I get questions all the time from clients about RSS… I am often asked to give them a newsroom area to posts current news and events, but then I am asked to simply turn off the RSS icon. I think that a lot of people must not understand the beauty of what RSS can do.

You can checkout my post titled What is RSS and Why Should I Care?

Don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed at the right.

For CopierCatalog.com, I needed to get a good live chat software. I wanted to make sure that I was available to talk with clients that needed immediate assistance. Both from a sales perspective as well as a support perspective. I started some research.

I first thought about using Skype as my software because I am in Skype all the time. But the problem with that is that in order for someone to chat with me via Skype, they need to have Skype loaded with an account. I wanted this to be easy for them so I didn’t want them to have to load anything. Skype should consider making an anonymous web client.

I looked at few services. One of the most common (at least that I see) is LivePerson. They have some pretty cool features, but it was more than I needed. They have tracking and analysis and the whole nine yards. But, the cost is $99 per month. Even then, I had to contact them to get the price.

I wanted something free. I wanted something reliable.

I ran across Volusion. They have exactly what I need. I downloaded and installed their free version of the chat software. I get pop-ups (configurable) when someone wants to chat. I can change the appearance with an easy to use interface. It is really easy to use.

The only catch is, I have to have a link back to their site… after all, they want to sell the service. That’s a fair trade off.

If you would like to see how the software works from a customer perspective, here is my chat. if I am online, you can chat… if not, it will just send me an email.

If you only have a couple of people that need the service, it will cost less than LivePerson at only $30 per user. When you are ready for your fourth user, you may consider looking at LivePerson, but I think this is a great service and offers a lot for the price.

So, I was doing a little maintenance on LinkedIn and saw this fancy little ad for Microsoft Vista Ultimate.

Of course, I had to click on the ad because I was curious to know what spin Microsoft was going to put on Windows Vista now trying to prove to public at large that Vista is a "stellar" product. Just because I use it, that doesn’t mean that I think it is a great product.

Funny thing happened when I clicked through. I ended up at their Small Business Center Site and see this error message:

So, in order to see this at it’s best, I have to download a piece of software that isn’t even a final release, wait for it to install and then restart my browser? Oh, and I couldn’t see the whole error in FireFox… only if I logged in with Internet Explorer. On FireFox, I wouldn’t have any idea what to do.

Of course, in small print at the bottom, I can see in HTML, but I bet most people that would end up here would click the big install button.

So, here is the best part… I decided to install the update to see what I would get… to see why it was so much better in a technology that is not in final release and requires me to take a minute or so of my time to install.

When I installed, it told me to restart my browser. I did. Opened it to my normal home page. No way of knowing (unless I copied it for this blog) where the page is.

So, the brilliance of all this is:

1. Pay for click through to your site.
2. Tell people to install your software.
3. Tell them to leave.
4. Don’t provide a way to get them back.

By the way, it is not worth the install or the time spent viewing the videos because they don’t tell you anything that you can’t already do, more easily on your Mac.

The official announcement goes out Monday, but since I already started blogging, I thought I would make mention here.

I am starting a new project designed for copier, printer and MFP dealerships. At CopierCatalog.com, we provide dealerships a way to post catalogs automatically to their site so their site visitors don’t need to leave the website to do their research.

I figured at the same time, I might as well start another blog. At CopierCatalog.com, I now blog on website development, SEO and all things related there. It is written specifically for copier dealers, but the principles apply to just about any business. Here is the link to my new SEO and Web Blog.

Take a look over there, you can subscribe to my feed there. Or, you can just subscribe to my FriendFeed and it will update you from all my blogs.

Over there, I have three posts already.

The next phase of dealer websites.

What makes a great website? Top Ten List.

SEO is not a one time event.

I hope you enjoy it.

I am truly amazed how often I see stupid banner advertising and wonder if they really work.

On Weather.com, I often see these stupid ads from LowerMyBills.com. If you look at the weather for any area, you are likely to run into them.  Sometimes it is a stupid dancing alien or baby. These two were side by side and are two stupid dancing women.

How does someone dancing make me want to click through? Then, I wonder, how many people that do click through to their site actually convert to buy a product?

It would be nice if Experian, the company that owns LowerMyBill.com had at least a little respect for their potential customers.

