Posted by Eric Jackson | 1 Comment
FAIL: Five Ways to Perform Miserably on the Web
Most businesses and organizations that want a website have one. Unfortunately, many websites are hideous, unusable monstrosities. So why is that you may ask? There are myriad reasons for this sad state of affairs, too many to list here. Instead, we’ll just give you five of many. If you want more, or you simply want to talk about your website and how it can be fixed, email me at: ejackson@kbsweb.com.
#1 – Hire an amateur
Hiring an amateur to build your website is like asking your accountant to perform your root canal. Your accountant may do it for a very reasonable price, but the outcome isn’t going to please you. Again and again, new customers looking for the answer come to us, stunned that the kid down the street didn’t do a professional job. He didn’t do a good job for the same reason that I haven’t won the Masters. He has no experience and doesn’t practice. He’ll never help you get where you want to go.
#2 – Don’t define your goals and audience
If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. It’s not just a cliché; you must define your efforts to be successful. For example, let’s say you’re in the dog grooming business in Hendersonville, Tennessee. I’ll venture a guess that you want dog owners in Sumner County to find your website, probably using Google. Mildred Johnson and her poodle, residents of Albuquerque, New Mexico, are not in your target market. You don’t wish them ill; they’re just not driving to Tennessee to have Sparky’s nails trimmed. The Five P’s ring true again: prior planning prevents poor performance. A professional website development firm will point you in the right direction.
#3 – Write your own content
For reasons I can’t fathom, most website owners will attempt to assemble and write the content for their own website. Forget for a moment that they have zero ability and that they never write anything longer than a paragraph. That doesn’t seem to matter. Reason be damned; they’re going to write their own content…in three different styles…and in every verb tense they can conjure. Let’s get to the point here: people visit your website to read your content, not look at the design. The design needs to be pleasing; the content (text and photos) do the real work. Don’t write your own content unless you’re a professional writer.
#4 – “Frankenstein Design”
You’re familiar with Frankenstein, right? The large, beastly creature pieced together with spare parts in an attempt to create something resembling life? Web Frankensteins abound on the Internet. Held together with stitches, spit and tape, they’re ugly, ponderous and near useless. They suffer from a variety of maladies including poor graphic design, incompetent coding and bad hosting. The best thing you can do with a “Frankenstein Design” is put it down and build anew. Bolting on a new head will not help your plight. Yes, we realize you dumped a boat-load of cash into this monster, but it’s time for him to die.
#5 – Don’t promote your site
There is no better way to live in Internet obscurity than to build a site that no one can find. If you want to fail spectacularly, refuse to spend the money to get your site in front of the people who need you. Don’t put it on your business cards, brochures, promotional materials, advertising or signs. Tell no one, not your current customers or prospects. Whatever you do, don’t optimize your website for the search engines (SEO – Search Engine Optimization).
If you want to avoid these and other common mistakes, give me a shout. It’s what I do: ejackson@kbsweb.com
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eWaste Recycling Days
If you’re like us, you’ve got some old, useless electronic devices you’d like to get rid of, but don’t know how. They’re no longer good for what you bought them for, and have outlived their welcome as your doorstop.
Well, despair no more:
eWaste Recycling Days
Sponsored by East Tennessee State University, Tennessee Board of Regents, The University of Memphis and University of Tennessee – Knoxville
Recycling Services Courtesy of Apple
May 14-15, 2009 – Institutions
May 16, 2009 – Public
9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. – each day
Drop off Sites:
East Tennessee State Univ.
Tennessee Board of Regents at LP Field
University of Memphis
University of Tennessee – Knoxville
Cost: FREE
Visit the official website for more information, directions and a list of accepted materials:
TN eWaste Recycling Days
www.tennessee.poweron.com
Posted by Eric Jackson | 0 Comments
Helping Clients Through Tough Times
Looks like we’re famous…or at least we’re in the newspaper. The Hendersonville Star News did a business section feature on Keystone and our success helping businesses improve their technology during a down economy.
You can read the story on The Tennessean website if they don’t throw the hard copy in your driveway.
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Meet Anna
If you’ve called Keystone (615-826-3500) in the last few days, you’ve already met our new automated attendant. No, Mike hasn’t changed his name to Anna; his voice is the first one you hear. After that, you’ll be introduced to Anna.
Anna is the voice of Microsoft Response Point. Says Microsoft’s website:
Microsoft Response Point advanced phone system, provides small businesses with up to 50 employees a competitive advantage against bigger rivals, by improving customer contact. Users no longer need complicated textbooks to use advanced call features because Microsoft’s award winning voice recognition software makes it easy to access and use with just one button.
Getting connected to the Keystone specialist you need has never been easier. The voice-activation system works anytime during your call. If you want to talk to Adam (and really, who wouldn’t want to?) call and just say “Adam” as soon as the auto-attendant picks up. Want to talk to Eric? Call and ask for Eric… or “Mad Dog,” one of his many Mexican prison aliases, and you’ll get him. Don’t know who you want to talk to or you just don’t like robot-like women named Anna? Press zero (0) and you’ll get to talk to whomever grabs the phone first.
We recognize that an auto-attendant carries some historical baggage with it. Customers have been trained to be wary of them, mostly due to years of clunky interfaces and overly complicated structures. But the Response Point voice-activation system actually means you get to the person you need faster, without having to explain your problem twice before finally getting the help you need. We’d love to hear feedback from you about our new system. So email me, Eric: ejackson@kbsweb.com. Or just call and ask for Mad Dog and talk to me directly.
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Even More Domain Spam Scams
Apparently the Chinese have NOT cornered the market on shady domain name scams. While Nigerian princes and Chinese domain scammers prefer to take the more personal route with a cordial email directed at domain owners, American/Canadian domain pirates have gone a different route: obtuse scary notices and fake invoices.
The first scam is similar to the Chinese scam. They play upon the fear that your “intellectual property rights” are going to be infringed upon. They use big words and reference the “United States Legal Code” regarding “False descriptions and dilution of Trademarks and the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.”
In other words, they’re trying to sell you a bunch of domain names you don’t now own and very likely don’t want to own. Even if you DID want to own those names, you certainly don’t want to purchase them through sneaky scumbags like the company so low-down that they don’t even have the guts to tell you their name.
The second scam is just as bad. The Domain Registry of America (located in Ontario) sends you notification that your domain name is about to expire and you should pay them to “renew” it. What they don’t tell you is that they’re going to transfer the name from your current provider (likely someone you trust) to Domain Registry of America. Domain Registry of America has even been the defendant of an FTC lawsuit because of their deceptive practices: http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/12/031219compdomainreg.pdf
So how should you deal with these people?
- Step 1. Open the letter from the deceptive jerks.
- Step 2. Use your hands to crumple their notice up into a small wad.
- Step 3. Place the wad of paper in your wastebasket and go back to what you were doing.
Problem solved! (Note: If you get an email notice about your domain name and you’re not sure if it’s a scam, you can always call your friendly neighborhood technology solutions provider–Keystone–and double-check… but it’s probably a scam).
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