The Internet is like a big ATM machine.

Just throw up a website, any website, and the money will magically come pouring in. Just press the button and let the fun begin.

Although it’s true that a website is more important than ever these days for your business, it’s not the “easy button” solution that’s going to instantly cure all of your financial challenges.

However, that’s the myth that unscrupulous marketing companies have been peddling to business owners for years.

The Most Important Purpose Of Your Website

One word. Credibility.

In the early days of the Internet (late 1990s, early 2000s) having a website was still kind of a novelty for many businesses. If your business had a website, great. If not, no big deal. There was always the phonebook.

However, fast forward to today, things have changed. Everyone, young and old, now immediately goes to the Internet for EVERYTHING.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a doctor, lawyer, plumber, cake decorator … whatever. People now expect your business to be on the Internet.

They want to “meet you” in a non-threatening, non-committal way before deciding to do business with you.

The Evaluation Process

Let’s face it, the world is full of scammers and rip-off artists, and most of us have been burned more than once.

People are skeptical. And rightly so.

Most of us now do considerable research on the Internet before purchasing a new product or service.

We all have our own personal set of criteria for helping us decide whether or not a company is legit. Some of us look for positive online reviews, others see what people are saying on social media, etc.

But one criteria that nearly all of us use when evaluating a company is the quality of their website. Right or wrong, most of us equate the quality of a company with the quality of their website.

Perception equals reality.

Therefore, even if you’re a brick-and-mortar business and you still primarily use traditional forms of advertising like direct mail, displaying advertising and word-of-mouth, you still need a quality website because 99% of people are definitely going to check you out online before deciding to do business with you.

And your website could make or break the deal.

Your Website Credibility Checklist

Whether you already have a website or you’re in the process of getting one built, here’s a great checklist to make sure your website is representing your company on the Internet for maximum credibility:

• Make sure your site has a modern, up-to-date design. You don’t want it to look like circa 2001. It’s beyond the scope of this article to go into how you determine if your site has a modern look. But just like bell-bottoms and polyester leisure suite, you just kinda know.
• Have some pictures. The web has evolved into a visual medium, so don’t overwhelm your website visitors with gobs of text. Too many words will scare people away, because it’s just too much work to digest. Use pictures to help tell your story.
• Use a physical address and a local phone number. Nothing kills your credibility quicker than not displaying a physical address. In addition, a local phone number that matches your physical address further validates your business. Toll-free numbers were once somewhat of a status symbol, but now that phone rates are so dirt cheap, you really don’t need a toll-free number any longer. In fact, toll-free numbers can actually work against you in terms of establishing that your business exists in a verifiable geographic region.
• Show customer testimonials. People don’t care so much about what you say about your business, but they do care about what others say about your business. So ask your best clients if they wouldn’t mind writing a few words about their experience with your company. Having other people vouch for your company is one of the best ways to establish credibility with prospective clients.
• Have an “About Us” page. Other than your homepage, the “About Us” page will probably be the next most viewed page on your website. Make sure you have a picture of yourself and your employees. Also, don’t just spew the usual corporate mumbo-jumbo that tells nothing about your company. Instead, talk a little bit about the history of your company or how you got into the business. It’s also good to share a little bit about yourself (favorite hobbies, favorite sports teams, places you’ve traveled, etc) just so people can see that you’re a regular person just like them.
• Demonstrate your expertise. Publishing helpful information or how-to articles is one of the best ways for people to see that you know what you’re talking about. Not only does this help differentiate you from your competitors and establish you as an authority in your field, it also promotes “good will” by you giving away something of value before they pay you a dime.
• Use video. If you want to really crank things up to the next level and establish major credibility, video is perhaps the best way to do it. But it’s got to be good quality video, not the low-quality amateur videos that litter the Internet. In addition, you do not have to live-motion videos with you talking in front of the camera. I’ve been using video since 2006 and I can say without a doubt that it’s one of the things that has transformed my business. Here’s an example.
• Show up in the search engines. You don’t have to go hog wild and invest a ton of time and money into a search marketing campaign. Just do the basics of search engine optimization to make sure you’re on page one of the search results when people Google the name of your business. Showing up in the Google search results is one of the best ways to validate your business to a prospective client.

