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Why I’m abandoning a land line altogether: bye bye Qwest!

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Jun 15, 2011; Category: Communication; Tags: Business, Communication, Zeitgeist; 5 Comments

At the end of June, I’ll be abandoning Qwest service entirely, saving about $56/month on phone service. Not that $56/month is outrageous; it’s actually a good bit less than what I pay Tmobile every month, although there really is no comparison between what I can do on my Tmobile-powered Android and what I can do with the land line, which has become pretty useless. And $56 is way too much to pay for useless.

I used to think it was important to have a land line because along with it came a Yellow Pages listing. But in the past 2 years, I’ve logged the calls coming in on the land line. The average number of calls I’ve gotten on the land line each month during that period is between 15-16. Three of those are typically from two long-standing clients who seem to prefer that number to my cell phone (Marcie, Ted: call me on my cell!). About every 3-4 months I get a call from a new prospective client, indicating they found me in the Yellow Pages. At least 80% of those want me to fix a broken down website their nephew built for them in 2002, or something equally unattractive or unrewarding (I’ve learned the magic phrase that makes them go away: “we’re not the right people for that”). During the two years, I have not acquired a single new client who first contacted me on my land line or who first saw my Yellow Pages ad and then contacted me by other means.

By contrast, during that period I’ve acquired approximately a dozen new clients who contacted me at someone’s recommendation, who found me in a web search, or who became acquainted with me via social media. Monthly cost for those? $0. Math is not my strong suit, but even I can figure out that, in comparison, the Yellow Pages ad is not very cost-effective.

And the other 12-13 calls per month? People from India selling offshore programming and “web designing” services (why do always say “web designing” and not “web design?”). No kidding. I guess in India they assume web developers here are so busy that we need a lot of help, because they call and they call and they call. I understand they’re just trying to make a living, but I do get tired of telling them I’m not interested.

The other reason I have held onto my land line is so I can have a fax machine. But I realized recently that I have not needed a fax machine in more than a year, and probably could have emailed a scanned document saved as a pdf in its place. Faxing has become outmoded as a means of communication. It’s time to dump the fax machine and move on.

I’m looking forward to being done with Qwest. I expect it will feel a bit like it felt when I was able to replace Microsoft Office for Mac with Open Office: lighter, more flexible. And $56/month more in my pocket. And I can live without explaining several times a month that I don’t need web designing services.

Update 6/16/2011: This did not factor into my decision, but when I called Qwest to cancel as of July 1, I was able to reserve the land line number for one year for $65, during which time a phone message directing callers to my cell phone number will be played (I expect that means I will continue to hear from programmers in India, sigh…). If I decide I made a mistake during that 12-month period, I can have the land line restarted. It’s nice to have the fallback option, though I don’t foresee using it.

Why Bad Websites Happen to Good Companies, Part 10: Not Hiring a Writer to Get Clear, Crisp, Compelling Copy

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Sep 29, 2010; Category: Bad Websites/Good Companies, Communication, Design/Development, Information Architecture, Marketing; Tags: Communication, Information Architecture, Marketing, writing for web; No Comments

There’s a myth in website design that “no one reads the copy.” It’s not entirely true. While most of the people who visit your website will not read most of the copy, the few visitors who are really interested in what you have to offer will. If they’re really interested, they’re your best prospects. And even casual visitors scan your content (quickly), looking for a reason to get interested. If they don’t find it, of course, they’re gone.

Unless you have too much business (I don’t know anyone in that position right now), how can you afford to communicate with website visitors with anything less than clear, crisp, and compelling copy?

Building a great website requires several different skill sets

People tend to think of website design as either a technology project (for which they need a programmer or coder) or design project (for which they need a web designer). There is no doubt that both of those characterizations are partially true, and that people with those skill sets are critical to producing a great—or even adequate—website. But no matter how great it looks or how well it works, without clearly communicated and compelling messages, the site will yield disappointing results (you’d like some results, right?).

Many people pride themselves on their ability to write well. But writing for distracted and non-commital website visitors is a skill few people possess. In addition to being clear and compelling, a web writer must be concise. Using too many words to express a thought chases away all of your casual visitors and all but the most determined of your best prospects. A writer who can develop strong messages and write clear, compelling, and concise website copy should be on your speed dial.

You are not the best example of someone in your market

You’re an expert in your field. Few of your website visitors know a tenth of what you know about your products and services. Because of your expertise, you will make assumptions about what’s important to talk about on your site that won’t match up with what your visitors want or need to know. Website content should be organized and written for your visitors, not for you. It might be more elementary than you would write, but it’s important to communicate with your visitors in a way that helps them quickly understand what you offer. If they understand, they’re more likely to take action.

If a website visitor doesn’t take action, you’ve probably lost them

A skilled web writer can organize your content (information architecture) as part of creating a strategy for moving visitors toward action. That action might be registering for an email newsletter, downloading a whitepaper, or placing an order. For non-profit organizations, it might be making a donation or volunteering. Most people do not arrive at your website with the intention of placing an order or taking the next step toward becoming a customer. If they do so, it’s because the information on the site convinced them. If they’re not convinced, the likelihood that they’ll return to check you out again is small.

A good web writer is good at organizing and delivering copy that convinces people to act. As Elvis Presley once sang, “a little less talk and a little more action.”

