Net neutrality is about allowing the telcos to dictate prices on a case-by-case basis instead of equal pricing for all consumers. What this means is that Google - a company I dislike - has a high stock price and without net neutrality AT&T (or whoever their local carrier is) can hike up the price of bandwidth just for Google. As much as I disagree with Google, they should not be hamstrung by their internet carrier and neither should any other online business.

While the Republicans are in favor of creating a business-safe environment their fear of government controls is clearly clouding their judgment on this issue.

“When you control the pipe you should be able to get profit from your investment.” -Sen John McCain

Mr. McCain, I agree 100%. You should absolutely get a profit for your work. You should not be able to screw companies over on a case-by-case basis when you are a utility.

While the telcos merge to become the all-new-all-different… AT&T… uh… wait… it’s not new, it’s not different and this company was already broken apart once for anticompetitive practices. Why would anyone expect them to behave differently?

Ok, people can change and businesses are made of people so maybe AT&T can change. Though my experience with them just a couple years ago says different. AT&T bought out Comcast, the local cable TV supplier and the customer service was horrible. Rates were increased. And soon AT&T sold the Sacramento area back to Comcast. There were investigations launched to determine what the hell went on there because the whole thing stunk and a lot of consumers got screwed.

So, maybe they’ve changed in the last couple of years and really have our best interests at heart.

Why would they be lobbying for anything other than net neutrality then?

Net neutrality means everyone who competes online gets the same pricing based on fair market conditions. These conditions and price ranges are set by the government which is unfortunate though I don’t see a better alternative.

Removing net neutrality creates a hostile business environment and severely damages smaller businesses ability to compete. Removing net neutrality also creates an opportunity to reduce the freedom of speech that is enjoyed online.

This is why the Republicans are Wrong and why Net Neutrality is the Most Important Issue in this Presidential Election

If a competitor to the local telco starts building traction all the telco has to do is increase their rates to limit the competitor or completely wipe them out. Telcos are into many different services including the familiar long-standing telephone service.

Telcos offer Internet Service Provider (ISP) services. The ISP market is competitive and eliminating net neutrality would destroy that increasing internet access costs for general consumers and businesses.

Consider other services (I found all of these on AT&T’s website): Email, DNS, Digital TV (think: SureWest), VoIP Phone (think: Vonage), Managed IT Services/Networking, Website Hosting, Hosting and Application Services, VPN Services, IP Blocks, Specialized Software Engineering, and Integrated Solutions.

As more jobs are being outsourced away from the United States, giving telcos dictator-like power over what companies survive online seems pretty stupid to me.

Now consider a website that speaks against telcos (like this one is doing right now). To eliminate this “threat” a telco can just increase costs of bandwidth for that one site.

Consider education and how it is flourishing online. Now consider politics. If a politician wants to eliminate websites dedicated to an issue he opposes, he can make a deal with the telcos to surge-price those websites.

This is giving away too much power to people that have a demonstrated lack of character or regard for anyone beyond themselves. Even in the current environment telcos charge outrageous prices for simple services - just ask anyone that works in a data center. Connecting one carrier to another comes with a price tag of $800 per month for 3 feet of cable. Local loop charges are even more extreme.

Like I said at the start, I agree telcos should be able to make a profit. That’s good business and good for the economy. Being able to control the flow of communication within the US with price-gouging should be beyond the power of telcos.

Republicans should remember why they hate taxes

Taxes increase costs and damage a business’ ability to compete effectively. Giving telcos the power to price-gouge is effectively letting an independent business with no controls the ability to “tax” at will.

Why the War is Not as Important as Net Neutrality

There are two reasons the war in Iraq is not as important as net neutrality:

1. The war is temporary. It may drag on longer than you like but eventually it will be complete, or as complete as we decide to make it and we’ll move on. Net neutrality is an issue that will directly affect every American and every generation of American from here on out.

2. None of the politicians really know what to do about Iraq but they can all do something about net neutrality.

I am a long-standing Republican and I will absolutely vote for the candidate that stands for net neutrality - even if they are a Democrat. I hope, pray and suggest that anyone who reads this does so also.

Posted in Business Owners, Website Designers, SEOs, Promotion, Industry News, Marketing, SEO, Web Design

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Conversions are any change in a viewers behavior based on your message. Usually online this means clicking something but not always. Consider the following common conversions:

• Increased awareness of a business brand, product, service or person.
• Conversations or references for a business, person, product, service or article.
• Enhanced understanding of an issue that leads to more or less use of…
• Make a purchase
• Click a link

Increased Awareness

This is usually branding or making someone or something more recognizable to a viewer. This comes in handy for people looking to raise their stature in their industry or community. A great example of this are the politician’s websites that are gearing up for the November elections. Common examples are just about every business website out there - they all affect the brand of that business (for better or worse).

