The web site series continues:
* All About Web Sites (MM blog)
* Website Series, Day 1: Message & Image
* Website Series, Day 1: Follow-Up Q & A
* Website Series, Day 2: Marketing
* Website Series, Day 3: User Interaction & Content
* Website Series, Day 4: Aesthetics & Usability
* Website Series, Day 5: Hosting & Technology
* Website Series, Day 6: Administration

(REMINDER: I’m discussing for the first time ever, my real-life Creative Brief I send to all potential clients. This is proprietary information, so please don’t copy anything I say without asking and/or providing credit.)

The next section on the Creative Brief questionnaire is USER INTERACTION & CONTENT.

Get out your pen and paper!

1. What is the one initial action you wish your target user to take from the home page of your web site?

The key here is two fold. First, whatever the whole point of the web site is, the user should be able easily follow through. Secondly, easy means easy for the user! Put that action right on the home page. The least amount of clicking the visitor has to do to get where you want them, the better.

Examples of desired visitor actions: click to view site map, read a story excerpt, view a trailer, comment on a blog post, email, call, sign guest book, purchase newest release, etc.

2. What is the primary action you wish your target user to take before leaving your web site? Is this the same action? Why or why not?

Perhaps the one thing you want them to do when they come to your home page is read all the awesome five star reviews you’ve been getting for your new release. Then, once they’re suitably wowed, you want them to buy the book before they continue surfing elsewhere.

So guess what? “Buy now” capabilities better be within clicking distance of all your new release marketing content!

Or maybe you’ve got a blog, not a traditional web site. The number one thing you want the visitor to do when the visit might be to read that day’s post. And the number one thing you want them to do before leaving might be to comment on that post.

So what do you do? You not only make commenting easy (most blog programs put a link right below or beside the post–make sure you don’t obfuscate the purpose of the link with overly clever re-wording!) but also give the reader a call to action at the end of your post, such as, “What do YOU think about circus carnies with dreadlocks and great teeth?”

3. List key elements or information you wish to have available on every page or section.

I’m going to put on my autocratic dictatorship hat and tell you a few I think are important.

Number one, you should have links to (at the very least) all the main sections of your web site present throughout. The reder should be able to get to anywhere, from anywhere. If you visit Amazon.com, for example, they’ve got access to all 42 primary shopping categories on every single page.

Number two, don’t hide your contact info. If you’re the regional Pampered Chef coordinator, consider having your phone number on the top of every page. Perhaps your email link is to the side or bottom of every page. If you prefer a contact form, make sure the link to that form is present on every page. Do not make the visitor hunt to find a way to interact with you or they will not interact with you.

Number three, if you have a large site with too much content to be able to link to every page from every other page, then create a comprehensive site map and link to that on every page.

Number four, if the primary actions you listed in questions 1 and 2 are not related to contacting you or navigating the web site, consider putting a method of acheiving those goals on every page. At the very least, every page should have a link to whichever page does let the visitor achieve those goals.

4. How many pages or sections (approximately) will your completed web site contain? Please list them below, and be sure to indicate which will be static, plain text pages and which will be dynamic, database-driven pages or shopping cart pages. Please indicate whether the emphasis on each page is high, medium, or low.

This is where you’d say something like, “I want six web pages. The home page will be of highest importance, with database-driven content displaying a different book cover each time the page is loaded, along with the appropriate reviews and buy now button. The contact page will have a form to email me, a form to email my agent, and a form to sign up for my newsletter. All three forms will allow the user to opt in to my reader database. The Books page will have 3 sub-pages for each of my 3 continuity series. Those pages will be static, containing unchanging book plates and back-cover blurbs.”

Or whatever. But you get the idea!

5. If this site will contain e-commerce, will you be using a free service such as PayPal? Do you have a merchant account through your bank instead? Do you have an online credit card processor? Please explain.

Let’s say you want to sell your books from your web site. How are you going to do so? Maybe you’ll link directly to Amazon or straight to your e-publisher. Or maybe you have a stack of them at home next to your dresser and you literally want to sell them yourself.

You might use a free or low-cost service like PayPal. You might set up a merchant account with your bank for true real-time credit card processing. Either way, you must know this in advance so your web programmer can develop the site accordingly.

6. What is the basic structure of the content, and how is it organized? Is there a content flowchart? If so, please provide.

While you do not need to have a graphical representation of your web site’s content structure, you should be able to provide the web developer with the detailed page hierarchy so your navigational system can be developed accordingly and all your pages link correctly.

Here is an example of what a flow chart might look like:

7. Will the web site use existing content? If so, what is the source and who is responsible for approval?

This means, will you be writing your content yourself? Do you need a copywriter to create the text for you or tweak your existing content? Do you have an intern, assistant, or helper monkey who will be writing and updating the content?

