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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; 4 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.

TED Talks: Jason Fried of 37signals: Why work doesn’t happen at work

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Nov 30, 2010; Category: Business, Zeitgeist; Tags: Business, Work; No Comments

I haven’t worked in an office for more than a decade, but this all sounds too familiar. Work needs to be “reinvented” in order to recapture productivity, and these sound like some good suggestions.

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.

Disconnected: Honey, I deactivated the Facebook account.

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Aug 23, 2010; Category: Zeitgeist; Tags: Business, social media; No Comments

I’ve never been a huge fan of Facebook, once I got over the initial curiosity and connected with a few friends. I really don’t care that much about what people I haven’t seen for more than 30 years are doing with their spare time. Some of whom I barely knew 30 years ago.

There’s no question that Facebook is valuable for some businesses, IF a large part of their market uses it. I have clients, such as Zooniversity, for whom being in front of their market on Facebook is very important. But that’s not the case with my business. If you’re a client of mine and Facebook is important to your business, I’ll see that your website supports and promotes your Facebook page. Other than that, I’m done with Facebook.

Frankly, when someone from high school whose name I barely recall—who I’m sure I didn’t know well enough to say “Hi” to in the hall—wants to “friend” me, and four other people from high school (none of whom I was close to) send messages recommending that I friend this person, I’m starting to feel just a little intruded upon. I know, I can adjust my privacy settings. But every time I look at the settings panel, I surrender to an overwhelming desire to go get a beer instead. Each and every time that happens, I feel like I’ve made the right choice.

There was a time when I tried to look people up on Facebook. That stopped when so many of the people I found turned out to be fans of Sarah Palin, or into doing some kind of “Farmworld” thingy, or just plain telling me more than I wanted to know. And everyone looked so old! There’s a reason I left my hometown, I’ve decided.

There’s actually a term for what I’m experiencing: social media fatigue (google it and you’ll find a lot of material). As far as I can tell, the term has been used for at least 2 years. But I think more and more people are starting to tire of being so connected, and feeling compelled to participate. Social media can be valuable and rewarding, but you have to be selective about how and where (and if) you participate. After careful evaluation (and a beer), it’s “so long, Facebook” for me.

So, if anyone from my distant past, recent past, or even immediate future wants to connect with me, just send me an email. But please, don’t tell me you’re a Sarah Palin fan.

Why We Don’t Respond to RFPs: There’s a Better Way

Author: Ray Gulick; Published: Aug 7, 2010; Category: Design/Development; Tags: Business, Design/Development, LinkedIn; One Comment

Recently I got into a discussion on LinkedIn about Requests for Proposals (RFPs) and what makes a “good” RFP for web design and development. My position, basically, is that there is no such thing as a good RFP for web design and development, at least not following current “best practices” RFP models.

Why? Because successful websites are the result of collaborative efforts between clients and web developers. RFPs usually preclude collaboration by treating the process as furnishing a defined set of deliverables in a scope of work, with the vendor bound to furnish the deliverables as defined. Alternative (and often better) approaches are routinely dismissed in the interests of “comparing apples and apples.”

RFPs are a problem for everyone involved.

The problem for people writing RFPs is that few people or organizations are capable of defining deliverables in a scope of work in a way that allows for better solutions than they themselves had imagined, because they are rightly concerned with controlling costs. But defined deliverables usually means defined solutions, sometimes ruling out less expensive or more efficient alternatives. Things change rapidly in web development, and what was a good solution 12 months ago can be a decidedly inferior solution today. Even web developers scramble to stay abreast of changes, with varying degrees of success.

Further, few people and organizations are capable of evaluating proposals to sort out meaningful information from BS or fluff. If the best web developer/designer is selected for the project, it’s almost by accident.

The problem for those of us responding to RFPs is that preparing a proposal can easily consume 30-60 hours, depending on the scope of the project. We put some thought into addressing the specific items in the RFP, rather than making a few quick modifications to a standing proposal, and it takes time. Frankly, it’s time that could be spent more productively.

There’s a better way for both website owners and website developers.

Again, all successful website design/development is the result of collaboration between client and designer/developer. Aside from their ability to do the job, the most important thing you’re looking for in a designer/developer is someone you can collaborate with. I believe the following outlines a better way to find a collaborator and establish a collaborative relationship, one in which both parties work for a successful website within the agreed budget and timeline.

Figure out what you want to accomplish with your website. What are your goals? What are the goals of the people who might visit your website? What kind of functionality is necessary to meet those goals?

Figure out who your “audience” is (substitute “market” or “community” if more appropriate) and why they are interested in what you have to offer. Think about what kinds of online interaction with them would further your and their goals.

Figure out your budget. Bigger isn’t necessarily better, but some solutions are precluded by a budget that is inadequate to support them.

Look at websites similar to what you want. Contact the site owners and ask about the designer/developer. Would they recommend working with him/her? Include some local designer/developers in your research; often they will be more invested in your success (if your audience is primarily local, consider restricting your research to local designer/developers). Soon you’ll develop a shortlist of web people you want to talk to.

Call or email each of the designer/developers on your shortlist. Invite them separately to your office or a local coffee shop (or schedule a phone meeting, if they are not local) to discuss your project.

During your meeting, share your goals for your website (and describe functions you believe you need to meet those goals), what you know about your audience, and what your budget is. If they’re not taking notes and asking questions during this part of the meeting, you might want to cut it short. A good collaborator will be engaged and interested in this part of the process, and may even offer suggestions or observations that hadn’t occurred to you.

IF they took notes and asked lots of questions, find out more about them. Ask how they would go about helping you meet your goals within the budget you’ve described. Discuss timeline and try to get a sense of how focused they will be on your website. Ask them to walk you through a couple of websites they’ve launched, describing how they arrived at various solutions or solved design or technical issues. Ask about their business: not just how long they’ve been in business, but who their clients are, how they handle payments, what kind if ongoing support they provide, and what they feel separates their services from their competitors’ services. It wouldn’t hurt for you to take notes for this part.

If you feel you can collaborate with them, invite them to submit a written proposal. The short proposal (no more than two or three pages) should include a description of the project as they understand it, recommendations for a general approach (project phases, technical platform, etc.), an estimate for both time and cost, and contact information for at least three clients who you can call to talk about their experience in working with the designer/developer. Do NOT skip talking with their clients.

When you’re done evaluating proposals (and checking out client references), you should have a pretty clear idea of who you can work with best. Once you make your selection, schedule a project meeting in which you and the developer map out a project plan.

On an ongoing basis during the project, you make decisions together about the best options to help you meet your goals; the developer as trusted advisor, you as final decision-maker. You are now on the path to a great website.