Your website pre-sells your company, for better or for worse. And if you follow this checklist, I guarantee you’re website is going to impress prospective clients and demonstrate that you’re the one they should be doing business with.

Did you find this information helpful? If so please tweet it, share it on Facebook or Google+, email it or whatever. Thank you so much!

I like pictures. I especially like pretty, colorful pictures.

I also like useful and easy-to-understand data that will help me make decisions which can lead to increased profits.

Enter heatmaps.

Heatmaps tell you where website visitors are actually clicking and viewing as well as where they are not. Not only is this fascinating, it also provides you with valuable data on what visitors think is important when they visit your site.

When I’ve used heatmaps, sometimes the data confirms what I already kind of suspected. Other times it’s a bit of a surprise.

Either way, I prefer data over theory and opinions.

Ritika Puri at CrazyEgg.com just published a great article today regarding some interesting findings from heatmaps.

For those of you short on time, here’s the “Executive Summary”:

1. On Google, the top five listings on the page get the majority of eyeballs. (see picture above)

2. People read headlines and pictures, more than text.

3. Dominant headlines most often draw the eye first upon entering the page.

4. Navigation placed at the top of a homepage performed best.

5. Shorter paragraphs performed better than longer ones.

6. Clean, clear faces in images attract more eye fixations on homepages.

7. The best place to post a link in a Tweet is actually toward the beginning.

8. On social media, the feature that attracts the most attention is the profile picture.

9. Web users spend 80% of their time looking at information “above the fold” (i.e. the part of the page that’s visible when you first land on the site)

10. Users spend 69% of their time looking at the left half of the webpage and 30% viewing the right half.

11. Stay true to established web design conventions. Web users want *predictable placement of standard website features*. Logo in upper left, no splash pages, a site map, and well as About Us and Contact Us pages. (my favorite)

If you have the time and want to take a deeper dive into the subject of heatmaps, here’s the link to the full article:

13 of the Best Heatmap Articles on the Internet

Did you find this information helpful? If so please tweet it, share it on Facebook or Google+, email it or whatever. Thanks so much!

Like it or not, people do judge a book by it’s cover.

In the business world, people judge your business on the quality of your website. In most cases, people equate a good website with a good company that delivers quality products or services.

And vice-versa.

Don’t fight it. It’s just how things are these days.

So unless you want to drive away prospective customers, clients or patients you need to have a well-designed, modern-looking website.

Only problem is that building a website from scratch or redesigning an outdated website is a bit like writing a term paper. If it’s something you don’t do everyday, you can spend hours staring at a blank screen, frozen with writer’s block wondering where to begin.

However, I can help you with that. No need to reinvent the wheel or beat your head against the wall.

Since building my 1st website way back in 1999, I’ve learned a few things along the way about the most important elements of great website design. For me, it can be distilled down to the following 6 things:

1. Keep it simple.

There are so many bells and whistles available to add to a website these days that you might be tempted to use as many as possible to impress your visitors. More is better, right?

Not necessarily. when it comes to designing your website, always err on the side of keeping it simple.

Steve Jobs inspired a design revolution as a result for his love of simplicity, and it seemed to work out pretty well for Apple.

Also, stick with a website layout that will be familiar to the vast majority of your visitors. Don’t try and get all artsy-fartsy to try and impress people with some futuristic web design that’s unique and one-of-kind.

Sure, it might look cool. But if it frustrates visitors because your site is hard to read and navigate, what’s the point?

Remember, people visit your website to get information. So don’t make it a chore for people to find what they’re looking. Your website is for them, not for you.

2. Use pictures and videos.

The Internet has evolved from a primarily text-based environment to a multimedia environment. Therefore, people now expect to see pictures and videos on your website. So use them.

When I arrive at a web page that’s just pure words it scares me. My initial reaction is, “Oh man, this is going to be a lot of work.”

It’s ok to have a lot of written content on your site, just break things up a bit with pictures and videos to help tell the story, not to mention ease your reader’s anxiety.

Regarding pictures, don’t just throw any old picture on your site just to take up space. Take the time, within reason, to try and find the best picture that helps to tell your story.

