New Sublime Learning Site

I jumped in to help out the developers of the new Sublime Learning site at the last minute, because the CSS required to implement that site was pretty tricky.

First, I created a quick little php template to make the site maintenance more manageable. I also overhauled the HTML and styled the site. I implemented the first draft of the site’s content, then passed it on to the other developer.

The most tricky part was the curved navigation bar overlaying the photo on the home page.

The Whiskers Photo Contest

I’ve been working on Petfinder.com for about 3 years now. I’ve done things like improve traffic from search engines by 900%, overhaul the UI of the pet search function, and add the pet adoption happy tails site section. I’ve also implemented over a dozen sponsored sweepstakes and contests in the system (both front and back end).

Most recently, I’ve helped to overhaul the Petfinder contest system. For these new contests, someone else did the back-end work while I worked on the front end implementation. These contests have an integrated photo gallery and interactive visitor voting system. It’s been a fun project. One of the contests that use this system is The Whiskers.

Photography is one of those fields where you put your work - your art and soul - on the line at every appointment.

It is also a word-of-mouth business: happy clients will refer their friends. Prospective customers value their friends’ opinions, so the most trusting new clients will be referrals.

A photographer’s web site would need to:

• entice prospective clients
• schedule photo shoots
• prepare new clients for their photo shoot
• share proofs with clients
• help clients share prints with friends
• sell prints to clients (optional)
• show off your best work
• encourage repeat business
• bill your clients

In terms of features, this would mean:

Availability Calendar

Show people when you’re available, and let them request a photo shoot for a specific day/time online. Maybe there could be a non-refundable $25 reservation fee collected online.

Blog

Encourage repeat business, prepare new clients for their photo shoot, and discuss photography techniques in your blog. This lets prospective customers know that you know what you’re doing and you’re dedicated to making their shoot as successful as possible.

Public Gallery & Store

Show off your best work in your public photo gallery. Also, make certain photos available for print ordering (landscapes and other work).

Private Gallery & Store

Share your clients’ photos with them in their own private gallery area. Let them mark their favorites and order prints. Also make it very easy to email you with questions/comments. This could include a gallery sharing feature, where clients could share the gallery with their friends. Clients and their friends could also order prints online.

Back End

Easily upload a whole batch of photos at once. Bill your clients. Work on your schedule. Send emails to your clients with referral specials, new public photos, etc.

That’s all I’ve got for now. What have I missed?

Now, I have an opportunity to spend more time on Stitchsoft and other web sites that are my own. I must admit that I look forward to it! It will be a nice change.

For years, people have come to me with their web site ideas, and I have made them happen. With each new project I’d learn something new: new tactics in the Google game, cutting edge social media strategies, or different ways to reach users. While facilitating the realization of other peoples’ goals is rewarding, it doesn’t give me a lot of creative license.

I’ve gotten a taste of doing my own thing with Design House Digital, a site I own with my sister-in-law, and I must say I do feel qualified to make big site-related decisions. I enjoy it, too!

I will be aiming my posts here at Stitchsoft towards my clients: businesses.

I will also be doing some blogging about blogging at Design House Digital. My material there will be geared more towards family bloggers.

A Rose by Any Other Name

Here’s a secret: a blog is just another name for a content-based web site. A blog is honestly just a collection of web pages.

It’s usually set up in a way that puts the newest pages on the main (index) page and allows people to be notified when you add another page to the site.

Web pages are called “posts” and organized in two ways: categories and tags. Categories are more structured and tags are a little bit more free-form. You can search through the posts easily.

When set up properly, blog posts are easily accessible by people who search for post content on Google.

All of these features make a blog an attractive web content management system. With just a little tweaking, you can even make your “blog” look and feel like a high-powered content management system (CMS).

So what? Would that help your business?

My answer is, most definitely, “maybe.” Here’s a quick checklist.

Do you want to attract more business?

