Today we’re pleased to welcome Nicolas Steenhout to Small Business Owner. Nic is the guy behind Accessibility NZ, a web accessibility firm based in New Zealand but offering most of its services worldwide. Nic is passionate about web accessibility and has some great insights to share with you.   Naomi

Having an accessible website means people with disabilities can interact with your site and access your content.  An accessible website also reduces barriers to many people who don’t have a disability.

There is no way to know how many people with disabilities are using the web. We do know that approximately 20% of the Australian population has some condition that affects their activities of daily living, such as seeing, hearing, or moving.  If 1 in 5 Australian has a significant disability, it makes sense to think that a large number of people with disabilities are using the web.

You can implement changes to your site to ensure you’re not cutting out potential customers. These changes will benefit other people as well. Accessibility techniques also apply to non-English speakers, folks who are colour-blind (about 8% of men), the elderly, and a growing number of people using smart phones.

Implementing accessibility doesn’t have to cost the earth.  It generally is better to plan for accessibility at the design phase, because it is more costly to retrofit the website.  But if you have an existing site, you can still make small changes to make a big difference.  Is a small investment worth a potential increase in traffic between 5 and 20 percent? How much have you invested in Search Engine Optimisation already?

Search engines can’t index your content if it is delivered only through images, or Flash. Think of Google as the largest blind user on the internet. If you increase accessibility, you also make it easier for search engines to find your content.

Baby boomers are starting to turn 65. For many of them, small font size that can’t easily be increased or low colour contrast can be a barrier. Grey text on light grey background might be nice from a design point of view, but it is difficult to read.

The internet is a global market. Your audience is no longer simply local. You don’t know if English is your visitors’ native language. Complex sentence structures make it difficult for non-English speakers to understand your content. Simplifying your language will also make your content easier to understand for people with learning disabilities (about 7% of Australians have dyslexia).

Smart phones are growing in popularity. People use these devices to visit websites.  Someone you see staring at an iPhone could be visiting your website.  Does your site work on a Smartphone? Mobile data is still costly in Australia. Delivering content through Flash or Java may not be the best way, even if the phones can handle these technologies.

Were you already aware of web accessibility issues?  What do you think you can do to reduce barriers?

Nicolas Steenhout, Head of Accessibility NZ

                                                How do YOU feel today?

Research released last week^ suggests our economy has stalled.

Other commentators say it’s running at two speeds.

My client portfolio is definitely doing the latter: half have gone from sluggish to flat out like two lizards drinking.

How about yours?

Economy

Mining’s up. Retail’s down. Employment is mixed and shares are all over the joint.

For some reason, many of my clients are leaping like the locusts that hit Melbourne last fortnight.

I’m frantically busy with job ads, blog posts, a BIG website, a media release, a book blurb and even [GASP!] a printed magazine advertisement constructed from paper*.

I worked all last weekend and the one before. In my pipeline are newsletters, product sheets, LinkedIn profiles and two more websites.

Last week I had my first face-to-face prospect meeting for months. I got the gig and went home with a bucket of work.

While I’m rapt to be one of the minority businesses enjoying strong growth, I don’t know why I’m succeeding.

Property

The top is slow. The bottom’s OK. And interest rate rises seem to be ‘crimping optimism’.

I’ve wanted to write honest real estate ads for many years. But my various overtures have come to naught.

Last week I was referred to a realtor seeking a writer and photographer. I may be able to do both jobs.

So why all this sudden movement at the station?

Media

My Twitter friends are talking less about pets, kids, partners and gadgets and more about their latest prospect, article, client, meeting or project.

Some are so busy, they’re hardly tweeting at all.

I’m not seeing the same optimism in traditional communication channels.

Could it be the recovery is manifesting earlier with socially mediated business people?

According to the research, companies with a website are doing and feeling better than those without.

Could social media be inoculating and supercharging firms who embrace it?

You

With such unusual and fragmented signals, I’m naturally keen to make sense of it all and discern the bigger picture.

So what’s happening in your neck of the woods?

Are you:

• Ploughing or sowing?
• Reaping or growing?
• Catching or throwing?
• Crying or crowing?
• Fading or glowing?

How are you?

I really wanna know.

^ MYOB Business Monitor (download PDF here).

* (archaic) a cellulose-based communication product derived from trees.

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire

                                                 This might sting a bit …

Here’s a mystery I hope we can solve.

Seth Godin says that, while we should aim high with our goals, we should stay in the realm of reality.

In other words, we shouldn’t try to out-Google Google, or out-Amazon Amazon.

So why is Cash Converters (CC) trying to out-eBay eBay?

eBaying for Blood

I was hunting a rare Kylie Minogue DVD for my wife.

