Now when I was a computer consultant and provided systems support to small business, charging by the hour was the norm and customers didn’t argue with an hourly rate because the service provided was visible in that I spent time at their place of business, so they could see the service being delivered in real time.  However, with the creative side of my business that I was growing at the time (graphic design, web design, business branding), charging by the hour didn’t seem to sell well because customers didn’t actually see you do the work.  The work was nebulous and not tangible.  I would go away, create something, and then days later, bill the client for the hours I worked.

At the time in early 2000, web sites were still fairly new, and few clients understood what they were, how they were built.  Even fewer had a clear strategy on what their web site was supposed to do.  All of these factors made charging by the hour a constant struggle because customers wouldn’t understand what went on.  Now, I have to admit, I probably ended up attracting clients that weren’t willing to pay what I wanted to charge, and didn’t see the value of what I provided.  It’s not that I overcharged or was too expensive.  In fact, if anything my rates were too low at the time, and I didn’t believe I had skills worth selling at a fair rate.  Also, I probably didn’t do a good enough job explaining and showing value during the lead generation phase of my sales cycle.

Today, I understand my business much more clearly and I have built enough web sites to put a predictable price on what I sell.  I know some clients are new to the Internet and need more coaching.  While others have already built their first web site and are looking for a revamp and are easier to work with.  In all cases, I can almost always use a fixed price model when selling my services, and I have chosen to go down that route instead of the hourly rate model.  Now, if you are a web designer listening to me right now, your are probably thinking, I should charge by the hour, but I will tell you what.  Customers won’t buy it.  I’m also so fast with web development now, that I can create in a day what used to take me a week 10 years ago and so my hourly rate would be in the range of 200-300 per hour.  I won’t get many clients at that rate.

In addition, charging by the hour sets me up for a model of trading time for money, and if there is anything I know about being an employee, that’s the one distinction you can make.  Employees trade time for money.  By following the hourly rate model, I end up being tied to timesheets and some customers that are just starting out with their web business end up being overbilled.  There are just too many scenarios where charging by the hour, doesn’t work for my customers. In most cases it’s a win-lose strategy where customers will lose out and won’t ask me for help and guidance because they know they are being billed for my time.  I would rather do away with the hourly rate and instead sell at a fixed price, deliver my best work, and let customers interact with me more often.  That sounds much more win/win to me and in the end, the best solution is produced.

Idea 1 – Productize your services

Now, you are probably thinking I’m heading in the wrong direction with fixed price design because I lose out, but that’s not really the case.  You see, with fixed price design, I can determine what a project is worth by calculating how much time I will have to devote to the project, and determine what my costs will be.  One of the outcomes of this is that I can start to think of my consulting services as products on a shelf, or something in a box.  I can thinking about a concept called “productization” which is essentially the idea of turning a time-based consulting service into a “product”. 

Let me give you an example of “productization”.  Let’s say you get a haircut, and the stylist says they charge 150 per hour.  Well, most people will try and do the simplest possible haircut, cut out extras like a shampoo, gel, etc.  They won’t let the stylist do what they do best and in the end, no matter how little you pay, you won’t be satisfied.  Of course, most stylists don’t charge by the hour, and have fixed price “products” you can “buy”.  You know the final cost, and you simply expect the stylist to do their best work.

So that’s the first method of thinking about what your time is worth.  Turn your services, or the services you deliver most often into “products”, and then put a dollar value on those “products”.  In the beginning, you might undercharge or overcharge, but over time, your product pricing will settle to a value that makes sense for your target audience.

Idea 2 – Increase value

Continuing with the example of the hair stylist, have you seen stylists that charge more?  Of course you have, and the value of what’s being delivered is tangible. Often, it’s a fancier studio, maybe there are spa services, more talented stylists, better products, and overall, a more enjoyable and engaging experience.  Can you think of doing the same with your business?  One of the things I have built recently with Full Motion Group, is a knowledgebase.  It’s a seperate web site, where my customers can read articles, watch videos, and learn more about how to build their business and their online marketing. I can also increase value by adding members to my team, like I did earlier this year. 

You see, one of the things you need to understand about buying behaviour is that people don’t buy based on price alone.  The value of what they buy also plays a role and if you can increase the value of your business, and deliver to customers something extra, something above and beyond what everyone else is offering, then price becomes somewhat flexible.  For example, consider organic food.  Now, I’m not about to argue against organic food.  In fact, if anything I actually enjoy eating organic produce and I do see the value.  I know organic food tastes better and I feel good knowing that I’m feeding my body with something more nutritious than off the shelf produce.  Think about increasing value in creative ways in your business as well that gives you a license to charge more than your competitors.

Idea 3 – Consider market maturity

Your industry maturity plays a big role in how you charge. Unless you can find ways to increase value or stand out from your competition, you are going to find it difficult to charge a premium in your business.  Market maturity, however, also is something to consider when thinking how much you can charge.  In newer industries or businesses where supply is scarce, you can afford to charge a premium.  I have a few clients that offer something few others have and in one case, price is no object and this client can charge any amount they see fair.

