The purpose o f this blog article is to try and explain some of the differences (both functionally and cost) of having a CMS (Content Management System) vs Non Content Managed on your website.

Having a Web Developer /Web Designer Create a System that allows you, the non technical user, a method to update your own web pages not only seems like a great idea but indeed is one, however you first need to fully understand what it is you are asking for.

Full Content Management System – means a system that allows the user to create categories, add pages, and sub pages that can then be edited via a web interface. This system requires no intervention from a web developer. Anyone who can use a text editor can model, shape and create a website with an unlimited number of categories or pages within those categories. A system such as this uses a database for its content and structure and is relatively complex to develop and support. Expect to pay significantly more for a system such as this.

Partial Content Management System – usually means a system that allows the user to update a set amount of pages within a site. This type of system also uses a text editor and is straight forward to use but you can’t add additional pages, you can update to ones that are there but you can’t alter the structure of your website by adding categories and pages.

More likely the system will be set up so that you can update some of your pages, maybe your products page, or a page that is date sensitive e.g. Training Courses or Seminars your arranging.
Or perhaps you are happy to let your web developer update certain pages of your site but want to be able to add News & Events.

Although this kind of CMS also uses a database to hold its content it is not so complex, is more manageable to support and therefore you will see the benefits of updating your own pages with a much smaller price tag.

Hope this clarifies a few thing for you, but if not and you want some more details you can always just give us a call, or email us, we are happy to help if we can.

We all know that Google is a search engine but not everyone knows that Google as a corporation has not only shown the world the power of brand, product and service but also offers us some of the most powerful tools in the web marketplace – for free.

It was a stunning stroke of genius the day that the guy’s and gal’s at Google set to offering the world professional, useful web tools for free.

Google Analytics currently has over 52% of the world’s web tracking market and this is only set to rise as Google techies provide us with more and more powerful elements.
Measuring your marketing is no new thing but by providing anyone and everyone with an easy to use tool that collates, formulates and turns the data into a visual representation of what’s working and what’s not in our online marketing mix is in my option a tool that you would just be foolish to miss out on.

We include a Google Analytics Account setup for all our new clients free of charge, but for those who don’t have it set up or could just do with a little extra help getting started:

Go to the web address http://www.google.com/analytics/sign_up.html to sign up or http://www.google.com/analytics/ and log into your Google account. If we haven’t set an account up for you or you haven’t got a Google Account you will need to set one up first and then create an Analytics account from your control panel. [Setting Up a Google Account]
Overview Page: This is where all the websites that you may be monitoring will be held, Click on the Account Name (which is a hyperlink) to look at the data on the individual websites, select ‘View Report’.

This will give you a visual view of your data:

The graph at the very top (as shown above) represents the visits to your site and breaks it down into daily figures in any one given month.
It provides you with Bounce Rate (the percentage of single-page visits or visits in which the person left your site from the entrance) which indicates how relevant your visitors found the entrance page, Average time your visitors spent on your site (which helps you judge content quality) and New visits (those that have visited your site for the first time)

The map overlay shows you which areas of the world (yes the world) are showing an interest in your website and the traffic overview shows you how those visitors came to find your site.

So immediately you can see the data that Google Analytics captures for you can help you track ROI, and help create a targeted and informative ‘next move’ strategy.

Totally Free and growing all the time ……

Look out for more blogs on this topic and feel free to add a request.

Ok, so by now we have all heard about Social Media how it works, how much time it takes and what’s involved, but maximising time for such web Marketing remains a challenge.
We were brain storming the other day during a meeting on how we could increase our productivity within the company’s networking activity. How we could still be active on our twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blog accounts while:

• It doesn’t consume all of our time
• We get a ROI on the time we do commit

Here are some of the suggestions that we came up with and thought we would share them:

• Be firm with either yourself or your staff’s time. Allocate an amount of time that you are going to participate in networking/social media and stick to it, there comes a point where ‘you can do no more’ to increase effectiveness so don’t waste valuable time.
• Don’t be shy at offering links, interaction buttons or even invitations wherever possible.
• Send out an E Newsletter to promote, publish and round up the months networking activities.
• Link your networking together with apps like http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/twitter-tools/
• Don’t *over do it*. Blogging, tweeting and profile updates that are done too often, seem to lose credibility quickly. Post often (@ least once a week), and post quality.
• Give things away. Don’t worry we’re not suggesting you give away a secret formula just give away enough to make your followers a) keep following and b) recommend you as a valuable/credible source.
• Measure! See our previous article. The above will all be totally pointless if you don’t.

