Web Design Sydney Melbourne | Wiliam Blog

How much commission should you pay your affiliates?

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Recently I read a rather pertinent and interesting article on how much commission you should be paying your affiliates. The increase of affiliate marketing has really changed the internet and the commissions you pay can greatly affect your campaign. It can motivate affiliates, make them lazy or all round increase your campaign performance.

The key point about setting an affiliate commission structure is that one size definitely does not fit all. A one size fits all strategy will result in a lack luster campaign.

The key to commission payments is to ensure they are competitive. What are you competitors charging? Why should an affiliate promote your product and not your competitors?

Affiliates look for strong EPC (earnings per click) – this gives them an understanding of what kind of conversion rate your campaign could generate for them. If your website converts visitors at a higher rate, you may not need to compete with your competitors and only pay a small commission as volume becomes the aim of the game.

Flat rate or percentage?

This can be tricky. Survey the market and check what the other players are doing. Most of the time finance clients opt for flat rate commissions as opposed to ecommerce websites and booking systems (such as travel) that go for a percentage. Why not shake it up a little bit and look to throw the market on its head? Offer a set fee and a percentage of the balance the user might transfer to his/her credit card (if you are in finance of course).

Super affiliates

Like everything in life, the Pareto Principle (known as the 80/20 rule) seems to ring true. 80% of your sales through an affiliate program will come from 20% of your affiliates. These are known as your ‘super affiliates’.

Look to work closely with these affiliates and negotiate private tiered rates. Treat your super affiliates like gods and watch the results fly.

Long tail affiliates

Don’t neglect your long tail affiliates but dedicate some extra budget to nurturing the relationship between you and your super affiliates.

Set realistic targets for the everyday publishers as they can make up a large part of your earnings if given the right incentives.

So how much commission should you pay?

The answer is unknown. Follow the steps above and you will have your head in a better place for making an informed decision about maximizing your return on investment in affiliate marketing.

Wiliam is one of Australia's leading web site design and web development agencies. Our Melbourne web design and Sydney web design offices provide cutting-edge Web 2.0, internet marketing, business web hosting, email marketing software, search engine optimisation, SEO, Facebook Applications, Link Exchange and SEO Tool services.

Introducing Cudo.com.au - PBL's latest online property

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Wiliam are excited to announce the launch of PBL Media’s latest online property, Cudo.com.au

Cudo is aimed to capture the growing ‘deal a day’ market. It involves offering one deal that requires a certain number of buyers before it is activated and ready for sale. Leveraging the group buying mentality, PBL hope to compete against the likes of Groupon from the US who are rumored to be sizing up the Australian market.

The launch of Cudo was recently covered by SMH, The Australian and B&T among many others.

Cudo is a sophisticated online property that has many complex capabilities. Built on enterprise architecture, focusing on availability, performance and security – Cudo is positioned to take advantage of large volumes of traffic while continuing to perform. Payments are processed by a sophisticated token-based payment system to allow for delayed payment processing (payments are only processed should a deal gather enough momentum).

From posting the offer, issuing the voucher(s) to managing the subscriber database – everything is fully automated to streamline the entire process.

Wiliam is very excited to see Cudo launch successfully - achieving higher than forecasted sales figures in its opening day.

Trust is vital for eCommerce success

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

There are four pillars of trust when it comes to distilling a sense of safety in ecommerce.

These four pillars are crucial for understanding how people use websites and how to best increase your chance of selling to them. Once you understand how to distill trust, you have a much stronger chance of doing battle on the internet. It also lays the basis for avoiding the discount game.

The four pillars for distilling trust are: appearances, assurances, authority and consensus of peers.

So what does this all mean?

Appearances

Appearance is unquestionably one of the most important facets. I am not saying that a pretty website will always convert better, but a terribly designed website will always reflect badly on your brand. It is 2010 (nearly 2011) and in this day and age you are expected to have your website up to scratch. There is no excuse anymore. If you don’t look the part, how do people make an initial judgment?

