There are days I get tired of hearing about all the techy stuff I’m supposed to learn – and keep in mind, I’m already pretty savvy.

It’s not that I don’t like to learn – I do. But it seems there’s so much we’re being told to learn… and each day, something new is added to that list.

A few years ago, all you needed to know was how to blog.

These days, that’s not enough. Now you need to know how to write viral posts, create downloadable PDFS, manipulate small designs, send out newsletters, build lists, create videos, give presentations, offer webinars…

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

It’s crazy. Are business owners truly expected to learn everything there is to know about the online world? What happened to just doing some plain ol’ business?

And while we’re asking questions, how are business owners supposed to keep up? Technology evolves and advances at warp speed. By the time you’ve finished learning something new, it’s old.

All the knowledge you acquired is outdated already. Which means you need to learn more.

While you’re busy learning all this latest, greatest stuff, you’re not paying attention to your business. You’re not doing the work that you need to be doing.

Like managing your company. Or working for your clients. Or improving your products.

That’s pretty important stuff.

Plus, you only have 24 hours in a day. Even less if you opt to sleep, eat and go to the bathroom from time to time.

You have even less time to work and learn if you have a family.

And friends.

And a cat. Or maybe a fish.

By the time you try to fit everything – life, work, learning – into your day, you end up with no time for yourself. (You may not have much of a marriage left either.)

This makes no sense.

And even if by some miracle you manage to do all you’re supposed to do and learn all you’re supposed to learn and keep everyone happy in the meantime…

Well. You’re exhausted.

Hell. Something’s got to give, right?

Look, if something has to give, try not to let it be you. You’re pretty vital to this whole online business thing.

Without you, your business tanks. Your income stalls. Your health goes down the drain. And probably your sanity with it.

So how about slowing down? How about taking it one step at a time?

I know, I know. This flies in the face of current beliefs propagated by impressive Internet super-humans who believe people are built to operate at warp speed without rest or respite.

These guys seem to learn all the latest technology with a snap of the fingers. They sometimes make you feel inadequate. Or slow. Or dumb. Or lazy, outdated dinosaurs.

Give me a break.

I believe you can only do so much. Yes, you need to spend time building your business. Yes, you need to spend time learning new things.

But let’s not go nuts over it, hm? Take things slow. Just do what you can, a little each day. Stop kicking yourself that you don’t know how to do all the cool, crazy stuff you can do with technology.

You’ll get farther with your business when you have this attitude. Because your business isn’t learning everything under the sun until you’ve become a literal ‘net know-it-all guru.

Your business is your business. Remember that.

So get a grip. Focus on what matters. Start like this:

1. Make a list of everything you feel you need to do and learn for your business. It’s probably going to be a really long list, but that’s okay.
2. Prioritize your list. Stick the tasks you feel will bring you most money fastest at the top. Stick the “would like to learn this one day” at the bottom.
3. Each day, pick the most important, highest-priority task at the top of the list to work on.

And just do it. Forget the rest.

If you accomplish the task at the top of the list that you were working on, great! Strike it off the list, pat yourself on the back, and move to the next task.

The stuff that’s at the bottom?

It can wait. It isn’t really that important. So what if you don’t get to it for months? So what if you don’t learn how to do it now? So what if you don’t know how to do that thing everyone else knows how to do?

At least you have a business – one that’s growing, thriving and succeeding because of your attention.

Eventually you’ll get to the stuff you’d love to learn. It’s on your list, right? And as you work through your high-priority items that help you bring clients and steady income, the low-priority stuff at the bottom moves up.

One day, the stuff you want to learn will be number one. And by then, you’ll have the income and time to learn how to do it.

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Are You Keeping Up With Technology? first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

“October. Why?”

The yellow and purple, the flowers and spring… “Could’ve sworn it was Easter.” He moved around the benches, picking up some tools. “Is this a pottery studio?”

James stood observing the sign that hung above the shop. “Should be.” At least this site held a mood, a feeling, some meaning, unlike last week’s hit, one that was devoid of emotional association.

