What's wrong with them?

peter_act · 5th Dec 2011, 11:58 PM

What's wrong with local small businesses?

I've been trying to sell my mobile websites - I have a small portfolio at:
Get a free website for your Canberra small business.

I think they are quite presentable, but I it seems I can't give them away!

I ran some ads in the local paper - here they are:

and

Net result? Not ONE reply!

I've also sent out close to 100 emails, showing what their present site looks like on a mobile phone, and a mock up of what their mobile site would look like on a mobile phone.

Net result? Not ONE reply!

And these are for FREE! (I charge $25 for hosting and maintenance)

I wonder whether this thread should be entitled "What's wrong with me?"

Simeon Tuitt · 6th Dec 2011, 03:53 AM

Hi Peter, if you get two posts from me, apologies in advance. I was writing a post here to you and went to navigate back to your website and hit the close button so having to start again. Your websites look great, but don't go giving them away, when you give them away you remove all value from them and people naturally thing they are of little value.

Your newspaper ads look really catchy, but as the video on your website points out, PRINT ADVERTISING is pretty much dead, the people you want to be marketing too are not reading the local paper really and local paper ads tend to be the most expensive ads to run, where I am in the UK a local city ad costs more than a national ad.

You mention sending 100 e-mails but many of those will not have been read, so its not down to people not liking your sites, its merely people delete and read email based on titles and e-mail subjects.

If you are going to e-mail businesses, follow up with a phone call a day or so later to let them know you e-mailed them and to see what they thought of what you sent them.

Here is one thing you can do to get your mobile website in front of the advertisers using the paper, if any of them have their mobile number which many do, send them a text message with your mobile website link contained within. That way they can see what you offer instead of trying to get them to a website to see examples.

The other day I had an appointment with my optician, so I made up a mobile version of his website the day before and showed it him when I went in, he was blown away by seeing it in action and learning how bad his desktop site looks on a mobile device.

Use mobile marketing to sell mobile marketing.

Quentin · 6th Dec 2011, 04:01 AM

Lots of businesses equate free with cheap and spammy.

For example I use to give away QR Codes and found it hard but since I started charging $25 they seem to love them.

Maybe mix it up a bit and test.

You know what they say keep doing the same thing and expecting different results

Q

tobyddd · 6th Dec 2011, 05:44 AM

Hi Peter,

A few pointers to your question. I will take this from the viewpoint that I'm a prospect of yours that has just received an email from you offering a free website.

1) I check out your main website - after all you are offering web design - let's see how good yours is. Hmmm, standard looking Wordpress site, not properly SEO'd. If you can't make the effort on your own site, why would you make an effort on my free site?

2) I think past my first impressions and go to the mobile website that you say and I quote "To see an example of a mobile optimised site, see my other website Canberra free mobile websites, which is purely for my mobile website business."

I go to it using a Samsung Galaxy S2 mobile phone which has a nice wide screen in portrait mode. However, your site requires me to scroll left to right to read it fully!

OK, so maybe I'm being picky, and I rotate my phone through 90 degrees - that's not to bad - not keen on the site design, but hey, one that you design for me might be more to my liking. I also wonder why you haven't optimised your main website - I try and load the Canberra marketing|Canberra small business help|Canberra SEO on my mobile phone and get the following message :-
Data connectivity problem - The page contains too many server redirects
This doesn't install me with too much confidence! (I also tried this on another phone and got the same result)

3) I decide one last check - see see how optimised it is for errors - so I go to W3C mobile checker - industry standard. Look at the results I get for Canberra free mobile websites

http://validator.w3.org/mobile/check...2F&async=false

and

MobiReady Report... processing your page

At this stage (if I ever would in reality have got to this stage) - I decide to look elsewhere.

I'm sorry if this critique seems a little harsh - but based on what I have seen, I wouldn't have one of your websites given to me mate - in fact I 'd go as far as saying, if "you" were to pay me $25 to have one - I wouldn't as the possible consequences to my business could end up costing me far far more. This critique is not meant to have a go, but to point out where you are going wrong and in answer to your original question, What's wrong with local small businesses? Nothing in my opinion, just that there would appear to be better options for a mobile site out there.

