We need someone skilled to join the team at Matter Solutions. Take a look this job description on my company’s website…

WordPress Web Developer Job

Thanks,

Ben

About two weeks ago I bought a heap of new ink for it (not cheap).

The printer promptly stopped working. As of course it must under these circumstances, i.e. accordance with Murphy’s Law.

After being waiting for the printer to fix itself (wishful thinking) for long enough I began to Google using the model number the error message all sorts of things. I came across a band of Printer Fixers who are apparently outlaws in the eyes of (Big)Brother, they share information that Brother Printers refuse to give out.

They offer heaps of great advice about using special commands into the EPROM to “reset the purge counter”, press this key and that key. Very interesting to see my printer flashing lights like it is having a party – alas for my printer it seems like it’s last hoorah.

Lesson Learned

I learned one great lesson today about cobbled-together help pages like this….

Read the whole thing before taking any action because they are totally unstructured and as mistakes are made new tips are added so the really important stuff is towards the bottom.

This is how my evening went…

1. I read about a waste ink well inside the printer which I needed to clean – so I promptly took the printer apart with some printer-outlaw guidance. I happily located the bit I needed pulled it out proudly and proceeded to wash it.
2. Very pleased with myself I proceeded to read more whilst the bits dried – the blackness on my hands was a minor concern but I returned to the computer to read more.
3. I read that there was actually no need to wash anything or take it apart. Ooops. All I need do was trick the system with some snazzy key pressing that was smuggled (by R2-D2?) out of (Big) Brother’s HQ
4. So I dried the bits and put it all back together – It looks alright.
5. I did the snazzy key pressing and voila – what a racket! Not put back together right I think – oh dear and the same error but no idea if its for a new or the same reason
6. Anyway still says “Unable to Init… blah”
7. So I returned to the printer outlaw page and read some more, this is what I read….

cleaned the overflow tank (don’t do this unless you have either a pair of latex gloves or a free social diary for at least a week: printer ink is worse under the fingernails than even engine grease!),

Oh no! What have I done?

I rushed to the sink and started scrubbing

So right now I have scrubbed my hands over and over with water plus every type of soap in the house, I’ve even had a go with white-spirit and I still look like this (see pic)…. they’re worse than when I was a paper-boy 20 years ago.

What’s the big deal?

Well, I’ve got three back to back meetings tomorrow with clients I need to impress with my knowledge of websites and internet marketing. Technical incompetence with a printer isn’t consistent with being an awesome geek.

But I’m a special geek, a geek that distinguishes between hardware and software. I actually bought an iMac so I would never have to play with hardware again.

My pledge

I hereby pledge to never attempt to take a screw driver to another printer ever again

Goodbye Brother Printer

The printer that did us so well over the last 5 years will now be put into the car and taken to a place from which there is no return.

Redcliffe dump.

I’ve neglected my blog quite a bit lately, mostly because we’ve been so busy at Matter Solutions – with two new staff to train and lots of exciting website design projects.

I’m confident the WordPress upgrade and addition of the Thesis theme is going to make this blog easier to update, and therefore done more often.

WordPress/Thesis Theme Customisation

I got quite a lot of experience customising thesis now so it won’t be long before this current “default” design is looking much better

What do you think? Have you tried thesis?

The argument in favour of this “prohibition on internet freedom” goes like this….

1. We MUST protect children from Paedophiles.

Agreed. Duh!

Instead of asking the internet industry how. The politicians decide….

2. We MUST filter the internet to protect children.

Agreed-ish, supervision is best for protection and for positive learning but in the absence of a responsible adult a powerful filter can be suitable.

3. We MUST make filtering of the internet mandatory.

There are many serious implications and better solutions. Frankly this goes too far.

The emotional argument

When an objection is raised about this policy the counter argument is the most concerning. Instead of addressing the concerns the response is purely emotional. The proponents have stated the obvious, of course we must protect children from pedophiles, they’ve then linked it to their goal so anyone that objects to a “mandatory filtering” is denounced as a paedophile or a paedophile supporter. This is a outrageous, a politician should use their elected position to be wise and considered not emotional and ill-informed.

Crafty word-smiths know this response can completely bypass all the facts by getting to the heart of the emotional issue without even focusing on what is best for our children, so it goes something like this…

Don’t you think preventing one case of child abuse is worth the risk of harming the internet in Australia?

My response?

