Business History Books » Business Development Consultant » web page redux
web page redux
Question:
> By the way, Grahame, I went to two columns on all pages rather than three; > as you said, there was too much text in the middle. I think its a lot nicer > now.
That’s probably best. You can always use a image aligned to the right side instead of a dedicated column… I noticed that CNN is more inclined to do that these days too. I still like the right most margin 90 degree rotated marketing text phrase banner. I did that initially because one of my marketing people kept pushing a phrase that certainly got viewers to stop and think as it seemed to be the opposite of what would assume we’d say. I finally tried the banner position and it worked well as she said it would. I just finished updating an online rolidex-like online that I provide for buyers in an obscure aviation market that I sell to. So I’ve been looking at a lot of corporate webpages and its an interesting opportunity to observe and contrasts corporate web solutions for the same basic marketplace. Of course my motivation in providing this reference is that I get to intercept all the search engine results for any buyer trying to find the company with which they want to spend money. 
While I allow them to do their lookups easily, I also get to place my own advertising in from of buyers in my marketplace. Its been the only real synergy I’ve observed despite all the MBA overuse of that "Synergy" word. And the reference provides better content that search engines themselves provide (or else they’d not link to it Here’s something I’ve noticed as a trend: More and more large corporations are dropping the posted email address and switching to fill-in forms that automatically email to the company. Why? One good reason is that it halts a lot of the junk mail that gets sent to corporate emails. For example, every few days I see an IP in a some third world country scan for "email+2003+USA+…". These are usually the guys that send out those scam letters I’ve mentioned in the past and they’re just looking for new targets. When I see these scans in the log, I contemplate and the set the deny access on their IP block. As I mentioned before, my company website has deny access set on all continents that I don’t sell to. I did receive a fresh scam email today that I cant imagine any businessman would be fooled by. I opened the email through a standoff browser with all java/graphics etc turned off – its affectively a text browser for maximum safety. The letter was from a foreign name with no corporate traceback and titled to suggest that they had urgent business request in [ the marketplace of my product line]. The email said, please open the attached microsoft word DOC file for details. Yeah right… Anyone too stupid not to (1) get to the point in the first two sentences of an email is too stupid to really be in business, and (2) No one, not even Bill Gates is dumb enough to open any microsoft formatted file attached to an email. The language was so stilted that I had no trouble tossing it into the virtual shreader. It was amusing too how poorly that plugged in the [ marketplace ] insert making it an obviously uninformed source. I’m considering what I might do to reduce the uninvolved market fake contacts to my email. One way to do this is to post emails on websites in png/gif format so that text-strippers and search engines won’t pick it up. > I also tried pulling my content all the way to the left as you > suggested but it looked pretty bad.
Next time I look at your website I’ll snatch a HTML copy and look at why that is. What I’m talking about mostly is removing the built-in margins that browsers insert. There are two commands that address this: In your BODY tag where you may specify link fonts and backgrounds add the following four margin commands within the BODY’s angle brackets: leftmargin=0 topmargin=0 marginwidth=0 marginheight=0 That slams the page right up against the edge graphic of the browser and makes it seem more like its integral with the browser than a thing that floats about the page. :S I haven’t really thought about what one would have to change in their web layout to approach using these margin removers. Its an interesting observation you made and I’ll give it some thought. > I found a glaring error, on Every page, that nobody picked up! Its already > been corrected on my hard drive, and will be posted along with some other > minor fixes and additions within a few days.
One of the sites I checked today for my online rolidex had some dead links to their product pages. I looked to see why I couldn’t access each of their products’ pages and it turned out that their web-bozo had the links to ///file… In other words it pointed to hard drive files and looked fine on his editing PC station but was a deadlink in the web world. Who would ever post a business webpage update and not immediately do a standoff webaccess traversal to make sure it works???!!! I find too that more and more companies are reversing their stand on Java/Flash Sparkle only websites. At one time, 4 out of a hundred in THAT industry had gone Sparkle-Only. Today I only found one corporate webpage that still required java to navigate from their opening page.
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> I’ve been working on my web page for the past few days and have finally > pulled together a rough draft.