As markets and industries mature, more suppliers invariably enter the market and price becomes a concern for customers.  Again, as I mentioned before, your client history, testimonials, and value added all help in closing on the sale, so while market maturity is significant, it’s not a major consideration if you have positioned your business effectively. 

I would go as far as saying that market maturity actually induces business risk more than it does give you a competitive advantage.  All markets mature, and eventually price becomes the only differentiator amongst your competition.  That’s the case currently with the web design industry.  Some web design companies have used a client list as their competitive advantage, while others have gone the route of teams and technology as what makes them stand out.

Idea 4 – Work backwards from your goals

If you happen to be in a business where your customers don’t have many references to compare your price point, you may want to work backwards from your end goals to determine what your hourly rate should be.  I can’t say it any better than a great resource at Freelanceswitch.com called the Hourly rate calculator, so I suggest you visit the site and give the tool a try.

Hourly Rate Calculator

Idea 5 – Learn from the competition

If all else fails and you can’t create more value, or come up with creative ways of selling, you could always learn from the competition.  However, this is one area I really don’t suggest you do.  You see, it could well be that the competition isn’t providing what customers really want and haven’t spent the time to learn what the pain points are from customers to devise a creative solution.

If you just do what everyone else does, you could fall into what I call the “me2”, and “copycat” way of doing business. Now, there is nothing wrong with that, but do you really want to compete for eyeballs like everyone else?  I suggest it’s easier and better to learn the pain points, and devise a solution that makes sense for customers.  To me, that makes more sense and ultimately takes you down the path of being a “solution provider”.

Well, I hope the ideas above give you some indications about how you might price your services.  Focus on making it easy for customers to work with you and delivering high value.  Help customers solve problems, and you will never be short of customers wanting to work with you.

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I have worked with a lot of different CMS tools in my 10 years of working with computers – Wordpress, Joomla, Sharepoint, and even attempted writing my own CMS tool twice in the past. I have found, in the last 2 years of using Wordpress exclusively that it’s an excellent publishing platform.  As a bonus, being in Vancouver, Canada I’m lucky to have many sources of theme developers and access to local meetup.com groups discussing Wordpress development in Vancouver as well.

Why I think Wordpress is a Great Publishing Platform

1. Extensive community support.

The Wordpress platform is actively developed by Automattic and there is a massive online community behind it as well. It’s the tool of choice for bloggers and Freelance design shops like mine, and the source of information online to solve any problem or question is vast.

See why Wordpress is the CMS you should use

2. Endless plugins that enhance functionality.

Without adding plugins to your Wordpress installation, it’s pretty dull and boring.  Plugins are what make your Wordpress installation sing.  Here is a current list of the Wordpress plugins I use for all client installations and this is just a starting point. 

1. Cforms for building custom feedback forms
2. All in One SEO for handling your Search Engine Optimization
3. Wordpress DB Backup because even world class hosting can fail
4. Social or Sharethis so Posts can be shared on Social and Bookmarking sites
5. Google XML Sitemaps so that Google indexes your site completely
6. Linkwithin to direct readers to other relevant content on your blog
7. Pagemash to manage page ordering and hierarchy if you are building a CMS site
8. Statpress to get a quick pulse of your site activity
9. Quick Meta Keywords which uses your categories in your keyword meta tag if you are running a blog-centered site like mine is
10. Linkubaitor so users can embed URLs themselves

Large Resource of Theme Options. 

Wordpress (today) is quite easy to skin and many companies have popped up online offering theme packages you can buy.  My favourite sources of themes are Themeforest and Woothemes, but I occasionally hunt down alternatives (like the theme in use here).  It’s not that hard to find.  Here is my short list:

1. www.Woothemes.com
2. www.themeforest.net
3. www.templatemonster.com
4. www.revolutiontheme.com
5. www.wpremix.com
6. www.premiumthemes.net
7. www.press75.com
8. www.prothemedesign.com
9. www.pearsonified.com
10. www.wpdesigner.com

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If you are a business owner, or work in Marketing for your organization, one of the things you must understand is the mind of your customer.  Why?  Because if you understand what your customers are looking for, you can give them what they want.  And when a customer is looking for a solution to a problem, what they are concerned about is the benefits and how the solution you provide can help them solve their problem.

Just think about it.  If you need to hire a web designer, which of the following will you seek?

A web designer that knows HTML, Javascript, PHP, Wordpress, and understands Jquery and Mootools

OR

A web designer that can will build a site that gets your more customers, inform your target market, help you share your company story, make your stand out against your competition?

Get out of your own way

The choice should be obvious.  Obviously it’s benefits that you care about when you seek the help from someone else.  The challenge for you, however, is getting out of your own way when you market your OWN company.  What I mean is that as a business owner, often, what you care most about, and inevitably spend most of your time in your business doing is “feature building”. 

• If you are a web designer, you spend lots of time improving your skills and abilities, learning new technologies, and continuing to improve your skills. 
• If you are a printer, you spend most of your time working on new printing technologies, improving turnaround time, and errors, and making your print company more competitive. 
• If you are a software developer, you spend your time on improving your software, reducing bugs, and building capabilities.

Fortunately, that’s great for your customers.  Unfortunately, that’s really bad for your customers.

