Do we need a code of conduct for writing blogs?

According to DLA Piper, only 5% of Internet users know the legal rights and wrongs of posting online. It also found that 77% of bloggers were unaware of the law surrounding publication and journalism.

The same study found that 42% of Internet users believe that bloggers should be made to follow the same legal standards as journalists. 46% like the idea of a voluntary code of conduct. Bloggers however, don’t agree, only 32% support the idea with 34% directly opposed.

According to a spokesman from DLA Piper, there is potential for bloggers to end up in court. Beyond defamation and employment law, there are plenty of other issues which bloggers could trip up on. Issues such as, but not limited to: Libel, Contempt of court, the Telecommunications act, Protection from harassment act, even the anti-terrorist legislation.

Given that nobody reads website Terms and Conditions (and many still do not have them!) wouldn’t a code of conduct be pointless? Essentially, a code of conduct is not a set of laws, followers of this conduct will however protect themselves against some potential legal surprises if UK companies and individuals do decide to clamp down. A court may even look more favourably on them for following the voluntary code if the matter does reach a court.

Who would sign up for a voluntary code of conduct? Would it be those who are already careful in what they publish? or would it be the trouble makers inspiring this discussion in the first place?

Joomla is a great web developer package, it is online software aimed to help users update the content on their website. It’s open source so all the website development is essentially done. It’s easily skinnable, that is we can apply a custom website design to the software and clients can run with it. Contributors around the world have all chipped in to make the software and modules so we can add shopping carts, blogs, forums, polls and many more!

So why don’t I like Joomla?

First and foremost, the source code is available to anyone. This means that although security problems are found quickly, they’re not always found by the right people! When they are found, another update needs to be performed to keep client’s websites completely bulletproof. These updates take time and cost money which you never expect to spend. We have and will continue to implement Joomla sites when it is the best solution but we give clients the chance to decide for themselves whether to keep updated for an ongoing fee or let their website slip and risk being attacked.

Finally Joomla’s power is another weak point. For large complex sites, Joomla does a great job at making things updatable and flexible, but unfortunately this makes it too complicated for simpler websites and/or less technically minded users. It also becomes difficult to keep updated if we change things to make it easier and better for a particular website.

These are really the only two down points to using Joomla over a custom solution, but I feel they’re quite big ones. If you don’t know how to use it and it’s insecure, it makes a really terrible website… The latter is rare, but it does happen.

An Alternative?

There are plenty of alternatives, but few really do the job, so we designed our own CMS around simplicity and security. Zako CMS is much easier to use, and aimed at your average informative website, it is focussed it at doing one thing so we feel it does it much better than any other (that we’ve seen and tested). Besides fading images and image upload, we also have a simple shopping cart module for 1-10 products (beyond this and a full ecommerce package is recommended) payments can be taken through Paypal, news can be updated, text can be changed in three steps (click text, edit, save) and audio/video can be embedded without ever having to look at code or use third party sites like youtube. 90% of our clients use this software and to date, noone has had any complaints (apart from one who had a tiny screen due to all sorts of browser add-ons so we had to adapt her version to fit in a letterbox of a browser) This, we could never have done with out-of-the-box Joomla!

Like Joomla, our software is open-source but not available to anyone. This means if you decide to leave Zako Media for any reason you can take your website, design and software to another web design company. It’s all written in PHP so any good web developer will be able to amend and make changes to the code. I want happy clients so we don’t lock anyone in just because they’re using our software, that would be like removing the engine of your car for choosing another service garage!

Conclusion

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to web design software which is why we have a variety of solutions mainly built in-house but with some tried and tested open source or commercial products. This gives us the flexibility to find the best solution and not try to hack our way through one to perform a task it was never designed to do. People approach us from all over Europe with one thing in common; they want to make more money. It’s my job to work out how best to achieve this goal online. To do this job properly, I need a variety of tools and not limit myself to just one or two and shrug when things go wrong.

Another fantastic website related blog from one of our favourite Copywriting sites; Copyblogger.com. This one talks about the psychology of passive selling, a sales method which all business websites work with no matter how well the website design is done where visitors are anonymous and make the most of that fact. Copyblogger I found fairly recently but after reading from article to article I found much of the content was well worth noting. They state facts and give advice to website owners and marketing alike and make the most of those facts… Anyway waffle over as per article, the blog starts here:

Have you ever stood in a store with something in your hand and then looked up to see if there was a clerk nearby you could ask for help?