Me personally, I usually purchase my images from www.iStockPhoto.com. However, www.ShutterStock.com has a lot of nice images, too. Both sites have thousands of quality images at very affordable prices.

Regarding video, make sure your video is HTML5 compatible, which means that they’ll play on iPhones, iPads and smartphones.

Nothing is more annoying than visiting a site that has a video you want to watch, but all you see is a black rectangle because the video is in an outdated format such as “Flash”.

The quickest and easiest solution is to host your videos on YouTube or Vimeo. However, if you would prefer to host your videos on your own private video server, I can recommend www.EZs3.com. I’ve been using them for years. They’re very reliable and affordable.

3. Provide great content.

Give ‘em what they want. Help your visitor solve their problem by providing concise, useful information.

Although, as mentioned above, you want to use images and videos to help communicate your message, the foundation is always going to be the written word.

Therefore, take the time to write good, quality content and make sure to use good headlines to grab the reader’s attention to make them want to read more.

So how much content should you write?

That depends.

The best advice I ever got on this topic came from famed copywriter, Gary Halbert. He said, “Write as much as you need to write, and no more.”

That means if you can get your message across in 2 paragraphs, then that’s how much you write. If it take 2 pages, then that’s how much you write. If it take 10,000 words, then that’s how much you write.

Also, lead with your best stuff. Don’t bury it way down the page. Get right into it.

In copywriting terms, this is known as keeping things “above the fold”, which refers to the fold in a newspaper.

Good writing is hard and takes time, which is why the Internet is littered with so much garbage.

So if you want to really shine and separate yourself from the pack, take the time to produce great content that will help solve people’s problems, establish you as a trusted authority and hopefully convince them to buy your product or service.

4. Invest in a great logo.

Unless you are a naturally gifted artist, do yourself a favor and spend a few bucks on creating a nice-looking, quality logo. It’s a small investment you won’t regret.

A good logo really sets the tone for your website, as well as all of your other communication … business card, stationary, social media, etc.

In most cases you’re going to want to place your logo in the upper-left corner of your website because that’s where people usually expect it to be.

How much should you expect to pay for a good logo?

Well, large corporations spend thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars on logo creation because they know it’s that important.

Fortunately, you don’t need to spend anywhere near that much. $200-$400 should get you a really nice custom logo for your business.

If I remember correctly, I think I paid about $300 for the “Mark Brinker” logo you see at the top of this site. It was definitely money well-spent.

One of the best sites for getting a logo created (and it’s the site I used) is www.99designs.com.

The quality of graphic design is so much better and so much more affordable than it was 5-10 years. So I strongly recommend investing in getting a great logo created. You won’t regret it.

5. Provide a CTA!

This right here is probably the # 1 thing that people get wrong on websites. The Call-To-Action.

In other words, what do you want your visitor to do? Call you? Fill out an online form? Download a free report?

You can’t just assume that they’ll know what you want them to do. You have to be very deliberate and direct.

Don’t worry about coming across as pushy. You won’t. But you do have to lead your visitor by the hand and let them know the next step to take.

On one end of the spectrum you have website with no call to action, but on the other end of the spectrum you have websites with *too many* calls to action.

The problem with too many CTAs is that if you give them too many choices it’s easy to get overwhelmed or confused, then they choose *none*. So obviously that’s not good either.

The best-case scenario is to have just *one* CTA, possible two if you really have to. Any more than that you’re visitor will probably end up taking *no* action.

As mentioned in item # 1 above, keep it simple.

6. About us.

Back 10-15 years ago when the Internet was still brand new, anyone with a website automatically had clout and credibility just by the very fact that they had a website.

Fast forward to today, though, and that mystique is pretty much gone because people just expect businesses to have a website nowadays.

The bar has been raised, and people now want to learn about the *people* behind that business.

Even in our high-tech world, business is still transacted between *human beings*.

Therefore, the first thing you’ll want to do is put a picture of yourself on your “About Us” page. If you don’t have a current photo of yourself that you like, have someone snap one with their smartphone. That’s more than good enough.

Also, write a little blurb about yourself and your company. Don’t be formal and stuffy. Share a few things to let people know you’re a real person. Favorite sports teams, hobbies, etc.

