Voice over Internet Phones

Potential Savings for Small Businesses

Voice over Internet Protocol or VOIP is a phone line running over your internet connection. Many larger corporations and institutions are making the switch, and it's worthwhile for small businesses to think about it as well.

I use vonage, but there are a lot of options, depending on where you live. In most cities in Canada you can transfer your existing phone number to a VOIP line.

Misconceptions

Before delving into the issue, I'd like to just mention that first of all, VOIP has improved A LOT over the past few years. There can still be issues with sound quality, but by and large, it's comparable to a phone line (which can also have issues with sound quality). Also, you don't need to have your computer running in order to use your phone, and you can certainly use a "normal" phone assuming it's relatively new. Some people are concerned that they'll have to use a headset and microphone, and sit down at their computer to answer any call, don't worry, you don't have to.

Advantages

Number one: cost. Especially for multiple lines, long distance, and extra features. Packages start as low as $15 a month with free long distance and the normal features you'd expect (voice mail, call waiting, etc). Land lines can't compete on that front.

Number two: additional lines. Extra lines are equally affordable and the big bonus is you can purchase numbers from other areas and forward them to your main line. I started my business in Edmonton before I moved to Saskatoon, and I still have my Edmonton number. 1-800 numbers are also easily added to your package.

Number three: voicemail accessible from your email. If you're traveling, you can still receive your voicemails. If you're really industrious, you can also bring your adapter with you and make calls from your line if you have an internet connection.

Disadvantages

Power outages: if you loose power, or your internet connection, you loose your phone line. Calls will go to voicemail, but won't be able to make outgoing calls (including 9-1-1!). It helps to have friendly neighbours.

Internet connection speed: if you have a poor/slow internet connection, the quality of your phone line may suffer. I end up using my phone line savings to buy a faster internet connection, but considering my business (web design), I'd likely pay for faster internet anyways. Your situation may be different.

Phone jacks: all of those well placed phone jacks around your house just became a lot less useful. Unless if you're willing to rewire them, or add adapters to each one, you'll have to either set up a wireless phone system or make do with a single phone jack beside your adapter. I personally just use the one jack, but have a wireless phone set with three charging stations and three cordless phones.

Does a small business need a website?

According to the BBC, the Federation of Small Businesses in the UK claims that half of small to medium sized businesses in their country lack a web presence. The article presents the rhetorical question: Do small firms really need a website?

Of course, by the end of the article the answer is yes, of course. The why of it is more interesting, so I’ll speak to that. Again according to the article, “new technologies fundamentally alter consumer behaviour”. What has changed in our behaviour as consumers since the Internet age began?

As part of a trend that may or may not be caused solely by the internet, the pace of decisions has been sped up. What has been precipitated by the internet is our expectation that access to information be immediate. Imagine writing a letter to Sears today about a new product in their catalogue, and getting your hockey sweater three months later.

If for example, I am researching electrical contractors at 2 a.m. I only have two sources of information: a 1 X 3 inch Yellowpage ad and the internet. Perhaps there was a time when a consumer would be willing to go to bed, wait for the next day, find a copy of the Buy and Sell, or chat with friends at work on Monday, but we’ve grown accustomed to information being available instantly. Any contractor that has an online photo gallery of past work and testimonials is a leg up on another who lacks a website and is reliant on a phone call.

Website, especially for small businesses are a great leveler in the marketplace. Advertising in other media can be expensive, but websites don’t have to be. The only small businesses that can forgo cost effective ways of communicating to customers are businesses that either won’t be in business for long, or aren’t looking to either expand their business or offer a higher level of service to their existing customers. In any competitive marketplace, it doesn’t take long before the latter become the former.

High fidelity testing (i.e. how to save time and money)

High fidelity testing is a fancy term for low tech and high idea design work. Ideally, before anyone approaches a computer, stakeholders or focus groups get together, discuss, and create a website on paper. Poor ideas can be discarded or reworked before significant time and effort is put into them. Sounds reasonable, but this step is often missed in design cycles.

So what is high fidelity testing in practice? One example is the card sort method. In this exercise groups of people take a pile of index or recipe cards. On each card they write out a single hypothetical page of the website and organize them into categories or menu items. Each group then discusses their final site and collaboratively comes out with one that incorporates the best of everyone’s.

The discussion should focus on putting yourself in your user’s shoes. Imagine yourself as a target client (or even better, organize a focus group of target audiences), and individually look at each page title. Ask yourself the following questions:

• Does this title make sense to me? Surprisingly, a lot of website include a vocabulary that reflects the author and not the reader. Each title should speak directly to the audience in some way.
• Would I click on this?
• Are there any pages at this menu level that I expect or want to see that aren’t here? One golden rule is that if you’ve “sold” your customer on your product, there had better be a way for them to express that within a click (i.e. don’t make it hard for people to give you money).