A common mistake as a business owner, is marketing features and abilities and that’s because you become myopic about what you do.  You forget about benefits because it’s not as interesting to you as “feature building” which is where your passion in business building really lies.  You spend all your time delivering your product or service better, and forget that benefits is why people buy from you.  People want their problems solved and you need to know how to give them that.

Self-Employed Professionals love to Master their Work

The problem I mention about about becoming myopic is a common mistake a lot of self-employed professionals make. I have made the same mistake myself. So how do you get of your own way?  Do a few exercises on discovering your benefits using the system I have written up for you below:

An Easy Tool for Benefit Discovery

Take the time go through the questions below.  Think about the answers and what they mean to your business and your customers

1. With your last customer, think about a story of how you helped them solve a problem. Write that story from your customers perspective.  If necessary, interview your customer and ask them what benefits they received.
2. List all your product or service “features” and next to each one, list at least one benefit of how each feature helps your customer
3. Do you have great stories of triumph, happiness or improved efficiency that you were able to give your customer? 
4. Without you, what problem would your customer have been unable to solve.  What benefit would your customer have been unable to satisfy?
5. In your industry, what are the common features all of your competitors provide?  What one feature do you have that your competition hasn’t discovered?  And if you have such a feature, what is the benefit to your customer of that feature?
6. List all the features in order from most commonly asked for, to least commonly asked for. 
7. Did you build a new business feature or capability because customers asked for it?  If so, what new benefit did your customers enjoy of that feature?
8. Think about a business you recently worked with.  Think about how the product/service made you feel both before and after the sale.  List the primary “feelings” that you expected to feel before purchasing and then compare that list to how you actually felt after the sale.  Are the lists similar or different and why?  Shouldn’t your customer feel good both before and after the sale?

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I know lots of stuff.  I’m not bragging, I just really do know a lot about a lot of different subjects.  I’m an expert at a few of them, but the ones I have a passion for I continually pursue perfection and try to achieve “greatness”. I’m not sure why that is.  Perhaps it’s my passion for excellence and the reward of becoming really great at something.  Or perhaps it’s my never ending curiosity about how the world works.  All I know is, I’m a Jack of all Trades and I’m celebrating it right here, right now. 

Did curiosity really kill an actual cat?

I have always been curious. I have this insatiable thirst for knowledge that never seems to go away.  In fact, I often feel like there just isn’t enough time to soak up all that life has to offer and that can freeze me in place with indecisiveness.

When I was young, I would take apart electronics and try to figure out how they work. My mom, in fact, used to call me “destroyer”. Yes, most kids go through this phase, but I still have that curiosity today in abundance.  The earliest I can remember, my dad said “just try”, “explore” and don’t be afraid.  People that know me well will say that:

• I’m stubborn.  No apologies, no regrets. Period.  Don’t like that?  Too bad for you.
• I figure out a way to succeed in anything I do.  For a while I thought that if I couldn’t succeed, it was someone else’s fault.  Over the last few years, I realize I’m in total control and I know it’s just a matter of putting the puzzle pieces together.
• I’m curious to a fault.  I always question how and why.  I like to know.  People think I’m intruding or stealing something but honestly I’m just curious. Perhaps it’s the control freak in me coming out and it probably comes across that way, but truthfully I’m just darned curious.  I like to know how something works when I use it.
• I often always question the status quo.  No. Actually, I despise the status quo. That’s the truth. To me status quo is an opportunity to do it differently.  I have a knack for recognizing imperfection, and I feel strongly compelled to fix it.  I’m also an INTJ so seeking optimization is something that’s in my DNA.
• I like details and I don’t mind working on them.  Being a web designer, the beauty is all in the details.  It’s the little things that matter and make a site go from good to great.  Often, I will work on pixel perfect positioning on the tiniest of details that virtually nobody will ever see. I just enjoy the process and I feel good when I succeed.
• I love best practices.  In life, some things just work and it’s no point questioning them or trying to re-invent the way it’s done.  Wanna lose weight? Eat right and Exercise.  Wanna be rich?  Hang around rich people.  Wanna get better at something?  Practice.  Duh.

That’s Jack with a CAPITAL J please

Well, 36 years into my life, and I can honestly say that sometimes, my curious nature gets me into trouble.  If you look at my career history over the last 10 years or so, it’s clear that I have held a lot of different jobs, and nearly every time it’s in a different industry and in a completely different position.  I’m not corporate ladder climbing material, that’s absolutely sure.  I probably can’t hold a position for more than a few years, and then my curiosity get’s to me and I need to try something totally new.  My last manager called me “ambitious” because he could see that sitting still wasn’t in my future.

From a “corporate career” point of view, being a Jack of All trades certainly isn’t in your benefit.  You see the corporate culture you know today is really something that existed from the days of war when people needed to repeat a task over and over. Innovation and Mastery were left to heads of state and designers of war, not to the lowly “man on the line”.

Single Tasking Humans are from the Days of War

It’s a theory (isn’t everything we state just a theory anyways?), but I do believe the corporate conditioning and social systems we are all are a part of tell us that we should become a master of just one thing and that diversifying yourself is bad for you.  Diversify a stock portfolio, not a career path.  My parents often say, “Why don’t you keep one job and stick with it?”.  Now be patient with me. I’m not against staying at one job and being content with it, but I truly believe it’s something that existed from the days of war, and a time when The Great Depression forced everyone into silos. 