If your business is running smoothly and you don’t need new customers, maybe a web site is not for you.

Do you need to stay in touch with your customers?

If your business doesn’t need to do any kind of customer service, then maybe you don’t need a web site.

Do you need to convince prospective clients to work with you?

An online portfolio, and maybe case studies, will show off your talents to prospective clients. If your products/services don’t need this, then maybe you don’t need a web site.

If you can say “NO” to all of these questions, maybe you don’t need a web site.

Other stuff to put on a site

Here’s a short list of other stuff that you might need/want to put on your web site. Be prudent; it will only pay off if you put up features that directly relate to and promote your business.

• Message board
• Business-related tools
• Online store
• Online chat
• Photo/image gallery

Design House Digital

Design House Digital is the brainchild of myself and my sister-in-law, Jen Allyson Nugent. It is not very old, and yet it’s already had more traffic than any other site I’ve ever done through Stitchsoft. Jen Allyson Nugent and Spencer Nugent did most of the graphics; graphics aren’t my strong suit.

This web site consists of:

• a store
• a blog
• a tutorial/content area
• forums
• a layout gallery
• a unified ad system

The Store

Design House Digital Store

The store software comes from zen cart. I created a custom theme, then customized the store further to fit our needs.

I had to do some extra customization for a single sign-on in the store and forums. The single sign-on isn’t perfect yet, but the site’s young yet. It’ll come.

There are 10 designers who contribute to the store. Because the zen cart back end is a little difficult to navigate, and we wanted to make things easy for our designers, we created a custom interface for them to load products into the store.

The Blog and Tutorial/Content Area

Design House Digital Blog

We chose to use Wordpress for this, and create a custom Wordpress theme. Spencer Nugent helped me out here, for which I am very grateful. He did a great job.

Design House Digital Classroom

The Forums

Design House Digital Forums

The Layout Gallery

The layout gallery isn’t done yet, but it will be soon! I’m using Photopost for the gallery. Again, it will use custom templates.

The (un-)Unified Ad System

We chose Google Ad Manager for a unified ad system, and it worked fine, except for the store. We found out the hard way that Google Ad Manager doesn’t support SSL. So the ad system isn’t unified; we use Google Ad Manager most places, but we use the built-in Zen Cart ad system in the store.

Ask Brother Read Web Site

I did this site as a favor for a friend. As a teacher, his current and former students ask him questions often. He is able to post his answers on this site for all to see.

I chose to do a custom Wordpress theme on this site. Because it was a “favor” site, I just did the graphics myself, instead of paying a designer like I usually do. He likes it. It looks great, and fits his needs well.

My favorite custom feature is a list of links at the bottom of each post page. It contains all the other posts in the current category.

Liberty’s Army is a political commentary and education site. It’s a bit of a political hodgepodge; some posts are merely boxes containing information on bills, and other posts are very long commentaries.

Looking at your site reminds me of my days at the Arizona Capitol Times. I spent two and a half years there, working on a state legislation tracking Web site called LOLA. I left that job to dedicate more time to my family, but I will always think fondly of the company, people, and the work I did there.

Nostalgia aside, I think your blog has potential. Here are some suggestions I have that might make it more effective.

Get Google Analytics ASAP

Your Wordpress system might come with its own statistics program, but don’t let that stop you from installing Google Analytics. It’s free and it’s worth the little bit of extra page load time.

Google Analytics gives you the ability to get a LOT of insight into your traffic. Even when your site is small, you will be able to get insight into your visitors. For example,
Here is an introductory presentation on GA to help you get started.

Page Display

Fix the search box

If you ever put something online where your visitors have to “read the instructions” to use it, think twice. With this search form, include a small “Go” button to the right of the box; you won’t have to tell your users to “hit enter.” You could have something like “Enter Search Text” inside the box, though.

