Chapter 8

Measuring Success

"You can only improve what you measure.", Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, Meyerson, pg95.

The above statement rings true for every industry. More often than not, entrepreneurs launch a website to sell their super-incredible product and become discouraged when their site isn't doing so hot. It's been my experience as a freelancer that most small business owners have no clue when it comes to measuring the success or lack of their business.

I'm often discouraged when I run into hacks on the street. You know, those people who "know a little bit about HTML" and quite literally MacGuyver their way through building a site. I ran into one of those 2 months ago at a party. My "friend" was very excited to tell me about how she was making $35/hour building websites. Truly, I was floored. But there is one thing I do which I know she still hasn't thought to. She doesn't create a Project Plan and I do.

Nothing impresses a potential client more than when you show up with a bundle of paper for them to peruse. It proves you've done your homework, it says the money they're paying you is well-spent, especially since they had not even considered some of the items in my project plan. What they seem to love most is when I start talking about Google Analytics. Usually, it's around that point that they realize that they had been going about it all wrong and I've found that to be the case with a lot of small businesses. The beauty of it is that it keeps me gainfully employed and separates me from the hacks.

Reeling in Vegas

So, I've been burning the midnight oil working on my final project for Web Marketing. I finally came up with a design I liked. My original concepts just weren't working for me. Presently, I have only a Photoshop mockup, but I'll reveal that later. For now, check out the Twitter! Friend it, love it, share it with your pals!

Truthfully, this is only the beginning, in fact, I'm not too pleased with the background, but it works for the moment! Next up are myspace and Facebook fan pages...then coding the site...just never enough time...

My grade so far at Midterm

Five weeks down, Six to go!

The end of the quarter will be here before we all know it and I can't believe it's already Midterms. I have been busting my hump with professional projects and haven't really focused on my schooling as much as I should be, I have produced the bare minimum. I'm much better than a C, but that's what I feel I'm producing. No apologies, no excuses, we're all responsible for our own lot and I accept.

Reeling in Vegas

This site will incorporate the class’s websites. I’ve been working on the artwork for a few weeks now and I’m actually pretty excited about this project. The concept is Old Vegas, but super shiny and possibly loud like the Strip can be when you’re too tired or hung-over to deal with the tourists and throw peanuts at them.

The site’s meant to appeal to both tourists and locals, though locals will be the most likely to take advantage of what the site has to offer. Most of us hate dealing with Strip traffic and prices, so it’s no surprise that we flock to ‘neighborhood’ casinos for catch a movie and while we’re there, sometimes dinner too. If the casino is really lucky, we’ll stick around for a few pops and some nickel slots…

“When it comes to selling on the web, shortcuts don’t work”, Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, pg 58. I’ve been working on concepts and one of the interactive elements of Reeling in Vegas is a super short form that asks the site visitor if he or she is local. Harmless enough, right? If they don’t enter info, that’s fine, they’re free to browse around. Then, I’m going to ask them for their name, they can’t skip past this step, though. If they do fill out their name, even with something fake, I’ll take them to a freebies page, something that says, “Hey there ______, do you like movies, don’tcha?

"People online do not want to get sold to", Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, pg 59. At no point am I asking my site visitor to give me a credit card number, nor am I telling them I can get them discounts on movies, I'm really not trying to sell them on anything. I'm just trying to get my visitor warmed up enough to opt in with their email address to have a look-see at the Members Area. Then, they'll get notified when I post new movie previews or the latest reviews. I'll even tell them about my FREE newsletter, chock-full of venues for checking out the local movie "scene" as well as other local info, after all, there's gotta be more going on than the ruckus on the Strip, right?

You Tube Project

I ended up using my YouTube for more than just my single posting. I uploaded all the videos for my Fantasy Movie Obsession website. I did this for a couple of reasons:
1) I wanted to create more interlinked over the internet
2) I didn’t want to limit my Tube to just the one video I’d created.
The original video I’d posted was How to make Minnie’s Rockin’ Guac. It’s very low rent, but the animation is smooth. I was going for amusing as well as revealing the mystery behind the incredible green dip that burns your tongue, but keeps you coming back for more. It’s no secret that I love spending time in the kitchen and I take an awful amount of pride in my guacamole. It’s something a lot of my friends ask for when having a get – together.