Once this exercise is done, you can go through your new sitemap and flesh out each page. Then, your team will be ready to start designing the site, knowing how many pages you’re creating and what kind of assets you’ll need to communicate your key messages (photos, animations, videos, text, etc.).

Cost of a Web Site

A common question asked and often not answered among web designers is: what is the cost of a website. This is a complicated question as there are a lot of factors, custom web design work isn't like the retail industry with clearly defined price points. Below, I'll go through a few of the factors, and then, even go into the hard numbers.

Hard Costs

These costs are pretty fixed, there are certain things you need to host a website that can't be avoided:

• Domain name: from $15-35/year
• Host: from $5 to thousands per month, depending on the traffic and services. For example if you are hosting a direct to drive movie service, with tens of thousands of users, this won't be cheap. For most businesses this cost will be closer to $10-$30/month.

Preproduction

This is the stage before your site itself is made.

• Photography: both the purchase of stock images and hiring a photographer can be expensive. This could be anywhere from $0 to thousands, but I'd recommend setting aside a few hundred dollars if you don't already have high quality images to work with.
• Content writing: some clients save money by creating their own content, otherwise budget $25-$50 a page.
• Copy editing: if you do provide your own text, you'll still want your designer to proof it, and ensure it's "web-ready". Likely only a few hours work, so $50 is another safe budget.
• Video: if you need to shoot video for flash movies on your website, much like photography, the cost varies depending on what you need.
• High fidelity testing and focus groups: The most important part of preproduction is trying to minimize wasted production time. Focus groups and surveys are a great way of ensuring all of the elements you want in your website are desired by your users. Costs can go from $0-$1000 depending availability of participants, space rentals, meals, and of course analysis of the results.

Production

Now is where the real work begins.

• Design: a small site may take 10 hours of work, a large one 100 hours. Designers charge anywhere from $15/hr for inexperienced freelancers to $100/hr or more for industry leading professionals. For a typical small business site, you can budget $600 for this section.
• Image manipulation/optimization: depending on the amount of images, this could be a couple hours to hundreds for large projects. Again, for a small business $100-$200 worth of time should be sufficient.
• Testing: often included in the design component, your site should be tested extensively against many types of browsers, computers, small screen devices (cell phones, etc) to ensure it performs adequately.
  

Post-Production

Websites require a continuing investment of time and money. They lose value if left on their own and even small websites should be updated with some regularity.

• Surveys: once your site is up, solicit feedback to ensure it's effective. Your design studio can manage this campaign, or you can do it informally with your clients.
• Promotion: to get your site noticed on the internet it takes either time, money, or both. You can spend as little or as much as you'd like on this aspect depending on your business needs.
• Maintenance: keeping your site functional is of course important. A well designed site should maintain its look for a few years, but nevertheless it is a good idea to have someone available should any issues arise.
• Content: whenever possible, content should be kept up to date and fresh, otherwise you shouldn't expect much return traffic to your site.
  

Extras

The internet has a huge number of opportunities for businesses. If you want to go above a basic brochure like site, consider budgeting for something extra:

• Flash elements: Flash offers a rich experience to users if done well. It is of course more time consuming to make than a HTML based element, so of course it will add to the design cost of your project.
• Content Management System: If you'd like to be able to update your site yourself, without web programming experience, then consider a CMS. They are often more expensive than a standard site, but they will reduce the cost of maintenance, since you'll be able to post your own information without a developers help.
• E-commerce: from having an Ebay store, to setting up your own merchant account, secure website, online inventory, and payment system, the cost of an e-commerce application can range from a few hundred dollars to set up to many thousands.

Summary

The above might be nice to read, but may not answer your question: how much will my website cost? Here are a couple examples, all hypothetical:

Christminster Church: a local church making a site with monthly updates to post upcoming events for their members. Total: $935

• Domain name and host: $150/year.
• Content and Photography provided by church.
• Copy editing and image optimization: $75.
  
• Design of 5 page website: $300.
• Monthly updates provided to designer: $30/month = $360/year
• Limited web promotion: $50.
  

Sam's Autobody: a small business that wants a basic site to generate leads for real world business. Total: $1175

• Domain name and host: $150/year.
• Content provided by client.
• Photography: $100.
• Copy editing and image optimization: $75.
• Design of 8 page site: $400.
• Web promotion: $200.
• Flash image gallery: $250.

Of course, you can also contact me and I'll write you up a personalized quote.

