perfect sale, no problems …except that he didn’t want a spade…

What this man really wanted was a hole in the ground to plant some potatoes. He wanted to cultivate some easy vegetables to cook at next year’s BBQs. He wants to be able to tell his friends ‘I grew them myself’ and hear about how much better they tasted compared to store bought. He will feel proud and inspired to try tomatoes next year.

He is a little worried of course, what if he plants them in the wrong place? what if the ground is too wet/soggy/dry/cold/dark/light? What if it all goes wrong?

He has such a beautiful idea, but the spade doesn’t come into that dream anywhere. He didn’t really want it. He doesn’t care if it has a brown handle or a green one. He doesn’t care if it’s stainless steel or carbon fibre.

Are you selling spades or holes?
Do you show a picture of a spade or of big earthy potatoes?
Do you talk about the spade’s dimensions, colour, weight, portability, ergonomics or do you explain how much easier/quicker/better/deeper the resulting holes will be?
Do you package it with a trowel or rake? Or with planting instructions and yearly calendar? Shed building tips or even recipes?

No matter what we sell, we’re selling to people… REAL people and REAL people have REAL hopes, fears, dreams and desires. REAL emotions.

[spade photo courtesy of Lee Jordan]

A mass trend has hit the Internet, it sneaked in so subtly it almost went unnoticed.

The problem: The Internet is truly free, there is little or nothing you can’t get for free. Do you write standard fill-in-the-blanks legal documents? I can download them from docstoc. Do you write your own music? I can download via piratebay. Do you create websites? I can get a free one with Microsoft…

This has been damaging for so many industries, but now they’re actually playing the system and making a mint… how?

Solution: Microcharging.

iTunes are fully aware that MP3′s can be downloaded for free, albeit illegally. They came in with low low costs for singles and even less if you buy the whole album. MP3s can be downloaded for 79p! 10 years ago, I could buy a single for around £4 so that’s a big improvement. Who wouldn’t pay 79p to stay on the right side of the law for a track they liked?

Facebook charge for little graphic images, and little adverts. The majority of these cost around $1… it’s pocket money… of course who are the target market?

Digital photo printing generally costs 10-50p per print. 10-50p and the wait for delivery is well worth not having to fiddle with the printer, top up the ink and sort out paper jams, what a bargain.

Nintendo Wii. You can purchase wii points in blocks of 1000 for £7.50. For that you can download games which are now available for free online. Of course you can’t put them on your wii without a small cover charge.

In the US, mobile users pay to receive an SMS message. Twitter are cashing on to this with their mobile alerts (and a cushy deal with the networks. Which is why they stopped in the UK, here the billing is the other way round losing twitter money)

The list goes on.

Do you have something that doesn’t decrease when sold? eBooks, help-sheets, anonymous questionnaire data? These are great places to start as they require little or no action from you per sale.

Naturally this system works on volume, but with the right product(s), 1000 downloads at £1 each… I won’t insult intelligence by showing you the answer… you get the picture. If run through Paypal, your users won’t even have to hunt for their wallets (assuming they have an account)

Is microcharging the missing link in social networking sites? Is it the missing link to Twitter’s fortunes? How else could we use microcharging as individuals or a collective?

Have you ever tried to scan a document into editable format? It never really works because the human brain uses a HUGE variety of processes for reading. The simple home computer simply cannot do this as efficiently. The solution always leads us to manually proofread the entire document word by word correcting mistake after mistake.

As the print quality gets worse, so does the translation. According to one site, this text:

was translated as this:

‘ letz-1- rrk fit: 1′ . on its to Vc ,rt, cann into tlm yc H_ tcr,la, .n. ‘l l; , arc ti:( h of thc 1″,ats that to ltc rc: ,;. , I; ., l: rel!;n. tani., , ./olio, IJuteilu, . 1!’i./_ ;lr”n. Iiam! Jr.r. F’l,nr_.Z.._%i;;, ,, : rt-Irn: am/ tf.rri.:, t?m steamer as a tr nW r. Uu ,tin;t, c ac?1 1″,at firm/ a t;nn, accor.liu; to .t rn. ‘Cl.w r. wu ru lm:nui MistinW /y in u;th, -. ink ;:,k as to “what w ax 1111, :111(I vle:iR a of ;: (,am( into, mnr r-, tm if tlm wo r( uu.i n:’ of t?u : la?:Iv. ‘c : ol in thc , ucr:atic , , Tlau :; will h:aw tu-li.r . ’1′Im yap?tts Il ,,n an,/ I, ,rr:l. r, (,t tf,is r:ity, start witli it, with lu:rtic: ol 1- e:l.k.

