Learning RX - train the brain unlock the potential

Why is it that so many people is still confused as to what exactly a website is? When you ask the question, the answer received most is "the page you get when you looked something up on Google"

That might well be the perception of most and in a sense is describing in a few short words what the Jo-public is thinking of hours of hard work, superb designs and intricate code. You try and give that explanation to a designer and they simply cringe in retrospect.

It gave me the idea to start concentrating on various training sessions for my clients. Not just another "How to design your Website" session, but rather a hands-on "what am I suppose to do now" lesson.

New facets of an ever changing Internet, things such as YouTube that has already ushered in a new cult arena for screen junkies which is just another term for Video Blogging....uhuh you didn't even know there is such a thing as Video Blogging?

What about the fact that each website owner sometimes need some inspiration to get the creative blood going? If you got it then for sure flaunt it!

Do you want to win $15,000.00??? Imagine this then, Microsoft has great prizes up for grabs in its latest imagine cup interface design competition.

Then of course there is always the ever ongoing debate over template design. You either love it or you hate it. But be what it be, website templates are here to stay and they can be a means to fast site development and a lucrative source of income for any web designer or solo do it yourself entrepreneur. Whichever side of the fence you are on, website templates is a market that is here to stay - did I mention that already?

"Thank you" is not swearing in binary code...

If you have been around in the mid 80's and you have especially been around Geeks, you'll remember the aura of fascination that cloaked them wherever they went. Sure they looked like death warmed over and no fashion sense whatsoever, but man were they revered! They were Awesome-Mensa-Geniuses that could work a computer quicker than mom could bake those pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving.

I'm a geek. I remember. I was there and suffice it to say I am still here.

Times have changed and so have Geeks. We no longer smoke 30 cigarettes a day, spewing Cobol, CICS or try to impress with outstanding Assembler knowledge as if we are aliens from another planet. I learned what size clothes I wear and that there is actually more available than just sweats and an oversized t-shirt. Heck, I even got to know that Versace is NOT a new computer language and Armani is not the latest must have piece of computer equipment.

...But I digress...Today we want to talk about "Thank You's"

You see it is not the "Thank You" that is the problem. It is the "talk". Geeks are notoriously known for being good with email or SMS or IM's but man you put them in a room full of people and expect them to say something and they clam up better than the best garlic and butter melted clams. Heed my words well, Geeks CAN BE GOOD at talking, they simply don't like it. It is not in a Geeks' nature to want to communicate with human beings. We might pretend we like it and we might even be good at pretending we pretend we like it, but ultimately a Geek loves, are in love and will always love anything to do with zeros and ones. Our mantra when a program or a design is finally working is "thank you thank you thank you... yesssssss!"

So what is this blog about today. Thanksgiving of course or did you already lost the story line here??!! How does a Geek say thank you to all our clients, customers, students, suppliers and co-workers? By keeping the internet alive, by keeping the electronic world going and by exceeding our own expectations everytime a new brainchild is born in beautiful zero's and one's.
THAT is our way to say thank you. When you use a new program or a new system, we will challenge ourselves to make it better and when we succeed (note to self there is no "if" just a plain old "when") it is our silent way of saying Thank you.

• Thank you for the inspiration.
• Thank you for the challenge, because we thrive on challenges whether they be good or bad.
• Thank you for the investors and business people who have the most outstanding ideas, but still need us to make it happen online, you keep us going and our fingers moving.

So everytime you receive a product from a geek or a semi-geek it was their way to say thank you. You might pay a lot of money for it, thank you's don't come cheap, but it is a thank you nonetheless.

From all the newbie-geeks out there, the old ones and the ones in fond rememberance - remember - "thank you" is not a swear word in binary code, but rather a quilted solution of ingenuity, enthusiasm and communication. Our way of saying THANK YOU at a time when families get together to remember good deeds and eat lots of turkey and ham and for the vegetarians, artificial soya turkey...

Ronel Uys, Website Geeks Inc
http://www.WebsiteGeeks.com

Website Candy not just for Halloween

If it's not wrapped, don't eat it!

Remember the times when you went trick-a-treatin' and Mrs Jones next door would give you home made cookies and fudge? Then a couple of years later weirdo's would put sharp objects into the treats and all of a sudden mom said you can't eat it if it is not wrapped?!