Sure you have. We all have. Good help is hard to find.

Companies have been cutting costs by moving towards self-serve more than ever. Depending on where you live, you may have to bag your own groceries, pump your own gas, or bottle your own water.

Put yourself in the mind of the consumer. Consider what happens at that very moment you realize you need help. You were focused on buying two seconds ago, but then something happened—something very important.

Your brain skipped a beat.

“Find someone,” it said.

“Don’t buy. You have questions. Get answers.”

Your focus shifts. You aren’t thinking about buying anymore at all. You were almost ready to shell out your money, but now you’re in search mode. Now you’re seeking answers.

“Hello… Can anyone help me? Anyone at all?”

Now, think about your website. There are no clerks. No sales associate lingers nearby. The store aisles are empty and the cashiers are gone. There is no one who can help – not immediately, anyways.

The copy on your website is the single solution. Useful content mixed with meaningful messages is the only salesperson on staff. If your site content isn’t meeting, greeting, and convincing people, then it isn’t doing its job.

You need more than a website… you need a website that sells.

And to help you sell more, here are seven copywriting tips for a website that operates like a well-staffed store:

1. Get a professional salesperson – Overexcited content full of exclamation marks and sunshine-bright enthusiasm very often has the opposite effect of calm, confident copy. It just doesn’t work well. Tone down the cheerleading and collect your wits.
2. Eliminate the dress code – Calm and collected doesn’t mean bland and boring. It’s fine to show some personality, so get naked with your content. In fact, most consumers enjoy a good peep show (minus the pom-poms, that is).
3. Tell staff to talk less– Readers quickly lose interest in long, verbose paragraphs and end up walking away. No one likes the guy who can’t shut up, after all. Trim your content. Use concise sentences that create impact - not unnecessary fluff.
4. Inform consumers better – Tell consumers about your company. They want to know your story – the way they want to hear it. What makes you special? Why should they choose you? What can you offer more than the competition?
5. Bring in the specialist – The quality of your content reflects on your business image. If it isn’t well written, it isn’t going to help you sell. Do-it-yourself copywriting is fine for people with the skills. But if that isn’t you, then hire a writer to help.
6. Hire a clerk – Make sure people can contact you quickly and easily with a visible contact form. Ditch the coded (emails) supposed (to) cut spam, as well. That just forces consumers to take extra steps to contact you – steps they may not be interested in taking. There are other ways of verifying that a user is human without having to type out badly displayed letters!
7. Don’t goof off on the job - There’s a time and place for playing the class clown. Snagging a customer lead isn’t that time. Give straightforward information, offer a clear message and cut the clowning around.

Ending here, I would also like to mention a related article from the same blog entitled: ‘I don’t care about you’ which in principal states that your website viewers want to find out how you can solve their problem and don’t want to sit reading about how wonderful you say you are!

We’ve just launched a new look for our website, as the site grew, it’s navigation became a little… disjointed… serves us right for not using the newest version of our own editing suite. Now it’s all content managed by our own updated software and all text effects, animations are available to our clients.

Let me know here or by email, what you think. We will soon update the blog to match the new design.

www.zakomedia.com

With the ever growing online communities and reliance on the internet, it might make sense to say ‘Yes! You need a website’. Ask a web designer/developer for a website and that’s exactly what you’ll get. But do you really need it?

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say ‘Yes, everyone needs an online presence‘ but this does not have to be in the form of a whole website. So what are the alternatives?

Blogs:- A blog (short for WebLog) is a great content building site. You can get these for free from wordpress, blogger among others. A blog allows you to post articles like the one you’re reading now. They’re great if you’re a consultant with lots of advice like time-management, marketing etc, or in a constantly changing industry like accountancy or technology.

Network Stores:- If you sell products online, have a look at trading on eBay stores or Amazon. Both of these provide seller services for a small transaction fee. One of my clients receives about £2/3000 per month turnover through an eBay store.

Network Profiles:- Many people make do with networking profiles like Ecademy, Facebook, Xing, LinkedIn, Workology, and these work great, particularly for B2B and some B2C businesses. Spend the time making your profile stand out from the croud and socialise with the other members.

Directory listings:- These are a good quick-fix particularly for B2C’s, Plumbers, electricians, Taxi companies. They provide a good geographical listing and helpe people compare you to your competitors.

There are others but I feel these allow you to stay focussed on the business rather than the social aspect. If you feel I’ve missed any, feel free to add them into the comments below.