And yet…

Today’s hit is for All Things Metal Clay, the site of Elaine Luther, artist, writer and specialty tool manufacturer extraordinaire. Here’s what the site looked like when we drove by:

“There’s a word missing.” James was still staring at the sign, rubbing his chin with that contemplative look.

“I know. It should be ‘All Things Metal and Clay’.” Harry’s mind had long filled in the mental blank and even thought it wasn’t in the title, that ‘and’ had stuck. Now he was just wondering why the word hadn’t been put in the shop’s name.

“I don’t understand what this place is,” he shook his head, attracting Jamie’s attention to a flier on a desk. “It says the owner is a metal smith and taught precious metal clay. What is that? I’ve never heard of that before.”

Hence begins the confusion for the average visitor landing on the site. Granted, metal clay is a term for the material you work with, but to those still unfamiliar with the product, it’s difficult to understand both the site name and its purpose. This may affect interest that new crafters may have in getting into this area.

Having the “and” in the title of the site won’t hurt what you offer. It is metal and it is clay, so why not avoid that mental blip of “error” and fill the blank in?

Adding a tagline to the banner is a must; “An Expert Guide” isn’t enough to tell anyone what this site is about, what a reader might find and why they should stay to read. A suggestion would be “Helping You Explore the World of Precious Metal Clay”, which clears up that it’s something new and that you are qualified to help others as an expert.

Another trick you could apply to not just cater to people “in the know” but to a wider audience would be to add a little descriptive text in the sidebar to tell visitors a little more, such as what metal clay is and what it’s used for. Just extra info, short and sweet.

“Do you really like those colors?” James had gone back to perusing the shop’s sign and interior décor. “Pretty damned-…”

“Easter,” Harry finished the sentence firmly. The banner was pretty enough, but almost too bright, too yellow, too… April flowers. Paired with the purple walls of the room, it’s too much.

We suggest toning things down, blending the colors in a bit better and removing that big yellow flower to replace it with images of what sort of work you do, some photos of your creations or tools of the trade. That would really show people what the site is about and give them inspiration.

“Check out this room.” James was peeking in a door that had the sign Creative Texture Tools, and he opened the door wider for Harry to see. The room looked almost the same, but… not quite. It was as if the copied décor didn’t quite match, didn’t quite fit.

This was something we discovered when we analyzed your navigation. We expected (as first-time visitors) that the page was part of this site, but it brought us to a new site for your tool sales, and the inconsistency of designs made us blink for a minute. We literally weren’t sure if we were in the right place.

Consistency counts for branding – a great deal. We suggest having something that is either exactly the same for both sites or something completely different so that people understand this is a new site and not just a screwed-up page design.

“Texture,” Harry was the one musing now, walking carefully around the shop again and perusing the walls. “This place lacks texture. See here?” He ran his hand over the flat matte purple paint. “A little bit of texture would enhance the design’s appeal and make this place look more expressive.”

James squinted. “What kind of texture?”

“Something related to the art, the craft…” Harry thought some more. “Maybe the texture of the metal clay itself, you know?”

“Mm, good idea.” But Jamie’s attention had been pulled back to navigating the room, always something he picked on. He could find his way easily. The shop was small and there weren’t many rooms. The signs on the doors were clear, too, nicely labeled.

Kudos on the simple navigation and big fonts. A title of “Links” never really seems clear to us, though, and using “Resources” instead may increase the professionalism and help people understand that these website links are useful.

The email subscription opt-in isn’t clear – subscribe by email to what? To a newsletter? To a feed? Change the text and clarify that a little more. The RSS button is nonexistent – or at least, looks that way. Those little rectangle buttons aren’t the best to indicate RSS options. Why not take one of those clay plate images and turn it into a unique RSS design? Put that right at the top of the sidebar. Speaking of sidebars…

“Now if this were my shop,” James stood in the middle of the room, examining furniture, “This,” he indicated a big table, “would be here.” He mimicked moving it to the complete opposite side of the room.