I posted a follow-up to this thread a couple of days ago, but apparently it didn’t go through. I made the easier corrections, dumped some things that didn’t make sense, put almost all of the suggestions on a too-due list, and am now wanting to go and drum up some new business Regarding the pictures, I will keep them there on this particular site. I have some product oriented sites that I need to get into doing for my automotive and military products, and of course, those will not include pictures. I will get professional pictures done for the next revision of the site. I figure I will have to re-do much of my site to really take advantage of all the great suggestions I’ve gotten. By the way, Grahame, I went to two columns on all pages rather than three; as you said, there was too much text in the middle. I think its a lot nicer now. I also tried pulling my content all the way to the left as you suggested (as opposed to centering my page), but it looked pretty bad. Second request: I’d really like to see your web page so that I can compare it alongside your suggestions to me. Oh, I deleted all the "test" stuff from earlier on, and the new stuff is up at http://miketurco.com I found a glaring error, on Every page, that nobody picked up! Its already been corrected on my hard drive, and will be posted along with some other minor fixes and additions within a few days. So if you think you have an eagle eye, you might want to have another look! Mike Turco * Fire your employees and replace * them with computers: http://miketurco.com
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OK! Lots of great feedback, and thanks to everyone! One thing I need to do is go out and sell, and in order to do so I need to put up that site because I need collateral materials. As I said, new product development ("inventing") hasn’t panned out too well for me, but I am getting consulting business, and I need more of it. So I have put most of the suggestions into a "too due list", and I plan to make some basic corrections to my site for now and then plug away at everything else over time. A web page is something that should be worked on and tweaked over time, and it makes sense to set aside a certain amount of time at a regular interval for improvements. I haven’t done a good job of that in the past, but I see it as something I need to do. Regarding the picture/no-picture discussion, I am selling myself as a consultant on this page. I’ll take up Scott’s suggestion of getting a pro to do the pictures, and maybe even send a few shots off to Grahame to see what he can do with them I am planning to launch two new sites soon, one for each of my products (the key drawer and the armory database.) On those sites, I will be selling product, and there won’t be people’s pictures. I’ll take up most of Grahame’s detailed suggestions on those pages. Right now, I’m not in such a position to re-layout my consulting site. Grahame, if you could email me your URL, I’d appreciate it. I promise to not send your email address or URL to the Minister of Building Development in Uganda or anything like that (nor will I post it anywhere. I would like to see your page layout, and am curious as hell about what it is that you do.) I would have much preferred to list out most of the suggestions that have been made and respond to each individually, but I’ve really got my work cut out here and had better get to it! Thanks Again, Mike
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> > > And, I cannot help myself and got to say this. Mike, do > > you know any business that isn’t "growth oriented"??? > > :-) *laugh* > Yes. Computer consulting since around March of 2000. > What? They might be having a hard time, but they still want to grow. James > Logajan is a perfect example of this. Go, Jim, go!
Wanting to grow and actually growing are two different things. I am wide open here to suggestions re. a tag line. For a long time I used, "The computer consultant’s computer consultant" since a lot of my clients were VAR’S and consultants themselves, but I am looking for something with broader appeal. — Mike
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> Grahame, if you could email me > your URL, I’d appreciate it. I promise to not send your email address or URL > to the Minister of Building Development in Uganda or anything like that (nor > will I post it anywhere. I would like to see your page layout, and am > curious as hell about what it is that you do.)
I would also apprecaite if you e-mailed me the web address, for the reasons I gave in my earlier post. My valid e-mail address is below. I’m sure Mike and I aren’t the only ones who would like to be able to compare your site to your written explanation of the design. Would you post a spam-proof version of the web address in the reply? Something a bot couldn’t extract, like maybe as the first words in a series of nonsense sentences? A person could pick that up, but I don’t think they’re the source of the kind of trouble you’re trying to avoid. Thanks, Rob Campbell
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>> However, Mike isn’t selling a gadget. Mike’s selling himself. > His website’s URL makes this blatantly clear. > What nonsense. He’s selling business services.
So there’s another guy…sells the exact same business services as Mike. Goes by the name of ‘Killer’. His hair is a in a nice purple mohican style, he’s got an assortment of tattoos covering his face in a colourful swastika motif and he’s got a variety of rings, safety pins, and fish hooks inserted into about 40 piercings across his ears, eyebrows, nose and lips. Oh, yeah, and another four in his tongue, but heck, you can’t even see those unless he talks. But it really doesn’t matter, right Clyt-etc.? ‘Cause he’s selling business services, not himself! As a consultant, your product is packaged inside yourself and cannot be separated out. They’ll never find out whether your services are any good if they don’t like that packaging. > This is the sort of double-think that start-up advertising agencies > and the dodgier sort of consultants promote when they can’t think of > anything useful to contribute.
