Groupon Gives a Full Refund When they Sponsor a Bad Deal

When I look at a Groupon deal I assume that the deal-making company has been vetted by Groupon.  I expect that Groupon has made sure that the company is real and is sufficiently big to handle the traffic that the deal will bring them.

As a consumer I took comfort in believing that Groupon knew its deal makers were quality companies.  After all, Groupon was standing in front of a company, and their reputation was at stake.

I have bought 10′s of Groupons and have had no problems.   I felt that any Groupon I bought would lead me to a quality company whose products and service I could safely sample at a reduced cost.

I have learned better. Buyer beware!

Bin32 is a Napa wine seller who offered a Groupon for $198 of wine for only $54.  Great!

Except that in February when I went online, selected my wines, and went to check-out, the Groupon did not cover the full amount of the charge.  In addition to shipping, which was an acceptable extra, in my opinion, there $4.54 was not covered.  I gave the site my credit card to get the order placed, and decided to complain to Groupon separately.  Groupon emailed me back after a day or so that Bin 32 reported that they charged the extra amount for ” … for all taxes and processing fees.” Of course, $4.54 is not a tax amount or anything that maths out.  It was just Bin 32 trying to get more money.  After I complained again, Groupon gave me a $10 credit for my inconvenience.  I was more than made whole, so I was happy.

Except the wine never arrived. After about a month I checked the Bin 32 site and saw that my order status was “Processing”.  I sent Bin 32 email inquiries (I could not find a phone number on their web site) in March and then again in April.  Nothing.

When I checked a couple days ago — we’re now in May — my order on the Bin 32 site was listed as “Complete” and there was a note that the order had shipped by UPS.  Except, of course, I hadn’t received any wine.

I contacted Groupon yesterday, and today I received a full credit for what I paid Groupon.  I am still out about $13 that was charged to my AMX, but after the earlier $10 Groupon credit, I am only really in the hole for $3 and change.

$3 is a pretty cheap cost for a consumer education.  Here’s what I’ve learned:

• First the positive.  Groupon has been responsive and wonderful.
• But, Groupon doesn’t do a flawless job of researching its dealers.  Bin 32  has 78 ratings on Yelp. All of them are 1-star.  Some of the Yelpers complain that in addition to not delivering the goods, BIN32 kept charging their debit and credit cards for orders not placed.

Yelp’s deals include links to the business’ ratings page on their site.  That’s handy.  In the future, I am going to be more careful when buying a Groupon and do some research before clicking “Buy”.

I sense that starting a crusade for standards and maintainability in web designer selection would be losing battle.  First, it’s hard to care about what you cannot see.  And, more importantly, clients of web designers generally don’t have a way to know if a site is well done or not.

dwt Template Files in a Dreamweaver Site

Still let me give you one question to ask your designer.  Ask them if they will use templates to create your site.

Why do you care if the designer uses templates?  Because templates will save you a lot of money later on when you change your site.

Templates specify common text and structures.  Things like the banner on the top of your page, the footer on the bottom with the copyright information, the navigation menu, and the width, color, and fonts of the columns on the page.

When designer starts a website with a template, they design, write, and arrange the common elements one time.  The template also specifies what part of the layout and information will change on each individual page.

The designer creates pages from the template by updating the changeable area with what makes that page unique.  They change the common area of all pages by editing the template.

I recently started to do Search Engine Optimization work on a great looking site with 15 pages.  To attract Google I needed to add tags to the navigation bars that all pages shared.  I also wanted to update the footer, and add information to the page banner that appears throughout the site.  If the site had used templates, I would have only had to edit these areas one time.  It would have taken 15 minutes to edit the template, and then I would have updated the common area on all pages with one SAVE.

But, this site — and most of the web sites I have been asked to work on — didn’t use templates.  The designer created the site’s first page with all the look and navigation. Then the designer repeatedly COPIED that first page to new files where the designer edited the information for all the other pages.  To change the common areas on this non-template  site, I had to edit 15 different pages.  The changes took a lot more time (and client money) than they would have if there had been been a template.