However you decide to do it and whomever is in charge, the web developer will need to work closely with that person to understand the amount, content, and layout of the text for your web pages.

YOUR TURN: Have you ever been to a web site where it was difficult to locate contact information or hard to find a way to do whatever brought you to the web site in the first place? Or web sites where there really wasn’t much to do there at all, especially if you’ve already visited once? What are some ways typical visitor tasks could be made easier, more accessible, and more intuitive? What are some examples of content that would keep a visitor coming back?

The web site series continues:

* All About Web Sites (MM blog)
* Website Series, Day 1: Message & Image
* Website Series, Day 1: Follow-Up Q & A
* Website Series, Day 2: Marketing
* Website Series, Day 3: User Interaction & Content
* Website Series, Day 4: Aesthetics & Usability
* Website Series, Day 5: Hosting & Technology
* Website Series, Day 6: Administration

(REMINDER: I’m discussing for the first time ever, my real-life Creative Brief I send to all potential clients. This is proprietary information, so please don’t copy anything I say without asking and/or providing credit.)

The next section on the Creative Brief questionnaire is MARKETING.

Get out your pen and paper!

Oh, and remember–Marketing is an entire college major and a high-demand career, so there’s no way I can be anything resembling comprehensive in a single blog post, much less one page of a questionnaire. =)

Without further ado:

1. What position/image would you like your company/service/brand to hold in the minds of consumers? Are there resource, budget, or time limitations that may affect this goal?

Image we discussed on Monday. Position means “Global leader in collegiate helper-monkey sales.” or “Best place in Tampa for Cuban sandwiches.”

As a writer, your ideal position could be anything from “Consistent number one best-seller of robot cowboy love stories” to “Fresh new voice in contemporary literary fiction.”

Resource constraints mean how much time you have to market appropriately. Will you have time to send out newsletters or update your website daily or go on extended book tours or give radio and TV interviews etc etc? Only you can know how much personal time for marketing your schedule will allow.

Budget constraints means how much money you can throw at the project. Even if you have to free time to spare, cold hard cash can get your links plastered all over the Internet, your web site as number one in the search engines, your promo postcard in every mailbox, your book trailer on every TV station, your book cover wallpapering every bus, train and metro around the globe, etc.

Time limitations means what kind of time frame you’re dealing with to make all this happen. If you wrote a text book that’ll be available in multiple editions for the next ten years, then you’ve got a maximum of ten years, depending on your goals. If you wrote a category romance that will be on the shelves from February 1 through February 28, end of story, then you have exactly four weeks once your release day hits.

And depending on your goals, you may very well want all or most of the marketing done prior to release day. So look at the calendar and determine exactly how much time you truly have.

2. Briefly describe your short-term marketing strategy. How will this web site help to meet your goals? How will you determine the success of this web site? Please indicate benchmarks.

Short-term marketing strategy might mean, “I will post announcements on my blog, web site, newsletter, and email loops.” Or it might mean, “I have a direct mail piece going out on Monday with links to the new web site.” Or it might mean, “I’ve scheduled a Super Bowl ad.” Whatever. But if you want the web site to coordinate and complement those efforts, share the details with the designer.

Also share how you envision the web site helping meet your goals. This hearkens back to Monday’s discussion on determining the number one point of the web site. If your primary goal is to collect email addresses, then the newsletter (and ease of sign up) should be promoted heavily. If your primary goal is to spread news of a new release, then that book cover and title and so on should be prominently featured. Etc.

“Benchmarks” are frozen moments in time used to determine the relative success or failure of a particular marketing endeavor. For example, if your web site gets 50 unique visitors per day prior to creating a MySpace account and 100 unique visitors per day after linking to your web site from your brand new MySpace account, then it’s a fair bet that your MySpace account brought you about 50 new faces. If you keep an eye on the numbers, benchmarking every Monday, and discover by the end of the month that your visitors once again hover around 50, then it’s a fair bet that although your MySpace account brought initial traffic, it did not significantly increase repeat web visitors over time. (This could be due to the quality of your MySpace “friends”, the quality of your web site content, the fickle nature of the gods, etc. Topic of another blog. *g)

3. Are you interested in additional services of website statistics and monitoring, as well as search engine submission and help with optimizing search engine ranking?

Statistics software and web conversion tools help to analyze traffic patterns, visitor interaction on the web site, and which marketing efforts are paying off. I highly, highly, highly recommend using at least the most basic of tracking software. StatCounter has a free version that tracks a limited amount of data.

