Got What It Takes To Own A Web Site?

Should You Own A Web Biz? Here's How to Tell.

You read about the success stories and figure if those two teenagers can make a million on the web, so can you. Sorry, ain’t necessarily so – even if you’ve been in brick-and-mortar retail for a decade or two, the rules are different, the dynamics are different, marketing is different. It’s like comparing apples and applesauce. Sort of the same but not really.

So, here are a few questions to ask yourself before you decide to launch the next Amazon or YouTube. BTW, honesty counts. Don’t fool yourself as you answer, and no, this will not appear on your permanent record.

1. Are you ready to learn a new technology?
Actually a lot of new technologies. For instance, are you wiling to learn how to send out an auto-responder series and what that’s going to cost? Do you know what an auto-responder is??

The commercial web is a vicious, dog-eat-dog marketplace and if you’re going to compete, you’ll have to learn everything from keyword density to content management systems. Are you ready? If so, move on to question number two.

2. Do you have the time to run an online business?
A lot of new site owners picture a site with affiliate links and Google AdWords that magically draws traffic and returns pretty much a nice passive income each month. Ah, if only it worked like that.

But how are you going to get people to your site? They won’t find you on Google or Yahoo. You’ll be listed on page 121 of the search engine results pages so before you see some of that “passive” click-through cash, you have to get traffic to visit your site.

Think you can devote the time to run an online business? You can if you’re retired or a stay-at-home parent, but what if you put in long days at the office? Will you be eager to get to work on your real business – your online business? If your answer is yes, please move on to the next question.

3. Do you have the financial resources to grow an e-business to profitability?
The web is the last bastion for the do-it-yourself entrepreneur. However, there are expenses involved in launching and overseeing a cyberstore. There are web hosting costs, marketing costs (marketing should account for 60% of your initial capital outlay), the cost of inventory, shipping and so on.

You can get started on a shoestring and maintain a website for less than $7.00 a month – and that’s with a web host that offers a full bag of tools and a lot of other freebies (like free domain registration). But once you’ve launched, you have to market and, if you want traction quickly, you’re going to have to spend money to make money, just as you would in any start-up business.

4. Do you have access to support?
‘Cause you’re going to need it, unless you’re already a “behind-the-curtain” online commerce veteran. Sources for support?

Your kid probably knows more about computer security than you do. Your spouse may have a penchant for writing great sales copy. Your neighbor is a techno-whiz. There’s also tons (yes, tons) of information on the web – all free. Hey, reading this isn’t costing you a penny.

If you try to go it alone you may be overwhelmed by the learning curve. While you’re learning about keyword generators you’ll also be learning about content architecture, site navigation, product placement, affiliate programs and on and on.

The point is, you can learn all this stuff quickly – it’s not rocket science – but, at least in the start up phase, put together a list of sources that can support the effort. And don’t forget tech support.

You want access to U.S.-based tech support from your web host (when your server is down you’re out of business), the manufacturers of your business system, whether a single computer in the spare room or an ever-expanding network of work stations, and, of course, you want access to tech support or vendor support from the companies that produce the products you sell.

5. Do you like working with others?
You may be working alone at home but as an e-biz owner you are anything but alone. If you do it right you’ll be contacting wholesalers, drop shippers, customers, tech support personal and on and on.

An online business quickly becomes a part of your social network. You’ll make lots of e-friends and you’ll never be alone – even when you’re alone taking care of baby #2. Scared yet? No? Good for you. We’re almost to the finish line.

6. Do you have patience?
No matter how good you are, no matter how much of an SEO/SEM expert you are, success is almost always an evolutionary process with each new generation or iteration producing better and better results.

That means that you spend a lot of time on webmaster sites and designer blogs learning the minutia that’s now become such an important aspect of your site’s success. If you expect to turn a profit within the first week or two, it’s not going to happen. However, if
you can hang in there and overcome setbacks (all part of the game), your chances for success increase significantly.

7. Are you self-motivated?
When the alarm clock goes off and you’re faced with commuter traffic, you’re motivated – motivated to get to your desk at work on time. Working for someone else provides external motivation. You show up at work on time every day because you have to.

Not so when you run your own business. Sleep ‘til noon. Go see a movie or watch your stories on TV. If you aren’t motivated to get up, grab some coffee and log on in your PJs, you may have trouble getting down to business everyday.

The successful web entrepreneur can’t sleep. Her mind is racing and she’s at the computer at 3:00 AM – and loving it. You’re going to need that level of commitment, that drive and motivation to be one of the web success stories. No matter how many “How to Make a Million Bucks on the Web” books you read, you still need “the right stuff” to pull it off.

You have to be motivated to work long hours, to study new trends in web design (more interactivity, please) and to sit there over another cup of highly caffeinated coffee analyzing your site’s metrics.

And you know what? You’re going to love every second of it. Go for it and may success greet you on Digital Boulevard.

Need some help getting started? It doesn’t cost a ton of cash to start an on-line business. Drop me a line or give me a call. I’ll get you off on the right foot and follow through to site profitability. Let me teach you how to market your site yourself and save a lot of $$$>

Subscribers: Pay A Fee or Get It Free

Why pay when visitors can get it free?

A lot of new website owners add subscriber revenues to their calculations when figuring their break-even date and potential for profit. Not a good idea. Subscriber sites are fast disappearing from the webscape and for good reason. Why pay when you can get it for free?

As a site owner with expertise for which others would pay to read, it’s hard not to think about subscription revenue but the plain fact is, online subscriptions have never really taken off the way we all thought they would. The New York Times went the subscription route with its Times Select but it wasn’t generating enough revenue to justify itself, so the critical features of the NYTs are now available free online.

Even Rupert Murdoch, the much-maligned media mogul, who just bought control of the Wall Street Journal is planning to give away fresh content on the WSJ website. Every day. And that’s one mogul who knows how to make money through advertising!

What happened?
Does anyone remember 2002? Seems so long ago. 2002 is antediluvian in web years. That was a long time ago. But back then, the web had grown substantially with the advent of the search engine in 1994 (along with numerous, subsequent refinements to search engine technology), and media outlets, big and small, saw dollar signs – a whole new revenue stream.

However, in 2002, in the wake of the dot.bomb debacle, online ad revenues took a major nose dive that digital marketers are still trying to overcome. The online subscription revenue model never really took off and, today, even the big players are leaving the field.

The reasons are pretty obvious. First, the web provides so much content from so many varied sources, you don’t have to pay a subscription for the latest in gold futures. Some site is giving it away. Second, add to this the development of RSS technology – the ability of individual web users to gather news and other content of interest with 100% customization, and it becomes pretty obvious why subscriber sites aren’t doing so well.

