Getting Focused

One of the things that struck me about the Avallach and WAHMBoozle! websites was the fact that there was still a degree of fuzziness. The main thrust in recent times has been to provide an affordable way for Work-at-Home Mums to get a website for their business, with practical “hands-on” help in achieveing that. Somehow this message doesn’t always come across.

Clarifying the Message

Over the Christmas break I spent some time thinking about how to remove this confusion; the answer was to start with a clean slate and build a web site that is 100% focused on creating successful WAHM business websites.

The result is WAHM Website Success – a site that is dedicated entirely to the idea of helping WAHMs create successful business websites. By having such a sharp focus, the message comes through loud and clear!

A Valuable Lesson Learned

If you’re considering getting a website (or if you already have one) then this is a great opportunity to learn from someone else’s (my) experience. The lack of clarity that existed before was actually costing me in terms of lost business. People quite simply didn’t know what to expect, were unsure which service offering suited their needs and were left with a feeling of “what do I do from here?”

The existing websites tried to be all things to all WAHMs – a clear case of “jack of all trades and master of none”.

Don’t Forget To Mind Your Own Business

The situation described above happened for one simple reason. My focus was on the thing that I do – build websites for WAHMs. What I neglected to do was to also work on my own web strategy and failing to follow my own advice!

It’s a classic case of spending all your time working IN the business and forgetting to work ON the business.

So now 2012 is upon us, take some to do a little strategic thinking and absolutely do NOT make the same mistake I did!

Happy New Year to you all.

No extensive planning process, no 700-page business plan, no time spent trying to secure start-up finance. It’s lightweight, “agile”, flexible and built on passion and desire. Of these things, the last two are the essential ingredients in any recipe for success.

Don’t Get Bogged Down

All too often people have flashes of inspiration and then proceed to commit “ideacide”, allowing themselves to fall victim to over-analysis, listening to the small voice that says “it’ll never work” and generally becoming convinced that their idea is a non-starter.

Ideas are, at first, delicate creatures that need nurturing and protecting until they have grown strong enough to stand on their own feet (metaphorically speaking). Allowing yourself to get bogged down in negative impulses, stalling things in the name of “proper planning” and finding all sorts of reasons to NOT act on those ideas is the equivalent of pouring weedkiller on your prize begonias!

Forget About “Business”

One of the surefire ways to kill your enthusiasm for something is to start thinking of it as “work”. This is what can happen if you start to take the standard advice regarding “business”. How relevant is standard business advice anyway, when you’re simply doing what you love doing?

As and when you start to build some success, and gain momentum, it might make sense for you to start considering some of the good advice out there. What you don’t want is a traditional business framework stifling development. Why shouldn’t you continue to enjoy doing the thing you love, and simply go with the flow?

There’s plenty of things you can concern yourself with later, things that can start to contrain you, so don’t voluntarily constrain yourself before you need to. Deal with hurdles as you encounter them.

(Continue to) Have Fun

If you’re creating a business out of something you enjoy doing, THAT is your key driver. It’s the thing that will ensure that you keep going even on days when you make no sales. If you’re not having fun, if you’re not enjoying yourself then how is it any different from a job where you’re only motivation is your weekly wage?

As the work-at-home sector continues to grow there will be a massive surge in happy, contented business owners. As those businesses experience success and growth, so the home-based business model will become more obviously sustainable and beneficial.

Happiness, enjoyment and fun are pricless commodities that no soulless corporate can hope to compete with. Make the most of it and above all else,  have fun!

“There is no great genius without a mixture of madness”
 ~ Aristotle ~

After some recent soul-searching, and focused thinking around the basic idea of “how can Avallach be made even more relevant and valuable to the WAHM community?”, I have introduced a fairly radical new approach. The central element to this stroke of genius (or sign of madness, depending on your view of it) is to no longer charge for my personal time – not even the reduced “token” charges that existed before.

The most visible aspect of this is the availability of a “Kick Starter” plan that provides home-based businesses with a comprehensive web site, for just $77 up front and around 50 cents per day for ongoing maintenance/support.

Have You Gone Mad?