That reminds me of our websites and how much it has evolved over the years. We've come a long way from home made sites to wrapped designer sites and yet there is always still room for improvement.

Over time, changes emerge in all kinds of industries, but in IT and especially the web, the change is phenomenal. The more people accessing the web the more everyday conventions are being established. And its these conventions that is biting designers in the "behooty".

Let us look at the normal conventions on a website and what users are expecting to see:-

1. A Logo - this should be left top corner
2. Navigation - this should be either top or left of the page
3. Help or Questions - this should be right top corner etc,

Ok I can just hear you designers going crazy with the thought of monotonousness and boredom, and though I believe in conventions I firmly support pushing the limits ALL THE TIME. There is a golden rule we've started to apply when trying to get out of the every day normal site design and we borrowed it from Michael Twidale when he said :"Break rules only if you're going to do something USEFUL with it, never break them just to show how good you are"

Bottom line - if its good for the website, good for business and its different then DO IT. If it is only good for your ego and to brag about when you have a designers-only meeting at the local starbucks, get it off your clients site now!

We've learned that users who browse the internet wants to move on autopilot. Have you ever watched a person read a newspaper? They don't read, they scan. We are all scanners from way back when we "scanned" the comics in the Sunday newspaper right through adulthood where we still scan everything that happened this week - we even scan the news on TV by just having TIVO! The same principle apply to your website. Users are notoriously impatient, they want all the info NOW, they don't want to look for it, read about it or follow endless lists of directions.

So speak the speak and talk the talk when you designed hat site. Get the basic ingredients right and then fill it up with all the bells and whistles you'd like to see on there. If the website is suppose to bring in money don't gamble with a fickle crowd. They won't complain ... Like in never. They simply won't come back.

So my designer friend, wrap your candy before you hand them out or you'd be out of business before you can swallow your first bite!

What is the price of cheap?

It is simply mind boggling to realize how many companies - big or small - still don't have a website. That got the geeks at Website Geeks TM Inc set to think about this strange phenomenon... Is it because people are still intimidated by anything remotely connected to computers, is it because they are still under the impression that it cost more than they can afford.... Or maybe its the time factor. They simply don't have the time to get to something as mundane as a company website!

While we have John in the office, furiously waving his arms at the unfairness of the geek world, we try to understand what has him so upset. Inbetween sneezes and a lot of cussing we finally heard the whole sordid tale...It seems he bought a domain name 2 years ago from GoDaddy at only $6.oo per year registration fee. He wasn't sure he was going to use the name extensively so he put it on manual renewal - you just know where I'm going with this don't you? Well two years flew by, John did actually use the name and went as far as to put it on his company literature, business cards, brochures you name it. It's even painted on the delivery van that constantly drives through downtown making deliveries 24 hours a day.

So what's the problem?

John forgot about his manual setting. He has changed his contact email address since he registered the name and lived happily ever after. Not.

He lost the name. Worse someone else picked it up and is using it for their business, something entirely different to John's and not even in the same state... Heck its not even the same country.

You think he's got a chance of getting the name back.... Not in a million years.. Maybe a million euros if the new name owner is small enough to fall for a good acquisition...

AUTOMATICALLY RENEW YOUR DOMAIN NAMES! What is $10 a year or even $25 bucks as some places charge. Compare the loss you will face if you loose the name to the $10 you need to pay a year.

We sometimes get so lost in negotiations that we loose track of the big picture. If the domain name you are looking for is for sale at a certain price, only you can determine if the money is worth it. If you buy the name from a Domain Name Broker then you might pay considerably more than the basic $10 registration fee, but it might be worth it. Be careful of trademarks, if it is in the US and you're in Europe changes are you can still get the name, but if your business is in the US and infringe on copyright laws you're going to have to give it up. Oh and even if you are in Europe and got the domain name for a copyrighted trademark in the US.... You better make sure you're website is not being accessed in the US.... Fair is fair in competition and war isn't it?

So what was left for John to do? Get a new name, run a huge publicity campaign to get the word out and put in a backorder to have a small change of getting the name back just in case the new owner made the same mistake. He could have been vacationing in Hawaii instead of spending money on advertising and awareness projects to fix a small innocent yet stingy mistake.

