He understood the universal constant in life that you get what you pay for. In entrepreneurship this is especially true. The harder you work, the more you are likely to accomplish. But it can be easy to trick yourself into thinking that aimless busy work is productive work. The fact is that if you don’t have an objective (aka, A GOAL) then you might easily keep yourself busy, but never really make any progress.

I have to confess that for most of my life I HATED Goals. For example, consider a sales goal. If I make a goal to sell X dollars worth of some product, that’s nice, but I really don’t have control over whether I meet my goal or not.

I have no control over whether I reach a goal

Before you head off to the comments section to tell me how wrong I am, hear me out. What I mean is that my ability to reach the goal is dependent on someone else making a decision to give me their money in exchange for my product or service. It’s his decision to buy, regardless of how persuasive I might be. I simply cannot make that decision for him.

So in reality, I don’t have any control over whether someone makes the decision to purchase from me or not. The same is true for getting optins on a website, visitors to a web page, donations for a cause, etc. Most goals worth setting depend on external factors, and those are always out of our hands.

I think that’s why goals always depressed me. I could make any goal in the world, but I felt so powerless to reach it. In my twenties I had an epiphany on the subject of goals that was really empowering. Even though I didn’t find a way to hypnotize my prospects to buy something from me or control those pesky external factors, I did discover a way to reassign my personal accountability away from the goal by splitting the goal setting process into two categories: Goals and Commitments.

How a Commitment is different than a Goal?

The epiphany came when I realized how goals differ from commitments. A commitment is something that I have absolute control over (at least relatively). For example, If I decide to do publish 20 comments on my facebook page, that’s not a goal, it’s a commitment. It’s completely within my power to accomplish it and doesn’t rely on anyone else making a decision. Sure there are external factors, but they aren’t related to human decision. They’re things like internet connectivity or my car starting. If I’ve really made a commitment I can find an internet connection at a starbucks and take the bus if my car breaks down.

The same decision independence is true for creating 20 backlinks, dialing 20 phone numbers, knocking 20 doors, etc. It’s key to understand that following through with these commitments doesn’t necessarily mean that I’ll speak with 20 people, since I can’t force someone to pickup the phone or answer the door.

The point is that a commitment is something I can say that I will do and the only person that can prevent me from doing it is myself. I think you’ll see in just a minute why this is so powerful…

More than a semantic argument. It’s empowering

I promise that I’m not trying to make some coy play on a semantic difference between two words (goal and commitment). Quite the opposite is true. I’m trying to provide a separation between two very distinct mental states. Splitting goal setting into two parts, one over which I have complete control and another over which I have very little control, empowers me to make a plan with specific action items that I know I can get done. Have a look at this diagram to see what I mean.

You might have noticed that I actually put a third component as a precursor to a Goal. The Object of Desire is a slippery devil. In many cases it can be hidden, forgotten and even deceptive. Think about it this way: What value is there in Green paper or small metal discs? None really. You see, it’s not the money we value. It’s the stuff that we can get with the money that we value.

We don’t really want $1,000, or even $1,000,000. What we want is the car, or the house or the freedom from debt or the once in a lifetime vacation… I think you get the idea. So when you set a goal to make X dollars in sales, it’s important to allow your mind to travel in two directions at once. You want to make sure that you know why you want to reach that goal (your object of desire) and what steps are most likely to help you reach it (the commitments you make).

Example: get 200 unique visits per day for keyword “xyz”

Let’s say you wanted to get 200 unique visitors per day from organic search results to a page on your website each day. There are some things over which you have complete control. These include getting a specific number of backlinks to your website every day, choosing a keyword that gives you a plausible chance of success, creating optimized content for the target page, etc.

There are also many things you can’t control, such as whether those backlinks stick, whether the search engines find and index those links, whether the search engines give you improved SERP results for those keywords. While you can increase your chances of getting clickthroughs by writing a good page title and including appropriate meta description details, you really don’t even have control over whether people click on your site even if you get the search engines to put it in the top spot.

So to reach the goal of getting 200 unique visitors a day to a web page, you make commitments to create backlinks and produce the best optimized content you can on the target page.

