Did you hear the news?

Facebook is transforming the search for their website. They have plans to compete with Google in helping you find your content based on your personalized likes and friends. You want to find an awesome place to take a new date? You will be able to search the most liked restaurant in town based on your friends or random strangers. You want a new girlfriend who likes to play Nintendo? No problem, Facebook will find her.

I say its about time.

I love Facebook for personal use. Its a great way to connect with friends and waste a couple of hours at night. Get on roughly between 7-9 and you have a party waiting for you. But I’ve always had one major annoyance with their service (and its not privacy concerns)

Its their lame search.

You can’t find or anything good or remotely relevant to what you search.

If I want to find that pretty girl I talked to at the gym, I should be able to find her.. thats all I’m saying.

The New Graph Search Will Find Info Based On Personalized Settings

Now with the new graph search, you will be able to find what you want that is related and personalized to your needs. I doubt it will make Google irrelevant but it may shake things up a little and how people find information online.. and that will affect your business. We’ve all grown to the way things work for search. Get links and produce great content. There was 1 top ten list for every search.

Now (speculatively speaking, I don’t sit outside Mark Z’s house every night.. really) there can be limitless based top ten searches based merely on a person’s preference.

I think this could be really great for many businesses and drastic for others.

I mean how many people are going to “like” a Pest Exterminator business?

Here’s a random status update, “My house was infested with rats and roaches! Every time I look through my dirty dishes to pick out a halfway clean cup, I had to rinse them out. Thank heavens for J-Bams Pest control for getting rid of them.”

I don’t see that happening.. too often.

How Will It Affect Your Business and How Will You Tailor Your Web Efforts to the Change?

 Leave a Comment below on if you think it will shake things up or any strategy you have to prepare for its launch

“I have the perfect idea for an online shopping website. You will be able to connect with any store or any brand and access it with your phone. Also, you will be able to share it with your friends and have it remember your preferences”

Not too far-fetched today right?

It was when I thought of it in 1998.

I have a problem and it is a big one. I dream big. I get inside my own head and flesh out these huge projects that will change existence as we know it. Whether it be a perpetual energy machine that changes the entire way we do life, a cure for human suffering or a web application that will revolutionize the online dating experience, I enjoy the grandiose. I want features that nobodies seen and breakthrough concepts that make people go ‘wow’!

Go big or go home.. right?

wrong.

Why I Believe Big Ideas Kill Great Ideas

You could go into my bedroom and see stacks of journals on unfinished projects. They are so detailed and elaborate that it would look like a maze. Page C referencing a feature on Page F with all the mini-features included. I keep these journals because I have hopes that one day I will be able to flesh them out but I only have a thousand partially completed projects in reality.

I am eccentric but I  am not alone in this predicament.

I have many friends who “know what I do” but not really know what I do. They know that I build websites and thats good enough to spout their great Facebook website. We sit together drinking coffee at my local coffee shop and watching cars pass by. They tell me about all these features and great concepts (which go beyond today’s Internet capabalities). I play along and enjoy the conversation. Most of them are all really great ideas and would be awesome if they were fleshed out but alas they end up never going beyond the conceptual.

Because they are too big.

The Day I Ripped Up My Idea and Launched My Dream

One rainy day, I decided to look through one of my journals of ideas. I decided to fixate on one particular project that was quite elaborate. I reminisced about when I was writing it and how manic about the possibilities I was. After a few moments, I started ripping out page after page in a ferocious manner.

The next thing I knew.. I had 100 pages of ripped paper on my floor and 1 page left in the journal.

You would think that I was upset but I was nothing of the sort. I was actually quite inspired by the idea and wanted to see it happen. I tore out the pages because they were peripheral to the very basic purpose of the idea. I only wanted to keep what was essential and fundamental to the idea.

Everything else became trash that piled onto my feet.

I would like to consider myself an intelligent and somewhat creative individual even with the evidence to the contrary. I formed this belief that it was the trash and clutter that was keeping me from developing my ideas. It was the peripheral and extras that caged my effort and time. If I released these extras from my fundamental idea, I would be able to make the project happen.

So MiracleSites.com was born.

I launched MiracleSites with very few of my original ideas. I kept them for future use and possibilities but they aren’t essential. The essential composed of a basic solution to the very fundamental purpose of why I daydreamed the idea in the first place.

I wanted to create an online workshop where I could develop web projects and help others see their own online dreams come to life.

photo by stevendepolo

You have 20,000 visitors a month but no sales.

So what.. Those visitors are costing you money in server space.

What if you could have 100 visitors and 20 sales a day?

What if you could have 100 visitors and 40 sales a day?

Then focus on conversion and landing pages.

I’ll be honest and say that MiracleSites does not get the 10s of thousands of visitors every month that some of our competitors get. We will get there one day but we are still a baby in terms of company age. Even if we don’t get floods of visitors every day, we are still extremely successful.

