Insert American Express’ Open Network and their web interviews with Sir Richard Branson.  I’ve watched most of them but a few favorites are his take on the current economy, his perspectives on what it takes to be successful in business and his overall attitude towards success vs. failure.  For the record, I thought a lot of Rebel Billionaire was over the top but anytime American Express wants to share business insights from greats like Richard Branson and others via their website, I’m all for it.

Why share this on a site about Web Marketing Stuff?  Because the same attitude towards success and willingness to face failure in eyes to get there will ultimately help website owner do the little things and spend the extra hours to make their website a better than the competition, more meaningful than the competition, more relevant than the competition and more successful than the competition.  That’s how you become the competition and stop watching the competition.

Steve Krug’s Don’t Make Me Think – A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
and
Seth Godin’s Big Red Fez

Both books focus on what customers already know but we as website owners usually forget…Keep It Simple!  There is value in collecting a customers data and having them register an account and sign up for your newsletter but forcing it, especially as a small business owner, is never a good idea.  Customers that have good experiences are always willing to sign up for an account or newsletter.  Forcing only has the potential to drop conversions.

Another great point in both books and along the lines of Keeping It Simple! is the need many new business owners have to load their site with anything and everything.  Just because you can put it on your homepage doesn’t mean you should.  Just because you can add a few steps to your checkout process doesn’t mean you should.  Just because you think it’s cool doesn’t mean it is.  The fact is that simple still works!  Focus on relevance and ask your mom to perform the action you hope every visitor will.  Then take notes and fix it.  Relevance is important for search engines, relevance is important for industry recognition and relevance is important for customers.

The same common sense approach is important for pay-per-click marketing and search engine optimization.  Paying attention to best practices offered by Google Webmaster Central can only help your site rank higher in search engines.  Bidding on keywords that are obviously relevant to your business, product and industry will of course help your quality score.  If I search for “Patio Furniture” and you sell backyard everything please don’t send me to your homepage when I’ve just searched for Patio Furniture.  Send me to your Patio Furniture section.  It’s simple common sense for a sales person to sell me Patio Furniture when I walk into a store and tell him I want Patio Furniture so following the same proven pattern with your web site marketing is a common sense strategy that is sure to help.

If you haven’t read both books, I’d like to take this time to say “Please go read them….both!”