Assurances

Your website needs to scream assurance to your potential customer. If you expect them to hand over a credit card, give you a call or want to learn more, you must give the assurance they are safe in doing so. This means telling your customer they are safe. Let them know if an SSL is protecting their transaction. Let them know you won’t sell their email after they sign up for your newsletter. Show your customer the frequently asked questions, don’t make them look. For example, what is your shipping policies / return policies? Also, if the customer wants to contact you – show an address at all costs, empty contact pages always look bad. People like to know you have a physical address (even a virtual address is better than nothing). Customers need an extra push to assure them they are protected, go to all lengths to do this.

Authority

Why should people trust you? People often gain authority by associating their brand with a major company or partner. For instance, look at how many web developers put the Microsoft logo and other brands in their footer. It is a small way of creating authority through association. Perhaps you could also even associate your brand with a local council, industry body or similar – all easy ways of creating authority through association. Customers want to know you are the real deal, tell them why!

Consensus of peers

What is the first thing I do before buying from a website? If I am unfamiliar with the website, I will likely Google their name and look for bad feedback. Similar to checking negative feedback on eBay. I even do this when first meeting someone, I want to know all the past content on them. So what does this mean for your business? Reach out to the online community. You want lots of reviews, lots of positive content and for people to be talking about you. You want your peers to see you as a leader in what you do. This brings your trust levels up significantly. If in doing so you spot a negative comment, by upfront and address it. You will be surprise the good karma that will arise.

So what can we take from these four pillars?

If the above four facets are incorporated into your website, you have a much stronger chance of conversion. People pay for trust, this means you can price your products as you wish – even at higher rates than your competitors, as people want to know they are safe and don’t mind paying for the privilege. Even the most tech savvy web browsers will prefer to pay a few extra dollars if it assures them that the package will arrive, their credit card won’t be stored, etc, etc.

We talk about trust a lot in many different contexts, though for ecommerce it really is the make or break of a website. Keep trust as your number one prerogative when engaging a web developer and constantly question your website from the perspective of a buyer.

Showcase your online skills

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

There are millions of web designers and developers out there who are in a constant demand due to the nature of their work flow: freelance. And due to this demand they are forever in the need of updating their portfolios, mainly because the internet and its varying degrees of progression force these experts to 'keep up'. And in order to keep up and to present themselves in a timely fashion they have a great need to update their sites. Sure, its a vicious circle, but a circle that needs to be pampered and adhered to.

And now there are communities out there that are catering for time poor designer and developers who need to keep updated but can't update their personal web sites. Let me show you an example.

http://shownd.com/
http://cssbased.com/showcase/?c=Personal-Portfolios

Site like these offer a huge range of add ons and extensions to allow the user to showcase their work. Here is a typical list:

• Free online portfolios for designers and web developers
• Creative job listings
• Worldwide design agency directory
• Create and manage your personal showcase instantly
• Embed your showcase into an external web page
• Import your Flickr sets directly to your page
• Upload up to 20 images at the same time
• Watermark your images with a watermark tool
• Add your resume and instantly generate a PDF
• Track your portfolio's performance with Google Analytics

And there are plenty more. So when you're time poor and in need of more work, have a look through some of these online folio communities and start taking the hassle out of your day.

Customising Facebook Connect's fb:login-button

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

When implementing Facebook Connect, in an ideal world we’d replace Facebook’s standard blue Connect with Facebook button with something prettier.

Unfortunately, it’s against Facebook’s developer policies, which state:

You must not circumvent our intended limitations on core Facebook features.

The Facebook Connect button is intended to be rendered in FBML, which means it’s only meant to look the way Facebook lets it.

Like this:

However, it is possible to customise it to some extent. You can change the size, and the text. For example:

Visit http://fbrell.com/xfbml/fb:login-button and play around with the examples there, then press Run.

The possibilities aren’t exactly endless, but there’s a bit more scope than plain ol'

Streamlining your web processes

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

We all have our ways of doing things, ingrained as a personal system which we adhered to daily. Most of us don’t bother to stray from our paths, but today I’d like to tell you of a few simple and highly effective checklists: before, during and post the web brief.