Now, going back upstream, it’s just as important to make sure you understand what your Object of Desire is. For example, you might be stroking your ego (think “coolest guy on the planet” wars) or you might be interested in saving someone’s life (think “donate children’s hospital”). The better you understand and the more you can shape your Object of Desire, the better prioritized your Goals will be and the more motivated you’ll be to follow through with your commitments!

Your game plan and the Feedback Loop

The strategy then is to identify a goal, followed immediately by creating a specific list of commitments that you have power to act on independently. The commitments you make should have a direct correlation to your goal. Now hold yourself accountable for completing your commitments, which you have power over, not whether you reach your goal, which you don’t have power over.

As time passes you end up with data that will either confirm or invalidate the usefulness of the tasks you’ve committed to do in terms of how they relate to your goal. If the data is positive, then you stay the course and continue on with your daily commitments. If the data is negative, you don’t have to change your goal, but you can instead change your commitments to see if another approach will work. There’s a chance that you’ll end up changing your goal, but it will be based on data, not whim.

This is called a feedback loop. As you change the input (your commitments), you observe the output (realization (or not) of your goal). Depending on the output, you may change the input. You might also adjust the desired output if a set of inputs is unable to help you achieve the desired output.

Throughout all of this, try your hardest to be honest with yourself about your real object of desire and let that understanding guide you to set the goals most consistent with what you want most. You might snicker when I say “be honest with yourself”, but the deeper you look to figure out what your real object of desire is, the more likely you are to be surprised by it.

Free Yourself!

Stop living as a hostage to Goals that you don’t have any power over. Instead get scientific and separate your goal setting process into two parts: Goals and Commitments. Then follow through with your commitments to reach your goals! Best of luck.

How to determine the award amount

Go and look at several other logo design contests that have taken place recently. As you look do this, take a minute to notice the relationship between the quality of the submissions and the award amount. Your gut will tell you which logos are high quality and which aren’t. That will help you judge how much money to put into the logo design.

How to make a designer take interest in your contest

Most logos (or identities Framing or Branding) are designed to convey a specific message. That’s the point after all. But in some cases, there isn’t a message as much as an identity or personality. In those cases I’ve observed that instead of a logo it’s more common to see stylized text (many designers call this type treatment). Stylized text is a big deal and some companies have paid thousands of dollars to have a font made just for them.

One problem with novice designers is that they tend to use symbols and marks that don’t actually mean anything or add any relevant value to the logo (swoosh abuse and differentiation). There’s really no reason to put a symbol of some sort into a logo unless it communicates something.

So if you think about other feminine brands, you’ll see that there’s a tendency to choose a type treatment as a logo or trademark. Think: Martha Stewart, Lane Bryant, Macy’s

One thing to notice is that in each case they’ve used a sans serif font. They also use the same color rather than multiple colors. They also mix bold and regular size fonts to accentuate the font. Many of them use either all caps or all lowercase. Colors are nondescript and don’t call attention to themselves. They’re typically very simple (not busy).

If it’s hard for to identify what your message is, or if you don’t have a single message to convey then you might be best to go with a type treatment.

Another thing I would point out is that the websites for some of the brand names that I suggested are very simple and match the logo. If the logo (or type treatment) really will become your identity, then you want to think about how it will affect the theme on your site. They need to compliment one another.

What if nothing grabs you

Go here: http://99designs.com/contests. On the right (and down a bit) you’ll see a panel with Recent Winning Designers. Click on these and look at their recent wins (like this http://99designs.com/users/376750 and this http://99designs.com/people/oxy). When you find one that looks attractive to you, ask that specific designer to take part in your contest.

I know I mentioned this before and I really think you’re CRAZY if you don’t do it. You should send an email to your entire list telling them about the competition and give them a link right to it. Let them vote. Let them vent. Give them a post where they can leave comments. Let them submit designs and win the award money. If you don’t leverage the interest of the people that have given you their email then you’re really passing up a gold mine. Who else in all the world is going to know your brand better than them?

