Gold Coast Web Expert

I’ve spoken before about increased sales on one of our web shops when we put on the site “Sold Out. New orders will not be filled for 4 weeks.”
This had the effect of actually increasing orders.
I spoke with a colleague last week who had a similar experience with her web design business – if she said “I can’t take on any more clients” her enquiry and sales rate went up.
Potential clients were happy to wait. Her perceived value went up.
We’re not far away from not taking on any more new clients. I’m just waiting on 1 more site to confirm and then we’ll have more than enough work for quite a few months. We don’t want to get too busy – what happens then is our quality can be compromised and our reputation suffers.
Grow The Business Slowly
I’d much rather grow the business slowly than grow it too fast and damage our reputation.
And not taking on any more clients for a while will allow us to sit back and strategically work on the business. That will allow us to develop the plans and actions to takle full effect of our skills and get us into the best possible position for the future.
Cheers
Brendon

Hello
I’ve just popped onto my business web site – www.tailored.com.au – a blog about receiving a plaque from the publisher of my kit for my kit making over $1 million in sales.

I’ve put the entry on the site for 1 simple reason – to market my business.
Here’s how I look at it:
* writing the kit gives me credibility
* having the kit win the ‘Best Book on Web Design’ last year gives me credibility
* having the kit make more than $1 million in sales gives me credibility
Whenever you do anything that the client might consider as giving you credibility, you need to tell them about it. Because if they don’t know about it, it didn’t happen.
Cheers
Brendon

I quoted on a fairly small job recently. But I must have been way too high. Here’s the rejection from the prospect:
“Hi Brendon,
After much consideration, I have decided to spend my money on educating myself by doing a diploma in Multimedia, so I can re-design and take care of my own website.”
Cheers
Brendon

In their plans to take over the galaxy Google have just launched Google Talk.
These guys are going to own the Internet.
Cheers
Brendon

Hi. I’ve just been reading a leading marketers’ blog and he advocates writing a letter a day for 3 days and then following up with a phone call.
That’s doesn’t seem like marketing to me. Sounds like stalking!
Seriously, any marketing you do has to be something you’re comfortable with.
* I wouldn’t be comfortable writing a letter a day for 3 days to a prospect – so I wouldn’t do it.
* I wouldn’t be comfortable walking around dressed in a gorilla suit to promote this business – so I wouldn’t do it.
Positioning Is Important Too
And not only do you have to feel comfortable with your marketing, your marketing also has to be consistent with your brand.
For example, if you are branding yourself as a well-recognised and respected web developer then it’s not going to be appropriate to do your marketing with a loud hailer from the back of a moving truck.
Regards
Brendon

I went to see a client last week about his web site. And it’s the same old typical story.
The client had spent many thousands of dollars on a web site with a web development firm. The search engine optimisation of the site is extremely poor (worse than that, it’s like it’s been set up deliberately to rank poorly – with redirects, poor use of page titles, key word understanding is almost non-existent, etc).
The site gets few visitors and minimal sales.
So then I chat with the client about editing the site to make it visible and indexable by search engines.
2 Things Happen
2 things happen and they always do.
# 1: The initial web developer jumps up and down and recommends that access to the site isn’t given to us.
# 2: The client has only a limited budget to spend on the marketing of their site (this client wasn’t too bad).
Now what happens is I spend 5 hours placating the web developer, reassuring the client and then being second-guessed every step of the way.
And that very soon becomes tiresome, not the ideal client relationship and commercially unviable.
I’ve been around and recognise all of the red flags being tossed up in this situation. So I’ll withdraw our services before we get dragged in to this.
Cheers
Brendon

A decent blogster (is that even a word??) is Matt Cutts. Matt is one of Google’s most famous Webmaster-liasons – well worth a look if you provide SEO services.
http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
Cheers
Brendon

I was speaking with an obviously talented designer yesterday and she mentioned the trouble she has getting paid. Getting paid is a problem for all businesses.
I know I’ve had my share of people taking an age to pay over the years.
In our efforts (and by “our” I mean all of us) to be a good business and provide the best service for our clients we all strive to be ‘nice’ and to be flexible on payment. But if you’re too nice people will take advantage of you and slow your cashflow to a crawl – you can then spend half your time chasing debts and your business suffers.
After a couple of years of that I initiated a few fairly obvious strategies (obvious to me now!).
3 Best Debt Collection Bits Of Advice For Web Developers
1. Always get a deposit before you start – we ask for 50% (I’ve never ever had a client question that)
2. Never make the web site live until the client makes the final payment (otherwise they have no incentive to pay. If they’re excited about the site they’ll want to see it up ASAP – and so they’ll pay ASAP)
3. Stick to a system for debt collection – no exceptions (make it as automated as possible)
Hope that is of some help.
Cheers
Brendon