Okay, I haven’t posted in about a week. Followers of my blog know that’s unusual for me. So what the hell have I been doing? Well, I learned a lesson this week, so I figured I would share it with my readers (assuming I have any). Plus, I thought a few of you out there may be able to relate.

I was looking to have a site of mine re-designed. The project required some pretty sophisticated PHP programming. I know PHP, but not enough for a project of this scope. So, I decided to outsource this job. I posted an ad on craigslist.com to solicit bids for the project. Almost immediately I received bids from all over. Most designers wanted about $1,000 for the job, except one. This one person who ran a web design firm in India was willing to do it for $400. It seemed like a great deal to me. They had everything… a professional website, a good profile and portfolio, what else do you need? Oh yeah, testimonials! They didn’t have those.

After a few weeks they completed the project. It looked ok, but technically, it didn’t work very well. I had so many technical issues that this past week I scrapped the site and put up my old one! So, I lost $400 to find out that there is value in using a trusted source. I’ve learned this lesson before, but I guess money was the motivating factor in going against my better judgment.

This lesson can be applied to all aspects of life, but it is especially important in ecommerce. Most small merchants cannot afford to have their site down, or suffer from major technical issues. So I say, if you’re going to do it, do it right. Oh, and make sure the bastards have testimonials or references.

As a marketer I naturally dismiss the concept of something “selling itself”. I have seen ads that claim this car, or this furniture sells itself, which is ironic since I saw that on an advertisement. I personally don’t believe anything sells itself. Even if you sell the best widgets that do amazing things and costs practically nothing, you’re going to have to tell people why they need it. I remind all of my ecommerce clients that NOTHING sells itself.

I remember when I hired a professional designer to re-design my outdoor furniture website. I was so excited because this was the first time that I was the client, and I was getting a professional website! I couldn’t wait to see how the new site performed. I was confident that with a fresh new look and sleek design, I was going to be rich!

Well, needless to say the site did not do as well as expected. I had developed a nice relationship with the designer so I called her about once a week and asked her what she thought I should do. Every week she told me the same darn thing, and it took a while for it to sink in. So, even though I learned this lesson years ago, I thought perhaps a few small merchants out there my benefit from the experience.

So what did she say?

Sell you products! Write in-depth, compelling copy about your products. List features, but more importantly, list benefits. Appeal to your visitor’s emotional need for the product. I had made the false assumption that my products sold themselves because I had a shiny new website with nice pictures.

Remember, nothing sells itself.

This character is currently being used by Northcedar.com, an ecommerce site that sells outdoor furniture. In speaking with the owner I got the whole story about how he came to be, and increase business for this small company.

“We were looking to re-brand the site and add some life to it, literally. I contacted a graphic designer from craigslist.com and got a great deal on his services, I think I paid about $120. He drew the character above, and I knew it was the perfect brand image for my prospective customers. I added the character to the header of the website and immediately noticed results! Sales averages seemed to increase on a weekly basis. I really can’t explain why”.

I have spoken to several of my clients about adding some “life” to their ecommerce sites. I can’t guarantee the same results, but I know people tend to respond to characters. You have to admit this guy looks, honest, trustworthy, and like an all-arouind swell dude. Why wouldn’t you buy from him?

I would encourage you to take a look at your website and see if your branding would allow for some “life”. A character just may be what you need.

I was talking to a client today about the amount of copy they have on their website. From an SEO perspective I know more copy is better, but then there is the design aspect. I hate sites with tons of copy. I think it’s overwhelming for the visitor, and can often be a quick turn-off. Or, maybe I am just a doe-doe who likes to look at lots of pretty pictures.

I suggested putting a lot of the copy into neat bullet points. There are several advantages to this approach.

1.    Bullet points are much easier for the eye and brain to absorb
2.    From a design perspective they usually look nice
3.    It allows you to bold keywords or phrases which help with SEO

Overall, the main advantage to using bullet points instead of paragraphs is for the visitor. In general people like reading lists instead of paragraphs. It allows busy folks to get what they need and go. So if your copy is long but important, try creating a few bulleted lists like; a product features list, benefits, point of differences, common concerns… you get the point.

I hate to be a hypocrite, but I have an important SEO tip that I myself have ignored. Since this blog is only a few months old I simply have not had the chance to make the proper adjustments in order to make it more search engine friendly. Furthermore, WordPress does not make it terribly easy to change title tags.

One common SEO snafu is to have every page begin with your domain name. I believe it’s so common because most content management systems, shopping carts, and blog platforms by default set every page’s title tag with the domain name followed by the page name. For example:

Domain.com - About Us Page

Domain.com - Widgets For Sale

You absolutely do not need the domain name in every page’s title tag. In fact, I have even read that it could cause “duplicate content” penalization. The best practice is to have your index page, or most important page begin with your domain name in the title tag. Then, all other pages can have unique names in the title tag. Many people have suggested it helps rank well under your domain name, but I would say that it is really easy to rank well under your specific domain name, so why bother?

Again, I apologize for being a hypocrite on this issue, but I do plan to update my own title tags soon enough.

As a marketer I do NOT mean to undermine the importance of good copy on your site. It’s true, good copy can sell, but so can images. Pictures spark an emotional response in people, and since most purchases are emotional, this is a good thing! If you look at all of the major retailers online you will find good, clean, professional photography.

I have worked with several clients who had a tough time with pictures for their site. In some cases the vendor that sold them their products did not have good images in the first place, and since most of my client’s businesses use drop shippers as their primary supplier, this was a big problem. I encouraged many of them to talk with their suppliers and try to get them to take better pictures. Also, some were able to purchase the products as demo models, and take their own quality images.

One of my clients was selling real estate in Costa Rica. He had spent two weeks on the construction site of this new development project and had shot hundreds of pictures. When he sent me the disks of images I was surprised to find very little I could use. I was in a jam because the client wasn’t going back to Costa Rica for months, and the site needed to be done! Furthermore, he was going to be unwilling to spend hundreds of dollars on stock photography when he had just sent me hundreds of pictures he took (that he thought were good). The solution: I turned to IStockPhoto, which provides tons of stock photography for $1 each! It turned out this was the perfect solution. I found tons of images of Costa Rica, and was able to make the site look much nicer. Above is one of the images from the site.