The glory of being an independent consultant or freelance business owner is that we do have the autonomy (in most cases) to run our business as we choose.  However, I could be wrong here, but I would think that anyone who is attempting to earn an income using the Internet would want to heed some advice from those who have gone before and paved the way.

As a public service to those who wish to increase their web results, I thought it would be prudent to list some website pet peeves (read: if you’re doing these things – STOP!)

1. Pick a font and stick with it.  You don’t need a multitude of text colors and fonts all on the same page.  Please stop doing that.
2. All centered text.  Screams amateur.  Please stop doing that.

I know there are many other website pet peeves.  Let’s compile a list.  Leave a comment and tell us what you don’t like to see on a website.

Forced Registration

Sites use this tactic to get visitor’s contact information before letting them see the good stuff. While its true that building a list is an important part of a profitable online business, forcing visitors to give their information is counter intuitive to the idea of  “opt in”. Sure they give their information, but they did it to see the next page, not to continue to get emails from you. Many visitors (myself included) often simply leave a page if I have to give my email before seeing the content. Without knowing what the site has in store, how does a person know if they want email.

The reality is many people get annoyed when content is held for ransom. Instead put the list sign up form on your information page where visitors can sign up after they see your great content. If you’re going to lead with a registration page, at the very least give an option not register and yet still be able to access the information. Better to have a visitor and not get the email, than to turn a visitor away annoyed…and still not have the email.

Difficult Site Navigation

I’m sometimes surprised at how hard it can be navigate some websites. The links are hard to find or don’t make sense. One problem is poor planning of the site. Another issue is that I think some people forget that search engines index many pages of a site, so visitors may enter the site from a page other than the home page. No matter what page a visitors enters the site on, they need to be able to get to all other pages of the site. One way to really help visitors out is to have a clear navigation on each page. Even better have a site map. It makes it easy for visitors to find what they want, and search engines love them.

No or Hard to Find Contact Information

I was at a blog this morning and wanted to contact the owner about interviewing her for my podcast. There were two sources of navigation along the top, none of which said “contact”. I looked along the sidebar and the footer. No contact link. I clicked on the “About” page and found a contact form. So the information was there, but it took time to find it. Some you may be saying it should be obvious to look on the About page. But if you want to make money online, don’t make your visitors have to work to get what they want on your site. Not all visitors are willing to take the time to search your site especially when there are millions of other sites offering the same information and who have the contact info displayed on every page.

I think some people hide their contact information because they don’t want to be inundated with questions from visitors. But those visitors have money and a little contact can convince them to stay with you instead of moving on to the next site. Also potential customers are not the only ones who use the contact information.  I have had media contact me through my website for interviews that have led to great  PR.

When I first started Work-At-Home Success in 1998, there weren’t very many other work-at-home websites on the net. In fact, I can only think of one other. I could get away with a hard to use site. But today there are thousands of sites and more coming online everyday. People are looking for information…information they can trust. So having a site that is easy to enter and use is crucial. And because people need to know there is a real person behind the scenes, making it easy for them to provide feedback, ask questions, and yes, even complain, is also important.

Sparkplugging is continuing our tradition called ‘Spark an Idea Thursday’. Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

This week we’re Sparking an Idea About Following Your Gut

This is very timely for me.  Recently my gut took me on quite a journey.  Below is the Reader’s Digest version.

I had an overwhelming urge to contact a fellow WAHM about one of her websites.  I asked her if she had ever considered selling it, because if so, I would be interested in discussing the possibly ownership of it.  I had never approached anyone about such a transaction like that but my gut kept telling me to ask.

Turns out the owner actually had considered it but didn’t take any action on it.  She went on to say that she had actually at one point considered that I would be a good candidate to take it over.  I did what I thought was much research, sought counsel from a confidant and began the negotiation.  A short time later I was the new owner.

However it didn’t take very long before I started to feel an overwhelming sense of buyer’s remorse.  Again I sought counsel about the situation. At first I thought it was just fears of taking on something new and challenging.  We’ve all felt that way at one time or another, haven’t we?