Just a friendly tip: it’s more persuasive if you defend your argument rather than insulting those you disagree with. — George Demmer Reality Marketing Associates, Coquitlam, BC, Canada Phone: (604) 944-8603 Web site: www.realityassociates.com Everything your company does is marketing. We can help you do it better.
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*whispers to Grahame* And while you’re at it, make a funny one and post a link to it here. ;-)
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> …may grab another URL sometime in the not > too distant future and go for the "I’m a business > not a person" approach.
Right now you’re a one-man shop so the approach you’re taking is a sound one. Yes, you have to balance things, but giving it the personal touch that they can connect to is the way to go for now. However… When you finally bring in someone as a partner, you should then change a bit. Not much, but a bit. With just one partner or two, I’d just add them to the photos and add their name to the business. Same approach, but just more friendly faces for them to connect with. If they’re "only" employees (i.e., secretary), I won’t make any change from the present. Now when you move from a small consultancy to a medium consultancy, you MIGHT want consider a different change. However, look at one of the biggest names in advertising and one that even Clytemnestra likes quoting, that being Olivy. How did he sell his business? By being anonymous behind a faceless company name? Hardly. Just the opposite. Now if you want to go after major corporate accounts, it doesn’t mean you have to change how you sell yourself. They’re still hiring you. A specialist. If anything, if I was you, I’d hire a small PR firm and have them work to make you a mini-celebrity in your field. Celebrityhood converts into gold as far as consultants are concerned. So can your website look more polished? Yes. Should it look more polished? Yes. Should it remove you from the picture? No. Scott Jensen — Like a cure for A.I.D.S, Alzheimer, Parkinson, & Mad Cow Disease? Volunteer your computer for folding-protein research for when it’s idle. Go to http://www.distributedfolding.org/ to sign up your computer.
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"Grahame Olney" wrote <snip> > I use three columns thus:
<snip> For convenience, could you post your web address here. IIRC, I’ve visited it before but can’t find it now. Being able to view it at the same time as reading your comments would be more enlightening. Thanks, Rob Campbell
Response:
Mike, Take a couple photos of your ugly mug and send them to Grahame. See what he can do with them. :-) Scott Jensen — Like a cure for A.I.D.S, Alzheimer, Parkinson, & Mad Cow Disease? Volunteer your computer for folding-protein research for when it’s idle. Go to http://www.distributedfolding.org/ to sign up your computer.
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> For convenience, could you post your web address here.
You are correct it would be more meaningful to read the discussion and view it at the same time. Just the same I’d prefer to keep it anonymous on Usenet. I get enough of the "spanish-prisoner-scam" emailed to my business address already. Posting real world data here would only increase the spamming. I just got two mailed from the Ivory Coast yesterday. I’ve received lot of versions from Russia, Africa, India and Brazil but since then I’ve made my website UN-Viewable outside of North America and it cut down the occurence. I guess I’m still giving South America a chance. Apparently the third world thinks that if they email that stupid form letter to everyone in the world, someone is going to be fooled and send them money. It must be what they do in countries too poor to have Amway franchises. The funniest version I received was from someone that didn’t even know to remove "insert bank name here" from the letters text. For those that don’t know what this is about, its a scam-letter spammed out requesting money. It usually involves a dead or imprisoned weathly relative who requests their daughter or son to seek an American partner (lucky us) who’ll invest to free him or his funds from some entanglement. There are endless variations of this… a neighbor of mine once fell for the Nigerian Oil scam (invest to free up contracts in limbo and make 10 times your investment). Yeah right. He tried to get me to invest and I told him to go immediately to the District Attorney because he was being scammed.
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> Mike, > Take a couple photos of your ugly mug and send them to Grahame. See what he > can do with them. :-)
That my be a fun Sunday morning project. I could use the webpage photo but a high rez master to doctor with is always better. The de-rezing stage averages out to rough transitions without the need of a swabbing tool. The final lesson regarding posting photos is do you want to know someone somewhere as digitally pasted your head on some other photo?
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> For convenience, could you post your web address here. > You are correct it would be more meaningful to read the discussion and > view it at the same time. > Just the same I’d prefer to keep it anonymous on Usenet. I get enough > of the "spanish-prisoner-scam" emailed to my business address already. > Posting real world data here would only increase the spamming.
I’m still foolish enough to include my legitimate e-mail address at the bottom of each post, so if you don’t mind, please send me the URL there. I don’t have a web page yet. I’m designing one in my notebook, and good inspiration – especially with the design choices explained – is hard to find. This thread has been helpful in that regard. Thanks, Rob Campbell
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However, Mike isn’t selling a gadget. Mike’s selling himself. > His website’s URL makes this blatantly clear.