When meeting up with a client and you are about to start the process of extracting information about what they like and/or dislike there are a few handy tips you can follow. In fact, there is already a basic ‘questionnaire’ created by a smart company called Freelance Switch which you can have a look over before you start.

And then there is the requirements the designer needs in order to start the work itself:

What’s the budget?
Any specific Design Requirements?
A clear outline of what the client expects in terms of design
An outline of who the target market is.
Is there a strict deadline?
Images. Are they client supplied or should they be purchased
Any other collateral that can be used as a reference?

And once the site is about to launch, there are some recommendations in place just in case…

Is the site load time ‘reasonable?
How is the contrast between text and background colour? Can your grandad read it?
Is there a clear path to important sections such as ‘contact’ and ‘company info’?
Is the main navigation easily identifiable (ie: not mystery meat nav)

Of course all of these recommendations are to be taken fairly lightly, we all have different systems we work with. Just be smart about it and make sure you have more information than is required so there isn’t any need to contact the client and feel foolish about asking some inane question about their brand.

A/B Split Testing your website, application or email

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A/B Split Testing is an old, yet powerful concept.

Take two or more versions of the same web page, form, message or whatever and then randomly serve one of the versions to each user.

Different users see different versions and will react differently.

Measure which version performs the best – most completed forms, purchases, click-through etc – and there is your answer.

We’re increasingly using A/B Split Testing across our client websites and emails, and it is rare that the investment in time (and a bit of extra design, copy and maybe a different form) doesn’t pay off.

A colleague sent me a great website – Which Test Won (www.whichtestwon.com) – which gives a great comparative view of how A/B Split Testing works, using real word examples.

After examining the different examples, you can vote to test your knowledge of which example performed better.

If anything, it will very quickly improve your understanding of what makes a web page perform!

New changes to Facebook Like Button

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Facebook has released changes to their very popular Facebook like button.

1. Login Not Required

A person no-longer needs to be logged into Facebook to LIKE content. If they are not logged in the icon just changes to a thumbs up but if they are logged in they will get the option to share it on Facebook.

2. Design Change

The button has changed to a more compact version.

It was:

Now its:

3. Unlike
With the design change comes a small change to how a person can Unlike content they have previously Liked.

It was:

Now its a little less obvious with the person having to mouse over the button before they get the option to Unlike.

If not logged in:

Logged in:

Benefits

With these changes come the following benefits:

• More people liking content even those that don’t have a Facebook account

• Less people Unliking content

• Compact button resulting in a less cluttered design

Related Blogs

Registering a new user on your website via their existing social network account

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

With an estimated 1.2 billon+ people registered on at least one social network it comes as no surprise that there is a service that leverages this by allowing you to register users on your website through their existing social network account. Janrain Engage provides a service that does just that.

The advantage to users:

1. Easier and quicker registration

2. Ability to share their activity with friends

Advantage to you:

1. Increase in registrations

2. Larger exposure to potential customers

3. Ability to collect more information about a user than they may have initial freely given

Plans and pricing

The basic plan is FREE

• You have to have a “Powered by Janrain” on the sign-in/registration form

• You can have up to 6 providers e.g. Facebook, Google etc..

• Mobile Support e.g. iPhone

• You get basic profile data

• 1 Admin login account

• Technical Support is online only

There is also a Plus plan at $100/year or $10/month and Pro which starts from $1000/year.

Live examples of Janrain Engage

Los Angeles Times

Diesel

White pages

Great corporate blogs

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

We love blogs at Wiliam.

They’re versatile. They’re dependable. They can play a key role in almost any online strategy.

There is no doubt that content is key to the success of a blog, though so too is the design, functionality, structure and layout… among other things.

This article is a great run-down of 15 awesome corporate blogs, and why they work so well.

http://mashable.com/2010/08/13/great-corporate-blogs/

Using WordPress for your website

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Here at Wiliam we are predominantly a Microsoft .NET development firm. You may ask why then am I writing about the pros and cons of WordPress which is an open source PHP CMS. Like most of us in the web design and development industry we had heard about WordPress but until we had a request from a client for a blog website and quickly we hadn’t considered using it.