That’s the first change we’d make – switch your sidebar to the right-hand side. The reason is that Google crawls pages top to bottom, left to right. Putting your content on the left helps your search-engine capacity. Humans read left to right too (in most cases), and the brain places more importance on the left-hand content than the right.

Put the Categories in your main navigation too. Help people find what they want and need from your site. You could also organize those categories into groups, too, and split them up as such. The list is overlong and overwhelming.

Take out Similar Posts from the sidebar. Have that as a plugin for your posts so that similar post links appear after the person has read the post in question. That’s where it’ll be the most useful to the reader. In the sidebar, it’s not very good.

That would free up some sidebar real estate for other things. Your banner ads and affiliate programs would move up where people can see them right away. If you want visitors to click, don’t hide these things way down below the fold.

The All Things Metal Clay section is confusing. Is this a Recent Posts list? A Most Popular Posts list? A Top Ten posts lists? Change that title and let people know what this is all about.

Oh, and there’s your RSS button… not good. Too small, inappropriately place… nope.

The search is too low as well, though by freeing up all that clutter above, it’ll move up nicely. Remove the Meta widget – that doesn’t add value to the user and you probably don’t use it yourself.

“Are you done?” Harry quirked an eyebrow at James from where he leaned against the wall, arms crossed and waiting. “You forgot to mention that the social media icons looked pale and washed out compared to the bolded headline encouraging a click.”

“I was just getting to that,” James sniffed indignantly. “Anything else you’d like to add, Mr. Know-It-All?”

“Yeah, SmartyPants,” Harry pointed to a beautiful frame on the wall. About Us, the artist had titled the image, and the woman’s face looked serene and pleasant. “If the text were wrapped around that instead of being below with that big chunk of empty space,” he showed James the area to the right, “It would be more appealing. N’est pas? Same thing here,” he showed James the Contact leaflet.

“Oh, cool, look. It’s a treasure hunt!” Jamie’s face lit up as he saw the clue. “Don’t look here, go somewhere else… Oh, no, hang on,” he opened the folded page and saw the form to fill out. “Rats. I like treasure hunts.”

But site visitors don’t. That’s one huge issue we noted, too; while you have a Contact page, it appears as if you’re telling visitors to go look for your contact form somewhere else on your site. There are a bunch of social media icons cluttering up the page, a comment from a stranger that shouldn’t be there, and then there’s the contact form.

If we had been wanting to drop you a quick question or comment, you never would have received it – we would stop looking the moment the text says, “Go over there.” Amend that. Fix up the text, remove the clutter and bring that form right up above the fold where it’s easily seen.

“What are you doing?” Harry frowned at James, who was hefting a clay pot in a hand and weighing it.

“Wondering how far I can throw this.” James started tossing the pot back and forth while eyeing the picture on the wall. “You think she’s watching me?” He moved to the left and then to the right to see if it was one of those illusions where the painting’s eyes followed along.

“Maybe. Webcam,” Harry shrugged.

“You think?” Now James was wide-eyed. What if they were seen damaging the shop? What if the camera took pictures? What if the photos were leaked to the newspapers – or worse, the police?

He set the pottery down carefully on the bench. “Well, we were just looking,” he told Harry, a little loudly. After all, he did want the hidden microphone to pick up his voice. “Didn’t mean to touch anything…”

The bump he gave the bench with his knee, the one that wobbled the pot, the one that made the pot tip and fall… Well, it was an accident. Really, it was.

Want more? You got it. Check out the lineup of upcoming hit jobs:

October 19 – Ulla Hennig’s Weblog
October 26 – Simplistic Thoughts
November 2 – Positioning Strategy
November 9 – Sushi Day
November 16 – The D Spot Redux
November 23 – The Antisocial Social Worker
November 30 – Writer Dad
December 7 – Deaf Mom World
December 14 – Linkers Blog

Note: We’ve closed requests for free drive-bys on our blog for now and will start taking names again in December for January’s hits. Thanks everyone!

Want your blog shot down? Hit us up for a private drive-by via email. It’s only $30, and you’ll get your shoot-out within a week.

Come on. You know you wanna.