There are other reasons people give for staying clear of subscriber sites. They’ve been scammed before by another e-book download with nothing to say. They don’t want to give you their credit card number. You use a high-pressure sales approach making untested claims, predictions and guarantees. They figure you’ll sell their contact information and they’ll be bombarded with spam. An online subscription is a tough sell, so what’s the small, self-published guru to do about that $49-a-year online newsletter that subscribers delete without opening after a week or two?

What to do?
Change your revenue model. Change your website. Change your bottom line for the better.

It starts by changing your view of site content. Owners of subscriber-based websites depend on readers’ “need to know” – whether it’s a professional financial advisory, a “top secret” stock report, or the latest news on what’s happening in China’s shoe industry – somebody needs that information. And, if this information proves useful, subscribers will stick with you.

Useful information is information that works to the benefit of the reader. It could be a self-help website with a monthly affirmation newsletter, or a pet owner site that sends you weekly tips to keep your kitty happy and healthy. If the content is actually useful a subscriber site might survive – until some other visionary comes along and starts giving away the information you’re selling.

Change your view of content. Don’t think of content as something to be sold. Give it away. Use it to entice readers to visit your site often. Daily, perhaps. Now, no doubt, there are a lot of entrepreneurs shaking their heads as they read this. These are people who have spent years learning their industry, a new system to win at poker or how to use hedge funds to fast-track your retirement years. They have knowledge.

However, others have that knowledge, too. And if web users can find that information free, they sure enough aren’t going to pay you for the same thing. So, instead of thinking of content as something to sell, think of it as bait to attract regular readers and improve links popularity.

So how do I make money with this new revenue model of which you speak?
Indeed, web-based ad revenues did decrease for a short time in ’02. But since then, there’s been a marked increase in revenue growth, closing in on $2 billion in ’07 and projected to exceed $11 billion in just five years. The web has become one of the most potent marketing tools available to advertisers.

You can pick up some of that ad revenue using the content you once sold to draw in the traffic and keep your PR high, with ad revenues to match. You can also develop affiliate partnerships with companies that want to reach your target market.

Here’s how the numbers break out. In the summer of ’06, survey respondents were asked if they would rather receive free content with advertising or paid content with no advertising. More than 70% of those surveyed opted for free with advertising. And that’s why you see ads for Coke before a music video download on AOL. AOL is giving away the content and making its money on that 15 second Coke ad. Even so, 78% of Millenials (ages 13 – 24) found web ads more intrusive. Clearly, they want the content free – free of cost and free of advertising.

e-Marketer analyst, Lisa Phillips, recently stated, “Advertisers pay up to three times more to reach print readers than online users. They’re not convinced online readers browse a news web site the way they believe print readers still browse through an entire section of a newspaper.”

Excellent point and one that clearly demonstrates why print media is so heavy on advertising and light on content. All you have to do is check today’s newspaper if you want proof.

Time for a change
If you have a successful, subscriber site – congratulations. You must have something very interesting or useful to say to your subscribers. However, if you’ve seen your subscriber list dwindle and re-ups shrink, it’s time to change your business model and use that subscriber content as the lure.

Use the online ad revenues as your reward.

What About Conversion Ratios: Why Aren’t They Buying?

What converts web site visitors to buyers?

If you own a commercial site and you’ve performed all of your search engine optimization (SEO) chores, you should be listed with the major search engines and visitors should be finding their way to your on-line boutique.

Driving traffic to a commercial site is difficult in the first place. So, once that traffic starts showing up, the last thing you want those potential buyers to do is to leave before making a purchase, especially true if they found you via PPC because that visitor is going to cost you money for that unfruitful click through.

The question becomes: once you have a visitor on site, how do you induce that person to make a purchase?

The Trust Factor

Most on-line purchases are made using a visitor’s credit card and those names and card numbers are hacked all of the time. So, before you ask a buyer to make a purchase using a credit card, you must first create trust between you and the potential buyer.

Get SSL Certified
Use SSL encryption to secure the on-line transaction. You’ll need an SSL certificate to transmit encrypted data. Sometimes, a web host will let you use its SSL certification but regardless, any savvy on-line buyer is going to avoid making a purchase unless s/he sees that little padlock in the lower right hand corner and an https in the address box. The “s” stands for secure.

Another trust building factor is the VeriSign logo. VeriSign provides SSL encrypted solutions for on-line businesses. They have an excellent reputation for security and regular on-line buyers and retailers know this. So, use the VeriSign logo throughout your site to build consumer trust.

Subscribe to the On-Line BBB
You can also build visitor trust by becoming a member of the on-line Better Business Bureau which indicates a commitment to service and honesty. The BBB logo displayed on your site’s home page and checkout pages is a comfort to new buyers.

Provide Assurances
Many visitors are reluctant to buy because they’re afraid of being inundated with spam – from you and other companies to which you sell your buyers list. Place a prominent notice on all zone pages and especially on the checkout page assuring buyers that you don’t sell sensitive, personal information. If you do use direct e-mail as a marketing tool (it’s a good one) let buyers decide whether to receive or not receive future offerings, newsletters and other digital clutter. If they click the ‘OK’ box, e-mail them. If they don’t, put them on the “Do Not Bother” list. And respect their wishes.

The Buying Process

Buying anything on-line (or off) is a process. The visitor arrives, searches for the item, reads the product description and so on. At any point during the buying process, you risk losing a potential buyer. And again, once you’ve got them there you want that sale.

Ease of Navigation
It may be clear to you. You designed it. But, if your visitors arrive on a home or zone page without a clue about how to find what they’re looking for, they’re gone. Easy and unambiguous navigation is critical to making that sale.

If you sell a variety of products, provide a product menu that takes visitors directly to the product they’re looking for. That product category menu should be available from any page on the site. Most commercial sites make it a part of the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Product Descriptions
They should provide information. Buyers want to know whether this is a product worth buying. Are batteries included? How big is it? How much power does it have?

If your product descriptions read like sales hype and you don’t provide essential information required for making a buying decision, those visitors will look elsewhere.

Product Pix
It’s always a good idea to include a picture of the product. It’s a good selling device because people like to see what they’re buying. Now, this may not be necessary if the buyer is purchasing 10 tons of cold-rolled steel, but it’s essential to the customer buying jewelry, clothing – in fact any personal or home products.

If you provide a thumbnail product picture, enable the visitor to enlarge the image by clicking on it. Again, the more information you provide a potential buyer the more likely you are to make a sale.

Offer Incentives
“20% Off Your First Purchase” or “Free Shipping” get buyers’ attention and make it more likely that they’ll (1) place the item in their shopping carts and (2) actually go through the checkout. And speaking of the checkout….

The Checkout
In a recent Market Live report called “The Perfect Shopping Cart,” researchers reported that 57% of visitors never complete the process of buying. More than half of those who put items in shopping carts fail to make it through the checkout.

