The Crafted Webmaster

Craft Resources: Two Business Resources for Artists and Crafters

2008-11-19T15:53:23Z

You can never have too many resources when it comes to your craft business. I just found two new ones from my colleague, Judy Dunn. She’s created two great Squidoo lenses. One is “Artrepreneur; The Intersection of Art and Business” (which is the same name as her fabulous blog) where she gives a great overview on what it takes to succeed in the business of selling your art.

Judy’s second lens is called: “Photography that will Make Your Craft Work Sing“. In this lens she gives some great tips on how to photograph your work and some resources on getting your work professionally photographed.

Be sure to check them out!

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Website Marketing: When’s the best time to send out your email newsletter?

2008-11-18T15:06:54Z

Do you have an email newsletter that you send out to your customers? Then this podcast I’ve found on the Marketing Sherpa might interest you. It gives some interesting insight on a common question a lot of email list owners have, “When is the best time to send out my emails?”

In this podcast, managing editor of MarketingExperiments, Hunter Boyle talks about an experiment they ran sending emails out at 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. instead of past 9 a.m. Some of the results included:

more people opened and clicked on links in the emails sent before 9 a.m.
West coast business people and indie entrepreneurs were opening emails up until midnight (EST)
list owners that have international subscribers may benefit from testing what time to send emails

For more results, you can listen/view the podcast here until November 19th.

If you don’t have an email list and you’re thinking about starting one, subscribers to my newsletter can read my article series on “How to Plan and Start a Great Email Newsletter“. If you’re not a subscriber, you can sign up and get access to the article series for free here: http://www.craftedweb.com/subscribe.html If you subscribe now, you can get a free audio download on “10 Steps to Getting More Traffic on Your Website“.

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Web Design: How many clicks does it take?

2008-11-13T18:22:09Z

Saw an interesting complaint from danidraws on Twitter this morning:

Artist’s website took FOUR clicks before I got to see any artwork. Grrr…

This kind of reminds me of that Tootsie Roll commercial that asked how many licks it took to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Mr. Owl took three licks before he gave up and bit into the Tootsie pop.

How many clicks are your customers going to take before they give up and leave?

Sometimes in the interest of keeping things neat and organized on our websites or because of how online store software is built, we end up putting our artwork in numerous categories and sub-categories, and sub-sub categories divided according to medium, style, product line, price, and however else you can categorize something.

The result can be a labrynth of web pages that hopefully leads to your artwork at the end. The question is are your customer going to follow you that far? And if they do, how are they going to find their way back? Add a slow loading site to the mix and your customers probably won’t even make it through three clicks.

Next time you visit your website, do the following:

1. Go through your website and count how many clicks it takes before you can find your artwork or you can buy something. If you get past three, you may have to reconsider your site navigation.

2. Look at your navigation categories. Would they make sense to anyone who’s not familiar with your work? Are there too many? Is the same product showing up in more than one or two different categories? Is there a way to combine some sub-categories in a more streamlined way?

3. Have friend or family member who’s not familiar with your website log on and try to find something specific. Tell them to find a particular item on your website or a particular piece of information. Sit beside them and watch them try to find it and don’t give them any help. If you see them fumbling around or taking a lot longer than they should be, you may have a problem.

4. Watch for useless extra steps. Are you putting information on two or three pages when you could just combine the pages and save people from the extra steps? One of my pet peeves is when you have a list of questions and you have to click through to get the answer…one answer, then click back to read the rest of the question list. If you find one of these extra steps on your website that don’t serve a good purpose, eliminate them.

Thanks to danidraws (aka Dani Jones) for inspiring this post! And if you get a chance, check out her website for some incredible illustrations!

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Link Roundup: Photographing Your Art: Update

2008-11-08T16:54:42Z

Added two more links to the Photographing Your Art Link Roundup.

Learning to photograph your work- This post is from Lizoid Blog. It contains tips, and links to craft photographers and useful tutorials.

15 Useful Batch Image Processors- This post by Smashing Magazine lists the links to 15 batch image programs. Now if you need to resize or convert a bunch of images at a time, you can simply use one of these programs to do the work for you.

