Untangling The Web » promotion http://www.untanglingtheweb.org Training Small Business Owners How To Use The Internet Fri, 11 Nov 2011 21:58:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 You Are Not Your User http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/30/you-are-not-your-user.html http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/30/you-are-not-your-user.html#comments Fri, 30 Jan 2009 15:52:32 +0000 Conrad Walton http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/?p=1030 Continue reading →]]> It’s really easy to believe that everyone else is like you. They aren’t.

Everyone tends to do it. It takes a conscious effort to not do it. I mean, you are a rational person. You believe everything you believe and think everything that you think. Why wouldn’t everyone else think and believe the same way? What are they? Morons?

It's really easy to believe that everyone else is like you. They aren't.

It's really easy to believe that everyone else is like you. They aren't.

As you grow up, you begin to realize that not everyone else is like you. There are other people in the room and they might think, believe, and feel differently than you do. Bigots never grow up.

When you are designing your site and writing your content, do it from the users point of view, not your own. They are the ones that you have created this magnificent new web site for, so honor them by talking in their language and answering their questions and meeting their needs.

The first step to do this is to define just who they are. Once you have them defined, forget everyone else. If you want to sell video games, your site will look much different then if you want to sell medical equipment.

It might be helpful to write down your definition of your users and tape it to your monitor, where you can remember them while you’re writing.

Their words, their needs, their solutions. That’s what you need to focus on.



]]> http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/30/you-are-not-your-user.html/feed 0 How Much Does SEO Cost? http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/28/how-much-does-seo-cost.html http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/28/how-much-does-seo-cost.html#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:48:33 +0000 Conrad Walton http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/?p=1019 Continue reading →]]> SEO should be free.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. How much it costs will depend on how optimized you want it to be. Nothing in SEO costs any money, only time. You should learn what the techniques are and then you should do them your self.

SEO just wants to be free. Don't pay for it.

SEO just wants to be free.
Don't pay for it.

A friend just told me recently “I have many people that do SEO for me already”. Really? He’s a friend, so I won’t tear him apart for that too much, but his site is found for the one thing that he’s interested in and it’s not found for his main products. I looked.

The first thing that you must do, MUST do, is to pick some keywords or phrases that you want to rank highly for. The best way to do this is to think about it from your users point of view. What problem are they trying to solve when they come to your site. Why should they be there? Wedding Flowers? Car Repair? Pizza? a TV Show? What are those words that they will type into Google to find you?

It’s good to get one main phrase that you was to own. That phrase will go everywhere on your site, so many times that’s annoying.

Now you need to pick 3-5 more phrases that you want to do well for. Maybe you won’t own these, but you still want traffic from them.

Remember, these phrases must be from the user’s point of view, not yours. You might think that you sell “water treatment systems”, but your users want to buy “water softeners”. You might think that you sell “hand made, one of a kind, jewelry”, but I’m looking for a “woman birthday gift”. You might think you sell “woman’s action wear”, but my wife’s looking for “woman sports clothes”.

Now that that has rolled around in your head for a while, you can write down the phrases that you want to rank well for and the one that you want to own.

Next, you can scatter those phrases around your site and ask for links from other sites. Make your title on every page contain that main phrase. Leave comments on other sites using those phrases. Do all of the other SEO stuff that you can find on the Internet and that I’ll talk about later.

SEO just wants to be free. Don’t pay for it.



]]> http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/28/how-much-does-seo-cost.html/feed 0 Church Marketing Sucks: It's Twitter Time for Your Church http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/23/church-marketing-sucks-its-twitter-time-for-your-church.html http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/23/church-marketing-sucks-its-twitter-time-for-your-church.html#comments Sat, 24 Jan 2009 06:36:53 +0000 Conrad Walton http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/?p=850 Continue reading →]]> Really? Is it really time for Twitter? They have clearly captured the platform and will be the way to the future of microblogging or whatever you want to call it, but I’m just not sure that the numbers are there yet. You need to have people to make it valuable. There are still too many pastors that don’t quite get why they need a web site.

