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When I was a kid I was a huge Spider-man fan.  I had subscriptions to all the comic books and for years I followed the life of Peter Parker and his adventures as the crime-fighting web slinger.  He had some cool powers but one of my favorites was his “spider-sense.”  Whenever something dangerous was about to pounce on him his “spider-sense” would warn him and he would jump out of the way just in time to avoid being hurt or killed. 

As an adult I started describing gut feelings as spider-sense.  Whenever I didn’t listen to my spider-sense I would kick myself.  “You’re spider-sense told you not to speed over that hill.  You didn’t listen and now you have a ticket.”  My wife even began to use the phrase.  Sometimes we listened to that warning in our heads, or spider-sense, and made good decisions about our life or a moment, and sometimes we didn’t.  Over time we learned to listen to it more and more.

Recently I’ve been working with a big client on a Web site redesign.  The client is difficult to work with because they don’t know much about Web design or Internet business, but they want to be involved with every step of the redesign process.  They have had some good ideas but mostly bad ones and I diplomatically knocked down idea after idea until I felt I was wearing them down.  Instead of staying at it and sharing my experiences with them on design elements I backed off and let them run with a few things I thought could be done better.  My spider-sense told me this was a bad idea.

I should have listened to my spider-sense because the client was informed that something I let them do was not a best practice.  They were frustrated even more than when I was a rejecting all their previous ideas.  I had a gut feeling and I ignored it hoping to appease a difficult client.  This was the wrong thing to do.  I ignored my spider-sense.

Most of the time when we are about to get into a dire situation something is telling us it’s a bad idea.  We are guided to do what is right and most of the time the answers are there for us.  They may not be the answers we want to hear but they are there if we take the time to listen.  If you look back on your life at what has gone right and what has gone wrong you may remember the tingle of your spider-sense.  When your spider-sense is tingling you better listen because often that’s the best guide you’ve got.   

This blog isn’t meant to trash companies. The purpose is to help you create better sites so that you can increase conversions and make more money.  But I do believe that by revealing what some companies do wrong we can all learn.  One company that does plenty wrong and has personally wronged me many times is Charter Communication. 

I’ve never dealt with such a sloppy company as my old cable company, Charter.  In any other industry the laws of the free market would have killed Charter – or they would have responded and improved their service to save themselves – but with all the monopolies in the cable market Charter has been able to survive. 

A few months ago I finally got tired of Charter constantly screwing up my bill, providing poor cable and Internet service, and then not being able to get an intelligent person on the phone when I called.  After months of calls and multiple dropped calls I dropped Charter Communications.  It was the best thing I ever did.  I replaced Charter with Direct TV and haven’t had a problem since.  My reception in clear, my Internet service works, and my bills are correct.  In a year and a half I probably called Charter’s customer service 15 times.  I have only called Direct TV once, and that was to order new service. 

If communities are ever freed from the cable monopoly we will see an end to the poor service we get from companies like Charter.  There’s never and excuse for poor customer service.  Eventually Charter will pay for all the years they took advantage of those that had to deal with them because of unfair monopolies.

At last week’s adtech conference in New York there was a lot of discussion about mobile advertising and how it’s going to affect the industry.  I have written a little about mobile technologies and plan to write a lot more and I wish I could give you some solid answers as how to best utilize mobile search for your business but it’s a little too early for that.  Instead I’m going to spend time keeping up with mobile search news and talking about what is known about mobile search. 

Bob Davis spoke at adtech New York about where the entire industry is going and mentioned mobile search.  He stated that even ten years ago people were saying that mobile search is right around the corner, but he does believe that this time the hype is real.  The Google Phone following the iPhone is proof that the mobile search market now has vitality.  But it’s still not clear who will lead the market. 

I’ve been a fan of cell phone technology for some time and think that I know as much about ringback tones and mobile search as anyone in the field, but there is still a lot to learn and to figure out.  My main purpose for writing this post is to keep the momentum going and to keep you thinking about mobile search because it’s coming and you should start preparing for how you are going to utilize it to your advantage.