When the project has only a couple days left, go and raise the winning bid amount. I’m not sure how much to raise it, but add another $40 on there, and (THIS IS IMPORTANT) provide new direction in the form of “after seeing all these designs we realized that we really want XYZ, so we increased the price and would love fresh new submissions”. I think that people that submitted before will be notified of the new higher price and come read why. At this point you should send out another email to your entire list telling them the same thing. Make another post where they can comment on the new logos that have been submitted.

If you don’t include your list in the process then you’re passing up a HUGE opportunity to bond with your list. How often do you get to shape the way a company or service looks, let alone one that you love? This might be the biggest opportunity you’ve ever had. You could even use this to build your list by encouraging them to send the contest and site to their creative friends and family.

Don’t miss the chance to include your list in this. The quality so far isn’t all that good, but it’s being submitted by people in other countries who don’t know and love your site (it might not even be a cultural fit where they live). How could they possibly hit the nail on the head.

One more thing. Be sure to personally invite designers that you know. They know you, your ‘brand’ and they’re creative. They also probably wouldn’t mind winning the prize money.

What should the email sound like

This email was very specific to the target audience and the personality of the site owner. You should definitely work hard to match the voice and content of an email that you might send to the audience that you’re approaching. In other words, you might not want to just copy and paste this, but you can decide.

By the way, there are some really crucial mental triggers (and emotional triggers) in this copy that are designed to increase the bond with the list and help them feel important. See if you can feel where they are.

[begin email]
SUBJECT: We need your help!

Hi,

This might sound a bit rushed, but we’re in over our heads (again). We could just slog through this one on our own, but we think you might be uniquely qualified to help us solve our problem. Could you do us a small favor?

You see, while we’ve been working hard to make great content for [sitename], the site ‘logo’ (if you even call it that) has gone a bit, ummm, stale. We thought it looked great when we started the site, but sooooo much has happened.

We’ve spent hours (days, weeks and months really) on projects and tutorials and dozens of our readers have contributed wonderful articles too. We’ve been through site crashes and technology foibles. We’ve changed things a few times and just can’t seem to find the right look.

But then we realized that you are our ‘look’. That’s why we think you’re the best person to help us right now.

What we want to find is some type of ‘logo’, for lack of a better word. Something that would represent the lives of the women behind our blog and the values we all represent.

The bad news is that our attempts so far just haven’t produced the results we hoped for. In fact, you can see them here:

[linktodesigncontest]

So how can you help? There are a few ways (and you don’t even have to be a designer).

The most simple way to help us out would be to [reply to this email/post a comment at link] telling us what you think [sitename] has become and what it means to you. Just open up and let us know why you follow our blog and what it has done for you.

If you feel like you have an eye for design you could go to our design contest above and vote on the submissions or even submit your own. Be as creative as you like, since we really are all about you. If you have the best design you’ll win the prize money too!

The last way that you can help us would be to forward this email to your family and friends that you think might have a good design idea for us.

[sitename] is really all about you. Thank you. We really can’t wait to hear what you think and incorporate that into who we become.

Sincerely,
[end email]

What to do if the comments go south?

I think the comments are great. I would keep feeding into them and draw attention to it. People are much more likely to comment and contribute if you do.

As it turns out, even bad comments are good (in many cases). The negative things people would say about your company, logo or overall identity are a big deal when it comes to your own internal evolution. Controversy is also one of the most effective ways to encourage conversation.

Bear in mind that you’ve gotten so many more submissions than I’ve seen in any other contest. For example, [otherprominentimguru] just did a re-branded logo for [hissitename] and he only got 72 entries (and he sent an email out to tens of thousands of people). You’ve gotten 482. That shows that you’ve successfully engaged your audience.

By the way, I can see several elements of different logos that I really like. You can point these out to each designer and see which one combines them best.

Take away

A logo or brand is something that grows, just like a tree or a person. It changes over time. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL, your brand only exists in the mind of the consumer. No matter how much money you spend, how well matched your colors are or any other combination of clever marketing tactics, your brand is determined by what your consumers think of you. You may as well include them in the decoration of your site.