If you’ve missed the original post and the rest of the links to great craft photography articles, you can check it out here:
Link Roundup: Photographing Your Art

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Getting people to connect with your art

2008-11-07T16:12:47Z

Another blog that I read on a regular basis is the one for Satsuma Press, written by letterpress designer, Lynn Russell. There’s one blog post she wrote a couple months ago that I’ve found particularly interesting:

Well, I don’t know if I should be telling you this because I’m not sure what it might indicate about the kind of person I might be … but faced with many stacks of paper waiting to be printed {see above}, I decided to do the math on just how many passes of the press these 2009 calendars are going to take. Let me tell you, it’s a lot. A LOT.

Here’s how to add it up. There are 14 pages in each calendar: 12 months + a front cover + a back cover. I am starting with stacks of 405 pages for each of those 14 pages. {Why 405? Well, it was going to be less, but I admit that my brain has been operating at a little less than 100% these days so I ended up ordering more paper than I needed … so I figured I’d just print what I had and this is the magic number.} Of those pages, there is yet another break-down according to how many colors per design.

Lynn goes on to figure out the total breakdown which comes out to a staggering 21,880 passes of the press!

In this post, Lynn does a couple of things:

1. She illustrates in pretty concrete terms, how much work is involved in the creation of her calendars.

2. She increases the value of her calendars in the minds of her current and potential customers.

While people might know “mentally” that handcrafted work takes a lot of effort, the idea really doesn’t connect unless people “see” it in a crystal-clear way. For some people, you need to provide concrete numbers, kind of like how Lynn broke down the work to the amount of “steps” it took. With other people, describing the process is enough to make the connection. With others, they have to actually see the process in action. And still others don’t truly appreciate it until they actually “experience” the process.

So how do you get people to make the connection for your work?

Break the process down step by step. You don’t have to get into specifics like what your glaze recipe is or where you source your materials if that’s proprietary information. But describe what’s involved in your creative process and do it in quantitative terms.
Make a video or a slideshow of you at work. Provide ongoing commentary and closeup detail shots of your works in progress. Post these photos, slide shows, or videos to Slideshare, Flickr, or YouTube
Blog about your works in progress and provide media such as photos and video to illustrate milestones of your progress.
Invite and answer questions about your work and your creative process and post them to your blog or a “Frequently Asked Questions” section on your website. If you get a lot of questions on a regular basis, you may consider creating a feature for reader’s questions on your blog. Getting people personally engaged with you is also a great way to get them more connected.
Teach. The saying about walking a mile in a man’s shoes is true. Consider teaching some of your techniques by writing downloadable tutorials, making how to videos or slideshows, or by teaching a live class. Every year I teach a class on how to make these fairly “simple” beaded chain bracelets. Every year I get students who take the class with ambitions to learn how to make these items as gifts for their family and friends. And almost every year, I get a less crafty student that says, “You know, maybe I’ll just buy from you instead of trying to make this myself.” Even among my more handier students, they respect the process more once they learn how to do it, especially once I explain how many of these bracelets I average per year*.

* Incidently I’ve also found this to be an interesting response to the irritating, “I could make that!” comment so frequently heard at craft shows. When someone says that, my response usually is, “Well, I make about X amount of these a year and I want to expand to more. I could use more help.” It’s a gentle reminder to these wanna-be artists that making 1 item and making 100 isn’t as easy as it seems. Most people seem to make the connection in that context. At least no one has taken me up on the offer yet!
Have a story. People interested in art are interested in the artist. I wrote about how important it is to have story earlier this year, and it’s an important thing to remember because Lynn’s customers don’t buy from Satsuma Press, they buy from Lynn Russell. So even when you’re quantifying how much goes into your work, make it clear that there is a story behind it and that small part of you also goes into it. And that makes the ultimate connection.

You read the rest of Lynn’s post here. And be sure to visit here website at www.satsumapress.com.

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Tagged! I’m It…Are You Next?

2008-11-06T16:00:00Z

Looks like one of my favorite artists and bloggers, Luann Udell has invited me to a game of blog tag!

If you’re not familiar with the concept of being tagged, it’s a fun little game played among bloggers. It’s a good way to for your readers to learn a little bit more about you. Plus, it’s also a fun way to introduce yourself to some of the other bloggers you admire, and maybe spread some links around.

Sorry, couldn’t resist making this into an object lesson ;).