Because MiracleSites converts visitors into qualified leads and sales.

Hubspot, CopyBlogger, SeoMoz, Google, KissMetrics and anyone with any proven authority says that landing pages are one of the single biggest influences of success. They don’t just preach of landing pages. They use them religiously. I browsed over to Hubspot awhile back and I counted close to 100 or so landing pages. With some of the most richest and successful people in the entire world banking on their success, I seriously doubt that Hubspot would waste hundreds of hours on something that did not produce.

A strong landing page that converts will increase your sales by 2,3 or 400%.

How Much is a Landing Page Worth?

Right or wrong, I like to think of landing pages as the salesmen of your company. We’ve all been burnt by horrible sales people who just take up space by eating cheese puffs all day, but how much is the most friendliest, persuasive, effective, ethical and downright successful salesperson worth to you? We’ve all encountered that 1 woman or man who has the ability to sell bags of rocks to swimmers and them be extremely grateful for it.

These sales people are extremely rare and hardly out of work because they are priceless.

An effective landing page is = or > than that 1 amazing salesperson.

You may have 1 of these people in your entire company’s lifespan, but you can have dozens of landing pages working for you at any given moment. In addition, the landing page works for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week with no rest time. It doesn’t play favorites and doesn’t take up your time for training. It simply works for you unlike selfish people whom think things like eating, sleeping & enjoying life are a necessity.

How dare they right?

A Landing Page is About Taking Control of Your Success

Really, in all seriousness, no technology can trump an extremely professional salesperson. It is their job and they work hard at it. It is also not an either/or situation. I would love having more of these people in my company, but it doesn’t happen everyday. You cannot bank your entire success on hoping to find these people. Snatch them up when they come along but what do you do in the meantime?

You set up high performing landing pages that can be tested and improved based on calculated science and the navigation of your visitors.

You can’t control when that all star salesperson comes through your door but you can make the disciplined step into an effective landing page that converts for your 24 hours a day. This is your success and you cannot leave it to chance. The most successful people take control of every step they take and minimize the influence of other people on their own success. They don’t leave things to chance.

Do you believe Steve Jobs left the success of the iPad, iPhone, Macbook, iPod, iTunes, Pixar, etc up to chance?

Take control of your success. Don’t wait for that all star salesperson to take you to the next level. Start today and build effective landing pages that sell for you.

~*~

I hope you enjoyed this article about landing pages. Please feel free to sign up to our newsletter below to learn more how we handle these types of projects or you can always contact me if you’re ready to start a project.

Photo by Hans Van Rijnberk via flickr

I get this question often from many aspiring web developers, designers and webmasters. They want to know how I can routinely put out a great project after a great project without slowing down or undermining quality. They call me a robot and say that I have no life.

Well, they may be true in terms of no life but that has little to do with my success with high quality website projects.

My secret to high quality website project management is the uber zen concept of balance. Awesome projects can turn disastrous in a split second if you do not maintain a great balance in your endeavor. What was once exciting, new and awesome has transformed into a lifeless undead monster of bloat and waste of cookie monster eating space.

So you feel me so far? You get that I am a Zen Master of balance?

But what am I balancing?

Yes, now we are getting to the heart of great success.

High Quality Website Project Management Requires a Balance of Scope, Time and Budget.

We live in a world where anything is possible if you have enough money.

We live in a world where anything is possible if you have enough time.

But we do not live in a world with enough time and money to make the coolest projects possible.

There is very little that a web developer cannot accomplish in terms of projects. You ask a web developer if they can accomplish a particular project and they will say yes because we all can. Its not that we are cocky arrogant superheros with delusions of grandeur.. not all developers are me.

It is just that web development is a creative endeavor and the human imagination is truly the only real limitation.

With that being said, this doesn’t mean that a web developer SHOULD pursue all projects because of limitations on human resources. Most web projects are just a unique sorting of previous recipes. Throw in some special spices and there you go. On the other hand, there are projects that require yet to be discovered solutions. These require more trial and error, development and intuition which also increases the time and budget. In addition, many projects grow well beyond original concept because of cool new ideas.

This is why a balance of Scope, Time and Budget is vital.

I built a time machine full of gears and old clocks that would make any true steampunk proud.

I suppose that I may have been bored but I wanted a challenge. So after creating this breakthrough invention that should win me the noble prize in physics, peace, economics and whatever else is there, I had to choose where I would go. I thought about going to see Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence but I thought I could do that any day. I also thought about picking up a dinosaur egg for my future Paleontologist son but then I realized my Husky may be afraid of the T-rex chasing him around once it hatches.

Then I had a eureka moment with my index finger pointing in the air and a light bulb over my head.

I will go have tea with Leonardo da Vinci.

