Leverage Blog: How to Exploit the Web.

(even) More proof that your clients visit websites.

Do we need more evidence that websites influence buying decisions?  That your customer is using the web more every day, trusting it more deeply, and pulling-out their credit card?

Well, we got some.

I read today that a recent art school graduate used a blog, a social networking website, and an online gallery online gallery to sell her art.  $20,000 worth so far.  She's using a website, blog and good-old-fashioned networking to grow her business.

She's succeeding (in large part) due to a striking design and compelling content.  Her website is attractive, professional and useful to her audience, and her blog sports a clean design and a message well-suited to her customer.  Well done Emily.

Thanks to Seth for the discovery.

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LeverageBlog Interview: Michael Simmons

As soon as I discovered the young entrepreneur and author Michael Simmons I knew I'd found a source of inspiration.  At 24 this tenacious New Yorker has already started a business and written a book; this guy is clearly just getting started.  I spoke to him recently to learn more about his background, book and keys to success.

In 1999, while still in high school, Michael created a web design company with a friend. (Yes, high school.)  They flew-high during the days of the Internet boom, but unfortunately couldn't keep the doors open after the crash.  He realized his experience as a student embarking on the entrepreneurial journey was a story others wanted to hear and he wrote The Student Success Manifesto, a smart collection of business best-practices tailored to ambitious college students.  He won the endorsement of Stephen Covey of the 7 Habits empire, and the book moved up the Amazon.com best-seller list.

Michael's focus is students, and he's a sought-after speaker at schools across the country.  Moving forward he and his business-partner have plans for an online community for high-achieving college students.  Picture a MySpace that's about personal growth instead of partying, or a LinkedIn for students.

The bottom line:  If you have a daughter, son or nephew that was setting-up a lemonade stand every weekend since they were 6 years old, buy them a copy of The Student Success Manifesto.  Even better, if you work in education contact Michael via his website and bring him to your school.

As an entrepreneur who worked with a startup serving college students Michael's vision is particularly inspiring to me; I'll be keeping a close watch on his career.

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When will your customer call you a spammer?

Email marketing continues to get a bad rap.

Small business executives get so much spam in their own in-box that they figure an email marketing campaign will be a waste of time-- or worse-- their company will develop a reputation as a spammer.  Being cautious is wise, but I feel avoiding email marketing completely is a mistake.

In today's Email Insider newsletter Eric Sass mentions the three most common types of consumer complaints about email marketing.  They make sense to me:

1. The subject matter isn't relevant.
2. The company sends too many emails.
3. The email links to shady websites (spyware, for example.)

The bottom-line?  Build an email list yourself, with real clients and prospects, and respect their time.  Follow these guidelines and you can leave the SPAM on the dinner-table...or on the shelf at the supermarket.

Firefox web browser

I don't often recommend products or software on Leverage-- I figure my readers visit a host of other sites and blogs for that info.  But I recently discovered a very useful feature on the Firefox web browser.  (Think of Firefox as an alternative to Internet Explorer...but with more features and flexibility.  It's free. More information and download at www.getfirefox.com.)

Among the time-savers and conveniences of Firefox is a simple way to increase the type size of any web page.  Hold down the [Control] key and press the [+].  A few clicks and you can reduce the eye-strain on those small-type websites.

Does this mean I'm getting older?  Hmmm.

Web 2.0: I believe in its future

I've got a theory on the Web 2.0 technology boom, and I brought a visual aid.  Refer to the chart at left, and let's begin.

OK, right now the number of "Web 2.0" companies is growing like crazy. (See the top line, the thin one.)  What's a Web 2.0 company?  To keep it simple, let's say Web 2.0 products and services involve social-networks and user involvement on the web. MySpace is one, where the users are creating the online content-- personal web pages-- and connecting with one another.

Flickr is another.  Users, like me, upload photos to share, and we label them for others on the site to find and enjoy.  (Go here for an expanded definition of Web 2.0.)

These companies and their online "products" are (mostly) amazing, creative and very, very useful.