Shipping Costs
One reason for this, according to the report, is shipping costs. The buyer has found the item, added it to his or her shopping cart, clicked on “Go to Checkout” and then abandons the sale when s/he sees the total cost of the item with shipping costs added.

You can do a couple of things, here. First, if you’re trying to improve your margins using profitable shipping costs, you’re losing more in sales than you’re making on shipping and handling. If you keep your shipping and handling costs down, you’ll generate more sales.

Second, offer “Free Shipping.” Of course, nothing is free. Shipping costs are built into the retail price of the item but it makes buyers feel better when they get something “free.” Keep shipping costs as low as possible and offer incentives to make one more purchase, i.e. “Free Shipping on Orders Over $50.” You’ll be surprised at the number of visitors who add that one more item to their carts to avoid paying shipping. (For a great example of how this works visit Amazon’s checkout.)

Payment Gateways
Provide as many different ways as possible to pay for an item – credit card, PayPal, check or money order – there are dozens of money transfer sites that charge a fee but it’s a convenience your visitors will appreciate.

Terms of Sale and Returns
Make your purchase and return policies crystal clear. If you charge a restocking fee of 20% you better believe buyers will want to know that, and you can save yourself a lot of headaches and time by letting buyers know how you handle returns and other terms of sale.

Follow Through
Once the sale is made, follow up ASAP. Your site should be set up to generate an automated e-mail receipt providing all details – including order number – as soon as the sale is finalized.

Indicate in this e-mail when the buyer can expect to receive the purchase. You can even indicate how it will be shipped.

Include all contact information in this important informational e-mail as well in case questions come up.

Use a CMS (content management system) or d-base to keep track of orders. And, if you realize an order is going to be late, notify the buyer. In many states there are laws that require notification if the product is going to be more than 30 days late.

Ship promptly and work to resolve customer complaints. That’s how you build repeat business – the best business you can have.

Once you’ve optimized your site for search engines, you’re only part way there. Now comes the hard part – optimizing your site to convert visitors to buyers. It takes some time and effort, but if you intend to be an on-line success, that time and effort will more than pay for itself.

Need some helpboosting your site’s conversion rate? Give me a call. Often, it’s something real simple.

Webwordslinger.com

How To Hire A Search Engine Marketer

The Right SE Marketer WILL Boost Sales

If you’ve seen a modicum and encouraging amount of commercial site success, you might consider hiring an SEO or SEM professional to take your site to the next level. (You can finally quit your day job!!)

But here’s the thing. Your Aunt Tilly could call herself an SEM or SEO professional. There are no credentials, no certifications or letters after the name, i.e., Dr. Jon Smith, PhD in SEM. So how do you know which of the thousands of SEO/SEM gurus is for real? Here are six things to look for.

1. On first contact, does the expert take the time to bring up your site on his or her screen and discuss it, maybe even providing a few free tips and suggestions? S/he should. As you describe your site and its perceived limitations, you want a potential expert to “be on the same page” as you are.

Conversely, if the “so-called” expert starts to bombard you with insider jargon “Well, Bob, I’ve developed interesting analytics that show your hit ratio increases when we spice up your meta data and add an opt-in.” Huh?

2. Find an SEM who walks the walk but doesn’t necessarily talk the talk.
Forget the jargon. Who cares? The fact is, experts in any field use jargon as a code language to exclude outsiders and SEM pros love to toss around terms like “keyword stuffing,” and content architecture.

Speak English! Search engine marketing is an on-going process but it’s, by no means, a difficult subject to master. It ain’t brain surgery. So, if your prospective SEM starts throwing insider gibberish in your direction, ask to have the information put in terms you can understand, whether you’re a first time e-vendor or own a hundred sites.

It’s like doctors. They tell you stuff only they understand. But, if you pin them down and ask for an explanation you understand (even if you have to resort to Crayola crayons), you finally understand options and consequences. Same with an SEO. You want to make the decisions.

That means you have to understand proposals, marketing campaigns and other SEM deliverables in terms that allow you to (1) turn the information into action and (2) contest the information if you think the SEM has missed a key demographic or some other oversight.

Otherwise, it’s all just a pile of numbers.

3. Can the SEM guru provide references you will contact?
A reference based on experience is the best reference you can get so, is there an SEM client willing to discuss the services provided by your prospect?

Now, don’t be surprised if the answer is ‘no.’ There’s a unspoken (okay spoken, here) understanding that client information is privileged and must be protected. However, many site owners give their SEMs permission to send visitors to the site to use as an example of the pro’s proficiency, Which gets us to:

4. Does the SEM provide reference sites?
This shouldn’t be a problem for any web pro with any kind of track record. Ask the SEO to provide sites that s/he has worked on. Then, go Alexa on each site’s assets.

Alexa.com delivers stats and graphs to show how the performance of a site has improved or deteriorated over time. Look for an increase in site traffic and lots of links. (See Connectivity in the post below). Look for improvements in page views and, by all means, employ Alexa’s Time Machine, a feature that enables you to see the evolution of the site and, especially how the site looked before and after the re-do by the SEM.

If you don’t see significant increases in the SEM’s reference sites, you are talking to the wrong SEM! Take your time, here. You’re about to sign a big check (SEM pros are pricey because of their highly-specialized knowledge) and you want to see quantifiable results that occur after the SEO/SEM optimizes the site.

5. Please don’t try this at home.
If your sites are performing well, you might think you can take yourself to the next level without the expense of a web marketing pro. Not recommended in the bang/buck equation.

You might pay $200 for a once-over lightly site review, or $20K on a tear-down and website rebuild, and still actually lose ground. Fewer site visitors, lower Alexa ranking, lower links popularity and so on. It happens thousands of times a day. The gnomes who inhabit Castle Google tweak the search algo and all of a sudden, a site that was on page one of Google’s SERPs has slipped to page 106.

So, if this is your money-maker, don’t shake it. Hire an SEM with a track record and see what s/he can do to boost your bottom line.

6. If you don’t like the results, jettison the web guru.
Do NOT sign a contract with an SEO/SEM agency. You don’t have to in the competitive consultation market, so go with a company that let’s you pay as you go or pay for play. You want results and you’re willing to pay for them. No positive results. “You are so outta here.”

It’s reasonable to ask a prospective guru to develop a plan for site growth. It doesn’t have to be long, but it must be informative, and once again, written in terms that make the gibberish understandable to you – the guy or gal with the checkbook. Hey, that makes you the boss even if you don’ t know an HTML title tag from a dog tag!

It isn’t recommended that you make major changes to your site – including migrating to another web host – without expert opinion and technical know-how behind you. Major changes can produce voodoo numbers in your site’s performance.

Evolution in site design makes it easier for search engines and clients, visitors or other site stakeholders, to access content and, in the case of customers or clients, place an order.

That’s why you built the site. You run the show. But let a good SEM help you grow to real profitability. If you find a professional who isn’t blowing smoke and provides a few dozen sites you can check out, you’ll see improvement in rankings and, more importantly, in site traffic.

