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Email forwarding is a tool we use for:
We often set up emails for special purposes like ORDERS. Here's an example: orders@waking girl.com forwards to >> the owner@personal email.com Then, we learn that the accountant also wants to be notified of any orders, so we add: orders@waking girl.com forwards to >> the owner@personal email.com AND accountant@personal email.com And then we want to run some tests, so we add the web designer: orders@waking girl.com forwards to >> the owner@personal email.com AND accountant@personal email.com AND web designer@personal email.com We can continue with this list as needed. When tests are completed, we can remove the web designer from the forwarding chain. Or, if a new accountant is hired, the accountant's email address can be replaced. Email forwarding is an excellent way to work with an organization that has turnover (non-profits, charities, events, etc.). We can easily change out the email forwarder without affecting all of the systems that have been built into the website over time. What are the problems with email forwarding?
Have further questions or want help with email forwarding? Are you feeling neglected by your web designer? Feeling like you have to send 5 emails before you get a response? Panic setting in? Please take a look at these helpful tips that will give more insight to the world behind the computer screen and how to snap your fingers and get your web designer's attention--every time.
1) If your web designer is awesome, he/she receives at least 50-200 emails a day. These aren't annoying subscription emails; these are emails that need to be read, handled and responded to. Put concise instructions and a deadline in your subject line. Example: Add new events to Parade.com before July 4 2) Do not use the subject line "website." 3) Avoid small talk in the opening lines. Pretend your web designer will only read the first sentence. Make it count. 4) Praise your web designer with every new request! Tell your web designer that their hard work IS working. Example: We got 5 new clients today from our website! We want to add 3 fields to our contact form to process new clients faster. So excited this is working so well!!" See how it sounds when you don't praise? Why isn't the phone number field in our contact form? That should have been in there from the beginning. Now we have 5 clients with no phone number. We better add Birth date and Country fields, too. 5) Keep emails to ONE or TWO requests. Web designers want to feel productive. If they can handle a task in 5-10 minutes, they'll jump on it. Long lists of requests should be reserved for new projects or scheduled updates. 6) Put content directly into the email instead of attaching documents. If your web designer has to download and open a program just to read your update it will fall to the bottom of the to-do list. 7) If the budget and pricing has not been pre-arranged, include what you're willing to pay for the work. This will give the web designer an immediate incentive and save on the back and forth of negotiations. Example: I can pay $75 for this update. 8) Web designers love your audience and want to please. Use real deadlines like: Website will be shown at Conference on June 17; need updates completed by June 16. 9) Always offer to pay in advance. Web designers will often under-quote a project not realizing the work involved. To feed the family they may let your project drop to the bottom of the list and turn to the pre-paid clients. Clients who pre-pay allow the web designer to focus JUST on them! 10) Don't be picky until it counts. Web designers work with MANY customers; they focus on the emergency projects first. If your website hasn't launched yet because you can't decide between Lato and Roboto fonts, you are not a top priority. The top priority is the guy who is processing $15k+ on his website every month and the credit card processing company just went down, or the gal who is hosting a big event tomorrow and is doing a last-minute Facebook campaign to drive ticket sales. When your website is highly trafficked and bringing in sales, you can be picky! 11) Give 5 star reviews! If your experience is less than 5 stars, tell them gently and give them an opportunity to improve! 12) Always preface with: I'm not sure if I'm asking this the right way but... Web designers get bombarded with questions that do not make technical sense. It is really hard to answer an incorrect question if the client isn't willing to be educated. When a client confesses their lack of computer knowledge, it opens the door for education and will get you lots of free services. Web designers like being experts! And they like to help!! Know-it-alls put web designers in a corner, and their simple requests turn into challenging accusations. 13) Edit the text for us! Instead of describing the proof reading edits, just go ahead and make them. How to do it: Go to the page that you want to edit. Copy the text. Paste the text into an email. Edit the text. Change subject line to: Please replace text on ABOUT YOU page with text below. Send! The steps above will make this a 5 minute job instead of a 50 minute brain-numbing English 101 exercise. 14) Ask how your web designer prefers to receive large or mass amounts of files. Waking Girl despises Dropbox, and instead offers an easy upload widget on their website. 15) Give your web designer creative license! A web designer is an artist; they will pour energy and time into your project if it is their artistic work and something they can proudly show in their portfolio! You've probably got some questions about how to get into your website, who controls your website, and who owns your website. Please review the information below to clarify the jargon and get answers!