WordPress was initially developed for bloggers, because of this it has a strong blogging framework. However over the past few years with the growing community of followers and the continual development it has become a popular CMS for all kinds of websites such as ecommerce, portfolios, news/magazine and corporate sites to name a few. It was named the overall winner for “The 2009 Open Source CMS Award”. Also in the "2009 Open Source CMS Share Report" it was named 1 of the top 3 CMS’s for market share. Other findings:

- 433,767 weekly downloads (source: WordPress Download Counter)

- WordPress was the only system that had a higher rate of usage than evaluation.

- WordPress achieved the highest positive response of over 75% from participants surveyed

Hosting

WordPress is a PHP platform with a MySQL database so the hosting packages out there are generally cheaper than those requiring a Microsoft environment. I did a quick search online and found one for only $6.95 excluding GST a month but the old adage “you get what you pay for” applies here so it’s worth asking around for recommendations from friends and family along with keeping in mind the requirements of the site (storage space, expected traffic, uptime guarantee etc) before choosing a hosting company.

Installing

Because of the popularity of WordPress many hosting companies have a controlpanel where by you can just login and click a link to install WordPress. This means you don’t even have to know how to setup the environment (folders and database). A disadvantage of installing WordPress via some controlpanels is that you can’t update WordPress via its dashboard but instead you have to wait until the controlpanel updates it’s version which can take awhile. If you however want to do it yourself there are full instructions on installing WordPress on the WordPress site.

Extending

Extending WordPress is I think its biggest advantage. You can extend it by using both plugins and themes.

Plugins can extended Wordpress to do almost anything you can imagine. There are over 10 thousand free plugins on the WordPress site ranging from shopping carts, payment gateways, SEO tools, image and video support, social tools and lots more. These plugins are not developed by WordPress but 3rd party companies who either ask for a donation or offer a premium version of their plugin for a nominal cost.

Themes allow you to change the look and feel of your website. The advantage of this is that you don’t have to be a designer to have a good looking site. Basic themes you can get for free but for the more professional ones you will have to pay for. The disadvantage of using a common theme instead of getting one designed specifically for you is that there could be several websites out there that looks just like yours.

Updates

Updating WordPress, plug-ins and themes is now easily done from within the dashboard. The WordPress dashboard will notify you when an update is available and even gives you a button to click to update them. As good as this is I must warn you that when WordPress does an update your plugins and/or theme can sometimes break. And as mentioned before these are not developed by WordPress so you will have to wait for the 3rd party to post an update to fix the problem. There are a few things you can do to avoid or mitigate this and that is to firstly always BACKUP both your files and database before running any updates, there are even plugins that will help you do this. Secondly if you can wait then wait until the plugins and theme are compatible with the new version before updating.

Training, documentation and support

There are numerous resources out there for WordPress here are just a few:

- Books

If you need specific support say for a plugin then you will have to go direct to the source. This can be a very big disadvantage if the plugin you are using is either not support any more or support is very limited. Hence why some companies who give away their plugin for free offer for a small cost a support package.

Security

No software is immune to security breaches, as there are so many variables to take into account (server, database, code, plugins, people). This is even more true when the software is open sourced and as popular as WordPress. WordPress vulnerabilities according to the National Vulnerability Database peaked in 2007 but has drastically reduced in the past 3 years to 27. To put this into perspective the other 2 top 3 CMS’s Joomla and Dupral came in at 199 and 41 vulnerabilites respectively. One of the best things to keep your WordPress website secure is to ensure it is updated with the latest version. More about WordPress approach can be found here http://codex.wordpress.org/Hardening_WordPress.

Showcase

Here are just a few WordPress blogs we have built for our clients:

- In City Fashion - http://www.incityfashion.com.au/blog/

- Sporting Bet - http://www.sportingbet.com.au/betblog/

- Bear Solutions - http://blog.bearsolutions.com.au/

SPAM isn't funny unless it's funny

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

We have layers of SPAM protection at work.

We have a cloud-based service that filters every email before it even has a chance to reach our network. Then, we have a SPAM service running on our email server.

