Cally and I just returned from a (lightning-quick, whirlwindy) trip to Denver, Colorado where I gave several presentations to room-fulls of booksellers and book publishers at the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association annual trade show. The good folks at MPIBA are currently working on two very exciting web site projects with us, and have worked with us in the past on a consulting basis. We were delighted when they asked us if we’d come out to Denver to present our web marketing strategies at their trade show—not only because we love to spread the word, but because I (semi-randomly) have a lot of family out in the area. And any excuse to see them is good enough for me!

So, in addition to our presentations at the conference—which I’ll get to below—we also got to see the Colorado wing of my family—my two sisters, my oldest brother, my favorite niece, and my brand-spanking-new nephew—most of whom live just up the road in Boulder. We packed a year’s worth of work into three busy days and one very beige rental car.

We returned home tired to a good old-fashioned rainy and cold New England day—which we were both oddly happy to see. Some quick lessons from our trip: 1. Southwest’s Early-Bird Check-In is totally worth it; 2. as is spending the extra dough for a direct flight; 3. as is spending the extra dough for parking in the airport garage; 4. hotel shuttles are a great and cheap way to travel to and from the airport—and apparently they don’t care if you even stayed at their hotel….

Now, on to the real matter at hand!

Content Marketing: The First Presentation

The first presentation I delivered was an hour-long workshop on the virtues, strategies, and pitfalls of content marketing. I walked the folks in the room through the stages of my descent into this world of digital strategy and marketing. I felt it was important—if I wanted the audience to take me seriously—to explain that I started out as much of a skeptic about social media as anyone else. Why should I care that my friends are brushing their teeth or cleaning up after their dogs?!

Friend: I’ve got the plastic bag on my hand, and I’m picking up Fido’s hot freshie!
Me: DAMNIT! I hate social media!

But one day my skepticism was blown away by the success of some campaigns and strategies I was testing out for the book publishing company for which I was working. Using some neat Twitter tactics—and not too much time, we were able to reach 24,000 targeted folks and sell a decent number of books. The details of this story warrant their own blog post, so for now, I’ll leave you salivating.

The whole workshop went very well. Every seat was full and people were sitting on the floor and standing at the back of the room. People were nodding, laughing (at AND with me), and taking notes. The only woman to walk out came up to me later and apologized—she was overloaded from a long day of speakers—which I can appreciate! I’ve been the walker-outer before.

I did have slides on the big screen behind me, which I’ve included in a slideshow below. But, as anyone who has seen me speak already knows, I go very lightly on the visuals. I try—due to my Edward Tuftean sensibilities—to only show visuals when they can add to, or clarify something in, the presentation. I. WILL. NOT. READ. BULLET POINTS. It drives me insane when presenters do it. I can read.

So here are my slides. Without the accompanying presentation, I question their value, but some of you have requested that I put them online.

Here are some photos from the show—taken by Cally.

(Note the one where I’m smiling and facing the camera: Cally’s artistic direction, “Suck it in.”) Also, yes. Apparently I’m now a long-haired fat hippie from Vermont. And believe me, I didn’t see it coming either!

Buzz About Books: The Second Presentation

The second presentation I was happy to give was the unveiling of our Buzz About Books project! This is a new web site we’re building for MPIBA with the goal of helping independent booksellers shed some light into the dark areas of their inventories. This site is a book-selling platform dedicated to selling rare books and books that have been signed by their authors.

This site will become the centralized location online to showcase and organize the signed copy inventory of bookstores across the mountains & plains regions. We are hoping to create a stream of targeted customers (seeking signed copies of books) into which all these separate bookstores can place their offerings. Buzz About Books is a free service and will redirect all customers back to the original bookseller to complete the sale.

We are currently inviting interested booksellers to sign up as beta-testers so that we can load the site full of books and begin poking and prodding the process. If you’re interested, please sign up at http://www.buzzaboutbooks.org!

