1. Not consulting with a web designer in the planning stages of your website.
( usually by the time I sit with a client they have already made  a few costly mistakes because they made decisions on their own with out seeking the advice of a professional web designer. )

2. Don’t focus on the look of your page in the beginning
(while the appearance of a website is important attention should be paid to functionality and visitor interaction .)

3.  Hiring  A weekend web designer
(Avoid web designers that deliver pizzas on the weekdays and create websites on the weekend. It’s tempting to hire these types, their rates are cheap and they are always available until they get your money .)

4.  Don’t take your coming soon page lightly.
(A coming soon page should  not only alert a site’s visitors of your site launch, but should also peak your visitors curiosity. Think of your coming soon page as a movie trailer “why would a visitor  tell a friend to visit your site”. A well designed coming soon page should also be interactive, you can achieve this goal by incorporating an online form that allows visitors the option of leaving their email  so they can be alerted of the site launch.)

5.  Not listening  to the web designer
(If you hire a professional to do a job listen to his/her recommendations. I have been in countless situations where a client takes the advice from every one except the person that matters.)

6. Trying to freestyle your design
(Freestyling a design is coming up with designs off the top of your head. This is a frustrating way to have a website designed because the end result always looks thrown together.)

7. Supplying your web designer with  poor quality images and graphics.
(The quality and overall professional look of a website depends on the quality of the assets you supply to the web designer. There is a phrase I heard an associate designer use He said” garbage in garbage out” If you supply me with sub par graphics and assets you will get a sub par website. There for use a professional when adding photography, videos etc to your site.

8.  Not providing a clear message to  a designer with re guards to direction.
( If you have no idea what you want then neither will your web designer..)

9.  Not responding to your designer’s questions in a timely fashion
(Part of a websites development is good communication between web designer and client via email or phone. So it’s important that a designer not wait around for long periods of time for you to make decisions.)

10.  Building crazy navigation.
( Some clients try to get creative with the navigation on a website, even if it means confusing the visitor. You can be creative with navigation as long as it makes sense.)

11. Not providing enough information about your company.
(Providing important information about your business , products and services should not be and after thought in the website’s design process. )

12. Failing to provide  examples of sites that are similar to what you want created.
(Every client wants to believe that there is no site out there similar to what they want created. Even if that is true find  a site that is similar to what you want created. Most web-designers, graphic artists are visual people providing an example will  help the process.)

13. A  Myspace , Facebook  and Twitter a pages  are not websites
(Put simply Myspace, Facebook Twitter etc will never be considered personal websites.
These sites are free and it will send a message to clients that you don’t believe enough in your product or services to invest money.)

14. Don’t use free web hosting
(Free web hosting means limited tech support and those tacky ads and promotions  plastered  all over your site.)

15. Waiting to the last minute to start on your website.
(It’s stressful enough building a new website but having the added stress of knowing that your website  could  possibly be viewed by millions ,and trying to do it last minute is enough to drive you crazy. I had a client that waited a week before hiring me to build her website, she  knew a month in advance she was selected to have her business featured on the news. It was her first website and with all the stress she had a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized for two days. )

16. Not being straight with a web designer about your budget
(Before contacting a designer have an amount in mind that you can afford. It does not mean that it will be a realistic number but it let’s a designer know how much you have to work with. This will save you more time than being mysterious. Also  a designer will be able to tell you what you can get for that price.)

17.  Not knowing why you are building a website
(If you don’t know why you are building a website you should not have one.)

18. Wanting no part of the web design process.
(The web design process is a collaborative effort between the client and web designer. Both partners should have some level of involvement in the process.)

19. Don’t try to build your own site if you are unwilling to invest the time and effort to do it properly
(In my seven years of building websites I have come across two websites that non web designers have created that I found both professional and impressive. Unfortunately that is not the case with the hundreds of others I have seen . Put simply don’t try to build your own site if you are unwilling to invest the time and effort to do it properly . The  less you know about building a website the more time you need to spend doing the research and building the best site you can.)

20. Failure to launch
( A common problem I encounter with many first time website owners is, they drive them selves insane trying to anticipate how friends, family,clients will react to their website. My advice is to have the website built upload it to a test server. Have a few trusted friends and associates look the site over get their feedback make corrections, then launch the website. What’s cool about a website is unlike printed materials  where after a point all changes are final a website’s changes can be made over time.

21. Not promoting your site
( One of the biggest mistakes is not getting the word out about your website. You need to actively promote your site. May be I’ll cover that topic in my next blog post.)

Feel free to add any mistakes that you have experienced as a new website owner..

THE MAIN OBJECTIVE

The main objective of The Twitswag Project  is to see how effective it would be to advertise a Twitter account through non traditional media outlets.