I would concentrate on getting the basics right first - make sure your own site is in order first - sort out your own SEO on your main site which is ranked D- from my SEO software (based on the keyword being website). Use Yoasts plugin instead of the All in One SEO Pack and the Platinum pack - Yoasts IMHO is far better and will give you advice on what is wrong with your post/page - it also gives you a far better insight into SEO basics.

First impressions count - upgrade the look of your website, this plain Twenty Twenty style does nothing for you - Elegant Themes as a cheap way of getting a decent looking theme - I personally use Themefuse - far more professional looking, if not a bit of a git to work through and change stuff.

Get yourself some decent mobile templates - there a few on the WSO boards at the moment, both HTML and php based.

Try not to go for the Wordpress based mobile sites - yes, it might save you a bit of time - but in my opinion, they try to serve too much data to a smartphone - slowing down load times which on a mobile are fairly critical - also upping the amount of data - people don't have unlimited mobile usage as they do from a home connection.

Whilst this isn't probably what you wanted to hear - I hope that it helps you for the future. Good luck Peter

Regards - Toby

Simeon Tuitt · 6th Dec 2011, 06:01 AM

Originally Posted by tobyddd

Hi Peter,

A few pointers to your question. I will take this from the viewpoint that I'm a prospect of yours that has just received an email from you offering a free website.

1) I check out your main website - after all you are offering web design - let's see how good yours is. Hmmm, standard looking Wordpress site, not properly SEO'd. If you can't make the effort on your own site, why would you make an effort on my free site?

2) I think past my first impressions and go to the mobile website that you say and I quote "To see an example of a mobile optimised site, see my other website Canberra free mobile websites, which is purely for my mobile website business."

I go to it using a Samsung Galaxy S2 mobile phone which has a nice wide screen in portrait mode. However, your site requires me to scroll left to right to read it fully!

OK, so maybe I'm being picky, and I rotate my phone through 90 degrees - that's not to bad - not keen on the site design, but hey, one that you design for me might be more to my liking. I also wonder why you haven't optimised your main website - I try and load the Canberra marketing|Canberra small business help|Canberra SEO on my mobile phone and get the following message :-
Data connectivity problem - The page contains too many server redirects
This doesn't install me with too much confidence! (I also tried this on another phone and got the same result)

3) I decide one last check - see see how optimised it is for errors - so I go to W3C mobile checker - industry standard. Look at the results I get for Canberra free mobile websites

http://validator.w3.org/mobile/check...2F&async=false

and

MobiReady Report... processing your page

At this stage (if I ever would in reality have got to this stage) - I decide to look elsewhere.

I'm sorry if this critique seems a little harsh - but based on what I have seen, I wouldn't have one of your websites given to me mate - in fact I 'd go as far as saying, if "you" were to pay me $25 to have one - I wouldn't as the possible consequences to my business could end up costing me far far more. This critique is not meant to have a go, but to point out where you are going wrong and in answer to your original question, What's wrong with local small businesses? Nothing in my opinion, just that there would appear to be better options for a mobile site out there.

I would concentrate on getting the basics right first - make sure your own site is in order first - sort out your own SEO on your main site which is ranked D- from my SEO software (based on the keyword being website). Use Yoasts plugin instead of the All in One SEO Pack and the Platinum pack - Yoasts IMHO is far better and will give you advice on what is wrong with your post/page - it also gives you a far better insight into SEO basics.

First impressions count - upgrade the look of your website, this plain Twenty Twenty style does nothing for you - Elegant Themes as a cheap way of getting a decent looking theme - I personally use Themefuse - far more professional looking, if not a bit of a git to work through and change stuff.

Get yourself some decent mobile templates - there a few on the WSO boards at the moment, both HTML and php based.

Try not to go for the Wordpress based mobile sites - yes, it might save you a bit of time - but in my opinion, they try to serve too much data to a smartphone - slowing down load times which on a mobile are fairly critical - also upping the amount of data - people don't have unlimited mobile usage as they do from a home connection.