But my gut kept telling me to HALT. Then I was reminded of a nugget someone once told me and that was to never make a decision if you’re HALT – Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired.  So I did a quick inventory. I wasn’t hungry; had nothing to be angry over; I’m alone but that doesn’t make me lonely; and as for tired, well I have Idiopathic Hypersomnia, so I’m always tired, but that was the norm.  Still my gut kept telling me that I had made the wrong decision.

That was hard for me to accept because it seemed so serendipitous that I contacted the WAHM out of the blue and the transaction went very smoothly. Yet when I took an honest look at the situation, I had to admit that I was in way over my head.  My current knowledge, skills and abilities did not come close to that of what would be required to successfully pull off the new venture.

I ended up finding a new home, a very good home for the site and got out from under it and I’m back headed in a forward direction, no longer stuck in the quagmire.

What Went Wrong:  I definitely thought I took all the necessary precautions to thoroughly investigate whether or not there was water in the pool before I jumped in.  I had the peace that I require before making any major decisions and it all fell together well.  The flaw is that I did not ask enough questions as to what would be required.  Had I done so, I would have realized early on that it wasn’t a good match.

What Went Right: I followed my gut by listening to the not so gentle nudges I was feeling that something was awry.  I also followed my instincts and got out before too much time or money was wasted.  We salvaged this misfit, and now the previous owner, the new owner and I are all delighted in the results.

Speaking of results – as a result of this crazy gut journey, something wonderful developed.  Actually it’s still in the development process, but I assure you it’s a good fit and it likely would not have come to fruition had I not had the little experience as described above.  Stay tuned … I’ll let you in on it soon.

I get email often from people who are putting the advice of work-at-home experts to use, but aren’t finding the success. I can relate to these emails filled with frustration because I was there too…in fact, sometimes I’m still there.

If you’re struggling to find the right work-at-home option or to make it work, here are some tips to help pull you through:

1) Have realistic expectations: We live in a a society focused on instant gratification, but the odds of deciding to work at home today and actually making money at it tomorrow are slim. Depending on what you choose to do, it can take 6 months to 2 years to create a work-at-home income. Not only do you need to be realistic about the time frame in reaching work-at-home success, but you also need to choose realistic methods. People don’t pay the mortgage doing surveys or reading email, neither do they simply sign up for something and make money. Working at home takes work. Lots of it!

2) Do your research: The best way to develop a realistic expectation related to working at home is to educate yourself about telecommuting and home business. Research will teach you what it takes and how long it takes to really work at home, help you avoid scams, and keep you focused on the activities that make money.

3) Look for opportunities that fit your skills and interests: Too many people look for the fast, quick buck and end up wasting time and money as these opportunities almost always turn out to be scams or deceptive schemes. Instead, make a list of all your skills, experiences, interests and hobbies, and search for jobs or home business ideas that fit what you know how to do. You’re more likely to be successful pursuing your passion than the money.

4) Evaluate your efforts: If you aren’t getting results from a job search, have someone look over your resume, and make sure you are qualified to do the job. If you are trying to build a home business, evaluate your marketing methods to see what’s not working.  I’m told that airline pilots are off target more times than not. Its the constant evaluation and tweaking that keeps on the right path and gets them where they want to go. The same is true in working at home. Evaluate and make changes as needed to reach your goal.

5) Keep on keeping on: I haven’t met anyone that hasn’t spent a great deal of time and effort to work at home. The one thing that separates them from others who aren’t successful is that they never gave up. They kept on learning about working at home, searching and applying for the right opportunities, and evaluating their efforts until they finally reach their goal.

6) Know that frustration is part of the process. As I right this, I’m in the middle of trying to figure out the best course of action to make up for a loss I’m about to take on one of my income streams. I hate that! I like it best when everything is going to plan. But life isn’t like that. Bad things happen. Frustration and disappointment are a part of life and a part of working at home.

7) Keep your eyes on the prize! Why do you want to work at home? To be with the kids? To have financial security? When things get tough, you need to remember the whole reason you started your journey in the first place. Your “why” for working at home is the fuel that drives you to success.

There is a saying about the only certainties in life are taxes and death. In the work-at-home world, there are some certainties as well and those are that you’ll be frustrated and disappointed. But these are temporary if you are able to manage the difficult times and forge ahead towards your goal.