Domain, Website, Hosting There are three pieces to your website: the domain, the website and the hosting. I relate these to a house. The website is the house, the hosting is the property that the house sits on, and the domain is your postal address. These components work together to bring you your website. Each of these components can be taken apart, moved and matched up with other components to bring you a new website, a new domain, or a new host. DOMAIN: yourBusiness.com Do I own my domain name? Yes. Where is my domain name? In Waking Girl's GoDaddy account. Can I access my domain name? Generally no. For the protection of our clients we cannot give free-for-all access to our account. We may be able to assign access to specific services for unique cases. Can I move my domain name? Yes. Just set up your own GoDaddy account and email the Username and Email address, and we'll initiate an Account Change. What will happen if I move my domain name? Services may be disrupted. We charge $100/hour to reinstate any services as a result of a requested domain Account Change. Do I have to pay for my domain name? Yes. We either include the cost of your domain with your hosting or maintenance plan or charge $15/year for just a domain. Why is it set up this way? We started holding onto domain names because:
What would it cost for me to manage my own domain name? You will need to pay renewal fees to GoDaddy which vary from $10-$15/year. If your domain expires there is a short grace period in which you may retrieve the domain name for an additional $80. Beyond the grace period your domain may be selected to go to auction, at which time the domain could run from $400 to $4000, and up. WEBSITE: that pretty thing with your logo, text, pictures and buttons! Do I own my website? Yes. Where is my website? In one of Waking Girl's Weebly accounts. Can I access my website? Yes. Use your Weebly log-in credentials to access the website and make edits or see stats. Don't have these? Please contact us and ask for your Weebly log-in info. Can I move my website? Yes. We can send you a compressed folder of your website files, or we can move your website to a new Weebly account. Just send us an email address that has never been associated with a Weebly account and a request to move your website. What will happen if I move my website? Services may be disrupted. Many features will only work on the Weebly platform. Ecommerce features and products will not transfer to a new Weebly account. Do I have to pay for my website? Yes, you have to pay for the initial build of your website. After that--it belongs to you! Why is it set up this way? Weebly allows us to build websites quickly and reliably. Weebly allows us to build and still give access to clients to make changes. What would it cost for me to manage my own website? It's free! You may also hire another web designer or an intern or your favorite office manager to handle your website updates for you. HOSTING: the online storage place where your website files live. Do I own my hosting? No. Where is my hosting? In Weebly's secure servers. Can I access my hosting? Yes. Use your Weebly log-in credentials to access the hosting and make edits or see stats. Don't have these? Please email and ask for your Weebly log-in info. Can I move my hosting? No, but you may move your website to a new Weebly account. Just send us an email address that has never been associated with a Weebly account and a request to move your website. Can I move my hosting to a traditional server? Not easily. You may attempt to upload your exported website files to a traditional server, but it will require advanced coding to make the website fully functional, and we cannot guarantee all functions will work. What will happen if I move to a new host? Services may be disrupted. Many features will only work on the Weebly platform. Ecommerce features and products will not transfer to a new Weebly account. Do I have to pay for my hosting? Yes, Waking Girl charges $14/month for hosting. This fee is included if you're on a Maintenance Plan. Why is it set up this way? We work on the Weebly host because it is integrated with a building platform that allows us to build quickly and reliably. Going back to our home metaphor, Weebly is like the mother of all gated communities, with a pool and club house and 24/7 security services. What would it cost for me to manage my own website? Weebly's Pro Service runs $9.83/month, which is payable 6 months in advance. Additional fees may apply for eCommerce and Membership services. I'm nervous about the whereabouts of my website, but want to keep working with Waking Girl. For some business owners full control makes the most sense. Full control generally costs you more money, but a restful sleep is well worth it! To move everything into your full control please do the following:
Please understand that additional fees will apply for further maintenance to your website. It does take extra time to access websites and domains outside of the Waking Girl accounts. I'm tired of Waking Girl and want to work with someone else. Hey! Thanks for being honest! :) We have a limited number of Weebly accounts and only want very happy clients using our accounts. Please send the information above so we can get you out! We look forward to assisting you! Let us know how we can help! Time Sensitive!