Leadership defecit

I’m not sure that he had in mind to point out that there’s a significant leadership deficit right now in America (both business and politics). Some people blame this on our academic system or use of standardized tests where an artificial bar of excellence has been established and everyone is taught from age five to measure themselves against it (and nothing higher). Others argue that TV and movies and other popular media discourage us from reading classic books, which is how character and values have been taught for centuries.

Whatever the true cause of the deficit, there’s little doubt that it exists. Rather than making difficult choices, like sacrifice, discipline and hard work, we seem to be a generation of entitlement. Everyone wants “their fair share”. No wonder Ed Dale and Frank Kern have been heard to lament that the one thing they can’t sell is the “do” part of what they teach.

Leadership vs. Management

One comparison that he uses throughout the book, which I think highlights the leadership deficit, is manager vs. leader. A manager’s job, he suggests, is to maintain the status quo. He isn’t there to innovate or to change. He has the sole purpose of ensuring that production of X goes on according to specifications. Leaders, on the other hand, define specifications.

While I don’t care for his use of the word heretic throughout the book, I think I see what he’s getting at. In this book I think a heretic is someone who challenges the status quo. The reason I say that I don’t like his use of the word is that I doubt most leaders would self identify as a heretic and by choosing a recalcitrant word, they might discount some of the strength of his arguments.

I believe that many leaders rise to their position not because they want to oppose established authority, but instead because they find their backs against the wall. For example, I think that many people would agree that the founders of the United States constitution were effective leaders.

Amid the din of patriotic praise for what they did, we might think that the government they established was heretical for it’s time. That’s not true. In fact, many of them tried (for many years) to reconcile their differences with Britain. They tried as hard to resolve the conflict beforehand as they did to establish independence afterward. They were also very well educated in matters of politics and familiar with the forms of government that have existed throughout the ages.

A leader doesn’t have to fly in the face of established patterns in order to lead. Sometimes to lead means to confront mutiny and maintain order according to specification (or the status quo).

How to identify your tribe

One significant question that the book doesn’t answer is “how do I identify my tribe”. This might have been his intention. After all, how do you teach someone where to go to look for people that might be interested in what you do? The fact is, you just have to make some noise and see who raises their hand in interest. In many cases, the people that compose your tribe may surprise you.

One aspect of identifying your tribe, that I think he understood to be implicit, is that you need to have a deep, burning passion for what your doing. Someone that lacks that all consuming drive for change will rarely be generous, selfless and enduring enough to inspire allegiance from their tribe (all qualities he attributes to leadership).

Noteworthy quotes

Here are a few quotes that I really enjoyed. By the way, I bought my copy on Amazon.

“great leaders don’t try to please everyone”

“the new thing is rarely as good as the old thing was. If you need the alternative to be better than the status quo from the very start, you’ll never begin”

“Don’t mortgage today just because you’re in a hurry”

“It’s a myth that change happens overnight, that right answers succeed in the marketplace right away, or that big ideas happen in a flash.”

And of course, he has a blog: Seth Godin. Go subscribe now.

In fact, it was so painful that I wanted to point out that giving a good, qualified web developer or designer the flexibility and resources to go through a few iterations of your project doesn’t mean that you can sabotage him along the way with painful and useless comments.

Keep in mind that you have to balance this with an understanding of your own expertise. If your web developer doesn’t know about website sales conversions then you either need to have that expertise or hire another consultant to provide that direction. Don’t outsource your expertise to an unqualified vendor.

While you work out the details go have a look at some of the other posts by http://theoatmeal.com/. What a great take on web design.

Geeky looking actor #2: “Watch me turn this wrigley’s gum wrapper, a AAA battery and some titanium shavings from my laptop case into an instant bypass of this multi-million dollar security system”.

Don’t you love the movies? They rock. Some total stud and a complete geek get together and decide they’re going to save the world by breaking into the pentagon or CIA and getting access to top secret files. There’s actually a good reason these persona’s exist. It’s because you want them to exist.

