Web Design | Dangerous Common Sense

3 Rules to Follow to Avoid Cyber Monday Webmaster Traps

Today is Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving when all of America supposedly sits in front of their computers and shops online for Christmas deals. This focus on electronic commerce has caught the attention of fraudsters, too, and they’re out in force trying to separate you from your wallet.

Owners of web sites have to be doubly cautious because the come-on artists will be going after your web site at the same time as they go after your personal money.

As a webmaster, you need to watch out for Get Rich Quick schemes:

Make Your Fortune on the Internet Today!

My mailbox is filled with ideas of how I can make my million dollars by sitting at home in front of my computer. It strikes me as odd that the people sending me these emails are themselves still working instead of enjoying a tropical resort, but why am I be such a skeptic?

At best the “Get Rich on the Internet” emails are trying to get you to spend a lot of your time for very little cash. At worse, these come-ons are completely bogus and sent with the hope that you’ll give a crook your bank account and social security numbers.

You can make money on the Internet, but unless you come up with a hot product or marketing idea, you’re going to earn only a modest amount of change. Legitimate affiliate programs exist, but unless you have a hugely popular site, you are not going to get rich when you feature someone else’s products.

Go Ahead. Click Here to Shop at Amazon.com and I’ll Earn a Referral Fee!

Really!

I am an affiliate of Amazon.com and a handful of other services that I use myself. If you click on the link above and then buy something while you’re at Amazon.com, I’ll earn a very small commission. So, if you’re going to Amazon, please do use the link.

However, I am not counting on getting rich from affiliate money. I initially became an affiliate because I wanted to be to display copyrighted material (book covers, etc.) on my website.

In all of 2010 through yesterday noon, I earned $196.20 in affiliate payments from all vendors. I suspect that you’ll have a similar experience.

Whether you share my realistic approach to affiliate marketing or you have dollar signs in your eyes, before you respond to the offers in your in-box to jump aboard the Internet Gravy Train, here’s my advice:

Never pay money to sell a product online. Never. There is no reason to. Legitimate companies offer you free ways to earn a commission selling their product.
Show ads only for those products and services you use yourself. Face it. If you’re taking in $196.20 a year, then your personal reputation is worth more to you than the affiliate check.
Be very, very careful signing up for affiliate programs. Never respond to email affiliate offers. Only sign up on web pages whose address you’ve typed into your browser and with companies you’ve researched. Why? Because you have to provide the companies with your bank account number (to get direct deposits) and your Social Security Number (so that the IRS gets its share). This is exactly the information identify thieves need to rip you off.Personally I am an affiliate and sharing my financial information only with Amazon.com and Commission Junction.

My bottom lines is, “Yes, please shop Ozdachs!”

I recommend online back-up services, stock photos services, newsletter services, web hosting services, spam fighting services, and web development software. Click on the links to buy the quality stuff I use.

But, it’s okay of you’re not stuffing the stockings with Internet tools or Amazon.com books. I’m a smart webmaster and know that affiliate links belong on my site only if they make my web pages more valuable to my visitors.

By Ozdachs|2010-11-29T06:41:54-08:00November 29th, 2010|Web Design|0 Comments

Look at Me!

Woman Looking Right Off the Web Page One of my favorite restaurants sent out a newsletter last week bragging about their new web site. I’m a sucker for new Internet looks, so I eagerly went to their site and clicked around. Nice colors, nice banner photos, good selection of information, and then, “Oh, no!”

The profile of “Our Team” was accompanied by a picture of the general manager looking right off the website. Like the photo at the right.

Having a person featured in a photograph look off the page just feels weird to the visitor.

It doesn’t matter if the subject is looking left or right. It just feels wrong if they’re looking away from the main content of the web page.

In fact, the layout rule that requires pictures to look toward the article is as old as newspapers. Even back in the days of lead type the rule was ironclad (to mix metals): have your subjects look into the body of the article.

Now, of course, multi-column designs “force” you to post a picture looking off the page. The restaurant had designed a web site with a left sidebar and the main text on the right. The only photograph they had of the general manager was one where he was looking to his left. What choices did they have?

Two:

Flip the picture horizontally. The subject’s left side would then appear as his right, and people who know him would sense that there was something wrong with the picture. But, the picture would be of him and he would be drawing people’s attention to the rest of the story.
Take another photograph. Really. How hard would it be to get another picture of the restaurant’s key personnel?

What the web site shouldn’t do is simply post the photograph of the man looking off the video monitor!

Most stock photos (ones you buy and then can use on your website and blog) show people looking at the camera. This direct-look approach finesses the problem of the model looking off the web page. Here are three examples of stock photos which can be placed anywhere on a web page, anywhere on a magazine, anywhere in an ad because the subject’s eyes are looking at back at the viewer.

Stock Photos with the subjects looking back at the viewer

Whether you use stock photos, professional shots, or pictures you’ve taken yourself, make them look better. Place them on your web page so that the subject is looking inward.

By Ozdachs|2010-09-13T16:35:39-07:00September 13th, 2010|Web Design|0 Comments

Let Me Spell it Out for You

Want to hire me as an SEO expert to make your business show up high on SERPs?

Say what?

I’m asking if you want to use my Search Engine Optimization skills to get your web site to display at the top of the list of Google’s Search Engine Result Pages.

Oh.

I write and edit a lot of copy for clients, and about half of them send me material that starts off reading like a cryptographer’s training manual.