I will  attempt to achieve this by creating slick off the wall animated Viral  Twitter Ads.
To view the first Twitswag Ad in the series click here.

The goal is to gain as many supporters as possible on various  online communities blogging about, retweeting,stumblings, re posting the ads , hence driving  a diverse stream of quality traffic to the twitter accounts associated with the project.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

If you are accepted as a member of the project you will receive free advertising space on the twitter ad with your title and a link back to your twitter page, giving you exposure to followers out side of your network.

Having an increased number of Twitter followers will give any business more visibility( I don’t want to have a debate with any one on the relevance of  using twitter, you either get it or you don’t)

I FEEL LEFT OUT…

If you are interested in joining The Twitswag Project shoot me an email with a brief description of what you can add to the project. at” twitswag[at]thehnrgroup[.]com” (You can’t buy or  talk your way in to The Twitswag Project.)

FEED BACK

The Twitswag Project is not just a one way dialogue, I would appreciate any ideas you may have for making this project more successful.

ACTION

Productive comments are always welcome.

To get your free twitter account Click here

“YOU MAY HAVE MORE TALENT THAN ME, YOU MAY BE SMARTER THAN ME,
YOU MIGHT BE SEXIER THAN ME BUT, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO OUT
WORK ME“ -Will Smith-

I came across this video of Will Smith and I have always admired his accomplishments but, this video to me has put him on another level.
There are key elements to his success that he out lines  in this video that are
inline with my own beliefs.

I always have and still believe that if you work hard at something that anything is possible. If you are willing to go the extra mile that things will fall in to place. The practice of just doing the things you want rather than wishing or hoping is a strategy that has won me many victories.

Out working your competition in every sense not restricted to the psychical but strategically beating them to the punch is the way to win .

Have you ever met some one who seemed to move effortlessly up the ladder of success, while others seem to be standing in place.

Too often people want to attribute this success to sucking up or selling out in stead of studying and learning what drives a person to a certain status or mind set.

( yes race social class ,education etc will play a factor in how you will approach your goals )  you can acknowledge these things but don’t let them become your crutch. That’s all I HAVE TO SAY ENJOY THE VIDEO.

I welcome any “POSITIVE” feed back or observations you have that may enrich this post.

“WE ARE WHO WE CHOOSE TO BE” -Will Smith-

Years ago when I had my first website built ,the only thing I knew about computers at the time was how to send an email.

But I desperately needed a website created for my event planning business,to keep clients informed about my events. Most of my competition at the time were posting pictures from their parties online on party websites like allnightclubs.com ,alltheparties.com and a site called socialstep.com

I use to post on these sites as well but you had to pay a weekly fee ,so I wanted my own website where I could post my own pictures for free.

Well I tried my best to explain what I wanted to the webdesigner working on my project , but he explained every thing to me in tech jargon.

I tend to talk fast but this guy was talking a mile a minute ,and on top of that he was throwing a bunch of web technical terms at me and I felt like a moron.

In the end he did not build the site that I wanted, and I was unable to do any updates to the site as I needed.

My advice to older webdesigners and those just getting into the field is to keep things simple.

skip all of the technical jargon when talking with clients and focus on three important questions most clients want to know.

1. How will the technology make their lives easier?

2. How will the technology grow their businesses ?

3. How will the technology make them money?

Below are a list of web terms and their meanings.

1.Domain name- the name of your site(for example my domain name is thegnrgroup.com Think of the domain name as an apartment that you are renting.

2.Web Host- are companies that provide space on a server (think of the host like a land lord you have to pay rent too.)

3.Flash- is a program used primarily to create animations for the web it’s role is ever expanding and Flash can be used to create entire websites.

4.Dreamweaver- A web program designed to lay out web pages.( with Dreamweaver you don’t need to know how to hand code pages to create pages.)

5.Blog- is a type of website , usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary

6.URL- a Website’s address (exp the url for my site is http://thegnrgroup.com)

7.crossbrowser compatibility- website works with all versions of all recent browsers.(for example internet explorer is at version 8 right now. when I started designing websites years ago they were at version three.

I have been so busy with work lately I have been unable to start on any new projects, or use my brand new Mac Book Pro I purchased last Thursday for “work“. The dam thing is still in the box!

When I tried to apologized to one of my newer clients whose project I had to put on hold he gave me some great advice, He said “Glen you should never apologize for being too busy, the fact that I am willing to wait is a testament to your work”. (that made my day)

The more I thought about what he said the more it made sense. People don’t mind waiting for good quality service.

For example I noticed this rundown little stand when I was walking around the other day. It was a crepes stand in the village but the line was around the corner!