Be careful with your money - you work hard for it after all - just don't get caught being penny wise and pound foolish!

Taking your website on a date

Have you ever wondered why some really big companies have the most boring websites? Yet they are the ones that's got the staff and most probably the intellectual budgets to do so much more....

It reminds me of the time when the mainframe used to cry king. PC's just got on the market and an XT was even more sought after than today's xbox-360. No one ever thought the underdog could swipe the market clean and make mainframes almost obsolete... Well hell guess what happened?! Just like the dinosaurs we ended up with a dying breed of programmers and those who did not want to evolve simply vanished off the world of Tech.

Bright kids took to the screens like mamma used to take to shopping and with Bill Gates' famous "I have a dream..." duhh I know he didn't say the exact words - but he sure got it in the history books when he wanted every household to have a PC.

Ok so I digress, I wanted to talk about your website and why it is so easy to get the same results as the big guys. Just because you have a smaller company doesn't mean you have to be small on the web now does it? Just like with the main frame vs PC scenario we see the underdog jumping into the hay and become the big dogs in a matter of well versed internet support. Sure you might not have the warehouses that the shipping company has and you might not have the factories of the silicon producers, but you have the knowledge, the expertise and most assuredly either the outsourcing abilities or the networking circle that gives you access to the same if not more resources than our traditional "big-do-not-bother-with-us" brothers.

So why haven't you?

Think you can make your own website? You bet you can. Need help? There's plenty of help out there, from people who can design your website according to your specifications, to companies that offer to train you how to do your own and then of course the ever-living-breathing-same as the guy next door wizards.

No don't get your hair up, I don't mean to say templates are bad. We use them everyday too. Clients like them, and besides they've been designed by professional webdesigners and they do look a heck of a lot more professional than Auntie Sue's 3rd grader's attempt. So why are we sarcastic about them.... we're not. We simply like individuality - you either might too or you might not....like individuality of course.

That is why we say... take your website on a blind date. BLIND date is the key word. The only thing you know about this "date" is the restaurant you're going to visit because that kind of limits your budget in a way and unless you pay the maitre'd at the end of the night you're going to scrub dishes for a long time to come. SO DON'T OVERSPEND - you don't have to.

Long gone are the days when a website is considered an expense. If your's still is an expense...get rid of your designer. They're not doing what you are paying them to do. Please note I'm saying webdesigner NOT website. You need that website like you need oxygen especially if you are in business. Again Bill Gates was the one who said - no website means no front door to your business - and lets give the devil his due whether you like the guy or not truer words have not been spoken in a long time.

Let's see, what do you do on a blind date. Before you meet them your extremely nervous, what if they're ugly, not the kind of shape you prefer and o lordy what if they can't even speak your language.... this is the same anxiety you experience when you build that website the first time. Och you were excited yes, but nervous too what if that kid with the green colored hair comes back with a website straight out of hell and you're actually selling angel souverniers to the local church groups?

Then you actually "see" your date and you might or might not be impressed, its the same as seeing that website mockup the first time, you either love it or you don't (we'll leave the fence hanging guys for a bit here).

With the first impressions over (and boy don't they last....) we can see a little deeper into this persons personality and how well it fits ours - or not. Do they talk to much? Are they too quiet? Pretty with nothing between the ears or talking Einstein all night? Most importantly do you have something in common? NOW THAT is the key to any relationship isn't it? Finding common grounds...something that is acceptable and hopefully interesting to both you and me.

When you analyze your website, do you have a common ground? Do you have an outstanding design, awesome flash features, but no content? What about having all the content that will make a governmental library proud, but no visual attractiveness to keep todays iPod crowd and aaahhhh yes, does it actually tell people about YOUR business and what YOU do or does it reflect a balance BETWEEN what you do and what you can do for THEM... no this is shaky ground isn't it. Not sure if we want to go there? We've paid a heck of a lot of money to have that site designed, might as well not ask pesky questions.

Now that's fine with me, it's not my website.

However you can have a successful blind date with your website and still come out the winner... next time we'll talk about how, this time we just discussed that first really awkward feeling date....