Conversely, if you hire the first snake oil salesperson you come across in a webmaster chat room, you may be out a few grand as you watch site performance deteriorate right before your eyes.

Spend time finding the right fit and pay for quality consultation and services rendered. Consider it an investment. Just make sure you’re investing in a blue chip SEM not a penny stock loser.

Need to drive some traffic to your digital turf. Drop me aline or give me a call. It ain’t rocket science.

Webwordslinger.

Customer Relationship Software (CRM): Who, What, Where and When?

Each Client Or Customer Is Unique

As a webmaster, you know what’s involved in designing, constructing and administrating an online business – everything from paying the bills to syndicating content, a well-run e-biz is a multi-faceted operation. And you run the show.

However, if you try this, then re-do that, test such-and such and hire people who don’t “get it,” your online business won’t be the dream come true you’ve been planning. The key is to integrate all of your business activities into a single strategy called CRM – customer relationship management. CRM is at the heart of any growing business. The principles are simple, you don’t need an MBA and it doesn’t cost a lot of money (much of CRM doesn’t cost any money).

CRM is an important consideration for corporations, NFPs, NGOs and public sites, all of which seek to implement the basics to manage relationships with customers, clients and stakeholders (upper management, shareholders, etc.).

It’s all about the acquisition and analysis of customer data, vendor information and the in-house procedures you design to connect satisfied customer to eager vendor. Think of your website as the intermediary between buyer and seller – your customers and your wholesalers.

What Purpose Does CRM Serve?
Customer relationship management weaves together a variety of business functions to deliver the best product and retain the customer or client. Client retention is the ultimate purpose of CRM but, in the process of developing a CRM strategy, you’ll be required to consider all facets of your business including: professional development (for you and any staff you have, paid or otherwise), customer service (this specifically includes training customer service representatives, if you outsource this task), sales, marketing and promotion and, finally, compensation – who gets what.

If you’re the only participant, this won’t be a difficult decision to make. Any compensation comes back to you as either salary or operating capital to expand the business further.

The Building Blocks of a Solid CRM Strategy
In addition to your learning curve (assuming you’re a sole proprietor), which takes time and costs money in lowered productivity, you’ll need several tools to develop a workable and effective CRM strategy.

Your Database
Your business database contains all customer/client information along with inventory data, shipping dates and other order processing and marketing data. It is the focus of any CRM. In fact, without this information, there is no CRM.

This means, when designing your first website, you install a reliable, simple, automated database (MySQL, for example) to track all business activities. These activities fall into four distinct categories: (1) analytical CRM, (2) operational CRM, (3) interactive CRM (interactive with site visitors) and finally, (4) integrated client support and customer service throughout the business itself.

Analytical CRM
To undertake these CRM-based activities you’ll need some tools and some time. Analytic CRM requires software that can deliver useable stats. If the software delivers reams of indecipherable numbers, the data won’t be as useful to other members of the business team. The CFO may understand what that 250-page financial report shows, but the CEO may not.

Employ analytical software that delivers data in graphic formats – heat maps, pie charts and other visual representations. This equips your whole team (even if you’re the only player) to understand, assimilate and use site metrics with greater effectiveness.

Operational CRM
Where’s what?

The daily administration of your site is greatly simplified through the use of CRM tracking software. Using this software, you’re able to automate many routine functions such as auto-responder emails when orders are placed and news updates sent during an email blast to those customers and opt-ins stored in your database.

However, operational CRM also enables you to make the best use of the data you maintain in the system. If the bank account number of a key vendor in Korea is written on the back of a scrap of paper, you’ll spend more time looking for that information than if you were able to bring up all of that vendor’s information on a single screen via the CRM software loaded on your work station.

Tracking data – sales data, order data, site metrics, order status and other critical information – becomes much simpler when (1) it’s easily accessible in one place and (2) you’re able to automate routine functions, giving you more time to focus on more “human-oriented” tasks like developing your next marketing campaign.

Interactive CRM
A relatively new digital phenomenon but one web users have quickly adopted and now expect from sites selling goods or services.

Interactive CRM enables the visitor to customize a product search using a site search feature that delivers the desired content whether the visitor enters a product name, brand or even part number. Fast. The visitor is in and out – and hopefully you’ve made a sale and a new customer.

Forms are another use of CRM interactivity. More and more sites collect data on their visitors who don’t seem to mind providing it, especially if they’re tempted with a free eBook download.

This information provides opt-ins (pure gold) and marketing data to better define your demographic and its needs. And again, the automation of the data acquisition and generation of the download key code integrates operational and interactive CRM, creating a business synergy.

Interactive CRM also delivers the ability to the client to ask a question via email. The “Contact Us” page of a site is where you’ll usually find this feature. It’s another channel to keep your clientele happy and to collect opt-in email addresses for future messages and updates.

Integrated CRM
CRM should be the focus of all your site design, marketing, ordering and management of customer objections. Instead of dealing with sales as a separate aspect of your operation, it’s built into the master plan employing operational, interactive and analytic CRM data drawn from an up-to-date data base.

When a CRM program is designed, it should look like a flow chart with automated decision points, QC statements, data collation and other business activities functioning as a unified whole. This is the ultimate goal of developing your site’s plan for customer relationship management.

In a cosmically competitive marketplace like the web, every advantage you gain over a competitor makes your business stronger. If you can deliver an order a day faster than the competition, you win. The relationship with those happy buyers is strong and they will be back to buy again.

Using CRM software to chart the course your online business may take a day or two to figure out, if marketing and customer care aren’t a part of your professional background. But that learning curve will pay off many times over by providing data that drives solutions to online retail problems.

Looking for synergies between marketing and order taking? Trying to figure out your percentage of repeat buyers over the past 12 months? Trying to resolve a customer complaint? You want (no you need) CRM tools just to keep up.

Need some helpt tracking your clients? Drop me aline or give me a call. I’ll show you how to treat a customer right. Webwordslinger.

CSS: Keep Your Content and Design Distinct

Simplfy Site Changes With CSS

Web sites are constructed using a simple computer code called HTML which stands for hyper-text mark-up language. HTML forms the backbone of the world wide web, providing the underlying infrastructure of the millions of web sites that occupy the digital landscape. HTML is simple to learn and implement, which is one reason it’s the W3 standard. However, HTML has a couple of significant drawbacks.

First, it’s cumbersome. It requires a great deal of hand coding which is very expensive compared to automated coding.

Second, HTML lacks flexibility. Elements of design, images, charts and other common web site features have to be positioned using HTML code – on every page, even if the layout stays the same.

Finally, HTML isn’t very efficient. So, if you have a site on which content changes often, as in the “sale of the day,” you or some HTML coder has to go into the HTML code to make those changes in content every day.

