Archive for May, 2006

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Captcha: Is It Right for Your Site?

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

Captcha
The Wall St. Journal reports today on captchas: those difficult-to-read, warped characters that Web users must retype to access certain Web pages or complete online forms.

The idea behind captchas is that they prevents automated "bots" from completing online forms. However, they are an imperfect solution at best. I sometimes struggle with which squiggles I’m supposed to type or whether that is a "J" or a "Y". The Journal also reports that these are especially difficult for people with learning disabilities and physical disabilities.

We’ve begun receiving a lot of spam through our Web site contact form, directing me to sites for online casinos, tranny porn, and other topics I won’t discuss with my mother.

I’ve considered adding a captcha to our Web forms so I won’t have to see all that spam, but so far I’ve held off. I’m concerned that a captcha may be too big a deterrent for some people to contact us.

While captchas may have some good uses–reducing comment spam on blogs comes to mind–using it on a contact form seems a little overly aggressive for a business contact form.

Our goal as business owners should be to remove hurdles to people doing business with us, not to put them up.

Rich Brooks
Web Site Developer

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Posted in Business Philosophy, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Design & Development | 2 Comments »


Stop MEBSR Before It Goes Too Far!

Wednesday, May 31st, 2006

MEBSR, Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility, is about to make a terrible mistake. They’re about to add me, Rich Brooks, as a card-carrying member* of the MEBSR board for the next three years. (Three years? Did I really sign on for that long?)

Stop the insanity!

Thursday’s Spring 2006 Conference at USM will have a proxy vote on the new board. This is your chance to break slate and keep MEBSR from making a mistake that will haunt them a lot longer than my three year tenure!

While you’re there, you can sit in on some great breakout sessions like "Search Engine Marketing Demystified," by my good friend Liz Elizabeth Harvey, "Benchmarking Best Practices," including presenter and good friend Tom "Loose" Cannon, or "Business Problem-Solving" by no one I know personally, but it still sounds pretty good.

The conference is held from 8:00am – 5:00pm, Thursday, June 1st, 2006.

Normally this is $150 for members, $175 for non-members; however, if you mention my name you’ll only be charged $100 (early-bird/member rate.) That’s how hard they’re trying to keep me off the board.

Because of the late date I’d suggest calling them direct: 207.338.8908.

Rich Brooks
I Drive an SUV

* It turns out there are no cards due to the impact cards have on the environment.

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Posted in Business Philosophy, Entrepreneur & Small Business, flyte news | 2 Comments »


Thoughts on Pricing Your Products and Services

Tuesday, May 30th, 2006

This weekend I bought a new pair of sunglasses.

Normally, I buy a few identical pairs of $10 glasses at the mall kiosk and don’t think about it for the next six months until they’re all scratched or lost. (When sunglasses are $10 a pop, you tend to leave them in your jacket pocket with your keys.)

This weekend I blew $90 for a new pair of sunglasses. Some people may find that to be exorbitant. Others might still think I’m a tightwad. However, for me, that was a significantly higher price than I usually pay for sunglasses.

These glasses were not 900% more technically advanced than my previous pair. (In fact, they weren’t even polarized, something the $10 pair were.) They didn’t give 900% better protection from the sun. They didn’t offer x-ray vision or keep my optic power beams in check.

In short, they were no more functional as sunglasses than my previous pair.

However, I wasn’t buying a pair of sunglasses based on functionality. At this point, I assume any decent pair of sunglasses are going to make it easier for me to see in direct sunlight. What I was buying was a new look. Or maybe an increased feeling of self-esteem or confidence. (Damn, am I shallow!)

When pricing your products or services, consider more than their primary function. What will your offering give to someone? Confidence? Security? A feeling of importance? The ability to fit in, or to stand out?

What is a feeling like that worth to someone?

Rich Brooks
Made In The Shade

Posted in Business Philosophy, Entrepreneur & Small Business | No Comments »


Small Business Blog Resource Blog

Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006

Pj
"What do I blog about?"

