It’s an excellent question, and one that I get asked all the time.

Of course, the answer is, “it depends.” (How did you know I was going to say that?) But, what does it depend on?

Rather than pontificate on the pros and cons of logo design, I’ll let John McWade, the genius behind Before & After, explain whether or not you need a logo, since his post sums it up brilliantly. A snippet, though:

[Stylized text] — a consistently applied way of writing your name — conveys an understated sense of organization and professionalism, a good thing no matter what the enterprise, and always appropriate.

Be sure to read the article for the full story; it’ll take about a minute and a half, and is well worth the click.

Spam – the bane of the internet… the burnt crust on the joyous toast that is our electronic lives… the rusty nail sticking up from an otherwise smooth wooden floor… the – oh, you get the point.

When people ask me about SEO (search engine optimization), this is what often comes to mind:

SEO is one of those fields of knowledge that is ever-changing, ever-evolving. And while I get the technical basics, I’d never claim to be an “SEO expert”, simply because a) it’s not what I do full-time, and b) I just don’t geek out on the stuff. However, there are those that do both a and b, and I’d much rather defer to their expertise and genius.

However, most SEO geeks (and I say that with the utmost respect) are just that – geeks. And by definition, geeks can have a hard time relating to the rest of the world, since their social skills are less-honed than their mental prowess. Therefore, an SEO geek isn’t exactly the easiest person to work with most of the time, since you (and me) and they hardly speak the same language.

Enter: Our Hero.

Due to a mutual interest in CrossFit, I’ve gotten to know Keith Fleming (of 540 SEO), and he is what I’d refer to as an “SEO wizard of the non-geek variety.” Meaning, the dude knows his stuff, AND he can have a conversation with you without you feeling like a dumb idiot.

I’ve seen the results of Keith’s work firsthand (we have a mutual client, who now rocks the Google rankings), and his stuff is solid. I wanted to share a recent interview/article of Keith’s with you, so you could see where he’s coming from, score some free tips, and if you wanted to, get in touch with him so he can work his magic with your site, too.

Click here to read Keith’s interview on Digital Marketing Institute. And if you contact Keith, tell him I sent you, and he’ll take care of you in true ‘coconut fashion.

Images by Marcos Telias and Minnesota Historical Society.

Through August 25th at 5pm only, we’re running a Special Offer where you save $100 on Membership. We’ve never offered discounted Memberships before, and we may never again, so if you’ve been planning to get a new website, now would be the perfect time, before the special deal goes away.

Why Now? Because the kids are back in school, the house is quiet, and it’s a perfect time to focus on your business. (I realize that you may not have kids, but I do, and that means it’s quiet around here… so to celebrate, let’s get some work done, eh?)

Seriously, this offer turns into a pumpkin on Thursday at 5pm Central time, so get in while the gettin’s good!

Image by BrittneyBush.

I found this excellent, and very short, list from an excellent article on website planning over at Smashing Magazine, and thought it’d be great to share with you, since most people’s writing skills were developed in the world of academia, not the real world, and definitely not the online world.

Consider your audience and write accordingly. Try to see the business from the customer’s perspective. What do they care about?

Avoid business-speak, confusing acronyms and dry details. Your customers do not work at your shop, office or widget factory; they are the ones purchasing your products or services. Speak to them accordingly. When appropriate, write in generalities, and save the hardcore details for multi-page PDFs (as downloads). This approach is especially useful for product information, white papers and copy that approaches or exceeds 1000 words.

Here is a useful approach when writing for the Web:

• Write your first draft,
• Cut it in half,
• Cut it in half again,
• Add bulleted and numbered lists where possible,
• Send it to the editor. (Ed’s note: Or, hit ‘Publish’.)

Reading on a screen is fatiguing. A screen, whether a massive 26-inch monitor or a diminutive smartphone, projects tiny points of light at your eyes. Consequently, reading long stretches of text on it can be very tiring. Users will scan for key points in the text, so short blocks of copy and bulleted or numbered lists are helpful because they’re easy to spot.

Don’t style the content. Most writers prefer to work in Microsoft Word or a similar program. This is fine, but Word is notorious for outputting messy code. Don’t worry about colors, fonts and alignment. Just write well. Style will be applied later at the level of each Web page.

Excellent advice.

Update: Here’s another article (a bit longer this time) that always has some fantastic copywriting instructions.

Image by adwriter

Another popular request: How do I make it easy for people to subscribe to my blog?

RSS, email, and—maybe—a newsletter.

Why do I say “maybe” on the newsletter?

Because for a Crossfit-esque business, a newsletter may not be the best option. You may get a lot more mileage out of keeping your content on your blog, rather than reserving it for your subscribers (which are probably going to be your members, anyhow). If you’re sending good content, why not have it on your site for all the world to see?

Of course, if you have some members-only content, and you want that to stay “private”, then by all means grab a MailChimp account and go to town. Just think twice before hiding your best information, ‘kay?

There’s probably no better way to convince a skeptical prospect than with solid testimonials. It’s called “social proof”, and it sways opinions. Use that power.

From regular to reverse testimonials, to using video, to full-on Success Stories of your members, harnessing the power of testimonials is awesome for convincing your prospects that it’s worth their time to come into your CrossFit gym and be put through their paces. And while you may not think of this at first, it can also be a good way to increase the sense of community at your box – people who workout at one time slot may not see people from other time slots much, if at all, and so seeing their Success Story on the blog (or elsewhere) helps them to know that they’re out there, and all part of the same family.

Do you use testimonials on your site? If so, how?