Traditional, conventional thinking dictates that you can only earn a living by exchanging your time for money; in other words wages. The main focus of many small businesses, sole traders and consultants is to increase that rate of remuneration as much as possible. Many argue that you need to “go niche” and increase your personal value, heading for the psychological barrier of “$100 per hour”.

So this change, then, would appear to fly in the face of all that is reasonable, right?

Mass Appeal

The simple fact is that these changes herald a new era in the continuing development of Avallach Technology. It puts “front and centre” the total commitment that I have for the home-based business, cottage industry renaissance. At the same time it establishes an important foundation for the business and changes the nature of the business itself. Instead of chasing an ever-increasing personal rate of remuneration, the business now stands or falls on 2 main factors; quality of service and delivery of service to the large number of “work at home” people that are out there.

At a purely commercial level it moves the business away from being a self-made “job” and instead enters the realms of being an income-producing asset; one, potentially, that will eventually involve others and be beneficial to all. It can only achieve this by delivering on the promises made.

Excited Much?

Yes I am, very excited. It has been a long-term personal goal to make a real difference in this area, and with this moment of “madness” I firmly believe that things are finally heading in the absolute correct direction; everything else that has gone before has simply been leading up to this point.

Achieving these goals are important to me for a couple of reasons – firstly to prove it can be done (run a successful business without ripping people off) and secondly because I still have absolute faith in the importance of the home-business sector as a long-term solution for individuals.

Let’s enjoy the ride!

So I figured this was a good time to reiterate my previous point – if you’re a Work-at-Home Mum, if you have a budget-sensitive business (full or part-time) then you probably worry that you “need” SEO. You don’t.

The funny thing is, the article was talking about how Google are starting to put a lot of focus and emphasis on “social signals”. In other words, your web site might start being ranked on how often people “talk” about it online (+1, Like, include your link in posts/comments etc.)

As a micro business owner, you don’t need to pay someone to look after that stuff – all you need to do is be passionate about your business (pretty much a given), jump onto a site like Facebook ( yup, I reckon that’s a given for many of you too) and do what you would normally do with other people; socialise!

Over time you will make connections and friendships, start talking about common ground, what each other is interested in, or work/business interests… It’s organic, it’s incredibly human and in terms of integrity, honesty and personal satisfaction you just can’t beat it!

So put aside that online search engine marketing plan, stop annoying people by pasting your links all over the place and start connecting with your fellow man (and woman). It’s what we humans were meant to do…

That question is often asked by friends and clients and to be honest, until recently, I made a number of assumptions about why this seems to happen. I generally attributed things to issues with the javascript, data being lost in the sheer volume processed by the Google servers and possibly issues with individual browsers and Internet connections.

To a certain degree I wasn’t that far from the truth, however the bigger picture seems more complex than this.

JavaScript “Fail”

Google Analytics relies on a snippet of JavaScript embedded in your web page. As such it’s effectively a component of your page that could fail, somehow not succeed in “calling home”, get blocked or simply not load. If any of those things happen, the page view and site visit won’t be recorded.

Lost Data?

Google are a huge company with vast computer resources powering their operations/ This doesn’t mean they’re not susceptible to the occasional problem with hardware and software. Having worked for a busy hosting company myself, and specifically with services that process web site traffic logs, I feel pretty well qualified to say that sometimes things don’t work as expected, and data can be lost through hardware outages, software bugs and data corruption. I’m sure Google do all they can to prevent and compensate for this – however we all know about the best laid plans of mice and hosting companies…

Browser and Connection Problems

On the other end of the Google Analytics “conversation”, our web site visitors are using various versions of different browsers, accessing the site over a wide range of connections (WiFi, dial-up, corporate networks and domestic broadband) via many different providers. They are also using many different combinations of browser settings, browser plug-ins and add-ons – also there’s increasing use of Internet security software like firewalls, blockers and antivirus apps.

Any of these can potentially get in the way and cause a page view to not be registered with Analytics. For example, many people disable cookies and javascript, both of which Google Analytics relies upon.

Analytics versus Log Statistics

This is a BIG one, and understanding the fundamental differences between Web Logs and Google Analytics is crucial. Web logs dutifully record every “hit” on your site, extracting (where possible) information provided in the request by the browser (e.g. browser name and version, operating system and other useful non-identifying information).

