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.