SpicyWebDesigners.com by Luc Arnold

When my wife and I recently purchased a TV stand for our new house we did what most couples first do.  We took a trip to the local department store (Sears, in our case) and walked around, tested out and looked at furniture.  After we got our TV credenza home and I had spent the better part of an evening putting it together I realized that some of the parts were missing from the box.  Talk about frustrating!

Naturally, it bothered me because I wanted to finish putting it together that evening.  I later went back to Sears, who told me that contacting the manufacturer would save me time and would take 3 days if I contacted the manufacturer, Sauder, directly compared to 3 weeks if I went through Sears.  I was being given me the “run-around” because Sears wasn’t willing to support a product that they sold to me.  That was the bad part of the customer service experience that I received now let me get to the exceptional customer service experience that I received in the most unlikely of places… online!

I typed in “Sauder.com” and hit enter. After navigating to the “Repair Part Ordering” page I entered the model number of the piece of furniture and my postal code and clicked “Next”.

They then asked for the parts that I needed to replace, the quantity and the reason for replacing them which lastly took me to a page to fill out my order information including address, name and the rest of my details.

Now by this point in the process I was thinking that it would take a while before what I’ve done online would translate over to their “bricks and mortar” business that Sauder has in place.  I was wrong.  Maybe that’s just me being skeptical but I always assume the worst with online business processes like this simply because they don’t always work and when they do most times it’s not that optimal.  So was I surprised when I received an email that they received an email saying that it was being shipped out and literally two days later a package showed up at my front door from Sauder.com including the missing parts that I needed to complete my TV credenza.

I want to add that I never talked to a physical, real live person at Sauder but it didn’t matter because they gave me the best customer experience I’ve received in the next little while.

This should be a lesson to all business owners and entrepreneurs out their wondering what makes a good business, great.  Let me break down what made my customer experience a success using Sauder.com and why I would buy from this company again…

• They delivered what they promised – Online businesses and online business channels of companies take note.  Customers that come to your website expect to be served, they expect to find the information that they are looking for and they also expect to find a way to contact you should they need it so as a business you need to make this a simple process.  All too often, companies get caught up with the latest and hottest looking website only to realize that their customers hate it and don’t use it.  Talk about a waste of money, resources and of course lost profits!
• They support what they make – Sauder.com didn’t make me jump through unnecessary hoops or buy an extended warranty to anything like that.  This is how it should be when you go online and you are dealing with a company.  It added to my experience as a customer and not my frustrations.  If your company makes or sells something you need to support it.  I wouldn’t go back to Sears because even though they sold me a TV credenza, when I had problems with it they pointed me to the manufacturer and turned their back on me.  In other word, they didn’t support my problems when I had them and didn’t provide any service past selling me the product.  In the future I will deal directly with Sauder because they know how to treat me as a customer; they value me and my business.  They even sent a letter with the replacement parts apologizing for any inconveniences and that I thought was a great touch.
• They had the business systems in place to support my request – Again, another fundamental that companies don’t always get right.  In order for my request to get from the website where I placed it to the person who picked the order and shipped it took a great deal of business systems working together in unison, people trained to understand their role and the systems and the parts needed for the shipment.  Sure, it needed more than this but I am just making the point that they (Sauder.com) have optimized their online business process to work more efficiently and effectively with their physical business.  It’s not an easy task but they made it look flawless.

I know that I normally don’t take an approach to talking about business but I think that it is worth talking about how the web and various web technologies can help standard brick and mortar businesses become more efficient and help businesses deliver more effectively on their goals and it turn keep their customers whether direct or indirect happy and coming back for more!

My experience dealing with Sauder was great, especially in terms of the customer experience that I had online (I didn’t talk to a physical person at Sauder) and my experience dealing with Sears left me feeling that they didn’t care about me past the sale of the product (This was a “face to face” customer service experience where I was pretty much “shown the door” even though I wasn’t threatening; just the average consumer looking for some help with a product I bought).

I had both extremes of customer service but I am sure that I am not the only person that this has ever happened to and unfortunately I am sure I also won’t be the last.  Feel like sharing your experience as a customer that involved the use of a company’s online tools?  Tell us what you liked or didn’t like about the experience, I am sure we could all learn something about business and successful or unsuccessful online business systems and website.  How did it leave you feeling at it was all said and done? And, what would you do different next time or improve?

