The truth is that most people are not going to make a fortune with blogging, but hey, if the blog just pays a few expenses for not much time or cash investment, then why not?

So check it out – you might find that blogging is just what the Doctor ordered.

Step one is to get a blogger. You can host a blog on your own website or you can sign up on one of the free blogging sites.

A good free blog is blogger.com, which is owned by Google.com. This one has the advantage of being a part of Google.com, so the Google search engine will find and index it fairly rapidly.

Another option is to use WordPress, which is what Smart Web Center is using. Word Press is more sophisticated than most of the other bloggers out there. It also has features such as Trackbacks and Categories, which most other bloggers lack. It also has greater menu flexibility.

You can get your feet wet with a free blog - here are two good free blogs:

Blogger.com (http://www.blogger.com/signup.g)
Wordpress (http://wordpress.com/signup/).

You can sign up with both if you’d like to.

The idea is to get in there and see how they work and get a hands on experience so you will have some idea of what all the buzz is about.

Here are some quick definitions of some blogging terms that might make your first introductions to blogging a little easier:

1) Permalink – Permalink stands for permanent link, which is a URL (uniform resource locator – page address) that leads to particular post that you make in your blog.

2) Trackback – When you write about and refer to someone else’s, what you’ve written will show up in their “trackback” section. This feature, however, is not available with a Blogger.com account.

3) Pinging – Blogging and pinging go hand in hand. Whenever you add new content to your blog, sites that keep track of content are notified so they can present the newest post of your blog on their website. This is a truly helpful feature to gain visitors to your blog.

Well, sayonara for now and wish you luck on heading off on blog adventures. Come back again, as I update the blog on Smart Web Center, I’ll be sharing more info.

Sharlee

For many years, Bob ran a website called “Site Tips and Tricks”, building up an a very large and valuable collection of web site know-how.  He has since moved on and closed down the website, but before he did, he granted permission for us to reprint his articles. Some of them are now a little dated, but they contain a tremendous amount of knowlege based on even more experience, and some of the articles contain real gems of knowledge that we thought should be made available to people.

To see all of the articles in the series, click on the Category: Site Tips and Tricks

Note: Bob McElwain ran his highly successful Sites Tips and Tricks website for many years.  When he closed the site to pursue other activities, he granted permission to reprint his articles.  Some are very outdated now, but there are so many gems of knowledge that we decided to publish the enitre series on Smart Web Center, just as they were originally published.

Many people have selective hearing. That is, they hear only what they are listening for. When such people tune in to the notion of getting rich on the Web, they can’t seem to hear anything else. They are deaf to the news of dot-com failures in mass. Deaf to the certain doom that lies at the end of any path claimed to be quick or easy. And deaf to any mention of how tough it is to succeed in business anywhere, online or offline.If you have fallen into this trap, there are only two options. Continue on your chosen path and fail. Or redefine what success means to you, then begin working to achieve it.  

Getting Rich Is Unlikely

It is no easier to become wealthy online than offline. The only advantage to beginning a business online, rather than offline, is in the lower startup costs. The rest of it is work, learning, then implementing what you learn. Which, of course, is more work.What are your chances of opening a new business in your home town and becoming a millionaire? Unless you have very special talents and skills, it’s unlikely. The chances of doing so through a website are no better.

Would Making A Living Suit You?

· Do you have what it takes to open a business on main street and earn a comfortable living?

· If you lack essential information, are you willing to take the time to hunt it up?

· If there are things you do not know, are you willing to learn them?

· If you lack needed skills, are you prepared to develop them?One who can answer a resounding, “Yes,” to the above questions, can succeed.Online or offline. Until you can shout this right out loud to your family, friends, neighbors, and even strangers on the street, any effort to build a successful website will break your heart. And waste a ton of your time. And more than a few bucks.

One Path

If you want to succeed on the Web, you must first come to grips with what you mean by success. If your definition can be simplified to making a good living with the opportunity to make more, then all is quite doable. And one of the best ways to start is to begin part time and grow your business as you learn. For a description of such a path that works, read my article:  “One Path to Online Success”.