Preventing one case of child abuse with this policy means many more children will be put at risk of abuse through a false sense of security, i.e. assuming the internet (in Australia) has been made safe.

@MikeFitzAU’s cartoon below makes the point about a false sense of security very well….

Economic Harm

Testing has been released on systems that will slow our internet by up to 87%, make it more expensive, miss the vast majority of inappropriate content and accidentally block up to 1 in 12 legitimate sites. Our children deserve better protection – and that won’t be achieved by wasting millions on this deeply flawed system.

From http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/SaveTheNet/442

Slow your internet by 87%? That would be like going back to dial-up networking for most people. Do you want Australia to go back 5-10 years in terms of internet bandwidth and remain behind every country in the world for ever more? That is not good for our kids.

At the most basic level we all know that the speed of a website is important. If it’s slow we move on. If the whole internet is slow we will use it less, we will buy less online and the evolution of the internet in Australia and all the benefits it has brought over the last 5-10 years will be damaged.

Our knowledge economy will be seriously hampered, all sorts of businesses rely on the internet.

This damage will put Australia at a disadvantage that will grow year after year unless businesses and individuals go to extra efforts to bypass the filter.

What’s in our kid’s best interests?

Not this “mandatory filter” for all sorts of reasons.

1. It won’t protect children
2. It’ll put more children at risk through a false sense of security
3. It’ll harm the economy

Use the money to educate parents and kids about the dangers online so people can understand the need for parental supervision and in-home filtering.

Other links

• MikeFitzAU’s blog post with a great Mind Map of the issue
  
• Dear Minister Conroy. A letter from a father of two about the Mandatory Filter
• China and Google, a comparison with Australia’s plans
• Take action: Join Get Up
• Stop Internet Censorship

If you have a relevant link or a comment please post below.

Twitter Advice

I’ve been giving advice to clients on getting started with Twitter for some time but it’s great to see a heavy weight like Jakob Neilsen give some practical advice on how to write and rewrite your tweets to make them great.

The full article is here http://www.useit.com/alertbox/twitter-iterations.html

Brisbane Business Twitter

If you’re interested in learning more about twitter and how it can help you, your business and/or your website then get in touch. I’m offering some free coaching to demonstrate it’s value by creating some case-studies for prospective clients.

Contact me (Ben Maden) via my Brisbane Web Design Business website – Matter Solutions

After only 4 weeks this website including custom order form for online orders goes live.

Fresh is The Best operate a Brisbane Fresh Fruit and Vegetables delivery service. Melissa Burrell, owner of Fresh is The Best said…

We are extremely happy with the work you have done. It has given us exactly what was wanted and needed. Thank you for your professional advice along the way and thank you for taking the time to understand our business.
It has been a pleasure working along side of you with this project and I have no hesitation recommending Matter Solutions to anyone.

The website includes an order which although simple-to-use has a number of special features to help the customer select and customise their order with the minimum of fuss.

When it comes to ordering fresh produce in northern Brisbane www.freshisthebest.com.au is the place to do it, my wife is already planning our first order.

Facebook

Fresh is The Best has had a fan page on Facebook for quite sometime with quite a few fans so now way for Melissa and her staff to turn that online interest into customers.

Fruit & Vegetable Delivery Service

The website has been created to enable full reporting to the managers. The order administration shows number and value of pending and completed orders.

Google Analytics – Goal Tracking

In tune with the talk I (Ben) gave last month at the Brisbane Web Design Meetup Group I have included full Google Analytics and enabled Goal Tracking to tie traffic and internet marketing activities back to actual sales results.

I called Three Australia to enquire about a $10 late-payment fine on my $24.50 mobile broadband package.

Three Australia fined me

Three Australia provide my mobile broadband.  I hardly ever use especially now I have an android phone it but it has been worth having for meetings with clients where we want to use the laptop.

ASIDE: It also works well with Linux (on my laptop)…. it is however terrible on Windows XP (also on the laptop, via dual boot) because I have Norton 360 and somehow that’s not compatible.

Okay so I should have paid $26.50, $24.50 + $2 for a paper bill on the 4th if August and I actually paid on the 12th of August. I hold my hands up and admit it I was naughty!

A $10 fine seems excessive and as it was the first late payment in well over 18 months of my 24 month contract

Calling Three Australia about mobile broadband

I called the “Need Help?” number 13 33 20 and navigate through the robot. I’m not a fan.