The only copy for sale on eBay was in the UK.

But there was one copy in Australia, on a site I’d never heard of: Cash Converters webshop.

I live near a bricks-and-mortar CC store.

My experience of this facility has been one of haggard locals pushing TVs in baby strollers with a singular sense of urgency.

From CC’s signage and fit-out, I understand them to be a franchised, much-nicer-than-usual pawn shop.

With the amount of TV advertising they do, I assumed they’d have no trouble moving the gear they buy.

And if they did have anything left over, why not simply flog it on eBay?

Yet they’ve gone to the trouble of setting up their own retail site with eBay-like features.

Theory Query

I quizzed CC about this, but received no reply.

Looks like it’s up to you and me.

So far, I’ve come up with the following possible reasons for a dedicated online store:

1. Build & control the CC brand.
2. Avoid eBay & PayPal charges.
3. Obviate any lack of control or certainty about eBay.

I’d be fascinated to hear if you concur with these theories or have better ideas.

Spinning Around

For the record, I bought two DVDs through CC’s webshop.

The transaction was seamless and the goods arrived fast. Alas, one case was broken: it looked like the postie had dropped it.

I emailed CC, who immediately refunded the purchase price and postage without query or rancour.

This was actually faster and more personal than (my experience of) eBay’s issue resolution system.

So, maybe there’s a fourth reason for CC’s online store:

    4. To out-eBay eBay!

Who knows: they may just pull it off.

Your View

What do you think CC are up to here?

Have you experienced CC’s webshop (or any other eBay alternatives)?

Has your business ever wanted to beat a ‘category killer’ at its own game?

We’re on the market.

I welcome your bids.

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire

                                      If you have the skills of a four-year-old
                                          you can put your business online!

If you’ve a business but no website, this is your lucky day.

Today we explore the simplest method I’ve found to get you online.

Despite its funny name, Squidoo is one of the internet’s top 500 sites*.

It’s easy, effective, fun and free.

Paint by Numbers

Squidoo is to web content what building blocks are to toddlers.

You can be illiterate and uncoordinated yet still produce an attractive, functional result in minutes.

The whole thing is done with ‘modules’.

You don’t need to pay an IT boffin or learn HTML, CMS or any other technical language.

You just pick the modules for whatever content you want to display (text, pictures, videos, links, surveys … the list is enormous).

Once you’ve strung some modules together, you ‘publish’ the result and it’s live – with its very own URL (web address) that you can broadcast to the world.

Many Facets

In studying Squidoo for two years, I’ve gone through three phases.

In Phase 1, I created ‘lenses’ (small web pages or microsites) to glean passive income via monetarisation modules (e.g. Amazon, eBay, AdWords). This was not terribly successful, but some dreams die very hard.

In Phase 2, I began showcasing my cartoons, short stories and photographs. This was great fun and extremely rewarding in terms of audience feedback.

In Phase 3, I started promoting my professional copywriting services – again with good results.

Now, having encountered several clients who’ve struggled to create business websites, I perceive a fourth use for Squidoo.

Phase 4

(MYOB) Naomi told me the other day that around 65% of Australian businesses have no online presence.

I was stunned by this figure – not least because, in the eyes of our young, if you’re not online you don’t exist.

Yet I’ve witnessed the angst and expense that go with trying to build a website.

The way I see it, Squidoo:

1. Helps you define goals and organise ideas and content before you start spending money on IT specialists.
2. Serves as a de facto website until you have the cash, time and stamina to go through the World Wide Wringer.

You & Squidoo

You can use Squidoo lenses as brochures, industry portals or retail outlets to:

• Educate customers.
• Build your profile.
• Sell products and services.

The better your content, the higher your lenses rank.

This attracts fiscal and other benefits (which I can cover in another post if there’s interest).

And did I mention that Squidoo is 100% FREE?

A glance at my 39 lenses will show you the versatility of this extraordinary invention.

I highly commend Squidoo as a business-building tool and warmly welcome your ideas, thoughts, questions and stories.

* Source: Wikipedia.

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire

Would you buy a pfoofer valve from this man?

As with large wooden beads, most business owners can string a sentence.

Due to this, many don’t feel they need a professional writer to optimise their communications.

Now and then I get a reminder of my redundancy, like this striking missive from Dirt Cheap Pfoofer Valves* (DCPV):

Error Legend:  [ ] Minor.   [ ] Major.  [ ] Fatal.

Hello Dear Customer
We Are open 10am-6pm on Easter Saturday ,Easter Sunday and Easter Monday .

There has been alot of new pfoofer valves that have just arrived to the warehouses.