Getting Real

Whether you have started a business or are still only thinking about doing so, you may find it informative to check out some successful sites. Successful, that is, according to the definition of their owners.

Common Elements

While the following sites may appear quite different from one another, they have much in common.

· Nobody is making a million bucks a year; this was not the goal. Rather they are making a living (their definition) and are in an excellent position to increase their income.

· The site designs are quite simple; very few fancy graphics are to be found.  

· Each site is well focused.

· Each site is loaded with content.

· Some face stern competition; others have carved their niche and conquered it.You will probably note ways in which each site can be improved. But this is true of any site, large or small. And it’s true of yours. And mine.

MoHotta.Com

Features hot peppers, sauces, and such. A great example of niche marketing. Not many are into hot in this fashion, but those who are search constantly for more and hotter. Note there are a few such people in your community. Every nursery stocks pepper seedlings in the spring, labeled, “HOT!” This site tapped into this wide, if thinly spread interest. Something impractical in even a major city, but easy to do on the Web.        

Note: Bob McElwain ran his highly successful Sites Tips and Tricks website for many years.  When he closed the site to pursue other activities, he granted permission to reprint his articles.  Some are very outdated now, but there are so many gems of knowledge that we decided to publish the enitre series on Smart Web Center, just as they were originally published.

 Well, maybe. But let’s define free. Finding anything on the Web takes time. Often it takes a lot of time. So free must somehow be related to how you value your time.

  It can take hours to find a good graphics site, then many more to shuffle through files often poorly organized in search of something useful. And generally what you find is free only for non-commercial use. There can be some pretty hefty requirements if used on a business site. One such site requires a full size banner ad at the top of your index page. This “price” is much too steep for most.

  Now suppose you do stumble upon something really neat, something that will add real zip to your site. The chances are others also liked it and are already using it on their site. If you use art your visitors commonly see, it will downgrade your site.

  More important, unless you cost your time at zero dollars per hour, this neat graphic you found was not really free after all.

  Alternatively, go to ArtToday. They have a public section you can explore. But the private section is the strength of this site. It is loaded with quality work. It costs $29/year, but you can use all you need. They require only a link on your site back to them. You need to sign in to use even the free section. They will not flood you with email, but they do send out some interesting offers in hopes you will begin paying. You might find one of these deals very attractive.

  It is the search engine on this site that is most important to busy site builders. Use it to save many hours looking at graphics you don’t need. Type in “happy kid” and you will likely find something you like.

  Since it costs $29 to access the complete library, what you find is not as likely to be as widely distributed as what you might find at a free site. And the search engine will save you time worth much more than the cost.

  However, the better approach is to go to an artist. This costs you zero hours, and the few dollars involved are well spent, for you will have original work that adds spice and sparkle to your site because it was specifically designed to do so.

  While the focus here was on obtaining good graphics, this argument holds true for all the needs of a webmaster. Hire an expert to do anything you can not easily do yourself. Save your time for important tasks, such as generating leads and closing sales.
 

Well, maybe. But let’s define free. Finding anything on the Web takes time. Often it takes a lot of time. So free must somehow be related to how you value your time.

  It can take hours to find a good graphics site, then many more to shuffle through files often poorly organized in search of something useful. And generally what you find is free only for non-commercial use. There can be some pretty hefty requirements if used on a business site. One such site requires a full size banner ad at the top of your index page. This “price” is much too steep for most.

  Now suppose you do stumble upon something really neat, something that will add real zip to your site. The chances are others also liked it and are already using it on their site. If you use art your visitors commonly see, it will downgrade your site.

  More important, unless you cost your time at zero dollars per hour, this neat graphic you found was not really free after all.

  Alternatively, go to ArtToday. They have a public section you can explore. But the private section is the strength of this site. It is loaded with quality work. It costs $29/year, but you can use all you need. They require only a link on your site back to them. You need to sign in to use even the free section. They will not flood you with email, but they do send out some interesting offers in hopes you will begin paying. You might find one of these deals very attractive.

  It is the search engine on this site that is most important to busy site builders. Use it to save many hours looking at graphics you don’t need. Type in “happy kid” and you will likely find something you like.