I have always thought of myself similar to him. I mean outside of his pure genius intellect, ability to jump buildings, gift of building great flying contraptions, supernatural talent with the ladies and also his ability to paint. We aren’t mirror images of each other. He’s got some so-called skills and talents..

But we do both procrastinate.

too much.

So I decided that on this day, I would procrastinate from work and go have tea with Leonardo da Vinci. I didn’t really have a list of things that I would ask him. I figure I could just wing it.

And the resulting conversation was unbelievable!

A Tiny Digression About Leonardo Bathing

Before I get too far into the resulting conversation, I do have a funny story to share.  My first attempt at time traveling to Leo (thats how he likes me referring to him) resulted in an awkward situation. I started the machine at 2pm EST time and actually landed inside of his bathing quarters at 6:30am whatever time zone he was in. It is not surprising to say that he was a little shocked to see me.

I think he was embarrassed that he was playing with rubber duckies to be honest.

Leonardo da Vinci’s fascinating take on Online Marketing

After my first snafu with the time machine, I ended up meeting him at the perfect tea time. I introduced myself as Stephen Miracle, future ruler of the world, and then showed him Suri on the iPhone. He wasn’t too impressed as he pulled out a hovering device that popped up a beautiful woman dancing to his pleasure. I tried to trade him the iPhone.

he laughed at me.

Anyway, I wont bore you with our entire 2 hour conversation that consisted of politics, religion, food and the Da Vinci Code. I just want to share with you Leo’s take on why he loves the Internet for your business.

“You can measure to see what actually works”

Leo explained to me that he loves the ability you can measure everything on a website. He continued on and on about how you can actually create visual data facts about what works on and doesn’t work. There is no need for guessing if people actually see your products or even want them. Check out the Analytics and see exactly who comes, where they come from and why they jump ship from your website instead of buying your goods.

Then you have the answers to solve your problems.

“You can be everywhere.. all the time.. without actually being anywhere!”

I think Leo was getting off on another Philosophical tangent with this point. The dude is so ADD, but he does have a point. Beyond everything else, the Internet provides the first resource for you to be present somewhere 24/7 without you actually having to be there. This is incredible to think about and the theoretical implications go beyond my ability to comprehend the physics of sandwich making.

But you can sell your goods all day and everyday without having to worry about hiring a team of pimpley-faced teens falling in love with one another. You can post your entire collection of goods online and your customers will purchase from you no matter the time of the day.

They could be sitting in the birthday suit at 1:30AM eating cheese whiz straight out of the can.

It doesn’t matter because you don’t have to smile at their disgusting face covered in orange goop pretending to be cheese.. You’re asleep in your comfortable bed.

“Your entire website can easily change without the cost of printing or starting from scratch”

I may or may not have been the reason why Mona Lisa has no eyebrows. He was doing some finishing touches on the painting as we were chatting and I accidentally spit my tea all over her eyebrows as he was telling me a joke about a horse and priest walking into a bar. He gave me a stern look and screamed, “This is why the Internet is great.. Now I have to start all over. Oh well, she’ll just have no eyebrows.”

The truth about websites is that you can always test and improve your website easily without ever having to start over. The most successful webmasters see their work as a living piece of art. It continues to grow and be more productive as you give it more attention.  If something doesn’t work or if someone made an error, it is okay. If you have a new idea for your business, then you can quickly make a change to your website.

A strong website gives your business the ability to grow beyond your original dreams.

Disclaimer About the Trip and Leo

After I spilled my tea all over the Mona Lisa, I could sense he was getting a little agitated with me. I have a sixth-sense with this kind of thing. The minute he began to scream Italian profanities and challenging me to a duel, I knew that it was time to leave.

I was ready to go anyway. The tea was bitter and I don’t think very sanitary.

I also have to admit that Leo may not have said the above statements. I am from America and speak English whereas he’s from Italy and speaks not American so I couldn’t really understand what he was saying. It is my opinion that he did say the above mentioned sentiments even if I couldn’t understand him.

It was either that or “Get out of my house you devil boy with your pasty skin and stupid goatee”.

I hope you enjoyed this fun article. Please bookmark it and share it on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Also, take the time to connect with my new Twitter Account Stephen Miracle

“Fool, don’t list prices on your website. You’ll scare all your customers away!” – Silly Webmasters

Unless you plan on being the Mother Teresa of websites, you probably have products or services that you want to sell to visitors. After all, you created the website so that it will add at least some change to your wallet.  Don’t get me wrong, there are purely informational websites out there but lets be honest.. Yours isn’t one of them.

Thats good.

But how do you list your prices?

One of the oldest and sadly ill-conceived beliefs out there is that you shouldn’t list prices on your website. They’ll  scare your visitors away and have them screaming monsters to your face with pitchforks in hand. Visitors will delete your website from their browser, report you to the Google police and have their nephew who lives in his mom’s basement hack into your website to crash your entire server.