Whilst this isn't probably what you wanted to hear - I hope that it helps you for the future. Good luck Peter

Regards - Toby

Wow tobyddd went all out breaking this down for you peter, lol. True words though, tobyddd cool to see you rocking the Samsung Galaxy S2, got that myself, they can act up on mobile sites sometimes though, but very true about the YOU GO FIRST approach when offering something to others, make sure your showcase is in order. ;-) Peter sounds like you got all the feedback you need now, don't think tobyddd left anything to be covered.

tobyddd · 6th Dec 2011, 06:19 AM

Yes Simeon - the S2 is pretty neat - had the Nokia N97 mini before that and it is a heck of alot better :-)

rugman · 6th Dec 2011, 06:45 AM

Try this - don't tell them you are giving them away - just give them away! Pick a few places - do a site - walk in and say "here is your site". Get the ball rolling - that way you can talk to other placed and tell them "here is what I did for so and so.

rlhurst · 6th Dec 2011, 07:53 AM

Originally Posted by rugman

Try this - don't tell them you are giving them away - just give them away! Pick a few places - do a site - walk in and say "here is your site". Get the ball rolling - that way you can talk to other placed and tell them "here is what I did for so and so.

And you can do the above by taking one of their print ads, photoshop in the qr code to their mobile site, walk in to the business and SHOW them how they can provide SO much more info about their business with just that little code.

Another thing to try, if it's a food place... walk in and when they ask you what you want...... order from YOUR phone. Show them the phone as you're choosing the items, ask for the manager..... whatever it takes to make an impression.

WillR · 6th Dec 2011, 07:01 PM

Originally Posted by tobyddd

I go to it using a Samsung Galaxy S2 mobile phone which has a nice wide screen in portrait mode. However, your site requires me to scroll left to right to read it fully!

The reason for this is the header image is too wide. The header image is 375 pixels and does not automatically resize so on most devices it is going to go off the right hand side of the screen and cause the left/right scrollbar.

You need to either make that header image resize automatically OR make it no more than about 300 pixels wide. That should fix the problem.

I also agree that it's worth testing the free vs paid option. A lot of people still believe that free always means there is some kind of catch. A lot of people also think free means cheap and sub-standard. Sometimes by charging more you are actually increasing the perceived value of your product.

peter_act · 7th Dec 2011, 12:58 AM

Thanks Toby,

Your criticisms are certainly valid. I'll have to get someone from Fiverr to improve stuff, as it's all a bit beyond me, as is self evident.

I would however pont out that I didn't ask people to go to my site for the reasons you point out - I only gave them a phone number and email address.

My site iphonesites.mobi is still being upgraded, I had realised it was pretty awful, and am busy changing it from day to day. In fact I have an iphone.mobi version 2, which I am trying to perfect and then over write the site that is there now.

Thanks also to Will and Quentin - as you probably know I use both your templates, switch between the two, sometimes combine both, and I know you are both successful, which is why I said that it could be me that is the problem.

Simeon, I like your idea "Here is one thing you can do to get your mobile website in front of the advertisers using the paper, if any of them have their mobile number which many do, send them a text message with your mobile website link contained within. That way they can see what you offer instead of trying to get them to a website to see examples."

I can't believe I never thought of that! Thanks

Seems like man25 has the same problem in his thread "If Mobile Sites Are So Hot, Why Is It That Nobody Wants One?" - I wish I'd read that before posting mine.

Anyway, I'm regrettably going back to paid employment on Monday, got to get some cash if my mobile websites aren't creating any!

