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Book Yourself Solid & Get More Clients

Lesson 18 of 19

The BYS Web Strategy


Book Yourself Solid & Get More Clients

Lesson 18 of 19

The BYS Web Strategy


Lesson Info

The BYS Web Strategy

These six core self promotion strategies are they easier than you expected them to be say yes if it's true how would a relief and now we're going to make this as easy as we possibly can one of the things I'm going to do is look at your web sites live on the screen and I'm going to give you some feedback on those does anybody not want me? Does anybody want me to sugarcoat it? Okay, good eyes that a real wonder how are joking one really one got it okay um and I'll get to as many as I can they're going to give them to me on an ipad with them open I'll just go from one to the next they're not in any particular order and I'll do as many as I can before we have to wrap up sound good great and then at the end of this session I will give another overview of the whole book yourself solid system with a little bit more detail sound good? Okay now what's first what's first is this when you think about a web site, try not to think about it as one big thing think about it is a siri's of pages and th...

ese pages may interact with each other you may create architecture that links one page to another page to another page from another page, but you want to be intentional about that architecture so for each page you're thinking of the following three things how many things thie first who's coming to the page because you may have potential clients you may have past clients you may have press you may have referral partners you may have meeting planners you may have so I wanna make sure you know who's coming to that page so that you can then clearly defined a goal number two is what do I want these people to do if number one is who's coming number two is what I want them to do that you call to action that your goal call it your goal and your goal now number three how are you going to get them to do it with some kind of call to action and you can use copyright u can use video you can use audio the way that the pages laid out is as important if not more important than what it says so the layout of the text the design not for prettiness but for effectiveness as it relates to the goal you're trying to achieve moving people to that goal is what's important so every time you work on a page you want to think about it like that you want to put as little on that page as you possibly can so you don't have things that are covering up the goal that are distracting people away from the goal and you can do this with grace and respect and um gravitas it doesn't have to be some crazy long, hyperbole filled headline with flashing things and million arrows you don't have to do all of that this is the effect of strategy and if you want to get deeper into ooh traffic and conversion strategies do as soon as you possibly can make sure you start learning about analytics and how to measure what's actually happening on your website because you know, we might think we might take a particular convention we know typically this color button works very well and we use it but for some reason a different color performs better on your site for whatever reason don't always know why the only way you knows you're testing one button against another put but let's go split testing a be testing and there's a lot of simple free tools that will allow you to do these things google has them all for you, but you want to make sure the earliest possible when we released have google analytics on your site even if you're not going to start measuring, tracking and doing all that kind of stuff now you'll be compiling that data so that when you do get to that you'll have some data already okay? But for now you're just thinking about who's coming what's the goal how you gonna get them to do it ok any questions about that good now? Social media I know everybody makes like because you know everybody's got a different reaction so way have to remember that we need to go where our clients hang out so if they are incredibly active in a particular social space maybe we do want to go and show up there and do our marketing there and usually on social spaces it's by adding as much values we cannot by showing up in trying to promote something certainly we don't go to some influencers page and try to promote our thing on there paige just because our target market is hanging out there you guys are all shaking your head yeah but not everybody realizes that so I'm glad you um but I do really believe that if you're at the earlier stages of your business development and or your target audience is not congregating in m in in a in a very active way in one of those particular social spaces then it may not be a great use of your time and you also have to watch out about having tons of social platforms with no activity I was doing some consulting for a company who wanted to bring on a marketing director and he said can you have a quick chat with him and give us your feedback on him and when I did my research on him I found literally thirty something different social platforms where he had started a profile and in finishing no activity and I came to I had came to two conclusions to assumptions rather one and the more positive one was that he was as a marketing person sort of checking out these platforms, testing them, seeing, you know, learning about them, so he was aware of how they worked, and then the other was he's somebody who starts things and doesn't finish so now I had to in that interview try to determine which it was without asking him because he would then say, well, that's, I'm just trying to figure them out so you don't wantto anyhow, so my determination was that he didn't start things, that he didn't finish things that he started, and so that that didn't get him the job. So it's interesting that we think the social platforms are so helpful for our