On my chart thick line is the number of people who understand these new tools and are using them.  I'm not talking about being hip and in the know; and I'm not making a value-judgment.  I'm talking about people who have chosen to invest the time to learn about and use tools like Flickr, RSS or del.icio.us.

After all, it takes time to integrate this stuff into your life, right?  What if you enjoy Triathlons more than technology, like my brother Eric?  He's not listening to podcasts, he's running his business...and training for the next race.  He's no slouch when it comes to technology, but we all make choices about how to spend our time.  Choosing the web over a Triathlon-- one isn't 'better' than the other.

My point is there are tens-of-millions of Americans like my brother, slowly integrating the new technology into their lives.  It will take time.

OK, back to the graph.  The two lines intersect, and that's good because with adoption we get profitability, which leads to more innovation and more creative, useful products.  BUT before they intersect I see this...gulp...downturn.  (The cross-hatched area.)  I'm a startup veteran, and I helped burn-through venture capital and watched the business turn-out the lights; I've been there, it's heartbreaking.  But here's my point about this downturn (and I hesitate to call it that:) It's going to be different this time.

That cross-hatched area on the very scientific graph up there?  Not fallout or crash.  Not YIKES but more...YOWZA! Why?  The people.  The people starting these companies are collaborative, open-source thinkers and this will help the consolidation (which will happen) to occur more gradually and with less fallout.  These innovators are more patient, less enamored with wealth, more often self-funded and stable, and the VC's funding them are more prudent too.  They will merge with one another and will survive.

I'm optimistic. I'm excited. I say YOWZA.

What do you say?

Elton John earned over $50 million last year. (And what that has to do with your business.)

Good things happen to your business when you make the investment.  The Long Trail from Seth's Blog:

[...Want to guess what these musical acts have in common?

The Rolling Stones
The Eagles
Elton John
U2
Paul McCartney

They each made more than $50 million last year, according to Forbes. They accounted for 40% of the top 10 acts.  The long trail is what happened...

...The long trail explains why so many unprofitable movies turn a profit when the DVD comes out. The Shawshank Redemption got seven Academy Award nominations when it was released, but disappointed at the box office. Now, after more than 1.3 million reviews at NetFlix, it is one of the most enduring DVD hits ever.

The long trail is a reminder to invest like your product might just be around in ten years...]

LeverageBlog Interview: AttentionTrust

Where are you focusing your attention on the web?  A non-profit startup called AttentionTrust wants to help you protect (and profit from) your web surfing history.  I'm glad they're on our side.

I recently interviewed Ed Batista, the Executive Director of AttentionTrust, a non-profit in San Francisco, CA researching the implications of our online attention, and their work is worth a minute of your time.  While still in a research and information-gathering phase, the future implications of this work will be huge.

What we're talking about

Think of the value of online attention in the same way that Nielsen Ratings affect TV:  When a 'Nielsen Family' focuses more of it's attention on a particular television program that programming becomes more valuable because advertisers will pay more for it; the same holds true for the web.

The exciting thing about the web however, is that we can collect much more detailed information.  What you clicked-on, how long you visited a website, what you purchased.  The ability to gather countless hours of information on our preferences is a fantastic opportunity, Ed says, if we can protect it and share it voluntarily.

The opportunity for us, as consumers, is to gather and store our online data-- our attention-- in a private way, and then to identify places we feel safe sharing it.  Take Amazon.com, for example.  AttentionTrust envisions a world where Amazon might be certified "trustworthy" because they will not misuse our privacy data.

If we voluntarily share our attention data-- our web surfing behavior-- with a trusted enterprise like Amazon they can recommend products we might really enjoy.  (And more importantly, NOT send us the "special offers" that we don't care about.)

Less spam, fewer ridiculous popup-ads, and more relevance.

More than just eCommerce

AttentionTrust is not just concerned about smart recommendations for books and CD's.  They and the growing community of "Attention Theorists" realize that social networks are built around attention.  Imagine being able to find, for example, fathers in San Francisco with kids between the ages of 8 and 11 who play baseball.  (Do you know anyone?  Let's go to the Giants game this weekend!)

