Free Webinar: The Seven Biggest Mistakes Business Owners Make With Their Web Sites

The Internet has changed recently, particularly with the growth of “Web 2.0” tools such as Facebook, blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn, podcasting and YouTube.

Although this has taken some of the focus off Web sites (for example, you can now have an on-line presence without a Web site), it doesn’t mean that Web sites are obsolete. Far from it! In fact, the opposite is true: A high-quality Web site is even more important than ever before. It’s just that it plays a different role in your on-line strategy. Now it's no longer the only place that people find you on the Internet; but it's still the last place they turn to before deciding to do business with you.

On Wednesday 17th February, I'm running a webinar about the seven biggest mistakes I see on business web sites. Here's the list for your reference:

• Mistake #1: Their Web Site Doesn’t Change, so It’s Inaccurate, Out Of Date, Or Just Plain Wrong
• Mistake #2: They Make It Too Difficult For People to Buy
• Mistake #3: They Don’t Have A “Plan B” For People Who Don’t Buy
• Mistake #4: Their Web Site Focuses On Themselves, Not the Real Problems of Their Site Visitors
• Mistake #5: They Try To Sell Too Soon
• Mistake #6: They Try To Please Everybody (And End Up Pleasing Nobody)
• Mistake #7: Their Web Site Doesn’t Fit The Rest Of Their On-Line Strategy

This is a free webinar, on Wednesday 17th February, from 9.30-10.30am W.A. (Perth) time.

Register for the webinar here (and see the time in your time zone as well).

How to Enthrall an Audience Like Steve Jobs

Geoff Mcdonald, the creator of the Book Rapper series, has just released his latest e-book, iPresent: How to Enthrall an Audience Like Steve Jobs, which is based on Carmine Gallo's book "The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs".

Geoff summarises the book in 14 easy-to-read pages, and even includes links to YouTube videos demonstrating some of the ideas.

Get it free at the Book Rapper site.

Google vs Beijing: More to this than meets the eye

Google hit the headlines recently, publicly threatening to pull out of China after its Gmail servers were hacked. There's a lot more to this story than meets the eye, though; and we look at some of the motivations behind Google's threats, as well as explaining how this story affects you as an Internet user.

Listen to the podcast here:

MP3 File

The Story

On 12th January this year, Google announced publicly that it was "reviewing its business operations in China". The Google announcement was a weird mishmash of stuff about Google's stance on Chinese government censorship, seemingly triggered by Google being hacked. Google's statement was along the lines of, "Hackers tried to break into accounts of Chinese dissidents; therefore we're going to stop censoring our search results, even if that means pulling out of China altogether". Obviously, this makes no sense at all.

The implicit assumption, although Google is too diplomatic to say so, is that it was the Chinese government or its proxies was responsible for the hacking. In this case, Google's stance does make some sense even though the issues of security and censorship are unrelated.

The Chinese government has vehemently denied any involvement in the hacking. Indeed, some security experts have questioned the evidence of Beijing's involvement.

The hack was facilitated by a flaw in Internet Explorer. Microsoft eventually released a patch for the bug but not before several governments urged their citizens to switch browsers.

Google announced that it "will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all".

Additionally, Google has suspended the Chinese launch of two Android phones.

The Response

Hillary Clinton got on her soap box and made a strong-sounding but clueless speech on the topic. Obama, too, couldn't resist sticking his oar in. Beijing told the US to stick to the facts and mind its own business.

Google's stance has been widely supported but some of that support could be purely because of anti-China sentiment:

• "Google living up to its 'Do no evil' mantra"
• "Big U.S. company taking a stand against evil China"
• "How dare the Chinese government try to attack dissidents?" (but it's OK for Western governments to do the same when, say, tracking terrorism?)

Our Response

Censorship

This incident is a timely reminder that the Rudd government plans to impose mandatory Internet censorship, similar to that in China, on Australians. Hilary Clinton has been audibly quiet in expressing concerns about the Australian government's censorship plans.

Cloud Computing

In many respects using cloud computing is like out-sourcing. When using a cloud computing service you are out-sourcing responsibility for privacy and security to a third-party. This incident reminds us that even Google isn't immune to security and privacy breaches.

Google's Motive

What if we turned our sceptical eye to this, and asked whether Google might have some other reason for taking the stance they have - for example:

• It takes the heat off the fact that Gmail was hacked! (Ref: Google Is Worried About Privacy, Not Politics, in China Dispute)
• Google is way behind Baidu in China (30% vs. 60% market-share), so maybe it wanted to get out anyway, but without admitting defeat.
• It earns Google brownie points elsewhere abroad - e.g. in the EU, where it's had run-ins with the French
• It earns Google brownie points at home (USA) (Ref: Google's Clever Branding Move)
  
• It provides a (false) pretext for lifting censorship of Google.cn which could steal marketshare from Baidu
  

Conclusion

Watch this space: Google and Beijing are playing a game of brinksmanship. Only time will tell who will brink first. Stay tuned to the Focal Point podcast and we'll revisit this topic once the matter is resolved.

