Don’t waste money on your website

10/11/2011 By Scott Wendling 4 Comments

Justifying investing in a quality website is difficult if you’re used to TV, radio, and print advertising. When you purchase commercials you know exactly how many you get, how much each costs, and an idea of a conversion rate those commercials give you. When a business invests in a website it is not the end of the story. It needs traffic, it needs regular updating, it needs to be actively maintained, and it needs a way to monitor success.

A good website is not cheap and should take a lot of thought and consideration. Before you even begin developing a website ask yourself these questions:

Who is the website for and why will they be using it?
What goals does my business need to accomplish with the website?
What business image do I want to convey?

There are a few key mistakes many businesses make when they decide it’s time to build a website. Do not do these things:

Decide what you want the site to look like before hiring a website developer and/or designer.
Let someone’s kid build it for $300.
Decide that you need a flash site (don’t decide what type of site you need actually, leave that to the professionals after you tell them your businesses needs).

Once you decide your business needs a website it is important to hire a quality website designer and/or developer. There are many people out there that will eagerly offer to build your website for a few hundred dollars. This may sound like a good idea because you may be thinking, ”my business only needs a cheap simple website.” Your business needs more than a ”cheap and simple website“. Hiring the wrong designer in the begining can cost you more money down the road. Designers are notorious for being unreliable which makes the good ones worth the money.

When you meet with your web developer they should be ask you about your goals, business image and existing marketing strategy, what type of customers you have, how you interact with customers, and other questions that may not directly relate to design.

A designer should never ask, ”What do you want the site to look like.” The designer is the expert. If they just copy what you tell them to they are not using their expertiece. If you know how your customers behave on the web (how they navigate, what they want to find, etc.) then share this info with your designer, but don’t tell them exactly where everything needs to go and what it should look like. Remember this site if for your customers not you, so let the professionals do their work.

During the website development process there are a few things you want to avoid doing as well:

If a developer asks for information don’t wait weeks to give it to them.
If you do procrastinate giving information to your developer don’t expect them to be done the next day, and possible not on time either.
Assume that one person is an expert in all things web. There are several practices in web development including: design, SEO, usability, several types of coding languages, content management, and other fields most people aren’t aware of.

There are many other things you want to do or avoid during the website development process. These are just some good guidelines to help you get started and know what to ask and look for. Is there something important I’m missing that a business should or shouldn’t do when starting their website development process?

Filed Under: How To, Marketing Tagged With: business, communication, dos, simple website, technical communication, usability, web design, website, website designers, website development

Empire Avenue shareholder mail: Does it work?

09/23/2011 By Scott Wendling 6 Comments

Empire Avenue shareholder mail is a topic of much debate on the Avenue. Many people say it’s a waste of time. Some people never read the mail so they assume nobody does. Others have tried sending shareholder mail and didn’t get the response they were looking for. In my experience: Empire Avenue shareholder mail works. To quote @SharonHayes :

I’m impressed.

Sharon played Empire Avenue but deleted her account to focus on a major project. When she finished the project she returned. To help her get even more momentum I sent out a shareholder mail telling everyone she was now back and available. I told my shareholders about her numbers before she quit and that I expected them to double their money by the end of the week. She gained 22 new investors in less than 10 minutes. Her price went up almost 2 eaves in about 20 minutes. Fortunately she kept me honest and more than doubled by the end of the week.

The first thing you must have is a goal. There are many things that can be accomplished. Here are some goals I have gone after with my mail:

Get traffic to a blog post.
Get comments on a blog post.
Help a friend promote their ebook or other product.
Help a friend sell shares.
Get people to join your #EAv community.
Get people to tweet out a link to an event or something special.
Get people to follow/friend/like etc. on other social networks.
Create new partnerships for guest blogs and affiliate promotions.
Simply get likes/comments on the mail
Enhance engagement with your shareholders

The trick to a successful shareholder mail is simple: provide value. A while ago I started the #EAv lottery. I give away up to $50 to Amazon every 2 weeks based on the number of shares they own. Of course people love to win money so they bought me up. When the first Empire Avenue Lottery winner was drawn I actually posted who it was in a blog post so I could get traffic to my blog. Then I wrote a mail that was titled Lottery “Winner and Tips.” I started the mail by telling people a few things I do to increase my dividends and connect on #EAv. People clicked on the link because they wanted to see if they won. I got traffic by A)providing tips and B)giving away money.