To keep the tag going, here are the rules that needs to be followed.

You have to link to your tagger and list the rules of the tagging
You must share 7 facts about yourself (unusual facts are fine. how unusual and…ahem…personal you get is up to you)
You must tag 7 bloggers at the end of your post by leaving their names and links to their blogs
Inform your 7 victims…I mean 7 bloggers that they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Alright here comes the seven facts about myself:

1. I read a lot and I often read the books I love until they become sad little piles of tattered pages. You can usually find me by following the path of fallen pages about the house.

2. Even though I can literally read a book until it disintergrates into dust, I can’t bring myself to write in one…not even in pencil. I often back away in horror when I open a book with writing in it.

3. People seem to have a hard time figuring out my ethnicity. People have often mistaken me for Hawaiian, Filipino, Hispanic, Indian, Native American, among others. Now when people ask me I just say I’m a citizen of the world.

4. I originally went to school to be an art therapist and got as far as getting a masters degree in counseling. Doing web pages and jewelry were just hobbies since I knew I would never be able to making a living doing either one. ::eyeroll::

5. I love chocolate! Unfortunately it doesn’t love me back as I’ve recently developed an allergy that causes some pretty painful sores on my tongue after I eat it. But some things are worth suffering for.

6. I appear to have a tendency to remember useless facts. My family and friends call me Johnny Number 5 and Nikipedia.

7. I hate (translation: scared of) spiders…though I’ll leave them alone if they stay put in a corner where I can see them. If they start commuting or look as though they’ll end up on my face in the middle of the night, all bets are off.

Sooo….who’s in my blog reader?

1. Modish- A great blog about indie artists I’ve been reading since 1996. I did an interview blogger Jena Coray earlier this year.

2. Assemblog of Michael deMeng- This is Michael deMeng’s blog who is assemblage artist extraordinaire.

3. Artrepreneur; The Collision of Art and Business- This is the blog of polymer clay artist Judy Dunn. She has some great craft business tips and stories.

4. Midge’s Mind- The blog of jewelry artist Margaux Lange. She makes cool jewelry out of Barbie and Ken doll parts.

5. Heart Handmade- One of the place I like to go for see who’s who out in the world of handmade. This blog features handmade artists, handmade products, and a business tip or two.

6. Greenjeans- The blog of Brooklyn shop and gallery, Greenjeans. Their blog is a great way to keep up with what’s going on in the world of indie craft in Brooklyn, NY.

7. Gary Vaynerchuk- This is a blog I’ve recently just started following. It’s the video blog of wine enthusiast and personal branding guy Gary Vaynerchuk. He’s the man behind Wine Library TV and was featured in Seth Godin’s newest book, Tribes. He’s got some pretty interesting business building videos and speaks in this great (New York? Jersey?) accent. It’s sort of like listening to Joe Pesci wax philosophical about branding.

We’ll now return back to our regularly scheduled program.

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Riding Out the Economic Downturn

2008-11-05T20:37:06Z

Okay, so it looks like the dreaded “R” word is official. Whenever economic trouble rears its ugly head, we artists always give a collective shudder, because the conventional wisdom is that no one buys art when they’re worried about keeping or finding a job, keeping a house, or even keeping food on the table.

But this isn’t the first recession that artists will have to survive and it won’t be the last. When faced with a financial downturn, here’s a few tips on just how to survive, but to thrive.

1. Don’t hunker down- When hit with the possibility of financial difficulty, your first instinct maybe to batten down the hatches, cut what you can, and just try to survive…and the first thing that artists usually cut down on is their marketing. Don’t do it! Your marketing is the thing that helps you sell your work and if you cut it out, you cut out the lifeblood of your sales.

Instead, find more creative, less expensive ways to get your message out there. Look into co-op advertising where you and a group of artists share the cost of your ad. Check into advertising on blogs like Rare Bird Finds, Modish, and Scoutie Girl. These venues can be very economical and effective. Try some free marketing ideas like public relations, blogging, podcasting or becoming a guest blogger. Use social media like Twitter and Facebook as a free way to market yourself.

2. Offer little luxuries- Did you know that the cosmetics industry was born in the middle of the Great Depression? Inexpensive luxuries like lipstick, eye makeup, and rouge was a way for Depression era women to escape the trials of the financial worries. When times are hard, everyone wants to find a bit of affordable luxury to get them through it.

