Author Archives: kjubeck

The Local Web and Competition

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A friend passed along this link recently: http://www.iowagetonline.com/ It looks like Google and Intuit are teaming up with economic development agencies to get Iowa small businesses online for free. How cool! Here’s the full scoop at governing.com.

The little web designer in me felt a little threatened when I first came to this page (Google is taking my clients!!!). I was happy that Big Web Designer stepped in quickly and recognized what a great opportunity this is for both local businesses and myself. First, and most important of all, small businesses are getting online! Second, Google is doing me a huge favor: getting the word out about the importance of a web presence, guiding and reassuring the nervous business owner as he registers his domain name, cautiously writes his first “About Us” page and goes live with his version 1.0 of his web presence. In time, he will tire of the limits of his free website (you always get what you pay for) and I will be happy to come to the rescue, building and improving on the foundation that Google helped him lay.

A Simple Website

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What do we really mean when we ask for something that is simple?

On more than one occasion, a vision for a simple web site was explained to me by a new client: it should have only a handful of pages, the design should be minimal, we will use only a few images. In one case, these details were assumed because the client did not have a large budget for the new website. In another, the client equated simplicity with minimal effort invested in design.

In reality, here is what I have found to be the traits of a simple web site:

  • It can be created for an amount that is within your budget.
  • You can independently make updates to crucial content.
  • It has clear and meaningful language.
  • It assists your business or organization in meeting it’s goals.
  • Its visual design is in alignment with the core purpose and personality of your business.
  • The purpose and ways to use the site are obvious.

Simplicity looks different depending on the context. Simplicity has no relation to expense. Simplicity is not equivalent to austerity. Simplicity is about ease.

Really, shouldn’t all websites be simple?

Patience and Perseverance

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I am quickly approaching my one-year anniversary of leaving full-time employment. This milestone of course causes some introspection. Lately, I’ve been looking back over the last 10 months and taking stock of what has been accomplished. I made a list:

  • Resolved that I am unlikely to ever be someone’s employee again. The entrepreneur life is what I love and where I have the greatest opportunity to realize my full potential, so that is where I’ll stay.
  • Refined my business processes and transitioned to some great, time-saving tools. (Cashboard and Google Voice being the most valuable.)
  • Worked with a lawyer to register my business as an LLC and also craft a brief but thorough Services Agreement (no more ridiculous, embarrassing boilerplate contracts!)
  • Served 21 clients, bringing 8 new websites into the world, as well as an HTML email design, CD packaging design, 3 letterpress designs and several posters
  • Made plans and began working to establish a letterpress stationery business with a friend
  • Nurtured existing relationships with friends and family and launched several new ones
  • Had a breakthrough with my husband about money, resulting in agreement that we will work together much more closely to manage our spending
  • Built and maintained this website

Sounds pretty good, eh? Well, I’m definitely not “done” yet, each week presents a host of new challenges, and the past month has been financially one of our leanest, but the general feeling is hopeful and I am having the time of my life.

So, the lesson to myself, and maybe to you too, is this: Meaningful progress takes constant work and a lot of time. You can’t expect great things to happen over night. With so much going on in our lives—commitments, deadlines, financial obligations and demands—it can be hard to see beyond the daily minutia to the complete picture of a life and what is being built through all those little actions. If you feel overwhelmed by your challenges, take a step back and appreciate what you have already accomplished. I recommend making a list like I did. You’ve probably achieved much more than you think.

Leverage Color

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There is an entire discipline of psychology that studies the symbolism and meaning of color. Colors, and combinations of them, can convey very specific moods. Web site owners would do well to gain a basic knowledge of the colors that best convey the purpose of their business. Following are a few examples of adjectives and the colors that may help convey them:

Serene: blue, green and sometimes yellow or purple, mostly muted shades.

Earthy: Rich reds, browns and greens. Mustard yellow and burnt orange too.

Spiritual: Saturated purples and pinks, with some grey to add balance.

Romantic: pastel pinks, purples, greens, yellows

Powerful: Bold, saturated primary colors (red, green, blue, purple) paired with grey or black

Traditional: dark shades of primary colors

Playful: A mixture of bright colors (cyan, magenta, chartreuse, yellow, deep purple)

Classic: blues, greys, and browns, both muted and bold versions paired together

What do the colors in your site design and branding say about your business? Are you leveraging color to give impactful and instant support of your business mission? Or is it hidden behind a swath of generic or inappropriate colors?

For further reading, I recommend checking out the Pantone Guide to Communicating with Color.

