Dawn Brewer

Eco Button – A Gadget to Save Energy

I was watching The Gadget Show a few weeks ago and they had a green challenge to try and reduce energy use. Next thing, Janette Whitney blogged about ‘Green’ Grants for Business so I thought I’d take a small step and try out one of the gadgets. One which reduces the energy your computer uses when you wander off to do something else.

I bought an Eco Button and I’ve been using it for a couple of weeks now. All incredibly straightforward – here’s what you do:

1. Buy an Eco Button.
2. Plug it into your computer (USB plug in – nice and simple).
3. Download & install the software.
4. If you’re like me then look up what rate your energy provider charges for a unit of electricity and type it into the setup screen (or just use the default value if you can’t be bothered).

That’s it – all set up.

Next, whenever you wander off – to make a cup of tea, take a phone call, answer the door, have lunch, whatever… just press the big green button. Your PC then goes into a low power mode. When you come back, hit any key on the keyboard and this is what happens:

• Your PC wakes up far faster than usual – marvellous.
• An eco screen shows you how much money you’ve saved today and so far, as well as the CO2 you’ve saved.
• Press any other key and you’re up and working again.

Fantastic – I reckon it’s worth it just for my PC to wake up so quickly.

So, my recommendation -Buy an Eco Button now!

I was a a little surprised today, talking to a couple of business colleagues, at their lack of understanding about why to add a comment to a blog post – and how to do it too.

 

I’ve just written a short article explaining how to add a comment to a blog post. I’ve also given a few reasons why I think it’s worth taking  the time to do it – especially if you’re a small business and want more visitors to your own blog or website.

 

Adding a comment doesn’t take very long and helps build relationships and connections – always a good thing on the web. So, please, take the time now to let me know what you think of my articles or add a comment below.

Last month (December 2009) I gave a short talk to TWBC Horsham about websites,  specifically 5 Tips to Avoid a Woeful Website and I promised to write an article about it, summing up my talk.

 

Well – I am a bit wordy! – and that article has turned into a series. The first How Can Small Business Optimize Websites? is finished and there are more on the way… who knows maybe when they’re all finished and I’ve had some feedback I could turn them into a short ebook – now there’s an interesting thought!

 

The main point I make in this first article is to make sure that you know the purpose of your website and the purpose of each page on your site too. That will help keep the focus.

 

Imagine you have a shop in a huge shopping mall… or you have a website on the Internet… some visitors will know exactly what they’ve come in for and want to complete their business as fast as possible – imagine ‘popping into Boots’ and not being able to find what you’re looking for? SuperDrug here I come! Other visitors will be happy to browse – but even those people browsing will need some directions especially if your website has lots of pages – ever consulted a store directory in a department store (or been irritated when you couldn’t find one?). Thinking about your visitors and their journey through your website will help you design the best website for you and your business, by putting your visitors first… and that comes down to defining the purpose.

 

Three things I find woeful about websites:

• Website that take too long to load – Yes I have got broadband, but I’m impatient!
• Websites that have spelling mistakes and bad grammar – well, I like words you see – and as a consumer, I’m hard to please
• The ‘it must be there somewhere’ websites where it’s just very difficult to find out what I want to know. Thank goodness for online forums and blogs and all the experts who are better at giving me the information I need than the actual companies – this seems to apply especially to big technical companies, but also applies to small business too (WOEFUL!)

 

The rest of the series on avoiding woeful websites is ‘in production’. What would you like to see added? Tell me below.

oh dear!  I’m often asked to ‘have a quick look‘ at websites for people – which I’m happy to do, but more and more I’m finding that I have to then give bad news… yes it looks great, but in terms of marketing (SEO – Search Engine Optimisation)  and standards… oh dear!

 

What’s even more difficult is when I’m asked to make amendments to a site (which I’m also happy to do) but then when I look at the code behind the site it’s very tricky to change it as it hasn’t been designed properly in the first place.

 

I think there are three skills required when making the most of websites - and because any one of these skills can be applied reasonably easily, many people underestimate the complexity of combining them into a successful website.

• A good website incorporates good design in terms of the look and feel, graphics, visual impact etc. No-one will stay on a boring website that doesn’t give the information needed. 
• A good website also incorporates good programming practice and will meet standards, both coding standards and meeting requirements for visitors using different devices to browse the web eg. laptop screen, desktop screen of a different size, mobile phone, screen readers (used by many people with impaired vision – not everyone can actually SEE the design).
• A good website fulfils its purpose – and that’s usually for marketing. So if a website looks pretty but doesn’t appear in Google and the other search engines then it’s probably not a marketing success.

It’s not often that I’m asked to look at a website which meets all three of these criteria well – so more often than not I see woeful websites!