Conversations or References

If two people I’ve never met have a conversation about something I wrote that article is successful. If I can get people to link to something I wrote even better. Conversations and references are word of mouth or viral marketing. It’s a tough thing to make happen but always worth the effort.

Enhanced Understanding

Enhanced understanding naturally leads to people doing more or less of something. For most businesses they want the viewer to do more: buy more of our stuff!
But a non-profit may want people to do less: stop smoking, consume less energy, etc. The viewer has to make a choice to either ignore the message or accept it.

Make a Purchase

Making a purchase may come from enhanced understanding but it’s really about the value proposition and how your goods stand up against the competition. Competition that’s just a few clicks away online. Is your pitch good enough to get the viewer to stop what they are doing and navigate through your checkout process?

Click a Link

Learn more, order now, and subscribe are the most common calls to action I see. Then there are the ads including affiliate programs and contextual (Adsense). Sometimes getting the viewer to click the right link is the trick. Usability is the key to get viewers to click the links you want.

When I think of conversions for websites these are the categories I place them in. Once I know what types of conversions I’m looking for I start to define my market: not just people interested in “product x” but also people that will request more information or tell a friend about it or… whatever I want them to do. It’s a special type of person that will convert at all and a rare person that will do it the way I want.

I think that is overlooked on most websites. Traffic for the sake of traffic does not help your brand and can hurt it a great deal. Building traffic to increase conversions is as old as the internet. If you have 1,000 visits per day and 2% convert then if you get 2,000 visits per day your sales numbers double. Simple enough but what about the other 98% of viewers that didn’t get what they wanted? You also doubled the number of frustrated viewers which hurt the brand.

By knowing what you want your viewers to do and building the site around that your viewers will be much happier and your conversions will increase by percentages. How different would your bottom line be with a 5% increase in conversions?

Posted in Sales and Marketing, Business Owners, Customer Service, Marketing, Web Design

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Dear Web Hosting Company,

There is a major issue in your industry that you may not be aware of and I’d like to take a few moments to tell you about so that you can do a better job serving my peers.

I know you do a great job (at least 99.9% which is no small feat!) but lately even big, established web hosts have been failing us in one particular area: Digg traffic.

Digg traffic or the “Digg phenominon” is where a site that normally attracts a couple hundred to a few thousand visits in a day spikes to thousands of visits per minute. Of course this effect isn’t limited to Digg. There are other sources of large traffic jumps (like other social bookmarking sites and the news media) but the Digg phenomenon is probably the best known and most often referred to on message boards and blogs.

To the untrained (and automated) eye this may appear to be a DOS attack, but it isn’t. It’s real traffic from real people coming to our sites to see something cool, interesting or useful.

We work hard to make this happen and it really sucks when our host lets us down.

Of course we are aware that you have policies that we agreed to when we set up the account where you are justified to drop the site when big traffic spikes occur and in extreme cases suspending or terminating our long-standing business relationship. When these things happen we can’t help but wonder if you are missing the point: as website owners we count on you to stand up for us.

After all, we need you and the services you provide. As more stories of dropped sites when that magic moment hits spread across the internet, expect future customers to ask about how you handle these situations.

And you better believe that as website owners, promoters, SEOs, SEMs, designers and marketers we do talk about which web hosting companies can handle a couple days of boom traffic and which ones can’t. We are taking names and sharing them on forums, blogs and through email. These conversations are happening daily. And we are the people on the front lines. We are the decision makers and influencers. We need to know we can count on you not only when the worst happens, but the best.

Conversly, being able to take a Digg-pounding may result in some positive publicity for you.

What we are asking for is:

• A clear policy on boom traffic
• You to know the difference between the Digg phenomenon and a DOS attack
• You to help us out when such an opportunity comes along

If you do these things and we can take advantage of these boom traffic situations it means our websites will be more successful and that we will need to upgrade our accounts (which means more money for you). If you won’t handle it we have to find hosts that can. You’ve been great to us so far, please see what you can do.

Sincerely,

Your web hosting clients

Posted in Website Designers, Business Owners, Promotion, Industry News, Marketing

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Keeping a blog running on a corporate site can be difficult. There are several typical problems that include:

1. Who’s responsible
2. What voice to use
3. What to write

Most corporate blogs should not exist and are hurting the image of the company more than helping it. The reason is that a blog that is not kept up makes the company look like it can’t keep up. In a large company - or a company trying to present a large image defining objectives and responsibilities before setting out is a good idea.