What’s funny is the people on the line had smiles on their faces and did not seem annoyed at all about the wait.

I now understand the deeper meaning behind the line is something we should all strive for and not feel guilty about when we attain it… SUCCESS!!!
gaining success is the easy part keeping it now that’s the hard part. So go out there and get busy!

I have read some successful bloggers who claim they don’t read other blogs, how ever experience has taught me that in order to be successful, you should study the work of others in your field who are successful .

Just as big companies study their competition in order to see what has brought them success, it’s in your best interest to study other bloggers.

Reading an accomplished bloggers earlier posts and recent posts will reveal a great deal on how the blogger has gained his/her success. Take notice of what practices a blogger has abandoned or picked up.

Once you learn to adapt your blog to the ever changing environment your blog will evolve.

When I first got in to web design one of the first things learned was, how to study the philosophy’s and design principles of successful designers.

Since adopting this practice I have noticed a dramatic change in the level of my design work, and the rapid growth of my web business. I am using the same approach with reguards to blogging.

So far for my efforts I have been getting offers from various companies to write paid posts. When I first started blogging I had no clue that a company would pay me to write articles.

Thanks to reading a few blogs I got advice from seasoned bloggers on how to attract writing clients.

Leave me a comment letting me know of any blogs that you are a fan of.

Below are a list of some  great ! bloggers  who’s blogs I read frequently and consider my self a fan of.

www.problogger.net

www.blog.d-nice.com

www.bloggernoob.com

www.identitycheck-anok.blogspot.com

www.onecoolsite.wordpress.com

www.offendedblogger.com

www.strongly-worded.com

Then one day I went in to the print shop and they were charging one dollar a sheet! I complained but the clerk was only following orders.

Soon the trend emerged in other print shops and then I decided to get my own printer.

I had to choose between getting a laser or an Inkjet printer for my business.The price for the Inkjet was $129.00 and the the laser printer was $600.

Both printers had the same printing quality, but the Inkjet printer was less money,so I purchased the Inkjet. Little did I know how much this mistake would cost me.

My new printer needed four separate cartridges Yellow,Magenta,Cyan and Black. When You buy Inkjet printers the cartridges are only filled a quarter of the way.

I quickly discovered that I had to constantly buy ink for each cartridge or the printer would not work.

I rarely print color documents but always needed to replace the colors cartridges, at forty dollars a piece I knew I made a bad investment.

Also Inkjet printers dry out when not in use for long periods of time, this is a big problem as I don’t need to print that often.

The sales man later revealed that even If I only used black ink when I printed ,color leaked from the other cartridges when the printer is in use.

Companies practically give away Inkjet printers because they make their money selling the replacement ink cartridges.

I refilled my printer four times in six months. I finally left my printer on the street corner.

My next printer was a Brother laser printer. I have had it for two years and I haven’t had to replace the cartridge once.

My laser printers are faster and is super much quieter than my old Inkjet printer when I need to print documents at night when my wife sleeping.

The lesson I learned from this incident was investing in quality products will save you money in the long run.

Check out some great brother color laser printers and brotherlabelprinters

Taking your business to the mobile arena means allowing potential and existing clients access to your products or services on the go via mobile devices and laptops.

Take the example of the fast food industry they realized years ago that not every one had the time to sit and eat a full meal, so they offered customers the option to take food to go.

Just as the mobile web allows consumers access to the web even when they are on the go and need information quickly.

The answer to the fast food industry was traditional restaurants became take out restaurants.

Adapting to the new environment and consumer demand kept plenty of traditional restaurants in business.

Restaurants that refused or were reluctant to change are most likely out of business.

Just as traditional restaurants needed to adapt to the consumer demand, so must your business adapt to this new mobile environment.

I was watching CNN the other day and one of the anchors invited viewers to log on to  CNN Mobile where you can watch the news from a mobile device.

Rival news stations will undoubtedly follow the trend if they want to stay in business.

You don’t have to be the first person in your industry to make your business mobile but don’t underestimate it’s power or importance.

Below are a list of things that I have done to make my business mobile friendly

1. I restructured my website and blog so it can be viewed on Smart phones.

2. Updated to a phone that allows me to view Word Docs,PDFs and images right on my phone. ( no more waiting to get home to view client files)

3. I am able to update my blog straight from my phone

4. On the front of my site visitors can IM me by using the free Google Chat back widget. So I get IMs straight to my phone and email account.

5. I also collect small payments through my website so I don’t have to meet up with clients for small payments.

6. Watch what others are doing to adapt their businesses to the mobile demand.

Hopefully you found this article useful.

How do you plan on making your business mobile?