 

What is interesting, is that when I explain my thoughts on a website, very often the website owner’s not that happy with the site either and didn’t realise what is really involved when a website is built.

 

It’s easy to make mistakes with websites.

 

So, to avoid a woeful website, consider all three elements above and ask your website professional how they will meet the requirements of each of them.

 

If you’d like more information on avoiding woeful websites then contact me and I’ll get back to you.

Networking amazes me – you just never know who knows someone you might want to know!

 

Here’s a classic example of how a marketing touch can come about through networking – for people who don’t even know each other.
 

Just swapped emails with a friend who met Dee Blick (The Marketing Gym) this week and recognised her name because he’d seen one of my Twitter links to her – and my Tweet was about the weather in Yorkshire (hardly business but just goes to show that you never know when a marketing touch might happen).

 

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I was talking to Janette from Janette Whitney & Associates, Business Consultants recently (at the September TWBC meeting) – very interesting conversation. Janette knows all about legally compliant websites and the rules and regulations that every website must comply with – and has a very good offer on a compliance check too.

 
It still amazes me how little people know about their own websites, in terms of what they could be achieving and also in terms of the information present (or not!) on the sites. It’s a wasted opportunity – and in fact, could even be illegal.

 

An important (and often overlooked) first step is to be absolutely clear on the purpose of your website and also the purpose of every page on your site. If you are clear about the purpose, then you can measure how effective each page is at achieving the objective – that way, you’re already taking steps to improve your marketing. It’s also easier to ensure the site is compliant as the relevant legislation and regulations can be taken into account.

 

If you want to exploit your existing website, then contact me  for a chat – I’m always happy to share ideas. And if you want to avoid fines, then contact Janette to ensure your website is legally compliant.

If you like books and reading as much as I do, then you’ll probably have a view on digital and electronic books – and e-book readers. I’ve just written the first in a series of articles which will explore the technology - and it really is fascinating! This Reading Technology article gives a brief introduction to book scanning and Google’s library project, as well as online databases of book details and e-book readers.

 

I think there’s massive change going to happen as the technology is developing quickly and it won’t be long before the book world is embroiled in the same issues as the music world – online databases and free downloads .

 

My plan is to write about the software available to catalogue and organise your books at home (or work) next and then move on to e-book readers. The Sony Reader and Amazon Kindle to start with. If you’re interested too, then do feel free to suggest an article topic and I’ll see what I can do.

 

 

 

If you know about marketing touches, then you probably know how much effort it can take to complete all the touches.

 

Technology such as auto-responders can automate sending emails and newsletters, so can be used as part of the sales and marketing process – saving you time and improving quality by ensuring consistent messages.

 

If you want to -

• Send messages to your customers and potential customers using a consistent format
• Keep in contact regularly
• Automate some of your marketing touches

Then an autoresponder can help.

 

AutoResponder

An autoresponder allows you to manage your email marketing list by sending a series of emails automatically to new contacts and giving you the tools to send messages to your whole list – without having to manage rejections, email changes, unsubscribe requests, etc.

 

If it really does take 7 marketing touches before a customer buys – then automate some of them using an email autoresponder.

 

Automate Your Marketing Touches

Contact me today and ask about automated emails or leave a comment asking your question.

and Non-Geographic Telephone Numbers

 

Ordered a cable protector from PC World Business on Sunday. I thought ordering on the internet was supposed to make life easier, but instead, first of all their order form insisted I entered a geographic telephone number (number starting 01… or 02… here in the UK) even though my company uses a non-geographic (0845 – local rate call) number. Grrr! But not too bad, fairly typical, but how about this – they then called on Monday morning and left a message for me to call them back on an 0844 number to double check my order…

 

Well, for those of you who don’t know, when you call an 0844 number you’re charged local rate ok, but the organisation you’re calling will probably be making money on the call you’re making too. So PC World Business insist I give a geographic number, then only allow me to call them on a money making number! Hmmm…

 

AND THEN, when I called them, I was asked for the delivery address (the same one as on the order form) and put on hold for a few minutes whilst they “checked” only to be told everything was ok and thanks very much… when I asked why they called they didn’t give me an answer really, something about part of the checks they like to do…

 

So, I ordered on the internet for the convenience, then had to waste my time calling them (on a non-geographic 0844 number, which they’ll probably gain revenue from) only to be told no problem, everything is OK.

 

Hey PC World Business - you need to think about your order process!  Any comments?

 

oh – the cable protector arrived today (Tuesday) – so that bit of the order process works.

I’ve been using Photoshop Elements for quite a few years now and I found some things very confusing to start with. I’ve written two articles to help explain some of the basics:

• one on the difference between the canvas and the layers – and how the image fits in
• another on image size and resolution

 

If you’d like me to write more – then add a comment here or email me and I’ll write them for you.