As a business owner, maybe you don’t care or even want to how your original designer create your site.  You don’t care, that is, until you want to update the site! Insist that your site is designed using templates so that your able to change your site without a lot of developer time and your money.

That type of professional picture has its place, and a couple of my clients use professional-photographer-created images very effectively.  But, clients on a budget that doesn’t include a photo session don’t need to worry that their site is going to suffer.

Photographs on your web pages should be engaging and tell a story.  That doesn’t mean that they have to be picture perfect.  Use the tricks of professional marketers and emphasize pretty women, cute kids, and adorable puppies if you want to amp up the effectiveness of your informal photos.

One of Sequel's People

For example, I love this picture taken of one our dog Sequel’s fans at this year at the Cow Palace show. The focus isn’t sharp and there’s too much going on the background.  But, I’d use it in a heartbeat to help tell the story of the crowd-pleasing day at a  dog show. (See more pics in Sequel’s People gallery online.)

San Francisco pro photographer, John Ater, has a two-sided business card.  One side displays a studio shot he spent all day perfecting for a major retailer’s billboard campaign.  The other side is an iPhone picture of people on a bus.  The home page of his website displays an informal shot of kids on the street.  His point is that many types of photographs can be compelling and technical perfection is rarely required.

Mark Rogers is a professional photographer who specializes in non-posed shots.  His forte is pets, but he shoots for businesses and even weddings.  It’s just that when Mark hires on as the wedding photographer, he’s clear that his love is for informal action shots and there are only so many staged “mother-in-law of the bride” wedding party photos he can handle.  He does great work capturing the personality of his subjects and feel of an event.

And, a feel for your business is exactly what you want to show on your web pages.

The best professional photographers — the ones whose work I like best — tell a visual story.  Their equipment, experience, and artistic skill give them an advantage, but the magic is in capturing of the moment, the composition of the scene.

So, take out your point-and-shoot camera or phone, and see what you can do for your website. Perhaps pictures you already have can work for your business!  (My favorite client photographer is estate planning attorney Julia Wald.  Every month she uses her vacation or around town shots for her newsletter.  Check out how she tied the idea of leaving a legacy through estate planning to her trip to Egypt and the legacy of the pyramids — lots of her clients write in with praise!)

Sure, if you’re busy or don’t have a feel for appropriate shots,  you can engage a professional photographer or even your webmaster to take some pictures for you.  But, you need to explain to them the story you want to tell. Talk about out what views, places, or events will tell your business’ story.  Experiment.  Have fun.  And, let me know what happens!

Other automated messages, like the one above, convey disinterest and unhelpfulness.  Getting no response is better than getting a message like this.

Worse, this email was the only answer to my support request when I checked my mail the next day.  When I saw the message in my inbox I expected that it was going to be the actual answer to my problem.

Folks, don’t tell me that you’ll get back to me “at a later date”.  Geeze!  The next day after never is a “later date”.  If you have to, tell me something concrete yet far away like “within 10 working days”.  Or better yet, hire enough people to quickly respond to your clients (adding staff actually can increase your profits because like Costco and others you get more business;  read the research).

Moreover, telling me that I am one of many questions waiting around for an answer is not reassuring.  It doesn’t speak well about the quality of  your software, nor does it make me feel like a individual, valued customer!

I responded to this automated message with something like a “Huh? What does this mean?”  Miraculously enough, the reply-to address worked, and after an hour or so I received a real answer to my original question. They told me to do something on my iPhone that I don’t know how to do, but it least their real response gives me something to work on when I have the time.  I have no idea how long I would have waited for even this information if I hadn’t responded to the automated message.

This company fell victim to a common problem.  They saw an available technology (auto-response email messages) and used it.  They should have remembered this Ozdachism:  Just because a technology exists, it doesn’t mean you should use it!

The man has some unique and valuable collectables that he no longer enjoys, and he would like to instead enjoy the money from selling them. He also decided that he wanted to offer the goods via a Dutch auction where the prices start high and are periodically dropped until someone buys or a reserve limit is reached.