Not everyone is doing this for a business though so giving money doesn’t make sense for most players. I continue to conduct the lottery but I have done several other incentives to create a successful mail.

Ask people to leave a link to a blog post, video, or photo they would like a comment on.
Commit to buying shares if someone comments, tweets, or does something else you would like them to do.
Ask people to leave links to a social network sites so you can make sure you are following them.
Simply provide tips for playing Empire Avenue or links to articles that you find helpful.

Anyone can offer up an incentive of some sort. It doesn’t have to be huge. People just want to be appreciated. The key is to offer something of more value than what you are asking of them. If you are in a position where you can offer limited value then don’t ask for anything! People will comment and like because they recognize you are going out of your way to help them simply because you want to. Empire Avenue relationships can feel cold sometimes and this is a sure fire way to say “hey, I’m a cool person and I want to help you succeed.”

The best way to tell if the mail is working is to keep track of the likes and comments for each mail. If they are increasing that means people are coming back to read your mails each time and you are gaining shareholders. Don’t be discouraged in the begining if you get minimal response. It takes time to build trust in shareholder mail and as people see the value you are providing they will learn to trust you more and become more willing to do something if you need help. Here is the history of my shareholder mail responses (You couldn’t always like/comment mail so I’m starting with the first one you could):

1 likes 0 comments
12 likes 8 comments
30 likes 16 comments
35 likes 20 comments
70 likes 30 comments
95 likes 27 comments
93 likes 23 comments
118 likes 33 comments
127 likes 63 comments
133 likes 31 comments
154 likes 47 comments
153 likes 51 comments

If I judged off the first mail and said “this is worthless” then I would have been missing out on 1,021 likes and 349 comments to date. The shareholder mail with drop in comments from the previous mail are where I asked people to comment somewhere else like a blog post. Right now I get 15-20 comments, tweets, or “actions” when I ask people to do something elsewhere.

The absolute most important thing to remember: Show appreciation and provide value to your shareholders. Is there something you’ve done in a mail that you had success with?

Filed Under: Empire Avenue, How To Tagged With: EAv, Empire Avenue, shareholder mail

QR codes can’t brand your small business but they can create positive sentiment

09/01/2011 By Scott Wendling 3 Comments

Small businesses should not create a QR code and send people to the front page of their website or about page. There are many ways to do QR codes wrong, but this is probably one of the worst. It’s a difficult concept to understand because QR codes are actually engaged marketing tools that pose as static marketing. Someone has just taken time to get their phone out, open an app, and scan your code. They are now engaged. Then they land on the front of your website or even worse your about page. Their first thought: “lame.” You’ve just taken away a prospects valuable time to push your marketing on them. They didn’t care about your business before, now they just think it’s annoying.

“That’s what I want them to see.” This is the death of any marketing campaign, especially ones that require action by the consumer. For commercials and product placement the logic is to get attention and hope people remember something about your brand. It’s a very passive “hey look at me” way of marketing. When you go from passive marketing to engaged marketing it’s not “hey look at me,” but “hey look what I can do for you.” Ok, you’ve been told to plaster codes everywhere, but what the heck are they good for if you can’t tell someone your small business has “premiere service,” “dedication to customer service,” and a bunch of other stuff I expect from a business?

Youth Football, Basketball, Baseball, and other League Sponsorship’s

Sponsoring the local little league team is nothing new. An employees kid just signed up for teeball so they hit you up to buy the shirts. You begrudgingly say “ok” like you do every year and send the logo and phone number to the print shop. Now people that are on the team and probably very familiar with your small business get to see your logo all the time. You got a little awareness but why not kick it up a notch? Make your logo really small, or leave it off completely. Put a big ole QR code on the back of the shirt. What do we know about people watching little league games? They are probably into sports, most likely 25-45 males and females, might be bored from watching 8 year olds miss fly balls, and probably have to feed their kids after the game. Now that we have an idea of what these people are into we have an idea of how we can provide value. How do you provide it?

