Archive for May, 2009

The Limits of DIY

Wednesday, May 27th, 2009

Independent business owners tend to be do-it-yourself types. I know firsthand. I started my business because I wanted to be a writer. Soon after starting, I met someone who suggested I learn graphic design to provide “One stop shopping” for my clients. So I did. 

After that, I saw just how much I needed a website. So I bought a couple books and built myself a site. Now I provide all three of those services to my clients. 

That’s all been great and wonderful, but now I’m coming up to a new challenge. One that I can’t seem to overcome. 

SALES. 

I’ve read the books, I’ve talked to salespeople I know, but I just can’t seem to master this one by myself. I hate to admit it, but I need someone to really show me the ropes. Someone to work with me directly to help me learn the process. It’s a skill I’d pay a good chunk of cash for, because I know it will pay off for me in the long run. 

And that situation is why I created my web design course. Because I know there are businesspeople out there who just feel safer maintaining control of their own websites.

DIY The Right Way

My course teaches you to build and maintain your site without sacrificing the professional look you get from a web designer. No more broken pages, no more pulling your hair out because your site looks great on your office computer but horrible on your home computer. It’s all the information you need to build websites like a pro with a minimal investment of your time and money.

I’m taking sign ups right now for the first session starting in a couple weeks. There are complete details here, and you can sign up here.

And keep in mind – Sessions will only be open to a maximum of 3 students. Once the class is filled, you’ll have to wait for another session to open. If you want a spot, it’s a good idea to get booked now to ensure you don’t miss the boat.

Blog  Side Note

I’ve made a change to the comments section of the blog. You no longer need to be signed in to post a comment. You’ll still need to sign up once, but after that you won’t have to jump through any hoops to leave a comment.

Learn Web Design with Me!

Wednesday, May 20th, 2009

A bit of a different kind of post for this week. I want to announce the start of a new program here at www.bradenrussom.com. 

Starting in a couple of weeks, I’ll be teaching classes on web design fundamentals. I’m doing this to serve a portion of the population who simply can’t afford to hire me to design their websites. Ultimately, I know that my services are a good deal for businesses who have the budget for me. But the really small businesses simply don’t have it. Especially now.

 

You Can Learn This Stuff!

You Can Learn This Stuff!

My classes will have three students MAXIMUM. At the end of the class, you can expect to know the ins-and-outs of current versions of HTML and CSS. I’ll be teaching using the most up-to-date standards as well, so the websites you build will work on all major browsers and have the professional look that small businesses need. 

There’s more information here, or you can get signed up here.

Are You Real Enough for Social Media?

Thursday, May 14th, 2009

Social Media marketing is a big thing. Duh. You knew that. 

And everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon. Big businesses, small businesses, one-man businesses – everyone’s rushing to join facebook and twitter. 

But many of them are in for a surprise. 

Social media is effective because of the level of transparency it offers the people in your audience. If they follow you on facebook or twitter (here’s a link to my fb and  twitter account, by the way) they get to know you in ways that aren’t available on your website.

And this is great news to marketers like me. It should be like that, where we can all get to know each other a bit before we decide who we’re going to hire.

But it’s bad news to marketers who aren’t used to being authentic. Suddenly, if they want to take advantage of the most recent, more powerful marketing tool to come around in a long while, they’ve got to ask themselves some soul searching questions. It’s not about ads anymore, it’s about having genuine conversation. It’s not about blasting your audience with messaging, it’s about interacting with them as real people. 

No small feat.