Computer and Web Articles

Question:

Hi Erin. I noticed that in your latest column in the Summit Daily, you admonished people not to use “Welcome to” on their website. And since I have “Welcome to Frisco, Colorado” at the top of the text on my home page, it would seem that you think I should change that. If so, let me know what you think I should replace it with.

– Dave Owens, Frisco CO

Answer:

I do believe it would be a good idea to update that text.

I recommend giving consideration to the following questions; they can help you keep on track. The content I’d ultimately recommend you use on your home page would be strongly influenced by your answers.

1. What do my site’s visitors truly care about?
2. What problems or challenges are my site’s visitors likely looking to solve when they arrive at my home page?
3. Do potential clients arriving at my site for the first time already have a clear understanding of the various services and/or products I offer?
4. What makes me unique? Can I (concisely!) convey this uniqueness and explain why potential clients should use my services and/or products instead of my competitors’?
5. Do my current clients have any reason to visit my site? If so, what type of home page content might be helpful to them?

The short answer to your great question, Dave, is this: Welcome your site’s visitors with information they’ll find helpful or compelling (or both). Focus on placing content your visitors care about at the top of your homepage and you won’t need to use fluffy, unhelpful statements like “Welcome to our site!”

1. www.fridgewatcher.com – Every time I think I’ve seen it all, another website comes along and wakes me up with a big fat slap in the face. How could I possibly have guessed the existence of a site like FridgeWatcher—a site where people “open up their fridges to others”? I’ve learned that, apparently, every fridge tells a story. And this site is filled with stories about and photos of fridges from around the world to prove it. For example, a recent entry showcased a fridge from Ohio, which was crammed with food (including “at least 3 jars of pickles”) and covered in magnets from places the owner had visited (you know, like Casa Bonita).
2. http://tinyurl.com/2azg4qy - Ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for. You can now wear your tent when you go camping.
3. http://heidicohen.com/get-your-twitter-mojo/ - An article filled with easy to understand Twitter definitions and translations as well as tips for “sparkling” twitter conversations.
4. www.nudgemail.com – “The easiest way to send yourself reminders.” “Remember everything.” “Reduce email clutter.” Here’s the gist of how Nudgemail works: you write or forward any reminders (via email) to Nudgemail. Then, on the exact day/hour/minute you specified, Nudgemail sends that email reminder right back your way. And that’s it. If it sounds like it might be helpful to you, give it a test, right from the site’s homepage. It’s free and works on any device.
5. http://tinyurl.com/2fn4ws5 - You’ve copied tapes. You’ve copied CDs. And now you can copy your old vinyl records.

Upload Robots works just like your favorite Flash drive/Thumb drive—it lets you easily and quickly share files and photos with friends, co-workers, clients, and family. The big differences is that while your Flash Drive likely likes in your desk drawer or laptop bag (and can be quite easy to lose), Upload Robots lives on the web.

The service is straightforward, simple, and intuitive. Pick a file you wish to share. Upload Robots will upload it. (For the less tech-savvy: just imagine the program is grabbing a copy of the file from your computer and storing it out there on the web.) Then Upload Robots hands you a link.

And that link is yours. You can give it to anyone with whom you’d like to share your file, or you can keep it to yourself and use it at a later time when you need access to that file.

A lightning fast video on the Upload Robots “Feature Tour” page zooms through just about everything there is to know in 30 seconds. I’m guessing that, unfortunately, the video flies through everything so quickly that it likely makes the service look more complicated than it actually is to the not-so-technically-inclined. So perhaps skip the video … and just give the service a shot straight from the homepage; it’s free. (Premium services are available for low monthly costs.)

Here’s the link: www.uploadrobots.com

Tapping Alt + Enter allows you to view the properties of any files or folders you’ve selected.

This blog post has been relocated to:

Please Don’t Welcome Me To Your Website

1. http://tinyurl.com/5lc9sf - The photos your digital camera takes are BIG, aren’t they? It sure can be a pain trying to email them, can’t it? You can only send one or two at a time, and it takes forever. In past articles we’ve had a look at some of the online services that allow you to circumvent the emailing-super-big-photos-nuisance… but if you’re a Windows Vista user who uses an email program that sits in your computer (such as Thunderbird or Outlook), you have a ridiculously easy, very convenient, and totally automated option available to you. Take Read this short article and take advantage of this built-in, convenient functionality.
2. http://tinyurl.com/cbjcly - Nice Work. Excited? Confused? A bit skeptical? Well, you took the first step. You setup your company’s account and you’re officially “on” Twitter. So… er… Now what?
3. http://tinyurl.com/29yy6yo - You’re at a big outdoor event and a catchy song starts playing on the P.A. You instantly know you’d like to add it to your riding/chilling/workout mix, but unfortunately don’t know the name of the song or the artist. Thanks to the magic of the Internet, iPhones, and even online services that can name songs by listening to your humming, your chances of figuring out the artist and name of the song are pretty high.
4. http://www.greenzer.com – A “next-generation shopping engine that’s been designed to make environmentally conscious shopping easier.” Browse, compare, and shop thousands of green products from dozens of carefully chosen merchant partners. Visit their About page to learn how Greenzer chooses the products it showcases.
5. http://tinyurl.com/ldkrlj - We hear it all the time. “Can you build an online store for us? We want an online store so we can sell [enter generic product like tshirts or coffee mugs here]. We know we’ll make a lot of money from it.” I applaud your entrepreneurial efforts. I also recommend reading this article before  investing your money and diving right in: “Nine Reasons Why Your Online Business Will Fail.”

Just a friendly reminder: You’re not going to achieve different search results by fiddling around with your capitalization. Google is going to show you the same results whether you search for “boggis bunce bean” or “Boggis Bunce Bean”.

So go ahead and keep capitalizing letters in the manner that’s most natural to you (YES, EVEN IF YOU LIKE TO SHOUT). Just remember that you need not waste time trying different variations of lowercase and capital letters, as you’ll keep seeing the same results each and every time.

It’s wallowing in neglect.

Let’s say you’re shopping for Breckenridge, Colorado Real Estate. You’re browsing through the sites of local agents, trying to get a feel for what it would be like to work with each one. You arrive at a site and see a graphic that says “Read Our Blog.” You click the graphic and arrive at the agent’s blog.

The blog hasn’t been updated since December 2008.

Think for a moment.

Did you consciously make any immediate assumptions? Are you confident that the agent is still in business? Do you feel any more or less likely to contact this agent? Do you feel motivated to keep looking around this agent’s site?

Give these questions a moment of consideration if you’ve been neglecting your own company’s blog.  Is it possible the blog is actually negatively affecting how potential customers perceive your company?

1. http://tinyurl.com/38xun4y - The 25 big-brand Facebook pages with the most Likes. (Pringles? Really?)
2. http://tinyurl.com/2bvppdq - Short article on the “Very Slow PC”. Why it happens and practical advice on what you can do. (Summary: Anti-Spyware, cut back on auto-loading programs, tame hog processes, and consider upgrading your RAM.)
3. http://tinyurl.com/5tuf4s - If you use (or are trying to use) social media for your business, PAY ATTENTION HERE. This article, entitled “The Ultimate Social Media Etiquette Handbook” explains how social media mimics in-real-life relationships and provides you with a substantial list of egregious errors to avoid.
4. http://orangoo.com/spellcheck - Spell check your website. Right now. Go.
5. http://tinyurl.com/2d255td - Are you a Basecamp lover? Do you regularly use Basecamp to manage your projects? Consider learning more about Easy Insight, a tool that allows you to perform Basecamp reporting and analysis (custom lists, charts, etc.) across your projects.