Over the three days we will be given a free $5 valve of your choice to anybody that visits the warehouses .

There is no obligation to buy anything ,sounds to good to be true but thats the deal .

We are running this promotion in the herald Sun on Easter Sunday ,so we suggest u come on the Saturday to surly avoid the masses that will arrive to claim the offer .

Offer is valid    3RD 4TH AND 5TH OF APRIL 2010

Happy Shopping .

MR Dirt Cheap Pfoofer Valves

When I stumbled on DCPV’s website, their atrocious writing didn’t stop me visiting their store. In fact I bought quite a few valves over several visits.

Their last promotion, however, was deeply disappointing. The TV-touted $1 valves turned out to be useless for all but the simplest applications.

I did not, therefore, take up this Easter offer.

It may be vain or spurious to suggest poor communications indicate poor business practices.

Yet next time I see an offer this badly worded, I’ll surly avoid it.

Many judge people by their appearance.

I judge firms by their writing.

Is this fair?

Do you care? 

* I used ‘pfoofer valves’ because: 

1. I don’t wish to harm the business concerned.
2. ‘Widget’ now means more than an abstract production unit.
3. Wikipedia deleted my pfoofer valve entry with, I believe, undue haste.

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire

This may sting a little...

Part 1 covered the top eight ‘pain points’ (as ranked by SMEs in MYOB’s Business Monitor).

Here are the lower eight, again with my comments.

9.    Doing monthly accounts including tax

I hate bookkeeping so much, I put all my papers in a box and spend one agonising day per quarter sorting them out.

I like words, not numbers!

10. Keeping business books up to date

See above. Hate it.

11. Preparing quarterly BAS

See above. Hate it. Hate it! HATE IT!!!

12. Networking with similar businesses

See Point 3. Thanks to social media, I’ve never been better connected.

13. Finding information relevant to your business

As above. Adam, Malcolm, Joanna, Sonia, the Stephens … this amazing list goes on!

14. eCommerce or eMarketing on your website

Bit of a fizzer. I had naively high hopes for my online shop, but I’ve only sold a few eBooks.

I need to improve my offer, reduce the price and add zing.

Google AdWords drove me nuts for six months. Forget it!

15. Managing your business website

With Andrew Hurl in my corner, I can’t lose.

In my next life, I’d like to learn a bit of back end stuff so I can tinker with my content.

For now, I’ll just send Andrew emails at 3 am.

16. Managing existing staff performance

I’m a twitchy minion and a merciless boss. But we get on OK.

Most days I spend around ten hours at my desk (occasionally head-butting it).

Alas, no Christmas bonus for me.

Well, I’m jolly glad to have all that out of my system!

As always, I warmly welcome your comments, stories, segues and diatribes.

And your jump cuts, maiden speeches, shameless plugs and dissertations.

Just tell us where it hurts.

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, The Feisty Empire 

Five weeks ago I was frightened. Today I’m happy to say the fear is gone. Andrew Hurl     (my IT Guy) has delivered a new Empire website that exceeds all expectations. He did it on budget. And would’ve nailed it last fortnight, had I coughed up my content on time.

Andrew’s firm is SilverDimension. He should call it SilverBullet, because it slew my bête noire!

As presaged in Physician Heal Thyself, my website turned out to be the hardest piece of writing I’ve ever done. I had dreadful performance anxiety; all I could think was, ‘They’re all watching. This is where I stand or fall. What good is a copywriter who can’t write his own site?’

After I’d faffed around with every task except this critical one, Andrew broke my inertia by asking for one small paragraph. Like a breadstick diced, the massive job suddenly seemed digestible.

I still worried about clients, peers and prospects. Yet Andrew was operating in a much harsher glare. I’d named him and was describing his every move to the global business community … inviting every person and their pet to rifle his unfinished pages … crying about how hard and costly and time consuming the project was. Yet Andrew was unphased.

• When I couldn’t sleep for worry, my 3.00 am emails woke him via his mobile.
• When I requested four tiny changes (in a row) to one image, he didn’t complain.
• When he got the flu towards the end of the project, he kept on working.
• When I sent huge additional work samples at the last second, he barely murmured.

Now the site is live. I warmly invite your visit and double-barrelled feedback. Should you spot any errors or inconsistencies, please let me know. Given my profession, a quiet word via paul@thefeistyempire.com might be best.

I also wish to thank Adam Wilson at Logo Pogo who did the beautiful graphic design work. And Adam Finlay, who told me for years that I needed a new website. You were right, Mate!

