Top 10 Tech Web Tips

Lesson Learned, Make Sure you have a Contact Form on Your Blog

I learned a very valuable lesson today.  It’s something that I always knew, but somewhere along the way I forgot to execute on it consistently.

Every blog or website that you set up needs to have a contact form, and preferably an e-mail address or even a phone number.

I re-learned this little truism today when I was trying to contact a handful of bloggers about advertising on their websites.  Several of them did not have contact forms for me utilized in order to contact them. 

In a few situations I left a comment on an article deep within their blog adding the postscript that if they would like to delete the comment that could.  I did not want to leave a comment that might be perceived as spam, however they left me no other choice to contact them.

As I realized how difficult it was to do business with a few of the sites, I realized that I was not perfect either and that several of my sites did not include a contact form.  So now I have to follow my own advice and go clean up my sites that don’t have this very useful function.

It doesn’t cost much in the form of real estate to include a button or link or even a short little word at the bottom of every website in the footer to help your potential customers clients or advertisers find you and do business with you.

Don’t Delete User References to Competitors on Your Website

I was reading about the resurgence of direct mail and e-mail marketing today.  I’ve been reading about how Web 2.0 interfaces and techniques are creating a resurgence in various types of marketing.  I then came across an article in revenue Magazine that talks about a company called Zappos.com, an online shoe store essentially that my wife frequents.

Zappos.com learn through experience that when a customer refers to one of your competitors on your website or on your Internet forum it’s important to leave that reference there.  If you delete all references to your competitors, the good the bad and the ugly, your website will not seem terribly realistic and the trustworthiness of the information on your website will decrease significantly.

This is one of those concepts that many people into it but don’t always stayed out right nor do they internalize it and build it into their website strategy.  So the next time you receive a comment on your blog or in your forum from one of your readers are customers about one of your competitors let it ride and don’t be too quick to delete it.  Sometimes this might come in the form of spam from a spammer and that’s probably worthy of being deleted, but if it’s realistically from a real person, consider leaving it in.