July, 2006 - From WebsiteRevamp

Yes, it's been a long time since the last issue of this newsletter - the best excuse is that I've been involved with, learning about and deploying a totally new web site technology, six sites, so far - exciting stuff!
More about that later.

Building Your Personal Brand

How many consultant "brands" do you know about?

Yes, there are the big "brand X" consulting firms. Now, think about individual consultants as brands, brands known to the consulting world, not necessarily the world at large. I came up with two: Tom Peters and Alan Weiss.

Can you add a few more? The best additions to this list will get a link from one of our websites to theirs along with 1/2 hr. of consulting on via phone. (US only.)

Within our individual specialties and within our realm of client influence, we should be known as the "go-to person," the expert in our field.

If you are satisfied with being an expert within a limited geographical area, then becoming the local benchmark can be accomplished with social networking, an occasional speech, lots of hard work and an ad in the Yellow Pages.

Beyond Your Backyard

To leap beyond the limits of your own back-yard, you'll need to do at least two or three of the following:

1. Write articles for national trade magazines both within and outside of your speciality
2. Become a Presenter at national events
3. Run workshops, locally and nationally
4. Manage your own booth at national meetings attended by potential clients
5. Write a book or two or three
6. Have a pervasive Internet Presence

Individual disposition will determine which of the first five you are most comfortable with. Item six is not optional. Do these sorts of things really work? You might just ask Pat Lucansky of the VIPgroup, or better yet visit http://www.vipgroup.us where you'll find reprints of magazine articles written by Pat and his associates, VIP Group work shops and presentations and more.

A Pervasive Internet Presence

What does that mean? It means a lot more than just having a good-looking web site that's updated once a year.

Question: What do you find when you search on your own name in Google, and Yahoo and MSN search engines. If your name is quite common, you'll have to supplement the name - example: "John Jones Electrical Consultant Chicago" or something similar. If you find that your name shows up only a couple of times, you might have a problem.

We Re-think and
Re-design Our Website(s)

The new design of websiterevamp.org is built on database driven "portal" technology.  Fortunately, it doesn't have the major drawbacks formerly plaguing this kind of website.  We decided to change for one major reason and a number of lesser reasons. Read more about the total transformation:
/the_news/press_releases/websiterevamp_redesigns_own_website%28s%29.shtml

Side Benefit

As a result of our website redesign we now are on the first page of Google results for two of our best keyword phrases: chicago website redesign and chicago website design. Better search engine ranking was not a goal of the redesign, U.C.O., User Centered Optimization was. Frankly, I never thought we'd ever do any better than 3rd or 4th page.

S.E.O. is Dead, Long Live U.C.O. . .

. . . at least as we have thought about it in the past. More about that in another issue.

Have a good July, what's left of it. We will get another issue out in August. . .of this year.

Bill Stocking

See earlier newsletters:

http://www.websiterevamp.org/the_news/internet_e-mail_newsletters.shtml

2006©William R. Stocking
All Rights Reserved
If you wish to reprint this article or pass it on to someone else we ask you to use the whole article, unaltered.

William R. Stocking CMC* is a Founder and Director of http://www.websiterevamp.Org. He isn't a new-comer to the Internet; Bill has been involved in the design, re-design and deployment of websites since 1996. How many? He's lost count. Bill is also the author of over 80 magazine and newspaper articles on small business technology.

*CMC (Certified Management Consultant) is the certification mark awarded by the Institute of Management Consultants USA and represents evidence of the highest standards of consulting and adherence to the ethical canons of the profession. Fewer than 1% of all consultants have achieved this level of performance.