Are you feeling like you’re twiddling your thumbs all day waiting for new clients to appear in your email inbox? Ugh! That’s the WORST feeling! Refresh, refresh, refresh and all that’s there is an email from your mom, your kid’s school and pills that promise magic! Time to step away from the computer and see if you’ve got a viable business! But before you step away, please add this event to your calendar (and keep on reading!): May 20 from 5pm-7pm: The Breakthrough Network Mixer. This month they're at the Freight House. Don’t get distracted with the whims of Facebook, but please RSVP here, or look for the latest event here. How to get that loving feeling back for your business at this event: The Breakthrough Network Mixer is one of Reno’s BEST networking events. Tons of friendly faces, a great kicked-back vibe, and plenty of opportunities to practice your pitch. You can go to this event and feel even worse about your business, or you can use the tips below to make a splash and feel refreshed! Step 1: Bring a friend or colleague. If you have multiple people in your business, bring them ALL. (For multi-people businesses, EVERYONE should do all of the steps below.) Step 2: Get crazy on their Facebook event page. Chime in with, "I CAN'T WAIT," and "Will there be clowns?" and any fun thing to show enthusiasm for the event, and give people a reason to say HI to you ("Ohhhh, I saw your funny comment on Facebook!"). Step 3: Show up as a GROUP. In matching shirts (or capes), if possible. Carpool! Step 4: Set an in-house goal to be achieved at the event. This is just an excuse to introduce yourselves to people. Goal example: shake hands with the most cat-owners. "Hi, my name is Ian. Do you have a cat? .... Sorry, I work for Waking Girl Web Design and we're having a contest to see how many of our designers can talk to the most cat owners. So no cats? ... A nice dog? That might count. So what do you do? Tell me about you!" This question can be adjusted to be STRATEGIC, but not too obvious. People attend these mixers in the following categories:
Step 5: Be there to HAVE FUN and SUPPORT others! Step 6: DO NOT BRING ANY BUSINESS CARDS (you can bring a few to put into a raffle, or hide some in your car for security). If someone asks for a card, say "Oh man, they're in my other pants which I left at the pool; [PULL OUT PHONE] oh but text me your name and business, so I've got you! OR, do you have Facebook on your phone? Comment on our page!! Ok, and I'll take YOUR card." Then offer to comment on THEIR Facebook page. Be generous! Facebook LIKES and COMMENTS are FREE for you but extremely valuable for everyone at that mixer. Step 7: COLLECT BUSINESS CARDS. If someone has a cat or an excuse for a cat, take their card. When you get back to the office the following day, see who collected the most cards. THROW A PARTY. With paperclips and coffee. Sit down on Facebook and go track down all the Biz Cards on Facebook. Give them a howdy shout-out and try to make it specific, so they know they actually talked to you and you're not just passing this off to an assistant (TAKE NOTES ON BACK OF CARD). Don’t mention what you do; mention the conversation and what THEY do. This is not a sales gimmick; this is friend-building! WHAT'S THE POINT OF THIS? You send a magical ripple through the business owners of the Reno area that's electric, alive and screams, "We're right here, as we've always been, ready to do business with you, you, you, and you, and your cat." Business owners who work with or live with your ideal customer are going to feel your electricity and refer you, or tell stories about you, or become part of your friend-building network! You’re going to get practice talking about your business and finding your HOOK. What is the thing that GRABS people?! Maybe you thought your services were awesome, but it turns out people are really in love with your testimonials. Maybe you’ve been stuck on pricing, but people just want an easy way to refer mutual clients! Go to the masses and find out! These events happen every month-ish. If May 20 is a no-go, find out the dates for the next few and put them on the calendar. Best results if you show up AS A GROUP (and then spread out once you get there. No buddies!). LET ME KNOW IF YOU'RE UP FOR THE CHALLENGE! Need some help with your strategic pick-up line!? Comment below or ask us on Facebook! The focus at Waking Girl Web Design is to 1) Wake up your website and 2) Wake up your business. Usually we have to also 3) Wake up your customers. There's nothing like a good old-fashioned menu bar to lull an Internet Junkie to sleep: Home, Services, About Us, Cont--zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. We utilize a navigation structure that is jarring, intriguing and sometimes alarming. Why? Because it wakes people up. This is wild, tell me more! Now, nobody will wake up if they don't get to your website, so we also have to 4) Consider the Google gods. Google occasionally relies on a good old-fashioned menu bar, but Google also looks for key words in your links. No one is doing a Google Search for "home services about us contact." No one (ok, except us--the search brought up a broad bit of nothing). What ARE people searching for? How about: YOUR COMPANY NAME instead of Home ACTION WORD instead of Services INTRIGUING WORD instead of About or YOUR CALL TO ACTION instead of all of the above and Contact is just fine :) [or Connect, Reach Out, Engage, Talk] When we first started building websites (in the 1990s) the human brain could handle 4 to 6 choices at a time. We fought hard to keep our websites' navigations in that 6 or fewer framework. Now, our brains have gotten OVERWHELMED with the constant incoming media, and are pleased with 1, 2 or 3 choices. 