  Since it costs $29 to access the complete library, what you find is not as likely to be as widely distributed as what you might find at a free site. And the search engine will save you time worth much more than the cost.

  However, the better approach is to go to an artist. This costs you zero hours, and the few dollars involved are well spent, for you will have original work that adds spice and sparkle to your site because it was specifically designed to do so.

  While the focus here was on obtaining good graphics, this argument holds true for all the needs of a webmaster. Hire an expert to do anything you can not easily do yourself. Save your time for important tasks, such as generating leads and closing sales.

Note: Bob McElwain ran his highly successful Sites Tips and Tricks website for many years.  When he closed the site to pursue other activities, he granted permission to reprint his articles.  Some are very outdated now, but there are so many gems of knowledge that we decided to publish the enitre series on Smart Web Center, just as they were originally published.

Successful business people often hate change. The mere thought of making one frightens them. It flat scares some silly.

They know what they have, and are unwilling to take even modest risk for greater gain. Their fear is they’ll lose some of what they already have.

If you hold such a position, you are vulnerable to more aggressive companies. You may wake up to the fact that somebody is gnawing away at your customer base much too late to do anything about it. While this is true both off and online, a web based business can be devoured far more quickly than one offline.

What Is Required For Survival

If you want to continue to succeed, you must be one of the few who do the gnawing. You must continue to expand your customer base and increase your profits. While some growth can come from selling to people who had not previously considered your products, the easiest and most direct way to acquire new customers is to steal them from your competitors.

Then, of course, you must hold them. Which often amounts to building ever greater customer relationships that support them in every possible way.

Direct Versus Indirect Competitors

If you are selling power mowers, those who sell hand mowers are competitors, but only indirectly. You can push this further, and note those who offer gardening services also compete. While you need to keep an eye on innovations by indirect competitors, your major concern is those who compete directly.

Are Your Competitors Tracking You?

If you haven’t considered this, you may be about to be “eaten.” You must assume at least one or more of your competitors is tracking you closely, looking for ways to bring those tasty morsels that are your customers to their table. To win out, you must move more quickly and effectively than they are able to do. Else your business will be gobbled up a bite at a time until what remains is swallowed whole.

Is Polish Needed?

Never overlook your site. Continuously …

Examine pages to be certain each is doing its job.

Evaluate the entire site to be sure it is flawlessly accomplishing its purpose.

Check your CR (Conversion Ratio); be sure it’s at maximum, and holding.

Reconsider your methods of supporting customers to be sure no option has been overlooked or under utilized.

It’s easy to become so familiar with your site that you begin taking it for granted. Within your marketing plan, make certain you have the above and similar things clearly underlined. And that you regularly recheck all aspects of your site and business. Then …

Spy Routinely

Tracking your competition on the Web is so much easier than it is offline, it’s a wonder everyone isn’t doing it. Doing so will give you a distinct advantage over all who do not.

Use Alexa which is free. Among other things, it reports visits to a site by other Alexa users. While likely not representative of all visitors, the counts reported can be compared over time and changes noted. Clearly a surge in counts suggests an aggressive company is doing something right, and you need to discover what it is.

Track Link Popularity

Visit MarketLeap.Com Enter your URL and that of your competitors. You will see at a glance how many inbound links there are to each one. As above, an abrupt jump in links suggests the company is doing something you ought to know about.

Take a giant step forward by checking sites linked to your competitors and arrange a link swap with them as possible. If need be, create a directory of links as a *service* to your visitors. Note the emphasis here on benefiting your visitors, rather than your profits.

Put A Magnifying Glass On Their Sites

A casual look at a competitors site is of little value. The better plan is to visit weekly and examine it closely, seeking to detect all changes. Even something minor can give you an important clue of benefit.

Be Imaginative

The whole of this topic was not covered above. For example, subscribe to your competitor’s newsletters. Visit their forums regularly. There are a vast number of things you can check on.

Buy a product now and again. Or ask a friend to do so, if you’ve worn out your welcome. And somewhere in all this, get a handle on how they are handling complaints and returns. And their general level of customer support.

