You are ready to launch your very own internet business. You have made a commitment to yourself and to those that depend upon you.
You have prepared yourself for a successful career on the internet. You have listened to the Gurus. You have investigated the latest software and tools. You have selected a reliable host. You have purchased your own Domain.
You have learned that “Content is King”; the “money is in the list”; and the importance of an option or “squeeze” page. You know it is going to be work. Success resides at the end of a finely crafted keystroke!
Then it happens! You hear the voice of your former communication professor whispering from the depths of your subconscious mind: “Do nothing to interfere with the subject’s ability or willingness to respond.”
The prof had made a point of stressing the importance of this key to successful communication.
You begin to engage in an intrapersonal debate with yourself over how this might apply to online marketing and website design. As the debate unfolds, you try to convince yourself that the subconscious voice you should be listening to was that echoing from a Dyersville, Iowa cornfield: “If you build it they will come!”
The debate forces you to remember all of those times that you were online and chose not to take any action or sent you scurrying to another in a long list of URLs. You begin to tick off a list of times when something interfered with your “ability or willingness to respond.”
1. You were unable to read the text because of the color scheme or font selection. You know you could adjust your browser page settings but it was easier to click on to another website.
2. Despite being referred by “Cody Moya (a well-known internet marketer,” you do not feel comfortable sharing your name, email address, zip code, and phone number just so you can receive another free .pdf document or sales pitch for a new piece of software or ebook. So you click on to another website.
3. You found a promising website but despite all of your year’s browsing, you couldn’t figure out how to navigate around the site if your life depended on it. Fortunately, your life doesn’t generally depend on such minor items.
Unfortunately for the website owner, his or her success and livelihood may very well depend on such a minor issue.
4. Then there was that one website that had audio (that you couldn’t turn off); video (that didn’t play); and links that were using some new and improved script or piece of code and you were never sure what was a link and what wasn’t! What happened to the good old days when links were blue and underlined?
Then it dawns on you that those four times are a drop in the bucket when you stop to think of it. They all represent times that your “ability or willingness to respond” was hindered due to a seeming lack of consideration for you…the potential client.
Just like the old Prof had said so many years ago. I recall him giving the example of writing your Representative in Washington, D.C. to express yourself in this “participatory democracy” of ours. Take a moment to ask yourself a few questions:
1. Do you know who your Representative is in Washington, D.C.?
2. Do you have a letterhead or stationery and an envelope?
3. Do you have postage on hand?
4. Do you know what to say and how to say it?
5. Do you have the time to gather everything together and mail the letter?
Wouldn’t it be a lot easier if someone else offered to write the letter, pay the postage and mail it for you? Be honest with yourself. Of course, it would!
If you forget the lessons provided here for one and all, you can bet that there will be someone else in this internet marketplace that will take the time and effort to make it easier for their website visitors to view, use and join in their web community.
Don’t forget what may be one of the single greatest keys to success in your life on and off of the internet – “Do nothing to interfere with the subject’s willingness or ability to respond.”