brand awareness, but in fact they can hurt you, so I'd rather see you have one social platform that you do a lot with, then a whole bunch that you don't do much with and certainly what people will say. Well, get all hot use all the social platforms and just published the same thing on all of them that's okay to a certain extent, but really the platforms were about interacting, especially when you're not when you don't yet have a following, who is looking for the content you're producing in very, um active way so how many of you guys currently use social media in a very active way? Raise your hand if you do good and, um how many of you guys use all three of the big, big three twitter, facebook and linked and raise your hand? Uh almost all of you and the others use one or two of them or just one of them good so those are your strategies continue with them go big, but I still think if you could focus on one place to get a big following instead of some here some here somewhere remember when we talked about earlier this idea of the target market understanding where they are so you khun all the marketing you do creates well it creates awareness, but the aggregate of what you've done is big as opposed to a little bit in a lot of different places, so if you get a you know, like five hundred on twitter five hundred on facebook five hundred over here, it's what I would think you'd be better to have fifteen hundred or two thousand one place yeah, just my perspective and also uh it it makes it easier so you just pay attention to one place I paid attention to to facebook and twitter a little bit more on facebook than I do on twitter just because I don't love the one hundred forty characters I found most of my time is like to lead to lead to lead instead of from fr em and then I got changed the andy teo teo and symbol and then you know, that's what I find a lot of my time has spent doing if I want to re tweet something or whatever so, uh don't shock it up to me being an old man just cause I shave my head it's nothing to do with that we should all make our own choices with respect to how we want to mark it just because you see other people in your industry doing in a particular way doesn't mean you need to do it that way okay with your website you're trying to get people there so if you're using those social platforms a big part of the objective is to get people from those social platforms over to your website if you're trying to get them to become clients at some point because the website is really the sales hub the social platforms or for the communication for the beginning of a relationship development but if you get them over to the website and they can say join a newsletter where they had expressed some interest in getting more from you, then you have another relationship with them remember our hierarchy moving from the social space to the in box to the phone to the in person meeting? We wanna move up uh that ladder so see how you can direct people from there over to the site and make sure you can get them to take an action on the site and if you know who's coming you know what they want them you want them to do and you know how you're going to get them to do it? Bingo then those social platforms are more effective ok any questions about that thus far? So speaking of marie for leo, she recommends not putting the plug in so the buttons for facebook and on the website she doesn't want people to go off of her website onto the social platforms. Yeah, well, what do you think about that? I think that makes perfect sense but every situation is going to be different. It really depends on what the purpose of that page is what's my goal on that page maybe my goal is to get them to go over to twitter and join me on twitter because I do much more on twitter okay, so this is a specialist in all the areas as we've been discussing it especially this area just cause you see someone else do it some way and you think, well they're very successful that means I should do with same way doesn't necessarily mean you should because you may have different goals and you know what here's the other thing the website that they have may not be working well you don't necessarily know for example I'll change website design often because I may be testing something you don't know that I'm just testing you go well that I have to do that because that's what michael does it you don't necessarily know that the way you know what really works is by doing it yourself and testing your own audience now if I'm looking at uh sites to figure out what type of tactics would work well safer conversion I'm gonna look at sites like amazon I'm gonna look at the big retailers online I'm gonna look at the ones who know more about you know what people are doing online than anybody else because this is what they do when they do it the best in the world than they have billions of dollars of profit as they rolled up note as a result of knowing exactly where to put that but they may be testing something too but still I want to trust their testing over somebody else's testing hu you know might know about this but they're not amazon right? I'm gonna look at the way google does things I'm gonna look at those big names and I'm going to try to take my lead from that great uh newsletter to subscribe to I don't know the people who run it but it's called which test one and not the number one w o n and they publish case studies on a b test and you have to guess which one won air b which one do you think that higher conversion and then once you do they tell you which one actually did and to see if you your instinct was right or if it was wrong and you'd be surprised how many times you get it wrong and how many times um convention doesn't apply but it's good to start with convention another great source a resource for you for website designed for user experience is don't make me think it's a great book and um the point of it is if I'm coming to your website don't et me think make it easy