Continue to explore in every way possible. In the increasingly hyper-competitive web world, big fish swallow up little fish at an ever increasing rate. You must be the “biggest” to survive. Not the biggest company, just the best at what you do. Size matters hardly at all.

Thousands of small businesses use online auctions to: 

Get Rid of Excess Inventory

Online auctions offer the perfect place for small businesses to recoup the investment of an overstock of inventory. Depending on where items are listed in auction, a business can at least make some of the money back. If the presentation is good, they can even turn a profit. Online auctions can also be a great solution for moving older product models and dated styles.

Sell Specialty Items

For specialty storeowners that sell unusual or collectible items, slow days are always a problem and can be offset by selling at online action sites. Specialty item customers go online and actively seek these niche products and unusual items. The beauty of using online auctions to sell products is that overhead is non-existent and the response is immediate.

Expand Marketing Reach

There are already millions of Internet users, with many more coming online each year. Online auctions provide the opportunity for one to expand a local or regional client base into a worldwide clientele. If the item can be shipped (or even downloaded) it can be sold in an online auction.

Test-Market New Products

These auctions also provide the perfect testing ground for businesses to find out if products they want to sell will be successful, and an excellent way to test the pricing of a product. Even for individuals that have only one thing to sell, they will find that someone is looking for it at the popular online auction sites.

Take Advantage of Low Overhead

Selling over the Internet is much more cost-effective than traditional sales methods, which require significant overhead for salespeople, catalogs, retail store space, leases, payroll taxes, health insurance, and more. The fees for selling products in online auctions are minimal and very affordable for all types of businesses.

Make Sales 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week

Bidders have the opportunity to participate in auctions 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year, regardless of where they are located. Time and distance become irrelevant.

Bring Visitors To An Existing Website

Many website owners sell products on eBay auctions just to get attention and traffic to their websites. This can be a very effective and inexpensive marketing tool for website owners.

An Easy and Inexpensive Solution for Small Businesses

Taking advantage of online auctions does not require a web site, although most small businesses use a combination of auction site listings plus a website that features their full range of products and services.

There is no need to generate traffic with expensive advertising. This has already been created at the major online auction sites.

An effective auction listing is really the only requirement, and the fees are extremely affordable. 
 

Every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, millions of people from all over the world go shopping at online auctions. This is not an exaggeration - eBay, with a 76% share of the auction site market, reports 42.7 million users and a growth factor of 100% per year!

What are these auction buyers looking for?

A Harris Interactive Poll conducted on 2,196 people found that online auctions appeal to people mainly because they are looking for:

- bargains (43 percent)
- hard to find items (23 percent)
- collectibles (21 percent)

Not only that, 83% have actually bought something!

What are they buying?

They buy items in all sorts of categories, but not just anything sells. So targeted marketing has become crucial, especially since auctions have become a very serious business for many companies. And its not just sales at stake these days. More and more companies are using auctions to generate additional traffic to their websites and to make additional offers.

Here’s the bottom line:

If you have what online auction buyers want and they can find your listing, you will get bids and you will get sales. The real task is figuring out just what it is they want. Beanie babies were hot years ago, but now you can’t give them away. But there are some items that seem to always sell well, year after year. If you can work out what those items are, you can get off to a running start.

From a marketing viewpoint, online auctions are ideal:

The buyers are drawn to the auction sites by the tremendous number and variety of items available on the auction sites, so the problem of how to attract buyers is already solved. They are using the traffic generated by the auction site and the customers arrive in a receptive frame of mind. They like the auctions, looking at pictures and they enjoy the competitive bidding process.

So how do you cash in on this?

By using targeted online auction strategies that take full advantage of the buying habits and patterns of online auction buyers and the built-in categories found on the auction sites.

eBay, the auction site giant, boasts 3,000 categories of auction items! Their whole effort is to make it fast and easy for bidders to find the items they are looking for, to zero in on their targeted items. Essentially, these buyers self target. Most businesses have to find their buyers. At online auction sites the buyers find you.
 

Offering items in online auctions is easy:

You do not have to have a website, though serious auction sellers do have websites. You do not need to generate traffic with expensive advertising. It has already been created at the major online auction sites. Registration and set up is fast and easy. Fees for listings are extremely affordable. This is essentially instant e-commerce without all the headaches.