1 2 or 3 I talk to clients daily who want to complicate their websites, while the big tech companies are getting sleeker. I was shocked and validated the first time I used Square Cash and had 0 options. All I could do was follow their little maze of forms and buttons. There were no choices. There was only moving forward in their chosen path. And I trusted the process and sent money through their brilliant email-only system seconds later. The future is now. Customers trust the web more today than ever before. They don't need to read 17 pages to determine if they're going to buy your product or schedule an appointment. They need to see a handful of reviews, and then you have to open the door and make it easy: one intuitive non-choice at a time. But people have asked for my About page! Great! Ok, we can still have tons of content, and that can include your pithy bio. Let's create a hidden blog page that runs in the background of your site, spitting out content when it's called on through a Google Search or from the depths of the Inner Virgo of your website. Hrmm, that seems anti-climactic when you give me what I want. Why does this feel odd? Because what you really want is not an About Me page. You want an ABOUT YOU page. That's right! The business owner should be asking about the NEW CLIENT, not spouting out hobbies, facts, and degrees. Wanna know the number one thing that makes someone decide to BUY from you? Feeling validated. That's it. Not your service description, not your logo, not your pricing*, and certainly not your About page. It's your ability to listen and validate the needs of your customer base that will make them call you, email you, text you, Facebook you, want you, need you, review you. So you may have an industry where an About Us page is somehow validating to the customer, but I'm seeing higher conversions on pages that engage the customer and demonstrate that the customer is in the right place, and that you can help them. But don't they need to know my certifications and history to know that? No. Your certifications and history just tell us that you went to school and that you may have dabbled in something important once. We don't want your history, we want your NOW. Business trends change every 3 months; we don't care what you did 3 years ago. Are you #validating NOW? How to demonstrate validation on your website:
Is your customer in pain? Imagine how much more pain they'll be in after reading mountains of information. Make it easy; they're in pain! Is your customer in panic? Give them the call to action RIGHT THERE and EVERYWHERE. Is your customer a busy parent? Make it easy to come back to your information later with an email reminder or Facebook notice. Is your customer a business owner? Give them the prices and a phone number that is answered EVERY time. Do you want to be notified of new ways to wake up your website, wake up your business? Get on our Like List! Want a FREE Site Navigation Review? Leave your website URL in the comments below! The Internet is the great all-knowing; it puts libraries to shame in its speed, efficiency, full-color graphics, and ability to fit in your pocket. But how did it become so smart and so cool? Because people like you, me and that guy with the long beard who hasn't come out of his home office in two weeks are the ones sharing all the information. Everyone has an opinion that counts on the web! Google favors websites that help people by sharing good information, tools and resources--for free. Google indexes information by reading text (for now). It confirms the information by peeking in to see who is reading the information, how long they're reading it, and if they clicked off in frustration or delved deeper into the data. Google looks for the sales person (website) who really helps people vs. the sales person (website) who just wants to make a commission. Waking Girl websites focus on helping people! We believe that finding ways to help more and more people with less and less effort is the key to success! Blogs should be written with this focus in mind. How to help people by blogging, and in turn, improve a website's SEO (Search Engine Optimization):
Writing is one of the most challenging tasks for business owners. If you love to write, you're in demand! Writing every day will quickly improve your skills; start now! Let me show you the power of blogging and your SEO: The carpet cleaning industry is vast and competitive. It takes quite the budget and a lot of time to do well in a search. We'll take a look at a new client: BEST Services. If we do a search for "carpet cleaning reno" BEST Services is nowhere to be found: It's a new site, so this is not a surprise. If we do a search for something more specific that we have blogged about, we'll find this: Here is the respective blog attached to that search. You can search for almost any key phrase on the blog and it comes up on the first page of Google. As the site performs better and better on these niche services, Google will recognize it as a more and more authoritative site and it will perform better and better for the really important searches. That is the power of blogging! See if you can find the power of blogging in another website. Or see if a website could use some blogging assistance! The power of high school students