who's coming what do you want them to do how are you gonna get them to do it okay sound good alright any other questions before I move on I want to look at some websites yes we d'oh merrily there you go all right we got no release me that's the first one they gave me so someone's out for you okay merrily it looks to stock totally it looks like a dentist website so that's the first thing that's got a j can I just defend myself really quickly and can I go can I get some tissues hey you might want to bring in a few cases of tissues for this no defense got it go yeah so in an event so that's number one it looks to stock and cain if you if you were scrolling down you're going to see there's more stock now number two blues are very good for building trust we know that but there's a lot of sort of kind of heaviness here there's you know some white space certainly but for me it's got this like I'm going to the dentist feeling you also use a lot of real estate in the header for no good use new purpose whatsoever right? Yeah and remember when somebody looks at a website they look left to right left right and down so I'm looking at your name great integrity practice member of the logo doesn't matter I couldn't care less about that little girl is not going to make me not hire her but it doesn't make me go oh my god lou that logo I've gotta hire her doesn't work like that um and then I have a testimonial then I have to join our mailing list first of all if you're going to do something with an opt in and it should be front center right there top okay above the hole secondly, nobody wants to join your mailing list but they might want something specific that will help them this is something I think you know but have not changed I can't I need thio not allowed to not allowed to sew but the reason I'm not letting her defend yourself because I know full well that she knows this, but he doesn't know better yes, I know better, but I'm I'm introducing this now because for everybody that's watching they'll go oh, I should really join my mailing list it's not a list this is this is what it's called people calling the industry my list is this my list? Is that my list? Is this what first all your shopping list? But but outside of that, I don't think of these people as on a list because that I think it infers word implies that somehow they're not that valuable as as individuals, the list is valuable to you, but subscribers or somebody who have subscribed and guess what that means they can unsubscribe, and it may change your perspective on what that means so generally and everyone's, while I may say list, but generally when I'm writing about this from talking about it, I do my best to stay. We're away from the word list because I know it makes me think differently about those folks to call them subscribers I don't call them my tribe because I think that for me personally it feels arrogant, you know, it's like my tribe of people in third grade, my my name was chief uh, eagle eye I was the chief of our third grade class and study native american culture, and everybody had a nickname I could find things really well so I was eagle eye on I was really big nose like a man child so I was the chief so that those are the two things I want to say for your sight just to start because you know the stock thing is quite a big problem and then the mailing list thing is another problem and then thie contact us is all the way down in the bottom right corner where it should be in the top right corner just that's uh one of those just um conventional things okay, okay norm or defending yourself you're good you're going to make some big changes here? Absolutely definitely all right good now jenna oh you guys are in a row that's great okay, jenna first of all, I'm gonna make it a little smaller no, I can't what's up with this e had so I gave her an opportunity to make an excuse. Okay? First of all the father you're using here is good for print. This is not a good web not at least at least in the way that you're using it here. Okay, um so you want to use verdana an aerial fund it's easier to read online unless there's a very specific reason that you're using a different kind of font that's going to help achieve the goal? Okay, thanks sense um jenna dalton okay in the right side here you've got these flashing images of these minute little testimonials this is the this is where I'm looking and I'm looking I gotta wait for the next one hey there's the next one jenna has a gift and quickly uncovering where people are stuck no shoot! Try the next one! Jenna had faith in my abilities even when I was a hundred percent sure she'd get so clearly you're not letting them have control I would not put testimonies on the right side here I would put a big opt in here you're going to redesign this? Yes, definitely but that's first first off, you do sort of have this like opt in that sort of trying to be above the fold, but its this its not really showing up there on dh er you know, click here to own your awesomeness. Click here for goodies, but I like the way you've structured these different options at the bottom of the page and then people can self select, which I think is great. Um so that's a good thing I think that convention tends to work well for a brochure type website like yours. Now we just we need thio increase the impressive nous the awesomeness of this site so you don't look like an amateur anymore exactly good um and then the other thing I was going to say wass yeah, so get the confidence to make the impact you're meant to make I'll show you how full free but that doesn't really tell me much, right? It's not specific I want something specific that you can get right now and I'll also get your newsletter. Yeah, yeah and that's something I'm working on because with the revelations now this is the first years of this is really the first time I'm looking at them and I mean, I give a quick glance at them when I was told you guys were coming, but I purposely didn't like