What nonsense. He’s selling business services. This is the sort of double-think that start-up advertising agencies and the dodgier sort of consultants promote when they can’t think of anything useful to contribute.
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> However, Mike isn’t selling a gadget. Mike’s selling himself. > His website’s URL makes this blatantly clear. > What nonsense. He’s selling business services.
A reasonable counterpoint, but… > This is the sort of > double-think that start-up advertising agencies and the dodgier sort > of consultants promote when they can’t think of anything useful to > contribute.
this doesn’t support your point at all. It is just a personal attack. His service generally doesn’t need selling – either people decide they need the service or they don’t. Once they decide they need it, then they have to decide _who_. An employee? An outside consultant? Which one? If you try to sell them on using a consultant and you succeed in your arguments, you still haven’t sold them on using you! So Scott has identified the correct emphasis.
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> However, Mike isn’t selling a gadget. Mike’s selling himself. > His website’s URL makes this blatantly clear. > What nonsense. He’s selling business services. This is the sort of > double-think that start-up advertising agencies and the dodgier sort of > consultants promote when they can’t think of anything useful to
contribute. I’ve been in business for thirty years, the last ten consulting, and I’ve always sold myself, not my business. My collateral materials have always been focused on what "I" do and "My" background. People don’t even remember the name of my company, and they always have to ask "To whom do I write this check?" So I don’t think that Scott is off base here. It works! Now, there is a certain point where selling yourself as opposed to selling business services gets out of hand, and that is something I have to watch. There are also some issues that Grahame mentioned in regards to this issue, regarding going after bigger corporate accounts and so forth, which I will definitely think about. (I have always worked with companies between $10 & $100M, and while Grahame’s comments about the big corporate accounts don’t mean much to my current model, there is a lot to consider, as the big companies (I think) have money too.) In the meantime, it is my plan to focus on "me" on this page, the work "I’ve" done, etc., because this has always worked. I am definitely open to experimenting with this, though, and may grab another URL sometime in the not too distant future and go for the "I’m a business not a person" approach. Mike
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> > My initial reaction is…. > MY EYES! MY EYES! I saw this horrible face and now I > cannot see! MY EYES!!!!! > Maybe I should just hire a model
I’d go with a hot Asian babe. However, I think you would be selling something else on your website then. *laugh* > Seriously, I think you should keep the photo on all > your pages. One of the biggest problems with > websites is they’re WAY too impersonal. > I agree. I’ve caught some comments from people in the > past about pics on every page appearing to be conceited, > and I don’t want to overdo it.
Mike, you’re selling yourself as your URL makes that very clear. If you were selling an inanimate object, I might agree with them, but you’re not. *whispers* Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone that you actually are. I personally like androids. ;-) > However, what I do suggest is that you have a different > mug shot for each page. Go and get a professional > digital photographer to do this for you. > It was a $500 camera (mine), and a friend of mine who is > a pretty damn good photographer. But in the end, shrinking > the photo didn’t work out too well, etc. etc., and we need to > do another photo shoot.
You need a pro. See my reply to Clytemnestra for more on this point. > Also think of where you can put in a full body shot of you > on a page. Let them see all of you. And, NO, I do NOT > mean without clothes! [Scott fights the image for the sake > of his sanity ... and fortunately wins ... though others here > will swear he didn't.] > I’ll save the cheesecake for my paysite
First, since you’re a guy, it’s beefcake and not cheesecake. Second, aaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!! The image! The image! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!! Make it go away! Make it go away! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!! > Think of what image you want and select > clothes that would present that. I’d probably > put this on at least your bio page … saying you > have one. > I have a bio I posted here some time back that was > pretty good, just after this group re-started (I think). > I should dig it up on google.
Since you’re basically selling yourself, I’d recommend you add this to your website. > If you want to look real professional, I’d > have you wear a three-piece suit for that > full-length shot on your bio page. > A suit, huh? I’m more one of those frizzy-haired > programmers Grahame was talking about in > another post. But, yah.
Just because you are something in real life doesn’t mean you should present that when you’re trying to sell yourself. Think of this as a job interview. It is very close to that. > And, I cannot help myself and got to say this. Mike, do > you know any business that isn’t "growth oriented"??? > :-) *laugh* > Yes. Computer consulting since around March of 2000.