Sparkplugging is continuing our tradition called ‘Spark an Idea Thursday’. Each week we’ll be sharing some great ideas for a topic of interest to our readers. We invite you to grab our image and carry the tradition through to your own blog! If you do, please link back to this post so we know where you were inspired!

Up until a year and a half ago I always bought Toshiba laptops. You’d think that after owning two and having a positive experience them I’d have stuck with Toshiba. But when it came time to replace my last computer, I ended up buying an HP. Like the Toshiba the HP has functioned as expected. But not long after I bought the HP I had an issue that required tech help. The initial call went like any other tech call and ended with the suggestion that I do a re-format (I accidentally downloaded something bad). Two days later I got a call from the very same tech support person that had helped me. She called me! She asked if the reset went well or if I needed more help. Wow!

The point of this story is that I was happy with the Toshiba and the HP computers. Both worked as expected. But then HP did something Toshiba never did. It wow-ed me by offering something more than I’d expected. It called me back to make sure my issue was resolved.

When it comes time to replace my HP, I’m more likely to stay with HP because of the extra step they took to follow up with me. Had it not done that, I could have stayed with HP, gone back to Toshiba or chosen a different brand.  It shows that simply being good and providing what’s promised, isn’t enough to insure customer loyalty. Instead, consumers today are more likely to stick with you if you can wow them.

How can you create wow and set your business apart from others?

1. Offer more than what you promise. Its like the baker who throws in the extra pastry to make 13 instead of the even 12. For the customer its unexpected and appreciated. It creates a situation in which the next time the customer needs something that they think of you because you offer more.

2. Be willing to go the extra mile. Like HP, taking the one extra step to insure your customers are happy with your product or service will create that wow experience. This can be done in a variety of ways such as offering more than promised (#1).  It can also include helping customers find the right resource if you’re unable to help them.

3. Have stellar customer service. I believe customer service should be a part of a business’ marketing plan. Nothing can hurt your business faster than poor customer service. Wow customer service should have customers feeling like your company really cares about them, sort of like how HP made me feel.

With so much competition for business, the key to success is to have your customers walk away thinking WOW. The wow factor can build your business through the two best marketing efforts there are: 1) customer loyalty and 2) word-of mouth referrals.

In continuing with our discussion about company sponsored replicated websites, while we previously discussed what not to do, it’s equally as important to talk about important factors to include on your direct sales corporate, replicated website.

One could read these seven success factors below and consider them common sense.  Yet a scan of many consultant websites suggest that indeed they are often overlooked areas.

1. Contact information.  Both email and telephone number should be included and easily visible.  If someone has to hunt you down, you’ve lost a customer.
2. Last name.  I get being cautious with providing too much personal information on the Internet. However if you are running a business and expect people to purchase your products or book a party, it’ll build your credibility and likelihood of making a sale or booking  if your full name is included on your website.  Who would you feel more comfortable doing business with?  Sue’s Candle Shop or Gloria Realname?  If you’re too cutesy or anonymous, you’ve lost a customer.
3. K.I.S.S. (Keep it Short and Sweet; Keep it Sharp and Simple, etc. you get the picture).  List monthly specials, a product benefit, and a call to action (order, call, contact).  If visitors have too many paragraphs to weed through, you’ve lost a customer.
4. Proofread.  It’s difficult to proof your own work.  Yet if your text has typos and errors, customers will tend to think that you’ll pay as little attention their order as you do to your web text … and you’ve lost a customer.
5. Left justify your text.  All centered text screams ‘amateur’.  Left justified is much more professional.
6. Use the same font/colors.  Formatting with limited bolding is a good idea; but use of multiple fonts and colors also looks unprofessional.
7. Proper use of Upper and lower case lettering. USING ALL CAPS is the equivalent of screaming at your customers.

Follow these seven simple success factors and you’ll see your online image and reputation (and hopefully sales & bookings) increase favorably.

The keyword here is unique.  Consultants should strive to set themselves apart from the thousands of other consultant websites.  The professionalism of the customization could also determine if you get any web orders.  Avoid these seven common mistakes to get the most benefit from your replicated website.