Setting up an account is simple, but if you are still having a few problems then here are some pointers to help you on your way:

1. Open a Browser of your choice and go to web address https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount
2. Fill in the details, accept the terms and conditions and create your new account.

3. Google will send you and a verification email (so make sure you use a valid address) that contains a link.
4. Click on the link – hey presto you now have your very own Google Account.

You now have access to an array of tools including Gmail (a free email account), Calendar, Analytics, docs, webmaster tools …..  The list is quite extensive.

I have just had a really good customer experience with Sage Pay and I thought that this was perfect for a Friday afternoon blog. I had a call from a customer with an e-commerce website in Stafford. They were having issues with chargebacks and they wanted me to investigate what could be done to reduce them. This is a bit outside the usual areas a support contract would cover but being a flexible type of company, I thought I would do what I could.

Note: For anyone who is unfamiliar with this e-commerce issue, a chargeback is where you take a card payment over the internet and send out the goods only to find a month or more later that the cardholder claims they didn’t make the purchase. You get the money taken from your account without much further a do.

Sage Pay Support Call

The call was answered quickly and professionally. We initially discussed the transaction with the chargeback and why the chargeback had occurred. In this case it was a pretty clear case of fraudulent card use and the customer had simply missed it. If they had gone into their My Sage Pay customer area and checked the fraud score they would have seen the high 3rd Man fraud score and they could have held the order and contacted the customer. Doing this two or three times a day is going to be a pain and easily forgotten, but an email to let them know there was a high score would help. Unfortunately this functionality isn’t available.

There were other security measures, but these could throw a false positive, where a genuine transaction could be rejected incorrectly. It really is a juggling act that does rely on the customer going into their My Sage Pay area a couple of times a day, and there is no way round this

Installed Security Measures

CV2 Check – The CV2 number is the number on the back of the card. If you can’t put this in or you get it wrong for any reason then you can safely reject the payment

Postcode and Address Checks – If you reject against these then you can often loose genuine sales. We decided it would be better to allow them to go to 3rd Man Fraud checking. So the check is requested but the payment is not rejected if this check fails

3D Secure – This security measure takes the website customer to a new area to enter a password that they have set. It is a bit like asking the customer to enter their pin into a chip and pin reader. As the website owner you can allow this step to be skipped but I we decided to  ask for at the very least

Conclusion

The support we received from Sage Pay was first class. It is the first time we have had an e-commerce website customer on Sage Pay, but they will be the only company we’ll recommend in the future. We have mostly used World Pay in the past, but I’m moving to Sage Pay for our own e-commerce websites and for any customers who want to move across.

When is a website not a website? When the website is ‘Coming soon’ If ‘Under Construction’ Pages will kill off your business the dreaded ‘Coming Soon’ web page will stop you before you even got started. This is usually (but not always) when a new company wants a website, registers their domain and then asks someone to put up a single page with ‘Coming Soon’ on it.

No One Does Business Soon

So who wants to do business soon? Who wants to do business with someone who is not actually here yet (but will be soon?). If your not actually trading yet then you are ‘coming soon’ but this is rarely the case. What is the message that you’re actually giving out with this? Are you saying ‘We can’t get our act together and sort out our website’, or is it more like ‘We’ve neglected our site, but we’ll try not to neglect our customers’? Feel free to add your own theme on this one.

So if this is what we’re saying to our customers and it is as negative as I claim, why don’t people get this sorted out? It must come down to the time and money see-saw. If you don’t have the time you have to use money, but getting it sorted out costs an unknown amount of money (and it is probably too much money, you assume). But you can get this sorted on a budget and can be cost effective.