What? They might be having a hard time, but they still want to grow. James Logajan is a perfect example of this. Go, Jim, go! > Well, those are just some off-the-cuff remarks. > Thanks!
No problem and good luck! Scott Jensen — Like a cure for A.I.D.S, Alzheimer, Parkinson, & Mad Cow Disease? Volunteer your computer for folding-protein research for when it’s idle. Go to http://www.distributedfolding.org/ to sign up your computer.
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> 4) Bring your entire wardrobe to the photo shoot.
Unnecessary in my opinion. We doctor our images so well we could our baby photos. You only need a photographer when you post serious resolution photos. On a website there is no pay-off using high-rez images – most webdesigners don’t really de-rez photos well. That used to be due to ignorance, but most justify these days by suggesting everyone has DSL/Cable bandwidth (infomation week says only 15%). On my consulting company’s webpage, we took a photo of my in the lab and doctored it up. I grew a tie, had my beard trimmed, washed out the research projects on the desk and replaced it with a paneled office background. When it was done the way we needed it… we shrunk it 4 fold to the targeted size and de-rez’s it so remove all the doctored remnants. Even if you blow the photo up you couldn’t tell what was original and what was not. This photo was accompaning my "Letter from the President". I said I’d try it out but had it removed a week later. Its simply not a good idea according to my MBA training. I use it for inner-office webpages only. Regarding doctoring photos… my sister came back from the Australia Olympics and was mailed a photo of she and her husband in front of the Sydney bridge. The only problem was, the company that hosted their trip mailed her the wrong photo – is was some other couple. She mailed me the photo and another photo she wanted clipped in of the correct couple. I did the masking, the size matching, the lighting adjustment, the repixelization and then the touchup. When it was in good shape, I reduced it fourfold and remapped the colors. She got it back in an email and took to to a fancy photo shop to get it printed for framing. No one has ever questioned its authenticity. I guess I got the assignment because I did an animated gif years ago wherein facial hair and eye counts toggled every second. Question from 2005: "What is a photographer?"
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> > Seriously, I think you should keep the photo on all your > pages. One of the biggest problems with websites is > they’re WAY too impersonal. Slapping a mug on them > enables people to connect with them. > Is there any value in mug-shots in advertisements, or are > they on par with photos of the factory?
It depends what you’re selling. If you’re selling a gadget, show the gadget in your ads. However, Mike isn’t selling a gadget. Mike’s selling himself. His website’s URL makes this blatantly clear. So for Mike it is very important that he show photos of himself since he’s the "gadget" he’s selling. As for the example I gave Mike that got far more results putting faces on their website than not, it was essentially a tech support business. It made sense showing their faces since people want to feel that they’ll be taken care of by real people and showing faces helps convey that. > David Ogilvie again: > When the client moans and sighs > Make his logo twice the size. > If he still should prove refractory > Show a picture of his factory. > Only in the gravest cases > Should you show the clients’ faces.
I rarely ever make business decisions based on how cute a poem rhythms. ;-) > Ogilvie’s point was not that there’s anything wrong with > photos of clients and factories, just that customers are > more interested in the product, and your advertising > space is usually better used in other ways. Not such a > big problem with web pages.
Again, it has everything to do with what you’re selling. > A problem with mug shots is that perceptions are so > hard to predict. There was a real estate agent here > who put himself out of business using his face as a > logo. He thought he looked honest; but most people > thought he was the very epitome of the guy you > wouldn’t buy a used car from.