Reference material

CNN's Buzz Out Loud podcast has an excellent discussion on this topic, soon after the news broke.

Apple seems to have bombed with its iPad

Last week, Apple launched its much-hyped tablet computer, the iPad.

First, it's an awful name, and it's hilarious - but not particularly surprising - that "iTampon" was the #2 topic on Twitter the day of the launch! In fact, way back in 2006, there was a comedy skit about an "iPad" (Remember, this was before the iPad, and even the iPhone, so it was parodying the original iPod):



It's hard to believe Apple's marketing team didn't even bother to do a five-second Google search before naming the iPad! That would have prevented the PR disaster around the name. Who do they think they are - Microsoft?

But leaving aside the issue of the disastrous name, it seems from what I've read (and that's all I can go on) that the iPad is little more than a big fat iPod Touch (the iPod Touch being an iPhone that can't make phone calls). Here's an amusing video pointing out some of its limitations (Warning: Strong language):



It's been amusing seeing Apple fanboys trying to defend the iPad on blogs and forums. But, objectively - and mind you, only from a distance - it seems to be a flop.

Give value, get business

I was speaking to a client recently - a professional speaker who had just written an e-book. She was wondering whether to give the e-book away free in order to get more bookings as a speaker, or to start selling the e-book on-line as another source of income.

My advice: Give it away free.

Why? Because she's an experienced, competent speaker; but an inexperienced, "uncompetent" (I don't want to say incompetent!) Internet marketer. So the quickest way to leverage the e-book is by giving it away.

This advice won't be right for everybody, but I bet it's more applicable than you think for you. If you're thinking about selling anything on-line, realise that it's a big job.

Thinking Ahead Journal: Gihan Perera, David Beard, Jenn Shallvey, Peter Webb, Ian Berry, Matt Hern, David Penglase, Ross Clennett, Anne Riches

Every week I collect the most recent blog posts from my clients and members - all leading thinkers about business and life - and assemble them into the Thinking Ahead journal.

Download the 31st January 2010 issue here.

What's in it:

• Gihan Perera: Are You on Their iPhones?
• Lifelong Fitness: Set a goal for your 100th birthday
• Let's go there...: Out of the writing closet
• Gihan Perera: Turning features into benefits isn't always the right thing to do
• Peter Webb's "Wisdom Circle": How Dare You!
• So What's Next?: Dr Graeme Codrington’s elearning courses for environmental sustainability
• Gihan Perera: Ask the real marketing experts: your customers
• Matt Hern's Money Guide: How To Save Up To Buy Your First Home
• Sales Success Forum: Smile Your Way To Sales Success
• Ross Clennett: How to get more candidates interviewed by clients - the funnel technique
• Gihan Perera: Don't Get Fooled Again, by Richard Wilson
• The Almond Effect: CLUES Will your stress cost you your job?
• Gihan Perera: Get Control Of Your Web Site
• Matt Church: The shoulders of giants
• Ann Rolfe's Mentoring Works Blog: Why work on Australia Day?
• Peter Webb's "Wisdom Circle": Good versus Evil!
• Gihan Perera: Why big business isn't embracing Web 2.0 - and why that's good news for the rest of us
• Matt Hern's Money Guide: Principles of Economics Translated
• The Truth about Trust: Meeting the Needs of Others
• Gihan Perera: The Hedonist's Guide to Goal Setting

Are You on Their iPhones?

I bought an iPhone a few months ago, because a lot of my clients were asking me how it would affect their business. I'm not a big fan of the iPhone, and I'm hanging out for Google to get its act together and bring its phone to Australia. But in the meantime, the iPhone is still the world's second-most popular smartphone, so it's important to understand what it means for you.

Even if you don't own an iPhone yourself, it affects your business. Why? Because other people might be checking e-mail on it (and cursing you for sending that huge attachment), browsing your Web site on the iPhone's tiny screen, Googling some stats that you quote in a presentation - during the presentation itself, tweeting the key points of your presentation to the world, and checking your Facebook profile five minutes before their first meeting with you.

So, whether you like it or not, you are on their iPhone. The question is: Are you there by choice or by chance?

Your best positioning is with your own iPhone application.

Apple boasts that the iPhone applications store (known as the App Store) has over 100,000 applications. From what I've seen, at least 95% of them are rubbish. But not all of them. And if you create one of the few that's worth keeping, it can keep you front of mind with clients, audiences and prospects.

