{!date dayname+0}, {!date long+0} Dear {!firstname_fix} A couple of websites took a bashing this week - important websites...! Facebook completely disappeared from the face of the planet for two hours because of a mistake by one of its own engineers and Twitter was largely destroyed by a playful teenager who managed to break into the network and scribble all over each user's home page. It just raises the issue - if such big and well-known sites can have problems like these, is yours protected? In both instances, the problem was human error - in Facebook's case the human error of an engineer typing some coding incorrectly and in Twitter's case the human error of failing to predict and thereby block a potential problem with the system. Frequently the difficulties we face with our website is a mistake we make ourselves; do you have a system in place to check for human error with your site? It's a thought.
YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED: How do you benefit from promoting a website offline? Many people who visit your website do so as a result of some offline activity. They may see an advert for your company in a magazine; they may use the web address shown on your business card; or they may be given your website as a personal recommendation. But however this offline entry to your website arises, you can be sure of one thing - several people visit your website each day without ever finding it on a search engine. The problem is, all of those people will generally arrive at your home page. But their interest is likely to be much more specific. That means they have to search your site for what they want - and usually this means if they cannot find something straight away, they disappear pretty quickly. In other words, the offline traffic is more difficult to retain. Search traffic usually arrives at a specific landing page and is therefore easier to keep. Here's the trick...work out in advance which page you want people to visit on your website from each specific offline activity. For example, say you are going to be at a networking meeting of your local Chamber of Commerce. The people there are all likely to be small business owners who would love to see your page of advice for their kind of company. If you hand out your business card containing your home page address on it, they will be interested enough to maybe look at your website after they return from the networking event, but then the trail will go cold because they cannot find what interests them. Instead, get a domain name which "says what it does on the tin" and then redirect that domain name to the specific page on your website. For example - let's imagine you run a company which cleans windows and you are off to a business event where you hope to get some more office accounts. But your window cleaning company website is called "www.gjoneswindowcleaning.co.uk". If people go to that site they will see a general site about you and the range of services you offer; finding the office cleaning section takes time. Now imagine you have another domain name called "www.cleanofficewindows.co.uk" and that you redirect this to "www.gjoneswindowcleaning.co.uk/services/business/offices.html". Now all you need for your business event are some business cards which have the "cleanofficewindows" web address on them. You then go to the business event, hand out your business cards and the people who then visit your site end up immediately on the appropriate page. For each of your offline activities have a particular page and purpose in mind and then make sure you have the right materials, such as specific business cards, brochures, handouts or postcards that direct people to a highly relevant web page. If you use "what it says on the tin" domain names and redirect them to your relevant web pages, you also benefit from word of mouth. Whereas if you have a web address which includes directories, categories or code numbers printed on your brochures, people cannot pass it on via word of mouth. Remember, you can always ask your question and get it answered in this newsletter by going to: http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/questions
WHAT I LEARNED THIS WEEK: Honesty is the best policy Earlier in the week I had a problem with my online backup system, Humyo. I had noticed it before, but only managed to pin it down to Humyo after a bit of investigation. Here's what happened - some programs I wanted to use on my PC would start, and then suddenly stop. So I would have to restart them. After getting fed up with this, I decided to start switching off the various little extra programs you have on all the time, such as antivirus, automatic backup and so on. By switching these off, one at a time, I imagined I'd discover which one was related to the program shutting down issue. And indeed I did. When I switched off the Humyo backup program, my PC worked normally with no issues. When I switched on the Humyo system, the problems returned. So I headed off to the Humyo website for advice and to seek a solution. Nothing. A search of Google discovered several forums with this problem being discussed. There are several web pages and blogs where people are talking about the difficulty. I was clearly not alone. So, I wrote to Humyo to see what they were proposing as a solution. Guess what...! They replied by telling me that I was "the only person ever to have this problem". They went on to suggest it must be my fault. Goodbye Humyo. When a simple search of Google reveals that this is a common issue, why lie? What on earth possesses a company to make it believe it can get round a customer problem by lying? Yet, this is an all too common behaviour in business. I immediately moved my online backup to ZumoDrive,, which I have discovered is much better anyway. Humyo lost my business in an instant, because they lied. If they had simply told me they were working on the issue, that a solution would be with me in time and that to avoid the problem I could use some kind of workaround, I would have remained a customer. As it is, lying has lost them my business and the fact I will not recommend them to anyone, any more. And up until this point I thought they were brilliant. In business - as in life generally - honesty is always the best policy. People respect you for being honest, even if that honesty is to admit errors and mistakes. If you want to check out what else I've been doing for the past week, you can always look at: http://www.grahamjones.co.uk/week
THIS WEEK'S "MUST BUY": A ticket to "The Social Media Guys Tour"
I am one of "The Social Media Guys" - three of us who use social media effectively in our own businesses and who advise other companies on how to get the best out of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on. For several months we have been having successful "drop in" sessions where people have joined us for coffee and had a chat about using social media in their business. Now, we are going "on tour" - providing a three-hour seminar on social media for small business. We start in Swindon on 12th October and will be touring the UK over the coming year ahead. The Social Media Guys are me, Nigel Morgan, who runs Morgan PR and Ant Hodges from ToInfinity, the online marketing agency. Tickets for the tour are now on sale with an "early bird discount" meaning you can get the three hours of expertise for just £27. AND you get bonus extras of personal consultancy for your company and entry into our "members only" social media lounge. So, sign up now for the Social Media Guys LIVE! You can buy your ticket at http://GJurl.com/smgtour So, that's it for this week - see you in seven days...! Kind Regards
Graham Jones Web: grahamjones.co.uk Tel: +44 118 336 9710 If you no longer wish to receive this newsletter than you can delete your name from the mailing list by clicking this link: {!remove_web} Affiliate Links: Some of the links in this newsletter are affiliate links providing me with a small commission when you purchase the item. However, I only use affiliate links for products which I personally value. |