It’s a question I hear often from small business owners and entrepreneurs. Often, when we’re consulting with a client on their blog we create a "recommended reading list." It’s usually a combination of blogs from the client’s industry, similar industries, and a "usual suspects" list of blogs on blogging (like flyte’s blog.)

Well, I think I’ll be adding Pajama Market to my usual suspects. It’s a combination of Small Business Blogs of the Day and interviews with those small business bloggers. Whatever your small business is, you can find examples from other small bloggers that you can steal from.

Recent featured blogs include Green Cine Daily, featuring movie reviews from a DVD rental company, Wool Winders, a knitting blog from a knitting store,  and The Tap Room, a blog from a London pub. How’s that for variety?

If I have one complaint (and apparently I do) it’s the dearth of categories. Currently there are only four: Blogging Info, Personal, Small Business Blog Interview and Small Business Blog of the Day. It would be great if there were some categories that covered the type of businesses, such as "Retail", "Service Industry", and so on. As small businesses fall of the home page they tend to disappear.

Still, if you’re a small business owner and you think there’s nothing for you to blog about, be sure to check out Pajama Market first.

If you are already blogging your small business, well maybe you should submit your blog for consideration!

Rich Brooks
Small Business Blogger

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Entrepreneur & Small Business, Web Marketing | 2 Comments »


Frustrations with Constant Contact

Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006

Where better to vent than your blog?

Generally, I love Constant Contact. We use it for our own newsletter, flyte log, and we recommend it to our clients and anyone who will listen.

However, there is at least one really, really frustrating element of CC. I currently have a subscriber base of about 1,250. I also have over 550 people who have signed up for flyte log through our Web site but didn’t confirm their subscription. Since I "brought" about 250 subscribers when I moved to CC, that means that about 1 out of 3 potential subscribers aren’t completing the transaction.

Why didn’t they confirm? Maybe they decided they didn’t want it. Maybe the confirmation email went right into their junk folder. Maybe there was a drop of service and it didn’t reach their inbox. Maybe they didn’t read the confirmation email and they didn’t realize that they needed to click to confirm.

The list is long.

What would I like to do? Send out an email to all of these people and ask that if they want to receive a copy of:

  • The 11 Biggest Mistakes Small Business Bloggers Make,
  • 10 Questions to Ask Before Setting Up a Web Site,
  • The 11 Commandments of Writing Web Copy for Non-Copywriters,
    and the PowerPoint handouts from the seminar How to Plan, Build and Promote a Business Blog

plus access to our ultra-exclusive flyte log subscriber area they’ll need to confirm their subscription. (BTW, if this piques your interest you can subscribe here.)

Unfortunately, by emailing these people–whether through Constant Contact, another email service provider, or one-at-a-time through my own email program–would violate my agreement with CC and they would terminate my account immediately!

Seems a little heavy handed.

I understand that they need to take extra-precautions against people using their system to send spam, but this seems over the top.

CC’s response was that I could call them all or send snail mail to them, assuming they had left that information for me during the sign up process. (We only require email addresses.)

Well, that’s obviously not going to happen. There should be a tool at CC that allows me to send "reminder" messages to potential subscribers once (maybe twice); if they didn’t respond they would be automatically deleted off the system. After all, this is a marketing tool. I should be able to market to people who expressed interest in flyte.

Constant Contact: are you listening? Your user base is speaking!

Rich Brooks
Constant Contact Reseller

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Posted in Email Marketing, Web Marketing | 10 Comments »


The iPod By Microsoft

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

Ipodms
This is just classic. This movie, available at YouTube shows what the iPod packaging might look like if designed by  Microsoft.

I’m going to be sure to show this to the next person who says, "there’s some white space over here. Can’t we use it?"

Watch.

Via Life Coaches Blog.

Rich Brooks
It’s all about the white space…

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Posted in Off Topic, Web Design & Development | No Comments »


SEO & Press Releases

Monday, May 22nd, 2006

Are you taking advantage of the search engine benefits of press releases? (I know that I’m not, at least not yet.)

