An Internet Marketers Wishes for a New Year

Yep, another year has come and gone, and we?re all patting ourselves on the back for making it through the Y2K doom and gloom.

Yet as we enter the new century, there are a few things on my wish list that would make my job as an Internet marketer a lot easier. Perhaps my list will give you a few ideas for greater Internet success in 2000.

Wish #1: Prime Those Web Sites

All too often, we?re contacted by folks who are eager to have their web sites marketed, and yet, upon our visit to their site, the first thing we realize is how poorly it has been created. Before any marketing can be done, the site must first be completely overhauled. After all, who wants to drive traffic to a web site only to have the visitors say, ?Yuck,? or ?What a pain this is to navigate? and have them leave?

Let?s create sites using a little more common sense.

Remember the layperson here. After all, the majority of the folks surfing the ?Net are still novices and need as much help and hand-holding as they can get.

A. Improve the Message

To begin with, a web site should explain what it is and what the company does from the very start. It shouldn?t be written in a language that very few people understand. The message that it is trying to communicate should be clear: ?We are this? or ?We do that.? Don?’t leave the user guessing.

B. Check the Flow

Have you ever felt completely lost in a site, unable to get back to some page that you had browsed past or found on a previous visit? Have you ever felt like a prisoner of your Back button?

If that’s the case, chances are that the site’s navigation was sub-par. Navigation should not require a thought process. It should be as easy as going to the top or bottom of the page, at the very least, and clicking on a major section of the site. While you’re within that section, there should be similar links to other sub-sections. Think of site flow as smooth, not like white water rapids

C. Avoid Plug-Ins and Funky Technology

I’?ll admit it there are some really cool things that can be done on the Web that I enjoy. But can the average surfer handle it?

I think it?s really detrimental to have a bunch of techno-gadgets attached to your site if you’re looking to conduct serious business. Heck, some folks avoid ?Download Now? buttons like the plague and wouldn’t know what to do with a .PDF file if you paid ?em!

Rather than scaring away prospects, consider giving them alternatives (?Enter using Flash?/?Enter without Flash? or ?text version/.pdf version?). I also like sites that offer clear instructions when dealing with downloads or special features (?print this page and follow its instructions once your file is downloaded,? for example).

D. Get Me to My Order!

This part I’ll never understand. A company spends lots of money building a site to sell product, and then makes it virtually impossible or too overwhelmingly frustrating to place an order. Either I can?t seem to easily find their products, checking prices or my shopping cart seems to be a nightmare, or I get disgusted by the checkout process and decide to leave. Who ever said online shopping was a breeze?!

So, how do you get a web site ?primed?? Obviously, you’re too biased to critique your own site, so recruit your grandmother. Seriously, if Granny ain’t computer literate enough to be up to the task, do try to find another computer novice who knows nothing about you or your business to take the site through its paces and give you their honest feedback. You can also visit some helpful online resources that focus on web site ?usability? like UseIt.com or User Interface Engineering .

The key is to be sure that your site is developed for the lowest common denominator of understanding. I want everyone coming to your site to ?get it.?

Wish #2: New Advertising Options

Quick quiz: name the last 5 banner ads you saw. Don’t recall? Didn?’t even notice the last 50? Well, welcome to my world.

Banner ads used to be the way to go, enticing surfers to click with colorful graphics and animation, special offers or even running monkeys (now that one you may have clicked!). Thing is, their heyday has passed and now advertisers are looking for the next best thing. Though banners are still good for raising awareness, they?re likely not terribly effective for driving traffic to your site.

There are other options ? sponsorships & anchor spots, buttons, text links, mini-shops, lotteries, incentives, newsletter and email marketing, paid-for content, online trade shows, etc. The list is certainly extensive, but somehow is still leaves me unsatisfied. Maybe it?s because none of these are as far-reaching and pervasive as something like TV is in the off-line world. I know there?s something better out there, but it just hasn?’t happened yet? and I?m waiting.

Wish #3: Specialty Advertising Directory

Given the fact that I?m not completely satisfied with existing online advertising options, I still have to put up with them. That?s not to say that working to find the right kind of advertising for clients is any picnic.

Think there?s any one resource? Hell, no! What with new web pages being added at a rate of 25 every second(NEC Research/PC World), who could even keep up!

Thing is, I don?’t even necessarily want to know about web sites that are just selling banner space. Like I said, I want to move beyond the banner, and I want a simple way to find such opportunities. And with that information I want to find the contact name, email address, phone number and url for the online media kit. Is this so much to ask? Does anyone want to start such a web site for me?

Wish #4: The Perfect Opt-In Email Service

Ok, if you?ve heard my rant before, you know that I?ve got pretty rigid standards and expectations for my opt-in email vendors (see my previous article ?We All Hate Spam?).

Well, I still haven?t found the ?perfect? fit, so I?m still on the prowl. If I like their delivery capabilities, I don?’t like their list database; if I like their list database, I don?’t like their tracking capabilities; if I like their tracking capabilities, I don?’t like their customer service, and so on and so on.

Someone needs to come to my rescue.

Wish #5: Total Elimination of All Spammers

Speaking about hating spam, this issue truly burns me. Not only do they make it more difficult for us credible marketers to get our messages read, but personally, I find spam offensive, too. I say, keep cracking down legally and financially on those buggers!

Wish #6: Automatic Dead Link Eliminator/Updater

It?s really annoying to hit a dead link. Sometimes it happens when you?ve bookmarked a page that has been moved or no longer exists. Other times, the link is on a web site that has not been maintained. It could even be in a search engine?s index and takes up precious query result space, the worst kind of evil!

Whichever the case, once a web page no longer exists, I wish (by some force of magic, of course), that the page would automatically disappear from all references and links to it. Poof! Gone.

Wish #7: Ready-Made Marketers

Lastly, I wish that there were readily available and trained little Internet marketers for me to pluck off a tree somewhere. It?s not as if there are folks with years and years of experience out there or even those who have been trained in college.

So, right now, demand outweighs supply. Resumes anyone? ;->

c 2000 Hollis Thomases, Web Ad.vantage, Inc.

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