Finally, Outlook has a SPAM filter that pushes anything suspect to the Junk Mail folder for a late-afternoon glance and delete.

Very little gets through.

Compared to a few years back, I receive hardly any SPAM whatsoever. That’s great, because SPAM wastes time and bandwidth.

Most SPAM is utter rubbish and can be easily dismissed.

Occasionally however, SPAM is gold. It can be hilarious.

Previously, my favourite SPAM was from a year back: the ‘Lobster Sweepstakes’ where I continually won 50kg of Maine lobster, if only I entered my email address to redeem the prize. ‘

But now, I have a new favourite, and I haven’t stopped laughing in ages; it was submitted to the Wiliam blog today:

“I’m currently being held prisoner by the Russian mafia penis enlargement penis enlargement and being forced to post spam comments on blogs and forum! If you don’t approve this they will kill me. penis enlargement penis enlargement They’re coming back now. vimax vimax Please send help! nitip penis enlargement penis enlargement.”

If this poor individual does live, he will certainly be offered a position in our marketing/comedy department.

Yopinion launches just in time for 2010 election

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Yopinion was launched last week by Wiliam - just in time for the 2010 election.

Yopinion is a website run by a bunch of 20-year old University students, passionate about politics and social issues, though more importantly – allowing people to share and debate their opinions on said politics and social issues.

The point of Yopinion is getting people involved. They want you to think about a select few topics at a time, digest the information and contribute your opinion, or ‘yopinion’.

You can contribute Yopinion by:

by 'liking' an article
by voting on questions we raise
with a comment
by proposing an issue
by submitting yopinion, in writing or by video.

Share 'yopinion' here & if you have something to say on the current topics of the 2010 election, climate change, working women or refugees - why not sign up while you are there?

Getting to the top of Google, the lazy but long way.

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Search engine optimisation is at the forefront of the internet wave, everyone now has a website, though not everyone is using their website to reap the big bucks the internet has to offer.

Getting to the top of Google can take a long time, though if you have the time – here is an easy way to get to the top, eventually.

Start a blog.

Your website is likely only 10-50 pages in size, something that will fail to compete against large directories and other bigger market players. Starting a blog will allow you an informal channel to start producing content, increasing your page count in Google and effectively starting to fish the internet ocean with larger numbers of lines – the more surface area you have, the better chance you have of getting found.

Once you have a blog, your rankings wont change over night.

Though if you complete the following next steps, you will start to see a difference in traffic:

Ensure your blog is designed to push people back to your products and services. No vanilla installs of Wordpress.
You must post at least 1-3 articles every day. 1 new blog a week will not suffice.
Know your keywords. Be sure to include words in your blogs that you want to rank for.
Make those words heading where possible.
Make the words bold where possible.
Don't keyword stuff. Write useful content that someone will learn from.
Tweak your blog page titles and meta data to always be encompassing your desired keywords.
Ensure you use human friendly URLs for each new post. Don't use dynamic.

There is lots more we could discuss here, though I think you see what is happening.

Using your blog you will be:

Increasing the number of pages you have indexed in Google.
Putting more 'lines' in the big internet ocean.
Helping your SEO company with their day to day work.
Posting 1-3 articles per day. Over a year this could mean 1095 new pages indexed.

If you follow the above steps with a bit of guidance from your web strategy and SEO team, you will eventually just begin ranking for your keywords. You will become one of those big market players with more relevant content.

You may even catch a fish or two!

Google Wave Sunset

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Google Wave to go the way of the Dodo

Remember GoogleWave? Tried it and liked it, or like many, still can’t really describe where it fits in our web-centric lives? Well, Google has officially announced it’s pulling the plug at the end of the year.

Google’s claimed to have gained from the project on a whole. Some of the features have made it into other Google products and I’m sure we’ll see a little bit of Wave in future projects. For those of us who have used Wave and would like to hold on to some of that data, tools will be made available to export that data from Wave.