study them didn't look at them I didn't want to know a lot about you beforehand because I feel that I would be biased. I would have this preconceived notion of you coming in and I didn't want to have that so these they're just really obvious things that pop up. Now I'll be the first to tell you that there are certain things I need to be improved in my sights as well because you're always and continuous improvement and you will get to the important things uh, you're in order of priority, but this stuff for you guys he's gotta be jumped up the you know, the priority uh, hierarchy and what you also have to remember people people said, but I just finished it michael I just paid this designer to do it and I know it hurts when someone like me comes along says we've got to change this you got to do this again you don't have to yes could do whatever you want but you feel like I was done you're never done not with websites especially they are completely generative process and it'll give process that's changing all the time so you're gonna have monthly check ins to continuously improve the website you might improve one thing each month and you might do it by testing one thing each month using, you know testing tool from google okay, michael, quick question over here, please. That's okay, it is okay, so for both these jenna and merrily both of them much are their business is very much michael port is his business when we come to your site what do we see? I'm looking at it right now. Boom! Nice professional head shot as you mentioned as provides a certain credibility would you recommend that certain individuals if they are their business for that consultant and coach, that landing page your face should be their front center? Absolutely. So here's one of the excuses that people usually make when they don't have their picture front and center well, I don't have really good head shots right now I've got to get them right this is, um I wrong no, okay, so you must have professional pictures taken unless you know an amateur photographer who is almost as good as a professional that has a little studio that could make you look like you've got a professional photograph there's a reason they're professional photographers they can make you look like yourself on your best day you don't want them to make you look like you know you're somebody else you don't want to do a whole glam diva thing so that when you show up people who what you want to make sure it looks like you want them to understand you want them to look based on your brand identity okay go do it now let's go okay now you can't really tell here on the ipad because of the way the ipad is structured um but if you look at this uh on a bigger screen you're going to see more of this background okay on the sides you see here this little background it's like a victorian couch um I think the imagery is wonderful this is the thing that you have a photographer it's extraordinary but the template you're using for this website looks dated and drab brown's don't tend to work very well on websites you'll notice go out there and look, you don't see a lot of browns you ever notice that think about it can you name a site with a lot of brown's? No, they're certainly brown is used no doubt from here, you know, from time to time and even on effective websites, but I'm gonna find a lot of, so I will move away from this sort of brown color. Um, and I would even move away from that background and color text even black taxed on a colored background is hard to read. There's a reason that ninety nine point nine percent of newspapers are white with black tech? The financial times is pink, but I find it very hard to read because white on black on white is easier to read. White on black very hard to read green on red, very hard to read think about the websites that are very effective. The text on them is on a white background, so you as a photographer, I would rather have either a lot of white or a lot of black because the image is the fact the image is the thing, so this actually doesn't require a lot of change from a design perspective, but you can really make your photographs, you know, these photographs? This is really good stuff in here. I mean, like, really good stuff like that's, a great shot right there, you know what I'm saying, but I don't want to just be distracted by anything I don't want to be distracted by anything here I'd much rather look at their behinds then you know then other stuff so anyhow so that's a little change you can make then also um when you were a photographer I'm going to make a determination not just by your pictures but also by the way the site looks on your style so this style of this website doesn't tell me that you have much style if I just look at the pictures I see there's a great pictures but I will be distracted and I will think I'm not so sure scallops style she's interesting artist shouldn't this thing be like kind of cool your green trina yeah I guess my problem is I just don't know how to do it so I probably need to hire someone which I don't quite have the budget for well yes you probably shouldn't be doing your own website it's unless you have a lot of expertise in it um you know, doing some of your own things from time to time is fine but you would be surprised at how cheap it is just to get somebody to do a wordpress uh sight for you with a theme I mean we're talking a couple hundred bucks and if you think about it what's more important eating for a week we're having a website that actually gets your business I mean there's a lot of sea we make choices all the time opportunity cost we sat on a I don't have the money for the website but we get a haircut I don't have the money for the website but we buy some new makeup I have the money for the website but you know we get a new pair of shoes I have the money for the website but we go out for dinner and have lots of drinks so this is where some of your resource is go and you want to be as frugal as you could