To address these and other HTML limitations, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) were devised to supplement the still-standard HTML code.

CSS is intended to increase flexibility of design, make sites more user-friendly by making them much faster and customizable and, finally, CSS eliminates repetitive and pricey hand-coding, making it much less expensive to get a professional-looking site up and running. Okay, not anybody can do it, but if you have some facility with site design and construction you can employ CSS to simplify the structure of the site.

Content and Design
Every page of a web site is comprised of two elements: content and design. Content is usually presented as text but content also includes pictures and other images that are a part of “telling your story.”

The other aspect of any web page is design – how the content is actually laid out on any given page. Design includes such basics as where to position product text near a product picture (under, over, to the side, surrounding) to the motif selected for everything from background color to buttons to navigation bar.

If you think of these as two distinct elements of a web page you’ll more clearly understand the value of CSS. Using CSS, design elements are kept in a separate file, apart from content. The benefits are immediate and significant.

Design It Once
Using stand-alone HTML requires that every page be constructed (coded) with both content and elements of design being hand placed by the code writer. No problem if your site is a few pages, but what if you’ve got hundreds or thousands of pages. Having to hand code each one of those pages would be costly in the extreme because it would take so long.

Using CSS, the designer codes all design elements one time. This is the background color, these are the colors of this header, this is the size of this button – all elements of design are placed in a single, CSS file.

Then, the coder can simply reference that CSS file to apply that design to whatever pages use it. Think of Amazon.com’s product pages – all basically the same layout. The content changes, of course, but the product pix are always in the same position, product description, reviews, etc. are always in the same place. Prior to the development of CSS, each of those pages required some hand coding in addition to a lot of cutting and pasting from blocks of HTML code.

Today, a designer can make any number of CSS and reference each site page to the appropriate style sheet. Design it once, then change the content as needed.

The Many, Mighty Benefits of CSS

First, let’s start with search engines. Spiders crawl pages of repetitious HTML code. It takes longer to spider a site and it’s more difficult for the spider to identify new content. With CSS, content and design are separate. So, a spider crawls the CSS file once then focuses on the site’s real purpose – the text that delivers the site’s message.

This elevates content to a new level since spiders are always looking for fresh content in assessing a site’s quality. Text is given more weight when design is relegated to a CSS file.

Second, download time is reduced anywhere from 20% to 80%. Why? Because instead of having to download dozens of pages of HTML design code, you now download a single CSS file with all design elements in one place. The text may be the same but downloads are much, much shorter, providing visitors with a better on-site experience.

CSS are more friendly to a variety of media – everything from cell phones and Blackberries to screen readers for the visually impaired who no longer have to sit through written descriptions of page graphics via an HTML tag.

CSS enables the visitor to design the site to his or her needs and/or preferences. Don’t like that type font? Click here for any easier one to read. In other words, by accessing different CSS, visitors can create screen settings that they like or need due to vision problems or just personal preferences.

Next, CSS cuts down on the costs of site design. Using CSS, programmers design it once and apply where desired. And remember, the designer can create as many CSS as required so there are no design limitations. In the same vein, updating a site is much less costly – very important to sites that sell a lot of different products with constantly changing inventory.

Finally, a site owner can easily create printer-friendly versions of all pages by creating a text only CSS. Very useful in sites that provide a great deal of hard content or print out invoices.

What Should I Do?
If you haven’t started the design of your site, go with CSS programming all the way. There are lots of on-line tutorials and many web hosts provide CSS software for easy style sheet creation.

If your site is already up and running, consider taking the time and/or incurring the expense of converting to CSS. Any one of the benefits listed above should be enough to motivate you but if not, how’s this: your competitors have already converted to CSS or soon will be. You’ll be the last black & white TV on the cyber block.

Faster downloads, user-customized pages, lower design and maintenance costs, easier reading by spiders, much less hand coding and flashier, more professional-looking sites. Those are the benefits of using cascading style sheets.

So, what are you waiting for? Go CSS and make your site more attractive, more visitor-friendly and much, much cooler much, much faster.

Need some help pumping up your site’s performance? Yeah, it’s a headache. Give me a call. I’m the cure. Webwordslinger.

Whoever Said, “There’s No Such Thing As Bad Press” Was An Idiot!: Reputation Management

 

YOU'RE AN IDIOT!!!

Whoever said, “There’s no such thing as bad publicity” was certainly not talking about the world wide web. Today, more than ever, disgruntled consumers can trash your product and/or your site using blogs, forums and on-site reviews! That’s right, take a look at Amazon’s product pages. You buy something, don’t like it, you can write a review that will appear on that product page. Now that’s useful information.

 

Of course, you can also write a rave of some product but either way, Amazon leads in customer reviews – a good thing when the reviews are good, the death knell when they’re bad.

What many site owners don’t realize is that bad press can hurt you with lower search engine rankings so it’s not something you want to ignore.

What happens if a dissatisfied customer is talking trash about your site all over the w3? Or worse, what can you do about a competitor who posts slams and slander on blogs about your horrible customer service and overblown prices. Well, it isn’t easy (a good reason to always keep the customer satisfied) but there are things you can do to make a bad situation better.

Ask Nice
Let’s say someone’s posted a slam of your site on another site’s blog. One thing you can do is contact the site owner, explain your side of things and ask that the blog entry be removed. The site owner may take pity and do you favor. On the other hand, if that site owner is your #1 competitor, chances are he’ll rub his hands with glee at your misfortune. But it’s worth a shot.

Tell It Like It Is
Make positive posts about your site to counteract bad press. There are plenty of sites today that let you tell the world about who you are, what you do and why you’re the best choice. Checkout aboutus.org and post the positive. There are other sites that give you a chance to show your best side.

Social Book Marking
Not only is this a great way to spread the word to counteract bad press, it’s a great way to increase site traffic for zero dollars. Sites like del.icio.us enable you to create an account after which you can post pretty much anything you want – a great way to counteract bad press from other sources. Social book marking is a significant aspect of the new Web 2.0 drive to build a more interconnected online community and every webmaster should take advantage of social book marking sites, like craigslist, to tell the world just how great his or her site is.

Build Your Own Blog
Blogs help sites rank better in the SERPs. It’s fresh content and it’s easy to add a blog to your site. First, see if your web host offers blogging software as part of the toolbox some hosts provide to their clients. The better ones do. If not, visit squidoo.com. Here, you can create your own site blog. Make entries, acquire free content from sites like goarticles.com, upload product pixs and make a name for yourself – a good name!

Your online reputation can be crushed by a few negative comments posted on blogs and forums. The w3 is partially driven by the gossip factor so counteract the bad gossip with positive, helpful entries on your site blog. It’ll make a difference.

Become an expert
Yahoo and Google both have features that allow people to post questions which “experts” then answer. Experts are volunteers willing to share their knowledge and experience with the world.