If a browser doesn’t provide some of this information the “hit” still gets recorded by the server. These hits can also include page refreshes – so if the user’s Internet connection drops out mid-page, and they hit Refresh, the logs might double up on some of these hits.

March of the Robotic Spider People

As mentioned, the server dutifully records every hit on your site – it also doesn’t really care too much about where that hit came from. So whether your site is being “crawled” by the Google search spider, probed by a Chinese or Russian “bot” or being visited by some other automated process, the web log will record those hits like any other.

Such bots usually identify themselves in the request, so you can generally figure out the relative percentages of “bot versus human”. That’s not always true, so you might want to treat any “questionable” traffic as being from non-human sources.

So where does that leave us?

Overall we’re still left with our “conflicting” data, though now we should be better informed how to use and interpret the information available.

Web stats and logs, typically integrated into hosting accounts, can give us a clear idea of the raw traffic and load experienced by our site. This is an important metric; it is this traffic that hosting providers count against any limits or allowances on your account. Allowing for the traffic generated by search engine spiders, these data can give a clear picture of the volume of traffic hitting your site.

The vast array of information available from Google Analytics is powerful in a different way entirely. It can help us spot trends and usage patterns, conversion rates (including ecommerce) and sources of traffic (geographic, demographic, advertising media etc.)

Combining both sets of “business intelligence” data we are left with a more rounded view of both site traffic AND site usage. You just need to apply a little grey matter to get there!

Useful/Further Reading on these topics:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-reliable-is-google-analytics

http://www.webmasterworld.com/analytics/4376030.htm

http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/webanalytics/message/28175

http://blog.vkistudios.com/index.cfm/2009/8/28/Dont-even-think-of-comparing-AWStats-to-Google-Analytics

http://www.techmug.com/accuracy-and-google-analytics/

http://www.comauth.co.nz/seo-articles/google-analytics-accuracy-or-lack-thereof.html

Even when you’re used to that, there are occasions when changes can surprise you. The Apple iPad is a classic example of that I think. The latest surprise package of change is the latest chapter in the Facebook story.

Recently I was talking about the social network battle between Facebook and Google+, how both were great as general purpose social activity, and how neither really fulfilled the needs of the typical Work-at-Home Mum business.

So today Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the Facebook team upped the ante, announcing a new era of social apps and opening up the potential of the Facebook platform as a whole.

I haven’t had time to fully absorb the new information yet, however I’m already thinking that there could be a significant impact on the direction taken with WAHMBoozle! and ExpressWAHPz.

Change is a wonderful thing, it really does keep you on yoru toes!

I’m sure you’ve all heard about “Social Networking” by now, and are probably reading this via Twitter or Facebook. It has been a major shift in the way people use the ‘net, and like all new cultures and “paradigms” it is still struggling to fully define itself. Ignoring Google+ for a moment, many believe that the great social network wars have been won by Facebook, and this victory (albeit temporary, such is the nature of technology wars and victories) has seen the likes of MySpace and LinkedIn securing a niche within the social networking universe. LinkedIn is undoubtedly the world’s number 1 in business networking, job hunting and CV publishing, while MySpace has successfully redefined itself as a social entertainment service, with a strong emphasis on music.

Identity Crisis?

Facebook is currently home to an active Work-at-Home-Mum community, a community that has come up with many innovations that can expand the reach of any such business. Inventions such as “shout outs”, “marches”, “silent tagging” and so on. In the face of this though, Facebook seems to be struggling to figure out if this is something they want to encourage or not. Recently many WAHM business owners have fallen foul of Facebook’s counter-spam systems. Facebook also has a number of rules that control what such businesses can and cannot do (for example, you can only run a promotion or competition on Facebook via the use of a 3rd party app).

Unsatisfactory Solutions

I believe such things are symptoms of Facebook being primarily a social site (with socially targeted advertising) and not really knowing if it wants to be an ecommerce platform (or how to do that if it does). There are of course many shopping cart apps that business owners can subscribe to, that allow product information to be displayed on a FB page via an IFrame. For some reason (and this is based solely on what I have seen and heard) people seem to have difficulty getting many of these working as fully-fledged ecommerce solutions.