Print “Scan for MLB scores” and send them to a page with your logo that has a score update feed. Maybe have one of those little things pop up that tells them how to bookmark the page.
Create a webpage with a simple game on it. There are many simple games that translate well to smartphone’s. Not too into the game? How bout a little Sudoku.
Try “Scan to order pizza & 10% discount.” Mom is sitting there thinking, “what am I going to do about dinner.” It would be very convenient if they could scan one of the 30 kids running around so dinner is ready on the way home and they get a discount.

Replace car magnets

My cheesy photo

Realtors, insurance agents, and anyone in the personal service industry wants to get their face and name out. These tend to be the worst violators of the “hey look at me” marketing system. Sorry dude, don’t really care who you are, what can you do for me? These days it’s easy to get an iPhone or web app to search real estate. There are several 3rd parties that are good and affordable. I don’t know about you, but I’m never going to look at a car magnet and think “I need to write that number down right now. I mean, the guy has 50 different acronyms after his name, a couple of Facebook and Twitter chiclets, a nice cliche tagline about how they’re the best with some play on words about homes or something, a company logo, 10 colors, 4 fonts, and a big ass picture of them in a dark suit with a white background where they’re leaning in a little with head cocked to the side and plastered smile from 10 years ago (like my picture on the right.” However, that car magnet has the company name, a QR code, and “Free home finding app,” I’m probably more inclined to pick my phone up and scan it while I’m sitting at the light.

Pique Curiosity

Where do people get bored? Standing in line at the supermarket, riding an elevator to the top of the building, hanging out at the DMV. An idle mind is your play toy. Someone standing in line at the DMV probably owns a vehicle. Our local DMV has advertisements everywhere. An advertisement with a QR code perhaps offering a chance to get car washes for a year? Maybe you could work out a special promotion with the supermarket. Place an ad so it’s easily seen and scanned from the checkout line. “Scan here for the daily coupon,” and make it a coupon involving an impulse buy they can get in the checkout isle. Candy bars and sodas are what I’m talking about here. Maybe even throw a free soda in randomly?

46 percent of people who said they had scanned a QR code said they did so to get a discount at a retail store, while 43 percent had done so out of sheer curiosity. – Lab42

The QR Formula

When you implement QR codes there is a very easy formula you can use. In fact, you can use this for almost all your integrated marketing. Who do you want target? Where can you find these people? What would they find valuable at that very moment in time? Continue to ask yourself these three questions and your mind is going to open a world of possibilities. One last bit of advice: Direct your QR code to an address on your website that you can forward anywhere. This way if you find out the current method isn’t working you can change it all up simply by redirecting the URL you used. No more loosing money because a failed ad is under contract. Freshen it up whenever you want.

Need help setting up a code? Read my post on how to set up a QR code quick and easy.

Bus stop photo courtesy Nic221

Filed Under: How To, Marketing Tagged With: alternative marketing, creative marketing, integrated marketing, QR, QR codes, quick response

Empire Avenue portfolios: the fastest way to go through them

08/17/2011 By Scott Wendling 13 Comments

Going through Empire Avenue portfolios is time consuming. When you sort your portfolio you can only go through it by clicking the next button or previous button over and over again. There is no pagination or “go to last” button. However, just because there is no button doesn’t mean you can’t do it. Here’s how to go to any section of your portfolio:

Go to your portfolio view
Decide how you would like to sort your portfolio
Paste this funny looking line of code in the navigation bar: javascript: psearch_cursor(‘portfolio’,50, ‘normal‘)

As that is written it will take you to your standard portfolio view and show you numbers 50-100. You can change the number to anything you like. For instance if you need to go to the last page, and you have 175 shareholders, you would put 150 instead of 50. That takes you to numbers 150-200 on the list.

You can also use this for any portfolio view by replacing the word ‘normal’. Here is a list of words that can be placed there and the type of portfolio view it corresponds to:

last_trade = this sorts from highest price to lowest price
change_desc = this sorts by the largest shareprice gainers
change_asc = this sorts by biggest losers of the day
daily_earnings = this sorts by the highest earnings for that day
shares_owned = sorts by the amount of shares you own
dividend = sorts by highest dividend for the previous day
purchase_time = sorts from last trade you made to the very first

There are several reasons you would need to use this trick. I use it to find the worst earnings shares I own by sorting by earnings and going to the last page. If you know any other portfolio tricks I would love to hear them.