Setting up a Saskatchewan Business, part 1

Preparation

Before you get into any nitty gritty, the first step is to step back. Analyze your idea, yourself, and your market. Is this what you want to do? Will people pay you money to do it?

Next up, who is your competition? Take your time, make lists, visit their places of business. Every bit of information you glean now will repay your time tenfold. If after surveying your market, you still think your business idea is sound, rejoice. Otherwise, spend some time tinkering with the plan.

Legalities

Perhaps the least fun but most necessary step in starting your business is registering for all of the necessary permits. This list isn't exhaustive as many types of businesses have specific licence requirements (visit BizPal, an online service to help you find out what kinds of licenses you may need):

• Name Registration
  Start this early, because first you'll need to do a name search, and only if your requested name is not already used will you be able to purchase the business name. Visit Saskatchewan Justice for more info.
• GST License, from Revenue Canada
• PST vendor's license, from Saskatchewan Justice
• Business liscence from your municipality

If you are starting a corporation there are additional forms to be completed, such as your articles of incorporation.

Necessities

Once you have your business name secured, and all necessary licenses, you can start to arrange for the other necessities of running a business, such as:

• Bank account
• Merchant Account (to receive debit/credit payment)
• Phone line and email address
• Website domain name (even if you haven't begun working on the website, secure your domain name early once you know your business name)
• Business Cards
• Promotional material such as brochures, leaflets, power point presentations, etc.
• An adequate filing system
• A solid accounting system, set this up before you start making purchases and receiving payment.
• Odds and saws: letterhead, stationary, etc.

Analyzing Link Partners

So you have a website. You’re also bright enough to realize that it isn’t going to do you any good if no one is visiting it. So you’ve set yourself a goal to find online partners to exchange links with, or you have a budget set aside to purchase links online.

Prioritize

Very quickly you’ll realize there are a thousand different opportunities out there and more people willing to take your money than you have money to give. You need to separate the great from the good and the good from the bad. Here’s a quick list of questions to get you started:

• How relevant is this site? There will be a few criteria, such as geography, products, approach, all compared to your own site.


• How respectable is this site? Sometimes this is tough to determine, but often amateurish or poorly designed sites stand out.


• What do the search engines think of this site? Visit an online tool such as iwebtool to see the PageRank of the site. Obviously the higher the better.


• How much traffic does the site get (and more specifically the page where your link will appear)? You’ll have to depend on the webmaster’s word, but it’s still a worthwhile question to ask before you spend any serious money.

In short, the money you spend on your online presence can and should be well spent. Not all sites are created equal, so be picky. Look for relevant sites that stand a good chance of bringing solid business leads to your website as well as boost your PageRank.

Follow Up

Finally, before you renew any packages from a site that sells links, check your website statistics and ensure that you have been getting enough traffic to justify the cost. Also of course, ask your new clients how they heard about you, the tricky part about marketing is that it's so hard to tell what expenditures are worthwhile. But it gets even harder to know if you don't ask.

How to Get Banned from Google

Search engine optimization and online website promotion is incredibly important to creating a successful website. There are however pitfalls to avoid as you build your online network. Google does watch for certain behaviours and, if caught, an offending website can see a dramatic drop in its PageRank or even worse, it could be banned from the index altogether. In this article we’ll go through some of the major ones you’ll want to avoid.

There are lots of fish in the sea

When picking link partners, be cautious. Avoid link farms: sites with thousands of unrelated links but no content. Google will assign a value to any link to your site based on the quality of the site it’s coming from. Link farms are often banned altogether. Online directories are a different story. They are often focused in the links they carry, for example: Saskatoon small business; web designers; freelance graphic artists; etc. Google acknowledges these directories as different from the link farms.

Black Hat SEO

Search engine optimization used to be a black art with every web designer guessing what every search engine was ranking site on. The rules change regularly, but search engines have been more open in what they like to see and what they don’t. I’ll talk about the don’ts here.

• Using invisible links, i.e. making the text colour the same as the background.


• Keyword stuffing: it’s expected that you’ll emphasize your keywords in your website, but many go overboard and repeat all 50 keywords in every alt tag of each image, in the meta tag of each page, and anywhere else they can put extra words without them appearing on the screen.


• Automated backlink generation: there are a lot of programs and services available that will search the internet for buttons that say “submit link”, “add a link”, etc., and then automatically fill in your website’s address and description. This can produce a huge number of backlinks in a short period of time. Google will notice, but not in the good way.


• Leaving your site to die. Websites are organic entities and if you don’t look after them, they’ll slowly get older, outdated, and less useful to the general public. While this won't get you banned, it might as well, since your pagerank will drop slowly but surely.