There’s a good article at Promotion World called Distributing Press Releases to Search Engine Optimize Your Content.

Since PR distribution sites like WebWire.com and PRWeb.com can drive qualified traffic to your site, it’s important that your press releases can be found there.

The reason is because these sites distribute to so many other sites, and because they are always having their information and content scanned by different search engine spiders and indexers, having your press release added to the possible top results for the keywords that you have selected.

Learn more about distributing press releases for search engine optimization.

Rich Brooks
Press Releases: They’re Not Just for Breaking News Anymore

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Posted in Entrepreneur & Small Business, Search Engine Marketing, Web Copywriting, Web Marketing | No Comments »


Maine Real Estate Blog

Thursday, May 18th, 2006

Whittenblog_1
We just finished putting the final touches on our client David Whitten’s Maine Real Estate Blog, and personally I think it kicks ass.

Of course, I’m kind of biased.

Besides just looking really, really sweet Dave’s got some great content posted there. Recent posts include:

Dave’s business blog allows him to establish his expertise in a competitive market and drive qualified traffic to his Web site. There’s also a nice consistency between the two sites, helping him from a branding standpoint.

Are you ready for your blog?

Rich Brooks
Business Blogging Expert

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Client News, Entrepreneur & Small Business, flyte news, Web Site Launches | 11 Comments »


The Business Case Against Using Gmail

Thursday, May 18th, 2006

First off, no business or professional should be using Gmail, or Hotmail, or an AOL in their business email address. Your professional or business email address should be from your domain name.

That goes without saying, right?

Using a free (or AOL-based) email account for business purposes makes you look unprofessional. It’s like when you get those business cards with the message on the back, "Get your own free business  cards from…" and then the name of the printer. Smacks of desperation.

However, you could have your you@yourdomain.com email forward to one of these accounts, which at least hides your cheapness (most times.) I would instead recommend having your email forwarded to your POP box at your ISP or choose a hosting company that offers POP boxes.

But I digress.

There’s a very interesting article in Technology Review that Robin forwarded to me that raises privacy and security concerns on Gmail well beyond the backlash against showing ads in emails.

If you’re using Gmail, be sure to read "In Google We Trust."

Rich Brooks
Trying to "Do No Evil"

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Posted in Entrepreneur & Small Business | 16 Comments »


Blog-to-Email Options: FeedBlitz vs. FeedBurner

Wednesday, May 17th, 2006

As mentioned in my previous post "Bloglet Signs Off", those bloggers who used Bloglet are in need of a new provider. Although there are a number of different services, including AWeber (which we currently use because we also use other services of theirs) and Zookoda, two that we’re examining closely are FeedBlitz and FeedBurner.

With help from Réal, who does most of our blog setup work, here’s a comparison:

FeedBlitz vs. FeedBurner Email

Both services include access to the subscriber database, HTML and text emails, and send new posts once daily.

FeedBlitz offers a free version, a pro version for $4.95/feed/mo, and a "turbo" version for $9.99/feed/mo. The free version sends a FeedBlitz branded email with your new posts, the pro version enables you to customize the look and feel of the emails being sent and allows list imports. (Oddly, the Turbo version doesn’t allow custom branding but does allow more frequent delivery.) They currently offer a more robust set of options and tools than FeedBurner. FeedBlitz would be the best option for users that are looking for a custom branded solution immediately.

FeedBurner currently only offers a free service (a premium one is coming), but the email is more professional looking than FeedBlitz’s [free version], is well-integrated with the rest of their services, allows list imports at no charge, and is very minimally branded. They are also delivered ‘from’ you, a perk that is only available in the pro version of FeedBlitz. FeedBurner Email is a better option for users that do not require a custom look for their blog mail now, but may in the future.

If you are looking for a custom-branded email feed of your blog posts flyte can help. Contact us today!

Rich Brooks
Business Blog Consulting

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Posted in Business Blogs and Blog Marketing, Email Marketing, Web Marketing | 10 Comments »

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