It’s a little annoying when people say they are going to do something and then they don’t. This blog has been inactive for three weeks, that is due, in part, to a particular “guest blogger” who never delivered there article. This means that not only did they let me down, I also let you down as I promised I’d have something fresh each week. Well from this week forward I will no longer be waiting on other people, I’ll just maintain it all myself.

People let you down on-line regularly, it’s why no one trusts anyone in the on-line world and why this whole internet bizzo is a little difficult, it’s tough to first gain trust, then build a relationship, maintain credibility then maybe make a buck at the end of the day. But on-line it’s almost expected. In real life when someone lets you down it’s harder to regain the trust and the more often you say your going to do something only to fall short of delivery, the less the people around you trust you or your judgment. Maybe I’ll get the guest post for my birthday. That might be nice.

After my somewhat harsh post last week the question begs to be asked “How do I get people to use my business then?” Not everyone can afford a fantastic Viral Video, Flash Game or regular competitions, so how do you get people to use your services over the multitude of other businesses that have gone on-line in the past year? Well that is a damn good question and one that has no simple answer.

The evolution of the internet has had some very interesting social implications. What many people forget about the internet is that it is, at it’s core, a source of information (and porn, but that’s a whole different ball game.) It is a massive database of millions of computers constantly collecting, recording and storing data at an unprecedented, ever increasing rate. Having said that let’s look at the implications:

Information has become not only free but readily available. Gone are the days of our Parents and Grandparents who passed information down generation to generation by teaching and example. In today’s post-war, baby-boomer, capitalist society, we see parents being necessarily caught up in the dog eat dog corporate world. It’s hard enough finding the hours in the day to put food on the table and eat it, let alone help your son or daughter fix their rusted out first car.

So how do the kids get by? As you know a large percentage of the young population in the modern world have grown up with computers and, in the last eleven years, the internet. The new “Generation-Y” kids, that marketers were once so baffled by, were not raised on Television like their older “Gen-X” siblings. They were raised in a rapidly evolving realm of information. They participated in the forums, looked at all the porn sites, laughed at the dot com boom and giggled at the apparent ineptitude of the older generation.

What eventually grew out of this environment of precocious young up-starts in a world of information is nothing short of phenomenal. If there is something to be done and you don’t have the answers, it can be found on the internet. The internet has become the Zeitgeist, the Hive Mind, the Collective Unconscious, and where dad can’t teach you how to fix the spark plugs in your clapped out bomb, the internet can, hence the birth of the “Google Expert”.

People now have the ability to do anything they wish. If it is a simple task, or even an affordable complex task, a growing percentage of the population can now perform it simply by hunting down the information on-line. This makes it difficult for businesses that are providing base level services. These businesses survive because of convenience rather than lack of knowledge. When dealing with a more educated client you may find yourself over charging as the monetary expense may outweigh the time saved by paying for the job to be done.

So what does all this mean? How does that mildly depressing, relatively confusing, seriously nut-shell bit of writing help you to bring people to your business? The answer is there, it’s hidden between the lines: Give your audience the information for free.

GASP!

Yes you read that line correctly; “But why!?” I hear you cry “If I provide potential clients with all of the information they need they may just go and do the job themselves.” That’s true and my answer is relatively simple: Even if they have the time to do the job themselves chances are they will run into a problem that will require a level of expertise that they do not have. Now my question to you is “Where are they going to go at that point?”

The information that you give them for free is already available. In fact there is probably even more information than you are willing to give somewhere on the web. If your potential client did not get their information from you they will go straight to the service provider that gave it to them first and I doubt that service provider will recommend you (being their competition and all).

So you see, even if you can’t have the greatest flash app or viral video on your site to entice your potential clients or generate word of mouth marketing, you can still use the internet to your benefit by providing key information. At it’s very core this is what the internet provides. Don’t try and change it like so many other businesses have tried, and failed, to do. Utilise it. Give your target market the respect they deserve and you will get their respect, and business, in return. Do not insult their intelligence, encourage their growth, and your business will grow with them.

You see, the thing about blogs, is that you have to update them regularly for them to be of any benefit to you. In fact, websites in general, you really need to update at least once every two weeks for them to be effective in any way shape or form. The thing about the algorithms used by search engines now is that there are so many levels of website activity they take into account, but you can be assured of one thing: sites that are more active are sites considered to be more relevant as they are updated.

The funny thing is… we all know this. We tell our clients this. We tell our friends this. We preach it until the cows come home. But do you think for the life of us we can find the time to do it? Heck No!

The thing is, our site has been optimised and we have been getting enough traffic through word of mouth marketing combined with our SEO techniques (even though Google still hasn’t given us a Page Ranking yet). So we have been busy just trying to keep up with the influx of new business (off-line marketing is still the most important aspect of any campaign). But all of this is about to change.

Our numbers have remained at an average of ten unique visitors a day. This is not bad as far as we are concerned but we know, and have experienced, that there are a lot more hits out there. There are thousands of people just waiting to be introduced to new material, new ideas and new content. So we are about to embark on an experiment and we would like to invite you to come on the journey with us.

From this day forward we will update this blog at least once a week. We will cover topics related to Web Design. We will review sites of the many submissions we have had from designers looking for work (thankyou fellow web junkies for your interest, we will give you work when we require your services). We will keep you up to date with the latest social networking tools. We will pontificate and make ourselves sound self important like every other successful Blogger in the Blogosphere.

BUT…. (dramatic pause)

We will do it with a sense of humour. One thing that people forget about the web is that it is an ever evolving platform. It changes and fluctuates at a rate that is unlike any other medium we have seen before it. The rules (as they stand) will change as soon as you blink, and if you blink, you damn well missed it. So we won’t pretend to be experts. We are learning constantly, just like you, and we will do our best to apply our life long infatuation with all things technological to help you utilise this constantly morphing animal to your benefit.

Best of all though, as we update this blog, as we evolve our site, we will share with you our experiences, we will divulge our analytics, we will tell you what has worked for us and how it can work for you. We are taking it beyond the academic now and making it experimental. If it fails, you will know. Look out Evil Knievel, this is balls to the wall web development as you have never seen it. Welcome to Wise Orange. The new era (and we’ve only been in business for three months….)