Predictions and Trends in 2007

It's almost required at this point in the Earth's rotation around the sun to look back, as I did yesterday, and look forward to plan for another year.

Below are some of the trends that I believe will impact our company and our industry (Web design and Internet marketing.)

Content Management Systems (CMS). More clients will want the ability to update their Web sites themselves. (Or at least they think they do. I call this the Mr. Coffee Effect. The ads for the Mr. Coffee machine with a clock show people waking up to fresh brewed coffee that started brewing before they got out of bed. They don't show those same people struggling to make the coffee late the night before with no immediate benefit of coffee in their future.)

Still, the tools will need to be provided. We'll be rolling out more full fledged CMS systems (probably using Joomla) and continue to hand roll some custom apps for clients who just want to manage their online portfolio, update their events calendar, and so on.

Informational Products. Both flyte and our clients will be selling more informational products online. Many of our clients are "geographically challenged," meaning that they can only provide products and services to people within traveling distance.

By creating Informational Products such as ebooks, audio recordings, etc., you can reach a much wider audience and sell your products. Maybe you can't sell people on your cat training services due to distance, the number of clients you can take on at once or the cost of your services. However, you could sell an ebook on 101 Ways to Train Your Cat to hundreds or hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

Now that's the power of the Internet.

More Hands-On Internet Marketing. Flyte does a great job (if I do say so my damn self) of providing Internet marketing tools and advice to clients and sending them on their way. Lately, however, people are looking for more. In 2007 I expect to get more requests for us to work hand-in-hand on clients Web marketing campaigns, including writing content, managing traffic reports, putting together podcasts, providing ongoing information and more.

Space Aliens. In 2007 I expect to get more business from intergalactic visitors, specifically hot space babes. Although this should only represent a small part of our business, it will be a huge PR coup.

Rich Brooks
Thinking Big

Business Lessons Learned in 2006

I'm sure I've learned more lessons than these in the past year, but as I look back on 2006, here are the one's that stand out.

If you've got a business system in place that works, don't change it because a new client doesn't like it. Most of the frustrations, head banging, and poorly managed expectations of clients this year have come from when we deviated from our "flyte plan," the system we use to help clients develop effective Web sites and successful Internet marketing campaigns.

We've been through the development process almost 300 times in our existence, and we're continually refining the flyte plan to build better Web sites. There's a reason we ask for content before design, and a reason we have so many sign-offs along the way.

We do it because we want the client to make loads of money.

Now, before you say we need to be more flexible, read on....

If you do decide to abandon your system because of the needs of a client, replace that system with an agreed upon new system that works for both you and the client. This was the true lesson I learned this year. There are times that--for whatever reason--your way of doing things won't work for a particular client. The perceived value of this client may get you to change your processes.

That's OK.

What's not OK is just taking the job without a new plan in place. You need to get with your client and determine a new system that does work, for both you and them. I'm not a big fan of business phrases like "proactive" or "paradigm," but you need to find that win-win situation.

Spend more money on training your staff. I'm not sure why I was so conservative when it came to sending co-workers to classes or having them take classes online, but it was a mistake. We started having our developers take CSS classes this year online, and although the feedback on that class was mixed, you can't grow as a company unless your co-workers are increasing their knowledge base and keeping challenged.

Listen to your gut. This is a lesson I learned years ago, but I'm constantly reminded of how true it is. If your gut tells you to do something or to avoid someone, LISTEN TO IT! A mistake you make when listening to your gut isn't a mistake, it's a learning opportunity. You'll never go wrong by listening to that little voice inside of you.

Mistakes are good. No, scratch that. They're essential. If you're not making mistakes, you're too conservative and you'll never grow. Your competitors will catch and surpass you and your customers will move on to better solutions. If you manage people don't get angry if they make mistakes. Just make sure they learn from them. I've made too many mistakes in my life to be angry when someone else makes one.

However, you can get angry if they make the same mistake twice. That means they just weren't paying attention.

Marketing rules. I almost followed that up with "advertising drools." Thankfully I didn't, but there's a big difference between marketing and advertising. Your business may require advertising, but there's plenty of low-cost marketing options out there that are much more effective than a half-page ad in the local paper.