1.    Loud Music – This should be a given yet I’ve clicked on many websites that automatically start playing. You may like country or hip hop, but will all of your site visitors? Or will they instantly click off?  You also may be infringing on copyright and royalty issues by playing music of an artist without permission.

2.    Duplicating text that’s already available on the site.  Your replicated site likely already has a link about business opportunity or product information.  No need to regurgitate the same info on that valuable piece of real estate (the one page that you can customize).

3.   Too much personal information. This can be a balancing act.  Your personal testimony about why you joined the company or how the products have helped you can be compelling.  But information about you being the PTA secretary or a soccer mom isn’t going to enhance the buying experience.

4.   Lack of information – “Welcome to my site, please look around” will only invite people to instantly click off.  Catch their attention early and give them a reason to stay.

5.    Web counters.  They look cheesy and don’t mean diddly.  You can set the counter to start at any number – so over inflated site visits or conversely, teeny tiny numbers that show few have visited won’t help.  Instead use Google Analytics or StatCounter or any of the others that are coded into your site and only you have access to data.  Use the data to help you determine if your marketing campaigns are working and from where traffic is generated. (If you didn’t understand that last part, then a web counter isn’t something you need at this stage in your career).

6.    Amateur web design.  Many of the replicated sites now allow you to add html to pretty-up your site.  If you don’t know what you’re doing, hire someone or don’t do it.  I’ve seen far too many who attempt to merely “cut and paste the code that corporate gave us” only to skew their entire alignment or template…and they just leave it like that.  Don’t do that.

7.    Too much information.  Remembers it’s an introduction page.  You just want to encourage visitors to click on links and come inside – preferably to request more info, to sign up or to purchase.  Listing paragraph after paragraph and paragraph isn’t benefiting anyone and your visitors won’t stick around long enough to read all that anyway.

Now that you know what not to do, stick around for another post on what to do.  If you’ve fallen victim to any of these mistakes, fear not, just go change your site … posthaste!

He said he checks this website daily.  Since learning of its existence, I too use this resource daily. I’m talking about http://www.refdesk.com

Don’t let the less than-cosmetically-appealing appearance fool you. Refdesk is a free and family friendly web site that indexes and reviews quality, credible, and current web-based reference resources.  It is a must-bookmark for any business owner.

This site is so loaded with information I cannot even begin to describe its multitude of uses. My intent is not to sell you on the website, it does that quite well on its own. Rather my intention is merely to introduce you to this wonderful website.  It has a Google ranking of 8/10 so obviously many people use it. If you haven’t visited refdesk.com I encourage you to do so today!

If you have a niche site with a respectable amount of traffic and good rankings in the search engines you could easily open up a new stream of income for your project by adding a niche directory.

I’m not talking about going to a lot of time and effort in setting up a complicated directory script, although I will share a few ideas in that area – for the most part I am a big fan of small, hand tended directories that can be created simply with HTML or Wordpress pages.

Want some Examples?

Take a peek at the little directory I have on Mom’s Talk Radio.

We created a handful of pages in Wordpress for categories and then made a parent page that links to them with a simple PayPal ‘buy it now’ button.

When a customer buys a listing they receive an email from my VA requesting the ad info. We encourage them to use 50-100 words to describe their products, services or website and to choose good anchor text for their links.

This particular niche directory is only about a year old. We do nothing to promote it other than having the link in the navigation and it has earned us several hundred dollars since it opened.

Our stats bear witness that the directory pages get quite a bit of traffic month after month which not only benefits our listing customers, it certainly helps to draw new potential listeners to our podcast network.

Another example can be found at Advertising Moms.

This is also a pretty young directory that has yielded a hundred dollars or so in extra income.

Even though these directories are managed manually they take very little time or effort. My VA has form letter responses for everything and inserting new listings only take a moment.

One directory only accepts text but the others offer a ‘premium’ listing that includes a graphic for an extra cost and quite a few customers do choose the higher priced option.

Another good example of a hand tended directory on a niche content site: Internet Based Moms WAHM Mall.