I’m also grateful to you, dear reader, for taking the time to follow these posts and make helpful comments and suggestions. I’d like to thank God, my wife and (especially) my ISP, but it looks like we’re out of time…

Andrew Hurl     has served me well. All that remains is to not pay his invoice for as long as possible per our recent discussion!

J

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer

The NEW & IMPROVED Feisty Empire, NOW WITH ENZYMES

When I read the quote for my new website, I got a fright. It said something like ‘pictures not included’*.

Last time I worked in a creative studio, clients were charged up to $150 per picture (pic). I needed nine.

Fortunately, much has changed in recent years.

On Sunday I found and bought the pics I needed for only $15 each – a tenth of what I feared. My relief mirrored that of clients tracking this project with a view to doing their own sites.

Maybe you’ll benefit too.

Above is one of the pics I bought. You don’t see a lot of cuneiform on today’s corporate websites; it’s my WaPIUSP^! This medium-sized pic is perfect for my purposes.

The price licences me to use it on my website and this blog. Legally (and technically) I can’t plaster it on a jet or a skyscraper, but if I’m that successful, I’ll happily fork out an extra tenner.

I got the pic from iStockphoto. All the art directors I consulted recommended this site. Some also mentioned Shutterstock and Dreamstime but I didn’t find these as easy to use. You may.

In addition to being cheap and easy, iStockphoto had all the pics I sought. I added them to my ‘lightbox’, bought ‘credits’ on my credit card, downloaded the files to my PC and spent two hours trying to email them to my IT Guy.

Once he got them, it was on. Just look at the development site!

I’m thrilled. And glad not to be dealing with a full-service advertising agency from last decade. In those days, CDs costing around $450 held themed sets of around 80 pics (e.g. Ancient Scripts in the Workplace).

Once a client approved a creative concept, the agency bought the necessary CD (if it didn’t own it already). It then charged the client up to $150 per pic!

Thus, after recouping the cost in as few as three pic sales, the agency reaped pure profit from subsequent sales for the life of the CD. So long as cuneiform stayed in vogue, the CD was a money machine.

Next time you get a quote for a job with pics, ask how much they are. You may save quite a few shekels (and get exactly what you want) by sourcing them yourself.

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, www.thefeistyempire.com

* Images … will need to be provided or … sourced and the licensing fees paid … licensing fees are not included …

^ Weird and Possibly Ineffective Unique Selling Proposition.

Today I commissioned a $2500, scorched-earth rebuild of my entire website. I expected a faint pang of apprehension at this point; now that it’s here, I’m downright scared. I’ve written dozens of sites for clients, but this is different. It’s my site, my brand, my business and my money, um… line of credit, actually.

In short, it’s my a**e online. I’m literally trembling as I type. Will I triumph, or come a cropper? Let’s play the fortunately/unfortunately game to see:

Fortunately  I have a good man in my corner. He’s been my IT Guy for a couple of years and his service is second to none. He’s fast and smart and reasonably priced. He’s got offsite backup thingys coming out of his serial port, so that’s got to be good.

Unfortunately  my years of experience with web projects have taught me that they’re longer and stringier than the longest, stringiest bits of string. What starts as a five-page walk in the park can turn into a 15-volume Grimm’s fairy tale. Overnight.

Fortunately  I did things by the book. I wrote an explicit, four-page plan of what I wanted in terms of content, structure and functionality. I also wrote a creative brief, complete with sample images, to give the designer a clear sense of my vision. I even gave the URL of the site I wish to emulate – a site, ironically, whose content I edited with supreme confidence!

Unfortunately  until you see everything on screen, you don’t know how (if?) it’s going to work. And even if it’s all done right and I love it, my clients may not. They range from sole traders to corporate juggernauts; what pleases some may repel others. It all comes down to my professional judgment which, though unerring to date, feels strangely frail today.

Fortunately  I have a small circle of gifted, trusted, objective advisors. To these generous people I will send the site mock-ups that precede the main event.

Unfortunately  until we go live, I won’t know for sure whether all this time, money and effort will pay off.

Fortunately  the Empire is soon to be mentioned in a major magazine and featured on myBRC. It’s possible that hordes of new visitors will give me the feedback I crave.

Unfortunately  the site may not be ready in time for this exposure, and these rich, new prospects may hit (and flee) my tired, old site which is so in need of a makeover.

Fortunately  if the whole thing collapses in a screaming heap, I’ll at least get some amusing blog posts out of it.

All this goes to show that when you’re reinvesting your own hard-earned cash, even decades of expertise offer scant comfort. Do you trust yourself? Whence comes your confidence?

Your advice, warnings and hilarious anecdotes are invited at this point.

Wish me luck!

Paul Hassing, Founder & Senior Writer, www.thefeistyempire.com