Do you have a specialty? One related to your web site? If so, sign on as an expert in that area and establish your creds.

Write, right?
If you can write a few articles about aspects of your business, industry, services or products, you can syndicate those articles, each of which will have an arrow pointing right back to your site. This is a great way to build links. Even more, if you write enough of these articles, you come to establish yourself as an expert in your field.

So, how do you go about syndicating? There are websites that provide free, downloadable content to websites with the stipulation that the link back to your site must appear along with the article. Get a few dozen articles out there and you’ll soon discover that you have a lot more inbound links than you had previously.

Add your site to directories
Google has a directory (based primarily on the Open Directory Project at dmoz.org). Yahoo maintains a site directory. Even Microsoft maintains a small business directory. Once you’ve launched your site and it’s been indexed, you’re eligible to seek inclusion in one or more of these directories. It’s a good move to boost web site credibility.

Track your reputation
This is so cool. Google offers a free Alerts service that notifies you every time your site’s name comes up – anywhere on the world wide web. Blogs, forums, press releases – Google covers the entire digital landscape and reports back to you each time your site is mentioned. The free service covers the top 50, most relevant results. If you want to go deeper, you can subscribe to Google’s Alert services which will deliver the top 200 most relevant mentions of your site (or you or your competition). It’s the easiest way to keep track of your on-line reputation – and what the competition is saying about you.

The Power of SEO
Search engines like Yahoo and Google rule the web – at least the commercial aspects of the web. If you have a commercial, on-line business, the better optimized your site is for search engines the better you’re going to rank on the search engine results pages.

There are about a million books that’ll tell you how to improve your site’s SEO and lots of free articles to show you how to improve your page rank (PR). If you have the time and the inclination, read as much as you can about current SEO practices and tactics to discover ways of improving your site’s page rank.

If SEO isn’t your cup of tea (too many numbers) hire an SEO professional to optimize your site for search engine spiders. This involves a number of factors and may also cost a few bucks. Additionally, it may take up to six months to actually see any significant results. But, if all else has failed, hiring an SEO expert may be the only way to go to regain your search engine status.

Fast Track to Good Press?
Sorry, there is no fast track to undo negative press in search engine results pages, whether it’s deserved or not. It’s a process but a worthwhile one, especially if you’ve spent a great deal of time and money to build up your e-biz.

However, the faster you get to work on article syndication or getting your site listed in a directory, the quicker your reputation will improve.

Things move quickly across the web and a bad reputation – whether true or not – is not going to help your site or your business. No, you can’t eliminate the problem of bad press but you can go proactive and generate some good press to counteract the negative.

The key is to move quickly and decisively to protect your hard-earned reputation.

The Sales Arc: On Top of Sales

'Slinger on The Sales Arc

A sale – whether the sales of goods or services – follows an arc. An introduction, a gradual move toward the purchase (the top of the arc) and finally any backsell or after care required or desired.

 A sale on-line shouldn’t be viewed as a one-time opportunity. Are you kidding me?

 This client bought services from you – copywriting, site design, SEM – a client is a known quantity to you and you to them. You have a relationship. And that’s how you build a client base.

 Here’s a closer look at the sales arc from the POV of web-based service providers – from SEO copywriters to search engine marketeers – the good ones.

 Follow the arc and build a client base that’ll let you sleep soundly each night.

                                                                                                              Webwordslinger

Many website owners find themselves interacting with customers in a number of ways. The website, of course, is interactive to one degree or another (more interactivity is better if you haven’t been paying attention to the new Web 2.0 list of must-haves).

But you interact with customers before, during and after the sale and each of those contact points is an opportunity to sell your products, explain the quality of your service and encourage upsells – sales in which the buyer opts for a second item or a more expensive item than originally planned.

Before The Sale
Your site should designed to appeal to your ideal buyer – young mothers, corporate HR execs, kids, jocks – whatever your ideal buyer’s attributes, everything about your site should be focused on engaging those interests to generate a sale.

So, before the sale, be sure to point new visitors to daily weekly items on special and make sure they understand your iron-clad, 100% no-headache guarantee. “You don’t like it, send it back and we even pay the shipping. You risk nothing.” This kind of trust building should be evident in your site text – especially on the first page of the checkout sequence.

Restate your guarantee and provide assurance to site visitors that yours is a 100% hacker-safe site so “order with confidence.”

Provide complete product descriptions and product pictures. This is going to save you so much time and money on returns, client care and other time-consuming but essential administrative chores.

During the Sale
You must have an easy to use shopping cart system – one the user can access with a click to change quantities, add or delete items.

On some sites, the cart abandonment rate runs as high as 50% and you have to ask yourself why? Why did a visitor take the time to shop your site and even put something in the cart before clicking off to some other site? If the buyer doesn’t feel reassured and secure, s/he may simply leave so once the buyer has entered the check-out sequence, use text and icons to direct buyers through the process.

Provide the ability to back out to a previous page so buyers can make changes or just double, triple check without having to start the entire checkout sequence from start. That’s going to lose more than a few sales.

Provide steps that allow the visitor to consider and reconsider the order before finally clicking on the submit button. The visitor should be able to just click off, or back through the sequence to make changes. Make it easy to quit your site even if they’re on the final page of the checkout sequence.

Introduce additional products discreetly at the top and bottom of the first checkout page. These kinds of presentations generate impulse sales. Select products of interest to the buyer based on previous buying history. Personalize the experience of shopping on your site and your repeat buyer ratios will increase dramatically and quickly. Online buyers have shown dedication to specific sites for specific goods – until there’s the slightest problem. It doesn’t take much to throw out 10 years of good will on a shipping glitch.

Finally, keep the number of pages in the checkout to a minimum. Offer your regulars the one-click checkout option. Avoid confusing pages in the sequence. Instead, let the buyer take charge.

Change shipping method. Click here. Add gift wrapping. Click here. Send to another address. Click here. Guide the new buyer through the checkout process the first time and when they come back, the whole sequence will run smoother.

After the Sale
This is where automation should kick in and save you a lot of time on administrative chores.

Immediately send a printable invoice. Be sure to thank the buyer for the sale and suggest a ship and receipt date. Be sure to include all of the order information – address, quantities, etc. Provide the buyer with a 10-minute time window to reopen the order to make a change, fix a mistake or change shipping information.

Also use this text message to highlight other products of interest to this particular buyer, again based on a previous buying history stored in your database. It’s another point of contact and another opportunity to turn a warm buyer into a hot prospect.

Notify buyers when their orders have shipped and, again, spell out the specials of the day and be sure to provide a link back to the recipient’s account or to your site’s home page. Another contact point, another opportunity to introduce specials or products of special interest to that buyer.

Once you’re certain that the order has arrived safely (no telephone calls from angry buyers) follow up with a thank you note for “shopping with us” or “becoming a part of the Huffnagle family.” It shows the importance of customer care and, of course, provides another opportunity to introduce new products, services or the new sales rep in the buyer’s region.