Also, keep the same width as things around it. If you keep the box here, the amazon store widget beneath it is 250 pixels, so keep the total width of search box + “Go” button (including spacing) at 250 pixels. You may want to consider moving it to somewhere else on the page, though, such as to the right of the navigation tabs across the top of the page.

Lose the calendar

The most effective calendars I have seen are highly personalized. In this case, the calendar appears to be empty. If you want to keep calendar events there, include a few as a list of events as paragraphs with bolded event titles, rather than a date widget.

Users will be more able to see what is coming up; do you really expect them to click on a date to see if there’s an event on that day?

Use static widgets, not flashing widgets

Your amazon store widget and quote widget are very distracting. It makes it more difficult for your readers to pay attention to the blog contents. People tend to scan over a whole page in one big sweep with their eyes, then settle down to read the center content.

Changing the right and left rail content every few seconds will prompt them to scan the entire page again, interrupting their “flow.” If you replace them with widgets that won’t change until the page reloads (static widgets), you will find that they are more effective.

Also, if someone goes to click on a link below the quote widget just as it changes, their whole menu will move. It’s unsettling!

Brand your header

Try to brand your page titles a little more. On the home page, add some text after “Liberty’s Army” to explain your site. It will show up in search results. Also, add meta description to your page header. It will show up just below the title in search results.

Think of this as a free “ad” for your site on Google. What would you like it to say? How about something like this?

Liberty’s Army: Political Commentary and Education
Follow the latest news on economics, legislation, government, and politics. Get involved; share your thoughts.

Add some static pages

Add “About Us” and “Contact Us” pages to your site. Make it easy for people to give you feedback; it’s often a good way to get ideas for blog posts.

Content

Craft direct headlines

People will click on headlines that are direct, actionable, and interesting. The headline I consider most effective in this snapshot is “Great Pro-Life Video.”

This is because I can bet on what I’m going to get when I click on that headline. People like headlines and links that aren’t full of mystery; in the industry we call it “information scent.”

Use short paragraphs & bold titles

Try to keep your paragraphs at or below about 5 lines of text. It’s hard; I myself struggle with it when I’m blogging. But there’s a reason for it: people will often scan the whole page, looking for what they want.

If you “chunk” your paragraphs and insert titles in bold where appropriate, your users will get a better feel for the page in the first scan. It will help them stick around and read what you have to say.

Write at an 8th grade reading level

As much as possible, keep your writing at an 8th grade reading level. Even a highly educated audience appreciates easy-to-read content.

Matt, that’s all the advice I can give you tonight. Keep in mind that I learned this stuff from experts in usability and search optimization. You’ll get the same advice elsewhere; it’s really not just an issue of personal preference.

Best of luck to you! Let me know if you have questions about anything.

1. Come up with a good idea
2. Identify your profit model
3. Write up a business plan and do a market analysis
4. Register a domain name and business

If you haven’t read it yet, please do! This post will still be here when you’re done.

For the sake of example, I’m going to use a made-up site concept. Let’s say Joe Blue comes to me… he has a degree in engineering and has worked for a custom water slide company for 5 years. He’s decided it is time for him to build his own custom water slides. He wants a web site that will drive him business.

• Joe’s good idea:
  Build custom water slides
• Joe’s profit model:
  He will get income from building water slides. His web site will bring him business.
• Joe’s business plan:
  Joe has taken some business classes and has worked in the water slide market for a while. He has done his homework on pricing. He also plans to offer slides with a new twist: he will offer water slides made from clear plexi-glass and sell a water additive that keeps the plexi-glass clean.
• Joe’s domain and business name:
  Joe is going to use the domain www.joeswaterparkslides.com and register the business name “Joe’s Water Park Slides, Inc.”

Now, it’s time to move on.