A group of geeks at Carnegie Mellon University got together and discovered that in order to translate billions of virtually illegible words, we need humanpower…. and lots of it!

Have you ever seen these? Two words under the brand ‘ReCaptcha’ (single word anti-spam systems don’t do this)

These two words come from the clever people above to prove you are a human by translating the words…. however there’s something they’re not telling you…

Only one of the words is actually known and tested!

One of the words it knows and proves you are human (as we’ve already established, computers are terrible at reading), the other is completely unknown… when you enter that word, assuming the other was correct, it will be assigned to the image helping the recaptcha machine translate an entire book. YOU have become a slave to the system, one part of the mass humanpower needed to run ‘the machine’

I find this amazingly simple concept is just brilliant… pure genius at it’s best. If everyone puts in a tiny amount of effort, the big picture will form much more quickly than our forefathers could have ever imagined. Proof of the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of our parts.

Now I just need to work out how many of these flipping things I’ve filled out so I can write out an invoice…

Blogging isn’t new, most people have their own blogs and can see the benefits, but some people don’t, and I want to play a part in changing that. A good business blog isn’t about inane subjects like where your last holiday was spent or your new kittens (unless you’re in the holiday or animal rescue business) and if you are an expert in your chosen field, it doesn’t have to be difficult to come up with new ideas and topics.

Top 10 reasons for having a blog:

1. SEO – The search engines LOVE blogs, more and more are appearing in the top results. Google in particular is now concentrating on newer content vs old and it’s time your static website started getting a piece of that action.
2. Credibility - By releasing well worded articles, you can prove your expertise to the general public, you will build up a reputation of being knowledgable and passionate about your chosen subject and not just following an ‘it pays the bills’ mentality about your business.
3. Free links – A good article is shared with others, the link gets emailed and posted on other’s blogs and comments, the back links help both click throughs and again aid the SEO.
4. Up-to-the-minute – Almost all industries are undergoing change on a daily basis, by writing articles about these changes and how they affect your target market, you can keep people informed, especially if you’re the first to blog about it.
5. Interaction – Blogs are usually linked by keywords, once a user has finished with one blog either by reading or irrelevancy, there is the option for them to see previous articles on the same subject, this gives more exposure, more chance of being seen and shared. Again the SEO benefits are amazing.
6. Openness – Depending on the type of business and impression you want to give as a business, adding personal blogs can be a benefit. In many businesses, the USP is the individual involved. By being open and sharing shows you have nothing to hide and helps visitors build a rapport with you.
7. I’m still here – The Internet is well over a decade old, it is full of closed business and obsolete sites. By updating a dated blog, you are showing Google and your visitors that you are still operating in full force.
8. Special offers and Updates – Blogs are a great way to update clients without hitting them with constant unread newsletters. It enables them to see smaller changes within the company, new product launches and allows you to post special offers.
9. Allows overpopulation – One of the first mistakes people tend to make with new websites is to write too much information. Some visitors want that information however and the blog is a brilliant repository. You can keep your main pages clean with good sales copy and write all the technical details and performance results in an article.
10. Feedback. – A static website is relatively flat, it can act as a barrier between the visitor and the business. A blog opens the comments channel allowing visitors to play a part in the growth of your online presence. They also tend to be written in a more relaxed way helping your visitor to feel more relaxed and less defensive to sales copy.