Find ways to satisfy this craving to escape…even for just a moment. If your artwork is expensive, find ways to create a pared down, more affordable line. If your artwork is already reasonably priced, add a bit of luxury with small free gifts, more luxurious packaging, or added services. Keep an eye out for opportunities during the holidays. Gift giving still goes on even during tough times. Christmas is an obvious one, but don’t forget to look for gift-giving holidays throughout the year; Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, graduations, Father’s Day, retirements, birthdays, anniversaries.

Entertainment is also a way to escape tough times. If you can find a way to combine your work with entertainment, you make your work that much more appealing. Think about doing home parties and workshops where people can gather together for fun and learning, and possibly to buy.

3. Keep in touch with your customers- Your customers need to hear from you now more than ever…through email, direct mail, social networking, and blogging. Now this doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to bug them about buying from you at every turn. But if you can keep in contact with them and give them something of value on a regular basis, like tips, information, entertainment, they will remember you when times get better.

4. Take the opportunity to expand or retool- While a lot of artists fret at the slowdown in business, such a slowdown can be a great opportunity to work on expanding or retooling your business.

I recently attended and presented at several conferences last month and one of the presenters made a terrific analogy to illustrate economic cycles. She said that economy was like a clock, when the hands are at 12 o’ clock, that represents an economic boom. When the hands are 3 o’clock, that’s when the economy its beginning it’s downturn. At 6 o’clock, you’re at the lowest point in the economy, and at 9 o’clock, the economy is beginning it’s recovery.

So at what point in the cycle do businesses make the most money? When the hands are between 9 and 12 o’clock…right between economic recovery and economic boom. When’s the best time to prepare to take advantage of the upswing? That’s right, between 6 and 9 o’clock or between the low point and the coming recovery.

So use the downturn as a time for preparation. Do those things that you’re always too busy for while business was good. If you don’t have a website, build one. If you haven’t started a blog, start one and write in it regularly.

Use this time to dive into social networking…Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

If you already have a website, optimize it for search engine traffic. Work on building traffic to your website. If you haven’t listened to my free audio on how to build traffic to your website, you need to download it now and get to work.

Expand into new areas or new products. Take some classes to learn new techniques, to improve on your current techniques, or to get inspiration for new work.

Experiment with new online sales channels, like Etsy, Mintd, or Trunkt.

Develop new lines of income, writing, speaking, teaching, presenting, and creating how to videos, etc.

Start a reading program where you read more books or blogs on business management, finance, or marketing. Don’t restrict yourself to just resources related to art, there’s plenty of small business books and blogs that can give you great ideas how to run your business more effectively or how to market more effectively.

By retooling now, you’ll be prepared to profit from upcoming the recovery. So get to work!

5. Some useful links- Here’s a round-up of some useful recession-proof reading.

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VOTE!

2008-11-03T16:00:00Z

Normally, I wouldn’t touch political topics on my blog with a ten-foot pole…but this issue is more civic duty than politics. Unless you’ve been on another planet for the past year, you’ll know that Election Day for the U.S. is tomorrow. If you haven’t done so yet, be sure to go out and vote tomorrow. It’s expected that there’s going to be record turnout this year, so go early if possible. To avoid potential problems, MSNBC has this 10-point checklist you can read.

No matter who you’re voting for, just go out and do it. Remember, you can vote however you like

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Back Home and Some Required Reading

2008-11-02T23:50:38Z

Looks like the extra hour today is just what I needed to completely recover from my travels. If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you’ll know that I’ve been out of town attending and even presenting at (yikes!) a few conferences last month. Now that I’m back home for at least a few weeks until I take a much needed vacation to Florida (yay!), the blog and the newsletter will return to it’s regularly scheduled programming.

One good thing about traveling cross country in an airplane is that you have plenty of time to catch up on reading. I finally got around reading those back issues of American Style, American Craft, Ornament, and The Crafts Report that I’ve been meaning to get to for the past few months. The most dangerous thing in my carry-ons was my magazine stash…ouch those things can get pretty heavy.