For more ways to make Empire Avenue more efficient check out 5 tips and tricks for Empire Avenue

Filed Under: Empire Avenue, How To Tagged With: effeciency, Empire Avenue, portfolio, shareholders, sort, tips

5 Tips, tricks, and tools for Empire Avenue

06/09/2011 By Scott Wendling 29 Comments

Empire Avenue can become time consuming if you aren’t careful. Maintaining a decent portfolio and engaging with shareholders becomes increasingly difficult as your network grows. I’ve been on Empire Avenue ((e)PenguinSpark) a few months and too make my time on EAv more efficient I’ve developed several tricks and added several tools to my routine. Here are 5 of them:

1. Short links

I’ve noticed I type the address to my Empire Avenue stock a lot more these days. I found out through #SocialEmpire there’s a way to create a shortened version of the link. The standard way to link to your profile is simply adding your ticker to the end of the domain like so http://EmpireAvenue.com/PenguinSpark. However, there is a way to shorten this by replacing EmpireAvenue.com with e-av.me to create http://e-av.me/PenguinSpark. Go ahead and try it in the comments and I’ll click through and buy some shares.

2. Reply with tabs

If you’re at all active on Empire Avenue you are all too familiar with the flood of notifications. I personally like to reply to every shout out and it was getting very frustrating. You have to reload a page for every reply, then back to notifications wait for it to load, scroll down, click on shout, etc. etc. etc. All the loading takes forever. Solution:

Go to notifications (the actual page, not the popup window).
Sort by shout outs.
Right click shout, open in new tab. Don’t go to the page.
Repeat this process for every single shout in your list.
Go to each tab, reply to shout out, then close tab.

This reduce the amount of time it takes to reply to shout outs considerably. It’s also a good way to sort out and see which mentions or shout outs were in the same threads so you don’t waste time clicking back and forth to a thread with several of the notification comments in it.

3. Pod101′s Grease Monkey Script

Greasemonkey is a Firefox extension that allows you to customize the way webpages look and function. – Greasespot.net

This is a script titled “EmpireAvenue Daily Dividend ROI” is developed by Paul Houstion (e)Pod101. I love it because it shows the div% in the list view. It makes going through your portfolio a lot easier. You have to use the old style portfolio to use it however. To use the old style portfolio go to settings. On the bottom right you will see a section titled “Portfolio settings.” Set it to old style and go to your portfolio to check out the awesomeness. It works on Firefox and Chrome, I’m not sure about other browsers.

4. TeamZen.org

Team Zen was started by Frédéric Dénommé, aka (e)Zen. Zen’s goal was to reach the top 10 wealth, which he has accomplished, and he started Team Zen to share his knowledge and help other people amass wealth. It quickly became one of the fastest growing and most engaged communities on Empire Avenue. I highly encourage you to check out their Facebook group or Empire Avenue community for hot stock tips as well as tips for increasing your returns. The latest element to the group: TeamZen.org. This simple website merely analyzes (e)Zen’s portfolio and ranks influencer investments according to his scale. If you want an easy way to find good investments quickly, this is it.

(e)Zen has written the code under open source. If you’re interested in working with the script contact him.

5. P3 Pirillow Power Pack

A lot of people are already aware of the P3 Empire Avenue extension, and a lot are not. It is an extension for the Google Chrome browser. There a few extensions out there but this is the most well rounded one. When you view a stock it tells you what your return is based on price, dividends, or both. It will also turn any ticker name on Twitter into an EAv link to their portfolio. This EAv extension is spear headed by Chris Pirillow and developed by members of his community. They are receptive to feedback and every update helps polish the extension.

The major downside to this extension is it requires your name and password for Empire Avenue to function. Currently EAv doesn’t offer o’auth. O’auth is basically what lets you log into a website with your Facebook, Twitter, Google, and other 3rd party accounts.

There are other tips and apps out there that I’m not aware of. I always like to learn about new ways to do things. If you have a suggestion please leave it. Drop your EAv ticker in and I’ll pick up some shares too.

Filed Under: Empire Avenue, How To Tagged With: apps, computing, EAv, efficient, Empire Avenue, finance, google chrome, portfolio, shout, tips, tools, tricks