“But I’ll run out of things to write about”

Ask for ideas, look at similar industry blogs, read your industry’s news, blog about what you see, put it into plain English.
Accountants – Tax saving tips, How the budget effects small businesses (dumbed down version), what does the expenses row mean?, why are politicians choosing to wait until the next election to stand down?
Estate Agents – What’s happening to the property market? What should first time buyers be looking out for? What can sellers do to increase their chances?
Graphic Designers – A good designer produces work which is beautiful to look at, show it! What thought processes go behind a good design? Give us case studies, explain why a blue blob with the letter ‘Y’ just cost your client £600.
Unemployed people – I’ve been talking to a young lady who’s making a small fortune by being unemployed, she’s written a book about job hunting blogged and vlogged about it and is really pushing her online profile.

The lists are endless but you get the idea.

Don’t have a blog? have I convinced you to give it a try? How about this for numbers: I don’t put much time into my own site, I spend too much time with other people’s, but every so often I post a new blog. When I do, my site traffic spikes up 50-100% within a few days before settling down at an overall 2% increase. One blog per week will double my overall site traffic every 35 weeks, one blog per day will almost double the traffic every month!!! If I stop, a decrease will start, but for now it just grows steadily.

How do you get it? You can install WordPress (http://www NULL.wordpress NULL.org) straight on to your website with custom or matching themes, (or we could do it for you) or you can use one of the hundreds of free blogging websites. WordPress (http://www NULL.wordpress NULL.com) again is by far the best in my personal opinion and very easy to set up and use. (I’m not on commission with WordPress, it’s just really good, in fact this blog is using wordpress)

Is there a benefit to having it installed or using the free option?

The free option is excellent but does have some advertising on for WordPress and links to other people’s blogs on similar subjects. Quality here is key, make sure your blog is better than the other related articles and yours will shine through. WordPress also benefits from high seo rankings so there is a good change of being seen.

The self-hosted version loses the ads and has no competition. It helps build the seo rankings for your whole site and allows you to use your domain name, although the seo benefits may not be instant, they will be longer standing.

If you haven’t got one, get one now and happy posting.

Richard Branson’s Blog (http://entrepreneur NULL.virgin NULL.com/)
Stephen Fry’s Blog (http://www NULL.stephenfry NULL.com/blog/)
Ivan Misner’s Blog (http://networking NULL.entrepreneur NULL.com/)
Derren Brown’s Blog (http://derrenbrownart NULL.com/blog/)

Google is forever releasing new features, most of which aren’t really of interest to the general user however today, things change. Google have added new search options. The next time you search for something, click ‘Show Options’ in the blue bar. Now you have a number of filters you can use to refine your search. These filters do make life easier but they are also the start of something big.

Type filters include: Video, Forums and Reviews

Time Filters include: Recent results, Past 24 hours, Past week, Past Year

There are also related searches and a ‘Wonder Wheel’

The type filters are going to make life easier for searchers to find what they are looking for and will be useful but won’t require changes from website owners. If you do run a searchable forum however, I would recommend your results display correctly in date order. To do this, go onto google and type:

Site:http://www.yoursite.com/forumdirectory

Then use the options to sort by date. Talk to your web designer about your choices if they don’t display as you would expect. Some coding changes may be required.

The time filters are the most important. The more recently your content was updated or added to, the higher you will appear… it’s as simple as that! If you don’t edit your site content regularly, add news articles, blogs etc. you will appear right at the bottom. Every time you add new content, you jump back to the top of the queue. So it’s important that you can and do edit your website and regularly!

What can you do if you have just a few pages of information for your company? Consider adding a Blog. A blog (like this one) is an easy-to-use list of articles grouped by category and keywords. It’s easy to find and construct content and could make a HUGE difference to your exposure. You’re obviously an expert at something, else you wouldn’t be able to run a business based on it!

If you have a community based site, consider opening the forums to all if locked down. Make sure Google can see it so posts are indexed regularly and listed in their search.

The final features are fun to play with and will actually help sites get better rankings even with less Search Engine Optimisation in place.

Have a play around, have fun and keep your website current.

Social and business networking has seriously taken off, but how did we do business before then?

Before the Internet, we had the telephone directories. A content rich book of potential clients and suppliers… the problem was we had no idea who these people were, it was a gamble every time we picked up the phone.

