It’s clear (or it should be clear) that your company needs a business blog. And you don’t need to be a professional writer or blogger to maintain your business blog—you’re a knowledgeable professional; just write what you know.

But even the most knowledgeable professional occasionally runs out of ideas. If your Write About This list is running dry, here are a few instant sources of blog post ideas that will get your fingers flying again in no time.

Find out what your customers what they want to know, and tell them.

You don’t have to set up a fancy pop-up poll to get valuable feedback. Just check with your customer service representatives (or your own email inbox). If customer service is telling you they answer the same question a few times a month, consolidate those answers into a blog post! Not only does this solve your immediate content problem, but you can save your own workers’ time by giving them a useful resource to direct these inquiries toward rather than writing an essay for each person asking.

I do this frequently myself. Our copyrighting division receives countless questions about exactly what constitutes copyright infringement. I asked our order processor to give me a few of the common ones, and I wrote a blog post about it. (Then, a few weeks later, I got some more feedback from our copyrighting division and wrote another one—bonus! Your customer’s inquiries are a stream of blog topics that will never run dry.)

This leads us to another point to keep in mind when you’re considering blog post ideas:

Blog posts don’t need to directly translate into sales.

Blog too much about your specific services and offerings, and your blog itself becomes just another extension of your website: great for SEO in that you’re continuously updating content and putting good keywords out there, but not so great for your readers. (If they want to know about your services and products, they’d be looking at your website—right?)

Our copyrighting division doesn’t provide legal advice, nor do we provide services to musicians with copyrighted material who believe their work is being infringed upon. But our customers have shared their concerns and misunderstandings about copyright infringement with us, and we responded by doing some research and providing that information to them.

Blogging about what your customers want to know, rather than solely yourself, places you in a position to gain customer respect and become known for your helpful advice. You may not make an immediate sale as a direct result, but customer loyalty and respect is an excellent first step!

Don’t assume that every reader is an expert in your industry.

Here at Click Industries, we’ve come to understand that our business filings division attracts two main groups of clients: busy corporate professionals who just don’t have the time or desire to track down and draft paperwork to register a DBA or a foreign corporation, and brand new entrepreneurs, excited about their new business opportunity and bewildered by the myriad requirements and options.

While we don’t tell people what they should be doing in their specific situations (this would constitute legal advice—one of the reasons we’re able to keep our prices so low), we do provide general information to our customers so that they can make good, informed decisions about their businesses (in consultation with their lawyers, of course).

While our website language is designed to be informative to small business owners in all stages of their entrepreneurial journey, the blog is an excellent place to go into detail above and below that level of understanding. We’re able to spend one blog post on accounting software, and the next exploring the basics of corporate bylaws.

Your non-industry family and friends are great sources of feedback in this department. Find a volunteer and have him or her read your last few blog posts. If they’re scratching their heads halfway through the first one, ask them to explain what’s confusing them, and write a blog post on the very basics. Sure, some of your readers will already know—but you might provide valuable clarification to a whole other level of readers (as well as a refresher course for the rest).

You can’t go wrong with a Top Ten list.

Really. It’s scientifically proven. (Or it should be, anyway.)

Your list could be anything. Start jotting down some ideas: top ten best _______, top ten worst _______, top ten ways to _______ . . . the list goes on. And with an introduction, an annotated list of bullet points, and a conclusion, you’ve got yourself a complete blog post before you know it!

Just start writing!

If all else fails, it might be time for some good old-fashioned stream-of-consciousness writing. (Hey, it got me through my undergrad English classes!) You know your industry. Put your fingers to the keyboard and just start writing until you can’t write anymore. Then, skim what you’ve done, isolate your strongest cohesive thought or idea, and expand on it until it’s a blog post (and, of course, save the rest of your musings for later inspiration)!

 

Happy writing!

TAGS: blog ideas, blog post, business blog, content, customers, top ten list

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As “website” isn’t yet recognized by the US Copyright Office as a category of work, there are a lot of false assumptions floating around out there about exactly how to correctly copyright a website. Some of those assumptions land close to the mark—others, not so much. Since your copyright protection dates from when the Copyright Office receives your correct application, protecting your company’s website depends on you being able to separate fact from fiction. Below are a few myths about registering copyrights for websites that just don’t hold water.