4. What is the single primary focus of this campaign? Are there specific objectives corresponding with this goal?

In other words, you’re creating/redesigning a web site. Why?

Possible answers: to establish a web presence, to increase legitimacy, to disseminate information, new product introduction (new book), increase sales, retain existing customers, improve author image, improve brand images, increase web site patronage, garner reader feedback, increase book/blog buzz, or attract new readers.

5. Are there any other planned or implemented marketing campaigns intended to integrate with this one?

Often times, a single web site isn’t the only marketing tool.

In the corporate world, there may be other web sites, brochures, direct mail pieces, commercial advertising, promotional gifts, event sponsorship, sales, coupons, sampling, contests, rebates, press releases corresponding to launch, endorsements, loyalty/frequency programs, etc.

Many of those possibilities apply to writers as well. Authors may also do book signings, interviews, workshops, keynote speeches, conference panels, guest blogs, and so on.

6. Do you have an existing or planned marketing strategy to coordinate with and/or promote this new web site or re-design? If so, please describe.

This is a different question than the above, in that it refers to promotion of the new web site, rather than promotion of the specific product/book/author/etc.

The web site address may be listed on business cards, stationery, letterhead, pens, radio, TV commercials, banner ads, book trailers, email signatures, blog posts, media kits, etc.

7. What are your readers’ current perceptions of and attitudes toward the author, book(s) or brand? What factors influence the decision making process?

For example, say you’re Stephen King. Readers’ current perception might be “contemporary horror writer”. If this is the sort of story they enjoy, your books might well be auto-buys. But lets say you’re still Stephen King, but you’ve decided to write a romance. Suddenly, your novel no longer fits with reader perceptions, and you will need to acknowledge and address this issue.

Okay, now say you’re not Stephen King, and as far as you know, nobody other than your mother auto-buys your books. You need to carefully consider what particular factors would cause a potential reader to decide “I’ll take it” over “Ehh, not for me.” And then capitalize on those attributes by highlighting and promoting them.

Do you have a killer cover blurb? Five star reviews from respected sources? A cover to die for? A tantalizing excerpt? Whatever it is, make it prominent. Give readers a reason to buy!

YOUR TURN: I know my above explanations waffled between assuming you had a book to promote and assuming you were simply promoting the web site itself. If you have any questions on the marketing items mentioned or how they can better apply to you, please ask. And if you’ve done promotion of any kind for any reason, please share some anecdotes on what did or didn’t work for you!

First, a shout-out to last week’s winners: Send me your addresses! This is the first time in the history of Good Karma Tuesday that I didn’t hear from the winner all week, and I can’t believe I wouldn’t hear from six winners, so maybe my spam filter had a psychotic break last Tuesday. Who knows. (It lets in plenty of cialis and stock crap, though. Grrr.)

Anyhoodles, if your name is Isabel Sotelo, AngryMan, A Paperback Writer, Karen Lingefelt, Michele, or Katie Alender, email me and let me know where to send your prize!

Today’s winner is: JOSI

Josi, come on down! Or rather, email me your address. Extra credit if I get yours before last week’s slackers winners. *g

(Kidding, last week’s winners! Love you too!)

Am still out of town and off to take a family member to the hospital for x-rays (isn’t that how everyone loves to start their morning?) and I thought I’d pull out a couple Q&As from yesterday’s comment thread just to make sure they don’t get lost.

* All About Web Sites (MM blog)
* Website Series, Day 1: Message & Image
* Website Series, Day 1: Follow-Up Q & A
* Website Series, Day 2: Marketing
* Website Series, Day 3: User Interaction & Content
* Website Series, Day 4: Aesthetics & Usability
* Website Series, Day 5: Hosting & Technology
* Website Series, Day 6: Administration

Message & Image Follow-Up Questions

Note: Some of these have little to do with Message & Image and will be covered in more detail in later posts.

Q:
Is there anything you think does or does not work for slogans?

A:
The most important thing for slogans is to make them memorable and relevant. (Note: IF you choose to have one. As with a web site itself, you are not obligated to have one. Only maybe half of my corporate clients have slogans.)

Memorable means short (ie the Debbie Macomber example is stretching the limits) and relevant meaning that even if the only thing they know about you is your slogan, they know about your books.

Q:
Any colors you think are overdone?

A:
I would worry less about so-called overdone colors and more about finding that happy medium between legibility and complementary branding. (Note: Complementary Branding refers to matching your web site to your blog or your book covers or your tone/genre etc. You do not have to make your web site look anything like your book covers if you don’t want to, but you also don’t want the reader to think they’ve found the wrong place.)

If you’re going for a dark tone, make sure it’s not so dark that visitors can’t easily read your content or figure out what’s going on. Easy is the name of the game.

