Great Example of Temporary Web Page

It is one of the worst marketing sins these days - to promote a new website and have a lazy 'under construction' message displayed. But I've just seen a great example of how to do it properly. Even if your complete website is not written, make sure you project a suitable image, and at least have basic contact details.

Kombi Love is a specialist car hire website that was mentioned in this article on Sydney Morning Herald website.

It looks good, includes the main details, a contact enquiry form and phone number all easily displayed. It aslo shows the future pages in the navigation bar - encouraging for people to know what else could be available from the business.

Party Games for Kids... Why?

I like to stay close to the coal face and always do some hands on marketing work. Many times it is a real-time experiment to see what happens. Like launching a new website and see how long it takes to get listed on the first page of Google.

Party Games 4 Kids is one such project. Check it out if you want fun kids party games . Feel free to visit the site and buy the book (written by my wife) that gives you complete instructions on 20 proven birthday party games for children of all ages, even teenagers. (only US$12.95).

Why am I telling you?

Reason #1: Because in doing so I am creating inbound links to the new website. This will greatly help Google and other search engines find it.

Reason #2: I can use key word links like the one above saying 'fun kids party games ' that link to the site. Key word links have greater credibility and recognition with search engines than just a simple URL link, like http://www.partygames4kids.com .

Reason #3: I used the Google keyword suggestion tool to analyze the best key words to include on the website. Lucky I did that. Do you know that the word 'kids' is far, far more common in search terms than the word 'children'.
Other findings:
- The word 'party' gets searched 1.5 million times each month.
- The phrase 'birthday party' gets searched 60,500 times each month.
- The phrase 'childrens party games' gets searched a paltry 880 times per month.

Reason #4: Maybe you, your friends or family could do with buying a copy of the book. These kids games really do work The kids love them. Plus they are easy for adults to manage.

Lessons:
* Do your homework, and make smarter marketing decisions.
* Stay close to changes in your industry to see how you can improve your service to clients..

Do Big Words Make You Important... or Lost?

I was reading this post by Gerry McGovern that says:

There seems to be a desire among organizations to not quite tell it as it is. These organizations create classifications and content on their websites that either use soft, fuzzy words like “low fares,” or official-sounding words like “pandemic influenza.” There is often a logic to doing this. It is a logic of experts and bureaucrats, and of old school marketing and advertising executives.

I commented on Gerry's blog that it reminds me of the old days when using big fluffy words was done to make you sound important. Gerry says the same sort of thing.

Now the web is here. Everyone wants to get to the heart of their interest. Straight away. No delay. They don't want to have to learn new words, or go to Dictionary.com just to figure out what someone is saying.

Do you make it easy for your readers, listeners, or prospects to easily understand what you are saying?

Too often I see confusion created by:

• Using industry jargon or acronyms.
• Using too many words, when fewer words will get the message across.
• Using too many ideas, which just gets confusing.
• Using bad examples to explain a key point.
• Rushing to write material before the main ideas are fully understood and developed. This results in too many words, saying too little.

This is bad enough when talking or writing directly to an individual.

On your web site it can be disastrous. Your clients will get lost. You will lose out.

If people can't get the picture straight away, or if they cannot understand what you are getting at. They will leave. Click away. They don't want to figure it out. They just want answers to their questions. And clear steps they can take to get what they want, in language they can understand.

TIP: make sure you are using the best words to maximise understanding... and action.

Some of the secrets of Google revealed

Do you want to know a bit more about how Google 'reads' and indexes your website pages? This article about diagnosing the SEO health of your website by Jill Whalen gives some excellent insights into why your website may not be be listed on Google search results pages.

The article contains a tiny bit of tech-talk, but don't let that put you off. As a business operator you need to know about it.

I wont repeat it here, read the article for yourself. It's worth it.

We are in the Informed Age... are you keeping up?

I love Gerry McGovern's writings. His focus is helping organizations to create customer-centric websites by using the right 'content'. He is a world leader in structuring content and writing for the web. Not the salesy, hype-filled writing of the direct response world. But the useful, effective presentation of content - and use of key words - that will help the people visiting your website.

In his latest newsletter he used the phrase...

It is not the digital age. It is not the information age. It is the informed age.

He goes on to write that we are a questioning society. We want to know the answers.

I agree with him.

What are you doing to help your prospects and clients find the answers to their questions?

Do you even know what questions they are asking?

Successful marketing in the Informed Age will be based upon you leading your prospects to become paying clients by demonstrating that you can help them find they answers they seek.

Demonstrate your expertise. Build trust. Have a process your client can understand.

Should web designers know about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)?

This is an issue that gets my frequent attention. And it has been discussed on a thread at Jill Whalen's SEO Forum. 89% of people in a poll at the forum said they expect web designers to at least have a basic understanding of SEO... as it is such an important part of web design these days.

My work through Solutions Found is aimed at educating business owners and marketers about how to manage these online elements of the marketing mix. For most businesses, the website should be generating leads. It's not just about looking pretty.

In my opinion I think web designers should know about SEO, as well as about blogging, forums, shopping carts, online payments systems and the like. Because the website does not exist in isolation. Web designers should be in a position to advise clients - even if they can't do all the technical work themselves.

It can be a lot to ask of a web designer to keep up to date with these areas. But that's the difference between being a professional in your field, and just doing enough to 'get by'. All leaders in their field go to great efforts to stay in tune with developments related to their industry.

If you'd like a bit more information, in a previous article titled Website Optimisation Tactics Explained I cover some of the SEO basics that are extremely important.

Mobile phones will be the new frontier

If you are still having trouble getting your head around marketing via your website, things are only going to get more complicated. In this report Coca Cola explains what they are doing about setting up a special "social network" website to be accessed via mobile phones for consumers to share their own stories and information.

This is a growing trend - to involve your customers in your business/brand. Some people are calling this movement Web 2.0. From the report:

Coke, part of a growing group of advertisers putting ad campaigns on cell phones, will make the U.S. site available to Web-ready phones on June 22. It launched in China last week and is eyeing other markets in regions like Latin America.

What does this mean for your business? Don't ignore what is happening online - websites, mobile advertising and promotion, sharing of information, the rise of the consumer to post whatever information or comments they like, whereever they like.

Stay up to date with these developments. Use them where you can in your business. Otherwise the gap between you and the market leaders will get wider and wider.