possibly be about it but nonetheless you gotta look professional all of you guys cool all right now of course I could go deeper into this we could talk about there really isn't any kind of sort often so to speak or call to action right but you're going to go back and look at this and not just from a design perspective you're going what I want them to do how am I going to get them to do it cool cool okay next I'm missing something it's a virgin it's only about twenty four hours four hour twenty four hours but twenty but what you don't see is all the behind the scenes stuff all my a weber all my satori which is my coach console all my google analytics including re marketing tags all that's already there okay it's just waiting for gabi and I waited the copy because I was coming here I knew I would have to rewrite it her excuses justifying um great now is this something you're making yourself? No, I have someone doing it that's why they're doing it incrementally are they doing anymore with design or is this the design? No, no that's just the face up so we could build it from there okay, so then we shouldn't really work on it too much because they're going it's going just need to tell me what they're supposed to do. Theo well, okay, um okay, so it's one of those one of those questions that's actually a little tricky because every you know, there's a million different ways you could design the site, but the things we're talking about the principal's or what you reply and one of the ways that I start thinking about a new site is I go out there and look at what inspires me and you know, I'll talk to the designer I'll say I saw these sites they inspire me um I like the structure here, the format here theme here and then we start to do some mock ups, but we always do the information architectural mock ups first always the information in our architecture mock up first there's a tool called mockingbird something mockingbird I can't exactly what it is, but if you search like mockingbird web mock up software e I think there's a free edition I'm not sure, but you you could go in there and you could do all these sort of wire frames and mock ups, and it'll link from page to page to page. But, it's, just your funny little box here. You're putting a box here. You know, this box is for any image. You know, this box is for content. You know, this box is for top ten. You can put button here, but in their button there and then this way you can do this yourself. You could work with your web designer creating his information architecture first. Because usually what happens is a lot of non marketing designers. We'll just start right away doing design. This is a direct response to all. Not a painting. I have a feeling that's gonna be a quote in the chat room because it is important. This is a direct response tool. Not necessarily a piece of art. Although if it is a really good direct response tool, it might also be very artful. But first, we want to look at the direct response. Okay, good. All right. So one of the thing, I mean it's a tiny little thing, but you don't it's redundant to have the same picture showing up. Oh, the picture in the about dropped down will be a video. It was so cold. So yes, so again, there's not I can't really do too much of a critique if so much is going to change. So you'll take what we're working on here overall, and you'll apply it from a principal perspective or a telly a all right, it's not your company, right? You work with the company, but no, I my partner, my partner and I are both co owners. Okay, are you nervous right now? I really hate being in front of the camera and you haven't caught that over the last unit for tony for anything behind the camera back now you know how you're now I know how your subject it I get it that's actually good. You gotta force photographers to be in front of the camera, you know, over and over and over again. And then that's, why I'm here also your face, your fears, right? Ok, here, here's the thing you have the name of your of your agency a sounds very artistic and it's lovely sounding. But hey, I have no idea what it means be. I can't spell it and see, I can't repeat it like even if I look at this aura a tellier I sound like I feel like a selling an idiot trying to say what is it actually what do you mean what is how do you pronounce it or a tell you right now when you say it you say so fast I could never never type it into a web site each time you said or a telly eh what's the name of her thing what's the name of her thing so I'm not saying you have to change the name of your company but for a website name you wanted to be a lot easier so you might come up with a name that's a lot easier to put in there that's still represents your brand identity. Okay, okay one thing to think about um the I'm gonna go let's go home first okay home now see here's what's nice when we talk about a lot of white space you just see images to me I say well she's a professional photographer that's the first thing I think now the old the first sort of concern that I have is the kid next to the woman in the broad is a little discord there so mine naturally thing doesn't want to look at the woman with the broad but then I feel bad because I was the kid next to that you know, I mean that just makes me feel old weird and wrong so so I understand the woman in the bras for the booty, a photography, but maybe they're farther apart or their son or there's some other different lifestyle? Yes, a different lifestyle photo or a different boudoir photo that maybe isn't as provocative. I mean, that's the whole point of dude ross would be provocative, but maybe it's a little bit more of a glamour shot of some sort that doesn't have as much skin just a thought. Um also because then next to it, the picture of the people holding hands, I also see a short skirt and legs, so I'm getting kind of mixed messages you guys with me on this say yes if you are ok. Um then, of course, the other thing is that I'm not really