If you’re avoiding, say, “black”, simply because you’re afraid too many other urban fantasy writers are using black, then that’s not a good enough reason. First and foremost, you have to do what’s right for your brand. And secondly, you have to keep reader expectation in mind.

Be creative, but choose your aesthetics based on that goal.

Q:
Cost. Tell us about cost. There are a lot of less than optimal people in your business, I suspect, but they probably charge the same as or more than you do (whatever that may be). How is a person to avoid getting took?

A:
Cost. Okay. This is a tricky subject. It’s like saying, how much does laser eye surgery cost? Well, there’s some licensed doctors who do it for $400 per eye. And there’s others who do it for $4,000 per eye. And of course, there’s all the space in between.

The best way not to get taken is to make sure of two things:

1) That you get multiple proposals from multiple sources, for comparative purposes.

2) That the proposals detail exactly what you’re going to get for your money; what you have to provide, and what you’ll own when the contract is over.

EX: If the proposal says, “Website: $3000″, I have no idea if this is a gyp or a steal. If it’s for a basic no-frills design and half a dozen HTML pages, you’re getting taken. If it’s for an interactive, database-driven web site with user login features, dynamic feature-filled content and web-enabled content administration, buy buy buy! =)

So it’s hard to say. The best example I can give is if you go to a builder and say, “Hey, I’ve got this empty lot. How much will you charge to build me a house?”

The first thing the builder will (probably) say is, “Depends on what you want!”

Web sites are like that, too. You could probably find a college kid to whip up something basic for $500, or you could go to an ad agency and get one with all the bells and whistles for over $50k.

A small business or an ex-corporate freelancer would be in the middle. More experience than the college kid, and lower prices because of no physical overhead.

Q:
Do reputable designers charge by the project or by the hour?

A:
Charging by the project or by the hour depends on multiple variables, but no matter which way your contract is written, you should have a darn good idea of both before the first check exchanges hands. So, if Designer X charges $100/hr and says your web site will take 10 hours (obviously these numbers are for ease of math *g) then your estimated total is $1000.

If the contract is a flat $1000 and something goes wrong that’s not the designer’s fault, they better have those circumstances written into the contract or they’re taking all the risk. Conversely, if it’s an hourly project and the designer doesn’t stipulate which elements are their responsibility (not charged) and which are yours (charged), you might end up paying a lot more.

For example, in all my contracts, it says I will never charge for extra work necessary due to bugs/typos/etc on the part of myself or my employees. However, if rework is necessary due to the actions of the client or the client’s emissaries (web host, etc) then I would have to charge for that.

Q:
What is a fair hourly wage for a guru such as yourself (OK, OK, we all know you are boyond price, above rubies, and all that, so let’s talk about gurus in general, not you in particular)?

A:
Guru hourly wages can range from $50/hr to $150/hr, with some being above or below that, depending on many variables, not the least of which is what you’re contracting them for.

Q:
Also timeframe: should a good guru get you up and running in a week? A month? The twelfth of never? (Assuming you’ve done your part by filling out the survey questions.)

A:
Timeframe totally depends, much like the “building a house” metaphor. How big is the house? Is there a basement? Will you request blueprint changes after construction has started or design changes after the wallpaper is up? Etc.

Q:
Tweaking – that fuchsia that looked so good in theory looks like hell onscreen…how much time/money should one allot for necessary improvements?

Ongoing review: should a good guru be in touch with you every so often to meet your changing/expanded/newfound needs? How often? Is this type of service a la carte or part of an ongoing arrangement?

Self-service: since most of us pump our own gas, can we also fiddle with our own websites? Or is this just a sure-fire way to throw more business to the guru when the whole thing crashes and burns?

A:
Tweaking and maintenance should also be dealt with in advance, in the contract. Same with self-service. The programmer needs to know ahead of time if you plan to futz with the HTML (they can design accordingly) or if you need them to build a content editing wizard, or if you plan to just email them when you need updates.

Q:
I assume distance makes little or no difference, right? Does it matter if the designer lives in the same state?

A:
Logistics don’t matter. For example, half my business comes from out-of-state, and I’ve worked on web sites while halfway around the world. The designer just needs a decent Internet connection. Well, and time, talent, skill, responsibility, responsiveness, etc. Point being, don’t choose your designer based on location, choose based on what you need, what they can offer you, and the value/ROI of contracting with her.

YOUR TURN: While we’re on the topic of web site message and image, what are some web sites you can think of that it’s obvious right from the home page what the point of the site is and the one key thing they want the visitor to do? What are some web sites you can think of that you can’t do much of anything from the home page, or have to hunt around to figure out what to do?