At its most basic level, the formula for selling at online auctions is simple:

- Offer something buyers want, specifically. You must have a specific target and product in mind, that you know sells
well.

- Categorize and list it effectively

- Make a compelling listing

The setup is easy, the costs are low and the formula is simple. The problem is that it is so simple that there are literally millions of sellers each trying to sell to their target buyers.

So you need every advantage you can get so you can:

- Offer products that consistently attract buyers.

- Make your auctions stand out from all the others.

- Effectively position and list your own products.

- Price items to sell well and profitably.

- Use multiple income streams and product lines to multiply your sales and marketing efforts.

- Capitalize on the huge numbers of people who look at your listings and gain exposure for other products and income
streams.

Targeted online auctions give you these advantages.

There are many auction resource sites you can visit to learn more about online auctions and how they can provide you with multiple income streams and a boost to your online marketing efforts.

Learn tips for selecting a good business domain name, plus tips on domain names for businesses in this article from our domain name series.

Selecting a Domain Name for Your Existing Business

For established businesses, the usual first choice would be to use your business name as your domain name. Classic examples are The Washington Post, which uses the domain name http://www.washingtonpost.com/ or Bank of America with http://www.bankofamerica.com/.

The problem is that your name may be in use in another county or state or even in another country, and they may have already registered the domain name, so you may have to come up with alternatives.

Here are some alternative domain name ideas:

If your business focuses on a particular line of products, you could add the product to your business name. As an example, an Italian restaurant named Mario’s might register the domain name http://www.mariositalian.com/.

Acronyms are also a candidate for domain names. As an example, Powers Repair Services could become prservices.com, prs.com or other catchy variations.

On the web, prefixes or suffixesare often used to create useful and memorable domain names:

Examples of prefixes:

123marios.com
eatmarios.com
cybermarios.com

Examples of suffixes:

mariosonline.com
mariosontheweb.com
mariosnet.com

Some businesses solve the online domain name problem by using their business slogan. A good example of a very successful business that has done this is Diamonds International. By the time they got around to building their online division, their name had already been registered, so they named their website on their slogan, which is “Welcome to Our World”. You can see how they use the company name and the slogan at their site at http://www.welcometoourworld.com/. Its quite effective as the domain name is easy for their customers to remember.

Another time honored solution is to create a catchy domain name that works well with your company’s marketing strategy. As an example, lets say your specialty is hand-made gold jewelry imports. Perhaps goldenhandjewelry.com would be a candidate. On your site, you would say something like GoldenHandJewlery.com, an online division of Your Company Name.

Selecting Good Domain Names:

One of the first choices you will have to make is whether or not to register your primary domain name as a .com. Since your customers are most familiar with .com and are more likely to remember it and type it in when they are looking for you, it is probably wise to register your primary domain name as a .com even if it means you will have to use an alternative naming scheme for your web site. The exception to this is non-profit organizations, which should use .org, networking companies such as Internet service providers, which should use .net and accredited educational institutions which should use .edu.

Businesses in other countries may find that it is preferable to use a country specific domain name which is familiar and memorable to the customers in their country. As an example, .co.uk is the country specific version of .com in the United Kingdom.

The problem with using .biz, .info and other alternatives to .com or the country specific version of dot com is that the name you choose is probably already registered. This may not be good for your business, as your customers are very likely to type in your domain name with the .com extension and will end up at another company’s site. This will be particularly bad if they are a competitor!

If you find that your company name is registered as a .com, you might consider trying to buy it from the current owner. You can also check and see when the name expires and try to acquire it if the current owner fails to renew it. If you own the trademark for the name, you should check with your legal counsel to see if you can enforce your trademark and acquire your name.

Try to keep the length of your domain name short, memorable and easy to spell. A length of between 5 and 15 characters is preferable, although if a name is descriptive and memorable, longer will work just fine. As an example, montrosejewelryonline.com is 21 characters long but it is easy to remember and easy to spell so it will probably work very well.

