Checks and balances relating to our government loosely means that no single branch of our government will become too powerful - the three independent branches of government, “check and balance” each other to ensure a nice homogenous lawmaking assembly. Over simplified yes, but we’re here to talk about making more money for your business, not a sleep inducing history lesson.

The checks and balances concept in relating to your business, and more so your website marketing strategy, is a lot more introspective. Meaning, nobody is out there to check your strategy - sans fee of course. Nobody is going to help you balance your marketing budget to make sure you are maximizing every positive return on investment available - it’s up to you. So, check yourself before you wreck yourself, fool!

In keeping with the theme of the series, we are well on our way to finishing our website design aspect. Many people may think, “OK, I got a domain, website is being built from my son’s older brother, now let’s get crackin’ on earning some Internet business!” That’s all well and good, and that approach can probably get a blind squirrel a nut every once in awhile. But when those long harsh winters come (it’s gettin’ mighty chilly in this economic climate), a more comprehensive approach, that is reviewed, and edited, and adjusted, and reviewed, time and time again, is the only way to sustain a profitable new business pipeline. I bet it’s been some time since you last looked at your Mission Statement, or your Marketing return on investment over the last 18 months. Only through a comprehensive analysis of the past, can we accurately shape our financial future. And when we apply this first major checks and balances session, is before our website is even live. In fact, it is essential at this point.

Is your navigation neatly arrayed and easy to follow? How bout the copy, are you lending any consideration to keyword saturation? You might realize through this cathartic self-observation that you are in over your head, and require the help of a professional.

We talked about domains, and do it yourself pitfalls. Hopefully the message came through loud and clear, and we have started on the path to reaping the rewards, BUT. Now is the perfect time to review everything, your strategy, your finances, your marketing plan for the next 18 months, your performance from the previous 18 months, and everything else essential to your business functioning at the highest, most efficient level possible for your situation. You’ve heard of hindsight being 20/20. Take the time now, BEFORE your Internet marketing plan has taken flight, to do the proper checks and balances with your website project. How is your site going to streamline the delivery process? How can your website speed up the transaction process? Are you still happy with how your website development plans are coming together? Have you given any thought to analyzing what works for you offline in regards to marketing, and trying to integrate that into an online strategy? Have you begun to already amass customer related data? Are you concerned with search marketing?

You better be, because in our next article we will tackle and look to simplify the search engine conundrum. Either way, in case the underlying message is somewhat cloudy - your website needs to have an active SEO (search engine optimization) campaign in order to achieve it’s utmost marketing potential. If your website cannot be found when I am searching YOUR geographic area, for YOUR specific product or service, then you are either wasting money or not spending enough to generate the return on investment. We’ll examine that balancing act in the next installment.

If you want to write copy for online media, follow the three tips below:

1. Smaller paragraphs are important. Copy that will be posted online should be easy to follow. This starts with small, easy to manage paragraphs. Generally speaking, if you can keep each paragraph to five lines or less you are on the right track. While this is a good rule to follow, remember, it is not written in stone. For instance, an effective sales letter may feature longer paragraphs in order to emphasize particular points.

2. Know your audience. This is not always easy, but it is a point that you need to keep in mind. Are you writing for internet beginners? Are you targeting software professionals? Are you trying to sell a product or service? The audience that you are writing for will dictate the way that you create your content. The more you know about your audience the more effective your copy will be.

3. Don’t use words that are difficult to comprehend, or may be over the head of your audience. When you do this, two things can happen and they are both bad: 1. Your audience may not understand what you are saying. 2. Readers will feel like you are talking down to them. Either way, you lose. Keep things short, simple, and sweet.

Will these tips turn you into an A + copywriter? Maybe, maybe not. Remember, practice makes perfect. If you want to write effective copy for the online media world, whether it be as a freelancer or for your own blog, you need to practice this craft. Over time you will learn a lot about yourself, and what it takes to become an effective writer.

When you’ve invested the time and money, there is no choice – failure is not an option. To try and limit the first timers out there from going through the growing pains of “Do It Yourself Web Design,” we’re compiling a Top 10 List. In this first installment we’ll go over some of the most common mistakes do-it-yourselfers may encounter on the road to Internet enlightenment.

1. Why Do It Yourself?

The number one mistake for the DIY web designer is just that – they think they can do it themselves. What is the number one reason for that? You’re most likely risking your online business image to save a few bucks. What may initially look like significant savings, winds up costing your additional time, labor, headaches….you get the point. Sure as heckfire you will be spending lots more time trying to navigate the potential minefields all by your lonesome, than with the help of a professional at the helm. Time is money right? If you’re a tinker, go nuts. But if you are looking to generate new business, leave it up to the professionals.