It Doesn’t Have to be This Way

Getting one page up should be well within your time and budget constraints. Any web design company worth its salt will be able to get to get you a fresh design with images up and live on the web for a couple of hundred pounds (at the most). You’ll have to compromise on design. It won’t be all singing and dancing and it may not be exactly what you want, but it will be better and more effective than your old coming soon page.

You may struggle to get the words out and down on paper and if this is the case you should think about hiring a copywriter to write the copy (the words on the page) for you. Most web design companies will have a copywriter they can recommend if they don’t have one on staff and copy for a page might only cost you £80, which compared to the sales and reputation you’re loosing isn’t too bad.

Helpful Hints

1. Don’t use the words ‘Under Construction’
   The web is a fluid and in constant change. Your site will always be changing and is therefore always under construction.
2. Don’t use the words ‘Coming Soon’
   If you have a page on the web, you’re not coming soon, you’re here! If your website is one page, then that is your site. Better to have one great web page than loads of nothing pages.
3. Make it Keyword Rich
   Google loves text. Customers love information. The two go together. Get one interesting, information packed, keyword rich page with a few interesting images to let visitors know they have hit the right page. Have a clear first paragraph that tells visitors they are in the right place, then add a benefit proposition that is the way it is, but …
4. Include a Call to Action
   Once your visitor has read what you offer, tell then what you want them to do next. ‘We can arrange your free, no obligation demonstration by calling 01799 111 222′, or ‘Visit us on market days for a great deal’. Use something that isn’t too ‘hard sell’ but encourages your visitor to continue the dialogue you have started
5. List your Contact Details and / or Form
   Now your customers know what you want them to do, make sure that they can. A contact form that emails you the requested details is always good. If your mega tight budget doesn’t allow the emailing form then just make sure your address, phone number and email are on there.

So Get On With It

So stop procrastinating and get going. Find a web company you feel like you can trust, will take a bit of time to chat to you and help you out and get one great page up on the web. The rest can come later.

Rake Mark can obviously help you with getting one great page up there ( or as many as you might need), just give us a call on 01785 256 222. We’re here and happy to help.

As a follow-up to’ Make Your Website Design Engaging, not Frustrating’ I thought it might be useful to give you some honest to goodness practises that will help your web pages load faster without breaking the bank.

Starting with the very basics:

1. Images – very pretty, adds colour, interest and supports the textual based content on your website page, an image speaks a thousand words and all that, but also adds weight. By weight I mean the amount of data that is on the page and has to be requested and served by the web server. Now don’t get me wrong most websites have images but all too often, I come across the website that has IMAGES, Large (imposing on the page), pointless (offers nothing to the user) and Heavy (takes valuable seconds to load).When designing your website page make sure your image adds value to your page, are correctly edited and well proportioned in size for the page that they sit in and correctly compressed.
2. CSS– where possible use CSS files for layout and formatting. Your browser can cache the style and format of your page form an external CSS and loads your page a lot faster than if it had to parse through longwinded style script tags on every load.

Tables– try to avoid using tables for anything other than data, and nested tables are a definite ‘Don’t Do’. It takes the browser some time (valuable time) to work out which end tag belongs to what, match everything up and render your web page correctly.

3. Duplicated Code – If you are going to use the same piece of code multiple times throughout your website then you might want to think about putting it in an external script file. This way your browser will already have it in cache and will recall it much faster than if it has to run the script multiple times.
4. Clean Valid Code – Clean code is king. Search Engines love it, reward it and on top of all that your browser will render well scripted tags faster than any ill formed tag. If you happen to be using a WYSIWYG (What You See is What You Get) HTML editor, take care to remove the (never ceases to amaze me) oodles of unnecessary, pointless scripting.

If you’re unsure what any of these tips mean then you should ask your website developer or you can ask us (we will be happy to help) by either leaving a comment on this post or emailing us directly, we are really friendly and tend not to bite.

