Introduction
![Brendon Sinclair]()
I've just figured out
a way to reduce my workload and save myself thousands of dollars a
year. It's a simple thing to do and I'll explain how below.
There’s an interesting question in the forums from johnyboy about a
different type of payment model for his web sites. Although I'm not a big fan
of what he proposes, it's his unconventional thinking that will help lead to
processes that work better than the norm -- in terms of getting the most bang
for your buck.
I witnessed some of the best marketing I've ever seen yesterday: a parody
that serves as a wonderful example of how we can all give some extra zest to
our marketing for maximum impact -- online or off.
In Tips & Tricks, we go over a couple of excellent tools to make your
online branding easier, gaining maximum benefit from those who are linking to
your site. Check them out below.
Happy reading!
Brendon
Brendon Sinclair
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Summary
Editor's Perspective
Less Work for More Money
A lot of my clients have been on monthly web site maintenance contracts for
many years. We would perform work on their sites and bill them at the end
of the month. Easy.
It’s so stupid, I can't believe I've done it for years (but people who
know me understand it!).
You see, we've just moved the majority of these clients from monthly to
quarterly billing. That equates to much less work for my accounts person and
more profit for me.
Evaluating this, I simply can’t believe I've wasted thousands of
dollars over the years because of an inefficient billing plan. Sure, when
we started out we needed the cash flow each month; but as we grew I
should’ve been more aware of ways to save money and adapted.
With a tighter economic climate, we all need to be aware of ways to cut costs
without affecting the quality of our products and services. Reassessing your
administrative procedures may well be a way you can save yourself thousands.
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Marketplace Moments
It's Time for Some Business Brainstorming
Some time ago, johnyboy
came up with a "mad crazy payment scheme idea" for discussion in the
forums. It attracted a bit of interest and some terrific responses.
johnyboy's idea was to build clients’ sites for free, with payment
being a percentage of the sales. I really like how he's applying alternative
thinking to construct a different business model for future enterprises.
But here's some advice from someone who’s been there: the concept may
sound okay, but in practice it might end up being the worst thing he’s
ever done.
Several years ago, I took a vastly reduced payment from a client by accepting
a percentage of sales instead; this involved developing the site as well as
marketing it. The first month was fine and I was paid. In the second
month, sales went through the roof so the client owed me quite a chunk of
change. Conveniently, the client now failed to see what I'd provided for the
money owed, and refused to pay.
The coda to this is that stupid me agreed to a similar deal with another
client a year later. Needless to say, I was done over again!
I have never, ever seen this sort of arrangement work effectively. There are
too many factors out of the web developer’s control; while measurement is
one thing, actual payment is quite another!
Having said that, I'd still encourage anyone to re-examine their business
model or billing and payment practices; indeed, anything that might make a
difference to your bottom line is worth investigating.
Brainstorming ideas, like johnyboy has done, can lead to innovative practices
that help your business cash flow and generate long-term business success.
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Find Out How to
Create Profitable Content Web Sites
The Web Site Revenue Maximizer Kit
will show you how to:
- increase your page views
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- pick the best affiliate networks,
forum software, and traffic analysis tools
- and much
more!
Click here to download a free sample
chapter!
How Obama Can Help Your Marketing
The US presidential election is now done and dusted, and it’s been a
fascinating study in marketing from both sides.
I'm a huge advocate for benchmarking against what others do: you can learn so
much from how other people operate. A classic example I recently saw is a take
on the old "Wassup" Budweiser
beer commercial.
The brilliant parody
uses the characters of the original commercial to relay a very powerful
message.
The takeaway is that you can effectively leverage current affairs to your
advantage. Maybe your web development firm could use the Time for
Change theme as part of marketing the redevelopment of existing sites.
Whatever you choose, there's plenty of scope to capitalize on public
awareness, adding that extra punch to your marketing.
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Tips & Tricks
We talked a little about protecting your online brand a couple of issues
back. A new service that's easy to
use lets you check the availability of your username against some of the most
popular web sites around. In all, 68 sites are checked, with the report
appearing within seconds as the service runs through.
Links from other sites to your web site helps boost your search engine
rankings -- no new information there. Now, a new tool within Google Webmaster
can help you boost your link count.
In the "Not Found" and "Errors for URLs in Sitemaps"
reports, Google have added a "Linked From" column; the "Linked
From" column now lists the number of pages that link to a specific
"Not Found" URL. Clicking on an item in the "Linked From"
column opens a separate dialog box, which lists each page that linked to this
URL along with the date it was discovered. The source URL for the "Not
Found" error can be within or external to your site.
Then it's a simple matter of contacting the sites with those links and asking
for the error to be fixed. Sure, not everyone will fix it for you, but you
can bet a good chunk of them will.
More information is available at the Google
Webmaster Blog.
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That's it for this week -- thanks for checking in.
Brendon Sinclair
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Editor,
SitePoint Tribune
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