Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

This is really good Craig, thanks a lot for the feedback.  I`ll get together with my partners to discuss what you have posted.  Also, which version did you see?  I recently changed the layout and fixed the site map at the bottom so everything should be cleaner and more concise.

Also here are a few questions I have if you don`t mind clarifying:

Is it necessary to answer the price question?  My partners discussed this at length and decided it was best to have a general price guide but at the same time made sure any potential clients knew that many times the prices will change due to every client being different and having different needs.

Do you think the web site could use more images?  I`ve been kicking this around since I am a firm believer that well placed images can help break up text and make a page look less daunting to read.

Also, though a business owner may not know why they need an online presence, shouldn`t most business owners know what a business model is?  Just a thought.

Thanks again Craig,
Tom



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The ever so jovial site admin of ThePendex.com, a web development firm catering to the needs of the small business owner.

Hi Tom,
I clicked the link in your signature, so that`s the version I saw. I see you changed the lead-in text, along the lines of above, and that makes more sense. I also like the "read more," which also helps.

As far as pricing, these kinds of contract services really don`t lend themselves to fixed pricing. But what I think you can do is offer some general guidelines. For example, consider a real estate company.

Someone calls, "I found your company in the phone book. How much do you usually get for houses?"

There`s no possible way the company can give a number. But they can say something like, "Well, we typically specialize in homes in the million to four-million dollar range. Would you like to get together and we`ll show you what we can do?"

You probably have some ranges or categories in the development business, and it`s up to you if you want to specialize. Or, you could offer various "plans." There might be the Budget plan, the Startup Special, the E-Commerce plan....whatever. They`d each fit into a general range, and each would have features.

When a client wanted features from a different plan, then you would have the grounds to either say no or upgrade them to that plan.

Point being that you can usually come up with ball-park ranges for pricing without being too specific. THEN you can ask for their information and a meeting, and that`s when you talk about working up a proposal and a quote.

The Web site should be your calling card, but more sophisticated. The purpose is to get a client meeting. At that point, face-to-face, you then can get into details.

As far as pictures, psychologists have shown that pictures with people in them tend to be more attention-getting than sites with no images. Right now, your site is pretty bare bones, and mostly technical. Your potential customers already are disinclined to use the site, since they don`t already have a Web site.

So you want to focus your psychological pitch toward education and reassurance. You want to elicit confidence, something like "Leave it to us, you`re in good hands! We know exactly what to do, and can explain it all to you so that you`ll be part of our team."

That`s not coming across very well at the moment. Your "Why the Web?" page is a good example. It doesn`t tell me why I would want the Web. :-) It tells me the page is dedicated to explaining it, then does nothing to explain it. See?

Thanks Craig,

My partners and I took a lot of what you said in your last post and tried our best to integrate them into the site. 

As for the pricing guides, we do have general price guides, the links can be found in the side menu and are underneath "Pricing Guides".  It isn`t on the front page but can be navigated to in one click.  Should we state prices on the front page?

The part about pictures was a little confusing for me.  So should I add more pictures or should I focus on text pitches?

I`ll talk to my partners and go over the site again with your latest comments in mind.

- Tom





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The ever so jovial site admin of ThePendex.com, a web development firm catering to the needs of the small business owner.

Great points, Craig.

Clarification, however, on the capitalization of Web/web: When referring to the World Wide Web (as in, "to get your products on the Web") then, yes, it is capitalized.  When referring to web development, web designer, etc. (as in, "venturing into the world of web development"), it is acceptable to lowercase, since the person is not developing nor designing *the* Web. 

I would add the following critiques to the site:

Please speak with your web designer about page titles.  Currently, you have page names that say simply "about us" and "contact us."  Because page titles are an important piece of search engine optimization (SEO), you will want page titles that are more descriptive.  For example, the "about us" page could have a title like "The Products and Services of The Pendex" or "Company Profile | ThePendex."  Read more on SEO via Google.

Please speak with your copywriter about editing and proofreading your pages.  I found some examples quickly for why this is needed:

Ex. Then maybe it`s about time you  looked into creating a Web presence? 
-- front page, first paragraph.  Should be a statement, not a question

Ex. We can translate the way you already run your brick and mortor operation into a Web-based equivalent.
-- front page again.  Mortar is misspelled.

I found others, unfortunately.  Spelling errors, misuse of punctuation, and incorrect word usage may be excused in my post (thanks!) but could make the difference in selling your business services.

Best wishes on your launch.

Tammi



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Tammi L. Coles
Archer Targeted Communication
ArcherTC.com
Follow me on Twitter @archertc

Thanks Tammi,

I`ll get this stuff looked into right away. 

- Tom



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The ever so jovial site admin of ThePendex.com, a web development firm catering to the needs of the small business owner.

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