He and I discussed what he had to do to get ready to display his items, and he described the type of site that he thought would best show off his goods.  He also admitted that he had a very limited budget, at least until some of the articles sold.  I said that I would research Dutch auctions to see what support there was available on the Internet for such a site.

In considering his site, I was really concerned about getting enough traffic so there would be bidders for the goods.

I worried that even a gorgeous, feature-rich site which had been tuned for search engines still would not capture many visitors. There wouldn’t be enough potential bidders for a successful Dutch auction, particularly because the items for sale were specialty, expensive collectables.

I spent some time researching Dutch auctions, Dutch auction software, and sites that ran Dutch auctions.  I was focused on finding a way to boost traffic for the potential site. I found a Dutch auction service that allowed individuals to set up stores within it, and each store could run its own sales and they would be listed in the overall auction directory. The main online page was a bit cheesy, but it looked like you could customize your store and have your goods show up on a shared index.

Exploring a customized Dutch auction store on this service was my recommended course of action for the client.  The service had built-in features to display products for sale, it was inexpensive, it had some measure of built in traffic.  I suggested that he contact some of the other virtual store owners — ones not selling competing items — and see if they were satisfied with the service.

The potential client didn’t want to go with my recommendation.  Instead he wanted me to create the customized site he envisioned.

I couldn’t do it.

The store owner had too many conflicting constraints and wants:  low cost, customized storefront, lots of visitors, no budget for Google AdWords, complete operational control.

He didn’t want to settle for the solution I thought was possible for him.  That is absolutely fine.  But, in my heart I was convinced that I could not make him happy.

And, that’s exactly when you don’t want me to work for you.  When you or I or both of us feel that you ware not going to be happy with what we do together, you shouldn’t hire me.

One-Page Website for Bacchus Waikiki

It has to:

• Look Good
• Give all the basic information of your business:

I recently published a site conceived and designed by a client that does a great job announcing the business on the Internet.

Who, what, and where are explicitly explained in headlines.

The “what” and “why” are made obvious by the left-hand panel which slowly rotates through a series of photographs of cocktails and happy people.  The slow slideshow skillfully enhances, rather than distracts, from the site’s message.

In addition, the page gives visitors a way to get more engaged with the business with links to its Facebook page, Twitter feed, photos on Flickr, and YouTube videos.

My hat is off to John of Bacchus Waikiki’s brain trust who laid out and gave me the specifications for the page and also provided most of the text.
Check out Bacchus Waikiki’s site yourself.

Over the years I have used a lot of different systems to store my photographs in places that I’d know to find at later.  I’ve created sub-folders with dates and topics and themes.  Unfortunately, these storage spaces are scattered over different drives in folders called My Pictures, Images, Old Images, and more.  In fact, most of my client folders themselves have dated and tagged sub-folders, and I cannot quickly explain the division among the top-level folders of “Clients”, “Clients Old”, and “Clients Traditional”.

Finding a photograph of a specific person or scene that I know I have taken can involve a lot of searching. Did I file it by the project or by the date? And, has it become “old” or “traditional”?

Then, when I find the photograph, it’s usually the wrong size. Or, maybe there’s a stray person in it who needs to be cropped out.

Until last November, my experience with photo indexing and retrieving tools had all been negative.  Sporadically I downloaded several trial products and freeware solutions, but nothing both located all of my pictures and let me find them easily.

Years ago I gave up on free or low-cost photo editing software.  Nothing let me do enough fixing of flawed pictures, and I broke down and bought the industry-standard — and expensive — Photoshop program.

I thought there was nothing in the market that was both effective and reasonably priced to help with day-to-day photographic workflow.

I am happy to report that I am now wrong both about organization software and editing programs.  I stumbled across Adobe Lightroom 3 last fall.  It was recommended by John Ater, the professional photographer whose GroupOn photo shoot session I enjoyed.  John said that he, a professional, used Lightroom to organize his photos and he said he did 95% of all of his photo correction using Lightroom alone.