5th Dec 2011, 11:58 PM	#1
peter_act HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2003 Location: Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia Posts: 296 Thanks: 21 Thanked 141 Times in 93 Posts	What's wrong with them? Share on: What's wrong with local small businesses? I've been trying to sell my mobile websites - I have a small portfolio at: Get a free website for your Canberra small business. I think they are quite presentable, but I it seems I can't give them away! I ran some ads in the local paper - here they are: and Net result? Not ONE reply! I've also sent out close to 100 emails, showing what their present site looks like on a mobile phone, and a mock up of what their mobile site would look like on a mobile phone. Net result? Not ONE reply! And these are for FREE! (I charge $25 for hosting and maintenance) I wonder whether this thread should be entitled "What's wrong with me?"
	Cheap websites for small businesses: Affordable mobile websites Get a free autoresponder here: Money Making Opportunities

6th Dec 2011, 03:53 AM	#2
Simeon Tuitt Simeon Tuitt War Room Member Join Date: 2009 Location: Leicester, United Kingdom. Posts: 234 Thanks: 109 Thanked 36 Times in 31 Posts Blog Entries: 2	Re: What's wrong with them? Share on: Hi Peter, if you get two posts from me, apologies in advance. I was writing a post here to you and went to navigate back to your website and hit the close button so having to start again. Your websites look great, but don't go giving them away, when you give them away you remove all value from them and people naturally thing they are of little value. Your newspaper ads look really catchy, but as the video on your website points out, PRINT ADVERTISING is pretty much dead, the people you want to be marketing too are not reading the local paper really and local paper ads tend to be the most expensive ads to run, where I am in the UK a local city ad costs more than a national ad. You mention sending 100 e-mails but many of those will not have been read, so its not down to people not liking your sites, its merely people delete and read email based on titles and e-mail subjects. If you are going to e-mail businesses, follow up with a phone call a day or so later to let them know you e-mailed them and to see what they thought of what you sent them. Here is one thing you can do to get your mobile website in front of the advertisers using the paper, if any of them have their mobile number which many do, send them a text message with your mobile website link contained within. That way they can see what you offer instead of trying to get them to a website to see examples. The other day I had an appointment with my optician, so I made up a mobile version of his website the day before and showed it him when I went in, he was blown away by seeing it in action and learning how bad his desktop site looks on a mobile device. Use mobile marketing to sell mobile marketing.
	Simeon Tuitt Is A Digital Product Creator And Publisher Since 2006. Search Simeon Tuitt In The Alexa Skills Store To Listen On Your Echo, Echo Dot Or Watch On Your Echo Show Or Echo Spot Device. http://www.Simeon-Tuitt.co.uk

6th Dec 2011, 04:01 AM	#3
Quentin Web Marketing For Profit War Room Member Join Date: 2002 Location: Brisbane Posts: 2,895 Thanks: 8 Thanked 1,162 Times in 528 Posts Blog Entries: 10	Re: What's wrong with them? Share on: Lots of businesses equate free with cheap and spammy. For example I use to give away QR Codes and found it hard but since I started charging $25 they seem to love them. Maybe mix it up a bit and test. You know what they say keep doing the same thing and expecting different results Q
	DIY Product Creation Online Business Training on How To Create Products to sell online Plus Lots More.