What if you really want to automate the process?

I did try a link directory script several years ago. It was free and easy to install and I enjoyed it for about six months until the spammers found me. The spam submissions rose to 400+ a day and required manual handling to remove – so we killed it.

There are feature rich directory scripts that have spam prevention functions, but to be honest – I found them complicated and awkward to customize. I only have so much techgeekery in me to go around.

A few scripts that come well recommended are:

• phpMyDirectory
• Free PHP Directory Script
• eSyndicate

The paid version of the last one mentioned is wildly customizable and can do so many cool things that I wish I had the desired right now to create a new niche directory so I could use it.

For Wordpress users there is a handy plugin directory.

How much to Charge?

I charge $10-15 for a text only lifetime listing. Some sell listings by the month, quarter or year – but I don’t want to keep track of expiring listings. I did try selling listings by the year on subscription at USAWAHM and though I sold about a hundred or so in a years time, when the year rolled around customers has usually forgotten about their subscription and were ticked off about the money coming out of their PayPal account!

You will have to decide what your niche is willing to pay. If your niche is hot and there aren’t many options, you can easily charge $25, $50 or $100 for a text listing that lasts a year or a lifetime.

It’s not just about Money

Besides income, I use my niche directories to bless friends with one way links when they’re needed. I also use them to swap for services and products.

Adding a directory to your site isn’t a ticket to sudden riches but it does bring in extra cash, in most cases more than enough to make it worth your effort.

I know, that’s a deep question to launch a blog post with isn’t it?  Don’t worry – I’m not delving into the area of human relationships here.

I’m going to dig into our relationship with our website.

Since you created your website, you know it pretty well.  You know where everything is and when it was added.  If I ask you to point me to a resources you could find it in three seconds flat and provide me with a link.

Because you know it inside and out – you may not realize that what you can find in a heart beat, other people who have visited your website have no clue even exists.

You believe that you have created a masterful, rich resource website and contains the answers to every need known to your target market and it may be true – but the question is, can your visitors find the answers they are looking for?

One way to really know that is to ask someone who is unfamiliar with your site to visit it and give you their impressions.

• Ask them to tell you what they perceive the website to be about.
• Give them a short list of important resources that can be found within your site and ask them how long it takes them to find each one, how many clicks they made to get there and to let you know if they do not find them at all.
• Ask them what they would tell someone else about you based on what they’ve experienced at your website.

Finding someone who will be honest in answering your questions may be difficult.  Friends have a tendency to put a shine on things so don’t ask a buddy to do it unless you know they are comfortable with giving constructive criticism.

If you don’t know anyone who you think can be straightforward with you, I invite you to join us at Mom Masterminds for a free preview.  You can ask for a site critique and ask those specific questions I’ve suggested and get clear responses from our members.

Here are some things I look at when critiquing a large resource site:

Simple Navigation

Can I get everywhere in your site within a couple of clicks by starting with your navigation list?  Or have you tucked pockets of rich information deep into the recesses of your site?  (If I have to click six times to reach something, I will probably never even know it’s there.)

There are times when you’re breaking up a long article into multiple pages that you’ll be asking your users to click several times to consume the whole thing and there is a good purpose in this as far as building page views and displaying more ads – but make sure that each click is valuable to the visitor and that they never lose a sense of where they are on your site.

Clearly Grouped Ideas

If I click on a link that says ‘Marketing Resources’ am I going to find articles or links about motivation mixed in?  Sometimes you are making a connection between two ideas that makes perfect sense to you – but will be confusing to others.

Each Page Has A Purpose

Every page that you create on your website has a job to do and a primary task should be obvious.  If I can’t identify a primary purpose, I would ask you to tighten things up.  After clearly targeting one specific goal for a page it’s good to offer one or two ‘back up’ response options such as links to related resources, similar posts or contextual advertising.

If you have an older site you may discover that it is in great need of a good housecleaning or remodeling.  Don’t be intimidated.  Now could be a perfect time to move your site into Wordpress and take advantage of all of the time saving, Web 2.0 tools that are available to us now.

I’ve never heard anyone say that the regretted giving a site an overhaul so if you need one, just go for it.