The Rest of the Trip

Now here are some great shots Cally took from the rest of the trip, including some of our hike in Chautauqua Park in Boulder. YES I WENT HIKING! (sheesh.)

So there it is. We had a great time and are looking forward to next year!

Permalink to Post: Our Trip to the MPIBA Trade Show in Denver, Colorado

We’ve been brown. And tan. And now, ladies and gentlemen…we’re orange!

As you can see, our logo, web site, and marketing materials have gotten a good old-fashioned design overhaul this month. Thanks to Cally’s super-human ability to maintain her design talents at 11:44pm, and my ability to quickly consume large quantities of caffeine, we’ve been able to grind out an update of our own materials—which, as any design team will tell you, is not easy!

We’ve also scaled back our web site quite a bit. We’ve cut the fat and updated all the information. The site still offers all the great features it used to—our blog, our support desk, our portfolio—but now it’s all easier to find and more useful. Plus…it has icons!

Please take a moment to poke around the site. Check out our new portfolio pieces, our new blog posts, and the new fun information we’ve put up. When you’re finished, let us know what you think! We loooove feedback—good or bad. (We’re thick-skinned designers, remember?)

Here are some awesome promo shots Cally took today.

So while you’re doing that, we’re going to go back to doing what it is we always do at midnight on weekdays. Play with Photo Booth and eat old floor pizza from C&S. (Mine was anchovy and onion.)

Permalink to Post: Catalyst Webworks: The Orange Album

I am in the web business. I build, market, and think about web sites all day long. Nearly every day I am asked by potential clients and hobbyists and casually-interested people, “How much does a web site cost?” It’s a question that I’m sure is cringingly familiar to any developer, designer, or artist. And—there was a time—when I struggled for an answer.

The correct answer is not simple. It is not “X number of dollars”—like it would be for a pack of gum. The correct answer requires more work and thought than the questioner is prepared to invest. So, most often, the correct response is “It depends.”

Here’s why.

This is a bridge.

And this is a bridge.

And this is a bridge.

These are all bridges. They all serve the same core function: to carry people from point A to point B. But they vary wildly in every other respect.

• Bridge 1 was cheap to build, costs nothing to maintain, and can transport 30 people per hour. It is also absolutely terrifying to cross, and people avoid using it at all costs.
• Bridge 2 was moderately expensive to build. It required a decent amount of planning by trained professionals, and it costs a fair amount in upkeep every year. This bridge can transport 3,000 people per hour. It is safe, modest, and gets the job done. People cross it without thought when they must.
• Bridge 3 cost more money to build than Scrooge McDuck has in his swimming pool. It took years of planning by the world’s leading experts. It requires a constant supply of time, energy, and money for upkeep. But, this bridge can transport 30,000 people—using many different modes of transportation—per hour, it serves as a national landmark, and it attracts billions of tourist dollars to the area every year.

Web sites, brochures, logos, pamphlets, posters, and all the rest are no different. Web sites, in particular, can cost $5 or $500,000. They can be built by novices in 2 minutes, or by experts over the course of 2 years.

I’m certainly not advocating for making every design project into the Golden Gate bridge. There are cases where a small and quick design job will suffice for the final product’s intended purpose. You don’t need the Golden Gate to cross over I-95. But, when hiring a professional designer, anything is possible—with only one exception: it is impossible to build the Golden Gate without the Golden Gate’s budget.

Designers: Reframe the “What does it cost?” question back to your potential clients. Explain that they can have a logo for $100 or $10,000—but, not all logos are the same. $10,000 will give you—the expert—the time you need to craft an effective design, proceed through multiple drafts, and explore exciting possibilities. $100 will limit you to 30 minutes and a sketch of a rough idea. Know the value of your creativity and your “brain-time.” Rolling boulders up a hill isn’t the only activity that counts as “work.” Set professional limits and abide by them. Even if the rent is due.

Potential Design Clients: If asked for your budget by a designer, it’s likely you’re dealing with a professional who wants to create the most effective design possible for your project. That’s valuable. How much time and thought would you like this hired professional to spend to make your project more successful? Often, because you’re setting the budget, the outcome of the project is determined by you before work even begins.

