For starters, I recommend that you ask your web developer for his or her opinion about any request for improvements or changes. Your web developer has experience and expertise that will benefit you and possibly save you money.

Tom Stier

I’m always surprised how sometimes folks just place an order, as though they are visiting a restaurant and know what they want, rather than thinking of this more as a visit to a doctor’s office or a mechanic, where you are asking for recommendations, opinions, and advice.

Web developers tend to be immersed in the web. We see what is effective in a constantly changing online landscape, and yet we are sometimes treated as someone with an opinion that is as just as valid as a clients’ friends or family.

Another way to save money, is to concentrate less on the appearance of your site, and instead focus on function and purpose. I am often being asked to change a color or nudge an image a pixel here or there. These changes cost money and usually do not increase traffic or sales.

Regularly check your analytics. You can check your own analytics to see what is working best for you. Analytics are essential for measuring progress on any site. Google Analytics is free to use and easy to install on a WordPress site. Try a new logo and see if it attracts more business. Post something different and track the responses yourself. Your web developer can do this for you, and make recommendations, or you can learn to do this yourself.

Another way to reduce dependence on your web developer is to know your website software as well as you can. This requires some diligence, research, and practice. That’s what you’re paying us for – but you can learn it yourself. The two main open source website software’s that we work with have massive documentation available.

By understanding your website software, you can save money by posting articles and topics yourself, and also sharing links on your social media channels, once you’ve figured out which ones work for you by tracking your analytics.

The post How Can I Save Money on My Web Site Work? appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.

At my high school, Cambridge High & Latin School in Cambridge Mass., the study hall was a re-purposed former auditorium, with a series of office cubicles at one end. This room had a high ceiling which magnified all the sounds from the ‘studying’ students and the people in the cubicles. So, it was impossible to study. This more or less defined education for me.

Every day, getting up early,  to trudge off to school was a terrible inconvenience to me. I had a lot of things going on back at home, in my room. There were tape recorders to disassemble, comic books to write & draw, songs to record, and books to read. And of course, waiting for the Internet to happen.

I admit it. I did not understand the education system I found myself in. I appreciate that I was taught how to read. But, after that, I think that the system lost focus when it came to what exactly they were preparing us for.

The powers that be were already moving all manufacturing overseas and offshore. Wars were to be managed with pinpoint precision gadgets of mass destruction and a professional armed force.

I believe that, with the Internet, self-motivated individuals are in a better position to self-educate, and learn far more than I ever learned in school. We can learn not only information, but global responses to that information, so that there’s a balanced presentation.

We’re not being presented with only media or political propoganda, but the underlying motives behind an event or item. There is an exciting new world of possibilities out there.

The post Waiting for the Internet to happen Pt. 1 appeared first on Tom Stier-Promote Globally.