The Fundamental Benefits of a Web Presence (For Small Businesses)

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In this challenging economy, diligent care of your web presence should be the focus of every small business’s marketing plan. If your still holding out, consider these three benefits of the web:

1. Visibility

Traditional marketing mediums are pathetically ineffective compared to the web. Print ads, signage, radio, yellow pages … all are lost in the noise and reach only segments of your potential customer base, at best. With the help of search engines, people who are actually seeking your services can find you. Your website works for you 24-hours/day, 7 days/week and is just a few clicks away from anyone connected to the internet.

2. Customer Satisfaction

A well-tended web presence makes basic information about your business–hours of operation, phone number, address, etc.–easy to find. In a small but significant way, you make your customers lives a little easier by putting this stuff out there where they can find it. You save your customers the frustration of unsuccessful searches. Even if only sub-consciously, the pleasure of a question answered and a slightly less stressful day will make a lasting impression on your customers.

3. Trust and Respect

Finally, having a web presence shows your customers that you are serious about your business. You have your act together and your priorities in the right place. Whatever your industry or expertise, an accurate web presence is evidence that you know what you are doing and you plan to be around for a while.

Your homework:

  • Google Places: Claim or set up your Google Place Page. It will be the #1 listing in searches for your business. Pretty much a no-brainer.
  • Yelp and other social review sites: Claim your listing on these sites and keep an eye on what people are saying about your business (warning: people are often rude and unrestrained on the internet, so this can require a great deal of grace and maturity from you). Direct happy customers to leave a review of your business on the site. Maybe even give them some kind of incentive or gift for doing so.
  • Facebook: Despite our love/hate relationship with Facebook, it cannot be ignored that Facebook practically is the internet for some people. Set up a page for your business, then feel out the best way for you to engage with your customers through it. Here are two articles to start with: 9 Rules of Facebook Promotion Every Small Business Should Know and How To Promote Your Small Business Through Facebook

Extra credit: Register your domain and get your own website set up there

WordPress videos for beginners

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WordPress.tv is is a great resource for WordPress users of all levels. It is hosted and maintained by Automattic (a web development company that has made major contributions to the WordPress project and is owned by WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg). It features both user-submitted and professionally generated content covering events, tutorials, slide shows, interviews and more.

The How To tutorial videos may be the most useful part of the site, and I often direct new users to them after training. Here are my favorite WordPress.tv videos for WordPress beginners:

Free Website Services for Non-Profits

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Non-profits, you rock! If anyone needs a web presence, it’s you, so don’t miss out on the free, quality website services that exist. Here are two of my favorites:

Web Hosting

A plethora of options are revealed when doing a web search for the terms “free hosting for non-profits”. I personally have worked with DreamHost.com to coordinate web hosting for a non-profit, and found the process quite easy. I am also impressed that the free hosting account has all the same features as their standard paid hosting plan, worth about $120/year. Visit the site for more information.

Google Apps

Accredited US 501(c)(3) non-profit organizations with under 3,000 users are eligible for Google Apps for Education. Google Apps for Education is almost identical to Google Apps for Business, which costs $50 per user account per year. Advantages of Google Apps for Education (as compared to the free version) include:

  • ad-free email
  • 24×7 phone and email support
  • Google Video for hosted video content

Visit the Google Apps Administrative Help documents for a comprehensive comparison of Google Apps editions and a list of common questions and answers for Google Apps for Education.

The Town Websmith

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Good news! Web technology has finally reached a point where the barriers of entry are so low and the quality of technology is so high that there is no reason for any person or organization not to have a web presence!

For individuals, and small organizations, the #1 priority when launching a web presence is creating a website that disseminates information. These groups are perfect candidates for tools like WordPress-driven sites and Google Apps. With these tools, you can launch a professional web presence quickly and inexpensively. For example:

  • I recently helped a church get set up with free hosting, Google Apps at their domain and a WordPress-driven site. The project took only 20 hours, including two 1.5 hour training sessions with 4 church members.
  • I’m on the committee of a local arts festival. I have recently set them up with a WordPress-driven site and also Google Apps at their domain including several email accounts where previously they had been using only a Gmail address.
  • I set up a WordPress-driven site and Google Apps for my husband’s Rockabilly band. They now have their own branded email addresses (@fastclydes.com) and are coordinating their schedules and gig calendar with Google Calendar.

These tasks were not technically difficult, but access to these tools is immensely valuable to these groups. For each, a technological foundation is now in place making it possible for them to get information published on the web quickly and inexpensively.