 2. Do You Know Your Audience?

May sound simple, but when you really look at the DIY sites out there it will become painfully clear. People make the common mistake of including elements of design they think are special, or funny, or informative – without ever have considered who will be viewing the website. A successful website strategy begins with identifying your target market and learning as much as you can about them. Who will visit my site? How will they learn what we provide? What are their buying habits?….the list goes on, and we could point out countless specific errors. The point is, don’t design a site for you and your circle. Design a website that caters to your intended audience. Nobody cares about you, or your website. They came to the site because they need to solve a problem, have their questions answered, or purchase your services/products. Make it easy for them to do so.

3.Tell Me What You Do - In 10 Seconds or Less

Sounds easy, right? Go ahead and try. Bet it takes many more words than I as your potential customer care to hear. I’ll tune out by the 3rd time your telling me how good your customer service is. Clear and concise, that should be how your message is relayed. This also leads back to the #2 mistake – nobody cares about your site, just tell me how you can help me…quickly. Or I am gone. Make sure your website tells the consumer what it is you do, and how you can fix their problems – how it benefits them to purchase your services or product. Spare me the superfluous BS and talk benefits.

4. Too Much Fluff, or Stuff

If I were to visit your website, how long would it take to purchase your product? How do I contact you? Do I have to listen to that awful music before even seeing your website and how your services can benefit me?

Lots of these design elements can lead to delays in accessing the information people are really looking for – the reason they visited your site in the first place. You built it, they came; now why are you making it so difficult for them to stay and take the next step? Some common turn offs: too much Flash, too many pictures, too much text, not enough text, no focal point on the page. Lose the cheesy intro music, cut down on the Flash, and would you please make it easy on yourself to ring the cash register. The dance is over; the visitor is already at your site – time to close the deal. Meaning, give them answers – not more questions. Keep it simple, not in terms of appearance necessarily, but in regards to navigation. This brings us to our 5th most common mistake of the DIY web designer.

 5. Where You Headed Magellan?

Poor navigation is one of the biggest turn offs to website visitors. Navigation must be simple and efficient for your site to perform at its best. It may be true - in the words of J Peterman – getting lost is the best way to go someplace you’ve never been. But, in website terms, as a visitor, I should never get lost. Next time you’re cruising the Internet take notice of how easy it is to navigate certain sites. Pay special attention to where the navigation links (Home, About Us, Contact Us…etc) direct you. How are they arranged? Was it easy or cumbersome to click around and find answers? There’s a multitude of ways to screw up navigation, again it harks back to a previously discussed error – know your audience. Are your Nav links arranged to best represent your company, or your product/services? Should the order of the links be based on your needs, or the needs of your visitors? Know your audience. Then direct them to water and make them drink.

 It is always good to type in your business’ name from time to time and see who is reviewing you and what is being said. Obviously these websites can help your business tremendously or the exact opposite.

 So how can your business benefit from these websites? First and foremost it is very important to establish which websites your company is being reviewed on. Some of the major review sites worth checking out are Yelp, CitySearch and InsiderPages.

 Secondly, it is important that you visit these websites and become active with the users. If a negative review does occur, you can contact the user on most of these websites and try to work it out. It’s human nature to look at the negative reviews even if there is only one out of 100 so try to resolve this quickly.

 Lastly, offer special promotions on these websites so that you can track how many visitors are finding you here. You’ll be surprised to see how many people are making decisions based off of customer review websites.

 One important fact that I’d like to mention as well is that customer review websites are increasing in popularity, thus search engines are viewing them as highly relevant and quickly indexing them. What this means is that you should create your ad for your business using keywords that your website is targeting in order to help out with your organic search results. You’ll be amazed at how quickly your company will appear in search engines. Good luck!

 So how do you make Craigslist work for you? Follow these methods and you will be on the right path: 

 1) Sales Pitch - Remember who you are targeting and write for them. You have a split second to grab someone’s attention so make your posting title snappy. Also, stay away from using symbols in your title - it looks like spam. Keep it short and to the point (unless you are selling something that requires detail, like a house or car). One of the main objectives if offering a service is to grab the visitors attention and get them back to your website where you can have more control over what the visitor sees, as opposed to craigslist that is somewhat limited in displaying ads.