Permalink to Post: How Much Does A Bridge Cost?: Pricing for Designers and Asking the Brave Questions

As many of you know, I’ve long been jealous of the impressive organization of Burlington’s Twitter community. Their unified use of the #BTV hashtag makes it very easy for me to keep my finger on the pulse of the Burlington community “goings-on.” After talking with @nhkaren at a recent Social Media Breakfast, I decided that the time had come to pick an official Twitter hashtag for New Hampshire’s and Vermont’s Upper Valley community.

Burlington’s choice was obvious. They simply (and wisely) co-opted the city’s airport code. Our task was a little more difficult. Our “Upper Valley” community spans 5 (or 7? or 9?) towns and villages—and it’s growing all the time, depending on who you talk to, and how far they care to admit that they drive every morning. So, to make things easier, I put up a poll with some of my hashtag suggestions.

The poll was up and active for a week. Many people voted and a few people added suggestions of their own. In the end, a clear winner was chosen: #upval

I like it. It’s short. It’s got a pleasing ratio of ascenders to descenders. Its definition can grow with our community.

And so, in an effort to celebrate and spread the word about the new community hashtag, I’m starting a Twitter haiku chain, and I invite all the tweeting #upval residents to play along.

Here’s how it works:

1. In your favorite Twitter manager/program, set up a search for “#upval #haiku”. This way, you can watch all the haikus as they are posted.
2. Write your own haiku that relates to the Upper Valley in some way. Add the hashtags #upval and #haiku to the tweet, and fire away!
3. We’ll comment, retweet, and enjoy each other’s contributions. Hopefully, we’ll make enough noise using the new hashtag that people will notice and it will catch on.

Here’s my initial effort:

@jsmcdougall: Traffic in West Leb / The Nugget on Friday Night / Soft serve at Fore-U #upval #haiku

I can’t wait to read yours!

If you have any questions, please post them below. Thanks and enjoy! I look forward to some serious haikuing! (Is that a word?)

Permalink to Post: The Upper Valley Hashtag Haiku Celebration

This year I have the pleasure of writing a column for Book Business Magazine about web marketing. The idea behind the column is simple: Explain the steps required to build an effective web marketing plan in the order in which they need to be addressed. My hope is that I can lay out a clear process that helps businesses and organizations build a strong web marketing foundation. The articles will be appearing in both the print and online editions.

The first article was published online this month, and the folks at Book Business have done a great job with editing and layout—though I do question their use of my big red mug at the top….

Here’s an excerpt:

Your own website is the most important piece of your Web marketing effort. For example, if you find yourself basking in the glow of success on Twitter—and it has tripled your Web traffic—your website must be as effective as possible at giving these new potential customers exactly what they need. If you’re directing this new stream of folks to an out-of-date, cobbled-together, or loosely thought-out website, you’re wasting time and money.

Luckily, this misstep is easily avoidable: Get your own house in order before you send out invitations.

STEP 1: Define Your Site’s Goals

The first step in any site overhaul (or even site tinkering) is to define the goals of your site. Without clear objectives, an effective redesign is impossible. What would you like your website to do? Create a list of the top three goals you have for the site.

Step 2: …….

WANT MORE…? Read the full article (and check out that billboard I call a face) here.

Permalink to Post: The First Step in Avoiding Major Web Marketing Mistakes

Here at Catalyst Webworks, we understand that the holidays can be a hectic and stressful time of year. Many tasks that are usually important (jogging, tooth-brushing, vacuuming) tend to get skipped over in favor of holiday preparations (shopping, wrapping, …vacuuming).

So, in an effort to help you keep up your web presence through these busy weeks, we’ve put together this list of 3 simple things you can do this month to improve your web presence.

1. Send out an email newsletter.

This is a great time of year to remind the special people who have supported your business through this economically-difficult year that you appreciate all they do for you. (Hint…hint.) A simple newsletter saying “Thanks” will go a long way.