sure which one I should be looking at because I see the kid one and I see the the hand holding one, and I see the naked woman one and, you know, maybe if I'm coming over already, knowing I want to do naked pictures, then I go there's the naked woman and click on it. But it's, not one hundred percent clear to me what each one of these categories, because you said the lifestyle one and that meant the kid. But I didn't I just put that together so the thing that you don't see, which is obviously something that we need to rectify is when you're on the computer, if you scroll over top of it, then you get those we'll do that, but you don't get it though scroll over things you're making people think and work don't they can think the blogger also is in the right side, which is going to be the more attractive item even though these are images because people go to the right side. So is that the thing you want them to click on the block? Is that the first thing when I start writing more? Maybe maybe maybe not you've got to decide what's what's the focus here is it tio send people in particular directions like, is it? You're here here or here go to the one that you want that's great, okay, um, and if I'm a photographer, I think if I'm trying to get people to buy my photographs that's, what I'm going to do and I'll put the block, you know, maybe, you know, in the top left corner is his block if people know that they want to keep going back to it or something and maybe I'll I'll I'll promote it in the site in different ways, okay? But unless I'm look up hard core photographer block and I'm known for my photography blogging etcetera etcetera I'm probably not going to make it the primary thing on the site to follow us on the left hand side uh first of all time laughs it was okay I guess if you have something else that's more compelling you know that that you want me to do but I'm not really ready to follow you I just just got popped over here either by accident cause I clicked on a thing a link on google or someone sent me here but I'm also probably not in the business of following photographers that I'm goingto higher for my wedding and maybe I don't do anything with those social sites so it might not be relevant for you here maybe deeper in that maybe an objective on a particular page okay let's go to now the lifestyle page we won't go to the boudoir paige because I don't know what's behind that one there's no nudity okay s oh come on is it going very okay again I already know your name but your name is not the most important thing it takes up a huge amount of real estate at the top of the page not so important um now I see some lifestyle stuff and there's a rollover and tells me which ones you were going to change that um the word investment is what it cost people often use that word investment instead of prices or fees because we're trying to do something to not make them think that it cost anything, instead, there is an investment, they're getting a return. But from what I've read, most folks who study pricing aren't convinced that that is a more effective way to to to articulate or identify your prices. So I think the word prices is just fine, but I don't even think you necessarily need those there. I think you could be it could be services, right? You have a portfolio, why's, an investment, you know, services. Okay? I mean, simple, this brochure type thing services. Okay, so I go to it and and and this is actually this is a very easy, isn't it very easy to work through mistake here is that you put the wedding packages first at twenty five hundred. I would go lower priced a high price in this particular set up some places you want to anchor the higher price and then get them to see the lower prices. But if I'm looking for a wedding and um and I see this, I'm going to start thinking, well, why these other ones so cheap and the wedding so expensive so to me, seeing these price next to each other on things that seem of equal value and the price is so different confuses me a little bit I'm gonna start thinking about it okay does that make sense guys with me on that say yes if you are okay so now let's go to the next site okay? So empower law is very dark for heavy this is the flash is this an emphasis on video it's flash so if I go here on my ipad I can't see it so don't use flash fascism is a technology that apple's basically killed okay, so uh so that's first um I'm not sure exactly what you want me to do here um so that's that's important I think that what I first get attracted to or what our human rights and I don't think that's something I can click on the video it should but I don't know if it'll work on your rights again you have the problem with video so with technology you want to make sure that it is consistent it works consistently across all platforms very important um also you have white text on a dark background well, you have small bits of text it's okay if there's a real reason you're doing it to put a color on top of a color white the color right putting one on top of brown is a color and color but unless you have a really good reason that you are and you're doing it intentionally to help conversion you believe that it will then be tested it and tested and see that it will and then you leave it fine but generally you want to stay away from that what's good here is that we have immigration law, family law business law I can sell select I like as we saw on the bottom of jenna's page I generally like websites especially for this kind of service that have different areas I like when I land on that page and all I see are those three things then when I get into that thing then it's some sort of giveaway opt in something that's going to get me that's going to give me some kind of content right away that has value even if they don't do it often which is fine if that's not going to be a marketing if you're not trying to do email marketing don't waste your time with an object because you're going to try to get the option