In addition to the magazines, I’ve even managed to get to some books that’s been on my reading list for a while. One of the books was “The E-Myth Revisited” by Michael E. Gerber which is I guess the sequel to this previous book, “The E-Myth”. Now I hadn’t read “The E-Myth”, but I found “The E-Myth Revisited” to be a great read especially if you’re like most artists who run a one person shop.

The main point of the book is that most small businesses fail because the business ends up running the owner’s life instead of the owner running the business. Most small business owners start their businesses so they can make a living doing something they love or so they can be their own boss. But after a while, most small business owners find that they are just as controlled by their business as they would by any “boss” because the day to day operations of the business are totally dependent on them…even (or especially) if they have employees. So the business they built to escape from having a job, becomes just that…another job (does any of this seems familiar?).

Author Michael Gerber explains in “The E-Myth Revisited” that business owners should design their businesses like a franchise. Not in the literal sense in that we should all build the next McDonald’s or big box chain, but that we should design our businesses so that they can run without us. Rather, we should have our business become a means to an end rather than to be an extension of ourselves.

All in all, it was a pretty good read and the author gave some good tips on how to design a self-sustaining business that I plan to try out in the future.

The second book was Seth Godin’s newest one called, “Tribes“. Like most of his books, it was a really quick read, I managed to get through it on my car ride from Virginia Beach to Baltimore. But the small size shouldn’t fool you. As usual, Seth packs some pretty thought-provoking stuff in this book. In a nutshell, “Tribes” is about the power of groups and the necessity for leaders coming forth to lead them. With the advent of the Internet and especially with the explosion of social networking tools like Facebook, self-selected groups or “tribes” no longer constrained by geography are multiplying at a rapid rate. Tribes are described as groups of people brought together around a common interest, like a hobby, or a sports team, or a social cause, a product, or business interest. In the book, Seth talks about tribes, leadership, and how people are using some of the social networking tools as a way to create and lead various tribes all around the world.

Like most of Seth’s books, Tribes is not a “how-to” book, but a grand “idea” book. With examples and case studies on how people lead tribes all over the world, this book is great if you’re wanting to learn more about how followings and tribes get built and maintained and how ordinary people can lead them.

If you’re more of the “how-to” rather than a “big idea” person, you can download the companion ebook that has more case studies here. Plus you can get a big list of tribe building ideas here. But either way, it’s a good idea to read Tribes to get the basis premise.

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Don’t forget to turn your clocks back!

2008-11-01T15:18:11Z

Ahh…after almost a month of travel in and out of town, I never needed an extra hour of sleep so much as I need it now. The end of Daylight Savings is tonight. So for those of you who follow it, don’t forget to turn your clocks back 1 hour!

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Live from Charleston, S.C.- Yesterday’s Twitter Digest

2008-10-04T13:30:58Z

Today is the second day of the conference I’m attending in Charleston, South Carolina on book publishing and authors sponsored by the Advantage Media Group. I’ve been tweeting about some of the interesting things I’m learning at this conference. Here is a digest of my tweets from yesterday. If you want to follow my tweets for today, you can follow me by visiting my Twitter profile!