A caveat: blogging is different than “writing for the web”

Beyond the ability to write clearly, writing blog posts does not require the same skills described above. Blogging is more of a conversation, a chance for people to get a sense of who you are and what you think. If you’re a bit wordy, no problem. If you want to talk about things only experts in your field will fully grasp, go for it. Lots of successful bloggers cannot write copy that leads website visitors to take action other than leaving a comment. That’s OK because that’s not the goal of (most) blog posts. Just don’t assume that, because someone has a blog and writes “on the web”, that they can write “for the web.”

Is “Good Enough” Really Good Enough?

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Sep 21, 2010; Category: Communication, Design/Development, Zeitgeist; Tags: Business, Communication, Marketing; One Comment

We live in an era of commodification of services. Many of the services that relied on people with specialized skills and expertise a decade ago can be accomplished by low-skilled workers, and in some cases, by automated services (translation into a foreign language, for instance). Few people would argue that services delivered by low-skilled or automated means rival the quality of services delivered by people with expertise and knowledge (try your automated translation out on a native speaker of the language), but some people feel that “good enough” is good enough.

Take website design: a service of particular interest to me. It’s possible to sign up for a free account on WordPress.com, TypePad, or Blogger (using a URL like yourbusinessname.wordpress.com), select from the limited assortment of templates, upload a few images, write a few posts, and you have a website. It’s also possible to hire your neighbor’s kid for a couple of hundred bucks to create a website for you (he’s so good with computers!).

How effective are those approaches? Judging by the ones I’ve seen, not very. They typically communicate little that would convince people in your market to do business with you, and often communicate a great deal of information that turns people away (usually inadvertently and unintentionally).

What many people fail to understand about web design/development is that a website is only partly a “technical/coding project,” and only partly a “design project,” and together those two parts don’t add up to a whole. For businesses, websites are mostly communication and marketing projects. Figuring out what to communicate and how to communicate it (both visually and in writing) is a lot of what you pay for with professional website design. Closely related to communication and fundamental to online marketing is user experience design, which helps turn website visitors into customers. If you find yourself working with a web designer who is mostly concerned with issues other than communication, user experience, and marketing, find yourself another designer.

My question is this: If a business website doesn’t get positive results (more customers), is it “good enough,” even if you paid nothing or next to it?

If your purpose is to grow your business, having a free or cheap website that gathers few visitors and converts none of them into customers isn’t much of a bargain. You don’t get rewarded for how little you spend on your website (“my website sucks but at least I didn’t spend any money on it”). You get rewarded for how effective it is. And effectiveness is still the result of expertise in communication, managing user experience, and marketing.

Launching Another WordPress Site: Talatek, LLC

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Jul 27, 2010; Category: Communication, Content Management System, WordPress; Tags: Communication, Design/Development, WordPress as CMS; No Comments

Visit talatek.com»

Obviously, we’ve been busy: TalaTek’s website is the fourth we’ve launched in a month (the third in little more than a week), with more in the works. This pace would be impossible without WordPress. With it, however, it’s not much of a stretch (discounting some late hours here and there).

The more I work with WordPress, and the more I understand of it’s capabilities and how to take advantage of them, the more impressed I am with it. Not just because it allows me to do more as a designer and developer (does it ever!), but because it allows website owners to do more to manage their online presence. It enables business owners and organization managers to utilize their websites as active communications tools, making updates and changes on an as-needed basis with very little effort.

TalaTek is in line with a trend I’m seeing in which businesses are more willing to embrace blogging as a means of creating content of value to their market, establishing their expertise and enhancing their search engine rankings. TalaTek has elected to call their blog posts “articles,” but I don’t care what they call them as long as they keep posting and getting the benefits of posting them.

Leon Sterling of Compelling Concepts wrote the copy for the website and developed the messaging. It was good to have a partner in the creative process; design is much easier—and more effective—when a clear message exists.

Having a website? Meaningless. Using a website? Priceless.

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: May 12, 2010; Category: Business, Communication, Marketing, Zeitgeist; Tags: Blogging for Business, Entrepreneurs, Zeitgeist; 3 Comments

Most people think having a website has value. They’re wrong.

Lots of people and businesses and organizations have websites (although as recently as a year ago, only 37% of US small businesses had one).

But having a website is sort of like having a hammer. Just because you own one doesn’t mean you’re building a house, or even putting up a shelf. If the hammer sits unused in the toolbox, you might might as well not have a hammer, for all the good it’s doing you.

Websites are like that. They’re tools. Used properly, they can help you build a business or start a movement. Left un-utilized on your webhost account (never updated, no interaction with readers, etc.—you know the type), they accomplish nothing.

Primarily, websites are comunication/connection tools. Once you’re good at using your website for communicating and connecting (as with most tools, some practice is required for you to use it effectively: expect an occasional sore thumb), your website can also shoulder some of the burden of sales and delivery of goods and services. But first, you have to successfully use your website for communicating and connecting. (FYI, websites make very poor “look-how-impressive-we-are” tools, though that’s primarily how businesses use them.)

Most of us are reasonably good at dreaming and talking about what we would do if we had the means. We’re not nearly as good at following through when the means is right in front of us. “If I had a hammer,” the old folk song used to say.

Websites, particularly those on platforms like WordPress, are tools that provide us with the means to pursue our goals. But they have to be used. Ladies and gentlemen, pick up your hammers and let’s “hit it.”