My church seems particularly addicted to using arcane acronyms when publicizing its events. Invitations are written like: “Come to UUSF’s SCW luncheon in the MLK with PCD delegates.” Sounds like something you want to do, right?

The addiction to alphabet soup acronyms and jargon isn’t always accidental. When I have replaced “UU’s welcome you…” with “Unitarian Universalists welcome you…” I have gotten told off by some of the original authors. “‘Unitarian Universalist’ is too wordy,” I have been instructed.

Yes, “Unitarian Universalist” is indeed a mouthful. If the organization’s name is too long, then perhaps a catchier name should be adopted. But, announcement writers shouldn’t adopt in-group shorthand in their work. Non-Unitarian Universalists may not have a clue what a “UU” is. Once readers have been introduced to the full term, the abbreviation can be specified and used later on. “Unitarian Universalists (UUs) welcome you to the UU picnic.” Or, something more exciting, but along the same lines.

Similarly, when I rewrite messages about services from professionals like lawyers and accountants, I am questioned if my straight-forward, non-jargon language sounds educated enough. It’s like a potential client won’t hire the firm if the attorney’s web site uses English sentences instead of Latin-infused contract terminology.

Here’s the truth: visitors will click away from your web site if you speak to them in code. Unless you are the National Aeronautic and Space Administration, NASA-like acronyms make you sound cultish and not open to newcomers. And, using industry jargon — whether it is educated jargon or just simple convenient jargon — puts distance between you and your potential client.

Remember who you are writing for and leave both abbreviations and in-terms out of your writing.

By Ozdachs|2010-08-28T15:35:36-07:00August 28th, 2010|Blogging, Marketing, Web Design|0 Comments

Your Low-Risk Web Developer

A potential client spoke to me last week about the different problems he’d had with various web designers. Of course I wanted to reassure him that I was not like them.

Some of how I am different is listed on my web site under my biography and web design philosophy, but I realized that I didn’t state the standards I work to. Basically, there wasn’t any promise that would reassure the prospect that I wasn’t like all the rest who had treated web design and Search Engine Optimization like inconvenient tasks they had to do for money between creative graphic gigs.

I am serious about serving clients and want to let them know what to expect. I want them to know they’re not going to be surprised. Here’s a list of commitments and expectations I have for my work.

Does this list cover enough fears? Let me know what changes or additions you think would help clients know that I’m the low-risk choice for web design and Internet promotion!

Commitments to My Clients

Communications. I will respond to phone calls and emails within one business day. The exception to this schedule will be announced vacation times when I am away from the Internet. These off-the-grid vacations have occurred on the average of less than two weeks per year since Ozdachs Consulting started operating nine years ago.

Cost estimates. I will provide you with a cost estimate for clearly-defined jobs and will not overrun that estimate by more than 5%. If the costs appear to be greater than initially estimated, I will advise you as soon as I see the potential for growth. When the scope of work has changed we will agree either on a revised estimate or a mitigation plan to control the costs.

Schedule. I will provide a schedule for the work before you engage me.

Ownership. You will own the text and graphics you provide for the website. You will own the text and graphics I create for you, including photographs I take and edit for you. If I use third-party stock photos or other tools, we both are subject to the licensing agreements of the third parties; I will not select any tools which require on-going payment for their use without getting your approval. The components of the web site design coding such as style sheets and scripts will be owned by me or whoever I licensed them from. You will have a perpetual right to use these components on your web site without additional compensation.

On-going Support. I will be available to maintain or enhance your web site for the foreseeable future. I enjoy updating sites. My professional plans are to continue to develop Ozdachs Consulting, and I am not seeking other employment.

References. I will provide contact information of past or current Ozdachs clients on request. I will also give you links to their sites so you can ask detailed questions about my work.

By Ozdachs|2010-07-05T08:12:29-07:00July 5th, 2010|Web Design|1 Comment

Don’t Get Tangled Up in the Web

I’m co-presenting a free seminar, Don’t Get Tangled Up in the Web, at the Small Business Administration on Market Street in San Francisco Thursday night.

Another SF web designer and I are going to go through the common questions that new clients come to us with. The blurb says we’re talking about: “how to develop and maintain your business’ home on the Internet. Why should you be on the Internet? How do you get there cost effectively? A non-technical discussion facilitated by two industry professionals give you the answers and tell you how to avoid common problems and pitfalls.”

It should be a good chance for people to feel more comfortable about what they want from their business’ web site. And, it’s free!

But, I might use the SBA site as an example of what not to do for your own site. They make it really difficult to link directly to the seminars. When you go to the SBA site, find the calendar of classes, and find the one you want, you cannot then copy the URL of the page you’re looking at and share that link with your friends. The calendar link is http://web.sba.gov/calendar/public/index.cfm?rc=0912 and that address doesn’t change in your browser when you look at an individual class.

So, if you share the address of the page you think you’re viewing, your friends will be taken to the generic calendar page. They’ll have to find your seminar on the calendar, and there are a hundred other events competing for their attention.

The direct link to the seminar information is for the page at http://web.sba.gov/calendar/public/dsp_viewevent.cfm?&EventCntr=135416&EventRptCntr=198516&OP=MAIN&GRP=0&YR=2010&MN=6&DY=17. Whew!

You only see the true page location if you right-click on the link on the SBA calendar page and copy the link location to your computer.

This is a pretty good example of getting tangled up in the web! The SBA isn’t making it easy for its clients to get and share information on its site.

Something we can talk more about Thursday, so come on down!

By Ozdachs|2010-06-14T08:54:52-07:00June 14th, 2010|Web Design|0 Comments