This is partly why I recommended that Mike have a professional take his mug shots. Mike, if you’re reading this and I will assume you will be, I still recommend you get a pro to do your photo and not have your buddy do it. Yes, this is partly in reply to your reply to my reply to your original post. Hmmm. Say that ten times real fast. *laugh* A good professional photographer can get the lighting just right, do post-production touch-ups, know how to convey the mood/image you want the photo to present, etc. Yes, it does cost money, but it is money very well spent. Now I could rip apart your mug shot point by point, but I’d really rather not. It’s not a bad one, but simply not as good as it could be. A professional will get it to be the best it can be … and then some with post-production. ;-) As for which pro to hire, I recommend you: 1) Only get those that take digital photos. They understand the medium and its limitation. They’ll also get the photo into a computer file for you to easily insert into your website. If you use a traditional photographer, you might as well just take the photo yourself since you’ll be the one scanning in the photo to add it your website and the scanning process could easily mess up what the pro spent so long accomplishing. A true pro will know to look at your website, see the size limitations s/he will be working under, take note of the background colors, etc. There’s a lot of things they’ll be taking into consideration for your photo shoot and more than what I’ve just listed. 2) Don’t take their word for their ability nor believe their ads. Only believe their portfolios and little else. Ask to see their DIGITAL portfolio and don’t listen to their sales pitch as you look at it. Are these photos ones you like? Is there at least one that is along the lines of what you want yours to look like? Their portfolio is what they can do. They can always do worse but rarely better. Afterall, they know to only put their best work into their portfolio. You just need to listen to your gut on whether or not you like the work they’ve done. 3) When you find a pro whose work you like, discuss your website with them and show it to them. Don’t assume they’ll later visit it. Take them by the hand and show them it on their business computer. If you got a laptop, bring it and have your website on it in case the photographer’s business computer isn’t connected to the net. Be sure to discuss the background your photo will be appear on. I have reddish blonde hair. If I put on a red shirt, my hear looks basically red. If I put on a white shirt, my hair looks basically blonde. Get the idea? Unless you’re willing to dye your hair, you need to think what’s best for it as far as background goes. The pro will likely recommend a background color that will not make you look so washed-out. Now if you’re not willing to change the background, that’s probably fine. The pro will simply do the best s/he can do given that limitation. Oh, and if you are willing to change the background color, you only need to do this for the banner that it is in. Also, don’t be surprised the pro recommends a different color scheme for you URL since it is so big in your banner as it likely will also affect the reception of your photo. 4) Bring your entire wardrobe to the photo. Let the pro look them all over. Discuss what you have beforehand with her/him and they might recommend you buy some new shirts and ties for the shoot. Do it. Oh, and if they do, seriously consider making this your new color scheme for they’re picking those new colors for a reason. However, ask them about this since what is good for a photo shoot might not look good in-person. Good luck! Scott Jensen — Like a cure for A.I.D.S, Alzheimer, Parkinson, & Mad Cow Disease? Volunteer your computer for folding-protein research for when it’s idle. Go to http://www.distributedfolding.org/ to sign up your computer.
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> My initial reaction is…. > MY EYES! MY EYES! I saw this horrible face and now I cannot see! MY > EYES!!!!!
Maybe I should just hire a model > *laugh* > Seriously, I think you should keep the photo on all your pages. One of the > biggest problems with websites is they’re WAY too impersonal.
I agree. I’ve caught some comments from people in the past about pics on every page appearing to be conceited, and I don’t want to overdo it. > However, what I do suggest is that you have a different mug shot for each > page. Go and get a professional digital photographer to do this for you.
It was a $500 camera (mine), and a friend of mine who is a pretty damn good photographer. But in the end, shrinking the photo didn’t work out too well, etc. etc., and we need to do another photo shoot. > Also think of where you can put in a full body shot of you on a page. Let > them see all of you. And, NO, I do NOT mean without clothes! [Scott fights > the image for the sake of his sanity ... and fortunately wins ... though > others here will swear he didn't.]
I’ll save the cheesecake for my paysite > Think of what image you want and select > clothes that would present that. I’d probably put this on at least your bio > page … saying you have one.
I have a bio I posted here some time back that was pretty good, just after this group re-started (I think). I should dig it up on google. > If you want to look real professional, I’d > have you wear a three-piece suit for that full-length shot on your bio
page. A suit, huh? I’m more one of those frizzy-haired programmers Grahame was talking about in another post. But, yah. > As for your font … hmmm … I’d look into getting better stuff. A bit > more smooth.
I agree. I’d like to get some more business so that I can make a significant investment into hiring a graphic artist to do some of this stuff for me. > I’d switch the position of "Newsletter Archive" and "How To Grow your > Successful business". On the "How To…", you need to pick a capitalization > scheme and stick with it.
OK. > I’d get rid of the two red growth charts. The one on the right also needs a > headline … unless you really want just your name to be a headline.
I’m not too pleased with some of the clip art, but I looked around pretty hard and used the best stuff I could find. I didn’t catch that I had used that chart twice. Originally it was just text in the upper-right-hand corner, but it threw the page out of balance. > And, I cannot help myself and got to say this. Mike, do you know any > business that isn’t "growth oriented"??? :-) *laugh*
Yes. Computer consulting since around March of 2000. > Well, those are just some off-the-cuff remarks.