Down here in Charleston, SC for a book writing conference…at 73 degrees, it was a gorgeous day!
Sitting in on a conference about book publishing in sunny Charleston, SC. Topic of the moment…1000 true fans, do you have them?
Here’s the original link about the concept of 1,000 true fans- http://twurl.nl/t0dgxy
Here’s the caveat for getting true fans…you have to be able to deal with them…or get someone who can. No hiding in the studio!
Just learned the the worst way for an author to make money is to sell their books….in a bookstore. Who knew?
Break time! A bit of trivia, this hotel is a restoration of the original Citadel Military College. Explains why it looks like a castle.
Are you running a business or creating another job? Running a business means you need to hire good people so your business can run itself
Statement from current speaker “All marketing and advertising revolves around your company’s Internet Strategy.” Completely agree!
Anyone has an opinion on the statement “All marketing and advertising revolves around your company’s Internet Strategy.”?
Speaker now talking about how they worked their way out of the economic slump during the Gulf War. His message- you can survive the economy
…but it’s going to be awfully tough
Okay…90 minute lunch…we do love our food here in the South
Stopped by the gift shop on the way back to the conference..it’s selling candy bars for $1.50. Should be grateful, it would be $2.50 in LA
Current speaker is talking about how social media (Twitter, Flickr, Facebook, etc) helps increase attendance to her events.
You can follow her- @wkurtz
Next speaker is Wayne Kelly who’s going to talk about media training for interviews, especially radio
Whoa..this dude’s kind of funny
When pitching for a radio interview, answer the question “So What?” Why would the radio audience be interested?
BTW…that will also be the same question people will ask when they land on your website
Interesting statistic- 96% of Americans listen to traditional radio
What is your story? What’s the story behind your product? Even if your product isn’t unique doesn’t mean your story isn’t relevant
Good uses for radio interviews…develop awareness, develop your brand, and list building
List building is Step #2 in my 10 Steps to Bring More Traffic to Your Website- http://twurl.nl/61qzgo
Wayne Kelly says, “If you want the attention of the media, you must have a website”. You heard it here first!
You can follow Wayne on Twitter- @waynekelly
Okay, last speaker of the day is up- Greg Stebben who’s going to talk about radio publicity…hmm, I smell a theme
Hey, this guy is funny too. Good thing…I’m beginning to fade from information overload
Here’s a tip, figure out how you can tie your product or work to current events and you can be timely in the media
Media and radio publicity is a lot like social networking, come into the relationship with the impulse to give more than you get
Conference done for the day…have to be back down here at 8 a.m.
Now that the day’s sessions are over, I’m going to enjoy the evening…buh bye!
Just got back to my room…boy oh boy, King Street’s jumping. Downtown Charleston’s sure is different from what I remember as a kid

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Live from Charleston, SC

2008-10-04T03:44:52Z

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you already know that I’m currently attending in Charleston, South Carolina at a conference on book publishing and authors sponsored by the Advantage Media Group. There’s some pretty good information here so I’m sort of live tweeting some of the interesting points of the conference. If you want to follow along, follow my tweets by visiting my Twitter profile!

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Turn that music down!

2008-09-25T17:30:27Z

Mark this as one of the website mistakes you don’t ever want to make on your art website. That mistake is autoplaying music or some other type of sound on your site. While this isn’t as rampant on the web as it used to be, the big exception seeming to be MySpace where I have to surf with my headphones off and the speakers turned down, it’s still annoying when you run into it.

Some people put music on their site to create some type of “atmosphere” for their visitors…like you’re stepping into a gallery or your local Pottery Barn. Or, instead of music, they’ll greet their customers with an audio message from themselves.

While music in your local mall or chain boutique might be useful, these tactics don’t really fly in the online world for a couple reasons:

1. A lot of people do their surfing at work. If they land on your page and their speakers start blasting your music or your audio greeting, that tells everyone in the office that they’re surfing the web and NOT working. Your visitor will end up leaving your page in search of one that’s quieter and less likely to get them fired.

2. A lot of people surf with their headphones on. While that solves the problem of your music invading the common space, it can get really painful for your visitor if your music is too loud or if their speakers are turned up. I often have my earbuds on when I’m on the web and there’s nothing more painful than have a million decibels shoot straight into your ear canal because someone thought it was clever to have their iTunes playlist running in the background of their websites at full blast. How much you want to bet that I or anyone else will want to hang around on your page after we’ve gone deaf?

3. Unlike stores, galleries, and craft shows, people don’t visit websites to “hang out” or take in the “atmosphere”. This is one reason why music works at your local Starbucks and doesn’t work on your website. In fact, try going to Starbucks.com and see if you hear the same music you hear in their stores playing on their website when you first arrive. Thought not.

People online are usually goal oriented. They want to visit a website, find what they’re looking for, then leave. Making someone scramble around looking for a way to turn off your music or turn down their speakers gets in the way of their goal and frustrates them. And frustrated people abandon things that frustrate them.

Now this is not to say that you shouldn’t have music or any kind of sound on your website. In my recent audio download, “10 Steps to Getting More Traffic on Your Website“, I talked a bit about how you can use audio to help increase traffic for your website. In certain situations and applications, music and audio can certainly be useful. The key is to do it right:

1. Give your visitors control over what they hear. Don’t force your visitors to listen to your music or your voice the moment they land on your website. Let them be able to turn the sound on or off and also let them be able to control the volume.