Luc Arnold

“Have you had any good or bad customer experiences online?  Tell me more…”

You may have noticed a lot of changes to the SpicyWebDesigners.com site recently.  It’s no surprise to anyone that technology advances rapidly and I felt that it was worth taking the time to simplify the website for the readers and subscribers with the newer WordPress CMS platform architecture.  I backed up the mySQL database that is becoming larger and larger with each passing month as I add new content to the website and performed an update from WordPress 2.6.X to WordPress 2.8.6 because I hadn’t updated it in a while.  There are a few reasons I decided to upgrade the website including…

1. The WordPress architecture was preventing me from using newer plug-in, themes and features
2. With almost 300 articles to date I needed to backup my database and get it to the most stable release of WordPress up and running
3. The WordPress theme I was using before was looking tired, it had started to break in the newer versions of web browsers and was taking more time to update and fix to the point where it wasn’t feasible to use it anymore.

I hope that you enjoy the changes to the website and I welcome any feedback as well.  This brings me to the topic of this article.  Recently someone asked me “I was just wondering, that amazing page corner button on your top right corner that opens to a Squeeze Theme, what is it and how can I get it?”

I’ve been focused on monetizing my site lately since about March of 2009 using affiliate marketing techniques.  I decided this was the best way to continue to run the site as it currently is because it costs money to host, renew the domain name, my time to produce articles and content and the occasional email marketing expense as well.

Affiliate marketing affords me the ability to generate some income without the headaches of selling, physically storing and then shipping products out to customers.  The “page peel” also known as a “peel” you see in the upper right hand corner of this site is one of the options or tools that I have when promoting the Squeeze Theme from Unique Blog Designs which I recently wrote a review about.  It’s a smart idea to intrigue readers on your website and get them to click on something other than a banner advertisement.

The “Pre-Peel”

With “Ad Blindness” on the rise in the world of internet marketing it takes something kind of different and unique to pique the interests of your audience.  The “Page Peel” is one of these tools than can help you raise a little interest over a product you are promoting.  Most page peels are comprised of a Javascript that performs the actual “peel” action, the images associated to the pre-peel and post-peel and lastly but most importantly the affiliate tracking link that is needed to make sure that when your page peel makes a sale you are credited for it.

The “Post Peel”

If you are involved in affiliate marketing or you use this method of marketing to market your product on the internet then developing a page peel for your latest promotion can help you increase conversions and sales of your company’s products.  Affiliate marketers out there just remember that not all affiliate marketing programs have this tool currently at their disposal and having said that you could always take the product you are promoting and create a page peel for it.  You just need to know a little coding to get it operational.  Whatever way you “peel” it, page peels can add a new take on traditional website monetization methods and can in turn drive more profits to your website.

As a web designer or anyone looking to do web design it’s all about getting your name out there like in any business. As web design has grown it’s only natural that it becomes a something of a “conversation piece” to be judged and rated.

Sites like THECSSAwards.com are nothing really new but that doesn’t change the fact that people are looking for recognition for their work from reputable, industry known websites. THECSSAwards.com was started in the summer of 2009 they officially started in October of 2009. Oscar Perez, the CEO of TheCSSAwards.com, started the website, which gets and gives some great traffic to its “site of the day” and “site of the month” winners in the range of 2,500 to over 5,000 a day for winning sites and continues to grow rapidly according to Giuseppe. This gives a winning web design and the web designer who created it some well deserved website traffic and recognition.

On top of the traffic, the winners at THECSSAwards.com have also been winning iPod Nanos but lately they’ve focused on giving out mentions and awards. Clearly the biggest benefit is the traffic that winning provides.

Unlike most web design award and inspiration websites, THECSSAWARDS.com website is paneled by a jury of web design professionals including Brian Hoff of thedesigncubicle.com, Jacob Cass of JustCreativeDesign.com (who I’ve had a chance to interview in the past) and Paul Mosing from CreativeSpaces.net.au. This definitely gives THECSSAWARDS.com website creditability because when you submit a site that is recognized as the “Site of the Day” or “Site of the Month” it is coming from the best of the best in web design today. To have a look at the full Jury that the THECSSAWARDS.com uses click here.