It’s really a funny quirk about human nature that we tend to think that everyone else has a “secret” or “discovery” that we don’t. That’s why headlines like “1 Secret to a Flat Belly” pop up all over the place. It’s not because they really have a secret, other than do tons of exercise, stop eating like a garbage can and get plenty of sleep. It works because way too many people assume that the hot girl with the sexy abs is eating twinkies and sitting in front of the tube six hours a day, just like us.

Enough about twinkies. What has this got to do with internet marketing technology?

Programmers have to follow the rules

Many people really believe that somewhere in the world there’s an omniscient hacker who can break into computers at will and reads top secret files like I read my email. They really believe that if you know enough about technology then you can control any computer in a matter of minutes. Here’s a news flash for you. HE DOESN’T EXIST!

Yep. Sorry to burst your bubble. Even the guys that design the programming languages understand that there have to be rules. They define how things are ordered, loaded, protected and so on. You might even think about it like gravity. You can sometimes find ways around it (like an airplane), but as soon as the engines cut out you remember really fast that it’s there working like always.

Remember that programmer? Yeah, the one that you wanted to build your website for $300 and you’re always mad that he didn’t get it done just the way you dreamed about it and that it took more than two days time. He has to follow the rules too.

And if you want the guy that can actually perform “miracles”, keep in mind that he’s worth a lot more than $300. Yep, it’s true: you really do get what you pay for.

The “REAL” secret: Quality comes with time and iterations

Another thing that the movies have ruined is the reality of developing through iteration. Since they only have a two minute montage to show you how they break in to the Oval Office or the FBI mainframe before getting back to the story line, it’s easy to think that real programmers should be able to write a perfect program the first time.

That’s not actually true either. In reality, the best software is the result of iterations! Period! This isn’t just limited to programmers. Look at cars, buildings and architecture, plumbing and even your favorite pancake recipe. This applies equally to the creative design process and shopping at the grocery store. It’s a universal constant.

The bottom line is that if you want something to be top quality then you have to plan for iterations. The first revision product is going to be limited, clunky and might even work (with a little skill and luck). Give yourself and your programmer time and budget to get through a couple of iterations if top quality is your goal.

Did I mention the power iterations

Why are iterations on a project so important? For the same reason that a baby’s first step usually isn’t followed by an immediate second step. Even the unbelievable human nervous system requires many, many failures and falls before all the neural connections function well enough together to enable us to walk. That’s not to mention the building up of strength in the legs.

Programmers are the same way. The more iterations you go through on a theme, the easier it becomes. Even to the point that some tasks may go off just like walking. We don’t really think about walking (I mean lift leg, lean forward, place foot, ensure balance, shift weight, lift other foot, etc.). Some programming tasks can get to be that way too, just like walking, but it’s only after many iterations and failures.

Marketers call this split testing

This is actually an old concept in advertising. Direct response marketers call this split testing. Interestingly, many programmers hold a similar myth about the omniscient marketer. They really believe that there’s a sales guy somewhere that can sell anything to anyone, whether or not they have a need or desire for the thing.

There is no omniscient marketer either.

In reality there’s no direct sales guy that can magically whip out the perfect headline in a matter a minutes based purely on his genius. The best copywriters will tell you that research is the key to good copy. I would add that research must be coupled with many iterations of split tests to identify an optimal headline and offer.

Stop the cycle of first version paralysis

Rather than get hung up on why your programmer or marketer friend isn’t able to pull out the hollywood version of the website or sales offer that you need right now to become an instant millionaire, why not just take a stab in the dark and call it a first iteration. If it’s useful then pat yourself on the back and get back to work!

I promise you the next iteration will be even better than the first.

It’s pretty clear, based on the awkwardness of these situations, that asking someone to work for free or provide their expertise without adequate compensation isn’t a good business strategy. I wanted to take the lesson a bit further to illustrate a point.

Imagine that the hair dresser guy gives in and adds some color to the lady’s hair and lets her just cover his ‘hard costs’. What level of quality do you think she should expect from him? When she needs more work done, is she likely to come back and pay full price or criticize him for his lack of attention to detail?

What I find is that vendors who initially relent to a customer’s low budget complaints produce two problems that they didn’t anticipate. First is that they actually devalue their own services and it’s hard to justify charging the higher rate in the future. Second is that they often create an environment in which they can’t produce their best work, and they run the risk of losing future work, even at the lower rate.