Being a single tasking person is great when

• There are lots of jobs and the future is stable
• Your skill is needed inside a mass production system
• Your skill or task can’t be replaced by machinery or computers

Look at the above list.  Name one of those items that is true today.  Well, there are lots of jobs but nothing is stable in the economy.  I don’t personally know anyone that works in factories anymore.  I think it’s all offshore now, and there isn’t a single mass production system, job, skill, or piece of knowledge that can’t be replaced by machinery, automation, and computer AI systems. 

I think as well, that over the last 100 years there has also been a major shift in the human mind and it’s ability to do amazing things.  Access to the web has allowed for a tremendous amount of knowledge and information to be shared.   Global travel and commerce has allowed for products and services of all kinds to be bought and sold by all the nations of the world.

The Star Trek world is coming

It might be premature to say, but I think Globalization as well as a naturally occurring move towards a perfect “Star Trek” world is inevitable.  People want to be a part of great ideas and to do something worthwhile.  Just look at Google.  Their motto is to “organize the worlds information”.  Those early programmers worked night and day to make that dream a remote possibility (which it might be if Google sticks around for a few more years).  Look at Bill and Melinda Gates.  The took all their wealth and decided that living up to their foundations motto, “all lives have equal value”, was something worth pursuing.

Everyone is sharing more and more.  Name one thing you can’t learn online (well except maybe your grandma’s apple pie recipe)?   Cost of information is near zero. Products are universally available without discrimination to your color, gender, or ethnicity.  It’s now possible to get Bananas from Jamaica, TVs from Japan, Silk from China, and Curry from India all without leaving your front door. Fedex, a company with the large private fleet of airplanes in the world, will deliver it all to you fresh from the producer before the week is over.

Adapt and Conquer, just like The Romans

Technology, Computers, the Internet, Travel, and Communication have all had remarkable affects on the human consciousness.  So what’s next?  Well, as my friend Eddie says “adapt and conquer” is the name of the game.  Learn to act quickly.  Be an “Agile” person, don’t just write Agile software.  Go where the opportunities are and learn quickly.  Be ready to drop everything you believe in and change quickly. There are a tonne of opportunities around you at the bleeding edge of innovation, entrepreneurship and philanthropy.  All of them are ways to contribute to the global shift already occurring under your feet.  Outsource like everyone else.  Be a participant in the global shift.  Don’t cry.  Instead, celebrate and enjoy the possibilities.

The spread of information and access to anything the world produces is here, right now, whether you like it or not.  Are you prepared? Are you a Jack of All Trades?  Do you already know how to learn quickly and pickup a new skill or two?  Can you learn anything?  Are you curious?  Do you love to acquire knowledge and skill?  Does certainty bore you?  If so, congratulations!  You are ready to rule the new world!

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I recently started using the Nextgen Gallery on a project I just completed at exquisitecutandfashion.com.  If you haven’t used Nextgen before, it’s an excellent image organizer that let’s you do things like automatic thumbnails, gallery metadata, and more.  Have a look at some samples to get a better idea.

I have come to love Nextgen so much, I decided to use the plugin once again with another client, coastexpressions.ca because it supposedly gave me flash gallery capabilities. Integrating both together is normally a straightforward process inside a blog post.   According to instructions, all you are supposed to do is use [simplegallery id=x] and you should be able to show the flash viewer.  That wasn’t working for me.  When I tried that same short code in the page header of a site nothing happened, and I wasn’t surprised. I assume it’s because the above short code only works inside the Wordpress loop (and probably where the plugin does some run time magic).  Anyways, I found a different approach that works outside the Wordpress post loop and will almost certainly work for you anywhere on your site (including inside a Wordpress loop or in your blog post/page.  Below are complete instructions:

What you will need

• Wordpress web site
• Wordpress Admin access and advanced coding skills
• Nextgen Gallery
• Nextgen Flash Plugin
• Flash Photo viewer from AirtightInteractive

Step 1 – Install the Nextgen Gallery Plugin

Go to Wordpress admin, click Add Plugins, search for “Nextgen”, and Install the Nextgen Gallery plugin.  If you haven’t installed a Wordpress plugin before, the rest of these instructions here aren’t going to make any sense to you at all.  I suggest, you put this tutorial on hold, and learn a bit more first from here, here, and here.

Download the 1st plugin

Step 2 – Create a Gallery and add some Images

Once the plugin is installed and activated, find the new Gallery menu in your Wordpress admin. Create a new gallery (name it whatever you like), and add as many images as you like.  Click the image above if you need some help.

Step 3 – Install Flash plugin

If you haven’t seen it before, a company called AirtightInteractive has some really great flash photo viewers you can get for free.  In combination with one of those flash photo viewers (I’m using Simpleviewer in this example), we can show our Nextgen gallery on our site.  In order to do that, we need a second plugin.  Download and activate it.