Sample objectives:

1. Develop a core readership of 1,000 loyal readers
2. Set the blog as the platform for external company communication including new product launches, press releases, and other announcements
3. Develop a strategy where the blog acts as a touch-point for social media
4. Develop the blog to cash in on search engine traffic
5. Update the blog regularly - at least every two weeks
6. Track blog progress and implement methods for improvement

Sample responsibilities:

• Content writer(s) - Bob, Jane and Sue, Sales - Each is responsible for making at least one post per month.
• Editor - Frank “the man” Williams, VP Sales and Marketing - Checks posts for accuracy and to ensure the proper tone is set in the language and writing style. Also responsible to make sure the content writers are on track with regular posts and that the posts are not stacking up on the last day of the month.
• Blog evangelist - Fridda “gonna do it” Juarez, Marketing Coordinator, SEM - Works with third party sites like Technorati to make sure the blog is getting the maximum exposure online. Also, tracks progress of traffic, RSS subscriptions, email subscriptions and search engine performance. Trains content writers on keyword placement. Offers topics to cover based on keyword analysis and traffic logs.

You should customize the objectives and responsibilities to fit your organization and the people you have working there. Don’t assume your sales staff is made of great writers even if they are great verbal communicators. You may need to bring in help from IT, programing or other departments based on what you are trying to accomplish.

So now that we have the goals and people in place what should your blog cover?

New people - If you bring on new people announcing it on your blog sends a welcome signal to the new hire and gets their name in front of your customers. This is especially important for high level management and other very visible positions.

New products - Your blog should ramp up expectations before the product release and then formally announce the new product when the time comes.

Product news - Is there a new use for your product? Share it on your blog and improve the value of what you are selling! Is there an update, upgrade or add-on? Announce it here. Worst case scenario: Is there a recall? Use your blog to manage PR effectively.

Expansion - Adding a new location, moving to a bigger facility (or moving at all), striking into new markets, whether physical or mental expansion efforts should be documented on your blog.

Announce a sale or special offer

Highlight a product - If you sell furniture, taking the time to highlight the special features (craftsmanship, materials used, colors offered, sizes available, etc.) is a great way to add value to that product. Don’t just re-write the standard product listing - write the story behind the product. “It takes a team of 8 men 14 days to hand shape the custom railings…” Paint a picture in the mind of the viewer.

Policy changes - Even if it is just a small change to your shipping policy or return policy being forthright about it is better customer service than hiding it.

Highlight a person - Who is that guy in the workshop and what does he do? How does he serve the customer? Make it personal. This can improve employee moral and make the company more approachable to the common man.

Announce an appearance - Are you going to be at a trade show? If you have a booth make sure to announce the booth number and give a diagram of where to find you. Even if you don’t have a booth announcing you will be at a show may drive leads from other people that will be there.

Announce achievements - Recognition by industry peers, record-breaking sales, company milestones, even “employee of the month” are all noteworthy events worth bragging about.

The day-to-day operations of your business may seem day-to-day to you but that doesn’t mean people aren’t interested in them. There is always plenty to write about and making the time to do it regularly will result in the best kinds of customer: evangelists.

Posted in Sales and Marketing, Business Owners, Promotion, Marketing

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What you call love was invented by guys like me… to sell nylons

If you want a surreal education on what advertising is really about and what works you should be watching AMC’s drama Mad Men.

Mad Men is about the Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency of the 1960’s Madison Avenue set. These are the people that made smoking and alcohol consumption a cultural phenomenon. Ego and the art of the sale are what are important - surface over substance. These are the trend makers. The captains of their craft.

Ethics don’t count. Sexual harassment is the norm… everywhere. So is racism. Pregnant women smoke 2 packs a day and drinking large amounts of alcohol.

And that is just the backdrop.

There are personal issues and story-lines. Intrigue. An all-star cast. And even though the pacing is a bit slow Mad Men is being hailed by critics as “the best new television drama”. But who cares about all that when you can learn about advertising the way it was when it worked?

The insight into the industry is amazing. Advertising is about making people feel that they are ok. You are ok to smoke Lucky Strikes because “they’re toasted”.

The culture of 1960 is shocking to my modern sensibilities. This show is in-your-face with how the ad world worked at it’s peak and its influence over the rest of the US. It’s dark and driven and seemingly accurate from what I’ve read.

The show is good. The education is unbeatable. And you can learn more about it at the official Mad Men website.

Posted in Sales and Marketing, Reviews, Promotion, Marketing

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