2. Update your site’s homepage.

I’m not going to point any fingers, but I have been checking up on you and I know for a fact that some of your homepages are stuck in June. The snow is flying, people! It’s time to give your visitors something new to see. (I’m looking at you. Yes. You.)

3. Write a new blog post.

Nothing says Holiday Cheer like blogging. Well, I’m assuming you’re writing about Holiday Cheer, of course. I’m not the only one who loves seeing your blog burst to life with new content. Your visitors love it, your customers love it, your mom loves it, and most importantly, Google loves it.

Happy Holidays!

—
This post was originally sent out via our deliciously informative and semi-hilarious newsletter.

Permalink to Post: Things to Remember in December

Twitter—the wildly popular “micro-blogging” service—is making a giant impact on the internet, and joining the ranks of internet giants by doing so. If you’ve watched any cable news program in the last year, you’re probably already familiar with how it is helping to cure us all of the reckless habit of using sentences longer than 140 characters—this one is 163! (E-Gasp.) But, the lesser-known—and possibly more important—impact is how Twitter is helping to improve the traffic tracking tools online.

The Back Story

Twitter is a brilliant little shoehorn. Its 140 character limit was originally built into the system so that the service would play nicely when ‘tweets’ were sent to mobile phones as text messages—which, at the time, already had a 140 character limit. The mobile phone text message character restriction is now disappearing rather quickly as new phone platforms, which are not limited by small screens and tiny data transfer—like the iPhone and Droid, make their way into texters hands.

But Twitter will keep the 140 character limit even though the original reason for it is disappearing. The restriction has made Twitter the media darling, and it has been the cornerstone for the new standard of quick, straight-forward, and safely-ignorable communication—an often-useful white noise in the background of your internet life.

Though, while the 140 character limit hasn’t budged, the way people use Twitter certainly has. The majority of tweets are no longer about personal hygene habits:

I’m brushing my teeth with baking soda for the first time. Holy pantload that’s gross!

Rather tweets have morphed into, most often, some form of recommendation:

Read a great blog post about using baking soda as tooth paste! I might try it! http://wow-bakingsoda.com/2010/10/03/toothpaste

As you can see in that last example, the URL for the link recommendation requires 47 of the allowed 140 characters. And, in some cases, URLs can be as long as—or longer than—140 characters in themselves. And so, to help Tweeters crunch down the length of the URLs they were recommending, link shortening services began popping up around the ‘net: is.gd, bit.ly, and tinyurl.com were a few of the first.  At first, these services were simply redirection scripts parked behind short web addresses. (Here’s one I built with a friend as an experiment while enjoying(!) anchovy pizza: http://lnkr.us.) But soon these young new services began to feel the competition of their fellow link-shortening brethren. Each service began tacking on new features in the hopes of luring more folks their way—because as we all know, money follows traffic.

The Paradigm Shift

Tools like Google Analytics and Mint have been helping web site owners understand the traffic coming to, dancing around, and leaving their sites for years. These are great services pumping out loads of useful information, and web site owners should take advantage of them. They do, however, have one inherent limitation: they can only see, and report on, traffic that touches the web site being tracked.

These new link-shortening services introduced something new. By inserting themselves into the “recommender –> audience” relationship, they allowed—for the first time since links started flying around the internet—the masses to track activity on links beyond their own web sites.

This is valuable.

The Internet’s Crowds

The rise of social media platforms gave people a place to “hangout” online. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Scribd and all the rest have done a great job developing platforms that people find enjoyable, useful, and familiar. People are spending incredible amounts of time on these sites, which, try as you might, you will never own. Therefore, you will never get to track their data.

As business owners learn the ins-and-outs of marketing their wares online, they will discover the need to go to where the people are congregating. Businesses large and small are (and should be) making the move to social media platforms by setting up accounts, pages, feeds, etc. Before the advent of these link-shortening services with tracking capabilities is was often impossible to accurately gauge whether or not promotional campaigns on these external sites was worth the effort.