Download the 2nd plugin

Step 4 – Download and Install the Flash files

Now that you have the 2nd plugin installed, you will need some flash files installed in your Wordpress Plugins folder.  See below for detailed instructions (original instructions located here)

1. Create a folder in your Wordpress plugin folder called “nggflash-swf”. 

2. Go to the web page http://www.airtightinteractive.com/ and download the SimpleViewer & Tiltviewer & AutoViewer & PostcardViewer

3. If you intend to use PostcardViewer, rename viewer.swf in the PostcardViewer folder to pcviewer.swf

4. Upload the file viewer.swf, TiltViewer.swf, autoviewer.swf and pcviewer.swf to the wp-content/plugins/nggflash-swf folder

5. Activate the plugin

6. Go to Gallery->FlashViewer.  Enter the location of your SWF file.

Step 5 – Embed your Gallery

If you have gotten this far, you are doing well. You should have the following done:

• Nextgen Gallery plugin installed, activated, and at least one gallery populated with images
• Nextgen Flash plugin installed, activated, and configured (see Gallery->FlashViewer in Wordpress admin for configuration)

1. Now, get the ID of your Nextgen gallery as show below

   

2. Using the above ID, enter the code below anywhere on your site where you want the Flash viewer to appear. 

   1: <div id="gallery">

   2: <object height="480" width="950" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" class="simpleviewer" name="so1" data="/wp-content/plugins/nggflash-swf/viewer.swf" id="so1_1" style="visibility: visible;"><param name="wmode" value="opaque"/><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="bgcolor" value="#E2F0FD"/><param name="flashvars" value="preloaderColor=0x999999&amp;xmlDataPath=/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-flashviewer/xml/simpleviewer.php?gid=1"/></object>

   3: </div>

3. In your code above, change gid=1 to the number of your Nextgen Gallery ID where 1 is replaced by your gallery id.

   1: ....php?gid=1"/></object>

   2: </div>

4. Change your flash object width and height as well.  I tried a few different sizes, and it seems that Simpleviewer doesn’t like anything smaller than 480 pixels in height.

   1: <object height="480" width="950"

5. If you are using Simpleviewer as I am, change your background color as well

   1: <param name="bgcolor" value="#E2F0FD"/>

If all goes, well you should have a functional flash photo viewer connecting to your Nextgen gallery.  Got problems?  Let me know.

Demo my Gallery

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Minimum Requirements:

1. Wordpress website
2. A form built with Cforms which is already running on the page you want (I’m using version 11 in this example)
3. A Paypal account of any kind

Limitations:

1. You can’t take in subscription or recurring payments with this tutorial as far as I can tell, unless you fiddle some more with the PayPal Link Generator

Instructions:

Install the Cforms plug-in into your Wordpress installation – if you are stuck at this stage, this tutorial probably isn’t for you.  How about hiring us to do the installation for you?

Build your website form in Cforms to your satisfaction

Integrate the form into your page or post using the Wordpress Page/Post editor

Visit the Paypal Link Generator at http://www.codetransit.com/generators/paypal_link_generator.php and create a link of your liking

Once you click “Generate Link” you will get two boxes.  One is a form you can use on any page, and the other is a Link for Email – which is the one we want here.  Grab that code and copy it.

Visit your Cforms configuration page for the form you’re using and go to Core Form Admin/ Email Options

In this area, look for Redirect options and past the Email Link into that option and also Enable this option

Now, if you did everything correctly, you should be forwarded to this link automatically after submitting a form! 

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Are you standing out?  Are you marketing just like everyone else or are you taking the extra steps to stand out against the competition?  Good companies market themselves like everyone else and most of the time, that’s ok.  The problem, however, is that in a democratized market online where the barriers to competition are neutralized, it’s not enough.  It’s too easy for potential customers to view your competition and make their own decision about working with you.  All of your competitors have a web site just like yours.

Example: searching for a dentist

Take for example, searching for a dentist online.  You arrive in a new city, and you need a dentist. Assuming you search online first – and studies show 60% of consumers today search for vendors online first – you can very quickly come up with a short list of 10 or 20 dental clinics you might want to become a patient at.  So how do you decide which one to call?  Maybe a list of testimonials? dental certification?  reviews by patients?  a well designed list of services? pictures of staff?  But wait, does that sound familiar?  That’s because it is. You see, your competition is doing the same thing and providing everything I just listed.  In fact, they probably all are.  So what do you do then?

The Purple Cow

The key in getting that extra edge on your competition is standing out, being different, and doing something memorable.  Seth Godin calls it “The Purple Cow” in his book by the same name.  Seth says that being different is what works – just like if you were to see a purple cow in a field of brown cows – and being different is what you should be working at doing. 

Take the dental clinic example. What if the clinic owner takes that extra step to stand out?  Maybe with weekly videos on dental health management or with a “best smile” rating application on their web site.  Or maybe with giving new patients a personal makeover kit, or holding a monthly running and health improvement clinic. How about creating a web site called 1000smiles.com and inviting users from all over the web to add their smiles and featuring smiles from your clinic’s patients.  Being different, going that extra mile is all about standing out.  Whatever business you are in, come up with a list of 10 or 20 ideas that help you stand out, that help you become the “Purple Cow”. 

I’m not special right?