I personally liked the concepts and ideas in Wave, but I think it suffered an identity crisis early on and few could wrap their heads around what it was good for. Google has stated that the little guy couldn’t get a decent number of users to justify its existence (Orkut, your days are numbered).

Implementing the Facebook Like button on your website

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

The Facebook Like button which is popping up everywhere allows visitors to share your content with their friends on Facebook but it also keeps a recorded of what they have liked within the persons own profiles Likes and Interests. This then means they can store a list of links they like similarly to Digg that they can come back too later. This is one of the major differences between it and the well established Share button which is relatively brief, in your News Feed one day and gone the next.

Basically you have 2 options to implementing the Facebook Like button on your web page.

Firstly you can use a iFrame which is easier to implement but limited and secondly by using Facebooks own XFBML which is more complicated to implement but is more versatile. I will give you examples and the pro's and con's of each.

Option 1 iFrame

When implemented on the page the iframe will give you something like the button below.

When the person then clicks on the Like button it will change to indicate that they have liked the page. (note: if they are not logged into Facebook they will be prompted to do so via a popup window)

By doing this a one line text will appear on the persons Profile -> Wall under RECENT ACTIVITY.

(Note: in-order to get the additional information like the image when the person mouse's over the link you will need to define it using what is called the Open Graph Protocol)

If you used the Open Graph Tags then it will also place in the persons Profile -> Info -> Likes and interests the page (Social Object) they have liked.

Pros

• Easy to implement

Cons

• The Liked page appears as just one line insert on the persons wall
• The Liked page doesn't appear in a person's friends news feed

Option 2 XFBML

When implemented on the page the code will give you a similar Like button to that of the iframe.

The difference comes when the person clicks on the Like button they are given the option of including a comment which is shared along with the page on their and their friends news feeds.

And of course as before in the iframe option if you define the Open Graph tags it will also appear in the persons Likes and Interests area.

Pros

• Will appear in both the friends and persons news feed if the user has made a comment
• Will display more than just one line if specified in the Open Graph Tags e.g. image, description etc..

Cons

• Requires more to implement with the addition of the XFBML fb:like tag and Facebook's JavaScript SDK.
• It doesn't currently work if you are also using Facebook Connect on your site as the 2 plug-ins won't play nicely with each other. This we have found out through our own trial and error which meant we had to revert to the iFrame option instead.

Getting Started

Now that you know the pro and cons of each you can make a informed decision and get started by going to the configurator at Facebook Developers Social Plugins Like Button.

Note: Make sure you use the Open Graph Protocol because although it is optional it gives you the following 3 additional advantages:

1. You can communicate with those who have liked your page similarly to that of a Facebook fan page.

2.You can get metrics for the pages that have the like button, this is done through Facebooks "Insights for Your Domain" which tells you how many people have liked your page etc.

3. And finally Facebook gets metadata about your page when a person likes it which is then reflected in their own profile and news feeds.

Show you liked this blog by clicking on the Like button below.

Make your online store competitive

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

In the last few years Australian companies have really embraced e-commerce and the potential it has to add to their revenue streams. Providing an online store can be a great way to improve the reach and success of your business. At the same time, if you’re planning your first entry into the highly competitive world of e-commerce, then you need to make sure that you’re going to be able to compete.

Here are some of the things to consider ahead of your store’s launch:

1. Who are your online competitors? – They’re not always the same as your bricks and mortar competitors. Here your boutique bookstore only has to compete with the Dymocks at the other end of the main shopping street. Online you’ll be facing down Amazon, Dymocks, Borders, Booktopia and more. Know your competitors.

2. What are your competitors doing right? – The major businesses online are successful for a reason, understand that reason and you’ll gain valuable insight in how to make your online store a winner.

3. What are your competitors doing wrong? – Just because they’re successful doesn’t mean they’re doing everything right. A big complaint for Amazon users in Australia is that we’re basically subsidizing their free shipping offers in the US and UK by paying so much to have things delivered here. Spot a competitors weakpoint and you may just find the edge you need.