The Old Way

Let’s say, for example, you’re a book author with a popular Facebook page. You’ve got 4,000 fans. Great. Does that matter? Do they buy books? If you’re fortunate enough to have a web site set up that sells your book directly, then tracking direct sales from your Facebook page is easy. Google Analytics will tell you how many folks came from your Facebook page and purchased a book on your site.

Now, let’s say you don’t have an e-commerce site set up for whatever reason. So, you instead direct people to buy the book from your shiny, new Amazon.com listing. You post a quick excerpt from your brilliant foreword to your Facebook page, and then insert the Amazon.com link at the bottom asking people to follow it to find more.

Unfortunately, because the link you’ve just placed on your Facebook page is directing people right from Facebook.com to Amazon.com, Google Analytics or any other site traffic tracking tool will never know if the link has been followed. Only Facebook and Amazon will know—and they do know.

The New Way

By using one of these link shortening/tracking services, you are inserting a third party into the Facebook.com to Amazon.com link. The new, shortened link you’ve placed at the end of your shining foreword excerpt now directs people (invisibly) through another service—one to which you’ve got access. The process now goes:

1. Facebook.com (where the link is placed)
2. bit.ly (where the link is tracked)
3. Amazon.com (where the link directs the visitor)

Here are some examples. For demostation purposes, pretend these links are placed on Facebook where I can’t track them with Google Analytics—instead of on my blog, where I can.

Naked examples—both links redirect visitors to the same page:

1. Naked Full (untrackable) Link: http://www.amazon.com/Start-Your-Blogging-Business-Startup/dp/1599180472/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1268671697&sr=8-1
2. Naked Shortened (trackable) Link: http://bit.ly/bxJAJn

Some embedded examples—the URLs (to both full and shortened links) are hidden here in the HTML, so the user will never know the difference:

1. Embedded Full (untrackable) Link: Check out this video!
2. Embedded Shortened (trackable) Link: Check out this video!

Why It Matters

Tracking your social media efforts is now easier and you can compare your effort to results. Let’s say in the example above that it took you 20 minutes to excerpt your foreword and post it to Facebook. And, a week later, you log into your bit.ly account and see that the link sent 20 people right to your Amazon page. That’s one person per minute of promotional effort over the course of a week. That’s not bad.

The next week you decide, instead of an excerpt, to post a 3 minute video documenting one of the processes you explain in the book. The video takes you roughly 60 minutes to set up, shoot, edit, and post. A week later, you see on bit.ly that the link you’ve placed after the video sent 120 people to the Amazon page. That’s two people per minute spent per week. You’ve just learned that videos are twice as effective with your audience! More video!

Conclusion

Social media platforms are collecting and organizing throngs and masses and hordes of people online. There is incredible opportunity for businesses and organizations to find and interact with their perfect audiences. (Notice I didn’t say “sell to.”) If done intelligently, your efforts in social media will pay off with increased brand awareness, a loyal (and talkative) audience, and increased sales. These new link shortening/tracking tools provide a great measurement tool to help you gauge whether or not you are working intelligently. Use them.

And did I mention they’re free?

• hootsuite (the one I use and recommend, though the others are great services too)
• bit.ly
• budurl

Permalink to Post: Using “Twitter Links” to Improve Your Social Media Tracking Efforts

I made this video a little over a year ago with help from two friends of mine—one luckier than the other. At the time I thought that the Catalyst Webworks web site was just a few weeks away…*cough*…and that this video would be a great element for the front page.

Well, here it is, finally—after a brief stint on the now-defunct jsmcdougall.com—a world debut of the first Catalyst Webworks commercial. Please watch, laugh, enjoy, and pass it on.

Thanks to Ed Dooley of Mad River Media (lucky friend behind the camera), and Morgan Pielli of MorganWritesABook.com (the dancing chicken).