From personal experience, when I visit a website to learn about a business, I almost always visit the “About Us” page. If they don’t have a picture or a small write-up about themselves, I immediately get suspicious. I think, “What are they trying to hide?”

If their “About” page is scant or lackluster, 9 times out of 10 I hit the “back” button on my web browser and go somewhere else.

And I’ll bet you do the same, whether you realize or not.

*   *   *   *   *

So these are my 6 website design “secrets” that I’ve learned over the past 14 years.

Yes, you can certainly dive deeper and explore even more subtle elements of what makes up great website design, but these are the 6 biggies.

And if you did nothing else than focus on the 6 items described above, you’re going to have a way better quality website than most.

I guarantee it.

Did you find this information helpful? If so please tweet it, share it on Facebook or Google+, email it or whatever. Thanks so much!

If you own a smartphone, chances are you’ve used it to look up something on the Internet.

However, as I’m sure you’ve encountered, surfing the web from your phone is often a cumbersome experience simply because traditional websites just weren’t designed to be viewed on smartphones.

The 3 main problems with viewing regular websites on mobile devices are …

• They’re slow to load.
• The entire site is displayed on the small surface of a smartphone, thus making the content microscopic.
• They’re usually difficult to navigate from a touchscreen … even if you do have tiny fingers.

It’s generally an unpleasant experience.

But there is a solution >> Having a mobile-optimized version of your website.

So, yes, you still need the regular version of your website so people can view it on their laptops and desktop PC’s, but you also need an additional version of your website that is designed specifically to be viewed smartphones.

By far, the two most popular methods of creating a mobile-optimized website are:

• Responsive design.
• Dedicated mobile website design.

Here’s a brief overview of how each method works.

Responsive Design

By definition, responsive design means that a website “responds” to the device it’s being displayed on and automatically morphs to the current size of the screen.

Here’s a good example:

http://www.google.com/adwords/express/

When you visit this website, play around with the size of your web browser and watch what happens.

When you make your web browser smaller to simulate the size of a tablet or smartphone, the website content as well as the navigation responds accordingly (hence, responsive design) to try and give you a better viewing experience.

However, as with anything, there are upsides and downsides to responsive design:

Upsides:

• Set it and forget it.  Whenever you add content to your site, there’s nothing further you need to do to make sure it’s optimized for mobile. The responsive design of your website will reposition your content automatically.

• No additional cost to develop or maintain a separate mobile site.  All you need is one website and it’ll work in all browsers and mobile devices.

Downsides:

• Your main website must be built on a responsive design platform. This means that your existing website would have to be built from scratch using responsive design technology. For many, they’re not going to want to incur the time and expense of starting over and building a brand new website, especially if they already have a nice site up and running.
• Does not allow for detailed customization.  Sometimes the information on your main website is just too much to be viewed comfortably on a mobile device, and it would be nice to have a shortened version of your content for your mobile site. In addition, if you want your mobile site to have more of a custom “app” look and feel you’re probably going to need to go with a dedicated mobile website.

Dedicated Mobile Website Design

With this method, you actually maintain two separate websites … your main website as well as a separate custom mobile site.

The way it works is like this. When someone visits your website from a laptop or desktop PC, they see your main website just like always.

But when someone tries to view your website using a smartphone, a special script automatically redirects that person to the mobile version of your website.

Therefore, the correct version of your website is automatically served up based upon the type of device they’re using to view your website. The process is seamless.

Here’s an example of an actual site that uses a dedicated mobile website:

The image on the left is what you would see if this website (www.sailingmachines.com) was not optimized for mobile. It’s the main website crammed down to fit on the small display of a smartphone. Without substantial magnification it’s basically unreadable.

On the right is the mobile optimized version of the website (m.sailingmachines.com). Easy to read and navigate. Big buttons to solve “fat finger” syndrome.

Also, the information on the mobile site has been condensed, because mobile users are generally on-the-go and just want the “executive summary”. If they want more detailed information, they can visit the full website when they’re back at their computer.

More examples of dedicated mobile websites can be found here

Upsides:

• Highly customizable. Provides the look and feel of an app. You control exactly how you want your mobile site to look on a smartphone.
• The existing main website remains “as is”. No need to uproot it and start over.