Are ‘Under Construction’ web pages damaging your business? If your website has pages with ‘Under Construction’ live on the web then they are almost certainly costing you enquiries, leads and sales. You wouldn’t allow a customer to walk in your showroom only to tell them you were unprepared to help them. You wouldn’t answer the phone and say, ‘Sorry, were under construction’. You wouldn’t add a page to your new brochure or catalogue with Under Construction across it, so why do business owners allow pages with Under Construction on them live in their website?

Offending Web Pages on the Increase

Under construction pages seem to be back on the rise, I have come across several in the last couple of months, prompting this article. This is nothing new, a new website or new section of a current website goes live unfinished with the words ‘Under Construction’ accompanied by a horrific animated image. Why? I have never found a satisfactory explanation to this and it is usually the fault of the website design company. Some website design companies seem to be waiting for copy (the text to go on the page) and some seem to be pushing a deadline. The worst offenders may even be developing the client’s site live in the web (which is simply unforgiveable).

Whatever the reason, if you have these pages on your website, now is the time to decide that you need to either finish them or remove them. If it is up to your web designer then nag them constantly to get this sorted (and vow to never use them again). If you manage your own site then you can get them finished or take them down. If you don’t want to remove them completely then you can just remove any link to the pages.

Do this one thing for your online business before you do anything else. Under Construction web pages send the worst possible signal about your business to all who view them. Your website is your most valuable online ‘Real Estate’. Treat it with respect

During my regular trawl through the business forums last week I came across a post from someone who is selling fashion accessories at their local markets and the giving the profits to local charities. They had a really low budget and so they were looking for sources of cheap advertising.

Unfortunately, advertising will often fail to give value for money, especially if it is used in isolation, small quantities or with a limited budget. I wanted to help, so I offered some tips on other marketing and promotion ideas that can yield dividends without costing very much money. An abridged version of my reply is below.

Hi

I think you should consider this from a rounded marketing approach. Don’t just think about advertising, which is probably going to be too expensive for you, think about other methods of promotion that will require time without costing too much.

1. Press Releases.

 There are a few free press release websites that you can load press releases to. Also, contact your local paper with interesting things you are doing, new lines of jewellery, other activities. When you have been going 1 year, tell them. You are a charitable organisation, so they are going to be happier to print it than if you were just a new small business. You are clearly a big hearted person who cares for others, doing something other than moaning about your situation, a real can do person. The press will love writing about you. 

2. Blogging

Your on the web so set up a free account at blogger.com and start writing about the things you do. Make it personal and interesting. The people you met at the various markets, the new lines of products, how sales are going, are you nearing a target, etc. Once or twice per week if you can. Put the blog address on any offline marketing you do (leaflets, cards, press releases, etc)

3. Twitter

So if you are blogging then try micro blogging. Set up a free account. Follow a few people who are interested in jewellery (search twitter for those users) and then try to write a few tweets of your own. Be upbeat and amusing. Tweet a few times per day if you can. People will start to follow you.

4. Facebook

Again, its free. Set up an account and start a fan page. You can upload photos of your designs and get feedback on them. Also you can profile the charities that you are helping. Every time an amount of money goes to a charity, find out what it does, then let people know.

5. Recognition

There may be awards in your area and nationally that you could win. Business people pat themselves on the back all the time. There may be something like the Pride of Britain awards in your area. I am sure that someone knows about the great job you do and if you were nominated for a local hero award then you could raise your profile and sell more jewellery and do even more good.

 6. Personal Representation

Try to put yourself in front of as many people as possible. On days that there is no market you might want to try contacting local organisations either on the phone or in person. You could try to sell directly to the people you talk to or ask if you could have a small table with samples that you could sell during lunch time or at home time. Again, make a point of letting them know that this is charitable work, they are more likely to allow it. Maybe business centres with a lobby area or larger organisations with plenty of staff could be good locations.

 All my ideas are designed to be cheap or free and generate buzz around your business. The more people talk about your business and how great your products are and what a great job you do for charity the orders will start to come in. 

I really do wish you all the best of luck with this. Let me know if I can be of any further help. 

Phil

You can read the full post thread at the UK Business Forums,  http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=1142952#post1142952

If Aileen gets in touch to say how things are going then I add it to my blog.