Now, you are probably thinking to yourself

• I don’t do anything special
• I don’t have a business that’s different than everyone else
• It’s too risky.  I don’t want to be different
• My customers want me to be like everyone else
• Why bother?  I have enough customers
• Being different is dangerous and I could alienate some customers
• My customers are reserved and don’t take risks
• It’s a waste of time and money and a gamble

Well, that’s might be true.  Yes, you don’t HAVE to be different, and you don’t HAVE to be special.  But online, that’s the only way to stand out.  You see when someone searches online, they have certain expectations on what they want to see online and you need to provide at least that much information on your web site.  But what if you go the extra mile, and have something memorable like the ideas I mentioned above?  Is it possible that your customers will remember your uniqueness?  Is it possible your idea was so juicy your customers tell others about it?  Is it possible the blogosphere gets wind of your idea and your idea goes viral?

Checklist: Just ask your customers

If you are still unconvinced that standing out is essential to your marketing efforts, try on this checklist with some of your customers.  Go ahead, print out this list and see what your customers say.

1. What do I/we do differently than my competitors that you noticed?
2. Why did you choose our/my business?
3. What was the one thing I/we had different than anyone else?
4. Would you recommend me/us, and if so, what would be one thing you would mention?
5. What was one product or service we/i had, that nobody else had?
6. Did you view our/my website before deciding to call?

The answers to these questions will very quickly give you something to sink your teeth (pardon the pun) into.  Continuing with the dental clinic idea, let’s say a customer mentioned your extended business hours, and that you had a laser whitening system.  These are two big advantages you had compared to your competitors and these were big factors in deciding to visit your dental clinic. Now that you know, leverage this uniqueness and ways you were able to stand out in your online marketing and branding.  Mention your extended business hours and laser whitening system in your marketing copy and on your web site.

Now, here is where the real ideas start

So you have already taken the time and made the effort to be different.  You know how you are different and you market this in your marketing copy.  Great.  But what about going the extra mile to be different.  What about doing something extra-ordinary.  Something way outside the norm?

10 ideas for making you stand out online

It’s not that hard to stand out, truth be told.  Very few of your competitors are reading articles like this one, and even fewer are implementing outstanding marketing ideas. Here are 10 cheap, free, and easy ideas you could launch right away, with minimal effort

1. Give away ebooks (start with a checklist style book and make a bunch of them)
2. Show a video on your home page (use tubemogul to distribute it).  Look at 136words.com for a great example of online video
3. Do a weekly podcast and distribute it through the Apple.com store.
4. Give away an iPod each week to online subscribers
5. Write a monthly newsletter (use campaignmonitor for awesome e-newsletters)
6. Implement a ratings web site for pictures/sounds/ideas related to your product (for example 1000smiles.com if you are a dental clinic)
7. Interview celebrities, dignitaries, or notable authors in your industry and post the results on your web site
8. Show your real photograph (professionally done of course).  Yes, you would be truly shocked how few of your competitors are doing this!
9. Record a 2 minute audio clip for each page of your web site (easily done with a good publishing system like Wordpress – it’s what I use for all my clients).
10. Interview your past customers on video and feature them in case studies on your web site.  Even though potential customers know it’s a marketing ploy, it still works!

Hopefully you get some indication about why standing out is essential and how you can go about discovering your own uniqueness.  If you still need help, feel free to give me a call.  I’m always ready to consult and coach businesses on business marketing.

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Out of the blue, I was contacted today by a local business owner seeking Wordpress theme customization from a theme they purchased on Themeforest (by the way, read about how I was able to provide everything the client wanted in my other blog post)  At first, I thought someone referred them to me, but after asking I was told they found me by searching for the phrase Wordpress Theme Customization Vancouver on Google where I rank #6.  

As you might guess, I’m extremely pleased by the first page ranking considering I have had my new site, Full Motion Group, out for less than a year, and that I only recently installed a new theme from Themeforest.  I’m going to share with you what I believe are the key factors in getting the ranking, and why I believe it’s partly attributed to the single page design I decided to implement.

Before I list my reasons, let’s get clear on WHAT a single page web site is:

1. A theme or design where all of your primary keyword rich site content is loaded into the client browser when they hit your domain name root
2. No frames, iframes, or fancy post-backs to load content in-line. 
3. Flash is NOT your primary content vehicle (can be used for headers and non-keyword rich content).
4. Any sub-page content or blog posts can be linked to, but those pages are not your primary keyword-rich content

As mentioned, I recently implemented a single page theme on my business portfolio web site, Full Motion Group.  The theme was from Themeforest called Personal Landing Page. I made many modifications to the theme (which i discuss at length about in the comments to the theme) to suit my needs like adding testimonials and making it possible to link to individual posts in the portfolio section. 

If you visit the site, and then view the source code, you will see that the site’s primary content is loaded when you visit the home page.  The only content that doesn’t appear on-load are the in-depth profile case studies (like this profile).  In future, I might enhance the design further to load this content as well but for now I’m happy with the way it is.

After purchasing the theme, and playing around with source code, I knew that the theme had potential for good search engine ranking, but I never guessed it would produce results until today.