That video may be found here:

Ebay Project

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in hardback was the item I listed. After the success of my first sale on Ebay, I had no choice but to post another item for sale, hopefully, this one will sell as quickly as my last item. For the most part, Harry Potter books are a hot item, especially in light of the new movie coming to theaters next year. Everyone’s primed for the next Potter movie and I aimed to not only clear some shelf space, but to also make a buck.

“You can use simple words like amazing, for example or great”, Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, pg. 44. I chose to use “killer deal” in my headline. Truth be told, most folks hit up Ebay to save money or to find a very obscure item they just can’t do without. It turns out there are over 100 listings for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

“You want to take away any fears that you’re going to rip them off or they are going to lose in some way”, Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, pg 52. In my listing, I’m offering a merchandise credit within 7 business days of purchase, however, the buyer pays shipping fees. Most people would consider this fair, especially when you’re shipping a hardback book. I’m meticulous about my books, so I’ve always preserved them quite well; shipping one back and forth would significantly lower the value since the book is bound to get banged up.

“Demand immediate action”, Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, pg 54. BUY IT NOW! Yes now, why go through the hassle of watching an item, waiting until the very last day it’s up for grabs to start a bidding war with someone in Iowa? Why not just buy it now and pay the super low $3.00 (handling is completely gratis). In retrospect, for the amount of time I spent looking at other bookseller’s listings, I probably should have used that line in my sales copy.

“Make it absolutely clear what they need to do next”, Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, pg 54. After I assured the buyer of my belief in customer satisfaction, I should have reiterated their need to buy my book right then and there. Sure, it’s $20, but I know for a fact that book was lovingly read with the utmost respect for the quality of the pages and the beauty of the story, much better.

Myspace Project

My myspace is meant to be a reflection of my work in the hopes of promoting who I am and what I do. It is lacking significantly. The url is http://www.myspace.com/minnieenterprises. I have yet to master the trick of making a myspace page fabulous. Since their upgrade to 2.0, making your designs work is no easy thing. Unfortuantely, my sole focus was on the design of the page until I saw my deadline staring me in the face.

“You must have a consistent message”, Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, pg 35. What this means is consistency across the web and in print, this is what I’ve been struggling with. As a designer, I’m constantly trying to reinvent the wheel, the logo isn’t sharp enough, that sort of thing. I need to commit to a design, my brand and stick to it.

“Your headline has to reach out and grab people”, Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, pg. 43. My myspace needs a sharp headline, not the standard, run of the mill Minnie Rodriguez is in your network. A weak headline can completely disconnect you from your end user, on or offline. Myspace is no different, though most people playing on myspace are playing, let’s be honest. It is however, another means to network and build links and I must make amends even if my design isn’t the very greatest.

“Use color sparingly”, Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, pg 43. In this respect, I am sparing the eyes of the reader. Creating any page with a mess of colors will usually shoo people away rather than attracting them to you. As a web designer, I comb the internet all the time for tips, tutorials, inspiration and especially what not to do. Using color like a spastic kindergardener is something you should never, ever do. Having said that, most peoples myspaces drive me crazy with their glitter graphics and garish font choices, my goodness, why can’t it be a little more like Facebook, a consistent designer across everyone’s page, in plain black text that is easy on the eyes?

Overall, I am obliged to make my myspace up to myself so that I can promote my services and expertise to the poor masses with bad taste in layout and graphics.

Movie Obsession Website

Albert’s www.vampfansite.com was my favorite. He spent a lot of time on both design and content for his site and it plainly showed. He took a lot of time writing his content and harvesting free online goodies to tempt his audience to stay on his site for much longer than they would have if he didn’t have so much to offer. He was clearly demonstrating his understanding of creating a greed desire to hook his audience with his free bonuses.