Work out your expected/desired visitor cycle

This is a really important step. You can focus your site on you - the company - or on your visitors. A lot of times, companies put the site’s focus on them. They forget that a site is only as good as its visitors. A better approach is to think about your visitors, anticipate their needs, and give them the tools and information they are looking for.
Answer the following questions:

• Who do you expect to come to your site?
• Where will they come from? How will they get to your site?
• What is their purpose in coming to your site?
• What would you consider a successful outcome of their visit? What do you ultimately want them to do? When a visitor does what we want them to do, we call it a conversion.
• They aren’t likely to just jump on your site, do their conversion (put the item in their cart, email the owner, etc), and leave. We most likely want them to know what they’re getting into and be excited about it. What questions will they have, and how can you provide them with these answers?

Once you’ve gotten to know your visitors and you know the process they will go through on your site, you can map out a cycle… the step-by-step process you expect visitors go through from when they first land on your site to their conversion point.

Joe’s visitor cycle:

1. Visitors are resort owners; people who want a new commercial water slide.
2. They will most likely enter the site when searching for “water park slide.”
3. Visitors will want to know what makes Joe’s slides stand out from other slides.
4. They will want assurance that Joe knows what he is doing and has happy clients.
5. They’ll also want to see safety information, photo galleries, and possibly use a slide-building tool.
6. Joe ultimately wants visitors to either fill out a contact form or call the phone number indicating that they are interested in speaking with Joe (or a sales rep) about a slide.

Plan your menus: do some card sorting

Card sorting is one of my favorite steps. It’s just fun to organize, and watch others organize, your site concept.

Take a big pad of super-sticky post-it notes and write down everything you think a user should be able to do or learn on your site. Depending on the site you are building, it might be a lot of stuff, or it might not be very much at all. Don’t forget “about us,” “contact us,” and other business-type pages. Also, write down the big target keywords you found when researching your domain name, since users will definitely be interested in reading about those keywords.

The very best way to do this exercise is to get some people who match the potential visitor profile, and have them do the sorting while you watch very quietly. Have them create categories or topics themselves. Then, take photos of their work and ask any questions you might have. Repeat this with two more groups of people.

It is OK if you do this yourself, but keep in mind that you’re too close to the site. Your own sorting will be prejudiced.

Once you have sorting results, make some decisions and create an organized document describing everything a user should be able to do or learn on your site. At this point, it shouldn’t be a diagram or drawing; it should simply be a hierarchical outline.

Joe’s outline:
As you can see, his site will contain plain old web pages, a photo gallery, an email form, a contact form, and a few blog categories that he can add things to as needed.

• Business stuff
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Careers
  • Privacy Policy
• Slide Show (photo gallery)
• Water Park Slides
• Refer a friend (email a friend form)
• Getting a new slide
  • Slide Building Tool (here’s one he likes at CedarWorks)
  • Pricing
  • Request a quote (contact form)
  • Frequently Asked Questions (blog category)
• Caring for your slide (blog category)
  • How to care for your slide
  • How to keep your slide safe
  • etc.

Get a professional graphic design

It’s really worth paying for a professional graphic design. Even if you don’t care what the site looks like, your customers will. If you are going for venture capital, your investors will care as well. Also, there’s no substitute for the “wow” you get when your web site and business card have a stand-out design.

Meet with a professional graphic designer who has a lot of experience with Web sites, as well as your developer, if they are separate people. It’s good to involve these people in earlier steps as well, if you can.

If there are designs you like, now is the time to speak up. Let them know your favorite color, and the awesome logo you saw at the boutique you visited last week. Be open to suggestions, though, as well.

Choose your designer carefully. He/she should be familiar with web usability concepts, and have experience developing web site designs.

Your designer will come up with a design. Ask for a logo, letterhead, and business card layout while they’re at it.

Be open to their original approach; it might not be what you expect. Give feedback as necessary, but be sensitive; designers’ work is art and they could very well take criticism personally. Rather than be directly confrontational, like “your idea sucks,” say something more objective like, “do you really think all caps will be easy to read online?”

Joe’s graphic design
Since I’m not a designer, I’m going to skip this step in Joe’s example. I’ll use wireframe-like drawings as needed.