2) Format / Layout - If you are offering a service or product that you plan on selling more than once, you should really consider building a template that you can upload pictures to and have more control of how text is displayed. Depending on your industry, there are many tools out there that can assist you with this. From basic ones like this, Craigslist Template Generator http://thelastreal.com/ to more complex ones like Vflyer - http://www.vflyer.com. My advice would be to find one that you are comfortable with and can create an ad or template easily as this is something that you should do every couple of days.

3) Submission - While there are programs that claim to auto submit your postings, sometimes it is best to naturally submit them through craigslist. Craigslist has cracked down on spammers over the years and has made automated posting more difficult - and will continue to do so. The last thing you want to do is get blacklisted, then you won’t be able to post anything without getting a new set of credentials.

4) Persistence - It is very important to keep submitting your ad on a regular basis. Craigslist has set up measures to prevent you from submitting every day but you can do so every 2-3 days. I advise keeping a document on your desktop with all of your text and ads. It will save you a lot of time. Realistically, the procedure should take no more than a few minutes to complete once you have it down.

Very nice gallery, keep up the good work!

 Although we all probably need some professional help every once in awhile, nowhere else can the term “Professional” itself, be so subjective than on the Internet. Here’s why - say I have a website that promotes my web design business. Aside from you reading what is on my website - that is designed to sell you my services - and maybe meeting me in person if we are in the same geographic area, how do you really know I am a qualified web development professional? You don’t….that is, until you do your homework.

 Yes, due diligence will serve you well once again when searching for a professional company to handle your web design needs. After all, this professional is responsible for developing and maintaining your Internet identity. Would you want to leave that up to somebody who does subpar work? How bout doing things myself you ask, “I took some graphic arts courses down at the local community college, I’m pretty confident I can build a website.” I can’t tell you how many times I have heard this one - “I plan on doing it myself.” I always cringe - always. Face it, YOU are NOT a website development professional, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this incredibly pedantic article. Accept it and find a qualified professional to handle your Internet marketing needs.

 Now, there are some simple cases where you may be able to pull it off all by yourself. And I’m sure everyone knows someone who built their own website in their spare time and it kicks butt - meaning it generates a lot more income, than it costs to maintain. Maybe if Grandma is baking cookies and little Johnny handles the web design and internet orders; sure, maybe then a DIY approach to web development can be a workable solution. But I always look for the greener grass. What if say - with the help of a professional - Grammie had a shopping cart application, search engine optimization, or a referral marketing strategy in place and being overseen by a professional? Do you think that would sell even more delicious culinary confections?? I’d be willing to lay odds on that one. Fear, lack of understanding, and rigidity will not generate more profits for your business.

In case the message isn’t being conveyed in an effective manner; you will benefit most from having a professional oversee your website design, development, maintenance and marketing. For every millionaire Grammie out there, there are ten million DIY websites lost in the Internet ether. They ain’t makin’ nobody more money, or keeping existing customers happy. What started out as a quest to save money, winds up costing you in unrealized profits. The old penny wise, pound foolish deal. You leave the plumbing to professionals, roofing to the professionals, root canals to the professionals….why would you risk your business identity with anything less?

A prerequisite - you have a blog that has good content, advice, topics, etc. I advise you to write at least 10, if not more, blog entries before you start heavily promoting it. Now, let’s begin.

 1)  Join Communities / Social Media - This is one of the quickest ways to get new traffic. Here are a few that we have found effective: Digg, del.icio.us, StumbleUpon, Facebook, LinkedIn,  MyBlogLog, Bumpzee, MySpace, YouTube,  Blog Catalog. That should be enough to get you started. It’s best to start a community at these sites (the ones that allow you to).

 2) Forums - Become active in a forum that is geared towards your industry. This is hard to determine without knowing what your business is but all you have to do is type in your main topic followed by forum in Google and I’m sure you will find tons!   

 3) Start your own Group - You can easily start your own group on Yahoo, Google, MSN and more. If you have a good enough Niche, you should easily be able to find new members. Here is an example of one we just started http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_Business_Builders/database

 4) Let the world know - There are various free places where you can advertise your business for free.

            a. Classifieds - Craig’s List, Oodle, Kijiji, INetGiant, Sales Spider

            b. Share Photos - Flickr, Photobucket

            c. Submit a Press Release - PRBuzz, I-Newswire, Free-Press-Release.com

5)  Promote Your Blog Feeds - Create a place for members to easily subscribe to your blog.

 6) Create a Contest - Offer something that you can give away that will draw in visitors, maybe some free advertising or something free that pertains to your industry that is worthwhile.

