The FUD Issue!
This Happy New Year. This time we're all about fear, uncertainty and doubt.
SEARCH ME
I'm constantly quoting 'me' to people with various blog posts. After fifteen years I have canned answers on pretty much everything people ask about. Until now all that info was kinda buried inside the web site. Now I've added a handy search box so you can get a fortune cookie of wisdom whenever you like. Except that these short bits of info are somewhat more useful than 'You will have great success today!'
One difference between my search and a lot of search boxes is that I use a Relevance based search (just like the big boys). Most small web sites have absolutely terrible search systems which seems ridiculous to me. If you have content you want people to find? Make it easy for them to find it (without going to Google and going off-site!) Also, a decent Search system will improve your site's rankings with external search engines. Which makes sense if you think about it: Google and Bing are just robot visitors to your site. So when you make it easier for anyone to find information, you make it easier for the search engines to figure out what your site is all about. Ask me how we can do this. It's inexpensive and it will make your visitors (and the robots) happy.
BIG YEAR FOR WORDPRESS
If you're using Wordpress we should check your version. There have been two fairly big updates this year that address a large number of security and performance concerns. Wordpress is now actually pretty fast!
Another big deal is that the whole Gallery system has been redone. This, in my opionion, was the weakest part of Wordpress. It's now actually easy for end users to upload and manage their own attractive image galleries, rather than having someone like me do it for you. About time! The only downside for most established sites is that you probably are using some 3rd Party gallery plug-in that is not compatible with the buiilt-in system. So it might be worth converting your images to the new standard if you've always wanted to add and update your own content.
One other big deal: Wordpress can now be self-updating! If your hosting service supports this, Wordpress can routinely check for and install it's own patches. This alone is worth upgrading. One of the biggest reasons for security issues with Wordpress sites? You guessed it: people just don't get around to installng them.
NOW THE FEAR
We've all seen the stories about 'NSA Spying', 'Privacy', 'Target Break-In', etc. My position on how this affects sites like yours has done a 180 in recent months. For years, I have told small site owners to not stress too much about hackers and people in dark bunkers, first because there wasn't all that much risk and second because the moment one tries to talk about this, eyes glaze over (or one sounds like a nut job.) Most of us just can't take in all this stuff. But I've changed my mind and I'm now recommending that we really be a lot more vigilant in the coming year. And we should start with a site review to test your vulnerabilities and see if anyone has been trying to gain access. I don't have enough space here to go into a ton of detail (I plan to on the blog) but for now here are the big things that have changed:
1. In the past few years, the cost of raw computing power has decreased hundreds of times. Until recently, your biggest protection against 'attack' was that only people with deep pockets could 'hack' large numbers of sites. So you only tended to get hit if a) you had something really 'valuable' (most of us don't) b) you had a serious enemy (most of us don't) or c) you were being targeted by a nation-state (most of us aren't.) But it's now become cheap enough for anyone and everyone to simply vacuum up data or test thousands of sites en masse for just a few hundred dollars a month. So all manner of amateurs and organised crime are doing that: scraping date from every random site in a given area to see what they can see. Think of it as if someone could drive through entire neighbourhoods with an x-ray machine, look for obvious valuables and then come back later to break in.
2. The major hosting companies have proven to be unprepared for this new reality. No one cares about hitting you, but they do enoy hitting GoDaddy or BlueHost or wherever your site happens to be located. And if they get into a large provider, they get all your data. A dozen of my own sites were compromised in 2013 in just this manner. And the insidious thing: the hosting company did not tell their customers. Why? Perhaps they were afraid of scandal. At the end of the day, you must remember that although your data is at their server, ultimately they view what they do a lot like a self-storage company. They are not liable for your valuables!
3. The new computing power means that, if your data was compromised by, say, Target and you used that credit card to pay for your Dreamhost account, your site may be at risk. And then if there is anything else worth looking at on your site (your customer data), that gives ne'er do wells access to perhaps lots of other stuff.
From watching your sites (I'm doing it too!) it's clear to me now that we really have reached that point where everyone has something at risk on the internet. The ability to scan so much data so quickly has reduced my comfort level. So I'm going to recommend that you invest in a lot more security this year.
Where to begin? We can start with a review of your site. Are you update to date on the things that need to be updated? Are there features we need to add, such as security monitoring software? We should look at the traffic you've been getting to see if anyone is sniffing around. The results may surprise you.
THE UNCERTAINTY AND THE DOUBT
I got about ten e-mails about a recent editorial in the Seattle Times re. 'Yelp'. The letter was from a disgruntled business owner who is one of a number of people who've filed law suits against various 'reviews' web sites. The charge is that sites like Yelp extort money from business owners. If you don't advertise? You tend to get bad (or no) reviews.
In such situations, I tend to send out a blog post I did a while back on review sites. For me, the upshot is that it doesn't matter whether sites like Yelp are totally on the level or not. I think they mostly are, but regardless, the advice is the same: you have to kill customers with kindness. You may resent sites like Yelp and CityPages but they are the new reality. A certain segment of web visitors (typically women and younger men) can't think of living without review sites (In fact, review site apps are just about the most downloaded in the iPhone Store after games like 'Angry Birds'.)
So, my advice? If you feel aggrieved by a review site, for sure, complain. But regardless, keep working on getting good reviews! If that seems contradictory? Just think of it like diplomacy: nations do it all the time. Cooperate when you can, fight when you must.  .
AND NOW SOMETHING GOOD ABOUT THE NEW YEAR!
Hey, you're supposed to end on a happy note, right? Well, the good news is that a new year is a fabulous excuse to get in front of your audience again (like this newsletter!) Many of you struggle for 'excuses' to re-engage with visitors. Well... here ya go! Happy New Year! It's as if the gods invented the new year just for marketers without anything else to talk about.
So let's get out there! Let's create a newsletter, a flyer, a web page, something to re-engage with your audience. This never fails to get some new activity from people you'd almost forgot about (and they about you!) But the time to act is now.
——————————
As I always say, I know you're busy. Hopefully my occasional nags help you think about how you can get more benefits from your e-marketing. But even if you don't have a thing for me to work on at present (shocking but possible) drop me a line anyway and let me know how things are going; market-wise or otherwise. It's always good to hear from you.
Wishing you a very Happy New Year!
JC Harris
|