Lightroom works for me, too.  I use it to store, find, resize, and edit most of pictures I touch in my personal and professional lives. It does a great job of finding images computer-wide by their file/sub-folder/folder name and it also searches successfully by the tags I have started to add to my graphics.  Once I have found the image I want, I can crop and fix the coloring or lighting.  Then I can change the image’s size, and post it to Facebook, Flickr, or save it in another folder for uploading to a site.

That’s all I need to do 95+% of the time.

Adobe released Lightroom 4 earlier this year. They’ve added features like better video handling, and they’ve cut the price in half.

Lightroom 4 now costs only $149, a fraction of the $699 for Photoshop. Plus, it does the organization of photo collections that Photoshop doesn’t do.

I am switching my recommendation for personal and web photographers.  Check out Lightroom.

I think Lightroom is the best reasonably priced program that will keep you on top of your pictures.  And, like most Adobe products, you can try it for free for 30 days.

Sleazy Domain Registration Service Email

There is a special circle of hell reserved for people who send emails like the one reproduced at right. These are the scary-looking “NOTICES” that take advantage of a business person’s unfamiliarity with the technical terms of the Internet.  The messages try to get an unsuspecting website owner to buy a horribly overpriced, maybe worthless, service.

This particular email was sent to me on January 17th asking me to reply by January 18th.  The sender is creating a false sense of urgency to get me to act before I figured out what I was doing.

The formatted electronic letter says it’s a “Domain Service Notice”.   It looks like the senders are trying to trick you into thinking that you need to renew your site’s domain name registration.  Domain name registration is a real service. Domain name registration is what records you as the owner of your www.ozdachs.biz and tells everyone on the Internet where to go to see the site.  Domain name registration for .com domains currently costs under $20/year from reputable registrars.

This message is not selling domain name registration.  They are offering “Domain name search engine registration.”  I don’t know what that is.

I suspect that it is a made up product with no commerical value for your website.

You don’t have to register your domain with places like Google or Bing.  Those search engines find and read all of the pages of your site and put you in search results for free.  You can submit your site to Google, but that really isn’t necessary.  Google will find your site through in-coming links from other sites it knows about.  (You have to make sure that your site gets pointed to, but that isn’t difficult.  Writing a public post on Facebook or in a blog like this is enough!)

At most, you might submit a new website to the major search engines to try to kick-start its visibility.  Most experts don’t think you need to do this, but the search engines generally let you tell them about your site.  For free.

In any case, I cannot think of a reason why you would need to submit your site more than one time, when it is new.  Google and the other search engines regularly revisit the sites they’ve found to process and reindex the new content that’s published.

This come-on letter offers you a one-year “registration” for $75.  The senders say their “best value” is a lifetime service for $499.  I have no idea what you get for multiple years of the service.

Unfortunately some people will fall for this urgent-sounding pitch. Its wording is carefully legal: it says straight out that it’s not an invoice and you are under no obligation to pay. But, the message is skillfully formatted and it looks so official!

Luckily this sleazy message came directly to me because I am listed on the real, official domain registration for a client.  My client didn’t have to panic, and he didn’t waste his money. I know what to do with offers like this: trash them!

If you have any questions about you get in your email or USPS box, talk to me or your webmaster.  Don’t pay for a service you don’t understand!

We talked about how she had to wear so many different hats because she was running her own office.  Not only does she provide the professional advice her clients pay her for, she also has to be office quartermaster, bookkeeper, publicity agent, etc., etc., and IT manager.  She said that her computer set up was very simple, and that triggered me to launch into my evangelical discussion on backing up computer data.

She agreed with me completely that back-ups were critical.  She explained that she runs backups every week and makes two copies.  One copy she keeps in her office on an external hard drive and she keeps another copy on a thumb drive which she puts in her handbag and keeps it with her wherever she goes.