Finally, after the sale, there are auto-responders. Most people expect to hear from companies from which they’ve made purchases but getting bombarded daily with your specials or your inspirational tip of the day, you’re going to get clicked over to the recycling bin faster than you can shout “But wait!”

The judicious use of auto-responders can keep previous buyers coming back if their senses and sensibilities aren’t assaulted with an automated weekly email blast trying to make another sale.

A few times a year to introduce new products and provide a business update is enough. The conversion rate on email direct marketing aren’t impressive, usually running between 2-3% so you have to send out a lot of ARs to make it worth your time. But, the fact is, happy customers may not buy for several years but if you keep in touch with helpful information (tips, recipes, advice, etc.), some of those long-absent buyers will come back – if you just give them enough time.

So, yes, keeping sending ARs to all the customers in your database but (1) don’t overdo it and (2) use these ARs as another opportunity to sell.

Each time you touch the client is an opportunity to sell your products, business, services of message. Don’t waste a single opportunity.

Managing Customer Objections

 

Keepin' The Customer Satisfied: Success At Work

If you’ve built a career in sales you know all about customer objections. Objections are the reasons prospective customers give for NOT buying a product or service. It’s too expensive. It’s too complicated. I don’t really need it. These are common customer objections whether we’re talking about buying a new car or whatever it is you sell on your web site.

 

 Even if you sell the best products or provide A-1 services, and even if you have the lowest prices on the entire web, you’ll encounter objections. Problem is, you won’t encounter them face to face in the world of e-commerce, which means you won’t have the opportunity to address objections face to face. Therefore, controlling objections must take place in the content of your website.

Additionally, in the real world, managing objections is reactive. The customer objects. The salesperson reacts with a counter to the objection. In the impersonal marketplace of the W3, managing customer objections must be proactive. Assume you will encounter objections and address them before the visitor clicks off to another site.

What Objections Will You Get?

Depending on what you’re selling, objections will differ. For example, most customers won’t be concerned with a long-term warranty on a $15 calculator. If it dies, buy a new one. On the other hand, if you’re selling $2,000 laptops, your customers are going to be looking at your warranties, guaranties, return policies – anything and everything that protects them from being ripped off.

And as a good citizen of the web community, you should have no problem posting warranties and return policies where they can be easily found and easily read! (Wouldn’t you like to get your hands on the guy who invented fine print?)

So what objections are you likely to encounter?

It costs too much money.

I saw it for a lower price.

I don’t have the money right now.

My old one is good enough.

It looks confusing.

I don’t understand how it works.

I don’t understand the guaranty.

I don’t (really) need it.

My (insert relation’s name here) would kill me.

Maybe another time.

There are plenty more. I’ve already got one; I want something with more features or fewer features (usually not the same consumer, btw); I don’t like the color, shape, size, design, feng shui or some other aspect of the product. The list is as varied as the customers who visit your web site.

And you better know what objections visitors will raise and proactively address them in your site’s content.

How To Address A Customer Objection?

Once you’ve determined which objections you’ll most likely encounter from site visitors you develop a strategy to address the objection before it even becomes an objection.

 Example #1: It’s too complicated.

 Okay, take a look at this 3-minute Flash demo that’ll show you how to assemble the (whatever it is you sell). You’re not addressing the objection with a long body of text explaining how to assemble your gizmo. You’re providing a clip that actually shows each step of assembly with text burns identifying key steps and just where Tab A is.

 Example #2: It’s too expensive.

How will the product improve productivity or quality of life? Let’s say you’re selling hot tubs. You point out the benefits to the consumer. Forget product features. The “too-expensive” buyer must see personal benefit(s) in order for you to manage the objection.

 “You come home from a stressful day, hop into the heated, soothing water, turn on the relaxing massage jets and feel the cares of the day melt away.” The buyer who believes “it’s” too expensive doesn’t care about the 15hp motor, the 18 water jets and the automated chlor-tab release. S/he needs to see personal benefit. Once that’s established, move on to features in you sales copy.

 Example #3: I saw it for less at www.thecheapestsiteintheworld.com.

If you can’t beat the competition on price – and many times you won’t be able to compete with big box store prices – time to highlight the quality of your service, your easy return policy and the fact that there’s no re-stocking fee. (Wouldn’t you like to get your hands on the guy who invented the restocking fee?)

 Some sites offer a “Beat any legitimate price” guarantee. You can, too. Even if your price is a bit higher, most visitors won’t take the time to find the lowest of the low and if they do, you’ve lost a few bucks but have a happy customer – one who’ll be back to buy the accessories.

 Example #4: I don’t want to buy a (fill in the blank) on the web.

Would you buy a $4,000 diamond engagement ring online? From a site you never heard of? Not many people would. Too many risks. For all the buyer knows, you’re selling “diamacroids” as real diamonds. And if you’re half way around the world, the buyer has no recourse.

 Establish trust be establishing verifiable credentials. Member of the online BBB, certified by the Diamond Sellers Association of the World, graduate of the School of Gemology, 140 years in business, etc. You’d buy a diamond online from Tiffany’s because the trust factor is built in. Not so for www.billscutratediamondbazaar.com – no matter how low Bill’s prices.

 You get the idea. To successfully convert a visitor into a buyer requires that all objections be addressed in site content using a variety of media to get the job done. A Flash demo,  an audio clip and picture of you, a picture of your factory, a virtual 360° tour, a step-by-step, idiot-proof assembly guide, 24-hour tech support – whatever works best to counter the objection.

 All kinds of people will stop by your web site and each will come with his or her own expectations and objections. Meet those expectations and counter those objections right from the start. It’ll do wonders for your conversion ratio.

 It’ll also keep your repeat buyer list growing. Why? No objections. 

How to Stage a Webinar: Ah, Show Biz

 

If you can go on-line, you can stage a webinar

Webinars have grown increasingly popular in the era of Web 2.0. They’re interactive, easy to set up and deliver a lot of advantages to the webinar host. And a lot of revenue if you’re good at it.

 

Webinars versus Webcasts
Webcasts are one-way communication. You, the site owner, post a digital video (DV) on your web site or upload it to YouTube and other social sites. You talk. The viewer listens. And unless you have a compelling way about you, watching a webcast is like watching grass grow.

Today, people don’t want online passivity. They don’t want to sit there. They want to interact. Interact with each other via facebook.com, myspace.com and other sites that rely on the user-generated content of those laying claim to a few pixels, and interact with experts who actually have something worthwhile to say.

Webinars are totally interactive. They’re scheduled to start at a specific time, they’re hosted by an expert and “attendees” from around the world interact with the webinar host and with each other.

Webinars are interesting because of this interactivity. As a participant, you’re free to ask the expert questions, ask for clarifications or expansion on a specific topic. You can learn a lot from these on-line classes.

