Ok, this isn’t so much a post about Dracula smoking cigars with Godzilla as it is to prove a point. In other words, this post is a test. A test that has to do with business and marketing. More to come in a few days.

And now, I’m off for the long weekend (I may even smoke a cigar… although not likely with Godzilla and Dracula. That would be kinda cool, though…)

Enjoy your President’s Day Weekend, everyone. I’ll return to this test next week.

Here are a few predictions for the New Year:

We will see the slowdown of social media, as everyone realizes it’s:

A) not all that useful for business; and

B) a pain in the ass at times.

Really, I know people who got caught because they called in sick, then someone else posted to facebook about the big party that the sick person attended that very same day. And the human resources manager (who the sick person stupidly friended) sees “YEA, THAT WAS AN AWESOME PARTY. AREN’T YOU GLAD YOU LISTENED TO ME AND CALLED IN SICK??” 

Yea, that’s good… and as far as business, sure, it has its uses - basically, it’s a quasi-website/blog with a built-in RSS feed. But it’s not this be-all, end-all “join or die” thing it was touted as not too long ago. And Twitter… I still think we’re trying to figure that one out.

The economy will recover… kinda

The most common definition of recession is two consecutive quarters of a falling GDP. But if the GDP bottoms out, well, it’s not a recession anymore. In fact, if it bottoms out, a recession is technically over. That’s good… right?

Seriously, I don’t think there will ever be a recovery like we’d like to see. I’ll post more thoughts on this in the coming weeks as to why I feel this way. But let’s just say this “everybody lives the good life” society we’ve built is unsustainable. Sorry to be a bit gloomy, but it’s true.

However…

Opportunity will abound for those who can deliver the goods

I have always felt that those who can truly produce quality work will succeed (and I don’t mean showing up at a job and going through the motions - I mean people who are exceptional at what they do). And I feel that will really start to come into its own starting this year, because there’s soooo much mediocrity out there. And it’s getting exposed, because…

It’s not going to get any quieter

To me, the aughts (or 00’s or whatever we’re calling it) will be partially defined by “noise”. Goodness, the noise… cell phones, texts, texts while driving, texts while sitting in front of me at the movies, text your vote to #5542, banner ads, Nigerian millions and Viagra for the taking, call to vote for your favorite American Idol, click here to follow me, get your new ringtones here, send a JibJab card, mood=moody (duh), sign my online petition, become an affiliate, click here to comment…

You can’t hide anymore. Personally, or professionally. If you do something good, everyone knows. If you do something bad, everyone knows. And if you call in sick and go to a party instead, everyone knows (oops.) That’s a good thing for some of us, not so good for others.

For me, it’ll be good, because I predict that…

In terms of business, real messages with Substance will increasingly be listened to

Bite-sized nuggets of marketing aren’t going away. But they will reach a point where they begin to drown each other out (I think we’re getting close to that now.) This will allow for longer, calmer, more honest types of marketing to increase their effectiveness. Because they’ll be seen as more “real”.

Anyway, there are a few predictions to get you through the start of your week.

For anyone hoping that I was going to spill details of a date gone bad, well…. let’s say I never had a date go bad.

Regardless, this little essay does indeed involve dates - calendar dates and similar. It’s mostly directed at websites, but the lesson learned can be applied to almost any business.

In very simple terms, if you are going to “date” anything, you’d better make sure you are dedicated enough to stay on top of it. There is no more certain way to say “I don’t give a @#$%” than having Mother’s Day stuff still up on Father’s Day.

Or still having your “Winter Blowout” on April 9th.

Or having a dated news item on your home page that is six months old.

Or posting the date you updated your blog, and the last update was four months ago.

Seriously - what would you think if you came to my blog, and the last entry was written four months ago? Would you wonder what happened? It may seem trivial, but it’s a big negative.

Because it essentially says you let the little details slip.

The same goes for brick and mortar businesses. How many times have you seen one that keeps sale prices up after a sale is over? Or has the big sign outside advertising last week’s bargain?

In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that “most” things with dates end up just like what I describe above. They get neglected, then forgotten. Most people and companies are great starters. But there are very few finishers.

Be a finisher. Take the Mother’s Day stuff down the day after Mother’s Day. Post to your blog regularly. Your quarterly newsletter should come out four times a year, not three. And your “recent news” needs to be…. well…. recent.

Neglecting updates is a killer. It really is. No matter how nice a website is, if people see “old” things on the front page, or they see a blog that was last updated last season, it puts a tiny sliver of negativity in their heads. And that’s something no website (or business) wants. This is partially why I don’t recommend that companies put “company news” right on the homepage, because after a short burst of updates, that’s the first thing to get neglected. I’d rather not know any of your news than know that your last noteworthy thing happened at 2008’s Spud Show.

It’s on my whiteboard next to me right now: “12/21 - 1/4 - VACATION (don’t be too lazy, though - change the websites dates.)”

Yes, it really says that (except that I don’t write in italics). If you have dates on your website, put changing them on your planner right now.

I remember, way back when I started my writing business, making the first “Clear-Writing” website. It was basically a left hand table for navigation, and right hand space to put the “stuff”. I coded it myself in notepad. It was nothing fancy, but it looked nice, and did the job.

For several years, my little homemade site worked well, but as I grew, I felt it really didn’t represent my professionalism, etc. I’m an “ok” web designer, but my skills are much more suited to 1998 than 2000-something.   And in looking at competitor’s websites, it was clear many others were “nicer” than mine. So I hired out – my friend Kelly Rao of Web-Eze did it for me (I basically had her code one page, and I took it from there.) It came out great – it looks wonderful, it’s easy to take care of, etc. In fact, it’s the site I’m still using today.

And that got me thinking – that website is more than 5 years old. Which is an absolute lifetime in internet years (internet years are like dog years on steroids.) So last month, I started thinking – “gee, is it time for another update?”  To answer this question, I looked around to see how I looked compared to others… and I was pretty surprised at what I found:

It is abundantly clear to me that web design is getting worse. Many of today’s “modern” websites, by and large, look like crap. The proliferation of the WYSIWYG / CMS-era of web design has churned out millions of cookie-cutter sites that just look bad.  They look blocky, the text looks awful, they can’t space anything well (you should leave a space in between bullet points, etc) – it’s just awful.

My five-year-old professional copywriting website looks infinitely better than any CMS site out there. Even this site you’re reading, which started life last year as a wordpress template (but uses traditional HTML coding in the meat of the pages), looks tons better than most sites out there.

I don’t want to sound old-fashioned, but the move away from traditional HTML coding has really changed the web design business. It’s likely opened the door to a lot of people who really aren’t skilled web designers, and I’m guessing CMS sites are a lot cheaper and easier for the end user as well, but I have to say, I’m not impressed with the look. It’s akin to a stately old house versus cookie-cutter tract housing.

Personally, I’m not using CMS style websites anytime soon. This blog is as close as I’ll get. All else being equal, I really feel a CMS designed site will hurt you business-wise.

Any web designers want to chime in?

Know what I do (or don’t do, to be more accurate)?

I don’t do business with websites that don’t provide a phone number. Not because I want to call (I don’t), but because it makes me feel like they are hiding something. I’ll make an exception for huge, well-advertised sites like Amazon.com (who has proven to be very adept at customer service), but otherwise, if you don’t provide your phone number, I’ll pass.

Why many companies feel they are too good to get away with not posting their phone number is beyond me.

So here’s a tip - not having your phone number on your website is almost certainly costing you money. Trust me - as disturbing as the thought may be, there are a lot of people like me out there.