I found that teaching a class at the local university, writing this blog, doing speeches and starting an Internet marketing blog at MaineToday.com brought me more business than I could have gotten through traditional advertising. Plus, I wasn't hampered by the limited space in a printed ad or the 30 seconds in a traditional TV spot.

Like I said, there's probably a hundred other lessons I could have added here, but these are the wounds that are still fresh. What lessons did you learn this year?

Rich Brooks
Lessons Learned

Anatomy of a Blog

For those of you who wouldn't know a blog if it bit you, this post is for you. Note: if you have been bit by a blog, please go immediately to the nearest emergency room. The bite is probably not fatal unless you're also allergic to peanut butter.

Please keep in mind that a blog comes in many forms; the items listed refer to the Web page version of a blog.

Post: The heart and soul of a blog. This is where your content goes. Usually several appear on a blog's home page, with older posts getting archived automatically by the blogging platform (i.e., TypePad, WordPress, etc.)

Categories: Blogging platforms usually allow you to categorize your posts into one or more self-created categories. These represent common themes for your blogs, whether it's "Web Marketing" or "Organic Gardening."

Archives: Archived posts are grouped by month or week, depending on how you set it up. This allows visitors to access older posts on your blog.

Permalink: The actual URL of a given post. If you post something to your blog and send out the link to www.yourblog.com, by the time someone visits that post may have fallen off the home page. The permalink will drive people directly to the post you have in mind. For example: http://www.flyteblog.com/flyte/2006/09/when_seo_isnt_e.html

Comments: What makes blogging scary to so many businesses! Visitors to your blog can leave their own .02 on your post, continuing the conversation. Some will be positive, some will be negative, and some will be spam, promoting their Texas Hold-em Web site or generic Viagra.

Trackbacks: Similar to comments, except that the conversation is continuing at another blog. An excerpt of that post appears below yours with links to the post.

Feeds & Chicklets: The little buttons or text links that allow your visitors to subscribe to the feed from your blog. This way they can receive updates to your blog at their My Yahoo page or Bloglines or through a newsreader. Blogging platforms almost always offer a feed, but you'll need to go to a service like Feedburner to generate the chicklets.

Blogrolls: On your Web site these would appear on your links page. These are links to other blogs you read and recommend.

Recent Posts: A list of the most recent posts on your blog, automatically generated by the platform.

Recent Comments: A list of the most recent comments on your blog, automatically generated by the platform.

Email Signup: Although not a part of blogging software, a nice add-on. This way, visitors who aren't savvy enough to subscribe to your feed and read it in their newsreader can still receive updates to your blog...delivered right to their email inbox.

Now you should be able to recognize blogs when you come face-to-face with them in the wild.

Just don't make eye contact with them. They'll see that as a sign of aggression. Better to get down on one knee and hand over any sweets you may have in your backpack.

Rich Brooks
Business Blog Marketing Guru (Self-Described)

Network Systems - Health Care Practice Management Systems

Although our project for Boston University was the water cooler conversation around flyte for the past few months, we've been working on other projects as well. In fact, I expect to be announcing quite a few sites launching in the next few weeks.

Today, flyte launched a Web site for Network Systems, Inc. NSI provides turnkey software for healthcare practices and professionals.

If you're a health care provider, practice or a health care management company, NSI has your practice management software and/or electronic health record needs covered.

Flyte also set up an email marketing campaign for NSI which allows them to reach out to health care providers through an opt-in system from Constant Contact. Subscribers can choose from General Interest, or specify their interest in HealthMatics, Medisense or Fundsense products and services.

Rich Brooks
Maine Website Design

My Brush with Destiny

I was nearly an international TV star.

Yesterday afternoon, I got a call from a producer's assistant who's program (no need to mention it by name) appears on CNBC and Voice of America. They were looking to do some profiles in business and wanted to talk to me about flyte new media.

I called back the producer and this afternoon we connected. He asked me questions about how flyte started, what our focus is, what threats we see to the industry and so on. He wanted to make sure there was a story to tell.

It was when he started talking about the CNBC audience and how they were college educated that my brain confirmed what my gut already knew.