I had a client ask me about “social media” this week. The joke is that every one is a social media expert, but the reality is that it’s not there yet. I think it will be in a year. I think it’s time to get your user name staked out for the future. Yes, I am at /conradwalton, but I don’t ever tweet. I don’t think it’s a fad, but I don’t think that it’s mature yet.

Facebook has everyone and their brother on it now. I’ve met more people from my past in the last two months than I knew that I knew. It’s what’s happening now. Twitter is what will happen next year.

Do you use Twitter? Do you use it often? For what purpose? Do you follow more than you tweet? Please leave a comment.

Quoting from Church Marketing Sucks: It’s Twitter Time for Your Church

The Reasons Your Church Must TwitterAnthony Coppedge recently released a $5 e-book entitled The Reason Your Church Must Twitter.

It covers everything from what in the world a Twitter is to how your church can make maximum use of Twitter in various flavors–from simply having public conversations to using Twitter as a devotional tool.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.churchmarketingsucks.com/archives/2009/01/its_twitter_tim.html



]]> http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/23/church-marketing-sucks-its-twitter-time-for-your-church.html/feed 0 The Role of Design in Modern Church Marketing [Design Principles] http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/22/the-role-of-design-in-modern-church-marketing-design-principles.html http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/22/the-role-of-design-in-modern-church-marketing-design-principles.html#comments Thu, 22 Jan 2009 19:25:01 +0000 Conrad Walton http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/?p=835 Continue reading →]]>

Quoting from The Role of Design in Modern Church Marketing [Design Principles]

Yet the recent image makeover of churches is unpalatable for some. In 2006, Pastor John MacArthur published a popular article (“Grunge Christianity?”) condemning modern churches that trade sanctity for “cultural relevancy.” MacArthur and his supporters disagree with so-called pragmatists who seek bigger, more worldly congregations. Nathan Smith (GodBit.com) counters, “we are naive if we try to take an isolationist approach. God wants a direct relationship with each person, so we—as facilitators of that calling—have to meet people through what they know, and if that is pop culture, then so be it.”

How many congregations identify with dark, gritty imagery?

How many congregations identify with dark, gritty imagery?

From a design perspective, applying a pop culture flavor to a place of worship can mean many things, but comes down to doing what’s appropriate on a church-by-church basis. Says Chris Merritt (Pixel Light Creative), “If the church is a traditional conservative church, then I’m probably not going to use an abundance of grunge brushes and ragged textures. Every once in a while there’s a church who wants to launch a new image and use the web site as a launching pad. Even in that case, moderation is important; otherwise you may end up alienating those who are comfortable with the original image.”

So what about the multitude of recent church web sites designed around ragged, dark, asymmetrical elements—what does this communicate about the church? How many congregations identify with dark, gritty imagery?

Read the entire article at:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/design-modern-church-marketing/



]]> http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/22/the-role-of-design-in-modern-church-marketing-design-principles.html/feed 0 Read Your Analytics Stats http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/21/read-your-analytics-stats.html http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/21/read-your-analytics-stats.html#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:27:12 +0000 Conrad Walton http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/?p=831 Continue reading →]]> I was walking a client through his Analytics stats yesterday, explaining what each page, each section meant. I asked him if he ever looked at these since we set them up. He looks at them as much as you do, which is never.

What traffic are you missing?

What traffic are you missing?

He didn’t connect the value of what these numbers and charts mean to how he can improve his site and make more money with it, as well as make it a better experience for his users.

As we drilled into the content part of it, I saw that no one, as in not one person, was looking through his portfolio pages. I realized that these pages have a smaller menu over to the side that people could easily miss.

Also, when I redesigned his site by bringing it into WordPress (of course), the top, main menu now has a different look and action than the original small portfolio menu. I used to just put a glow around the highlighted menu item and now I was doing the whole colored div background, which is much more apparent.

Now we have a menu that looks and functions differently and no one who ever clicks on them. HHHmmmm. What to do?

Next step, I put in the same style menu as the top, so they highlight the same. That should improve the click on those. We’ll be watching his stats to see what happens.