Downsides:

• Development and maintenance costs. Because a mobile site is actually a stand-alone website, albeit a mini-version of your main site, you will need to invest time and/or money to design and maintain your mobile site. Fortunately, though, these costs are a fraction of what it takes to develop a full website.
• Must be manually updated. Although it is sometimes possible to sync your main site with your mobile site, formatting issues usually arise. For that reason, manually updating your mobile site is recommended to ensure it precisely displays how you want it to.

Regardless of whether you decide to go with responsive design or a dedicated mobile website, the whole objective is to make it a better experience for the mobile user.

Visitors to your site shouldn’t have to “pinch & zoom” to be able to read anything, and your site should be easy to navigate on a touchscreen device.

Just a few short years ago, searching the Internet from your phone what somewhat of a novelty. But today, it’s commonplace. The mobile web is now part of our daily lives.

Other than social media, I don’t think anything gets more attention than mobile.

There’s certainly a lot of hype around mobile. But what business owners want to know is, “Are consumers actually using their smartphones to research and purchase products and services?”

Or are they simply watching cat videos on YouTube and tweeting about what they had for lunch?

Russ Henneberry just published his latest findings regarding mobile phone usage on The Daily Egg, and the numbers don’t lie.

The verdict: Consumers are definitely using their mobile devices to research, shop and make purchases.

Here’s what caught my attention in his report:

• Over the past 2 years, Google is reporting 5x growth in the number of mobile search queries it receives.

• From 2011 to 2012, there was a 76% increase in the number of US consumers that made a purchase from a mobile phone.

• 81% are using a smartphone and TV together. (See something interesting on TV, look it up on the Internet with your smartphone without leaving the couch.)

• 1 out of every 4 Google searches is for something local.

• 94% of smartphone users have searched for something local.

• 70% of smartphone users have called a business after a local search.

For all the rest of Russ’ findings, please see his infographic below:

(click image to view full size)

At the moment, social media still seems to be all the rage.

You have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+ … and I could probably name 20 more major social media sites.

Heck, even MySpace decided to get back into the social media arena last week.

However, the reality is that social media is not the cure-all that many business owners would like it to be for addressing their online marketing challenges.

In fact, I’d like to give you 3 solid reasons why your company website is actually more important than social media.

1. Social Media Is Not The Place For Selling

In 2012, Forrester Research published a report, “The Purchase Path of Online Buyers” shows that fewer than 1% of transactions could be traced back to social links.

In another completely independent study, only 2% of respondents said that they used social media to help them with their buying decision.

Think of it like this … if you go to a restaurant, but someone sits down at your table to try and sell you a new roof for your house, even if you needed a new roof you would be offended. Its just not the right place to pitch your wares.

Same concept applies with selling online.

So what does tend to drive online sales the best? Well, referencing the two studies mentioned above … pay-per-click advertising, traditional search marketing and email marketing.

My own personal experience concurs with these findings.

2. You Control Your Website 100%

Your website is the face of your business on the Internet, and people do judge a book by it’s cover. Therefore, you want to be able to customize your site to look just how you want it to.

As Andre Agassi famously said back in 1990, “Image is everything.”

On the Internet, your website = your company.

In addition, when you develop a web presence on a 3rd-party site like Facebook, you’re building an asset for *them* rather than an asset for *yourself*.

Websites can appreciate in value over time, just like a piece of real estate can. So why would you want to give that value, which could be substantial someday, to someone else just because they allowed you to create a “free” account?

3. Your Website Demonstrates Legitimacy

For me, this is probably the most important reason for a business to have a website. It gives you credibility.

Although the cost of developing a website is way less than what it was just a few years ago, it still does require at least a little bit of an investment in time and money to put forth a decent website. And if a business is not willing to make this minor investment in developing their “home” on the Internet, I just don’t take them seriously.

Sure, you can create profiles and pages for free on all the social media sites that you want, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But until I see a stand-alone company website, the trust factor is just not going to be high enough for me to potentially do business with them.

A quality website demonstrates that that a company is legitimate and stable.

Now, after reading this article, you might conclude that I’m not a big fan of social media. However, that’s not true. I personally use socially media and realize that it can be an important part of your overall online marketing strategy.