On the other hand, charging what you’re worth establishes value and respect, and it gives you the time and resources you need to do your best work. While it may seem hard on the client, you are actually doing them a favor by charging them your higher rate, because the end result will be higher quality.

Whether you’re on the client or vendor side of this relationship, don’t sell yourself short by trying to nickel and dime your projects. As a vendor I’ve never been one to start high and negotiate down. I actually propose the cost that I think the job will take. The reverse is typically true also; I trust that the bid I get from a vendor represents their cost to do their best work on the project.

How can I increase revenue?

Of all the reasons to have a website, I think that increasing revenue is a fantastic idea. This is the reason why most established business owners want an e-commerce website. As they see it, having an e-commerce site is the cheapest way to stay open 24 hours a day, 365 days per year without increased staffing costs. The appeal of turning your business into a vending machine that anyone can drop their coins in any time of the day or night is compelling.

Unfortunately this approach can miss the mark in some significant ways. The worst part is that most web developers and lesser ad agencies aren’t prepared to give good advice. They just smile and say “do you want one category or two?”

Communication mismatch

I really want to make this point clear. In this two sided conversation between a business owner and someone capable of building a website they aren’t saying and hearing the same thing.  The established business owner says “I want a website“.  What he means is “I want more revenue“.  The ‘web guy’ hears “I want a website” and understands that to mean “I want to put my business online with the latest technology in a way that automates things and integrates social blah blah blah“.

It’s surprisingly easy for the business owner to get sucked in and start talking about features, design, technology, security and all the unimportant nitty gritty details. This could result from a few different influences. The first is that he doesn’t really have a grasp on the basics of business: traffic and conversion. This isn’t so hard to imagine since many business owners are in businesses or niches that chose them. As they mature in business the focus will come. In this case he fails to ask for a website that increases revenue because he doesn’t how to articulate that yet.

The second reason he gets sucked into the details without making his goal of increased revenue clear is more pernicious because he has decided to outsource his expertise.  He mistakenly assumes that the individual or firm he has hired knows best and that they are focused on traffic and conversion. Unfortunately, fewer ‘web guys’ and ad agencies than you would hope actually understand and focus on these all important pillars of successful business. There’s a simple reason for this lack of focus: The details are easier than the strategy.

Be painfully clear as you set expectations

As the business owner, it is your responsibility to set the focus on traffic and conversion and to steer the correct course during the project. Never assume that your web guy will do it for you. Even if he gets you more traffic, that doesn’t mean he knows how to increase conversions (front end or back end sales) and so he usually misses the mark.  He’s not negligent. He just doesn’t have the experience or authority to communicate with your niche in a way that makes them buy.

E-commerce vs. Authority (Identity)

Let’s look at another type of site that has potential to increase your revenue: A blog.  ”That’s absurd” you say.  Well, it might sound absurd for a minute, but keep in mind that you are the expert in your niche, not your web guy.  Your customers buy from you because they trust you.  Even a well qualified ad agency will have to do a hefty amount of research up front to get to know your clients as well as you do.

Many business owners fail to recognize that their authority in their market can do more for sales than an ecommerce website. Another benefit of authority is that it gives you leverage when you do make overtures toward ecommerce online. Rather than starting from zero and trying to get people to buy your wares at the first contact, you instead give them something up front and later roll that trust into a sale.

When it comes time to get traffic, which means backlinks and engagement, the “deal flow” is higher with an authority site than for an ecommerce site. It’s also less competitive, since the quality of the content suppresses the tendency to haggle about price. As your authority and identity within a niche or market increase, your clients interest in buying from yourcompetitors will decrease. They’ll assume that you really are the expert and so they had better buy from the source.

But I still want an e-commerce website, so give it to me now

So you insist.  OK then.  Let me suggest that you start with a blog and use an e-commerce plugin.  Roll out one product at a time. Let those products come as you provide valuable information and other content to your community and establish trust and authority. You might also notice that this is a fruitful field for testing offers.