I just posted a press release over at OfficeProductNews.net for one of my clients, Allied Document Solutions & Services. We are very excited as we built their new corporate image including their logo and their new web presence.

It took a bit more work than usual to make sure that we got the design right, but it was well worth it. With new content, a new look and a library of great white-papers, the site should do them very well.

From their Press Release:

In addition to the new logo, ADS-S also wanted to refresh its web presence. The company engaged ProspectBuilder.net to design a new web presence. The design of new site features bright colors to match the new logo. Rotating flash on the home page explains the value proposition. Other graphics feature the core offerings of the company.

“Inside the site, clients will find rich content explaining the benefits of ADS-S’ new services and solutions,” commented Darrell Amy, President of ProspectBuilder.net. “We wanted to make sure that the company is correctly positioned to be seen as the credible source of managed print and document solutions that they are.”

Go on over to OfficeProductNews.net to read the full release. We hope you like new site at corporate direction.

I find it fascinating how often I.T. is assigned to the task of building a website. For the uninitiated, this may seem like a logical thing to do. After all, a website is technology and requires programming and stuff, right?

Wrong.

A very small part of a website is programming. A very small part of a website is technology. Oh, it might take a lot of work. It might be a requirement for the site to function properly, but I.T. should really not have a say in what the customer sees… the face or the marketing aspect of the site.

In my opinion, here are the top five components of a website… in order of importance.

1. Graphical Presentation - all the pretty pictures. All the pretty buttons. This is the first thing someone sees. This is the first thing that can turn them away.
2. User interface - This tells people where to go. What do they do next, etc. this may be second to the graphical presentation, but it is a very close second.
3. Content - Well, you need to content to put on the buttons and graphics, but there is also core site content. People will see pictures and captions of pictures before they ever see this. The may not even read this.
4. Social aspects - Blogs, forums and support features. If you don’t have the core content or pretty graphics, this won’t matter. It especially won’t matter if people don’t know how to get there from the user interface.
5. Programming - programming comes last. Of course, there may be programming required to accomplish any of the above, it is last for one very important reason. If you don’t have the above figured out, programming doesn’t matter. If your designer doesn’t create graphics, your programmers can’t install it. If you don’t know what you want the user interface to look like, your programmers can’t build it. If you don’t have your content written, your programmers can paste it in.

So, get I.T. out of the website design and put marketing on it. Either get it done with an in house marketing team to do it or outsource it. Either way, don’t depend on I.T. to build you a great website. Oh, they might be able to pull it off, but those types of I.T. people aren’t nearly as common… besides, even if they could, should I.T. really be setting your marketing direction?

I just launched another client site. I have posted the press release at OfficeProductNews.net.

Here is an excerpt of the press release.

Current Business Technologies, a Texas-based Hewlett-Packard Office Printing Solutions partner, launched their new website today. The new site features the company’s full portfolio of solutions including printers & multifunction systems, managed print services and workflow solutions.

“Our company continues to expand our capability to add value to our clients,” said Tim Cislo, President. “This new website helps communicate the scope of the services that we can provide.”

The site features CBT’s core competencies of helping clients optimize their print infrastructure, manage their environment and streamline their workflow. This messaging coordinates with HP’s Print 2.0 strategy.

Read the rest of the press release here.

I was reading my mail in my Gmail Interface… clearing out a little bit of the spam folder when I noticed that ad for Spam recipes.

[Click image to enlarge]

I don’t know that you can assume when someone is in their spam folder they are really all that interested in Spam… but maybe I am wrong.

Okay… so this is really a shameless plug, but I figure I have a large enough audience here that hopefully it will get some traction.

You may notice from my signature line that I maintain the news at OfficeProductNews.net. I have been maintaining this feed for a few months now… pretty tedious work because no one has standardized how this industry publishes information. My growing readership there shows that I am doing something right…

But, I need your help.

I am looking for opinion pieces or news pieces from companies that are related to copiers, printers and document management. I would love to publish your content and provide links back to your blog, company site or wherever.

You can take a look at the post titled Publish your News, Opinions and Case Studies for Free On Office Product News for more information.

If you know of anyone who would like to post there, please don’t hesitate to forward this message on.

It is an easy way to get a link back and get your message out there as often as you like.