Read your Analytics pages today. What traffic are you missing?



]]> http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/21/read-your-analytics-stats.html/feed 0 Knocked Off The Horse http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/20/knocked-off-the-horse.html http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/20/knocked-off-the-horse.html#comments Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:36:47 +0000 Conrad Walton http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/?p=821 Continue reading →]]> Wow. Things got busy and my WordPress blog gets forgotten. I think I’m back. I’ll try to make up for lost time. The weather has been in the 80s for the last week or so, so I may have been a bit distracted.

Knocked Off The Horse

Knocked Off The Horse

In the last week, I’ve also been busy with, and learned a lot from, clients and would be clients, about what people want, what they know, what they don’t know, and what they need. I’ll go into depth on some of these later, but I’m shocked, SHOCKED! I say, that there are actually people in the world who don’t have the same knowledge and beliefs and understanding that I do.

People don’t seem to understand that WordPress is free and powerful. I am an old school, hand coder, who would rather do it all myself, so I can have total control, but I cranked out a complete web site, including a custom design, including an image gallery, and including all the fixin’s, in two hours. That’s two hours folks, to build a site that would have taken me two weeks in the old days.

WordPress rocks. No way around it. WordPress just freakin’ rocks.

It also seems that SEO is the buzz of the day. Either people want it or they don’t know yet that they want it. I’m finding that the common thread, with everyone that I talk to, is that they just don’t know much about how to effectively do SEO, even though it’s relatively easy.

A client told me this morning, after I gave them an outline of what to do, that it’s not hard to do, they just didn’t know what needed to be done. It’s like I gave them the map and now they are driving the car across the country.

I’ll be talking more about WordPress SEO and SEO in general. It is really not difficult, once you get a few ideas figured out. I’m surprised that people charge so much for it, but it does give results and most people are not doing anything, so it’s easy to beat most other sites out there.



]]> http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/20/knocked-off-the-horse.html/feed 0 Get To The Point http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/09/get-to-the-point.html http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/09/get-to-the-point.html#comments Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:38:10 +0000 Conrad Walton http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/?p=801 Continue reading →]]> If you want people to read your stuff, you should be clear and succinct. Get to the point. People are not up for reading a book, so make it quick.

Quoting from adn.com | Church visits : Guest Blog -Top 10 Church Website Design Mistakes of 2007

Get to the point.

Get to the point.


There is something to be said about Shakespeare’s oft-quoted assertion from Hamlet:

‘… brevity is the soul of wit …‘

Or as usability expert Jakob Nielsen writes his 1997 post entitled “how people read the web:”

People rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. In research on how people read websites we found that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word.

Read the entire article at:
http://community.adn.com/node/131981



]]> http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/09/get-to-the-point.html/feed 0 Half Of All Churches Do NOT Have A Web Site! http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/06/the-church-in-2009.html http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/06/the-church-in-2009.html#comments Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:08:59 +0000 Conrad Walton http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/?p=789 Continue reading →]]> Half of all churches in America today do NOT have a web site. Half! What excuse is there for that? This article below is quoting a Duke University survey to make the point that the church has caught up with the times, that only a fifth of them had a web site in 1998. But the glass is not half full here. It’s half empty.

If you are involved with a church that does not have a web site, I can show you how to get one for free, using WordPress.com. All it takes is a little initiative on your part and you can have a web site. You don’t need a $300 site. You don’t need a $500 site. You can have a free web site for your church. Go to www.worpdress.com and follow the instructions.

Do it now. For the children.

Quoting from The Church In 2009 – KYPost.com

Close to half of the churches offer Web pages.

Close to half of the churches offer Web pages.

For example, local churches have caught up with the secular society in their use of computers and technology. In 1998, fewer than one in five U.S. congregations hosted Web sites; today, close to half of the churches offer Web pages to their members and local community. A friend of mine who ministers to a large Washington, D.C. Baptist congregation has a frequently updated interactive Web site whose volunteer editor works from India.

