The Net Impact

The Net Impact’s partner solution, Auctori:law will showcase at the Association of Legal Administrators (ALA) Annual Educational Conference and Exposition this May in Boston. The ALA annual conference is the premier event for legal management professionals. The three day conference features dynamic and relevant educational sessions presented by recognized leaders in their fields, outstanding networking opportunities and the largest exposition for legal management professionals.

Auctori:law is a search engine friendly content management system that puts the power and control of a law firm’s website in the hands of attorneys and legal professionals. In addition to standard content management features, Auctori:law is equipped with features designed specifically for legal industry, such as an attorney biographies module, news and articles module, and an images module. The Net Impact partnered with the Auctori:law team to provide legal clients with the opportunity to manage their own professionally designed, custom website.

Included in the three-day long exhibition are nearly over 100 educational sessions on the latest technologies, business solutions and emerging trends. Auctori:law Representative and President of The Net Impact, Steve Thomas, will lead the vendor showcase session:“Growing your Legal Business through Social Media and Search Engine Optimization”. This interactive presentation will cover the hot topics of social media and search engine optimization and how they are relevant to the legal industry. The educational session will take place on Monday, May 3 from 1:30 pm – 2pm.

Auctori:law will be exhibiting at booth #420. The booth will feature live demonstrations, product information and “relaxing” product prizes from The ROHO Group Inc.  Attendees may register at www.Auctorilaw.com/relax.  Auctori:law representatives will be on hand to answer questions and show you how Auctori:law can make maintaining your law firm website stress-free. This will be the first ever presence of Auctori:law at the Annual ALA Conference.

Check out the Press Release

The decision to take on a project like a new website is daunting enough.  Often coupled with that decision is another that is make-or-break for an organization, do we build the new site in-house or hire it out?  There are a lot of great reasons for each extreme of this decision.  There are also some real dangers for each.  I have to admit, in our years of working with clients and prospects, seldom do we see an internally developed site that comes in on time, on budget and supporting industry best practices.  This is not to say it can’t happen, and great if it does.  I’ts just not that common.  Why is that?

First a quck case study.  An Internet marketing client of ours, very progressive and intelligent group, leaders in their industry and well recognized nationally were operating a 6 year old ecommerce site that had just become ungainly.  Too many add-ons to the database, too many demands that were unanticipated at time of build and too many new generations of marketing people and IT had taken it’s toll. So, the right decision? Build a new site.  Off the shelf?  No way, too many special needs.  Custom but reusing exisitng platforms, yeah, that’s an option.  Bids for the new site from our team and competitors came in between $30k to $60k.  Expensive?  Maybe.. but for a web content management system that is customized for the exact business needs of a mission critical element, probably worth it. 

For several reasons, the “build it here” syndrome, paying for services when you have staff etc… the decision was made to go internal.  Result? 

• If this had been an outsourced project with a  forecast at the high side at $60k to the high bidder,  timelined to take six months to complete and consume approximately 200 hours of the client’s staff time (say at $100k with full load).  You have six months of disruption and $160k out of pocket for internal and external. 
• As an  internal project it took 2 years to build, consumed a full-time developer and a great deal of IT, web design and marketing team assistance and still didn’t result in the responsiveness that marketing needed.  That calculates into well over $350k of internal costs and a delay of an extra 18 months in getting to market.  I’d like to say that this is an exception but it is not.  This kind of experience seems to be more common than you would think.

Does that mean that it is not possible for a firm to build their website internally as well or better than using an agency?  No, absolutely not.  Plenty of horror stories exist for the alternative path.  Planning, resource selection and scope definition are needed on every project.  With that in mind, either way, inside or out,  there are few things you need to consider if you are planning to replace your site.  Let me share.