Myth: If you register your URL with the Copyright Office, the entire page is protected.—FALSE

There are a few things wrong with this assumption. The first is that if you don’t give the Copyright Office a copy of exactly what you want protected, they can’t register it; if you simply tell the Copyright Office that you have a website, there will be no proof of the content itself that you can use to bring an infringement suit. And not only that, there are certain things that cannot be protected by copyright: names, short phrases, titles—and website addresses.

Myth: If you register a copyright for your website with the Copyright Office, any subsequently added content is automatically protected.—FALSE

Just as in the first example, in order for the Copyright Office to register your work, they need a copy of that work. It’s like adding a chapter to a book, after you’ve already copyrighted the book, but failing to register the new content. Logic dictates that the version of your website you send in is the only version that is protected by registration, and so does copyright law.

Myth: If you register a copyright for the section of your website that includes images of your products, you’re registering your products.—FALSE

Let’s think about this one in terms of photography copyrights in general. I can go to the Pacific Ocean, take a lovely picture, and register my copyright. But what am I copyrighting? It isn’t the subject—I can’t copyright the Pacific Ocean. It’s the photograph itself. If I register a copyright for that photograph, that doesn’t mean that no one is allowed to take another picture of the Pacific Ocean. It means that no one can use my photograph of it.

Therefore, if you register a copyright for a picture of a pair of pants, it’s the picture itself that is being registered for copyright protection. The pants themselves have no more copyright protection than the Pacific Ocean.

Myth: If your website is open to user comments, and one of those users posts someone else’s copyrighted material without their permission, you are not legally accountable.—FALSE…sometimes.

You may have heard of the Safe Harbor Act, a subsection of the Digial Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, which limits the liability of an online service provider—that’s you—when a user improperly posts copyrighted material. However, what you may not be aware of is that there is no safety in that harbor unless you follow certain requirements to the letter. For more information, take a look at the DMCA FAQ provided by Chilling Effects.

If you’re thinking about registering a copyright for your website, look no further! Click and Copyright provides quick, affordable copyright registrations.

TAGS: copyright a website, copyright myths, copyright registrations, url

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The proper amount of effort to put into all things web-related has come up in conversation quite a bit lately. I was recently talking with my dad about a friend of his who doesn’t put much effort into his website and how that may hurt his business. On the other hand, is it possible to put too much effort into your website? Can that hurt your business too?

Absolutely! The Web is everywhere. All of our customers use the web to start their businesses with us. (And we’re honored!) But that doesn’t mean that, as a new business owner, you should be dumping your resources into your company’s web presence.

There are countless companies out there anxious to take your money to give you a quick, easy website. When you add up the costs of a domain, hosting, and even the most basic template-based website service you’re likely looking at committing to hundreds of dollars worth of expenses. Now consider the time that you’re throwing at these tactics – it takes lots of time to develop your website, even using WordPress or a similar service.

Aside from your website proper there are facebook, Twitter, blogs, Linked-In, advertising options, craigslist, STOP STOP STOP STOP STOP!

It’s not that these things are bad – they’re definitely not – it’s just that there’s a slippery slope here that can lead small business owners to lose sight of their core business by getting bogged down with all-things-web. It starts with an evening at the computer, which leads to a day spent writing content for your website, and then it’s been a week and you’re still tweaking things and during all of that time what have you really done to help your business grow?

Putting your company online will not make your business great. It can help, but it’s not the be-all, end-all solution. For small businesses, word of mouth is likely still the best way to get discovered. For almost all businesses it holds true that past customers are your best future customers (worthy of a separate post).

My recommendation is to figure out the right measure of Web for your business and to really set some boundaries. Maybe set some mileposts along the way (when I get five clients, I’ll hire someone to do my website). With the possible exception of web developers, your website only offers a limited peak inside your business and what makes you great and should not consume more of your resources than such a limited peak warrants.

Once you decide to dive in, be smart about it too! It doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Here are some simple steps to setting up a good website for a reasonable price:

• Get a good domain! If your business is Sally’s Sea Shells, try for sallysseashells.com. Many domains are still unregistered and can be snatched up for $15 or less.
• Find a trustworthy developer. They don’t have to be the top of the line – finding a student on Craigslist can work wonders. You just want someone comfortable with setting up your hosting and installing things directly to the server.
• Install a CMS, or Content Management System such as WordPress or Joomla. These will let you leverage a template for a quick start to your website without having to invest in a designer.
• Use a widget to allow customers to share your website socially, through facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon and more. Let your customers do the work for you!

Good luck!