Your business will be completely shut down if you list prices on your website.

The Truth About Listing Prices on Your Website

Of course, I might’ve gone a little too far with the whole nephew thing. He probably at least has his own bedroom, but the truth is that people are losing money everyday because of the fear of putting prices on their website. The people at HubSpot agree and have also written a blog post about the fear of pricing on websites. They consider that talking about prices is equal to talking about sex, religion and politics for most businesses. It must be avoided until necessary.

I don’t get it. I’ll talk about all of these subjects all day to random strangers in the grocery store checkout line..

then again, I haven’t had a relationship in over four years.

I may not be a master pick-up artist but I do know 1 thing. Pricing must be on your website 99.99999% of the time. I could even be tempted into betting you a chicken noodle soup dinner that you are losing customers and ultimately money by not listing your price. Why is this true, you may be asking.

Well, I’m glad you asked because I’m about to share with you 5 truths why you should put pricing on your website.

1. Pricing Builds Value

Done correctly, pricing will add value to your products or services. Lets say you sell blenders and you have a good durable blender for sale of  $47.  In the value section of the page, you put that this blender will make over 4,500 smoothies during its lifespan.  You also wrote somewhere on the page that the average smoothie costs $5 at most shops. People are smart. They can do the math and see why your $47 blender is a great value.

Frame your pricing in a way that it builds value to the customer. You don’t have to slap it on randomly on the website in tiny print all by itself. Be smart about placement and integrate it right. Use pricing to your advantage.

2. Pricing Removes the Time-Wasters

Lets be honest. You get random calls from people who want your professional services for 5 bucks when the minimal is a hundred. I know that we can sometimes get folks who have the idea to build the next Facebook and want it built for less than $200. I have realized from slapping said people with fishes that I may not personally have the best people skills in this department.

These time wasters will always be around, but why are you adding to their numbers by not listing your prices? I mean if you prefer talking to these people over actually making money from your services then more power to you. I do believe in the sentiment, “To each his own”.

But for all of you sane individuals out there, Price lists =More contact from people who will pay for your services.

3. People Will Avoid Contact

There are things to be mysterious about but pricing is not one of them. People typically try to avoid sales people even if they aren’t used car salesmen. We have this strange belief that the person will talk us into buying a time-share in Montana and a 93 Oldsmobile with 300k miles no matter who we are talking to. Honestly, this is crazy. There are only so many time shares available in Montana.

But we still believe that other people only see $$$.

You are losing good customers if you expect people to contact you before you give them the price. For every 10 visitors to your website, you will lose 8 people who WOULD buy from you but don’t because they don’t have enough info (read price) to make the next step. Prepare the customer for what to expect by listing the prices and expect more customers.

4. People Will Fear the Worst

When you are in the store and don’t see a price listed, do you think a) “They must not list the price because it is the cheapest on the market!!” or b) “This widget must be astronomically expensive because they don’t list the price”. Maybe you aren’t like me, but typically my thought process falls in line with the product is stupid expensive category.

This is the general thought process for websites that don’t list prices. “You must not list prices because you think it will scare customers away. The prices must be scary because they are really expensive. I’m not going to be able to afford it. Why should I send this ‘free quote’ button if I cant afford it? Next website..”

This truth still stands even if you are the most expensive provider on the market. If your prices are $1400 for a haircut then people are going to assume $2800.

List your prices so people won’t be afraid.

5. Pricing Sells Your Products/Services

At the end of the day, people CANNOT buy your goods without knowing a price. You can’t walk up to a person and say, “Hey, I’ve got some coffee mugs for sale. Give me some money and I’ll let you know if that is enough to buy the mug.”

It just won’t work (and I wonder if it borders on illegal).

People have to know the price of your goods at some point. I love to procrastinate but why do it here. Be upfront about it. Let it soak, build value and get rid of the time-wasters. Let the customer feel like they are in control and have full knowledge of what they are getting. You are just wasting everyone’s time the more you put off sharing the  prices. You will have to go through the whole sales funnel again if you avoid the price.

So just do it.

“But.. But…” Common Excuses

People often comment that they cannot put a price because they do individual quoted projects and/or it is negotiable. I understand this because many of our services are the same way. We build custom websites and provide private web management services. No project is the same and all require careful research.

But we do have our minimums whether it is per hour or per project.

We list custom website projects “Starting at ..”. This puts a bottom number price for potential customers to be aware of. If they are a time-waster, they will just move along. On the other hand, they are prepared and ready to move forward if they are a qualified candidate.

In a more negotiable situation, I’d list an average price to expect. Make this price a little higher so that the customer feels like they have received a great deal when they negotiate you down.

I hope you enjoyed this article. Please share it on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn if you like it. Also, please take a moment to connect with my new Twitter account. ~ StephenMiracle