The main point I’m trying to get across is to put things in their proper context and not get caught up in the hype around social media and forget about the fundamentals of how most people use the Internet.

If something changes, I’ll be sure to let you know. But for right now and the foreseeable future, your website is the focal point of your presence on the Internet.

Small businesses often get sucked into the hype around social media.

The conversation often goes like this:

Q: So why do you want a Facebook business page?”

A: “Um, I don’t know, because everyone else has one?”

In a recent presentation by an analyst from BIA Kelsey, it was reported that “42% of small business owners *believe* that their top priority for using Facebook was customer acquisition”.

The key word there is *believe*.

However, the actual data shows that Facebook is probably not the best way to address the online marketing challenges of local businesses.

For instance:

• According to a Reuters/Ipsos survey, 80% of Facebook users have never bought a product or service as a result of seeing an ad on Facebook or a comment in their timeline.

• Another survey asked people where they would start their search if they needed an attorney. Only 2% of the people surveyed said they would start their search on their favorite social network. About 33% would start their search on a *search engine*. Interestingly, 34% said that they would begin by asking a friend. (Yes, a real-live person!)

Intuitively, these results seem to describe what actually occurs in the real world.

I know in my own experience, I can say that I have never purchased anything directly as a result of comments seen in a social media newsfeed or an advertisement on a social network.

But Social Media Is Necessary

Yes, social media marketing can be a huge waste of time and money.

However, social media is definitely an important part of your overall online marketing strategy, when used correctly:

• Facebook and other social media networks should be used for brand-building, maintaining brand awareness and helping people in their decision-making process. You should not try and pitch your products and services directly to social media users.

• Social media gives you credibility. It humanizes you. In a world full of scammers and rip-off artists, social media plays a very important role in letting people know that you’re a legitimate business.

• Having a social media presence is now known to affect search engine rankings. Often referred to as “social signals”, search engine algorithms use social media to help determine where to rank your site in the search listings.

Local search expert, David Mihm, perhaps summed it up best by stating that “Too many people put too much faith in FaceBook, to the exclusion of other tactics. When looked at across all industries, social media is far less effective as a customer acquisition channel than a number of other plays, such as PPC, lead-gen sites like ServiceMagic/HomeAdvisor, or traditional search optimization”.

The key takeaway is this …

Social media is an important part of your overall marketing strategy and you should definitely use it. However, it’s  not the place to pitch your products and services for *direct* customer acquisition.

That’s for search engines.

This video was inspired by Susan Cain’s book, “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking.”

It started out like so many other videos. Published in a sea of 50 bazillion other videos on the Internet.

But in 2 weeks since it’s release, it’s been viewed on YouTube over 1 million times.

In fact, Bill Gates listed it as one of his favorite TED talks.

Yes, it’s an entertaining and well-produced video, but I don’t believe that’s the real reason why this video went viral.

Instead, I think it has everything to do with the message. And that is, you can be an introverted person and still be very successful in business. Shock.

It’s like, “Finally, someone is speaking up for the quiet people of the world.”

Because my public persona is that of an extrovert, I think most people would be surprised to discover that I’m actually an introvert.

Yes, I like people and I like social gatherings. But I like staying home and reading a book or watching TV *even better*.

Even though my true nature is that of an introvert, I do extroverted activities to promote my business because it’s what you have to do to be successful. But it doesn’t mean that I enjoy those activities.

Kind of like exercising. Just something you have to do, even if you really don’t want to.

So if you consider yourself an introvert like me, do yourself a favor and watch this short video. I think you’ll quickly see why it went viral. It’s because they “get” you.

REF:
‘Power of Introverts’ Video Is a Surprise Viral Hit

Just stumbled across this video today. Is this cool or what!

I especially like the dude in the picture frame at 4:08.

Enjoy!

To see more videos from this guy, here’s the link to his YouTube channel:
www.youtube.com/user/zapatou

I have something that I’ve been wanting to get off my chest for awhile.

It’s a message directed at certain online webinar presenters. My message to them is simply, “I’d appreciate you showing me a little more respect“.

Let me explain.