TAGS: business website, craigslist, home business, starting a website, website design

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Let’s say you’re a customer, and you’re doing a Google search for a particular product or service. You’ll likely come up with a long list of companies to choose from (listed in order of Google’s page rank, among other factors). We all know the drill: click into a listing, scan it to determine its usefulness to you (which, for the average consumer, is an opinion initially formed not on content but on user-friendliness), and, if you’re annoyed with or confused by a website, chances are you’ll stop right there and try the next link down. Sure, you’re taking the chance that you might miss out on a company that’s a great match for you—but if the website itself doesn’t inspire you, you’re not going to spend long enough on an overwhelming website to find out if the company behind it is equally uninspiring. You’ve already crossed it off.

Graphics: Less Is More

Entrepreneur success-story Mark Levine said it best; he periodically does background research on competitors’ companies and their websites, and of a particularly egregious sensory overload of a website, he said, “When I look at this site, I feel like I’m in the middle of Times Square outside Crazy Eddie’s Electronics store, and some guy wearing a huge gold chain is trying to entice me to come inside.” The flashing lights from Part 1? Not meant to be taken literally. Unless you’re selling stage lighting or rave equipment, please, please skip the flashing lights.

Since there’s only one chance to make a first impression (and with websites, if you blow that you’ll likely never have a chance for a second), every design or layout decision you make should be filtered through the desire not to overwhelm potential customers. If you bombard them with pictures and animation, you’ll irritate them into leaving before you have a chance to wow them with your services.

To Optimize or Not to Optimize

Let the decision you made back back in Part 1 about how visitors will find your site dictate the design of your website. Without getting too in-depth (the ins and outs of Internet traffic could fill a whole library)—if you decided that you were going to direct existing customers to your website, you don’t need to worry much about optimizing your website (translation: setting up your site in such a way that customers can find it via Google or other search engine). If, on the other hand, you expect customers to be able to find your website by doing a search for the products you offer, you’ll want your website to be optimized.

Hire a Pro

A good designer can make or break your website experience. Find someone who has experience with Photoshop, HTML, and CSS, and basic familiarity with jQuery, JavaScript, or a CMS (content management system) like WordPress. If you don’t want a full-time employee, use CraigsList or check with your local networks. It’s a buyer’s market when it comes to finding design help, and you shouldn’t have any problems finding the perfect help designing your website.

 

[This completes our series, which began with Part 1: Gathering Data and Part 2: Making a Plan.]

TAGS: business website, mark levine, website design

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You know who your customers are. You know where to find them. You know your product. But before you get ahead of yourself, sit down with a pencil and paper. It’s time to do some organizational planning.

Decide What’s Most Important

Think about the information that most of your visitors will get the most out of. They’ll probably want to readily access your location, as well as a contact number and email address. They might want to review the span of your products or services. They might want a brief history of your company. Depending on your specific area of business, your customers may want to be able to access a pricing guide, previous customers’ testimonials, the history of your company, or your Better Business Bureau rating. The goal is to anticipate the common questions visitors will have when accessing your website, and to deliver that information to them cleanly and intuitively.

Organization: Don’t Be Confusing

Now that you’ve come up with all of these great ideas for content, you’re going to want to put as much of it on your homepage, out there in plain view, as possible—right? Wrong. Remember this: white space is your friend.

Think about the billboard we made in Part 1. Billboards contain very few words for one simple reason: drivers-by can only take in so much information at a time. Think of your website in these terms: your visitors will quickly scan the page and make a snap decision—they’ll either leave immediately, or they’ll stop the car and pull over and take a gander.

It helps to think of your website as one big, logically organized filing system. The greatest content in the world isn’t going to matter if it’s hard for your visitors to find what they’re trying to find. The content of a great website isn’t all crammed in one place—it lies tucked away in (hopefully) the very spot visitors would look for it. No one should have to click more than a few times, if that, to figure out what your company offers or how to contact you.

The Three C’s: Clean, Coherant Copy

There’s bad news, and there’s good news. The bad news: regardless of what you’re selling—gutters, pet care, interior design, you name it—and regardless of how little spelling and grammar have to do with your product, customers are inherantly attracted to a company that knows how to put its best face forward. If your website is strewn with typos and broken links, visitors will conclude that you’ll give them the same attention that you give your website or deliver a product at a similar level of quality.

