Business Blogging & Affiliate Summit Review, Part 5

Since I love to talk and write I couldn't resist attending Dave Taylor's pre-Affiliate Summit presentation on the subject of business blogs.

Who is Dave Taylor? I asked myself the same question. The name sounded somewhat familiar but the face and his website URL did not ring any bells for me. Then when he started talking about the books he had written, and I did a little Amazon research, bells and whistles sounded. Dave has written many books about various topics but of course the one's I recall are regarding website development. Here is an excerpt from his website about his book, Creating Cool Web Sites with HTML, XHTML, and CSS

"There's no time like the present to learn more about how to get the best possible results for your Web page building efforts. After all, you can certainly build good Web sites with free tools like NotePad, TextEdit, or even vi, but regardless of your tools, you still have to know what you're doing and why!" ~ Dave Taylor, Intuitive.com

I couldn't agree more with Dave. There is a common misconception that just using website building tools whether manual or automated is all you need to do to achieve your website's goals. When in fact, designing your website is the easiest (as it should be) part of all. If you have listened to our podcasts, Effective-Website-Secrets.com, then you know that there are specific steps you need to take before you even begin designing your website or looking for a web designer. These critical steps are often skipped by the majority of website owners because they get caught up in the passion of the design concept. We refer to this mindset as backwards website development. Days, months, weeks are often wasted deciding on which graphics to use when in fact the search engines don't care about graphics at all. If you build your website correctly the first time, you can add your permanent graphics later and it will not effect the search engines indexing process.

Also, Dave Taylor has been involved with the Internet since 1980 which is amazing if you think about it. If we started working with the Internet when digital dinosaurs roamed the earth (1994), Dave must have witnessed the creation of planet digital earth: "In the beginning, ..." ;)

The most intriguing attribute about Dave's presentation was his talent as a professional speaker. If you have been business blogging for awhile, and you are getting a considerable amount of traffic from the search engines, then some of the information might be a repeat for you. BUT it was interesting listening to Dave as he captivates his audience with no-hype, straight-to-the point little side stories from which I learned a great deal. I walked out of the conference with many ideas for future articles, tutorials and podcasts as well as improving our own blogs. I'm sure our authors and copywriters will be thrilled.

For example, one of the side notes Dave talked about was two books he enjoyed, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference and Blink : The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, both written by Malcolm Gladwell. I had read "The Tipping Point" a couple of years back, and yes, it was excellent reading. But "Blink" is new and on my Amazon wishlist now.

Although I didn't get to speak to Dave Taylor to any great length on a one-to-one basis, (which is by no means Dave's fault), I hope we can meet up again at a future conference. I briefly saw Dave at PartnerCentric’s Imagination Chocolate party held at the Wynn Las Vegas hotel but did not get a chance to chat since there were so many people and so little time. Just as I was about to approach him, I was snagged away by another networking buzz.

If you ever get the chance to hear a presentation by Dave Taylor, don’t hesitate.

Until next time, as always .... Keep it Basic.

Susan Milligan, Co-Founder
BasicTemplates.com

p.s. Important Note: As of the writing of this blog entry, the Wynn website URL is an example of an ineffective way to develop a website. If you have to explain to people why your website has an unusually slow load time even using broadband access, you are only reaching less than 20% of your website visitors. This is a perfect example of how passion and creativity interferes with good business judgment. I'm sure Dave Taylor would likely agree; how about it Dave?

You should never force your visitors to wait on your website to load. If you want to use large files such as video, audio or Flash presentations to illustrate your product, give your visitors the option to initiate the playing process. If your website is built completely with Flash, give your visitors the option to view a static (fast loading) version. Contrary to what most broadband companies would like you to believe, more than 80% of the world does not have broadband connections. It's not like these people are too cheap to pay for it either. It's because it is not available in their area and for many, it never will be - at least in the sense as we know broadband today.

With all due respect to Steve Wynn who's initial audio statement says that unlike other website's their website is filled with surprises, and he says to have fun finding them. My first surprise was that such a classy hotel and casino's website would load so slowly and a Flash popup would force my internet service provider to load a very large movie file. In the mid to late 1990s hidden surprises on websites also known as Easter eggs or hunts hit their peak in popularity. But that was then. Today people want the information they are looking for now and don't like surprises on websites unless, of course, it dispenses cash. ;)

// posted by BasicSusan on 1/24/2006 07:10:00 AM / Permanent Link