When choosing a domain name, keep in mind that you will want to put your domain name on your business stationary, business cards, perhaps use it on radio and T.V. ads and on your existing marketing materials. Will it fit? Does it look good in print? Can you verbalize it easily? Can you design an effective logo for the web site and for your company print materials with it? The other use of a domain name will be for your company email address. Does it work well as an email address?

The question often comes up as to whether to use dashes (marios-restaurant.com) or underscores (marios_restaurant.com) in an domain name. Of the two, the dash is the easiest to verbalize. The dash is preferable. Compare “Our domain name is marios dash restaurant dot com to “Our domain name is marios underscore restaurant dot com”. Which one works best if you have to tell the person the name over the phone or on a radio ad?

Numbers in a domain name can be quite problematic when verbalized. Lets take shop4jewelry.com as an example. In print its quite effective. Verbalized, it is a nightmare. You have to say something like “our domain name is shop 4 jewelry dot com” and the user will immediately think it could be shopforjewelry.com. To clarify you will have to say shop 4 jewelry dot com - that’s the number 4 not the word for. A solution to this is to register both shop4jewelry.com and shopforjewelry.com and have both names go to your website.

Strictly Online Businesses:

If you do not have an established business and you plan to market and sell primarily on the Internet, here are some points to consider:

Consider using generic type domain names that are short, catchy, and very easy to remember or brand. Generic examples are pricewatch.com, etrade.com, buy.com. Brand examples are google.com, amazon.com, overture.com to name a few.

With generic type names, try to choose words that are easy to spell that are related to your business. As an example, a wedding favors retailer might choose weddingfavorsplus.com. In this case you are looking for words or terms that your potential customers might think of to find your products or services.

For brand based names, you can use pretty much anything - the only question is, does it make sense for your business and can you brand it? As an example, amazon.com does not have anything to do with books, but it does imply huge, its easy to spell and remember and it has an added advantagle of starting with the letter “a” which will cause it to come to to top of any alphabetized lists of sites. Its a really great name and they have effectively branded it on the Internet and on many other promotional and marketing channels as well.

About the Author: Sharlee Plett is the webmaster of smartwebcenter.com. A small business and web developer, her expertise includes web design, database programming and small business administration. Article Copyright © Sharlee Plett, provided courtesy of smartwebcenter.com. Visit http://www.smartwebcenter.com/ for more articles, ebooks and ebook excerpts.

You may reprint this article without alteration along as you include this info box and the links are active. 

The domain name system is the backbone of the Internet, providing domain names for each web site address on the web. This article fexplains how the domain name system works in simple language.

The Internet is made up of millions of computers all over the world that are connected together. Each of one these computers has its own set of numeric addresses, called Internet Provider or IP addresses. Particular file locations on particular machines (domains) are identified by their IP number.

An IP address is made up of a series of numbers that are grouped into four blocks of numbers like this: 169.71.200.243. These numbers are assigned by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) when you sign up for web hosting.

You may be assigned your own number or your ISP may provide you with a number that you will share with many other websites. If you have your own IP number, you have what is called a static IP address. If you share an IP address with other websites, you have what is called a virtual address. There’s more to it than this, but for the purposes of this article, that’s all you need to know.

IP numbers were a workable addressing system when the Internet was small. Back then, everyone had a static IP address. But over the years, the Internet has grown astronomically and and with it the demand for IP addresses. To conserve IP addresses, virtual addresses came into use and the domain name system was created.

IP addresses were problematic from the beginning because whenever you switched to a new host you were assigned a new IP address. You had to let everyone know your new IP address so they could find you again.

The domain name system (DNS) solved both problems - the address changes and the huge growth of the Internet. The concept is simple - instead of a numeric address for your web site (domain), you use a domain name such as http://www.somesite.com/. The domain name system was created to keep track of domain names and their current IP address.

With the domain name system, when you type in http://www.somesite.com/ in your browser, the domain name system is accessed and the domain name is found in its files. The domain name system passes the current IP address to your computer. With the current IP address, you can locate and access the computer that website is hosted on.

