If you're a frequent (or even repeat) visitor then you may have noticed a slight change. That's right, no more advertising on the site. In the past, I thought it would be a good idea to run Google Adsense, in addition to a couple of affiliate programs. The thinking went something like this: "I get lots of traffic to my site. Most people don't mind seeing some advertising, and it might make me a bit of extra money." Well, frankly I've always been uncomfortable with it, and I recently decided to get rid of the advertising completely. The reason that I decided to stop advertising on my blog is trust. That's right, trust. My blog is my social currency; I use this forum to help demonstrate my skill to potential clients and to establish myself as an "expert" in the field of technology. Running cheap ads on the same site just cheapens it, and gives potential clients that little bit of creepiness that comes from knowing I'm trying to make money off them. I make money by selling my skills, expertise & experience in the field of web development. I don't need to run advertising alongside that. If anything it justs waters down my message, and causes my main form of advertisement (my website) to lose focus. In the end, I want potential clients (and everyone else) to feel good about visiting my website. I want them to get my message, and understand what Hibbitts Consulting is all about. I certainly don't want to give them the impression that I'm trying to use them for advertising revenue.

Now, I still own other websites where advertising is more appropriate. I haven't sworn off advertising, and I may still review & recommend services & product that I really believe in, but I will not add confusion to MY marketing message by advertising on my own website.

Of course, I lied. There aren't really five reasons why I stopped running ads. I figure the one big reason counts for as much as five small reasons.

For the upcoming Family Guy special, you won't see any commercials. However, that doesn't mean that you won't be bombarded with advertisements. It just means that the advertisements will be woven into the show itself. This is not a new concept, in fact this is a retrograde step to the early days of television, when Lucy and Ricky would break the fourth wall to tell their viewers about Ovaltine or Lucky Strike cigarrettes. However, given Family Guy's brand of irreverent humor, I'm afraid that this is not going to work. As you can see from this preview, it's just not funny.



Microsoft seems to have forgotten a fairly basic rule of advertising: Tailor the message to your viewers. Of course, I may be wrong and the special may make comedy history, but if it doesn't, then it will serve as a reminder to all businesses. Make sure your advertisements reach your target market.

A recent study by the UK's Office of Fair Trading, the British counterpart to the US's Federal Trade Commission, found that over 30% of online shoppers were afraid to make purchases online. Far and away the biggest reason for this fear was the fear of "identity theft" or of credit card fraud. That's a pretty frightening statistic, but it does shed some light on two major points about your small business website. The first point is that your website has to gain and keep the trust of your potential customers. Secondly, your pool of potential customers just increased by 30%. That's right, if you can implement a few specific measures to ensure that potential customers see your website as being trustworthy, then that 30% of the population is available to you.
There are a few specific things that you or your web developer can do to ensure that your website is trustworthy. The very first thing is to make sure that your website clearly displays several contact methods. If you have a business phone, make sure that it's clearly displayed somewhere on your site, along with multiple email addresses and your physical address. Just knowing that a real person is just a phone call away, can have a huge impact on how much users will trust your website. Second, take the time to create and publish a privacy policy. Granted it's generally a dry, boring document, but your customers will feel better knowing that you have an official policy for dealing with their personal information. And while we're on that subject, always hold your customer's information in the highest confidence. One slip can destroy your online business, so be careful. And finally, publicize your commitment to security. If you're a member of the Better Business Bureau, then place their badge on your website, if your website uses antivirus or other security software to protect your customer's information, then make sure that your customers know that. The perception of security is almost as important as the security measures themselves, at least from a marketing perspective. Once your customers know about the security measures that you have taken, they will feel better about giving you their credit card information, or their email address, or their phone number, and you will see more visitors turning into customers.

Linkbait, inflammatory titles notwithstanding, I've seen a lot of web designers, developers & PR firms advertising themselves as "Social Media experts". One of my main goals, both in business and personally, is to help the average person understand and use technology more effectively, and Social Media is a part of that, however, Social Media is just too new and evolving too rapidly for there to be any real "experts" out there. So before you go and spend any of your hard earned revenue on a "Twitter consultant", a "Facebook Integrator" or a "MySpace enabler", there are some things that you should understand.

Setting Goals for small business websites.

When I sit down with a new client, the first thing that I ask is “What do you want to accomplish with this website?” Normally, I get a blank stare, followed by “Well, we just need a website, everybody needs a website, right?” or “My competitors have one, so I should too.”

What most small business owners don't realize is that your website is a resource, a tangible asset much like a piece of capital equipment. As such, it should provide you with a real, measurable Return On Investment. With that perspective, it becomes easier to understand why you need to set achievable goals for your website. By setting goals, you give yourself a target that you can measure your success against. The bottom line for any website should be the question “How has my website helped grow my business today?”

You may have noticed the new badge over on the sidebar. That is hibbittsconsulting.com's web marketing score as calculated by HubSpot's Website Grader. From the site: "Website Grader is a free SEO tool that measures the marketing effectiveness of a website. It provides a score that incorporates things like website traffic, SEO, social popularity and other technical factors. It also provides some basic advice on how the website can be improved from a marketing perspective."

So, basically what the badge says is that hibbittsconsulting.com ranks in the top 26% of all websites on the internet in terms of its marketing effectiveness. That's right, out of the more than 182 billion websites on the internet¹, hibbittsconsulting.com is better at gaining access to potential new customers than 74% of them.

It takes a lot of skill, imagination & hard work to build a website that can reach out to new clients, and generate new customers. But that's what you'll get when you contact me to help you manage your internet marketing efforts.

Here's to new customers!


¹Based on the October 2008 Netcraft Web Server Survey: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2008/10/29/october_2008_web_server_survey.html