4. Identify a point of difference – It’s true that most e-commerce purchasing is based on price (the internet makes it easy to find a great deal) but that’s not the only way to distinguish your business. Do you stock rare or high value items? Do you offer free or flat-rate shipping? Do you have an ongoing support program that is world-leading? Identify what sets you apart from and above your competitors and then proclaim that loudly.

5. Are you in it for the long haul? – It’s awfully tempting to think of e-commerce as an easy way to make a quick buck, but the very best e-commerce sites are those that continue to grow and evolve. This means integrating new systems, new product lines, new services and new thinking into your project as you go. It’s no longer good enough to simply build a site and expect to sit back while your bank balance grows, make sure you’re planning for the next 5-10 years of your online business while you’re building for the next 2-3 years. This just scratches the surface, but don’t be put off the idea of adding an online component to your business. The risks can be minimized when properly understood and managed ahead of time, while the rewards can be great if you pay attention to getting the details right.

No Double Opt-In. No Email List

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Once, there was a magical time when you could scan all your business cards into an Excel list, load the email addresses into the BCC field of Outlook and hit them all with your newsletter.

You could even take that same list to an email marketing platform, load them up and hit the list again, except that this time, each newsletter was personally addressed and there were statistics about who opened what and who unsubscribed.

Yes, it really was a magical time!

Email marketing really was about break, or break through: scrape email addresses from wherever you could, smash your list and try it all again next month.

So what happened?

I’ve been a bit detached from email marketing the past few years.

I mean, I know the world has been trying to tighten down on SPAM and certainly, I am most impressed by the SPAM software we have at work and its effectiveness.

I also know all about Blacklisting and Whitelisting, and that building a reputation with the likes of Yahoo Mail (and handing them a bundle of cash each month to remain on their Whitelists) is critical to getting emails through. (In fact, so expensive and time consuming is Whitelisting that it simply isn’t feasible today, except to use established email marketing platforms.)

What I didn’t know – being so detached from email marketing as I was – was that today, list generation and list management is so tight and onerous, it’s just not fun anymore.

The good old days of adding everyone you met at a tradeshow to your email list is way, way over.

It seems that while I’ve been dozing, people – especially the email marketing platform people – really have been trying to tighten up SPAM and based on my recent experience, they’re pretty serious about it too.

Double Opt-In

When you talk to clients about double opt-in, they initially go blank, and then typically reject the idea; double opt-in is seen as arduous and entirely likely to lead to reduced subscriber rates.

And frankly, clients are probably right.

Double opt-in is exactly as the name suggests: users (subscribers to your email database) opt into your list twice. Initially, by subscribing to your list (newsletter) and then again, by confirming their subscription via an automated confirmation link you send them by email.

If the user fails to click the confirmation link, they haven’t opted in a second time and so they’re not on your list.

While it’s possible that you initially subscribe the user to your list (say, over the telephone: “Do you mind if I add you to our awesome email newsletter list?”), unless the user receives the confirmation email and link and subsequently clicks that link, they have not double opted in.

The user has the last say, and they cannot end up on a list they did not specifically and knowingly want to be on.

Is it really that important?

You betcha.

Because in simple terms – such is my recent experience – if you can’t categorically prove to your email marketing platform that every single user on your list is either a genuine customer or joined the list via double opt-in, they’ll refuse your list flat-out.

No questions asked.

The double opt-in provides you and them with effective proof (a paper-trail if you will) that the user legitimately and knowingly joined your list and accepted your terms, so that in turn, when the user complains or leaves, you can’t be accused of SPAM; this same paper-trail is proof to the ISPs that might try to blacklist you, or Spamcop, a service acting on behalf of the ISPs to identify and block SPAM.

Simply put, if email marketing platforms are in any way associated with SPAM or spammers, they risk every one of their clients and the deliverability of their campaigns, and so today, they won’t even take the risk.

Now, most of this probably isn’t news to you except for my final caveat: plead, argue, fight and do whatever you can to prove the legitimacy of your list but it will make no difference. Where a year ago there might have been wriggle room and email marketing platforms might have considered the merits of your list against other criteria, the rule today is very clear.

No double opt-in, no list.

Repeat after me.

No double opt-in, no list. (Repeat 8 times).