Make sure you are creating a fit for your business.  If your bread-and-butter product is a high ticket item that is custom every time, then stop trying so hard for the nickel and dime products. Sites like Amazon.com will beat you every time on those. Make sure that your website is either leaning on or establishing authority in your market as the clear leader for those custom products.

No matter what you do, recognize that both an ecommerce website and an authority blog will require content production.  If writing isn’t your thing you can accomplish a lot with a cheap video camera, or even a nice microphone for audio content, but you will still have to produce the content. Without content you won’t get traffic, establish trust or authority and in short, you website will fail.

If you’re interested in having me work with you on choosing the right platform for your next web project, use the button below and request a quote.

Photography Credit: Justin Hall

Don’t go telling folks how to hack passwords

I’m sure someone will comment or send me a note that it’s not wise of me to call attention to the methods of hacking passwords.  Unfortunately it’s a bit like gun control.  The bad guys are going to find the guns they want and the good folks won’t use them for the wrong reasons anyway.  It also reminds me of another old joke about the security practices of some companies: “Security by Obscurity”.  Simply avoiding the topic and not drawing attention to things that should be secure usually doesn’t get you very far.

The good news is that most of you don’t have a thing to worry about.  Why?  Because you’re not a high value target.  As long as you don’t do anything to ever upset anyone or draw any attention to yourself or download crap (like free music, software, etc) from the internet then you probably don’t have to worry too much about it.  The guys that spend their time hacking passwords either have a gripe with someone or want to steal money and information.

Just to be safe

Either way, why not make sure that you’re covered and use a password manager?  What’s that you ask?  A password manager is a small bit of software that generates strong passwords and keeps track of all of your passwords.  The one I use is free and open source: KeePass.  In order to login to a website there are shortcut keys that actually type in your details so you don’t have to remember a thing.  It also runs from a USB drive or you can sync your password file using a service like dropbox.com.  If you’re on a Mac then you can use this version http://www.keepassx.org/.

Sure it’s a little more work than typing in you favorite food, but you’ll wish you had if you ever get hacked.

Since then I’ve built dozens of websites for companies both large and small. I worked for one other ad agency and I’ve worked as an consultant or small business owner providing web programming services. 10 years of experience creating technology for the internet has allowed me to identify several patterns or stereotypes that clients follow. I also have a pretty strong opinion about who I’m interested in working for and why.

Client Stereotypes

Two client stereotypes I’ve observed include the “do it yourselfer” and the “outsourcer”. The first one is bent on doing everything himself. While the outward appearance is the same for most do it yourselfers, the underlying motivation varies. Here are the two main reasons that someone takes on the do it yourselfer role:

• Don’t have (or want to spend) money to pay someone else to do it (it’s my precious)
• Don’t believe that anyone could really do it as well as they could (I’m the only non-idiot in the world)

I personally lean toward the do it yourselfer role, which is why I don’t really understand the outsourcers very well. The outsourcers are the ones that seem to have ideas, but don’t have any interest in the nitty gritty details. I’m not sure if they just don’t like doing it but they could, or if they don’t really feel like they could do it, but can see that it needs to be done. I suspect there are some who fall on each side.

Each stereotype described above comes with it’s own vision problems. For example, do it yourselfers don’t really understand what other people want. This probably stems from the fact that they don’t *care* what other people want. Outsourcers are really good at knowing what other people want, but they don’t know or care to learn how to get it for them. While oursourcers can identify a need and are usually good at selling it, they don’t always know if what they had produced (the thing they outsourced) actually scratches the itch it was intended to scratch.

Presumed Expertise

Regardless of which stereotype you approximate, every business owner takes on the role of “presumed expert”. For example, the very second you say something like “I have a small business selling switches to turn computer speakers off and on”, it wouldn’t be to outrageous to expect someone to say back “wow, I don’t know a thing about speaker switches. You must be really smart.” POW! You’re an expert!

Who knows if that’s really true or not. If you’re a do it yourselfer then you probably are an expert and you do know a lot about speaker switches. If you’re an oursourcer then you might not know anything more than that there was a need in that market and you found a product and filled the need. In either case, the rest of the world will look to you as an expert, and if they ever have a question about speaker switches, guess who they’re going to ask. That’s right, it’s you. Congratulations!