Enjoy! (…and Hi Mom.)

http://vimeo.com/7337797

Permalink to Post: Jesse, Video, and a Funky Chicken (VIDEO)

Finally, after nine wonderfully successful months in business, our intrepid web site company has a company web site! We’re very excited to finally be live. We have so much planned for this site and we can’t wait to begin rolling it all out.

Here’s a quick tour of what’s already on the site…

Our Process: When dealing with complicated topics—like web design and programming—we find it’s good to be clear about how the process of development works. For the benefit of our clients, our potential clients, and ourselves, we’ve put a lot of work into crafting a clear and straight-forward development process that produces unique, effective, and flexible sites.

We’re proud of our development process, and we’ve detailed it here for the world to see.

Our Packages: Our current clients are already familiar with our innovative web site package offerings. But, for those of you out there who haven’t seen how we work, we’ve detailed our development packages here.

Our Portfolio: Check out the sites that kept us so busy we had no time to build this one! Our portfolio is stacked with wonderful organizations and businesses. This current portfolio gallery is a temporary implementation of our portfolio. Stay tuned for the bigger & more impressive version coming soon!

Testimonials: Over the past nine months we’ve built some great sites for great clients. Read their testimonials of our work and services to see what they think of us. Hint: They like us. Some of them  even “like like” us.

Our Newsletter: We’ve hinted at a newsletter in the past. We’ve even sent one or two. But now that this new site is online, we’re ready to go full-steam ahead into newsletterland. Check out what our newsletter will offer subscribers, and then be sure to sign up!

Here’s a quick preview of what’s to come…

• Client Account Login
• Video Tutorials
• Easily Downloadable WordPress Plugins
• A Full Support Section
• Live Support Chat
• Blog with Commentary and Tips
• Photo Albums
• Event & Seminar Information
• And, of course, a lot more!

Thanks for poking around the new site! Please leave a comment below to let us know you stopped by. (We know anyways, actually, but it’s always nice to say hi.)

Permalink to Post: A Web Site Company…with a Company Web Site!

Charlotte Abbott released part two of our interview today—freeing it from the torment of pre-stage jitters. I have excerpted a few of the questions (and my responses) below. Please read the complete conclusion to this gripping yarn at Follow the Reader.

What are the top two or three technologies have you found most valuable in engaging audiences online?

Twitter for daily conversation. A blog as a conduit for book, author, and community content. Blip.tv for serving up high-resolution video with no size or time restrictions.

For tracking your success and progress, ChartBeat, HootSuite, and Google Analytics are essential.

[...]

Do you see any downside to giving away books or content online?

Books should be owned and content should be free. Content is stolen when publishers make it easier to steal than to buy. By locking up digital content with DRM or asking readers to sign unholy licenses or making content exclusive to one vendor, publishers are making it more attractive to snub the law and steal (and distribute) the digital content than to buy it. Publishers should offer digital books and chapters for sale for a slightly reduced price straight from their web sites in an open-source (or universal) format. Currently, a DRM-free PDF gets my vote, but I see room for something better.

What technological tools or developments are you most looking forward to in the coming year?

I’m looking forward to the development of mobile media. I think that high-quality digital content delivery through mobile devices with screens big enough for reading long-format books will revolutionize book reading and book content. Paper books will continue to have their place and incredible value. Lifelong readers recognize that and will continue to buy paper books for their unique virtues. Electronic devices will never be as good as paper books for quiet, powerless, peaceful reading.

However, once high-quality digital mobile content delivery is done well, book content can grow beyond paper and e-ink devices. Books will slowly evolve to look more like web pages, with links, supplemental videos, audio clips, and the book publisher’s intended formatting and design. Of course, plain text should still be an option for readers who don’t want to be bothered with the flash and bother of videos, etc., but the option for all the bells and whistles we’re already used to on the web should be available as well. The ability to include such ancillary content will provide publishers with an entirely new product that offers more than the bound book can or should. This new product could be a powerful new revenue stream.

Permalink to Post: Building Reader Communities: A Q&A with Follow the Reader – Part Two