WebSite Consultation

This article includes the answers I give to the most frequently asked questions during client consultations and website critiques.  I’m not sharing the details here, but you get a good idea of what you can expect during a consultation with an experienced Web Developer.   Your own website consultation will typically result in you receiving a detailed project plan, wireframes, mockups, scheduling options, and various pricing options.  I am usually asked to provide suggestions to help a client achieve their online business goals in regards to Increasing Sales, Repeat Visitors, New Visitors, and Social Networking, and Form Responses and this article will address the most common answers I provide to online business entrepreneurs.

“Just because I can bring the entire Circus into this Website, does not mean I should”

The most obvious improvements I can suggest for clients’ websites to help them achieve their online business goals, is to improve the usability of every single aspect of their website experience.  It seems like every single day I am reminding someone that ‘Just because I can bring the entire Circus into this website, does not mean I should’.  When I say this, I hope to inspire the client to remember to focus only on what is absolutely needed to give their website visitors a positive experience.  A cluttered Website that is loud with music, slow to load, tries to force visitors to download specific software, forces visitors to sort through pictures of your favorite cat with an animated rainbow background will guarantee carpal tunnel,  eye strain, and a terrible online experience that they will be happy to let all their friends know about.  If the goal of your Website is to increase sales; your visitors must know you, like you, and trust you before they will choose to send their hard-earned money to you.

Do I Know You, Like You, and Trust You? 

Your Website better provide a totally pleasant experience while visitors are getting to know you. Internet users that are accustomed to shopping online, expect and demand a super fast - super easy - and pleasant experience while they access intricate details about your product & service at the moment they want to access your information.  If your Website provides clutter, long scrolling pages, long payment forms, payment buttons that blend into the background;  you are providing a very negative experience that seasoned Internet shoppers will avoid.  Even worse, they will tell all their friends on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to avoid your terrible website.  Some good examples of pleasant online experiences include Coda, Amazon, Ebay, and Google.

The Internet is not the same as traditional television, radio, and print media marketing.  Traditional marketing is certainly awesome for promoting your online business, it just requires a different approach and knowledge than online marketing & advertising.  Your visitors have instant access to product reviews and intricate details about anything & everything at any moment they feel like viewing that information from millions of sources on the Internet.

You must make it super easy, super fast, & friendly for your customers to view your details in dedicated areas that can be separated with accordions, sliders, and other design elements that will work on all popular browsers.  If those details start cluttering up and competing for attention with your ‘Buy Now’ web form or button, you have been successful at pushing your visitors away to go find your successful online competitors.

A web developer / designer can create wireframes and mockups for you and the price typically ranges between $250 to $5000.00 to include a consultation.  If you and your developer choose to use a standard content management system (CMS) such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, or Moodle;  a wireframe and mockup can help all of you to stay on the same page and avoid a time-consuming (costly) website project.

After the wireframe and mockup is chosen & everyone agrees, I build a solid foundation (back-end) with a standard CMS such as WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Moodle, and MySQL. Occasionally a custom CMS must be developed with php,  ruby on rails, ,PostGreSQL,  or NoSQL too.   I put the content into the CMS,  before I start coding the front-end design elements so that I can catch any potential issue in regards to formatting and layout.  I use JavaScript, JQuery, JQuery mobile, Sencha Touch 2, HTML5, CSS3, Ajax, Dojo, Photoshop, Illustrator, Quicktime Pro, Flash and various frameworks as needed for this step.

A common issue around Akwesasne that web developers face is the fact that many entrepreneurs and businesses do not provide their own content,  vague information about their target audience, and hope that the web developer will figure all of that out for them.  The content of the Website is very important for the business owner because it is competing for sales with the entire Internet.  The content is also important to the Web Developer because an unfinished Website can’t be added to their Portfolio and can actually become a liability to the Web Developer.  If you are a Web Developer facing this issue, just be sure you add in the labor costs for researching, developing, creating, editing, content reviews / edits or just hiring a content creator / internet marketing guru. 

The typical industry standard for content creation is $15 to $150 per webpage with no scrolling and the finished content usually includes text, graphics, video, animations, and other relevant media to correspond with the Website goals.