1. The first issue is to determine, “Who is this site meant to serve?”  in other words, “Who is the customer?”  In too many organizations there is still a turf struggle between IT and web marketingstaffs.  If your website is a mission critical piece of your marketing, then I am sorry to point out that the marketing department must be the customer. (IT staffers please insert “groan” here.)  The needs for content updates, product promotion, advertising and line extension has got to be where it starts. Your firm will be at a tactical disadvantage if every change, especially content changes and image changes, has to go through IT.  Truth is, most IT staffs really do not want to make the changes. They just don’t want to clean up marketing’s errors. What they tell me is that: “We would rather do it than fix it.”  Can the non-techy marketing team mess up a website?  Absolutely, but with the right platform and training, this won’t disrupt the server side of the equation.  In most enterprise focused WCMS platforms you can build in the proper level of authorities with enough containment to be certain that your content is fresh while the site maintains it’s integrity.  Most also have a life preserver allowing you to roll back to a recent correct instance and just do the changes again.
2. Second thought is, “What technology choice do we make?”  In some cases there is no choice.  Your infrastructure is in place and you will select an approach that fits.  In a cloud environment or SaaS though your choices are wide open.  How about, static or CMS?  It has been a long time since anyone argued the value of a static site over a CMS.  I think that debate is settled for any major player. 
3. Who will maintain the site once it’s built?  That  issue is sometimes, “Which CMS to use?”  I personally have no issue with open source IF a firm has the in-house expertise to maintain a Joomla or .NetNuke site with redundant developers or IF you sign a maintenance contract with the agency that developed your site initially.  Your call.  I will remind you though that there is not a corporate body with open source that is obliged to keep your personalized code and customization in step with new releases and or required web-wide advances.  Once you pull a version off the shelf then it is an obligation of your team or your development partner to keep things running through all of the changes that move the web forward.  Is there a fee for that?  Sure but you are either paying that fee as a service expense or payroll expense anyway.  Your new site will need fixed, debugged and modernized.  That’s how it is.  Plan on it.  If up time is critical then you need a resource.  24/7 support? Inside or outside is up to you.
4. Hardest point of all, “Do we build it here or partner?”  The build-it-here approach is admiarable but usually not a great argument for ROI.  The other questions linger about skill sets, priorities and redundancy.  The solution very well could be to perform all functions in-house if that effort does not challenge other customer centric or high priority projects.  Without redundant and comparable skill sets then you have to ask, “Who gets the B team?” - your clients, your other internal projects or your new website.  Part two of this question is to make certain that the bench strength will be in place in case your ace developer, artist… gets hit by the proverbial bus or a superior job offer.  A sudden change in business fortune can also change your priorities.  If that dreamy project for your top customer finally gets signed you may have a new dilemma, pull your web development team or hire into the new project.  It happens.  Who carries the ball if any of these events come to light? 
5. Often overlooked as well is, “Who manages the project?”  someone has to hold numerous feet to the fire or deadlines fall onto a to-do list next to ‘turn in my expense report’.  I have seen several projects falter because it is not the high priority of a critical task holder. 
6. Is partial partnering an option?  Could your creative team hand off designs to an outside web development team working in an environment that your IT team has proposed?  We do it all the time, and I’m sure other firms do as well.  Your look, feel, branding and functionality requirements built to your specs don’t necessarily require a 100% custom back-end to still give you the responsive machine you want developed in a stable platform that IT will approve and maybe even later support.  How about content and page population?  Often we will build out a sample set of pages and train the client’s marketing team how to populate the rest.  This combines some real hands on training with just in time creativity and also transfers the project ownership to your team pre-launch.
7. Finally, remember that you are building the site for a purpose.  It needs to bring traffic, develop leads, generate sales and build you brand.  All of your post-launch requirements have to be in place.  Can you do the SEO?  Can your team determine and your developer build testing oriented calls to action?  Will your analytics be built in?  Site map prepared for the search engines?  Having a great looking site that no one sees , or even worse, no one converts on, is not the reward for a long project like this.  Who makes sure that the new site is built for driving trafffic, improving conversion and testing for improvement? 

So, I’m already over 1400 words and haven’t explored all the possibilities. Just remember that as you embark on a new site, there should be a set of KPIs you hold the project members accountable for, whether internal or external.  Speed to market, usability, platform stability, ease of support and marketing effectiveness cannot be written off because it was an internal job. Hold your project to a higher standard.  Then decide who to hire.

Luxury Online Marketplace Meets Website Objectives with Auctori

The GoldenPortal.com mission is to create a unique marketplace offering the best quality, highest-value, merchandise available at large discounts. Golden Portal’s Members and families have high expectations and understand quality, making the need for a well-designed and user-friendly website an important part of the success formula for this shopping site. The unique, member-only club joined forces with The Net Impact to satisfy this discriminating clientele.

Golden Portal reached out to the Net Impact in search of a flexible and dynamic way to create new pages, support ever evolving vendor relationships and make changes to their website with the sense of urgency today’s online retail environment demands.  The Net Impact used their partner solution, Auctori – a Web Content Management System (CMS) built for SEO.  The Net Impact was able to  take Golden Portal’s existing site and place their custom design into the Auctori CMS. This gave the Golden Portal marketing team the ability to manage their website, change offers and update their vendor pages at anytime, from anywhere, –  they would simply need an internet connection.

GoldenPortal.com

“It is exciting when The Net Impact has the opportunity to work with a fresh and entrepreneurial idea. Working with Jim O’Brien and the original GoldenPortal.com Design, created by Tom Zimmerman, has allowed us to take on unique challenges by using innovative and special components in Auctori™, our Web Content Management System,” said Steve Thomas, President of The Net Impact.

The Net Impact Team and the Auctori Team worked together to meet the client-oriented company’s objectives.   Golden Portal employees were trained onsite by The Net Impact team on all of the different capabilities and numerous modules that make up the Auctori system including a new Affiliate Management Administration tool developed to the exact specifications of Golden Portal.

Click this link for more information on Golden Portal.

Click this link for more information on Auctori.

Check out the Press Release on TNI’s work with GoldenPortal.com

Five Helpful Tips for Above the Fold

Artistic Sensations Quality Kids and Teen Room Decor

Every once in while it’s good to review the basics for conversion like, “What is working on my Home Page?” For this conversation, I selected a small but mighty retailer of teen and kids furniture, Artistic Sensations.  The Net Impact is currently running several Google Optimizer tests on this site including several to improve conversion.  Yes, you always want to improve conversion. Many of the elements on the current home page for Artistic Sensations are the results of previous tests.  What did we learn and how does it relate to this Home Page Pointers post?  Here are a few quick and easy take-aways:

Finally, keep testing and making changes.  All we know is that this version of your site is what the customer likes today.  As for tomorrow?

