JEM Consulting - Help For Self Employed and Small Business Web Site Owners

Successful Steps To Building A WEB Site

My last blog article featured a video from Andrew Patricio of BizLaunch. I had the pleasure to register, watch and contribute to his Webinar earlier this afternoon. It was called: “9 Steps to Building a Successful Website for Small Business.” I want to let you know I really enjoyed his frankness and candor. I suggest anyone who does not agree with my philosophy register for this seminar. It will validate what I try to convey to you.

Patricio’s nine steps covered a range of topics, which included – Basic Design Functions, Research, ask Action Steps from your visitors, Building Trust, Writing Copy, Developing a Newsletter, SEO, Link Building and lastly, Monitor your Visitors.

My assessment of the seminar is as follows:

• I liked his pitch for simplicity, ease of navigation, getting your message across, using testimonials, etc.
• I loved that he talked about visiting other WEB sites and getting ideas as to what you like and dislike (sound familiar?).
• I disagree with some of the minor points he presented.
• Some things were omitted that should have been there.
• I feel other points fell short of conveying the total picture.
• The information was inundating and jargon heavy (as I frequently am).
• The topics should be broken into bite sized segments.

My biggest disagreement concerned a lack of emphasis on business planning. As anyone of you who has ever heard me speak knows, setting goals is the the first criteria I demand from anyone attempting to start a WEB site. This may have been assumed here and certainly should have been more than lightly touched upon as a sub slide in the first step. If referred to in greater depth in another seminar, that should have been mentioned.

As you all know, I disagree with a newsletter being more important than a blog. I also disagree with developing e-mail marketing, which is a form of outbound marketing. Yet he promoted a book about Inbound Marketing. He also made no mention of local directory listing which is very important in the current scheme. And, I do not encourage all businesses to participate in LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Each has a place and should be used if your customers ‘hang out’ there. Each should be considered, of course.

As an aside, I was a little disappointed in as much as he promised to send the PowerPoint presentation and notes to anyone who requested it. What I did receive, very timely I might add since I immediately got off an email following the seminar, was a pdf version of the PowerPoint.

But all in all I applaud the effort to communicate the essence to aspiring WEB site owners. Bravo!

As always, your comments and questions are appreciated. Agree or disagree, it is your right.