http://www.johnklaphake.com Web performance and online lead generation Sun, 06 Jun 2010 03:51:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en One of the big cons dished up by various web design companies and online marketers is that if we want to be successful on the web (ie generate lots of online sales and leads) you need to practice "website persuasion". In fact, I've just done a Google search on this ... http://www.johnklaphake.com/index.php/2010/06/website-persuasion-a-big-loser/ I was recently reading a blog about email marketing and branding. It was, as you might well imagine, written by a designer. The crux of the blog was that if your email newsletter was not carefully designed and branded it would not get read and would summarily be dismissed to ... http://www.johnklaphake.com/index.php/2010/05/email-marketing/ I've talked to hundreds of business owners and almost without exception their prime focus in regard to their website is to have it appear high in the rankings of Google. Without wishing to demean such a laudible endeavour. I have never heard in the any of these conversations  the word ... http://www.johnklaphake.com/index.php/2010/05/is-search-engine-optimisation-a-waste-of-time/ Over the past couple of months I've been reflecting and analysing on the number of web developers and designers offering free website audits. I am simply staggered by the number. Why were so many designers and developers flaunting themselves on every street corner of the Internet offering free website audits? I ... http://www.johnklaphake.com/index.php/2010/05/website-audits-and-the-value-of-free/ I recently purchased a small video camcorder from Amazon. You would think this to be nothing unusual, so why bother writing about it. Well, I think there are lessons in e-commerce that we can all learn about what they do and how they do it. Amazing customer service Ordering on Amazon is ... http://www.johnklaphake.com/index.php/2009/09/lessons-in-e-commerce/ For the life of me, I just can't understand how so many people can have Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) so wrong for so long. Just to check, it is 2009, right? SEO Horror I've recently been asked to make some changes to an existing website. How could I refuse, brand new ... http://www.johnklaphake.com/index.php/2009/09/search-engine-optimisation-fantasy-land/ I've been thinking about this one for a while lately. And let's get this right from the start. A lot can be achieved with a website in terms of lead generation and customer fulfillment. But, there are some things that the internet is not the best medium for. It seems ... http://www.johnklaphake.com/index.php/2009/08/keeping-customers-in-the-internet-age/ I'm currently working with a new client re-developing his website. We've identified a number of things we need to do in order for him to generate sales leads. Every time I do this it's a learning experience for me. I was quizzing my client on his product and what made it ... http://www.johnklaphake.com/index.php/2009/07/to-sell-online-means-we-have-to-know-our-market/ I'm constantly amused by the number of  web design and developer sites I go to, where wearing their expert status hat, they pontificate to us mere mortals that you need to have original content on your website. And that's as far as their advice goes. Period! Apart from copying content from ... http://www.johnklaphake.com/index.php/2009/07/original-website-content/ In a previous blog I talked about promise and fulfillment and I thought because it was so important to the user experience we should talk about it in a bit more detail. When a person is searching it is usually for a reason, they want something to  make their better, easier, ... http://www.johnklaphake.com/index.php/2009/07/promise-and-fulfillment/