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Drive-By-Shooting Sundays: Creative Texture Tools first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

There are those that believe that online success can be achieved with a less-than-appealing site. They are right – you don’t need a flashy website to reach moderate goals. Neglecting the huge impact on success that good looks and great content achieve together is folly.

First impressions count – far more than many people believe. Humans are hard-wired for attraction to appealing visual cues. We prefer people who fit our instinctive ideas of what matters, and that often includes what these people look like. Men and women psychologically choose partners or find their heads turned by attractive people.

It goes back to the caveman days. We prefer what we perceive might increase the chances of survival and a better life. We’re not cavemen any more – or at least, most people aren’t. But we still judge a book by its cover and an item by its appeal.

Our perceived quality of a product or service is directly affected by its looks. We don’t make choices on pretty items alone, of course, but we’re influenced to buy by what we see. Items that appear nicer than the next or people that seem to look professional win our votes more often than not.

Online, with few tangibles to hold in our hand so that we can examine them closely, appearances matter more than ever. Businesses offering equal products or services must find ways to compete and attract clients in any way possible.

Even lower quality products or services have the potential to outsell better ones if a website’s appeal influences perception properly. The right color scheme holds attention a fraction longer. Attractive images or graphics affect perception in the seller’s favor. Add good content, and that website is a winner.

In the push to increase the quality and value of information offered on the Internet, many forget that factors like visual appeal and quality design play a large role in better success online.

Still not a believer? Take the test. Turn off your logical thoughts for a moment. Use StumbleUpon for a half hour to flick through the virtual channels of websites.

How many sites compelled you to linger? Which attracted your interest the moment you set your eyes on them? How many websites delivered on both strong visual appeal and valuable content? Which websites tempt you the most?

Content is King, yes… but every Emperor needs clothes.

This post was written to help James win a Fender guitar from Rafie in the Just Creative Design contest. Head on over to the contest rules and toss your name into the hat to win!

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Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Are You Neglecting Good Looks in Favor of Great Content? first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.

I thought back to how little information we have of days long past, like the Egyptian times. Scribes wrote on tablets or papyrus and preciously preserved the results. Not many people could be scribes and not much information survived history’s wear and tear. In short, there are complete eras that we know little about. Researchers would love a treasure trove of information.

Then I thought of who would discover all our paper trail and history. Alright, you may laugh at this point, but think about it: Did Cleopatra ever expect her time to be a mystery? Did ancient warriors ever think their songs of great deeds would never be spoken again?

Humans are self-centered and egotistical. We never think that we may disappear or that what we know becomes lost in time. We think we’re invincible, that our concepts and designs are forever, that no one will ever wonder, “What in all hells did they use this thingamajig for?”

What I thought interesting about the whole situation is that someday, somewhere, some poor sucker is going to have the duty of sifting through all this information to find the most accurate truth.

That’s the catch: Each new article based on an old one alters wording slightly, potentially changing the true meaning or the concept to something that isn’t correct. It doesn’t take much for a message to warp and skew. Do a quick search on any subject you like, read ten of the articles you find and see if there isn’t at least one point in an article that contradicts another. There is just too much information for anyone to trust.

Think of that great kids’ game Telephone. A whole group of people gets together and whispers a message to each other, passing it one by one on to the next person. The last person to receive the message calls it out – it’s never the same as the original message that started the game.

My point? When writing an article, a blog post, or an ebook (or anything at all, for that matter), be sure to be as accurate as possible. Do your research and homework. Don’t assume that the one reference you’re quoting is the correct one. There is far too much text out there to believe it’s all the same. Compare and attempt to decipher the most correct statements possible.

That poor sucker one thousand years from now who gets stuck reading all the material we’ve created in our virtual world will thank you.

Leave a Comment!

Post by James Chartrand

James Chartrand is an entrepreneur, a pro copywriter and the founder and CEO of Men with Pens and Damn Fine Words, the game-changing writing course for business owners. She loves the color blue, her kids, and ice skating.

Another rockin' post from Men with Pens!
Too Much Information first appeared on Men with Pens
Copyright 2006 - 2011, All Rights Reserved.