Waking Girl has been developing a Web Design Internship program for several years and it is finally happening! We are partnering with high school students to bring you MORE and MORE for LESS and LESS! Each qualifying student is assigned a website and is tasked with studying, researching and maintaining the site. High School students learn the basics of web design and business while YOU get more maintenance without the extra expense! If you are on a Maintenance Program you are automatically eligible to participate! You will receive a message from your Student(s) in the next 30-60 days through the contact form on your website! Will Waking Girl still be handling updates on my site? Yes! Many updates will still be handled by the professionals. Students will start out with simple tasks like copying and pasting! We are waking up your website (in the middle of the night)
To serve Maintenance clients better Waking Girl has automated a link-building system to improve your Search Engine Optimization around the clock. How it Works: Different blogs and news sources publish articles related to your industry and matching certain keywords related to your field. The Waking Girl Network is alerted to the publication and a link to the publication is posted on a blog that links to your website. Google gets the message that your website is relevant to the automated content, and gets this message all throughout the month! HUH? Basically, every month more and more new, relevant links will be pointing to your website. This is one magical component to improving your SEO. We are using this method because it's automated, which gives us more time to focus on your requested updates. Can I see it? Yes! Here is a LIVE FEED for HOG Tactical, one of our Gun-related clients. You'll see a bunch of random articles about weapons of all sorts! Each article points back to HOG Tactical. Why are you telling me this? Just wanted to assure you that maintenance is happening to your website each month! :) Can other updates still be made to my website? Yes! Please contact us before the 15th of the month with your update requests. Requests made after the 15th of the month will be handled in the order they were received. 3/15/2015 update: |
Once you have your shiny new Gmail address, fill out the form to the right. Then give us 24-48 hours to set up your forwarding address. That's right, this is just a FORWARDING address. Why a forwarding address? With email forwarding, we get to use the stability of Gmail with the versatility of your custom domain. Gmail has gone down about once in my lifetime, and it made national news. It was back up and running in just a few hours (unfortunately!). LOL. | |
3. Ok, you're set up, now let's configure your address!
Waking Girl has sent you an email confirming you're set up and ready to go. Now, for the finishing pieces:
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4. Test to make sure it's working!
Just go ahead and COMPOSE a new email. Send it to another email address you have, or to a nearby friend. See how the email appears on the other end: Does it have the right name? Is the name using the proper capitalization? Is the email address correct?
And then send back. Did it appear in your email inbox?
5. Get Creative!
You can also use forwarders for independent contractors, employees and vendors. If you don't want to remember a complicated email address, just set up a forwarder for them at your domain! If you're only sending to these email addresses (and they don't need to send back with a custom domain), they don't need Gmail addresses.
For example:
mom@YOUR BUSINESS.com forwards to MyMomsSuper-Complicated.AND.long.email.address@???.com
seo@YOUR BUSINESS.com forwards to your SEO company. If you change companies, just update the forwarder (with the form above).
accounting@YOUR BUSINESS.com forwards to your accountant.
foreman@YOUR BUSINESS.com forwards to your current foreman. If your foreman leaves the company, just update the forwarder (with the form above) to forward to your NEW foreman!
STAY IN CONTROL of the communication in your business!
spy@YOUR BUSINESS.com forwards to YOU and whichever employee you want to keep tabs on. If you're not sure about your new hire, and think they may have plans to steal your clients, we can forward emails to your employee AND you. You'll get a copy of every email they receive!
6. Wow! I'm overwhelmed. Anything else I should know?
That's why we really want that Gmail address to be acceptable for client eyes!
7. And for fun?
You'll never be stumped on email addresses again! If your family member changes jobs or schools or last names, it's an easy update to redirect their mail to their new address! No need to announce it to the whole family; just get in touch with Waking Girl, and we'll take it from there!
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