Social Commerce In Its Infancy

It is without doubt that the time for Social Commerce is upon us, so far this seems to have taken various forms:

Traditional cart systems and services sporting “Like” buttons on product pages

• Rating and referral systems on cart sites
• Basic ecommerce functionality via Facebook apps
• The rise of the “coupon site” phenomenon (Scoopon, Groupon et al)

The Missing Piece of the Jigsaw

Based on my experience of working with WAHM businesses, it has become clear that there are still gaps in the technology available (from the perspective of a sole trader, low budget, home-based micro business). The social connectivity enabled by Facebook is fantastic, however the commercial side of things still feels like a bolted on extra, like fitting a rear spoiler to a family sedan. Actually it’s probably more like inviting people to set up a market stall at a family birthday party.

So this is essentially why I started work on the WAHMBoozle! project; built on a solid social networking foundation, it integrates ecommerce into the experience by design and from the ground up. Much like MySpace now integrates with Facebook, and sets out to serve the needs of a “niche”, WAHMBoozle! does not try to be “another Facebook” – it simply provides tools and networking opportunities to WAHM businesses alongside the social networking mainstream (a battle ground that is now shaping up to be fought over by Google and Facebook).

Indeed, the eventual result from the WAHMBoozle! development efforts will include integration options that provide full cart/ecommerce functionality in a number of places; these include Facebook, ExpressWAHPz and standalone web sites or pages. This in turn will provide an “upload once, sell anywhere” mechanism for business owners, rather than requiring them to work hard to get several systems working together.

I look forward to this next phase with great excitement – perhaps you will too!

It’s true, giving away free advice is a well-established marketing technique, and there is a lot of good information available through that type of article, blog post etc. However, you do need to take such advice with a pinch of salt sometimes.

Loaded Questions

You see, when you start to analyse some of these lists, you start to see that they are questions that the developer would prefer you to ask them. They are almost invariably a reworked listing of that company’s particular strengths (or what they see as their strengths), rather than the set of basic rules they are dressed up as.

That’s fair enough, if you can’t lead people to your own services on your own web site, then where can you do that? At the same time, it is my personal belief that people can easily become blinded by science, and have their pockets (and cash boxes) plundered. After all, these lists come from the experts, and you’ve got to follow the advice of experts, right?

What Not To Ask And Why

1. How long have you been building web sites?

OK, so experience is a good thing, however everyone starts somewhere. Van Gogh had a first painting, Einstein had a first theory, James Dyson had a first invention. You will be asked to ask this question by companies that have been around for a while.

2. How many web sites have you built?

This would typically be a follow-on question from the first. Think about it, does it matter if a business has built a few sites or hundreds? The fact is they haven’t built YOURS before, and that person just starting out might actually create a site that suits your needs perfectly.

3. Can you get my web site on the front page of Google search results?

Search Engine Optimisation is one of the most oversold services on the Internet today, with the possible exception of “online marketing systems that will do all the work for you”. A web developer will often specialise in the development aspects, while a search engine specialist can always be brought in to fine tune content and set up search engine strategies for ANY site.

However, when you’re first starting out (and particularly with home/hobby businesses) your initial focus should be to put something online. Then tell people about the site, include the web address on your business cards, include details in your literature and signage and so on. Good SEO does not come cheap (as in $50 or less) – you can reasonably expect to pay about $350 per month for good quality SEO services.

SEO is not the magic bullet that many would have you believe either. Statements like “Google advertising is the only form of advertising you will ever need to do” are misguided at best, and downright nonsense.

4. Will I get a dedicated project manager allocated to my web site development?

If you are asked this, then that reflects the way this company runs its operations. Reality is that you don’t need to care if you get a project manager or not. What you actually need is someone who you can build a working relationship with and who can build your site. If you’re getting a dedicated project manager then you’re paying for it – on the other hand if you simply deal with a freelance/sole-trader designer or developer then you’re probably going to pay less and benefit from dealing with the one person who is at least as passionate about the process as you are!