When creating an online form to collect contact information, the phone number box is a field frequently requested by clients. But in order to accommodate the various formats of phone numbers that users might enter, this field must be coded to validate the data. 

ASP.NET has a nice control for validating form inputs using a regular expression. You may use something like this to make sure phone numbers are entered in the exact format that you want to save them. The following ensures that the user enters the phone number in this exact format: XXX-XXX-XXXX (3 digits, dash, 3 digits, dash, 4 digits) 

<asp:RegularExpressionValidator ValidationExpression=”\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}”  ControlToValidate=”txtPhone” ID=”RegExpVal_txtPhone” runat=”server” ErrorMessage=”Invalid Format (use: XXX-XXX-XXXX)” Display=”Dynamic” />
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or… How to Mimic a .chm File on a Website

Most people are familiar with the typical help window used in windows applications. However, most people may not know how to create web-based help for a website. The following example and instructions will allow you to mimic this type of functionality using a pop-up on a website.

To see the full example: Open the help window

or you can download all the files as a zip file.

The Summary:

This implementation uses all basic HTML and JavaScript. The main file (index.html) uses a link to open a pop-up window (help.html) which contains one <table> with two <td> cells. The left cell has a collapsible tree that is built using an unordered list which has JavaScript <a> links. The right cell has only an <iframe> that will have its src attribute set to different files based on which link in the tree is clicked. Each help section has its own HTML file and each of these files can have many topics.

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Microsites can be a great opportunity to market events, promote new products or services, or support an advertising campaign. A microsite is a marketing driven website designed to deliver a particular message to a targeted audience. Microsites are generally fewer pages than a company’s primary website, but often microsites can be just as complicated to create as a traditional website because there is often more user interaction through forms and surveys designed to capture user feedback specific to the campaign.

One advantage of creating a microsite is that they make tracking conversions much easier because statistics can be gathered separately or tracked through links into your main website and flagged as a result of the marketing campaign. For example, we recently designed a marketing microsite with TricorBraun for a new ad campaign they are running called “Call TricorBraun.” The advertisements in this campaign directed visitors to a unique URL www.calltricorbraun.com where the marketing microsite was set-up. A unique URL is another advantage of a marketing microsite because all traffic can be directed to a URL that is specific to your campaign or event. This URL should be easy to spell and remember so that individuals who see your ads or hear about your product or event can find your site easily. The Call TricorBraun microsite was designed in the image and likeness of the print ad, so that visitors associated the site with the advertisement. A microsite gives you the flexibility to try a layout and design that may differ from your main site, but may be more conducive or specific to what you are promoting on your microsite. The Call TricorBraun microsite design also included survey and contact fields to collect customer data. Upon completing required fields the user was directed to a specific landing page on the primary TricorBraun website depending on survey responses.

Marketing microsites can range in size from one landing page to a couple of landing pages and a contact form, survey or order entry form depending on how much information you want to collect. As a general rule, a marketing microsite should be fairly concise. Remember this isn’t your main website. This website only needs to have information that is pertinent to the marketing campaign. Because this website is built for a marketing campaign or event it will also have a much shorter life span, so once your event is over the microsite has served its purpose.

Previously, we looked at several open source content management systems that are widely used. Those are great options unless you have a Microsoft server. If that is the case, what are your options?

Here are two options for you to look into:

Dot Net Nuke

Dot Net Nuke is an open source dot net content management system, and like the other content managements systems, has some nice add-ons. Dot Net Nuke has an easy-to-use interface, but it can be buggy when you try to implement your own custom design. Still, it is extremely popular and has lots of ability if you are constrained by or are sticking to the benefits of a dot net machine. The most current release of this freeware like many others is sometimes referred to as the “bleeding edge”. Tackling new releases is not for the unskilled or time constrained developer.

Master Pages

My limited personal knowledge of the technology that goes into master pages, server side includes and the like prevents me from going into further detail about how these technologies work in that respect. We can always engage the tech team here at TNI for that dialog. The point is that implementing master pages is an easy way to save yourself a headache in the future.

The overriding concept and purpose behind master pages is simple: Create one “master page” that controls the border of your web page and only fill-in the middle, content portion of the page individually. Content management systems allow you to do much of the same thing, but with master pages you have the ability to edit actual static page files. For any web site with more than a few pages, this is a great option.

The rate of change required for a website to be considered “current” continues to dictate a shorter and shorter refresh cycle. Because of the need for fresh content and in other ways, up-to-date site features, more and more businesses of all sizes are looking to web solutions like the two above in order to allow new information, graphics and even pages to be created by someone other than the IT team or Webmaster that will still reflect the same brand strategy and maintain the standards in place throughout the rest of the site. Making website updates with relatively the same ease as a blog post looks like a highly desired attribute that businesses will increasingly have on their checklist.

Significant contribution to this post by S Trachtman.