What’s next?

In my next post, I’ll go into the following steps in detail:

• Do some paper prototyping
• Have your site professionally developed
• Do some usability testing
• Launch!
• Maintain your site

My mom is a professional scouter. I’m so proud of her; she went back to school and got her degree in Scouting Education just last year. When I was growing up, camping was an amazing experience. We’d get to the campsite prepared - we had tents full of warm sleeping bags and pillows, food for meals (plus a little extra, in case we got stranded or the fish didn’t bite), and fun stuff to do while we were there.

One time, in college, I went camping with some relatives. We took out an RV with pillows and not too much else in the food/clothing/shelter department — no food, no utensils. We had fun stuff to do, though! Even so, as you can imagine, our prepared campsites gave us a richer, more successful, more pleasant experience: one we looked forward to repeating.

Having a web site with a firm foundation is just as important. If you want it to be successful in the long run, you need to “be prepared,” as my mother would say.

Come up with a good idea

If you have a killer idea, you’ve gone one major step forward. Can you fill a need? Do you have knowledge on the perfect subject? Are you itching to tell your story online?

Keep in mind that a great idea does not a solid business make. Even if you’re just the “idea man,” your job is NOT done once the idea has been thought up. It’s going to take a lot of time and plenty of effort to turn that idea into a real, working web site.

Identify your profit model

Even if you are the most non-self-serving non-profit out there, you will need to be able to cover your expenses at the very least. Yes, it’s possible to be a non-profit and have employees who get paid. It’s also possible to be “for-profit” and make nothing!

On the other extreme, there are those of us who dream of companies with nice fat profit margins. However, the best way to flourish is to cover expenses and then consider the kind of profit you want to come away with.

There are lots of ways to make money online. The “Big 3″ that always come to mind for me are Sponsors, Advertisers, and Subscribers. Sponsors are big-money advertisers with which you build long-term relationships. Advertisers are cheaper, “here today, gone tomorrow” types, and can look like inobtrusive AdWords or big fancy banner ads. Subscribers pay to use the tools you make available on your site.

All three will work, and sometimes you can do more than one at a time. Which one is right for your web site?

Write up a business plan and do a market analysis

Do your homework, and think twice about this new site.

• Is your idea really all that good?
• Is it unique, or are there 100 other sites just like it out there?
• Is your profit model realistic?
• How long will it take to make a profit?
• Can/will you wait to quit your day job?
• While you’re waiting to break even, how much money will you be laying out, and can you really afford it?

Do you still think your plan is the next best thing since sliced bread? If you have doubts, now is the time to resolve them. Don’t be afraid to put your plan on hold while you work some things out.

Put together a solid business plan that makes sense to you and everyone you run it by. You’ll be glad you did. This includes identifying what it’s going to cost to put together and maintain your web site. I’m not going to tell you what it will cost; it depends so much on your project, budget, and expertise. You’ll need to have some idea of what you want the site to do and what it’s going to look/feel like, but the details can come later.

Register a domain name and business

I’ve already written about choosing a domain name. If you do it “my way,” it’s a long process, but it’s important to get it right. Your domain name and your business name can be one and the same, or they can differ slightly.

In 5 or 10 years, your domain name’s age will be very important. You’re not very likely to change your domain, no matter how many times you “redesign” your site.

If you know what hosting company you will be using, go ahead and register your domain through that company. I usually include the first year of the domain registration in my clients’ initial web setup cost; your web developer may do the same.

Register your business through the proper channels. It’s important, and it’s the law.

Now, you can get started on your web site!

This is what you’re waiting for, but I’m not going to give it to you tonight. In my next post, I’ll go into the following steps in detail:

• Work out your expected/desired visitor cycle
• Plan your menus: do some card sorting
• Get a professional graphic design
• Do some paper prototyping
• Have your site professionally developed
• Do some usability testing
• Launch!
• Maintain your site