He went on to explain there would be a 5 minute segment, a 1 minute commercial that would air next to Lou Dobbs and an 8 minute Webisode. The show would be hosted by Lou Gosset, Jr. He wanted to make sure that we would be available and we'd have a place to film. Also, he needed a donation to defray the costs of production. It would only be $23,900.

That's a lot of defraying.

Now don't get me wrong: there's nothing wrong with this business model. A friend of mine puts on a similar program for travel where local companies get featured for a price. Everyone understands the game and that's how it's played. I don't see this as a scam, it's just business. (If you thought those up-close-and-personal stories of local businesses were, in fact, hard hitting news stories, perhaps you'd disagree.)

However, I couldn't see the return on investment for flyte. We're busy enough and I've always got my career as tech expert for Maine's premier evening news program, 207, to fall back on.

When I explained this to the producer, he asked me if I knew any other companies that might be interested. That's kind of like being honored as man of the year, but if you can't make it, do you know any one else who's available?

Finally, he asked me to visit their Web site, watch their videos and see what they've done for other companies and then get back to him. Unfortunately, the videos were all saved in a format that is unplayable on a Mac. I guess I'll have to wait for my edutainment until it shows on CNBC.

Rich Brooks
As Seen on TV? Not As Such.

The Inherent Problem with Wikipedia

Yes, I use Wikipedia regularly for information gathering. You just have to go into it eyes wide open. Because you never know who's editing a page.

Rich Brooks
Web Marketing from Castle Grayskull

Boston University Summer Term

Boston University Summer Term has a new Web site they've just unveiled designed and developed by flyte new media.

This was a big project, over 500+ pages, a complex Flash movie, audio, video, multi-media and more. We build the site virtually table-free, utilizing as much CSS as we could muster.

It was a challenging job to say the least, but we got a lot of help and support from Roxolana Sawchuck and Damian Ross of BU. They spent a lot of time prepping files, setting up photo shoots, delivering audio and video clips, and keeping the project moving forward.

There's a lot to say about what went into this job, and that's probably best reviewed in another post. For right now I'd just want to spend a moment mentioning some of the flyte crew by name:

Ryan Goan: The site is just beautiful; in fact, Elizabeth Harvey of HMG (who's firm handled all the SEO on this project) told me that it's the most beautiful Web site she's ever seen come out of our office, and I agree. The color choices, the clean interface, the Flash movies are just amazing.  (Be sure to check out the interactive Flash movie on the home page as well as the Flash-based mp3 player interface on the high school landing page.)

Gloria Maher: Gloria did the brunt of the development work. She worked late and hard to make sure that we delivered the files in time for BU to launch them. The CSS work she did on the site was fantastic.

Robin Lowell: When it looked like we couldn't develop all the pages in time Robin jumped in and started cranking out pages like nobody's business.

Jonathan Braden: Even our account manager got into the act, building out a lot of pages on his own.

Réal Deprez: Réal's our in house CSS guru; if he doesn't know how to do something he sits down and figures it out. When I promised a specific functionality that turned out to be a royal pain-in-the-ass, Réal worked late to get it working and massaged it until it worked in every major modern browser.

Beth Deutsche: Beth worked on nothing else for the past few weeks, staying in regular contact with Damian and Roxolana, staying on top of all of the loose ends on this very challenging project. It's not easy to project manage a job this complex, but Beth did it with style and aplomb.

Beth also did the wireframes and put together the Web site audit we used to make recommendations, as well as developing a Project Plan.

It's good to go out on top, and that's what Beth did. Today's her last day here at flyte, and in a few short minutes we'll be going out for a good-bye beer (or six.)

Or maybe I should call it a "so long" beer, as Beth is going to continue to work with flyte. Sure, she'll be miles away in baseball's holy land (Cooperstown, NY), but with this whole Internet thing we think we'll be able to collaborate on new projects and continue to use Beth for Information Architecture, site audits and more.

Rich Brooks
Web Site Design & Development

Is Your Core Business a Commodity?

Remember when travel agents were an essential piece of any vacation? When you only had a few choices  when you needed a print job? Remember when only real estate agents could access MLS information?

All these industries changes with the Internet, and a lot of their core services became commodities.

Yet, there are travel agents, printers and realtors (example 1, example 2) who thrive in this brave new world.