She, like me, is worried about an office fire or an earthquake which would destroy backup disks kept in the office.  Or, maybe the office would simply be inaccessible for a few weeks due to a structural problem triggered by the fire, earthquake, or even terrorism near her downtown location.  In either case, she said, she wanted to have a copy of her data with her so she could set up shop at her house or another location if there was a physical problem with her office.

I tried to ask gently if she had considered backing up over the Internet.  She had, she said, but was worried about how secure cloud backups were.  She just didn’t know if  information sent through the Internet could be kept private and if the people receiving the information on the other end could be trusted.

Mmmmm!… I couldn’t think of reasonable questions to ask her. I was more directive than Socratic. Here’s what I shared:

First, keeping a thumb drive full of easily readable information in a target for thieves — your handbag — is truly not a good practice! We’ve all heard news stories of some credit bureau employee’s laptop loaded with data being stolen from their car or from a coffee shop.  Handbags are traditional targets of theft and sensitive information should not be routinely kept there.

Second, professional back-up software encrypts your files before they are shipped off to the backup center.  What goes out to the Internet is unreadable digital gibberish. The data centers themselves are protected with best-practices security precautions.

Third, I cannot personally guarantee that all of your data will be 100% secure if you backup with one of the major backup services.  I am not a security expert.  I didn’t examine and test the services’ encryption techniques, nor am I qualified to evaluate the physical and technical security of the storage data centers.  You’re not a security expert, either. But, the companies who hold themselves out to be expert in data security and backups are willing to risk the liability of saying that your data is safe.  Two of them, Mozy and Carbonite, are industry standards for home and small business.  Since you are not an IT security expert, I think you should rely on the industry-standard-setting companies’ security assurances.

Fourth, you want your backups to occur automatically and more frequently than weekly. Automatically because when you’re busy and changing a lot of data, you’re the most likely to forget to do the backup and you’re the most likely to resent the time you spend on the manual process.  More frequently than weekly because you probably cannot afford to lose a week’s worth of work!  Once again, Mozy’s and Carbonite’s products solve the problem.  Each continuously examines your hard drive and backs up new and changed files.

After my diatribe, my friend said said she would go back to her office and sign up for a cloud back-up service that afternoon.  I think I convinced her and she was really going to do it.  Of course, she just might have been trying to get away from the crazed zealot she’d been dining with.

Ozdachs Updating a Site

I was up on New Year’s morning, changing copyright dates on websites before noon.

Yes, I am anal retentive, an anal-retentive web master, and I know when to use a hyphen.

I am also evangelical about making websites look fresh.

You don’t have to compete with me on editing your website before noon on January 1st. But, please consider these two compelling reasons to do a January cleaning of  your site:

1. Your potential clients want to know that what they’re reading is current.
   Most Internet visitors get queasy when they see “Happy Holidays” in February or “Enjoy Your Summer Vacation”  in October.  The unease turns to nausea in May and December.

   When I see a copyright date on a site that is years old, I personally wonder if the business is still active and if the information I am reading is still valid.  Intellectually I may know that the directions to a business would not have changed in the past three years.  Still, if the “Find Us” page is dated 2009, a powerful, if irrational, warning trips in my animal brain.  I want to flee to a safer, newer place.

2. Google ranks pages with fresh content more highly than static pages.
   When Google crawls your site it finds out the date each page was last updated.  It uses the modification date to give an extra boost to pages that were recently changed.  Editing the visible copyright date on each page will make Google think that the pages are recently changed and deserving of extra attention.

If you find yourself getting into the freshening-up mode, here are a couple more tips to keep your site looking evergreen:

• Only date material – even customer testimonials or company news – when you are anal-retentively committed to changing the information frequently. When the website includes praise from a client dated January 1, 2011, by January 1, 2012 it looks like you haven’t satisfied a customer in over a year.
• Remove any “Last Updated” notices on your web pages. That type of bragging was automatically added to pages using older HTML authoring tools like FrontPage, but those statements are no longer in style.When the page was last updated yesterday, those messages look great.  But,  the whole page looks suspect when the date posted is a couple years in the past.

Finally, for more information about what you should put in your copyright notice,  read the official US Copyright Office rules.