7) Leave Comments - visit industry related blogs and leave comments. Caution: don’t overkill this, you don’t want to be seen as a nuisance. Leave comments only when you have something valuable to add.

What’s in a name? No, not the Capulet’s and Montagues – but a domain name. The domain name for your website can be the difference between having your site at the top of Google, and having it lost in the ether of cyberspace. Do not hastily choose a domain name for your website strictly because it sounds cute, or is easy to remember. Remember, those are subjective feelings, what you find cute I may find incredibly annoying. One thing for certain, if your goals are to gain search engine placement for your website (ie. Expose your business to the millions of internet surfers everyday….many of whom may be right around the block), you will want to include a geographic reference, along with the focus of your business. This is one of the simplest SEO techniques out there, and it all starts with the domain – starts there…nowhere near the end.

Let me give you an example; say a pet store right here in San Diego is looking for a catchy domain name for their newly revamped website, but also one that is search engine friendly. Maybe something like sandiegopets.com, sandiegopetsupply.com, or sandiegopetdepot.com would work. But let’s strip away some layers and start asking ourselves the important questions.

Where in San Diego? Is there a better “geographic locator” than just San Diego, a lot of times there is, you just need to start asking yourself these types of questions. For the SD example, imagine if your pet store is up in North County San Diego – someplace like Carlsbad or Oceanside – at the extreme North end of the county, San Diego proper is over 35 miles away. Wouldn’t you think if someone is in the city of San Diego, they are going to look within 5-10 minutes of their location for a pet store? If the hypothetical store in question is over 35 miles from San Diego proper, would it make sense for San Diego to be part of the domain? Maybe so, maybe your biggest customer is a dog shelter in the city itself. Then again, maybe not – but this is the mindset that is needed. Would you want your web identity to be San Diego, or would it be better to have it more localized??? Maybe carlsbadpets.com, or oceansidepets.com works better. And come up with answers from a consumer’s perspective. Do you focus more on dogs and cats, or horses, or birds, or fish?….Again, more questions that need answering in relation to your domain choice. Hopefully the above example leaves you with more unanswered questions.

It may seem as if you come away from reading this article with more questions than answers. Good, that’s the way it should be. You need to ask and answer these questions for yourself before you can go ahead and have control over your Internet marketing…or domain choice. Herein lies the wisdom of my favorite Naval axiom, The Law of the 7 Ps: Proper Previous Planning Prevents Piss-Poor Performance.

Words to live by

1) Gmail - http://gmail.google.com/mail/help/about.html - Gmail is a like your yahoo or hotmail account on steroids. It would only make sense that gmail has the best search capability to locate messages without having to sort them. If you have been using Yahoo or Hotmail for awhile now, you know how much of a pain this can be. Gmail also allows you to merge all of your mail accounts into one(sending and receiving). These 2 features alone can save mucho time. Gmail is also easily compatible with Google’s calendar and best of all its free.

2) Adsense - do you have a high traffic website? Adsense(if used properly) can help bring in some advertising dollars for your company. However, keep in mind that you should not liter your website with these. Besides degrading the overall appearance, there is always the chance that your advertiser could be advertising on your website with adwords. Not good. I highly recommend adsense if you run a blog or informational business. If you are selling a service or product, you need to utilize adwords.

3) Adwords - Google’s cash cow. You have seen these ads before - they are the ads that appear on the top and right side when you do a search in Google. They also appear on Google’s network of websites that have agreed to display there ads for a percentage of each click that is accrued. Adwords has sophisticated tools to help you recommend target words, allow you to target certain regions and much more. To learn more visit https://adwords.google.com/.

4) Analytics - Simple put, this tool allows you to track visitors to your website. Very useful in determining your target audience.

5) Page Creator - Need a simple website? Give Google page creator a whirl. It is very easy to learn and can get you buy if you need to post something very basic online.

6) Local Business Center - Get on the map! I’m sure you noticed by now that when you search for certain keywords, a map appears at the top listing local business in your area. Adding your business only takes a couple of minutes, is free and can allow you to show up at the top of the search engines. It’s also advisable to have your clients leave reviews for your company, this will help out with your presence. You can also create coupons in this area as well.

7) Google Calendar - this is an easy way to keep everything together. It ties in nicely with your mail and can be accessed from anywhere.

Other honorable mentions - Google has a wide variety of tools including online notebooks and document sharing capabilities. They also offer Google talk which will allow you to Instant Message(you can use this feature from the mail as well), PC-to-PC voice calls, file transfers and more.

I obviously just skimmed the surface with these topics but highly advise researching more about google and what it can do for you.