5. What experience do you have with marketing web sites?

If you’re looking for a provider who can build a site and market it for you, this question is fair enough. Clearly this issue will be raised by any company that offers a design, build and market package of some kind. However, if you find a developer you can work with, and they build your site in the right way then you are free to enlist the services of any marketing specialist you like. You’ll probably save a few dollars along the way as well, especially if you use a home-based marketing specialist.

Like SEO, services like these don’t come cheap, and rightly so. If a company is offering a mixture of services then you will, inevitably, be funding their plush city offices, an admin team who simply manage the company itself PLUS the development, marketing and other costs.

Hand-picking a few specialists can prove to be a real cost-save. Even better, if you run a home-based business and you hire home-based specialists, they will have incredible insights into the specific issues that home and hobby businesses face.

So Is This Article All About Getting You To Hire Me?

Of course it is! OK, seriously though, this is how it really works… Some of you might be tempted to contact me and ask about web services. We might exchange a few emails, chat about a few things, and I might even come up with some recommendations of specialists you can hire.

The thing is, it might turn out that I don’t really work in the business area you’re involved with. We might not get along for some reason, if you’re a work-at-home Mum you might even prefer to work with a female. Who knows?

My real aim with this article is to help you avoid some of the traps out there, and to help you realise that the questions you are told to ask will always be geared towards a particular company’s preferred outcome – i.e. you handing over large wads of cash to them.

Keep your eyes and your options wide open and you’ll do yourself a huge favour. If nothing else then please heed this final suggestion; if you are a WAHM then there are far worse things you could do than to utilise the services of your fellow WAHMs!

So how does this manifest itself in terms of business and ideas? Simple, you become very aware of thousands of rival products, services and ideas that previously you had not noticed. That “unique” idea you had suddenly seems very “me too”; it can even have a seriously demotivating effect on you.

Don’t Get Hung Up On Your Competition

Being aware of what else is out there, and the kind of pricing , features and service being offered to your target market, is good, however it is all too easy to get dragged into playing the game of catch-up and losing sight of your original vision. The fact is that whatever your idea, and however many rivals you start to encounter, your ideas, your approach and your solution will be, in some way, shape or form, unique to YOU!

You and Your Business Are Unique

It is your unique spin on things that means you are likely to attract the interest of potential customers. Indeed, you are likely to find that the issues, shortcomings and problems that you set out to address are shared by many other people. The world is a big place, the perspectives of individual people is wonderfully varied and, ultimately, there is plenty of business to go around! Going back to the red car analogy, chances are that there are people who want a red car and haven’t bought one of the others on the market because they really wanted silver trim, or a slightly darker shade of red.

Stop Worrying and Do It Anyway

Now you could spend another 12 months analysing all this new-found competition, you might even decided to abandon the red car idea and design a blue one instead (at which time you notice all the other blue cars out there and the cycel starts again!) The net result is that they continue to sell their wares and YOU are still stuck on the starting grid.  What good will that do?

Be assured, if you remain true to your original dreams, have the courage and persistence to stick with it, then you WILL find your market. What is more, they will undoubtedly come to love your product or service because it meets their unique needs like no other similar offering ever has.

This is the type of thinking espoused by web apps developer 37 Signals which, in turn, is very similar to the philosophy that shapes my own views. I thoroughly recommend reading their free online book, Getting Real - be warned, it’s a bit of a non-traditional approach; that’s why I like it!

Whatever the colour of your vehicle, put it in first gear and start your journey. Don’t get stuck on the grid!

Why is this? Well it’s not because those things are rubbish;  they’re not. So what is it then?

It all boils down to what Avallach is offering, and the reasoning behind that. Put simply, we offer a low cost entry point for craft, hobby and other micro businesses, allowing them to create a solid, comprehensive web presence, without having to take out a loan to achieve that.

As your business grows, sure, we’d LOVE to talk to you about all those other things – the important thing to remember is that you need to start somewhere. If your starting point also happens to provide a solid foundation for future growth that’s even better!

Before ExpressWAHPz there were very few real solutions for the really little guys – we knew that had to change, and set about changing it!