The domain name system has some great advantages - your web site’s domain name stays the same no matter what IP number it currently has, it is a great deal easier for people to remember a name and the demand for IP numbers is greatly reduced by using virtual systems based on domain names.

You can try out the domain name system using yahoo.com as an example:

First type in http://www.yahoo.com/ and you’ll be directed to Yahoo.
Then type in Yahoo’s static IP address, which is 216.109.117.204.

Both of these should take you to Yahoo.com

Note: Once in a while Yahoo’s IP address changes, so if the IP address above doesn’t take you to Yahoo, you can always use a DNS lookup tool to find out what Yahoo’s current IP address is. Here is a free online tool you can use: http://www.zoneedit.com/lookup.html.

There is a great deal more to this technically (and that’s an understatement!) but hopefully this will give you a good basic understanding of the domain name system.

About the Author: Sharlee Plett is the webmaster of smartwebcentre.com. A small business and web developer, her expertise includes database programming, web design & develop and accounting.   Article copyright © Sharlee Plett, provided courtesy of smartwebcenter.com.   Visit http://www.smartwebcenter.com/ for more articles, ebooks and ebook excerpts.

You may reprint this article without alteration along as you include this info box and the links are active.

Note: Bob McElwain ran his highly successful Sites Tips and Tricks website for many years.  When he closed the site to pursue other activities, he granted permission to reprint his articles.  Some are very outdated now, but there are so many gems of knowledge that we decided to publish the enitre series on Smart Web Center, just as they were originally published.

On the Services page on my site I ask, “Want a second opinion?” I offer to give one for free regarding a proposed change in your site. Several of my friends issued dire warnings about this offer. They were wrong. It works very, very well.

At this writing, the page and this offer have been up for almost a month. I have answered some 30 questions. It takes about 10 to 15 minutes for each. So call it 5-6 hours. A waste of time? No way.

I have 30 new potential clients, unless I discount the two that did not get back with a thank you. I have two brand new clients who will pay me monthly to support their site. I sold services to two others, who may yet convert to my monthly service. And another half a dozen I am still cultivating seem interested.

Contrary to the predictions of my friends, I have not yet received an unreasonable question. All have been “I’m stuck” bits in which the questioner really needed help. All have been uniformly good people, serious minded, and working hard to grow their site. Talk about targeting your market. Hey, these are my kind of people!

My pitch to you? Do all you can to solicit questions you can easily answer. After answering, always go a bit further. For example, if you are visiting a web site, begin by saying something neat about it, and very gently suggest a couple of things that might help. In one case, I suggested moving a graphic down the page and putting explosive grabber text up top of the home page that folks can be reading as the graphic loads. The thank-you reply for going the extra distance can be a bit overwhelming.

The reason my friends were wrong in their prediction I would be flooded with requests is that people in general are afraid to ask questions. As we look around at our peers, we say, “Hey, how can that be so? I don’t see anybody afraid of anything in this business.” This may be true of your peers, because like yourself they are out-going, assertive types. Most people are not.

Over my years of teaching mathematics and computer science in secondary schools, I found one of the toughest tasks was to get a youngster to ask a question so I could figure where he or she was hung up. I worked at it, and I suspect I was better at it than most. But looking back, I suspect over half the youngsters in my classes *never* asked a question. Here’s the why of it.

To ask a question opens you up, exposes you to the person you are speaking to. You have given them something about yourself that you may not really want to share. And you have opened the door to laughter, ridicule and scorn. Even rejection, if there is no reply.

Okay, so I’m talking about high school kids. They’re pretty much like people, I think. I know that in my contacts with wannabe and newbie webmasters, most are loaded with fears of this sort. Face it. Getting started on the Web is a scary bit!

No, there is no risk in offering to answer questions. I am going to go further to the point of almost begging for them. I want everything on my site to be as warm and welcoming as I can make it, all in hopes of more questions.

Given a question, of course, I always remind myself of the fears overcome in asking it, the courage, if you will, it took to hit the Send button. My response is always positive, supportive, and upbeat. Worst case something like: Hey, it’s not all that bad. Sure, there’s room for improvement, but you’re really, really close. Then I add an idea that helps. Then a couple more.

It works. Try it and prove me wrong!