Even without the Internet, certain products and services have become commodities in the eyes of consumers, such as PCs. Even in Web development there are plenty of DIY plans offered by companies like GoDaddy, Network Solutions and Yahoo that flyte can't compete with on price. Heck, I spend more on gas coming to work in the morning than some of these plans cost for a month.

Even without computer programs that can create Web sites for the HTML-challenged, we compete with thousands of people who are working out of the garage who don't have the overhead that we do and can develop sites for much cheaper. And don't get me started about Web developers in developing parts of the world. It is a flat world, after all.

So how can we--or you--continue to thrive in a world where everything becomes a commodity? Where computer programs can drive down the cost or perceived value of anything we can create?

I'm not sure I have the answer, but I feel it may come from offering more on the service side. Treat things that have become commodities as commodities and pile on value-added services until they spill off the plate.

You really need to be realistic and acknowledge that things are changing around you. Although that can be difficult, you won't be able to make the strategic changes necessary to survive and grow unless you are honest with yourself.

You can also move into more of a consultative role with your clients. If there are no margins on your widget or the market has driven down the worth of your service, you can still find a role helping people make the most of your widget or service.

With flyte, we've made a concerted effort not to just build Web sites, but to create Web strategies (with the Web site as the hub) that help businesses grow. We stress search engine optimization, email marketing, blogs, podcasts, and everything else that makes the Web site a bigger piece of a company's sales and marketing plan.

We find clients who see the value in this approach and we partner with them. This also helps us weed out prospects who don't see the benefit of what we offer and will never be happy paying for it.

What's your value-added proposition? What can you do to separate yourself from your competitors who don't yet see the writing on the wall?

Now that's something to think about for the new year.

Rich Brooks
Value-Added Widget Provider

Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big

I just finished reading Small Giants: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big by Bo Burlingham, editor-at-large of Inc. Magazine.

It's a good companion piece to Good to Great by Jim Collins, a fascinating book on giant companies and how they changed from being...well, good into great companies. I actually put down Good to Great to read Small Giants, in part because I read mostly at bed time and Good to Great got me so fired up I found myself sometimes putting down the book and going downstairs to write for an hour or two.

Not good for my beauty sleep.

But this post is about Small Giants, not big ones. It's not exactly fair to compare this book to Good to Great, but it's hard not to. Unlike G2G, Small Giants doesn't have the 20 researchers looking at years of returns and comparing it to similar companies in the same industry. More, Small Giants is a series of interesting anecdotes about the companies and the entrepreneurs who create them.

All of the companies profiled made a decision not to grow at a certain point. In fact, some of them actually scaled back. In a country where we're told grow or die, these companies provide an interesting counter-argument.

There are some truly interesting companies profiled in the book, from Anchor Brewing to Clif Bar to Ani DiFranco's Righteous Babe Records.

What's great about this book--and great about entrepreneurship in general--is there's no one way to do anything, no one route to success. One of the companies profiled is CitiStorage, run by Inc. columnist Norm Brodsky. I enjoy Brodsky's column, but I often disagree with his policies and beliefts: there's no point to marketing? Don't hire family members of employees when your wife works in your company? However, you can't argue with his success.

The only downside of this book is that it's not as organized as I may have liked. G2G tells tight stories about the companies it profiles, while the connection between some of Small Giants stories seems tenuous.

However, that's a small complaint for a book that most entrepreneurs will find inspirational, compelling, and a must-read.

Rich Brooks
Standing on the Shoulders of Small Giants

People Who Just Don't Get It

A while back I had a client who received an angry email from a woman. He's a Boston-based plastic surgeon who provides aesthetician services in his office including hair removal. She ran a company in Arizona that did training in hair removal (or something like that) and for some reason used the name "Boston" in her name.

She was going to sue my client because he ranked higher than her in Google, and he was obviously trying to run her out of business. She had trademarked the name and he was infringing on her trademark. My advice was to ignore it, which he did.

She also sent me some angry, threatening emails because my contact info appeared on his site. I really wanted to "educate" her, but my instincts told my any advice I would give her would go into a black hole of ignorance. Her experience in hair removal probably had to do with getting people to tear their own hair out in frustration.

I tell this story because this morning I read something equally as ridiculous.

Rich Brooks
Portland Hair Removal