Sale Tornado

Getting back to everyone’s number one goal of making more money with their online business adventures, it’s common to see the online business failures use the Sale Tornado technique while the online business successes use the Sale Funnel technique.  The Sale Tornado hopes to suck up anyone and everyone into their cluttered, eye straining, carpal tunnel inducing Website with no clear focus on exactly who their ‘dream customer’ is.  These failing Internet businesses actually believed that if they slap a cheap fast Website template on the Internet, that millions of customers will magically send them money as the result of some sort of mysterious process that will never be discussed.  I know this sounds really odd, but it’s a common practice on the Internet and I hope to inspire our local entrepreneurs to put more time into learning more about the Sale Funnel that the Millionaire Mind Intensive meetings teach.

Sale Funnel

The Sale Funnel tactic is used by successful Internet business entrepreneurs that have a clearly defined and detailed ‘dream customer’ description.  They know exactly who their dream customer is, where they hang out, what they do, why they do it, when they do it, and how they do it - whatever ‘it’ is.  Your I.T. Consultant can help you create this and the industry standard rate for consultations is typically $350.00 and up to include a website critique, detailed price quotes and project plans with various options.  Researching, comparing, and defining your competitors, dream customers, industry standards, and bleeding edge technologies is detrimental to helping you create a successful Sale Funnel for your online business adventure. A Web Developer that understands this important aspect of online business is valuable because he or she has access to back-end and front-end coding that will make or break your online business tactics.  It’s so important, that huge successful Internet business entrepreneurs have consultants solely  dedicated to this aspect of their online business with dedicated front-end web developers, dedicated back-end web developers, and dedicated graphic designers.  If you are serious about being a successful online business entrepreneur, you must learn about this and work with professionals that are also knowledgeable.

The Sale Funnel will actually help your visitors to get to know your website, to like your website, and to trust your website, because you actually earn it by providing a seriously pleasant online experience.  Your web forms must be responsive, fast, friendly, and safe.  Your website also must make it easy, fast, and safe for all visitors to share content to all social networks where they can discuss how awesome their online experience with your website is for them; increasing the chances that new visitors will want to visit your website and increasing the chance that your visitors will actually want to purchase from you.

Awesome Online Buying Experiences

I decide I want to buy “abc”.  I go online because I know it can be shipped right to my house within days or even overnight.  I google for “abc” and find millions of sources to buy “abc” from.  I compare the first three Websites that google shares for the most relevant “abc” Websites.  I compare the public reviews and I also search to make sure the Website is not involved in any scams by googling the Website name with the keyword scam. 

The Website that provides me with a safe, fast, easy, responsive web form to buy “abc” is the winner.  I can choose from many ways to pay for “abc” including Credit Card, Check, Paypal, and Google wallet right on the Website.  I receive an email confirmation of my order within seconds after my purchase.   I receive “abc” to my mailbox and the “abc” is in brand new perfect condition as promised.  I see a note in my “abc” mailing package that encourages me to visit the Website again, share my experience with FaceBook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to receive a coupon for my next purchase. 

I revisit the Website and decide to become a ‘member’ this time so that I can receive email announcements of sales each week.  The super-fast member form only asks for my email and to choose a password.  The next week or month I revisit the website, it encourages me to enter a little more information into my profile to receive another coupon or gift.  I enter my postal code, favorite color, and that is it.  During future visits, all the products show my favorite color as the default option. 

This is an example of a Sale Funnel where the website is giving the visitor a consistently positive online experience while the visitor gets to know the website, can’t help but to like the website as a direct result of the experience, and trust is earned.  The website never asks for more than what is absolutely needed to provide an awesome online experience as the first priority.  All web forms are super short, fast, easy, and responsive.

Rather than trying to convince your website visitors that they must buy whatever you provide, you must focus on learning exactly what your customer is wanting to buy online, why they buy online and answer all those questions in great detail regarding ‘Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How’.  You are fortunate that the Internet provides all of us with equal opportunities to quickly adapt so that we can provide exactly what our ‘dream customers’ are looking for.

References

Designing the obvious. A common sense approach to web & mobile application design.  second edition.  New Riders. Author: Robert Hoekman, Jr.

Sexy Web Design. Create your own stunning web interfaces that just work. SitePoint. Author: Elliot Jay Stocks

Millionaire Mind Intensive Review. Retrieved April 22nd 2012 from http://www.MonicaLamb.com