Next was Kiely’s site, fagabeefe.com. I loved his banner although, it isn’t yet functional, it will be very impressive when he figures out how to make it work. I also liked his movie quiz, it was a nice touch to engage his audience.

I feel that Jose put a lot of thought and effort into Joserosariolopez.com/kungfu. I particularly liked how he was adding his own movie reviews to be critiqued and contributed to by his site visitors. The design was clean even though he has a lot of content on the front page.

I’m ranking manfilms.hunterunknown.com in fourth place. I think it’s awesome Ardie figured out how to include a login/registration complete with email confirmation. This is no easy task and he definitely gets cool points for it. He also offered a few freebies and I thought that was a nice touch as well. Overall, the site was a success, but I think it lacked a little polish.

I’m ranking my site, lunaobscuradesign.com/fantasyObsession in last place. I feel that I could have done so much more with it, but I was lacking in engaging content. While I did promote the site via Twitter and Facebook, I didn’t have the time to get more engaging content posted to keep visitors coming back for more and ultimately wishing to either comment on a post or go as far as becoming a registered member. I still have far to go with this.

Chapter 5 Prompting Action

"Don't make people guess what you want them to do." , Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, Meyerson, pg 54.

Fine artists usually have some issue with charging for their work. While they're very passionate about their artistic expression, it is quite another thing to actually say, "hey, pay me this much for this piece of artwork". In fact, these are often times the words you'll never hear them say. Instead, like my friend T, they'll get a manager to do it for them. This is not a bad gig, but what about the rest of us working Janes who can't afford to cut a deal with a "handler"?

The sale is like a game of chess

A few years back, I was a salesperson for a supplement company. Part of the gig was placing cold calls to stores that had either never heard of our company, or had carried our products at one point, but had discontinued them. This was rough because there was a script.

We've all received that phone call where you know in your heart that the drone on the other end is reading a script. It sucks, it feels like bad form, but everybody has to make a living, right? While I hate receiving that phone call, it's even worse placing that call, believe me.

What I learned about the wretched script

Needless to say, every fiber of my being rebelled against that script, it was stupid. It sometimes didn't make sense where the owners wanted you to emphasize words and my enthusiasm seemed to wane after the 20th call...but I DID learn something. Every question, every stupidly emphasized word was a stepping stone en route to closing the sale. There were several questions in which the customer had no choice but to say yes and that's what you want. You want that person on the other end to get used to saying yes. It's sneaky, but it's a lot like a game of chess. Once I understood that, reading the script and emphasizing specific parts of the copy weren't that big a deal. In fact, if I read the script precisely as it was written, I'd close much more often than I didn't. The biggest thing was that last block of words where I asked for the sale, if that didn't make it, the phone call was a dud.

Chapter 4, BOC

"You should ask yourself why you want to build a web site in the first place.", Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, Meyerson, pg 25.

As a freelance web designer, I get approached by a lot of small businesses who have need for a website. Most of the time, these entrepreneurs have no idea what they want or what the message is that they wish to convey with their website. It's common and very unfortunate.... for them. For me, this just isn't the case. It's because of these clients that I had to take a really hard look at what marketing is and how to help these people become successful with a web presence.

A few months back, I was approached by a belly dancer who has had her website up for approximately a year and a half. In that year, she has never been contacted for a performance via her site. Unfortunately, she is among the many who pay someone to create some eye candy on a page and then walked away from it. She does not engage in any of the social networks and never bothered include her web address on her business card. In fact, she would mention her web site in passing if someone happened to ask if she had one.

So, for the next two weeks, she and I hashed out a plan for her new site. Yes, it's eye candy and she' s so very happy with it. For that I'm glad. Unfortunately, she hasn't followed through on the action plan we put together. As a matter of fact, I'm still waiting to get video so we can upload it to the site. We have an appointment this weekend and I'm hoping we can revisit the original marketing plan and put together another action plan, maybe something that will be easier for her to commit to. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Chapter 3 BOC

"You've got to realize you don't just put up a website and walk away"Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, Meyerson, pg. 28.