2. Have a good reason to have sound on your website. If your main motivation for having sound on your website is that it seems like a cool thing to do, you need to rethink that motivation. Most people aren’t going to buy something or sign up for your mailing list just because you have cool music playing in the background. In most cases, music or audio that has no real purpose ends up just being a distraction. Unless your business is music or music related, people aren’t going to visit your website to listen to music. That’s what radios and iPods are for.

3. This also applies to videos as well. One of my biggest pet peeves with some of these video sharing sites like YouTube and blip.tv is that they autostart their videos. If your video has sound, autostarting the video has the same effect as autostarting audio. Again, you need to give your visitors control over whether they want to watch your video or not.

So that’s one of my web pet peeves. What’s yours? Post a comment and tell us your rant!

P.S. Thanks to wren2000 for inspiring this post and for Maxell for the above ad image…that has to be one of the most famous ads ever.

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What’s Your SEO Score?

2008-09-24T11:48:57Z

If you’re just starting out trying to get your website optimized for search engines, it’s a good idea to know where you’re starting from and to check your progress from time to time. One tool that I’ve been using to gauge my progress on the SEO front for a while is called Website Grader by Hubspot.

Website Grader analyzes your website for search engine optimization, traffic, the number of links coming into your website, your Google PageRank, even how effectively you’re turning visitors into customers and gives you a grade up to 100. The neat thing about this site is that gives you a breakdown of what you can improve on your website to give yourself a better score, plus you can also compare your website to another website that’s similar to yours to see how you measure up.

When I first started using this tool, my grade was a 57. I’ve managed to get it up to 86. So looks like I still have a bit of work to do! You can see how you measure up visiting Website Grader.com. And be sure to share your grades here in the comments!

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Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-23

2008-09-24T03:59:59Z

New Blog Post- 10 Steps to Getting More Traffic on Your Website : Free Audio Download http://twurl.nl/wo8bqw #
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-22:
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-.. http://twurl.nl/0uzdxm #
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-22 http://twurl.nl/mu466t #
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-22 http://twurl.nl/p5ipb3 #

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Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-22

2008-09-23T03:59:59Z

New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-21:
A great post from SEOmoz about why links s.. http://twurl.nl/qih87m #
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-21 http://twurl.nl/80hhpn #
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-21 http://twurl.nl/i71y7e #

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10 Steps to Getting More Traffic on Your Website : Free Audio Download

2008-09-22T23:49:01Z

Quick announcement. I’ve just finished a brand new audio download called “10 Steps to Getting More Traffic on Your Website“. This audio is a 10 step, 60+ minute plan on how to boost your traffic. You can listen to 2 minute excerpt here:

If you’re interested in hearing the rest of the audio, you can click here to subscribe my free newsletter. You’ll receive the link to the rest of the audio along with this week’s newsletter article.

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Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-21

2008-09-22T03:59:59Z

A great post from SEOmoz about why links should look like links= http://twurl.nl/73plbf #
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-20:
Retweeting @guykawasaki: Cirque de Soleil .. http://twurl.nl/yip50c #
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-20 http://twurl.nl/hv631y #
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-20 http://twurl.nl/5g4jot #

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Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-20

2008-09-21T03:59:59Z

Retweeting @guykawasaki: Cirque de Soleil has a Twitter feed: http://twitter.com/CirqueLasVegas (Whoo hoo we love us some Cirque!) #
Enjoying the cool night breeze while I’m finishing edits on a new audio download I’m offering for my blog. What for it on Monday! #
Watching Live Free or Die Hard while editing another audio. Geez, why is Bruce Willis always in the middle of some kind of explosion? #
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-19 http://twurl.nl/cb4zs2 #
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-19:
A great post on Dosh Dosh about things we .. http://twurl.nl/s8wofb #
New Blog Post- Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-19 http://twurl.nl/bgtn2q #
Just flipped past Dante’s Peak on TV. Why is in these movies that no matter how many people die they always manage to save the dog? #
Just finished setting up Twitter Tools on my blogs…sorry about all the extra tweets! #

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Today’s Tweets for 2008-09-19

2008-09-20T03:59:59Z

A great post on Dosh Dosh about things we can learn from email spammers- http://twurl.nl/32djj0 #

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