The search engines took over from the telephone directories but weren’t much better. As websites are cheaper to set up, it’s even easier to fall into traps and scams.

Ok go back again, before the telephone. How did people do business? Well we belonged to lots of clubs, societies and went to meetings. We had country clubs, the masons, sports clubs, big dinner parties all in the name of socialising. All the big businesspeople socialised regularly, sharing their interests and lives with each other. As needs arose, contracts went out to friends, family and friends of friends. We were people, not businesses.

This form of networking has made a big comeback online, it’s not new, it was always here and should be treated that way. If we look on it as something new, we end up making simple mistakes by trying new things, or applying the principals of ‘the website’ to these potential relationships.

“Hi, I’m Simon, I’m a web designer, you can find out about me ‘here’, do you want to connect with me?”

The classic mistake, I’ve given simple information that will only encourage people to connect if they are either desperate for a website or are interested in websites… i.e. the competition.

Change that to:

“Hi, I’m Simon, I see you are in a band, I play trumpet myself although need to bring my standard back up before looking into bands, how is the live music scene lately?”

Now I’ve read their profile, I’ve found a similarity i.e. something which we can talk about. The best thing is that the conversation will interest us both and allow a natural connection. The verb ‘To Like’ stems from ‘To BE like’. I am now showing myself as a person, a business can’t play the trumpet. (some people would argue that I can’t either but that’s open to debate)

We follow the conversation(s) through and decide to meet up for a drink (a business can’t go for a drink). I have a new friend, someone who can and will vouch for me and talk about me whenever a related conversation comes up. I will never try to sell to that friend but they will like and trust me. They already know what I do without me ramming it down their throats, I don’t have to insult their intelligence by telling them ‘I’m a web designer’ over and over. The day comes, they need a new website or just some advice, or better yet, one of their 200 clients, 10 suppliers, 400 friends or 30 family members needs a website, I’ve accidentally earned some business from this relationship.

If I never get business, I still have a friend who I can rely on when I bring my trumpet skills back up to scratch and want to find a band in my area. Oh, he’s also an accountant, I can phone him about something now my tax return is due, I need to know how to process a proportion of my rent and bills as a business expense. (while I’m there, I need a new swimming pool, the moat needs cleaning, my other house needs furnishin………

And don’t forget, relationships are bi-directional. Keep checking for replies, keep replying if one is due keep that friendship going. If your spouse kicks you out and you don’t feel you can call them to borrow their sofa, you don’t know each other well enough, keep trying!

Join in on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Ecademy etc etc. and make friends and have fun, pursue your passions and they (and the business) will pursue you. Be a person not a business. I can’t befriend a business.

And don’t forget to tell me if you like this blog, comment if you want to add or reply to this or any following comments. If you also play trumpet or are a member of a jazz band, connect with me. If you know any good free resources of some smooth jazz solos, I need something easy to get my skills and confidence back. (AND never start a new sentence with the word ‘And’ it’s grammatically incorrect.)

I don’t need to worry about branding because it’s already happening…

My brand is my reputation, previous work and my testimonials (http://www NULL.ecademy NULL.com/module NULL.php?mod=guestbook&id=217922).

If someone would like to make more money online and they decide they need a web designer or a web developer, I may end up in a short list of people to research.

The second they send me a message, email or call; my brand is building in their minds. The sooner I pick up or reply, the better the initial branding process starts. If I take 3 days (especially during a call), my brand looks terrible.

I meet the client and the way I dress, look, act and smell will affect my brand. My language and the politeness instilled by my parents will show through. It may or may not be accepted, but that is my brand.

They read my testimonials and look at past work… again, the brand is built.

I discuss possibilities with the client, past successes and external factors. I am making a promise and again growing my brand.

I don’t need to worry about branding because it’s happening every day whether I’m working on it or not, whether I want it to or not.

I have a strong, unique logo, this is what many people mistake as branding, actually it’s just an identifying mark, it promises nothing when stood alone. It’s not even that well designed! But it’s unique and allows people to associate a simple image with the feeling they got when communicating with me. Whenever they see this image, those same emotions and feelings will arise.