6th Dec 2011, 05:44 AM	#4
tobyddd Active Warrior Join Date: 2011 Location: UK Posts: 55 Thanks: 7 Thanked 24 Times in 18 Posts	Re: What's wrong with them? Share on: Hi Peter, A few pointers to your question. I will take this from the viewpoint that I'm a prospect of yours that has just received an email from you offering a free website. 1) I check out your main website - after all you are offering web design - let's see how good yours is. Hmmm, standard looking Wordpress site, not properly SEO'd. If you can't make the effort on your own site, why would you make an effort on my free site? 2) I think past my first impressions and go to the mobile website that you say and I quote "To see an example of a mobile optimised site, see my other website Canberra free mobile websites, which is purely for my mobile website business." I go to it using a Samsung Galaxy S2 mobile phone which has a nice wide screen in portrait mode. However, your site requires me to scroll left to right to read it fully! OK, so maybe I'm being picky, and I rotate my phone through 90 degrees - that's not to bad - not keen on the site design, but hey, one that you design for me might be more to my liking. I also wonder why you haven't optimised your main website - I try and load the Canberra marketing\|Canberra small business help\|Canberra SEO on my mobile phone and get the following message :- Data connectivity problem - The page contains too many server redirects This doesn't install me with too much confidence! (I also tried this on another phone and got the same result) 3) I decide one last check - see see how optimised it is for errors - so I go to W3C mobile checker - industry standard. Look at the results I get for Canberra free mobile websites http://validator.w3.org/mobile/check...2F&async=false and MobiReady Report... processing your page At this stage (if I ever would in reality have got to this stage) - I decide to look elsewhere. I'm sorry if this critique seems a little harsh - but based on what I have seen, I wouldn't have one of your websites given to me mate - in fact I 'd go as far as saying, if "you" were to pay me $25 to have one - I wouldn't as the possible consequences to my business could end up costing me far far more. This critique is not meant to have a go, but to point out where you are going wrong and in answer to your original question, What's wrong with local small businesses? Nothing in my opinion, just that there would appear to be better options for a mobile site out there. I would concentrate on getting the basics right first - make sure your own site is in order first - sort out your own SEO on your main site which is ranked D- from my SEO software (based on the keyword being website). Use Yoasts plugin instead of the All in One SEO Pack and the Platinum pack - Yoasts IMHO is far better and will give you advice on what is wrong with your post/page - it also gives you a far better insight into SEO basics. First impressions count - upgrade the look of your website, this plain Twenty Twenty style does nothing for you - Elegant Themes as a cheap way of getting a decent looking theme - I personally use Themefuse - far more professional looking, if not a bit of a git to work through and change stuff. Get yourself some decent mobile templates - there a few on the WSO boards at the moment, both HTML and php based. Try not to go for the Wordpress based mobile sites - yes, it might save you a bit of time - but in my opinion, they try to serve too much data to a smartphone - slowing down load times which on a mobile are fairly critical - also upping the amount of data - people don't have unlimited mobile usage as they do from a home connection. Whilst this isn't probably what you wanted to hear - I hope that it helps you for the future. Good luck Peter Regards - Toby

6th Dec 2011, 06:19 AM	#6
tobyddd Active Warrior Join Date: 2011 Location: UK Posts: 55 Thanks: 7 Thanked 24 Times in 18 Posts	Re: What's wrong with them? Share on: Yes Simeon - the S2 is pretty neat - had the Nokia N97 mini before that and it is a heck of alot better :-)

6th Dec 2011, 06:45 AM	#7
rugman HyperActive Warrior Join Date: 2007 Location: Warwick ,NY .USA Posts: 403 Thanks: 105 Thanked 100 Times in 76 Posts	Re: What's wrong with them? Share on: Try this - don't tell them you are giving them away - just give them away! Pick a few places - do a site - walk in and say "here is your site". Get the ball rolling - that way you can talk to other placed and tell them "here is what I did for so and so.
	Growing older but not up!

7th Dec 2011, 12:58 AM	#10
peter_act HyperActive Warrior War Room Member Join Date: 2003 Location: Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia Posts: 296 Thanks: 21 Thanked 141 Times in 93 Posts	Re: What's wrong with them? Share on: Thanks Toby, Your criticisms are certainly valid. I'll have to get someone from Fiverr to improve stuff, as it's all a bit beyond me, as is self evident. I would however pont out that I didn't ask people to go to my site for the reasons you point out - I only gave them a phone number and email address. My site iphonesites.mobi is still being upgraded, I had realised it was pretty awful, and am busy changing it from day to day. In fact I have an iphone.mobi version 2, which I am trying to perfect and then over write the site that is there now. Thanks also to Will and Quentin - as you probably know I use both your templates, switch between the two, sometimes combine both, and I know you are both successful, which is why I said that it could be me that is the problem. Simeon, I like your idea "Here is one thing you can do to get your mobile website in front of the advertisers using the paper, if any of them have their mobile number which many do, send them a text message with your mobile website link contained within. That way they can see what you offer instead of trying to get them to a website to see examples." I can't believe I never thought of that! Thanks Seems like man25 has the same problem in his thread "If Mobile Sites Are So Hot, Why Is It That Nobody Wants One?" - I wish I'd read that before posting mine. Anyway, I'm regrettably going back to paid employment on Monday, got to get some cash if my mobile websites aren't creating any!
	Cheap websites for small businesses: Affordable mobile websites Get a free autoresponder here: Money Making Opportunities