Web Developers

Let’s turn out attention to the average web developer for a minute. Here you have the ultimate do it yourselfer. He loves open source, he’s thrilled with all the things he doesn’t have to buy because he can make his own or “copy” someone else’s and he hates the idea of parting with any money. He also suffers from the short sighted affliction of “I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but look how cool this is…”

So what happens when you put a do it yourselfer together with an outsourcer (this naturally happens all the time)? Well, you get some funny business in translation, and a few more assumptions.

What outsourcers really want

Here’s the deal. I have many outsourcers come to me as a web developer expecting to get a turn key site. They explain that they just want a site that will sell and have all the information it needs. They always want it to be easy to update and change. They want it to look good. They want it to be SEO optimized.

Those are all great things, and they are useful features, but no one on earth buys from a site because it is SEO optimized or looks good, or is easy to change. They buy something because they WANT it and they believe (or trust) that if they give you their money they will GET it. It has zero to do with the technology used to build the site.

So if people make purchases because they WANT something and they TRUST that you can give it to them, what are they really buying? In most cases they’re buying your expertise, or perceived expertise. I think this expertise (and the implicit trust that comes along with it) more or less amounts to what ad agencies call “brand”. A good agency is able to make someone or something look like a leading expert or authority. I know there’s a lot more to brand than that (and everyone has their own idea of brand), but this is a big part of it.

Outsourcing Expertise aka: The Big Web Blunder

Unfortunately, what I see happen all to often is that the presumed expert will try to outsource the entire task of creating a web site (outsourcers sometimes call this a web presence). Rather than provide the content for their new site one of two things will happen.

The first thing that could happen is rooted in the oursourcer’s misunderstanding about communication on the internet.  He thinks that it’s fundamentally different from communication in the “real world”. In this case he says to the web developer, “you’re the web expert, just build it how you think it should be and tell me if you need anything”. The problem with this approach is that the web developer knows nothing about the market or why the outsourcer chose it in the first place. This effectively amounts to outsourcing expertise to a non-expert in a subject. The results will be reflected in the inability of the site to convert visitors into paying customers.

The other, slightly better, possibility is that he has the web developer setup a site that he can populate, but he either doesn’t want to or doesn’t have time to publish the content that would establish him (his site) as an expert. So the site gets built but no expert establishing content ever makes it up there and the result is little to no traffic and dismal conversions.

Ad agencies and copywriters

About the only way I can see to get around this is exactly what direct response marketers have done for decades. I think that the better ad agencies and copywriters are effective at one special skill that makes them unique. They can suck the essence of the expert right out of your brain and present it to the consumer effectively. As long as the expert status correlates to a real WANT in the consumer’s mind, conversions are likely to follow. I’ve heard that the real secret to writing sales copy is research, research, research (and then a little research on top of that).

The biggest disappointment to most people is they can’t afford to hire a really good ad agency (and a fancy office does not an ad agency make) or a star copywriter for their projects.

Write the copy yourself

While outsourcing is a very important skill (and one that I’m getting much better at myself), the essence of what you’re trying to communicate needs to come from you. You are the expert. If people buy your product/service it’s because they trust you. So maybe in just this one thing you need to let go of the idea of farming out the copy and write for yourself.

A lot of people complain that writing isn’t fun or that it’s difficult. That might be true, but think back on any heroic, prolific or influential character in history and ask yourself “could they write?” In some cases, like presidents of the United States of America, they have speech writers. And if you can afford a presidential level speech writer, and let him suck those pearls out of your head and put them in writing, then you’re set. Otherwise, you’ll have to be like the rest of us and write your own speeches. That’s not to say that you have to build and operate the press that reproduces them (or the website that publishes them).

My conclusion: Don’t expect the a temp worker, or your web developer or some other vendor or employee to be able to produce expert worthy content for you. That’s one thing that you should always own. And don’t get fooled into believing that communication on the internet is any different than communication anywhere else. Words is words!