I speak to a guy from India called Avie, I have never called in 18 months of being a customer so have no idea of my pin number. He asks all sorts of other questions that are not in any way authenticating but eventually he says I’ve passed security… er okay

I explain my simple point that I am a good customer without ever paying a bill late before and I’d like this fine waived please.

No! He doesn’t even check. According to him three is free from considerations like taking care of customers.

He says over and over “IT IS IN THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS” like this is some free pass to rip-off customers.

So I ask two question…

• When does my contract end? Answer: 17-Jan-10
• Can I speak to a supervisor? He puts me on hold.

Oh dear. Three Australia have staff and/or telecom problems.

10 minutes later I’m waiting and waiting listening to the same music over and over. Thankfully it is not wasted time as I am still working at my desk.

After 15 minutes I think to myself, is he ever coming back? Am I alone here?

I decide to call up on my other phone line and try and speak to a supervisor another way.

More Three Australia beauracratic rubbish

After yet another confusing session with the call-centre robot I get through to Tania.

I asked right away for the supervisor.

She refuses without an explanation.

I explain that I want to complain about her colleague.

She refuses without knowing who.

I explain that I am not stupid enough to tell her and she ought to just put me in touch with a supervisor.

No.

Hmmmmm.

Helpfulness score so far ZERO out of TWO people.

Avie of Three Australia returns

Just as I hit that other dead end the previous dead end came on the line proffering a supervisor.

Bye bye Tania. Click.

Three Australia supervisior Sharon

I was taking notes by this stage so I wanted to find out how many letter “r” are in Sharon for my notes. She didn’t know.

Not a good start I thought.

Aside: We know a few Sharrons in OZ with two and in the UK the most common spelling is with one, i.e. Sharon.

Three Australia mobile broadband did waive the $10 late payment fee

So at great length she explained that because I’d never been late before she would indeed consider waiving the late payment fine but it was such a lot of waffle I couldn’t tell if she was actually doing it or not.

I asked outright…. “Will you waive it YES or NO?”

Eventually she stopped waffling and said “Yes”

I asked why Avie, the first operator, had left me on hold for so long and been so rude about not doing something she could actually just do right away.

She said she was the one with the power to waive.

I made some MBA type recommendations about improving Avie’s training and empowering him with $10 waiving rights if the customer is a good customer and worth not upsetting. She agreed but implied it was not in her power to do anything.

I was upset: “I want nothing to do with Three Australia”

I explained that once my contract ends on the 17th of January 2010 I want nothing to do with them and will be not be renewing my contract.

I tried to get a straight answer about paying the three or four months left on my contract in advance so I could just forget about bills from them and getting fined ever again. Sharon couldn’t help me and put me on hold “for 2 minutes” to transfer me to cancellations”

5 minutes later I’m thinking – oh great here I go again.

Sharon came on the line transferred me.

Carmen explained that Sharon has told her everything hence the massive delay, so now wanted to cancel my contract there and then and charge me $98.

Hello? What? Er, no.

I explained yet again that all I needed to know was how much to pay in advance for all the future bills and I would cancel on the 17th of January.

She couldn’t tell me because she couldn’t work out whether it was 3 or 4 months of bills to January.

I asked: Can I pay in advance?

Yes

Ok, Goodbye, click.

Conclusions of Three Australia’s Mobile Broadband Call-Centre

1. I’m, not surprised Avie, the first guy I spoke to, is a grumpy rude individual. He must be very frustrated that he can’t even waive a $10 late payment fee to someone who ticks all the boxes…. never late before and reasonably likely to renew they contract.
2. Tania, also on the front line was equally hostile and useless. I assume that’s just part of being the “buffer” or “front line” on the call-centre. The feeling I get from both of these two is… the customer is NOT right, this is a call-centre damn-it!
3. Supervisor Sharon. Can’t spell your own name? Even if it is a fake name – know how to spell or listen to the customer and stop waffling garbage.
4. Carmen. Useless, what was Sharon talking to you about?
5. It seems like call centres suck, for customers and employees. The only winners seem to be fat cats that don’t ever go to or endure their own call-centers and get to pocket fines from people who hang up when the call-centre front line treats them like dirt. Surely there is a better way.
6. I’d never noticed before but I think Three Australia’s bills have always arrived quite some time after the “issued date” this months was a whole week and I know the post isn’t that slow. I’m going to be watching now.
7. Pay your bill on time in Australia or get fined like the criminal you are.
8. I will now be moving my mobile broadband to anywhere but three when the contract date ends. I’m looking for a new dead. I like the look of Dodo’s pay-as-you-go so I’ll look that up.
9. When my mobile phone contract is up next (personal or business) I am confident Three Australia’s mobile service will be last on my list with a line through it.