So what does it take to get recognized by THECSSAWARDS.com? Simple, they’ve designed a system of valuation which I think is quite ingenious and incorporates valuing Design (50%), Creative (25%), Content (15%) and Usability (10%). Now why does usability score lower? I am not fully sure because too me usability is more important in good design then the content is but needless to say you know where you stand when THECSSAWARDS.com rates your site. To check out their system of valuing web designs click here for the whole scoop.

With all this said I had a chance to ask them a few questions about THECSSAWARDS.com, why they started the website in the first place and how they promote the website and what kind of money they make from THECSSAWARDS.com.

Luc @ SWD: I see that you offer cash and technological prizes. What is the biggest prize you’ve ever given to a winning website?

Giuseppe says: In the beginning we were giving as a prize and iPod Nano, but recently we took out this prize because we prefer give mentions and awards, which is already enough. And use our resources in promotions.

Luc @ SWD: For a site that wins, what kind of traffic is generated from the promotion of their site on THECSSAWARDS.com?

Giuseppe says: Actually the site of the day receive more less 2,500 visits and the site of the month more than 5,000 but every day the traffic increase a lot.

Luc @ SWD: Do you feel that a site like THECSSAWARDS.com accurately give exposure to the most talented designers or is there some bias when reviewing a submission by of the designer’s name and track record?

Giuseppe says: Our goal is that thecssawards.com will be a good tool for promoting websites and get to know the newest web trends.

Luc @ SWD: How much money does THECSSAWARDS.com make monthly and how have you monetized the website to keep it operating strongly?

Giuseppe says: We made and inversion about 30.000 Euros and actually we are creating various web campaigns through banner. The websites are: Abduzeedo, Web Designer Depot, Creattica, SixRevisions, Toxel, and CSSmania.

The website (THECSSAWARDS.com) will be monetized by submissions and banners.

If you get a chance to submit your website to THECSSAWARDS.com and you win you should definitely see a nice spike in your website’s traffic and it might even help the word of mouth about your business. Who knows? You may have what it takes to win the “Site of the Month”.

Luc Arnold

I cannot believe that with the help of 186 of the world’s finest web designers to date we’ve managed to develop a site that appeals to web designers of all different skill sets from around the world. A year ago it was hard to believe that the site would turn into what it has so far. My goal for the site is the same as when it first started. Today we average 2000 to over 3000 visitors a month and growing. Thanks for stopping by over the past year and stay tuned as we continue to interview more professional web designers, review products and understand the business of web design as it relates to web designers and people looking to hire web design professionals.  More to come in the next year!

Luc Arnold

There are plenty of resources out there to help you find and bid on web design projects and YourWebJob.com is a very useful resource to help web professionals find jobs. The site is focused on promoting both freelance and full-time positions to web design professionals. Everybody from freelance web designers to web analytics managers can find jobs and available work on this growing site. For employers looking to post a job the rates that YourWebJob.com gives are very reasonable when you consider how targeted the traffic is and the fact that freelance positions can be posted for $49 and full-time web positions can be posted for $99. The job posting stays active for 30 days.

I had a chance to ask Tony Chester who is the Principal and Director of Operations of OnWired, the company own runs YourWebJob.com, a few questions about the site recently and here is what he had to say about YourWebJob.com.

1. What was your idea when you first built YourWebJob.com?

We (at OnWired) were trying to hire a Project Manager. I went to all the popular web-related job boards, but they seemed to cater only to designers and developers. There wasn’t really anywhere for the firms that need to hire SEO talent or Social Marketing folks. So it hit me: let’s build a job site that caters to as many web-related positions that we can think of, all while keeping the navigation simplified.

2. How long has YourWebJob.com been in operation and what kind of traffic do you see on a monthly basis?

The site was launched in mid March of 2009 and has received some really nice reviews. As the hiring market is a little slow, I didn’t expect much out of the site too soon. With that said, we are averaging around 5,500 visits a month. We figured we would take advantage of some free targeted traffic by getting listed in some design galleries to start.

3. What can employers looking for web professionals expect from the site?

Employers can expect to have their job listing seen by lots of talented, web savvy professionals who are passionate about their work.

4. What can freelance web professionals interested in positions expect from this site?

Web professionals can expect to find the latest and greatest jobs from a wide variety of web-related fields including project management, copywriting, SEO, usability, social media, and yes, even design and development.

For those of you interested in promoting your freelance business or interested in finding a new fulltime career in the web field this is an excellent resource to find web professional jobs in your skill set.