Thanks! Mike
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> http://miketurco.com/snew
First, I’d advise removing the photo. Its a good photo but the its better to appear as a impersonal business machine. People looking to hire your services don’t want distractions from their problems, they want to see that your company can solve them… any distractions are dangerous. If you need a web-placeholder where the picture is, do a drawing of a PC-Man (monitor headed cartoon man). No one will pay attention to it but they’ll notice it and get the message that you are a computer-man and that’s what they want. I like the digital screen background. It looks real professional and computer-tech. What bothers me most about the set of pages is the imbalance of content in the columns. Most content is in the center column which appears on my browser as the thinnest… making the page scroll excessively on the high content pages with empty columns to the left and right. SERVICES page is an example. It would be better to use a rectangular block for those sidelines and re-expand the content below. The clip-art is good, I wasn’t distracted by the re-use of the graph. I’m not all that pleased with the color selection, you might ask some artist friend to advise on that. I’d suggest when dealing with background colors that you should lighten them to the edge of discernability. Keeping a page light help people read it and avoids more so the feeling of "heavy content". I really don’t like a CENTERED webpage. I know the reasons for doing that but I’ve always slammed mine right up against the left margin, removed the browser built in spacing top and left and locked the page width. It tends to make the website look more like a part of the web-browser than a website floating in its display window. I also force the link colors so they don’t stickout annoying in purples and blues that may not match the color scheme of your page. If its part of your pages’ appearance, control it. I make my linkes in the same color as my text, even old links. The underlines identify them as links, though I personally disable that feature. I prefer mouse disclosure to links from text. Usually the context clearly identifies imbedded links. Another problem I have is that your company is Think Tank Consulting yet your website name and banner is MikeTurco.com. This just creates confusion and makes the professional viewer think your in the early stages of web presence and self-absorbed. Think Tank Consulting is more powerful in a business context and that’s what you are really pitching, not your Mother’s son. I find it distracting that pages are titled "About Mike Turco" instead of "About Think Tank Consulting". I understand that you can be pitching yourself as a one-man consultantcy, but it raises so bad questions in the mind of someone that might hire you. Focus on an individual and tiny businesses may hire you… large corporations might not simply because you revealed too much, unnecessarily. I do like that the very top of your page is identical on each page… this makes for better page transitions. Three column design is hot in webdesign too… though content balance needs to be imposed there. I use three columns thus: Left top is logo, left margin is logo matching navigation buttons. Top is banner and contact info (on every page). I find companies overlook the advantages of having contact info always visible and I’m surprised how many professional sites hide their contact info. Left margin is usually 15% width. Right margin is non-existent or 10%. I use the right margin for drill-down text links for product information or such. I use it on other pages for a vertical text banner that I change every month with some catching phrase. I have one annimation on the page. It sits dormant next to bulleted list with the product tradename for about 20 seconds and then kicks in with a question on the minds of every buyer looking at the page. It then answers to question graphically and quickly so that they have to wait till it comes around again for another look. Most of the page is wide content in short paragraphs with Big titles to allow convenient scanning. High on the page is a yellow highlighted lists of buyer questions that just happen to be things our product can address. I follow that below the animation mentioned with a point by point solution to each of those questions, highlighted here in a green. Something new I’ve added this month to increase search engine performance: At the bottom of my first page, below the text jumps and normal horizontal divisions I’ve attached about 2x the length to that point as MORE INFORMATION: in which I include many of the selling points mentioned on subsequent pages. This allows my to utilize all the keywords and new search phrases I want on the main arrival page. I start each of these short paragraphs with a repeating icon and each is targeted to a customers needs. Anyone scanning through the first page in a quick assessment to stay or go, can quickly find themselves and how we make they job easier. I have another new trick I’ll write about some other time.