What now?

The first step is to ensure that wherever emails are collected by your business, there exists a double opt-in process.

No excuse. It’s black and white.

Your web developer should be able to implement such a solution quite easily (generated by what is known as an ‘auto-responder’), and if you integrate your website directly with your email marketing platform – e.g. MailChimp, Aweber, Vision6 – they should do it for you as part of their service.

The second step is to clean your list, by emailing those users that did not double opt-in to ask them to do so (and take them off the list if they do not confirm). Yes, cleaning your list will significantly cull your list, though that is the price for your past list sins; if you want to play ball, you have to scrub your list.

Alternatively of course, you can try to find a provider that will accept your list and there are plenty out there.

Except that any such provider will have a greatly reduced delivery rate than those providers that are strict by the rules. In turn, your campaign will be more expensive and less effective: less of your emails will be delivered and so the cost of delivery will be greater.

The abovementioned approach is surely only short term, and the candle is clearly burning from both ends. Time is running out for your dirty, email list.

Repent, or forever be damned.

It is all very draconian though in light of killing SPAM, it is a regulatory step we needed to take.

The basics of #hashtags and following terms in Twitter

Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

A client asked me yesterday to clarify a few aspects of Twitter for him. I’ve summarised my points below:

What are Hashtags?

Hashtags in twitter are a way of ensuring that your tweets are associated with a particular thread/conversation. So, to join the conversation during ABC’s Q&A, you add #qanda to your tweet.

From there, many Twitter clients have the ability to filter by tags so that users can follow the running conversation as tweets are submitted.

Indeed, if you go to the homepage of Twitter and search #qanda, you’ll get the same effect. You’ll see all the people talking about Q&A, often in response to each other.

Another example?

Let’s say you are looking to recruit employees through Twitter. Write something like: “ is looking for an excellent . Great team. $$$. Immediate Start. #sydneyjobs.”, where #sydneyjobs is a recognised and existing Hashtag and plenty of people monitoring it for jobs. (It is important you don’t make hashtags up because if they don’t exist, people won’t be following them and nobody will hear your message.)

In the event that your business has its own Twitter account, replace “ with ‘@mycompany’ so that the post also appears on your company’s Twitter wall.

Tweetdeck

A key feature of Twitter is the ability to follow companies, individuals and especially conversations about terms you’re interested in. For instance, you can listen to people talking about finding a great ‘sydney web designer’ and from there, politely introduce yourself.

I monitor terms on Twitter on the run on my iphone; the official Twitter client for iPhone is Tweetie, though Tweetdeck is better – and free.

Once downloaded, you can create columns that you can easily swipe through.

There are a few column types, including a ‘search term’. Select that, and enter the search term you want to follow: e.g. ‘sydney web design’. From thereon, any mention of ‘sydney web design’ will come up in the column.

I would also set ‘sydney web development’ and so forth to allow you to monitor conversations about related terms: often, people are reaching into their own networks with questions/comments, and this allows you to potentially reach out.

Designing User journeys

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

So what is a user journey?

In web terms, a user journey is a process flow diagram which specifically looks at the individual pages a user must navigate through, in order to complete a task.

You create a ‘box’ for each individual page, identifying new and existing pages if applicable;

You can also identify what we call ‘page stacks’, where there are multiple pages, such as product pages, news pages or gallery pages and the specific order of the pages is either not important or contextually defined;

You also identify decisions, or forks in the journey, with diamonds with multiple different outcomes, such as ‘Is the user registered’, with ‘yes’ and ‘no’ as possible outcomes and then the pages they would have to navigate through, such as the ‘Login’ page, or the ‘Registration’ pages.

Those are the key elements to any user journey, but you can also include additional information, such as an automatically created email, a call to a database and multiple concurrent actions.

So when do you use a user journey?

Once you have identified key site users and the tasks they would like to be able to undertake on the site, user journeys are used to map out the pages the user must go through in order to successfully undertake these tasks. They help to describe the processes required and pages needed to allow the user to achieve their goals in order to obtain a common agreed set of pages and functionality.