It's All Geek To Me - March 29th 2006

Would you show up at a business meeting wearing a poodle skirt and bobby socks? How about platform shoes and a polyester leisure suit? We know you wouldn't - but visitors to your web site don't know you like we do! Want to know what the heck we're getting at? Read on...

Being Dead is No Excuse Recently I've been surfing quite a bit - and stumbling across many sites that are severely out of date. Some of these firms are not small or inherently shoddy - and when you send email to inquire they inevitably provide creative excuses. They dance and giggle and spend a tremendous amount of effort trying to explain why it is "OK". My favorite excuse received recently was this: "I clicked on that 'shoot the monkey' banner ad 372 times trying to win a prize so I didn't have time to update the site, sorry!"

It's time to be truthful about web site updates - this is 2006 - it's not okay to have an out of date site. Not at all, not one bit, not ever. As an entrepreneur, you need to understand what the real equivalents are - having an out of date site is like having a filthy bathroom, or trash all over your desk, or one old coffee stained brochure for a prospect, or never paying any bill that isn't 90 days past due - the kind of stuff that would cause your mother to roll her eyes and glare at you.

If you were to respond to the look by asking your Mom "What?" she'd say "I think you know".

Most of those sites I see that are miserably out of date, I don't bother to call or email, I just go right on back to searching for a different company with which to do business. They hung a big sign on their site that says "I'm not professional and I don't really care about your business anyway".

So, how do you make sure you never have this horribly embarrassing business-killing situation? There are two strategies smart entrepreneurs employ to make sure their site is never out of date.

First - adjust content based on reality.

If your web site generates more than 50% of your business, it deserves a weekly update; if more than 80%, it should be daily. But if you are one of those folks who gets a small percentage of your business from the web, you need to acknowledge that a realistic update schedule for you may be quarterly, twice a year, or even annually.

The content you place on your site must keep your realistic update schedule in mind. If you know starting out that you'll only update twice a year, then don't - no matter how tempting - talk about current events on your home page.

A more common scenario involves your staff - if you know you'll update the site infrequently and you know you have a high turnover rate, don't put individual pictures of employees on your web site. If products change regularly and you can't make updates, don't put info about specific products on your site. Instead, discuss the types of products you have, the brands you carry, and encourage people to contact you for information.

Second - Don't give away the only set of keys to your car.

Many folks who have a horribly out of date web site feel trapped and helpless - usually because they don't have the information or tools required to make a site update. While you may choose always to use a professional for site updates, it is critical you have that information and that someone in your organization is capable of making simple site updates.

It isn't hard to imagine a media inquiry, a tragedy, or a piece of great news that would make an immediate update necessary. In the last ten years I have frequently dealt with people who "desperately" needed a simple site update due to a situation like that.

You need two things to make sure you have "the keys" - passwords and a program.

Make sure you have your FTP address, username and password for your web site. Write it down on a piece of paper and file it some place safe. Without this info, your site can not be updated by anyone.

Get yourself a simple little web page editing program like Macromedia Contribute. This software is incredibly simple and easy to use, as we have mentioned in past issues.

The lovely thing about this software is its simplicity- it's incredibly easy to use, no matter how technologically challenged you might consider yourself to be. Please take my advice - - download the free 30 day trial and give it a whirl. When you find how super simple it is, you'll find it easy to decide on the mere $149 purchase price when your free trial period is up.

If you walked into your store and found the bathroom in terrible condition, you'd do something about it immediately. Your web site's miserably out of date? Same thing - - you need to fix it immediately and make sure it never gets like that again.

PS - I'd like to mention the inspiration for today's It's All Geek to Me title - Being Dead is No Excuse: The Official Southern Ladies Guide to Hosting the Perfect Funeral.