My answer to this question often depends on the sophistication of the audience.

Before I answer this one let me clarify something quickly. I operate in George,  which is in the Garden Route, where the typical web design student is a small business owner that sells to real people within the local area, and not to online customers.

In George the typical small company either has a website or wants to get a website. That’s pretty much as far as it goes. There is no strategy around most websites, it is simply used as a shop window or brochure stand. Convincing these SMME’s that a web presence is about a two way dialogue with your customer is hard going, let alone trying to explain the importance of keeping the twitter discussions flowing.

For me the crux about having a online presence is having the opportunity to open a conversation with your market. This means having the ability not only to push out content to potential customers, but also to hear back from them, and to gauge the market response to your initiatives and offers.

Together with SEDA we are running an e-marketing course that helps SMME’s find their way around the online world.  It covers blogs, twitter, facebook and many more topics. I try to make it clear that online marketing is not about pushing brochures out via web pages or unsolicited mail, but rather opening a dialogue, listening and responding.

This is all fine and well I hear you say, but often this strategy falls flat simply because companies do not take the conversation seriously. It requires constant attention and focus. Shouting without listening is as pointless as listening without acting.

Maybe it is time for the Garden Route small business sector to realize that there is a bigger market out there, that it is worth pursuing, and that the effort and investment needed to go there is worth it. Problem is most of these small businesses are so busy running their business they do not have the time or ability to drive their online conversation.

How about the idea of a social media agency that manages your online reputation on your behalf? Are there any online players in the region willing to take on such a mentorship / curatorship role? I think this could be a great additional service for those small companies only now emerging into the online world.

What follows is a simply breakdown of the many hats worn day to day:

The audience listens to the client, sometimes the message is clear, concise and to the point, other times it is passionate but vague, other times it is simply dreary. Everyone needs to have there say, as truly great clients can come out of small beginnings.

The assessor then needs to read the viability of the task at hand, and decide the way forward.  Knowing what it takes to please the customer is a skill the assessor cannot do without.  Sometimes it is better to walk away from a seemingly lucrative deal when the client needs are simply above what is practical or realistic. Trying to please everyone never works.

The negotiator cuts to the chase, turning a need into a price. These days costing web design is a black art, as the price seems to be more based around the desire than the effort.  For me at least it makes no sense trying ot compete on price, as webdesign should not be judged on cost but on result. Having said that, it would be stupid not be be price realistic.

The manager takes over, breaking the process into chunks and dishing out the work. This is not only a case of breaking the effort apart, there are the issues of timeline, complexity, etc. Knowing when to do it yourself and when to outsource is a critical component.

Then there is the heavy lifter, the person that makes the mechanics of the websites work. They put the framework together, install the CMS, set up the shopping cart, the payment gateway and the user registration system.

The designer steps into the ring, bringing light to a otherwise dreary looking result. Common sense needs to be kept in check though, as often budgets and time-lines can be blown by trying to constantly improve a design. Its a bit like gambling, nowing when to draw the line is key in walking away with the planned profit.

The showman has the job of selling the final result back to the client. The better the result math the expectation the smaller the costly tweaking will be, so getting it right in the delivery is as important as getting the execution spot on.

The tutor needs to be patient as the client is shown how to do what needs doing. Being prepared for the typical questions not only puts the client at ease, it results in real synergy.  I often find that it is the service that wins gold referrals, not the design.

When it comes to delivering truly solid work, thinking with different hats certainly helps put things in perspective. 

Being the best or the fastest or the cheapest does not work for me, and probably not for you either; rather, being consitent makes life a lot simpler, for me as well as my customers.

End user experience is a key decider when it comes to making a hosting or bandwith choice, but this is the most elusive measurable of all.

With the increased innovation taking place in the ISP hosting and ADSL offerings area it is becoming more difficult for users to make an informed choice.  It is often the extreme points of view, both good and bad, that surface on the web, distorting the real user experience.

I am proposing the creation of an impartial dashboard where everyone can view and compare the real life performance of the product offerings from the various ISPs.

What I propose is a dashboard that measures connectivity in a South African perspective, i.e. the typical experience a local user will have when using the adsl from a particular ISP. Various scenarious would be monitored, from various locations, incuding ping times, route analysis, etc.

Another key aspect when choosing an ISP is hosting performance.  Many local hosting providers offers very appealing packages, but how do a typical end user know which are worth the risk in migrating to a new offering. Things that would be measured and displayed in a visual dashboard would be hosting server performance (CPU, Load, memory, numer of sites hosted, etc).

For both adsl and hosting it is also key to measure availability as well as effective usability. From a technical perspective only opensource tools like Nagios, Smokeping, MRTG, RRD, SNMP, etc will be used to perform the monitoring and graphing.

For this to be a viable proposition I will need the co-operation of the local players, including Afrihost, Hetzner, IS, MWeb, Telkom, Web Africa, etc.  Let’s see if the new age ISPs will come to the party.

The site will not be a platform for those with a grunt to bear, but rather an informative portal where ISPs can be judged on what they deliver, not on what they promise, allowing the end user to make an informed choice.

“Joomla is an award-winning content management system (CMS), which enables you to build Web sites and powerful online applications. Many aspects, including its ease-of-use and extensibility, have made Joomla the most popular Web site software available. Best of all, Joomla is an open source solution that is freely available to everyone.”

The course is split into three separate parts, on consecutive days.  This allows participants to pick the days that are suited to there particular skill level.

Training is performed hands on, using the Office Reliance training centre’s laptops and interactive whiteboards.During the three day course you will create your own fully functional Joomla website.

Course fees includes hot lunch, printed training materials as well as a CD containing all the software used during the training course.

Cost is R 750 for day 1, R 1,150 for day 2 and R 1,450 for day 3; or R 3,000 for all three days, inclusive of VAT.

Limited spaces available, so early booking & payment secures a space.

Call 044 802 0400 or email training@officereliance.co.za This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to book.

The new site uses lots more images and unfortunately the template is fairly bloated with icons, styles and scripts, but the overall load time should be manageable.

After burning lots of midnight oil the new site has finally gone live. Go visit the new Office Reliance website, then let me know what you think.