By saving my attention data and making it available (anonymously, of course) within a social context we can use the web to find others that share our interests.  Yes,the internet can help create real, personal connections. Imagine that.

Implications for your business

The near-term implication for your business is this:  Personal relationships with your customers are critical, and the web is the easiest way to collect and save the information.  Help clients to register online and tell you what they like and what they want changed.  AttentionTrust reminds us that this type of personalization is what your customer will come to expect from you.

Thanks to Ed and AttentionTrust for sharing their time and, er, Attention with Leverage.

Net Neutrality: Why it matters

You may have read about the discussions of "Net-Neutrality" in congress recently.  If you've missed the debate (perhaps on purpose) I'll provide a high-level review of the issue and throw-in my .02.

Net-neutrality refers to legislation being debated in Congress that would keep the internet free.  This activity is in response to cable and telephone companies lobbying Washington to create two access-levels to the internet--  large websites that pay large fees would get priority over smaller sites.  The impact?  Small (business) websites would load more slowly and be harder to navigate.

Who does your customer blame when their experience on your website becomes harder and slower?  Comcast?  SBC?

That would be nice, but no.  They form the impression that your business is harder to work-with.

A few companies would make a windfall, like internet service providers and telcoms, but the small-medium enterprise would pay the price.  This issue has joined the left-leaning moveon.org with the conservative Gun Owners of America, as wild as that sounds.  What's more, a Democrat and Republican have teamed-up to draft a net-neutrality bill.  This issue has created strange bedfellows.

I suppose my .02 is clear:  Let's hope the lobbying skills of a small group of companies don't win-over our Representatives in Washington.

Additional ideas in the NY Times here.

Pay-Per-Click online advertising: What is it?

This week clients have asked about our pay-per-click advertising services, and the questions were good ones.  Here are my answers:

Q: What is pay-per-click?

A: Pay-per-click online advertising, or PPC, is paid text advertising in search engine results.  On Google they are called "Sponsored Links" and on Yahoo! "SPONSOR RESULTS."

Businesses with websites purchase keywords-- the terms a customer would use to try and find their product or service-- and only pay when a visitor clicks on the listing.  (It doesn't get much more 'targeted' than that.)  The cost of each click is determined by competitive bidding, and prices range from a dime (.10) to over $13.00.

Small and medium-sized businesses getting started in PPC should budget $750 - $2,500 per month for a 3 month trial campaign, evaluate results and adjust accordingly.

Q:  What does my business need to do to get started?

A:  My experience has shown there are 3 keys to an effective PPC campaign

1. A fantastic website
   • PPC advertising will drive qualified leads to your site.  What will they find when they get there?  A clear, professional design?  Compelling copy?  Testimonials from your elated clients, and an easy way to request a quote?  Driving traffic is half of the equasion, and converting visitors into leads is the other half.
2. The right keywords and ad copy
   
   1. research tools from the PPC advertising platforms are great at helping identify who your competitors are online and seeing how much traffic you might expect-- and at what cost.  You only get 65 characters per line in Google's PPC program so your message better be just right.  Ad copy will make the difference between a prospect clicking on your ad or the other other guy.
3. A resource to manage your campaigns
   1. There is one PPC platform for Google and a second for Yahoo!, MSN and AOL.  Plan on managing your bid prices daily to start and 3 days/week moving forward.

Q:  What's the ROI?

A:  The return on the PPC investment is going to vary, but because it's so targeted it's easy to measure.  You'll know how many clicks you're getting each month, and if the people on the phones (and email) are asking prospects where they heard about you you'll get an idea of ROI.

In the service sector, where a new customer or project could amount to $2,000, $10,000 or more the return is easy to see.  1 new project pays for the campaign for the whole month-- maybe for half-a-year.  If your company sells prodcuts and an average ticket is $350, let's say, then we can easily calculate a break-even point.

The bottom-line:  I like PPC.  Wheel Media is creating PPC campaigns for our clients, training them on the management, and helping evaluate results.  This is the most effecient, not to mention affordable solution for small business.  Is PPC a better choice than search engine optimization?  it depends on your business and where your customers are.

It's worth a serious look

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