How I got to be #6 on Google for “Wordpress Theme Customization Vancouver” and why a single page web site is better for your search engine ranking

1. Reason #1: All site content is loaded when a search engine crawler visits the site.  No additional links need to be followed that contain keyword rich content. 
2. Reason #2: If keywords are repeated unnecessarily (like in site footers), they pollute crawler statistics.  For example, let’s say you have a page footer on every page that contains a short description of your business and some relevant keywords.  Keywords used in that description appear for each page of your site and that forces crawlers to make some guesses about what that page could be about
3. Reason #3: You only need to maintain meta-tag information for one page.  I used the All-in-one seo plugin whenever I launch a Wordpress site, and one of the first things I do is enter the home page title and description.  With a single page theme, I only need to do this once and I can carefully monitor my analytics results and tweak those keywords to match the results I’m looking for.
4. Reason #4: Content deeper within your site might not get crawled.  With traditional multi-page web sites, you need to hope that a crawler will index your entire site. Who knows how search engine crawlers behave, and it might not always be the case (as anyone that has tried to search the Microsoft site can attest to). Single page web sites on the other hand, are crawled and indexed completely, that you can be sure of.
5. Reason #5: Single page web sites load more quickly. Well, this isn’t always the case, but certainly a single page theme creates less total traffic than say 10 individual pages of the same content (barring content that is cached in browser).
6. Reason #6: Single page web sites that are updated are re-indexed completely. I’m sure that every time I updated my web site, a search engine eventually revisits and recrawls the site eventually.  Having all my content on a single page load also means that all my content is re-indexed which is even better because I can carefully tweak my entire site’s keywords without too much fuss.

I have yet to prove for sure that a single page theme is better for you from an SEO point of view, and certainly this doesn’t always apply for all sites (as you get larger, you will need to split content into multiple pages), but if you can get away with it, I suggest you give it a try.

Like this post?  Leave a comment or link to me!

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Get Post Image is a plugin I recently found that let’s you you place an image from a post into your home page to entice visitors to read your post.  I found a trick to OPTIONALLY show an image if it’s found, and not show one if it isn’t.  I used the PHP command “strpos” which allows me to search for the default.jpg and not show it if my post doesn’t contain an image.

Installation Instructions:

1. Download the plugin from http://www.andrewgrant.org/get-post-image
2. Install and activate the plugin as with any other Wordpress installation
3. Determine where you want your image thumbnail to appear (usually on your home page as I have done here), and find your post loop (the

<?php
    $image_tag = gpi_get_image(0,http://www.site.com/default.jpg, "portfolio-image");
    $url = get_permalink();
    $pos = strpos($image_tag,"http://www.site.com/default.jpg");
    if($pos === false) {
        echo "<a href=’$url’ class=preview>$image_tag</a>";
         // string needle NOT found in haystack
    }
    else {
         // string needle found in haystack
    }
    ?>
<?php the_excerpt(‘Read the rest of this entry &raquo;’); ?>

If you need more help with installing/configuring this plugin, let me know.  Just shoot me an email if you like.

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Being Creative is a Curse and a Blessing

As a designer, I’m looking at other designers for inspiration all the time.  That creative spirit, however, is both a blessing and a curse. It’s a blessing because I’m looking at new designs all the time and am curious about how other creatives look at branding.  I like design and I enjoy the creative process and that’s definitely a feather in my cap.  Being curious about design is also a curse, however, because I’m never satisfied with my own brand.   It always feel’s a bit incomplete, and as I learn more about design, branding, and standing out, I feel like I need to do something different.

My Brand History over the last 10 years

Take my own brand and how I market myself which I started doing in 2001 with bcbold.com:

• 1998 – Launched bcbold.com as my first exercise into online marketing.  View this version at archive.org.
• 2001 – After several revisions, I relaunched with a new design and also started using Active Server Pages to manage the content.  View this version at archive.org
• 2003 – I changed from bcbold.com to redprimary.com.  View this version at archive.org
• 2003 – 2008 – I changed the design of redprimary.com over that 5 year period many times and have at least 12 verifiable revisions of the site.  Every time I learned something new about design, I tweaked my own online presence.
• 2009 – I changed from using redprimary.com to fullmotiongroup.com which is my online portfolio because I felt redprimary.com didn’t really represent what I do.
• 2010 – I’m going to launch WebMarketingMasterPlan.com which is where all of my web marketing articles and expertise will eventually go.

At the moment, I’m leaning towards Minimalism and the idea that less can be more.  Take the latest version of fullmotiongroup.com.  It’s a dead simple design and all fits on one page.  No frills, no marketing, no lengthy blog posts, no sales pitches, no lengthy content, and no ebooks.  It’s a portfolio site that stands alone and if someone wants to read more about me, they can contact me or visit this blog.

The Rise of “Jack of All Trades”

I don’t know if it’s becoming more common globally, but certainly with IT Professionals such as myself, being multi-talented and a jack of all trades is commonplace.  Nearly everyone I know in IT has multiple skills and abilities.  I have decided that having multiple domains for each of my “personas” is a good thing too, and I’m going down that route now.