Read the entire article at:
http://www.kypost.com/content/middleblue3/story/The-Church-In-2009/o3oMerab5E2upfPeBvDqdg.cspx



]]> http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/06/the-church-in-2009.html/feed 0 5 Features That a Church Website Shouldn’t Be Without | Web Site Design Blog http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/06/5-features-that-a-church-website-shouldnt-be-without-web-site-design-blog.html http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/06/5-features-that-a-church-website-shouldnt-be-without-web-site-design-blog.html#comments Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:53:16 +0000 Conrad Walton http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/?p=731 Continue reading →]]> This is a great list of things that you should have on your church web site.

Quoting from 5 Features That a Church Website Shouldn’t Be Without | Web Site Design Blog

A good church website needs to be informative, visually appealing and have a bit of interaction with the visitor. After all shouldn’t your church’s website inspire people to visit your church physically? It can be easy to forget that people not in your local community may be searching for a church to attend a worship service. What features do you look for when you are looking at a church website?

How do you get there? Sure an address is great, but a map or written directions would be better.

How do you get there? Sure an address is great, but a map or written directions would be better.


Driving Directions

How do you get there? Sure an address is great, but a map or written directions would be better. Make it as easy as possible for the website visitor to locate your church.

Service Times

When do you worship? Often more times than not the service times are not listed on most church websites. Be sure to place your worship times prominently on the homepage of the site.

Sunday School

Let’s say that your visitors have children. What do you suppose they would like to know about your church? Make it well known that you offer a Sunday school service to avoid any confusion with new guests to your church.

Events Calendar

What if a member of your congregation misses a Sunday, but would like to know about the youth soccer game in the park? By having an up-to-date events calendar you can let your church members know what is going on.

Pictures

Sure stock photography is great in some cases, but what about those great pictures from your church’s mission trip? Be sure to include real pictures of your church and congregation. This will give your site a more realistic and personal touch.

Read the entire article at:
http://blog.collinsinternet.com/27/5-features-that-a-church-website-shouldnt-be-without/



]]> http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2009/01/06/5-features-that-a-church-website-shouldnt-be-without-web-site-design-blog.html/feed 1 This Is How You Should Comment! http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2008/12/30/how-to-use-the-suckage-ratio-great-comment.html http://www.untanglingtheweb.org/2008/12/30/how-to-use-the-suckage-ratio-great-comment.html#comments Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:17:49 +0000 Conrad Walton http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/?p=742 Continue reading →]]> Douglas at Hostgator actually looks for people talking about his company. This is the kind of proactive research that you should be doing for your company. You need to search Google and Technorati to see what people are saying about you on a regular basis.

Look at his response. Leads with a compliment, addresses the concern, and follows with a positive statement. Also notice that he gets a link to his site in the comment he left (good for SEO). If it was just comments spam, I wouldn’t have approved it. Since it was a meaningful comment, it’s approved and he got the link.

I wish I could comment as well as Douglas! The dude is a professional. I’m happy to give him the extra links.

I’ve been promoting PowWeb, since they are who I’m happy with, but perhaps it’s time to stroll on down to Hostgator and check them out.

Quoting from How To Use The “Suckage Ratio” | Web Design and Developement for Small Business

I wish I could comment as well as Douglas!

I wish I could comment as well as Douglas!


By Douglas – HostGator.com on Dec 29, 2008 | Reply | Edit

I’m glad to see that you utilize a ratio (most posts like these just use the flat out number of results), but am disappointed to see that HostGator had the highest “suckage ratio.”

With that in mind, though, our customer service is still amongst the best in the industry and is continually improving. We also invest a lot of time and resources into reaching out to customers that have any trouble (we have an extremely strong presence on the Twitter and regularly reach out to bloggers). And the CEO of the company is also personally available to customers who ask (this is not a gimmick and actually does happen).

Hopefully our reaching out will help demonstrate our commitment to customer service excellence. If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to send me an email.

Read the entire article at:

http://www.waltonwebdesigner.com/2008/12/22/how-to-use-the-suckage-ratio-to-pick-companies-and-products.html#comments



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