I've been freelancing for a little bit over a year now. When I started out, I was the sole proprietor of a chop shop. When you placed your "order" with me, you were giving me site specifics, colors, fonts, text, images, etc. Eventually, we'd agree on a price, a deadline (the quicker, the better of course) and off I'd go to the trenches and build your web page. I usually turned it around pretty fast too. Got a nice little reputation. What I didn't realize at the time is that my clients were coming to me for the service of marketing, not necessarily web design.

Of course, web design is part of it, but all most of my clients knew was that they had a business and they needed a website, because they were supposed to. Once it was built, they walked away, we never put together an action plan for how they would market their site or even how their site was going to act as a marketing tool for them. Eek. You live and learn.

Now my initial consultation includes a survey that aims to find out what my client's goals are. Usually, they haven't even considered putting together an action plan for their site, they just figured once the site was up, thousands of people would find them and go wild over whatever their services might be. This just isn't the case. Site visitors are savvier than ever and they don't want to try and figure out the morse code of your website and more importatly, they want to be engaged. If your site hasn't been updated in over a year, give it up. No one's interested, certainly not you, how could you be if you haven't taken the time to really tweak your content and make sure it's up to date? Websites are like little kids, you have to feed them because in doing so you're feeding your site visitors and ultimately, that's what it's about. Getting them to stick around, come back and ultimately buy your product, or subscribe to your newsletter or whatever...

Chapter 2 BOC

"Most free stuff is digital...These are things that don't cost you any money to deliver except the cost of setting up the repository." Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, Meyerson, pg. 14.

People love free stuff, it's a fact. Doesn't matter what it is, if people hear the word 'free', the immediate reaction is to go check it out. This is great marketing. Mary Kay, Avon, department stores and tons of business people have taken the approach of giving something away free in the hopes that the consumer will ultimately buy. This is a whole lot easier on the web. Hundreds of websites offer icon packs, Wordpress templates, sound bytes and so much more for nothing. Well, almost nothing. How much does it really cost to give out your email address anyway? Once you do, though, marketers have an endless amount of opportunities to try and sell you on something else.

Personally, I believe this approach is pretty smart. I subscribe to so many blogs and most of them send me free stuff all the time! In fact, one site sends me a freebie every day! While I have yet to buy something, I'm still in some marketing plan. See, the sites I'm subscribed to are creative blogs and these usually send you an article teaser with a link to their site. Some will even send subscribers content that never gets posted to their site. What it usually comes down to, though is they really just want you to head over to their blog and take advantage of some of the offers from their sponsors and that I HAVE done. In fact, that's how I found out about Freshbooks, that online invoicing company that makes the life of any freelancer so much easier... anyway, I have this saying I picked up years ago: "If it's free, it's me." And free is definitely a magical word.

Chapter 1 Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars

“I’ve told people thousands of times that they’ve just got to ask for what they want. The problem with that is they don’t know what they want!” Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, Meyerson, pg. 4.

As children, we’re encouraged to dream big when we’re asked what we want to be when we grow up. As we get older, the story changes, we’re told we should be practical, aim for something you can do, or something you’re good at, not necessarily what your dream once was. Be realistic, they say. As an adult, I realized that I was working jobs that I was good at, but not necessarily what I wanted to do, just something that would bring in a paycheck, for a while, that was enough.

A few years back, I decided that I’d had enough of “security” and that steady paycheck. I was going to finally do what I wanted. I was going to be a Graphic Designer. I figured that because I was artsy and had an eye for color and layout, I’d be a big hit. I was working for a Supplement company out of Henderson when I realized that Photoshop Elements and Microsoft Publisher just weren’t going to cut it. I needed better programs and more important, I needed to learn how to use them. That’s when I decided to come to the Art Institute of Las Vegas. It’s been 3 years and I’m so close to graduation, I’m already making plans for my portfolio show. In the interim, I changed my major to Web Design and Interactive Media. Those Graphic Designers aren’t going to get very far creating for print. That’s a fact and I’m grateful that I realized it early on. Now I’m blazing my own trail because I started dreaming big again and asking for what I wanted.