• fullmotiongroup.com – my simple portfolio site for my web design work
• webmarketingmasterplan.com – an educational resource I’m launching in 2010 with articles and best practices on web marketing and design or maybe as an ebook (I haven’t decided which will bring greater profits).  I might also do video with each blog post.
• mayurj.com – this blog and dumping ground for everything that doesn’t fit into the above two sites
• mayurj.org – A launching pad or lifestream page I have no plans on launching for now. I expect it to look something like Gina Trapani’s site and it might be the one domain I hand out to people looking to hire me.

My other domains, redprimary.com and bcbold.com I expect to keep for the forseeable future and won’t let them go (the Pagerank and domain history can’t be replaced).

5 reasons to have multiple domains

1. Reason 1: You have multiple skills and all together they don’t fit in one site
2. Reason 2: Thin-slice yourself and represent each skill/ability with it’s own brand
3. Reason 3: When customers visit one of your domains, they get what they want quickly and without fuss.  They don’t have to wade through hundreds of categories or a series of menus.
4. Reason 4: Experiment with a brand idea or marketing angle like MRPWebmedia did with 136words.com
5. Reason 5: Expand a series of blog posts or skills you develop into it’s own site.  If you have too much on one site, designers will tell you that your original brand becomes polluted.

10 places I get design inspiration

1. Wired Magazine – there are some great ad and article designs in this magazine and I get a copy every month.  I keep copies around and flip through them before I start a design project.
2. Television Ads – Sure shows are great, but ads during primetime or major sport events are great places get new “memes”, themes, and angles on marketing.
3. Vandelay Design Inspiration – Definitely one of the best resources for web design ideas, the author sends out an email each month which I always look forward to reading.  If you are a web designer, definitely subscribe to the author’s emails.
4. Twitter – Recently I’m getting a lot of people adding me to Twitter.  Sometimes, I look at their twitter accounts and visit their site to see what they do.
5. Local Mall – You would be surprised what you can see at the local mall (besides all the pretty eye candy) when you pay attention to the poster boards and in-store marketing
6. Books – I’m into personal development these days and have a big collection of about 3000 hours from guys like Rohn, Tracy, Robbins, Waitley, Covey and more.  Often, I get inspired to think differently about marketing and branding and that has definitely influenced my work.  In particular, Blink and Purple Cow from Seth Godin are outstanding examples of thinking outside the box.
7. MRPWebmedia – I just found this one recently.  It’s a great collection of articles about branding and marketing and the authors have gone down the path that marketing is about being like a Purple Cow (a reference to Seth Godin’s book on the subject) – ie that marketing is about doing something outstanding that people talk about.
8. Lifehacker, Engadget and ZdNet.com – These sites together offer links to vendors, articles, and tonnes of in-site content.  All of it together helps me to see design differently and sometimes in a fresh way. Often I will click the sidebar ads to see what other new ventures are coming out the woodworks.  I found some of my favorite services like MediaTemple (web hosting) and Basecamp (project management) this way.
9. Sitepoint.com – This is a large site focused on design and online marketing and they have several different email newsletters they send.  I subscribe to all of them which often feature ads from related businesses.  Flippa.com is one site I found this morning while looking at the Sitepoint email newsletter.
10. Supermarkets – Surprisingly, this is a great place for design ideas.  The food business is highly competitive and retailers have to make every square inch on product packaging count.  Web design can benefit from the same requirements – to make every square inch of a design count for something.  Next time you visit the supermarket, pay attention to product packaging that catches your eye and ask yourself what made it standout.

5 Reasons Why you MUST stand out

Having read most of the articles at MRPWebMedia.com, I’m convinced that doing something extraordinary is crucial in marketing. Actually, it’s an idea I always knew, but reading the articles helped refresh my memory. Online, it’s even more critical.  Here’s why:

1. Reason 1: With the rise of web sites, everyone skims pages and rarely reads a page in full.  You have about 10 seconds and you might as well make it count with something extra-ordinary.  Seth Godin talks about this in a book called Blink if you’re curious about how to stand out and why
2. Reason 2: With easy access to Twitter, Youtube, and Facebook, a great idea can go viral very quickly.  Do something different and people will talk about you.  This is good for your business, and it’s also good for your Pagerank
3. Reason 3: People don’t remember “Just like Everyone Else” .  They remember the guy with the red mohawk, or the girl with the long platinum blonde hair and grey eyes.  People’s emotions are triggered when they see something different, and hopefully, if you did a good job, they remember it for good reasons.  If people see something different, they are more likely to do business with you when their need arises.
4. Reason 4: People buy emotional states, not features and facts.  Nearly everything you buy you do so for the emotional state you hope to feel.  Good branders and marketers know this and don’t try to sell features and facts about a product or service.  They sell the emotional state and that alone is all you need.  If you don’t stand out, it’s probably cause you didn’t sell an emotional state in your branding and marketing.
5. Reason 5: Competition is fierce and the Internet levels the playing field.  In less than a minute on Google you can find a list of 20 potential businesses you might want to do business.  If 18 of them all look the same and have the same boring features and facts listed on their site, they all look the same in the customer’s eyes.  But if one or two of them stand out and have something unique or create an emotional response worth buying, they win.  Online, standing out is a must, and if you don’t, you lose.

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