I just got back from a wedding at a modern styled church.  The building was beautiful and used the best and latest technology.  On each side of the stage were two giant video screens.  On each screen were moving graphical images of stained glass church windows.  This distracted only slightly from the service, but it did distract.  This post isn’t about visual ascetics of modern churches but about how working on Websites for so long has changed the way I see everything.  I compared the two screens to flashing banners in the left and right columns of a Web page.  I couldn’t help but think how poor of a Web page the church’s stage would make.  I’ve been doing this too long…

I returned to my familiar bed late last night after a fun and useful week at ad:tech New York.  I met loads of great people and learned about many new companies.  Some of which have a great future, and a few I’m not so sure about.  It was good to hear the leaders in the industry speak about the current state of the industry and its future, and it was nice to hear that I’m on the same page with them.  I took some notes that I’ll use to spark ideas that I’ll share with you in the coming weeks.
I’m here to help you so if you have a question about any area of Internet marketing post a comment and I’ll try to create a post so that we can all benefit. 

Here I am meeting the only true SEO expert, Bruce Clay.  Read more about it at Clickfire.com

I just wrapped up my third day here in New York City at ad:tech.  I have been working with Emory Rowland of Clickfire fame to send daily updates.  You can read my adtech New York 2007 daily reviews at Clickfire.

Hanging out ad the oxygen bar located at the Atlas booth

In one week I’ll be blogging about the Ad:Tech New York show from New York City.  You can read about my experience at the conference at the Clickfire blog.

Nowadays, a large majority of the people have access to Internet. They use it more for obtaining information on varied subjects pertaining to their necessities and interests. So if your business requires you to keep your customers well informed about your products and services, then having a website is a pre-requisite for gaining greater footage in the market.

The difference between using a website as medium of advertisement compared to any other methods of publicity is the presence of an active audience. Print ads, telemarketers, or mass mailings are mainly dedicated to passive audience. But the greatest advantage of promoting on the web is that you can always get an active audience in larger number than other passive methods of advertising.

If you still have some doubts regarding the necessity of a website, then the answer is very simple - a website can help you to generate more clients. It works as a salesperson that promotes your products and services on your behalf. This kind of strategic marketing generates valuable sales for the company. Most official websites provides valuable information about what products or services the company offers, what the company does, how to contact them, etc.

Websites also act as a great customer service facilitator. With the inclusion of sections like F.A.Q and twenty-four hours helpline service, your company is bound to deliver great customer service to your clients. The site should also have a section dedicated for online newsletter. This customer service aspect of a website makes it more beneficial for any successful business promotion.

Another prominent section of your website is the shopping cart link (mainly for e-commerce websites). If you want people to be able to buy your products and services online, then make sure to offer various payment options like credit cards or Paypal payments.

Some of the inherent advantages of having a website are: It saves important time spent on marketing efforts and allows you to devote more time for the overall growth of your business. People that are interested in the products and services offered by your company will visit your website and depending how your website is built they will turn to be actual customers, which in turn will help increase your sales in the long run.

Secondly, you don’t need to maintain additional staff for explaining your product 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. With a website you’ll be able to deliver the perfect presentation of your product on a 24/7 basis, throughout the year.

Another vital aspect that acts as a catalyst for business advertising on the Internet is the layout of the website. The users of Internet are one of the major source of potential customers. Therefore, having an efficient website is a cost-effective and easy way to advertise your business.

Finally, a website should always give the true image of your company. The main goal of your website should be attracting clients through the strategic marketing of the services and products offered by your company. Make sure to talk in detail with your webmaster or firm and see if they’re right for you.

Google is now jumping into the Facebook arena by creating a news feed feature for Facebook users.  While I image some will use this feature I don’t see it as something that is going to hit Facebook like a tidal wave.  Google is smart to look for ways to embed themselves into Facebook, but I don’t think this is going to get them into the social networking site as deep as they would like.  To embed yourself deep into a site like Facebook you need something that is cool, and sadly news isn’t all that cool most of the time.  I’m not too worried about big G though.  They’ll figure something out.