Here are some tips for creating a “successful” website:

1. TRAFFIC- Just having a website doesn’t mean that people will know it exists. You need to make sure it is “highly visible” to YOUR POTENTIAL CLIENTS. This involves generating traffic to your website.  The most common way of doing this is through Search Engine Optimization or SEO.  This is a key element to long term success. There are a number of methods to generate traffic to your site, such as:  (a) print and online  advertising; (b) using Social Media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Linked In to spread the word;  (c) building an e-mail list;  (d) blogging; (e) podcasting; (f) posting videos; (g) bookmark sharing; (h) article marketing; (i) buzz marketing.

But generating “visits” to your website is meaningless unless those “visits” are from TARGETED visitors who have a potential interest in what you have to sell.

2. CONVERSIONS (CONTENT)- Once at your site, you need to engage the user and have them take an action. Either contact you, remember you or make a purchase. This involves effective, convincing COPY. The words that will be used to sell or motivate your prospect to take action. These words can come in a few forms: a) written words b) words in a video you may have on your site. c) words in an audio on your site d) any combination of a-c.

The critical component of copywriting is something that most site owners forget about or do not budget properly for.  A good copywriter who can create engaging words and stimulate your site’s visitors to take action does not come cheaply. But they are often worth far more than what you pay them in terms of your long term return on investment.

Search Engine spiders love to see a site that has fresh and ever changing content. It shows that the site is alive and has activity.

3. FOLLOW THROUGH – So, you have your customer hooked on the line. They’ve found your site and been convinced to take an action. Just like in fishing, it isn’t over until they’re reeled in and on the boat in the cooler.
Let’s say you’ve come as far as capturing their name, address and phone number. How well do you respond to and treat that lead? This is the same whether you have a website or a brick-and-mortar business.

After the sale has been made, I’ve seen countless businesses lose a critical marketing opportunity by failing to Follow Up with the client and take some basic steps such as asking for referrals or getting a testimonial.  Even more businesses lose the opportunities afforded by developing a long term relationship with their clients. It’s a well known fact in the marketing world that

4. MEASUREMENT - I’ve been in marketing for a number of years and am constantly surprised by the number of business owners who have little clue as to how their customers came to do business with them and what their customers thought of the experience.

You need a system in place to measure your success and failures and analyze them, taking appropriate actions to constantly refine your methods to make them better and increase your rate of success. This will help insure that your website and your business will be there for the long haul.

In Conclusion, let me point out that I offer SOLUTIONS to all the pitfalls pointed out above. I’d love the chance to work with you to help create a long term success for your website and your business.

We made extensive customizations to this Delphi based product. This involved an intensive period of training for the programming team to learn the internal structure of the product.  I also led a number of training sessions teaching the team the basics of Delphi.

Additionally, I developed a custom module for Sales Logix and a series of Excel macros and VBA modules which facilitated the exchange of data between a large number of custom spreadsheets used by the sales force and Sales Logix.  This saved hours of re-keying and preserved the accuracy and integrity of the data.

This was an especially difficult and challenging project.  I was approached with an urgent need by a contracting firm I had worked with several times. They needed someone with mainframe, PC and Web knowledge to replace a contractor who had walked off the job as the project was nearing completion.

Only after I arrived and was being asked some curious questions did I find out that I was replacing an internationally acclaimed expert in the field. A published author who had made several presentations at conferences across the globe. Needless to say, I had a steep learning curve to catch up with my predecessor.  In addition to a four hour “commute.”

Despite all the cards stacked against me, I did what it took to successfully complete the task and got a nice little bonus from the firm for an outstanding job.

The entire project took nearly a year. My role involved leading the Data Mapping efforts between all tables/fields related to Patient Census and Patient Accounting. In addition, I created or redesigned  about 20 reports on the IBM side to corresponding to existing report formats on the Honeywell side.