The Teckki Says

There are two things I can think of when I ponder the Christmas season as I think about what to give others. They are the best presents in the world to me. They don't fit under a tree, and they might not be what you think in terms of giving, but one of these gifts is something you give. The other is something life gives.

The first gift I get during the other eleven months is the opportunity to see many of you operate your organizations. This goes beyond the obvious client-vendor relationship. I get to see success and dreams. Although success can be a relative term, many of you demonstrate how much of a journey it can be, and I am invited to watch at some level. I am fascinated how many of you approach a challenge, and how you celebrate your triumphs. In learning to translate what you do, I usually get a first row seat. I have always been impressed by your knowledge, wisdom and insight. My experience with you has taught me to never question what you do, because I am often amazed at how well you do it. I am a better businessperson because of you.

My second gift is not something that is asked for in any of the twelve months, but can come in any of them - hard times and difficult situations. They may come through you, but they generally don't come from you. This recession is the best example of this. Everyone is buying less from everyone, and at any point, we come up a little short. However, few of our problem-solving skills, new ideas or different perspectives come from our good times. They often come from our demanding and challenging situations.

I don't enjoy difficult times. I don't enjoy losing clients, and I don't enjoy working harder for less. However, when I look back over my ideas and where they came from, it was those very trying times in which ideas came from that are now cornerstones of my business. I may not enjoy the hard times, but I can't argue with the results.

I remember several years back that I went through a period of extreme financial difficulty. I'd almost lost everything, and the storms kept coming. At one point, my car had been totaled, and a new one (or even a decent used one) was not an option. It was during this time that some of my most successful advertising initiatives were created. I was able to get a car shortly, but my advertising reach expanded greatly during that time. I sometimes joke with my wife that we ought to lose a car more often.

When I think about what I have, I am glad that I have one month to think about it, but eleven months or so to receive it. We all have experienced what this looks like the other way around, eleven months wishing, one month receiving. The great equalizer in both cases is to always have hope and something to look forward to.

I am grateful for you, and I am grateful for life. Have a wonderful holiday season.

In reading a number of blogs, I have come across a trend that at first was seen as a nuisance, but now appears to be more prevalent – Adver-Posting. This phenomenon is described by guests on your blog who appear to contribute an opinion, but actually end up advertising on your site. To that, I have a couple of questions and a statement.

Question #1 – Who's moderating the blog?

I don't ask this question lightly. As a person who runs a blog, my responsibility is to my readers. My blog helps me tremendously by allowing me to have conversations with those who are interested in the topics I present. Many of my readers are clients, and to be able to converse about issues that many of them may experience is extremely beneficial to both of us.

As the moderator, all posts come across my email. I can either accept the posts or reject them. But in no way will I let adver-posting fly through. Readers come to my blog for information. If I need to be compensated for a question that requires consultation, I will direct the questioner to that, not let them read through a bunch of ads to help support the cost of an answer.

Question #2 – Are you that hard up for comments that you would allow this?

I was surprised to see a major publication allow this, which is what inspired me to write this post. They have the money and the staff – writing and publishing is what they do! I don't suppose that they let their reporters submit stories without editorial review. If reporters tried to pass an opinion off as a legitimate story, they'd be disciplined. If they tried to pass of advertising as reporting, they'd be fired. Why let your blog responders do this?

If you feel that you need a million comments of all kinds to show activity and heft, get a Facebook page and find a thousand friends. There, people usually post whatever they want.

Want to destroy a blog? Fill it up with subtle and not so subtle pitches for advertising. Want to go broke publishing a blog? Let people advertise for free. Soon, you'll have no readers. Subsequently, you'll have no (freeloading) advertisers, and finally, you’ll have no blog.

If someone wants to advertise on my blog, I will come up with arrangements for that. Places can be made everywhere but the comment section – that's sacred. Readers look at the articles, then the comments. If they want to look at ads, fine, but I know that if my readers are finding my blog either through my direct notifications or a search, it's not because they are looking for the ads. This isn’t the Superbowl!

Either charge these freeloaders for advertising on appropriate areas of your pages, or kick them off your blog.

This is a multipart series on websites that will discuss what pages common to many websites should contain. This article discusses the Contact Page.

In previous blog posts, I covered the Home and About pages. This post covers the Contact Page.

A contact page is obvious to most of us because it is a given unless people can contact you, you cannot respond to them. However, the Nigerian money scam makes contact easy, and only the gullible, desperate or greedy bite. Why the rest of us don't is part of what goes into a well done contact page.

I think that because online shopping is so successful, we forget how hard it was for us to trust sites with our credit card and other personal information. We are reminded when we are informed that a hacker has breached our favorite shopping site, sending shivers up our spines, and what companies have to do to regain our trust in their site again. Part of that trust was built on being made comfortable that if we had a problem, we could contact someone, just like we could at a physical store. That’s the value of a good contact page.

Contact pages should be more than lists of chains of commands, investor and/or public relations. These pages should point out who takes care of what when a visitor has a concern, especially if that visitor is a customer. And those people need to be accessible beyond technology – you know where I’m going here – because when you have to hide behind contact pages, voice mail and email, or some lengthy set of forms before you talk to a customer, you don't deserve your customers. Too many websites have fifty points of contact to make a sale, but can have just as many roadblocks for service and support. I believe that the true test of a contact page (and the company behind it) is to pretend to already be a customer and attempt to have a problem resolved or question answered – you may change your mind about patronizing them.

Contact pages should really be on every page. Good contact information says to a visitor that you are proud of your company, you are willing to stand behind your claims, and that the customer is not a bother to you. If you are available in a timely manner, a negative experience with your service or product can be lessened if the customer is able to contact you. Contact pages aren't the first page someone looks at for when searching for a product or service, but are necessary to build and/or strengthen the relationships on a continual basis. Not having adequate contact information says basically that "now that I have what I want from you, don’t cause me any trouble – go away," a surefire way of damaging a relationship you worked so hard to get.

Be accessible after the transaction – have clear contact information and the resources to back it up.