Final tip for Three Australia

Be careful who you upset. They may just be a Brisbane SEO Professional that can write a really damning article about his own personal experience of your rubbish customer services with all sorts of top keywords in it about your company.

Notes

For international readers this is common in Australia, companies bill monthly for things billed for quarterly in most countries and then it feels like they go out of their way to get fine you.

Nice to look at but no substance. Empty between the ears.

I’m not sure how politically correct the term bimbo is so I apologise immediately if you are offended, but you probably typed Bimbo into Google to get here so it’s your own fault if you clicked and arrived here

Bimbo Website – A website that does nothing

Do you have a Bimbo Website?

What would a web professional say if he (well I) reviewed your website?

Looks nice but the text is completely missing any decent keywords, it is probably poorly organised and isn’t trying to capture any sort of action or enquiry from it’s visitors.

Same old, same old – Ker-ching!

For me (and other web consultants) some of these answers become repetitive because business owners almost always ask for a free website review when they are unhappy so it is usually a no-brainer and any chimp trained to sell websites can say the right things:-

1. You need a better, more flashy/professional design
2. You need a Content Management System (CMS) website
3. You need to organise the pages
4. You need to use the right keywords in your text
5. You need calls to action that convert visitors to customers

Even if the chimp in question does actually get as far as step 3 he is already on a mission to sell you a CMS website with a flashy graphic design and move on to the next website, ker-ching!

Trust me, I rescue clients from this situation again and again.

They get into cycles of buying Bimbo Websites that include the first two steps above but completely miss the really important stuff, steps 3-5, because the design ends up taking priority over everything and everyone gives up on the project when it looks nice. You need to beware of the BIMBO WEBSITE ALERT!

Back to Basics – How to get customers online

Simple. Three steps.

1. Get a great website
2. Get some traffic into that great website
3. Look after it to keep it great and bringing in the traffic

Tada! Here’s my bill for consulting… only joking.

A Great Website is nearly impossible

The Reality of Websites

Firstly, step 1 is very difficult and for most of the people who are in the market to build websites it is completely impossible.

“Eeeek” I hear you say? Yes, IMPOSSIBLE. “but Ben, my website looks great”. Yes, I’m coming to that.

Most of the men and women out there building websites for clients don’t really give a fudge about your business.

• They care about their business
• They want to build you a pretty website because that is what will make you happy, it’s a visual thing you can look at and say ah isn’t that nice to your mates and co-workers. This is only a fraction of a great website but is closer to the truth than it should be
• They want a pretty website that they can show to prospective clients who want a pretty website because they don’t know any better and so the cycle continues
• Rubbish website perpetuates the need for more rubbish websites
• Groan

Professional Websites – Do it Right

Don’t let someone dazzle you with flashy graphics and swirling colours. See steps 1 & 2 above…. remember, you run a business!

• You want customers!
• You want income, leads & sales!
• You want success!

The website has to pay for itself somehow. Just looking pretty isn’t worth that much! Yeah!

So getting a professional website is about finding someone who can do much more than a pretty design:-

• thinking about target keywords right from scratch
• getting content organised and written specifically for the web
• laying out pages to turn visitors into leads that become customers

Yeah, yeah whatever – Ben, Design is everything man!

Okay I can imagine some people reading that and thinking design is critically important. Yes, it makes a difference when you’ve got the content, keywords and the conversion approach right but in my view it is nothing more than a component part of the package.

Here are a couple of “ugly” websites… each make a fortune because they do what they are meant to.

1. Take a look at craigslist.com (new window) it is a hugely successful website because it works… it does what people expect.
2. Maximise your metabolism, this is diet package sold by affiliate marketers on clickbank (I’ve done this diet and it works) but read the page…. it seems like the most amazing long dull page but it works. When someone is in the zone to buy a diet this will convert!
3. Ebay, the daddy of badly designed websites. They try but to me it still just looks a bit shabby

Internet Marketing – What can you learn from this?