The question is, do I continue with this ‘accidental branding’ process and hope for the best?
This will allow my connections to be more natural. There will be people out there who don’t like me, there’s nothing wrong with that, but the slower work flow will be more pleasant as will the clients.

or do I make the effort to brand myself the way I want people to see me?
This is a little more effort, it drives me to improve and be more likeable. Fixing my flaws, driving my business forward and taking control not just of myself but strongly influencing what others are saying about me.

I know the answer for me, which do you choose?

A good way to approach people who don’t believe they’re big enough for a ‘brand’ image. You’re too late, it’s already happening.

I’m constantly asked by people all over ‘How do I get to the top of Google’, ‘Company X promises a front page listing’ and the likes. What are the google tricks to get you to the top? Hopefully I’m going to dispel a few tricks with business logic.

Google is a search engine, they want to make money from advertising but for this to happen, they NEED the masses to use it for searches.

What would make you choose or stop using a given search engine? The results. To maintain your loyalty, Google works hard to make sure it understands what you’ve typed into the search box, and gives you a good answer on page 1 with x million not so good ones following. (just in case) Google is a computer program and so doesn’t understand human speech as well as we, or Google execs would like, but it’s slowly getting there.

So
Fact #1: It is in Google’s best interests to produce reliable results to keep it’s audience.

If you search now for ‘Plumber in Watford’, Google will show plumbers and directories in Watford. Sometimes you’ll see other things there, these websites are strategically incorrect. This could be them trying to cheat the system or just not optimised correctly where Google thinks it’s about plumbers.

Back to fact 1, we lead on to:
Fact #2: Google continuously monitor results to create rules to filter out non-relevant results thus satisfying number 1.

Assuming you run a legitimate business, for argument’s sake and accountant in Hemel Hempstead, and I am looking for an accountant in Hemel Hempstead, it is in Google’s best interest to show your site to me. Google doesn’t care about how it looks, or how much money you spent on it, it only cares about me and satifying my needs. If it works, I will come back and become a loyal searcher, which is exactly what Google wants.

Fact #3: Google isn’t there to penalise people not able or willing to spend money on SEO, it’s best interests are with the searcher.

Some sites appear higher in Google than others, this is because Google believes that they are more helpful. Old sites designed and forgotten in 1995 are unlikely to be in the top 10 so it needs to know that you’re still in business and that you can help me. Don’t be clever and skirt around the issue of what you do. I am a web designer, fact. I could call myself a ‘brand archetect’ or a ‘e-makeover expert’ to differentiate myself, but that’s not what my prospects will be searching for. It is getting better and understanding, but it’s not quite there. For example if I add ‘That let the cat out of the bag’, Google would have to understand that I am talking about trouble, I am not a vet, I don’t agree with animal cruelty, I do not rescue kittens from bags (although have been known to.)

Fact #4: Google makes no assumptions, it only knows what you tell it, word for word.

I will expand on that last one, Google also knows what other people say about you, but that’s for another blog.

So forget Google as the enemy, it isn’t. It wants to help searchers find what they are looking for so they come back time and time again and hopefully click on a few adverts making Google a small profit for it’s efforts. Google is a business and while there are ways of ‘tricking’ it or tweaking things, if Google doesn’t believe you can help solve a given problem, you won’t be shown in the golden position 1.

Fact #5: Google are constantly improving, there are ways to slip through the net, but these will be quickly filtered out and you could be penalised.

So don’t try fooling Google by adding 100 links to the bottom of the page going to the same place, or 15 identical pages with the place names replaced unless there is a genuine reason for doing so. Continue to write copy for your readers, not Google, but just dumb it down a little so it all makes sense to a robot. Tricks like these will only work for a short time, once Google find a way to filter it out, you’ll be dropped like a hot potato.

Likewise if you do operate in several areas, by all means do have separate pages for each area, but don’t over-link them, stay logical. Remember that EVERY page is your home page. When someone clicks through, they won’t necessarily go to page 1, they could land anywhere and need to know in an instant that they’re in the right place.

Google isn’t your enemy, it is a money making business. If you understand business, think like them and you’ll already understand.