- by Ronel Uys, President and Founder of Website Geeks Inc an Austin based company specializing in Webdesign, Internet Training and Online Marketing.

This year I'm gettin' a website

Another year is born, kicking and screaming red in the face or at least thats how it felt the morning after the ohhh so familiar 10...9...8...7...6...5 and finally the big ONE.

Yep another year is here and we have so many resolutions, question is are they just adding up or are we going to do something about it this time. With the boom in small business economy we still find it strange that so many of these small companies still don't have a website. Is it because they don't understand the importance of a website or is it because they really don't need a website?

Just because business is flourishing doesn't mean you're not going to need the extra exposure during quiet times. Think ahead. Even if you don't want a flux of customers right now you might want to add your companies name to the evergrowing list of businesses, tell them about yourself, your business, why they should come to you and if you can afford to be, then surely be selective. But by all that is good, you need that website like you need a cashflow account.

Most of the time people compare really expensive websites with good websites which is not always true. There is so many factors in establishing a price. For example do you have a dedicated designer work on your site with exclusive graphic images and designs. Does it include dedicated machines that host your site, are you running streaming videos that up the bandwidth you're using? You can have all of this, but you don't need to start with it.

If this is the year that you're gettin' a website, then my advice to you would be :

• Start Small - a basic site well defined and planned can start from 3 pages and grow into a formidable presence describing your services and products.
  
• Concentrate on Content - If you're baking bread and selling to the local community don't describe your services as if it is available internationally. Be concise to the point. Remember people like to GLANCE at a page and rarely read in detail unless they're really interested.
  
• TEST YOUR SITE - don't publish a site that has "under development" written on it. Make sure your links work inbound as well as outbound.
  
• Get professional help if you don't have the time or the knowledge how to design a website for your company.

No matter what else you have planned for the new year, if you don't have your website up yet, start working on it because this year...... I'm gettin' a website!

Race to the Top

Every person and every business existing on the web has this unexplained urge to speed to the top of search engines. Google being the most popular ofcourse. Have you ever stopped to ponder the effects of being at the top of Giant Google? What is the old saying of "the highest trees gets the most wind..."

Did you see the ad on TV where 3 guys are watching the computer screen pressing refresh every minute to see how their online sales are soaring.... first they worry because there is only one, then they smile because now there's a couple of hundred and then they completely freak out because there is a couple of million sales and they CAN NOT DELIVER.

The same principles appear with our latest trend in the industry. The SEO agents or specialists. Even if a designer is not specializing in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) he/she should at the very least have a standard set of information to put on each website. They don't have to know the well sought after secrets of Google or understand why Yahoo lost so much ground or even why AOL is still hanging on despite so many contradictory comments in the world of binary code. No just a decent sense of what is important to get their clients' websites at least recognized.

What is really disparaging is the fact that so many designers does not even know, understand or care about the importance of search engine rankings. Most customers are blissfully unaware that their sites are not even optimized to take part in this ever continuing race to the top.

Pretty much like a brand new car, custom designed and build to the proud new owners specifications, however the designers neglected to add the registration information and they omitted the tuning the engine or adding powersteering.
When the owner finally get to drive his car he can get from point a to point b, unfortunately so can a fireant and he didn't spend that much money....

When we picked up the obvious neglect of important optimization tricks and tools that in effect should be standard, we were horrified to hear that a lot of designers out there is actually hiding behind the fact that "the customer did not ask for it"..... well duh how can they ask for something they don't even know exist?!?

The question that is thrown on the table constantly is "how much should a designer do for a client when it comes to preparing a website for search engine optimization?" Is it a matter of cheque first please or do you get the rankings as high as possible and build yourself a true and valid referral list.

Just like website designers jumped up out of nowhere in the middle 1990's to proclaim themselves experienced and professional, we will now see people promising customers the world if they can do their SEO's for them at a steep yet affordable price.

Now don't get us wrong, we firmly believe in new blood for the industry, but hey get your designer diapers off before you try to wear grownup slacks! Don't hurt customers' faith in the industry because you wanted to make a few bucks and did not even have the experience nor the actual know-how to accomplish it or even worse don't give professional website designers a bad name.