• Pretty websites without substance are a complete waste of your money
• A website with substance and the right keywords will work so long as the design is okay

From years of experience I can tell you that both substance and design together are a force to be reckoned with, like a money generating super model, you’ll be able to get customers online in no time.

As the search engine you’ve probably already heard on the media about the massive volume of hits that fooled Google into thinking it was under attack and slowed Google down.

Web Consultant’s Eye

As a web consultant it is interesting to me, okay okay – I love the web, that Google Trends is already showing the following:-

• A mark on the timeline referencing news of Michael Jackson’s death. Nice automation Google.
• If you compare the level of searches over the last 12 months to the time of his death you can see a 30 fold jump in traffic (opens in new window)
• And if you change the scale to just the last 30 days you find two things… first that whilst the number of actual user searches is falling the number of news articles about him are beginning to increase after the obvious surge. NB. This blog post will add to that too.
• Second thing we notice from the 30 days scale is that the “surge” of web traffic over the “normal” level indicates that the factor is only 10 fold…. a bit of simple maths tells me that the traffic before he died was therefore three times higher than over the last 12 months…. which is a great increase for someone trying to make a comeback

your Web Consultant

Here are some facts that you’ve probably noticed or heard but lets put it all together…

• The Yellow Pages is slimming down, basically businesses know the Yellow Pages just doesn’t work like it used to. Anyone with access to a computer uses their computer.
• In December 2008 – 8 million households in Australia (that’s 75%) had internet access. So I reckon that’s at least 75% less people using the yellow pages compared to pre-internet life… and this trend is continuing. Besides as the Yellow Pages hasn’t shrunk by 75% yet you’re less and less likely to even get called as the ratio of readers to advertisers gets worse and worse.
• Also, in 2006/07 87% of Australian Businesses had internet access. So it’s not just at home that people use the web.
• Also in 2006/07 40% of Australian Business placed orders online.

Australian Internet Facts (PDF) – opens in a new window

So as far as I’m concerned this trend is definitive and proves that you need to stop wasting money on the Yellow Pages!

Go Internet Marketing!

Internet Marketing is the way ahead, there is no doubt about it.

The growth of internet use is continuing and completely unstoppable. This is absolutely clear to me after the last few week of my mother-in-law asking me if I can set-up her new PC soon as she hasn’t checked gmail in ages and wants to hop onto Skype. I got her set-up with TPG and using Fedora Linux. Not bad for 70 this year! Go Jilly

The problem is how to do it right. Many businesses in Australia already have a website but don’t see any return from it think about your customers.

• What are they searching for? Think phrases.
• What phrases are important for you to be there, ready and waiting on Google?

Internet Marketing is the future – Try this out.

If you still need convincing or are seriously interested in finding some of these magic phrases then you have to try this out. Google has a service called Google Trends. Google collates data about what people are searching for and enables you to generate your own comparison charts.

As a professional web consultant I use it all the time to compare search terms and gain insights into what search terms are becoming important and which are on the way out.

Get into your customer’s head – Ask them!

I meet people who run businesses all the time and ask these business owners what people use in Google to find their current website…

Number 1 answer is “we don’t know”

Number 2 answer is “our company name”

That’s a sign that there is something seriously wrong with their website. If you’re a Plumber in Brisbane wouldn’t it be nice to be the number one in Google for Plumber Brisbane rather than only get visitors if someone happens to already know your business name? YES, of course it would. It makes the difference by a factor of a hundreds or even a thousand everyday for almost any topic you could mention.

Be your own web consultant for five to ten minutes. Play with this tool and think about keywords & phrases.

Step 1) Visit Google Trends and type in some searches about the type of service you provide. If you get stuck thinking of words try:-

• Free Keyword Tracker
• Google Suggest
  

Step 2) Take some of these phrases to Google Trends and follow the instructions. Type them into the big input box and split phrases up with commas e.g. you want to compare how many searches are made for “Mashed Potato” and “Potato Chips”.

Step 3) Look at the results and ask yourself some questions about anything you see. Click here for my example result and note the format of the text in the input field at the top with the commas separating the phrases. Now spend some time thinking about the result.

• Why are 1.6 times as many searches made about Potato Chips than Mashed Potato?
• Potato Chips searches are trending downwards, why?
• There are two spikes in the Mashed Potato searches, are they pre and post Christmas?

Have fun. There’s lots of interesting stuff to discover in Google Trends

Your web consultant