Some people just need help connecting the dots.

Unfortunately, the web industry is doing a very poor job of telling individuals, and small organizations about these great tools. That’s likely because there’s not a lot of money to be made from such clients. The traditional lengthy, expensive full-scale web design and development process will do little to truly serve their needs, if they even have the budget for it.

To close this gap, I propose a new type of web professional. I call him/her the Local Websmith. Just like one would tap the expertise of local professionals to remodel their bathroom or prepare their taxes, there can be a local professional who offers web technology services for local people. The work of this Websmith would focus on:

  • education: revealing what is possible on the web and cultivating a productive mindset
  • best practices and progressive philosophies: using emerging technologies and ideas
  • problem solving: discovering what is needed, and what practical solutions will serve them best

It is obvious that this kind of service is necessary. Perhaps there’s not much money to be made through the traditional, full-scale web design process, but there is lots of potential for helping this demographic get on the web by connecting the dots between quality web technology and progressive web philosophy.

Design Last: a practical approach to web design

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I love design. It is a powerful thing—something that every human being is sensitive to. When it’s done well, people will clamor to get it (example, our obsession/love/desire for all things Mac). But, as I’ve written about in the past, good design addresses much more than how something looks. It’s also about how it works. As an example, let’s think about household appliances. Who hasn’t bought some appliance or accessory for their home based solely on how cool it looked, only to find the functionality is not quite up to par? Looking around my house, I see several: a beautiful molded wood desk chair that is horribly uncomfortable, or, our awesome retro-styled toaster that always burns the bottom half of the toast.

It is the same way with websites. Looking great is only half the equation—websites must function well too. At a bare minimum, a website should have the following functional features:

  • Efficient, semantic code so the site will load quickly and be useful to search engines
  • a back-end interface that makes it possible for anyone with an account to log in and edit the content of the site (commonly called a Content Management System)
  • clear, meaningful content, that is written with the site visitor in mind (no search engine mumble-jumble!)
  • Clear visual presentation of the information (in other words, a design that doesn’t get in the way of the content)

These things are the basic foundation of a web site and are all that is needed to start promoting your business on the web. But where does visual design fit in? If we imagine a pyramid that expresses website features in order of importance and dependency, the traits above comprise the bottom two thirds of that pyramid. Custom, branded design (that is, one that expresses the ethos of the business) is the very top of the pyramid because it is useless without all the other pieces in place. So, when I am working with a client to build a website, I encourage them to think of visual design as the last step, a feature that can only be applied once the proper foundation of good technology and good content has been laid. Eventually, when time and budget allows, we may add a branded design on top of the properly coded, CMS-driven website. While the website may not be “perfect” until then, it is certainly better than no website at all!

In the web industry, we can take advantage of this iterative, pragmatic approach because, unlike that uncomfortable chair or low-performance toaster, websites are not concrete objects. When built on a solid foundation, they can easily change and evolve over time. With patience and diligence, the basic, just-get-it-up website you start with today will one day bloom into a beautiful, slick experience that fully and accurately represents how great your business is.

Other advantages of the design-last approach include lower up front cost,  more time to gather understanding of your users and more time to craft your messaging before crucial design decisions are made (in other words, less guessing).

Like what your hearing? You may also enjoy this post: Building your web presence from the ground up: low cost, high quality options for small businesses

    The Importance of Seeing Each Other

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    There is something extremely powerful about verbal communication and meeting a person face-to-face. We’d be safe to take that for granted if it were not for the possibility today of working remotely, communicating completely through written language like email and instant messages with people we have never met in person.

    In my experience, working by written language alone is a serious test of our patience—one that most of us will eventually fail because so many of the vital experiences required to build a respectful relationship with someone are lost. It’s as if there is some very basic neurological function that gets bypassed when you never interact face-to-face with a person, and that person never has the chance to become real in your perception. Instead, they exist more like undeveloped characters from a novel. Then, it becomes easy to distance yourself from that person and fail to see the common goals they share with you. In a worst-case scenario, this leads to serious disconnects and breakdown of communication.

    Whether communicating with a coworker or a current or prospective client, seeing their facial expressions, quirks, they way they dress and do their hair, even insignificant details about the environment they are in, paints a fuller picture of that person for our memory, and opens the gates to a much more empathetic, respectful relationship. So, I have made a personal commitment to see the people I work with more often, whether by in-person meeting or video chat. When I receive a written communication I don’t understand, I will pick up the phone and talk with someone.