You can see my iPhone's "home page" on the right: It has apps for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, reading stuff I've saved for later, monitoring my exercise, goal setting, taking photos, taking notes, keeping a shopping list, Perth weather, the latest cricket scores, and my own new app (more about that one soon) - all the stuff I check regularly, sometimes even daily.

The trick, of course, is to create an application of value, so you can get on their iPhone home page (or at least near the front). Some things are obvious: If you teach goal setting, create an app to help people track and monitor their goals; if you teach fitness, create an app to help them manage diet and monitor their exercise routine; if you teach wealth creation, give them access to property prices and the stock market.

But there's one application that works for all experts: An application where you share your expertise. Imagine if they could get from you a tip of the day, a new idea to put into practice, a brief article, even a joke or cartoon.

I've created such an application myself.

Creating iPhone applications can be expensive ($1,000s of dollars), but I've found a way to do it for under US$200. It's not an all-singing, all-dancing, customised application precisely for your area of expertise (like the goal-tracking or diet-monitoring examples). But it's perfect for infopreneurs and thought leaders.

If you're an iPhone user, you can get my application now from the iTunes App Store. There's no cost: Just go to the iTunes Store and search for my name. You'll find my podcasts, and also the new app:

When you download, install and open it, you first see an opening "splash page", and then it shows you the latest entries from my blog:

This is exactly what I want you to see: It's keeping you in touch with my latest thinking, ideas, news and events.

And it's right there on your iPhone!

There's also another button to show you my tweets from Twitter, and another button for further tips. Those are less important, and are just the icing on the cake. The main benefit for me is that you get to see my blog posts regularly.

I did have the option of inserting ads into the application, to get paid every time somebody clicked them. But I declined. That's not the point. It's not about making a few cents here and there; it's being there with your clients, audiences and prospects.

Turning features into benefits isn't always the right thing to do

Quick quiz: If you stumbled across a business Web site and saw this as its tagline on the home page, what would you think the business does?



Turns out they sell e-mail marketing software. OK, raise your hand if you guessed that ... ? Hmmm ... Not too many hands, I see.

The big problem with this tagline is not just that it's full of meaningless corporate-speak nouns and adjectives (although that is a problem). No, the big problem is that it's too vague for anybody to know whether it meets their needs. Sure, they talk about benefits rather than features - as all good salespeople are taught to do. But they've turned their benefits into such a generic phrase that it's useful to nobody.

For example, "marketing automation" is certainly relevant for somebody who wants e-mail marketing software. But it could also mean things like outsourcing to an outbound telemarketing company, a PR firm sending regular media releases on your behalf, and building the downline for your network marketing business.

Similarly, "sales effectiveness solutions" could mean sales training courses, books and DVDs to help salespeople, market research and analysis, trends predictors, and a host of other things.

The point is, if somebody comes to the site and is interested in any of these other things, they will be disappointed. And that's A Bad Thing. (And in case you think I'm being too picky by just concentrating on one phrase on the home page, I challenge you to spend five minutes browsing their site - start by clicking the LEARN MORE button - and see how long it takes you to figure out that they are selling e-mail marketing software. I eventually cottoned on to it only on the Pricing page!)

As much as your Web site should engage the customers you want, it should also disengage those you don't want. By doing this, you make your Web site instantly more relevant to the people you do want.

So look at your Web site again with a critical eye. You know who you're trying to attract, but are you inadvertently offering to serve others as well? If so, change the wording to be more narrowly focussed. It will save the other people's time, and be more engaging to your true prospects.

Ask the real marketing experts: your customers

When one of my clients, Max Hitchins, released his e-book 365 Marketing Ideas For The Hospitality, Tourism & Travel Industries, he made more than $4000 in sales in the first 24 hours.

Was he just lucky? No. He ran a monthly competition on his website and asked site visitors which of his products they would like to win as a prize. What we discovered over a period of months was almost everybody was asking for a particular book. It was the first in the list, so we moved it around – and the results were the same. That’s why Max put so much time into producing this e-book, which was on the topic people were requesting, and gave that priority over all his other products.

I wrote an article about this topic for Nett magazine in June 2009. It's still relevant, so you can read the full article here.

Don't Get Fooled Again, by Richard Wilson

Wilson takes on pseudo-science, political doublespeak, groupthink and denialists - and others - in this readable introduction to scepticism.

This is by no means an in-depth analysis of the topics covered, nor is it a comprehensive coverage of the field. Rather, Wilson exposes us to some of the principles of thinking sceptically, drawing on examples like AIDS denialists, the flawed thinking before and during the Iraq War, and the smoking-cancer controversy.

The points are made by stories and anecdotes, much in the way of a magazine or newspaper, rather than drawing on the science. However, that doesn't make it less valuable. As an introduction to scepticism, and a way to spark an interest in curious laypeople, it does its job well.