Web Design & SEO Blog, Inverness Blogs

And so after wrapping up work for today, it leaves us to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and all the very best for 2012!

Here’s the e-card we sent to clients and friends for your enjoyment as well!

Okay so this post will be a rant and hopefully quite a short rant.

I’ve been doing a spot of link building tonight for our own business – it always happens late at night well after it’s even feasible to work on client websites!

I was focussing on our website hosting services and came across a problem, which I have seen in so many other arenas – sites make you register. Most want at least the following from you for a most basic interaction:-

• E-mail Address
• Your Name

Some even go so far as to require an actual address and maybe a phone number. Why? Why do they want this volume of data. I can tell you they won’t get more money out of me because I’m annoyed we have have had to give over some information.

So Why Do Sites Make You Register?

I don’t have huge amounts of evidence, but experience indicates the following potential reasons:

• The ability to send you e-mail by a clause in their ‘Terms and Conditions’ which you almost certainly won’t read
• Control: sites that think they have something worth giving your personal details for will convince you that’s the case so they can control (and monitor) access to their content
• Data is valuable: the more data a site can get on you the more it can analyse user behaviour, sales patterns, geographical regions and more which is powerful for marketing and sales

No doubt there are more and I am going to open this post for feedback on your experiences and opinions on the matter. So what can we begin to conclude?

A Lesson from Cart Abandonment

Cart Abandonment has been linked to forced registration, which is why when I reworked Harris Tweed Gifts seller, Hillcraft of Harris we removed the necessity for registration and guess what – we got sales!

I feel a lesson can be learned here – unless registration is absolutely necessary, don’t make people register! People who have freedom are likely to be happier with your offering, may be more likely to buy, interact and share your content.

And those verbs are much more useful and give a greater return than ‘register’, so let’s not enforce it anymore, eh?

Open to the Floor

I have purposefully left some things unsaid to get some feedback, which can be included in the post itself if useful – so why do you think sites force you to register and how can we change the ‘registration culture’ we have?

Comments Received

• @RootsWebSol – making people register is terrible for accessibility. most sites that u register for are just building a list to sell to.
• @AudreysCat – interesting – good points – but as I’d have to leave my email to comment….I’m commenting here instead…
• Very valid point. As a result I have removed the necessity to provide e-mail address on this blog. I hadn’t spotted that in the settings and ensures I’m ‘practicing what I preach’ – so thank you.

Here is an edited version of the exciting news we sent out to clients and friends of mOxby Design on Monday!

To friends, clients and contacts of mOxby Design,

We’re going through a bit of a change at the moment at mOxby Design, and are currently in the process of packing up our home office, along with our home, as we are moving!

In five weeks time, the end of October, we are relocating ourselves and the business to Inverness in Scotland.

We’re moving for a number of reasons, both personal and business related, but wanted to let you all know way ahead of time so that you can speak to us about it directly.

For clients local to Peterborough, we will still be very much available on the telephone, e-mail and we will be more available on Skype from November too.

Due to family commitments we will be visiting the Lincoln/Peterborough area periodically and therefore will also use this time to arrange see clients and friends of the business.

We look forward to working for you in the beautiful Scottish highlands, and hearing from you in the near future.

So… moving to Inverness!

There is much work and packing to do over the next month, but we can assure you the same quality of service, web design and SEO our clients are used to. Please, if you have any questions please get in touch and we would be more than happy to answer your queries.

Think Business Exhibitions and Networking Events have to be expensive and in person? Think again.

The Value of Networking

Don’t get me wrong – our business is built on making personal face-to-face relationships with our clients and by going out and meeting new people at local networking events. So I will never undermine the value of that.

Peope like to know they can trust you, like working with you and just generally get along with you through rough and easy patches.

A Different Way

However, with the plethora of businesses out there – you just can’t meet them all. This is where the genius of new venture Purple Dog Net comes in – providing an alternative platform for UK Businesses to get together.

Launched in June 2011, armed with a WordPress Website and their Twitter Feed, as of this moment, they have 1,695 followers and a buzz is being created.

Purple Dog Day

Purple Dog Day is the 28th June and is a virtual business exhibition taking place on the #purpledogday hashtag. Join in, browse the businesses conversing on the hashtag – listen, offer value and take advantage of one day offers!

Our Purple Dog Day Offer

For one day only – followers of Purple Dog will be offered a first-come-first-served 10% discount on SEO Services for the duration of their business with us.

They will be encouraged to give that 10% to a charity of their choosing.

The offer is for the 28th of June only and are for services starting in August – this give us time to converse with the FIVE NEW CLIENTS and find out their SEO requirements to be able to structure an appropriate package.

And lastly Purple Dog Day winners will be able to get a DOFOLLOW link from our website to theirs AND to the charity they donate their 10% to.

What Are You Waiting For?

Find out more about Purple Dog Day and join in the fun!

I’m just sat here at my computer at the end of a lovely day of rest and have a thought to share. As this blog is multi-purpose and has already attracted visitors from the UK, the USA and Poland (I know this thanks to the joys of Google Analytics), I can write about non-website, non-SEO topics sometimes.

Although I guess there could be a link, as this is a Sunday, my purpose is not to highlight the business benefits but to advocate that there is a right time to turn off.

This week I have been struck by the number of different things that compete for our attention. Even just sat here on my laptop. For once I have two tabs open (this one and Analytics), but usually there are many others (the joys of working on websites and SEO). But think about it.

Take one example – Facebook: lets you add many friends, networking contacts, pages, interest groups, newsgroups and goodness only knows how much else. Don’t get me wrong, I am on FB most days. However, all of these things want your attention, your time, your thoughts. And of course, Facebook Ads, want your money, or the revenue they get when you click an Ad.

And that’s one social networking site out of many players. Then there’s e-mails, blogs, forums and instant messaging (although less so now than, say 7 or 8 years ago). You have search engines wanting their share of the “search market” (that’s you, by the way) and advertisers using the Internet, Radio, TV, Newspapers, Billboards, Signposts, posters, fliers, business cards, mailshots (etc etc etc) all wanting your business.

And of course, any time you sit at a search engine (I don’t support one over another per se, but balance the big G with Bing and add a dash of Yahoo), with every typing of a key, web pages, businesses, charities and others want to outrank each other to get YOUR attention. (did you realise you were this important?).

Life is out, it seems to grab your attention. There are just so many voices, so many so-called experts, trying to tell you how to lead your life, what clothes to wear and what to spend your money on. Your job could tell you to earn more money, get more prestige, strive for success.

You see, simply by listing these things above, it’s tiring just reading them and we put ourselves through this day in, day out.

But why do we listen to so many voices? Periodically I have the overwhelming desire to shut them all out and get some peace and quiet – because that’s what we lack in our lives sometimes, is peace. Being a Christian, I believe true peace can only come through knowing Christ. But I still have to organise myself.

There’s a time for social networking sites – I use FB (mOxby Design) and Twitter (moxby_design) and I have a website (mOxby Design). Am I wanting you to click any of the above as I’ve added links? Today, no. Tomorrow’s a different matter.

But I want to encourage you to take time out. To relax. To drown out the many voices with a wonderful silence and seek peace.

And then tomorrow, promise you’ll give your attention to things that matter. Don’t give your precious time to everything, because it can’t be done. Prioritise. Do your social networking then turn off your Facebook tab. If necessary, close the e-mails every so often and stop mobile devices from getting your attention. I believe doing less things (not less activity) is actually the way to do the important things better.

But decide today, which voices are important, and disregard those that aren’t.