Like many people, I regularly attended webinars to try and keep up-to-date and in-the-know with the latest information, often about Internet technology.

The vast majority of the webinars I attend are of the “infomercial” variety, meaning that the webinar will provide me with some useful information and at the end of the webinar I’ll be presented with a pitch to purchase their product or service, often in the form of a special offer.

I’m totally fine with that. Some of the best products and services that I use I’ve purchased as a result of attending an online webinar.

However, what I do object to is the webinar presenter wasting the first 10-20 minutes prattling on about useless, irrelevant information, such as:

• “Who am I and why you should listen to me?” A brief intro is fine, but you don’t need to sell me on how great you are. I’m here already, aren’t I?
• Phony banter with the audience to try and “warm them up”.
• A prolonged “love fest” where multiple webinar presenters spend time talking amongst themselves, often about how great and cool they are, as if this will impress their audience.

Blah-frickety-blah. Get on with it already.

I attend webinars for the information and whether or not there is a companion product or service that can help me achieve whatever it is that I’m trying to achieve. That’s it.

My feeling is, I’ve given you some of my time and attention to see what you have to offer, so the least you could do is respect my time in return.

And I’m certain that I’m not the only one that feels this way.

Therefore, effective immediately, in an effort to address this matter and change the “culture” of online webinars, I’m suggesting that we adopt what I will call “The TED Principle”.

The Ted Principle

First, in case you’re not familiar with TED …

From the TED.com website:
TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. On TED.com, we make the best talks and performances from TED and partners available to the world, for free.

And here’s the important part: Speakers that are invited to speak at a TED conference have a *maximum of 18 minutes* to get their point across. As stated on TED.com, ” It shouldn’t work, but it does.”

Kind of like texting and Twitter has forced us to communicate our message in 140 characters or less. TED forces it’s presenters to condense information that previously took 45 minutes (or more) to convey, down to 18 minutes (or less).

Yes, it takes some thought and effort to accomplish this, but it’s been proven over and over that it’s totally do-able.

The Challenge

If you’re a webinar presenter, I’m openly asking you to please do your best to keep your presentations to a maximum of 18 minutes. Prepare, rehearse and show your audience that you respect their time.

If your presentation goes slightly beyond 18 minutes, fine. But at least *strive* for 18 minutes or less.

As a webinar attendee, if the webinar presenter hasn’t got the bulk of their message across in the first 18 minutes, I challenge you to disconnect from the webinar and walk away.

When you disconnect, 3 things will happen:

• You immediately free up your time to do something more productive. You gave the webinar presenter a chance and they didn’t deliver. Period. Remember, TED.com has already demonstrated over and over that even seemingly complicated subject matter can be communicated in 18 minutes or less.
• You send a message to the webinar presenter that you’re busy and have things to do, too.
• Perhaps most importantly, you give your self-esteem an instant jolt. I can’t tell you how good it feels when you disconnect from a sub-standard webinar and you can silently say to yourself, “Screw you, buddy, my time is valuable, too!” It’s liberating.

Why Did I Bother To Write This?

Simple. Because I felt it needed to be said.

Some might call me a “hater”, and that’s fine. But I’m not a hater at all.

Certain webinar presenters could argue that no one is forcing me to attend their webinars, and if they want to take 60-90 minutes to present their material, it’s their right to do so.

And they’re 100% right.

I’m simply trying to encourage people to reconsider how they interact with multimedia presentations, both from a presenter’s perspective as well as a participant’s, because I feel a TON of time is being needlessly wasted.

My goal, in the spirit of TED.com, is to spread a new idea that has 2-parts:

• If you are a new-generation webinar presenter, don’t feel that you have to fill up time just for the sake of filling up time and drag things out, just because that’s what it appears everyone else is doing. Respect people’s time, and say what you have to say, preferably in 18 minutes or less.
• Don’t feel compelled to sit through a 60-90 minute online presentation in hopes of obtaining some information that you think might be useful or helpful. If the webinar presenter feels the need to “tease” you for an hour or more, perhaps trying to hypnotize you into buying their product or service, have the courage to disconnect from their presentation after about 20 minutes or so. If for no other reason to remind yourself that your time is valuable, too.

Are you with me?