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My initial reaction is…. MY EYES! MY EYES! I saw this horrible face and now I cannot see! MY EYES!!!!! *laugh* Seriously, I think you should keep the photo on all your pages. One of the biggest problems with websites is they’re WAY too impersonal. Slapping a mug on them enables people to connect with them. One of my clients "slightly" disagreed with me on this point. It was easy to resolve. I had him get his webmaster make two versions of the company website and had the public randomly accessed one or the other. One had at least one mug shot on each page of one of their actual employees (and their title under their image) that is in charge of that area being discussed on the page. The feedback page had their Director of Customer Service, their technical info pages had their Director of IT, etc. The other version was a freshened up version of their "faceless" website. They also installed a way to separately track results on the two. Guess which one got FOURTEEN times as many online purchases? :-) However, what I do suggest is that you have a different mug shot for each page. Go and get a professional digital photographer to do this for you. No, your kid and the digital camera he got out of the Captain Crunch cereal box won’t do. Put on a different shirt and tie for each so there’s no mistaking that it’s a different mug shot. Alternate it from one side to the other. In other words, keep you silly grin there but give some variety. Oh, I’d also consider going to a barber and getting that beard a little more under control. ;-) Also think of where you can put in a full body shot of you on a page. Let them see all of you. And, NO, I do NOT mean without clothes! [Scott fights the image for the sake of his sanity ... and fortunately wins ... though others here will swear he didn't.] Think of what image you want and select clothes that would present that. I’d probably put this on at least your bio page … saying you have one. If you want to look real professional, I’d have you wear a three-piece suit for that full-length shot on your bio page. If you want to present a warm friendly image, I’d wear a sweater. If you want to present a hard-working image, I’d wear a suit minus the jacket, roll up the sleeves a bit, and your call on whether to wear the vest or not (in other words, if you’ve got a spare tire, wear a vest). For all your photos, if you’re a "bit" overweight, suck in your gut for the shoot. As for your font … hmmm … I’d look into getting better stuff. A bit more smooth. I’d switch the position of "Newsletter Archive" and "How To Grow your Successful business". On the "How To…", you need to pick a capitalization scheme and stick with it. I’d get rid of the two red growth charts. The one on the right also needs a headline … unless you really want just your name to be a headline. And, I cannot help myself and got to say this. Mike, do you know any business that isn’t "growth oriented"??? :-) *laugh* Well, those are just some off-the-cuff remarks. Good luck! Scott Jensen — Like a cure for A.I.D.S, Alzheimer, Parkinson, & Mad Cow Disease? Volunteer your computer for folding-protein research for when it’s idle. Go to http://www.distributedfolding.org/ to sign up your computer.
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Looks good to me. Great testimonials. > I’ve been working on my web page for the past few days and have finally > pulled together a rough draft. [ ... ] > Other than that, have at it! What do you think? How can I improve the > page? > http://miketurco.com/snew
[ Excessive quoted text trimmed by moderator. -JimL ]
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> Seriously, I think you should keep the photo on all your pages. One of the > biggest problems with websites is they’re WAY too impersonal. Slapping a > mug on them enables people to connect with them.
Ironically, at about the same time you were posting this, we were having a discussion here on exactly the same point, prompted by some silly advertisements in our local Yellow Pages. Is there any value in mug-shots in advertisements, or are they on par with photos of the factory? David Ogilvie again: When the client moans and sighs Make his logo twice the size. If he still should prove refractory Show a picture of his factory. Only in the gravest cases Should you show the clients’ faces. Ogilvie’s point was not that there’s anything wrong with photos of clients and factories, just that customers are more interested in the product, and your advertising space is usually better used in other ways. Not such a big problem with web pages. A problem with mug shots is that perceptions are so hard to predict. There was a real estate agent here who put himself out of business using his face as a logo. He thought he looked honest; but most people thought he was the very epitome of the guy you wouldn’t buy a used car from.
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I’ve been working on my web page for the past few days and have finally pulled together a rough draft. I realize there are a lot of typo’s, perhaps a few broken links, etc. I thought I’d post the page on in a "secret" location on my site and get some early feedback. – I am doing some re-targeting of my services. New product development is doing OK, but I see a lot more opportunity, right now, in doing what I was focusing on a couple years back, which is computer consulting for businesses as well as office automation. – I consider the web page to be a second source of information for potential clients, but the fact is that I have gotten some good leads recently from my existing page, straight from the Internet, and there’s nothing wrong with that! Actually, I’m not clear on what I would do different on the page, anyway, to address the difference between the two types of clients. My thought is that the page should just be good collateral material, and whether I introduce a potential customer to the page, or somebody happens across it themselves shouldn’t make a difference. – There are a couple of pages I would like to change but can’t, because I don’t want to screw myself on the search engine rankings. Specifically, the key drawer page and the armory database page have both brought in a couple of really good leads, from companies who found me on google. – I will mention it before somebody else does, I don’t like the fact that my mug is on every page. I realize that I have to come up with a new banner, and will then keep the current banner with my picture on just the home and about pages. – The "how to succeed" link on the right-hand side is going to go through some major revisions. I’m considering offering a coaching-type service for consultants. What I have there may not make much sense right now, as it isn’t targeted, and the information it provides seems out of place (for now). Other than that, have at it! What do you think? How can I improve the page? http://miketurco.com/snew Thanks, Mike