Selling CEUs
They’re called continuing education units or CEUs, and lots of professions require their members to obtain a certain number of CEUs each year – every profession from private investigators in Texas to hearing aid dispensers in Maine. Hundreds of thousands of pros need CEUs. They can get them by attending classes at the local community college or professional association, by writing papers and they can earn CEUs by attending online webinars.

Starting to see the potential here? If you’re an expert in a field that requires members to continue their educations, you have a captive audience. And attending an online seminar is a lot easier than attending classes every Monday night for 16 weeks.

Certain standards have to be met to qualify for CEU recognition. The teacher has to be a professional, the course subject has to be (in some way) relevant to the professionals’ work and the seminars must actually teach, i.e. have an established syllabus or course of study. The standards are high, as they should be, so to qualify for a CEU accredited webinar, you better know what you’re talking about or zippo CEU-seekers are going to sign up.

How To Stage a Webinar Technically
There are two ways to do this thing.

First, if you’re planning on doing a webinar a week and adding to the list of classes and topics available, you’re best off buying webinar software. Here’s a link to some Q & A on what to look for in this system-based software.

However, before you fly off to the Software Shack to pick up a webinar program, try one of the hundreds of online services that specialize in the staging of webinars. These companies provide the software and some hand holding. They aren’t too pricey, either, given the competitive nature of the market. Heck, even Big Blue (IBM) offers on-line conferencing services and that’s all a webinar is – an online conference with nice pictures.

Marketing Your Webinars
If you’re CEU accredited, use Google AdWords to promote your upcoming event. Allow a six-week time window from the date you start promotion until the actual date of the webinar itself. Then, do a little viral marketing.

Respond to blog posts relevant to your upcoming event and mention date, time, URL and cost, if any. Let’s talk about that for a minute.

When you first start staging webinars, no one knows you from Adam. You’re an unknown quantity, yet to prove you’re worth $29.95 to sign up to hear your words of wisdom. So, to start building an audience and establishing credentials as a quality educational or instructional site, offer your first few webinars free. Hey, you can become a star pretty quick if you aren’t a cold fish. And people will pay for righteous information presented in a professional manner.

The exception, here, is CEU-accredited webinars. These demand a certain production standard, knowledge standard and broadcast standard. These webinars may require a cash outlay to the conferencing company, a graphic designer and techie if you think a USB port is where U.S Boats dock. So, you can charge by the CEU. Some webinars are worth 1 CEU. Another can be worth 3 CEUs depending on the credibility of the webinar producer, length and scope of the content.

If the budget can stand it, pay for links from related sites. If there’s an industry association, send its PR department a press release announcing time and place for the webinar, and be sure to include your professional biography and credentials for hosting this gab fest.

Also, if you’re doing webinars regularly, get listed in webinar directories (Google it. There are lots of them.) If you know your stuff and you’re not a stiff – you can have fun interacting with others – then you’ll quickly see the popularity of and attendance at your webinars increase.

Putting Together a Webinar
The software comes from the conference provider. On screen, you’ll have the webinar administrator’s console showing activity of participants, handling emails from participants and tracking levels of participation.

Now, the easiest way to put together one of these online lessons is to buy a decent web cam, write out your key points and interact with participants via the email option. Or, to make connections even easier and quicker, provide a telephone contact that attendees can use to ask questions, make a point or contest a point.

As the webinar administrator, you move things along. Whatever you do, don’t write a paper and read it for an hour. I’m bored just typing about it. You need some sizzle, some visuals, some eye candy to create a professional and engaging webinar.

The easiest tool to develop webinar visuals is Microsoft PowerPoint. If you don’t have it on your system, you can download it from the Microsoft site. This is a totally screen-driven program that’s almost idiot-proof. (Prove me wrong, kids. Prove me wrong.) You type text where prompted to do so.

Add a dash of color or a photograph to give a boring bullet list a little pizzazz. Especially if we’re going to be parked on it for a while. Or, instead, reveal text in the bullet list on cue simply by going to the next Power Point slide in the deck. Without too much of a learning curve, you can put together a Power Point presentation.

Using your webinar administrator’s console, you can cut back and forth between the graphics in your Power Point deck and your talking head via a hi-res webcam. By switching between the two you accomplish a couple of important tasks: (1) you put a face to the voice and the knowledge and the humor and professionalism (at least wear a nice sweater); and (2) it maintains visual interest. An hour-long Power Point presentation is almost as bad as an hour-long talking head. Switch to create interest, especially when answering questions from the crowd.

During the Webinar
You should have a list of talking points and sub-points, not a speech. You should have an agenda. “Today I’m going to talk to you about liability insurance and the private investigator. Let’s begin with blah, blah, blah…”

Encourage discussion and stop often to ask for questions. In some cases, it may take a few minutes for a question to reach the moderator’s console if the email is routed via Zambia so go with the flow. “Oops, okay, we have an email from a dental associate in California regarding that last point.” Stay flexible and nimble. As the moderator you’ll be juggling a lot of balls.

You’ll be teaching, reading emailed questions, moderating group discussions, tracking viewer activities and trying to work in a little humor all at the same time.

You should know, throughout the webinar, where you are on your agenda list and expand or contract your discussion as necessary.

Encourage debate by posing provocative questions. Part of the appeal of these events is the ability to interact with one’s peers so provide that opportunity. Then, sit back and moderate, keeping the discourse on topic.

Testing
CEU webinars require that attendees take and pass a test so if your’s is a CEU-accredited webinar, you need to develop an online post-test administered after the webinar. To earn the CEU credits, each attendee must achieve a certain grade. Hey, for all you know they were watching TV as you were explaining the latest in forensic science so those meeting professional requirements should be tested, and they should pass.

If your webinar isn’t CEU-based, testing is up to you. Frankly, the people who have signed up already know their stuff so testing seems a bit inappropriate. However, to maintain interest, ask the “Question of the Second” or “Insurance Trivia” throughout the lesson. Using Power Point makes creating “test pages” easy and the conferencing software captures attendees scores and even delivers them individually to avoid embarrassment.

Amortize Production Costs
It could cost a few bucks to put together a professional webinar that has high production values, accurate, current information and a dash of entertainment value on the web (sorely missing, btw). And if you only host the webinar once (a spot webinar), those costs are all associated with the one-shot spot. Instead, schedule webinars daily or weekly. Each time you’re able to conduct a revenue-producing webinar, the initial production costs are further amortized. So, that one time production expense pays for itself over and over.

It’s not hard to do, and if you don’t have the time, talent or inclination there are plenty of freelancers who do this stuff every day so outsource all the heavy lifting and save yourself for Saturday mornings when you become the congenial host of “Process Server Weekly, the ONLY weekly webinar for professional process servers.”

Ahh, show biz.