The good news: You don’t need to be an expert in everything. Always have a second set of eyes go over anything—websites or otherwise—that your potential customers are going to see. If you’re not sure how to start, there are plenty of companies out there who can provide clean, professional, polished copy. We love Legal Research Center, because no matter what stage of the game you’re in, they can pick up wherever you left off. Just hand them your notes and watch your website come to life!

Budget

You’re probably already aware that you’re going to have to pay someone to design your website, but depending on your options, there are other costs you’ll need to keep in mind. Do you already have a domain name? Are you using your own images or stock photography, or do you need to license your images? Do you already have a logo, or will someone need to create one from scratch—or tweak it so it looks as great on a website as it does on your letterhead? Will you copyright your website? If you’re integrating social media, who is going to be maintaining it? Are you using a shared server or a dedicated server? Will you be relying on organic traffic (SEO), paying for ads (SEM), or simply pointing existing customers to your site? All of these answers are going to affect your bottom line, so be aware.

 

[This series, which began with Part 1: Gathering Data, continues with Part 3: Designing Your Website.]

TAGS: business website, website organization

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Imagine you’re building a billboard. Not just putting an advertisement on one—building one from scratch. Every decision is yours. How do you start? Maybe you start with the size. You make it huge, big enough to attract the attention of anyone who gets close. And flashy. Let’s have it flash blue, or green—or, we could make one of those fancy new billboards that oscillate between three or four different screens; then we can make it blue and green. Add a few frills and some copy—there! We’ve got the greatest billboard this side of awesome, and there’s no way this billboard isn’t going to capture the hearts and minds of a new generation.

Except that the new generation doesn’t even see your billboard. You got too excited about your project and skipped a few steps, right past the part where you find out what people want to see and how to bring it to their attention. You didn’t find out where the traffic was before you built, so your brand new billboard is sitting on the opposite side of town from where these blue-and-green-flash-loving members of the new generation you’re looking for do their checking out of billboards, where people like orange much more than blue and green—static orange, at that, none of this flashing—and your fantastic billboard failed to make any headway at all.

Obviously (I hope), you’re not going to be building any serious websites with blue and green flashing lights. But if this anectdote tells you anything, I hope it’s that you need to be able to reach your target demographic.

So how do you start? First: define your demographic. What are you selling? Who’s going to want it? How is it going to benefit their life? What other products or services do these people use? Who are these people? If you aren’t able to answer these questions, you need to spend some serious time thinking about who your customers are—objectively—where they are and how they’re going to respond to you. There are a lot of ways to do this, and because websites are such huge factors in today’s business world (when’s the last time you made a decision about a company based solely on the yellow pages?), it’s well worth consulting a pro.

Once you know who your customers are, the next step is to decide how you’re going to reach them. The first question is—are you showing people your website, or do you expect them to find you?

In other words, are you handing out fliers with your URL (the website address) on them, so that people can go to your site specifically? Is your goal to give your existing customers a central location where you can provide information about your business, thus eliminating the need to mail out brochures and other printed materials? If so, your strategy is simple: just register a memorable URL, and tell everyone about it. On the other hand, if you’re counting on people who have never heard of you to stumble upon your website by searching for specific words, it’s a whole different ballgame.

There’s not much Google does that isn’t breathtaking, and Insights is no exception. Insights is a fantastic, free tool that shows you the amount of keywords searched in a given period—the terminology your potential consumers are using to find what they’re looking for. Among the most basic of its functions is identifying popular keywords so that you can discard those that aren’t going to be useful; you can harness that knowledge and use it to bring people to you.

Consider the garbanzo bean. That’s what I grew up calling them, and so I might build my website around the idea that it should be optimized for the phrase “garbanzo beans.” But wait—they’re also called chick peas, aren’t they? How can I be sure that I’m not flashing my blue and green lights at the orange folk? With Insights, I don’t have to guess. A few clicks and I had this in front of me:

It’s clear, even to the least marketing-savvy among us, that in order to reach more people, I probably want to talk about chick peas. Had I gone with my gut and not taken the time to do my research, I could be missing out on potential revenue.

The frequency of various terminology is by no means the only data you need—this is one example. But many new entrepreneurs shoot themselves in the foot by relying too much on a website that isn’t being utilized to its full potential. Contrary to popular belief, building it doesn’t necessarily mean they will come. But if you put some time into thinking about who your consumers are, what they need, and how you can help them—they might at least notice you. It’s a first step, but it’s a big one.

[This series continues in Part 2: Marking a Plan and Part 3: Designing Your Website.]

TAGS: business website, starting a website

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