you're not going to get it and then you're not gonna do anything even if you got it. So what was the point of trying to get it so you might give away something? Hey, you know you click on this pdf and you'll immediately c ten tips to make sure you're protected you know when you re patriot patriot ing or something makes sense yes yeah so we always wanted less is more in this particular case another great book is the paradox of choice bye barry schwartz is a professor of social sociology and psychology I believe it's worth more and subtitle is why more is less some great studies in there that will demonstrate to you um um why more is less okay so so good now precision running coaching science interestingly to me this is the uh the telly eh looked professionally designed this is the second one that looks more professionally designed little bit modern little bit hipper you know a little more a little more style even though it's just white and greg with a tiny bit of blue modern art is very cool and it's not a lot of different colors a lot of different things so she's got a huge head er I mean it takes up half the page so I don't think we really need that although percent precision running coaching signs I think it's really very powerful it let's me know you know that I'm in the right place but it's a lot of space and you're going to see pages differently on different devices of course if you have a twenty four inch uh browser it's going you're going to see more of it but when you're looking at the ipad hear what you're saying that there's what I see in the ipad you don't see um it's not it's this um ratio so group training zero to five I'm thinking money right now because of k's to me is dollars, if I'm a super experienced runner, I may get that right away, but if I'm not I mean plus rate, most of us don't really way can't compute kilometers because this is not a form we working for some reason these races still, you know, five case three k's, and I don't know what's the three k has a one point, I don't know, and then I give up on trying to do the math so so that's that the other you want some sort of call to action right away, there's a nice little thing here, but like, you know, I started a sort of looked through the bullets, but you're already describing what it is before you're talking to me about what I can achieve remember who's coming, what do want them to do, how you gonna get them to do it, and the way you get them to do it is generally by focusing on what they're going to achieve, and you need to speak to different owners differently. If you have a beginner running need to speak to them differently than you do for a more advanced runner, and you shouldn't try to speak to them at the same time, so you want to have new runners go here, competitive runners go here, and then they're never the twain shall meet. Okay, um but the thing that I really want you to take away from this is just the fact that just a simple white, um theme like this with simple text can actually look better than trying to do a whole big mish vegas, as my mother would say that's just completely overwhelming and ends up looking like, you know, uh, my grandmother's furniture right now what I would love to see is mohr photographs in a very artistic kind of cool way as opposed to just sort of popped in because I think that people could see themselves in some of the people in the photographs. Oh, she looks like me, but she is my body type. I guess I could do this too, right? So I think that, um you know, if if I look throughout it, you know what we do there's? A lot of different things group coaching the women next team um, you know, then we get into a lot of text, no more images. Then it gets a little too text heavy because it's just text on white oh, here's an image so that's good. Okay, but look at the bottom, she has something here to do that's good. Remember, what do you want them to do? I want her to see the individual coaching plans great my assumption, I was thinking it was going to nothing there, and I was going to tell you gotta put something on the bottom. Now, I don't know if that's the right thing to have their without reviewing this further, but at least you get that concept that you want them to do something else, and now she wants to get you to sign up for one of these things do do the majority of your new clients, actually by right from this site without talking to you, um, because I'm pretty new, yes, that's happened, but I mean, technically, they're referred by somebody to go to this, right? So for the most part, this information and the opportunity that they have to buy right there is more informative. Yes, this is fine, but you want to make sure that if you know that a conversation between you and them is very important, then you don't want to end, it would just add to cart sure, because you didn't achieve your goal if you know your goal is to get them on the phone if your goal isn't to get them to buy right here or maybe they're not ready to buy, but they want to opt into something yeah, so oh, you know, you often say, well, I'm not ready if you're not ready, totally cool put your name and email address in here you can get this so you can start practicing this on your own I'll follow up with you I'll give you some more tips sets, etcetera and maybe we can improve your running even without a coach I think I'd be pretty cool if I saw that I'd start doing it and then I'd start running trying to follow your tips like oh, I love this when we talked about that before she's really cool maybe I'll go get some coaching from her and go to the next level okay, so so so so is that helpful some good things definitely thinking thanks um a powerful moment you guys all with the big massive headers what's up with that, you know me big headers um where mom's learned to tame the chaos in life and business what's so interesting about this is that a powerful moment? Is this like heavy? I'm not sure what color you call that fun the the the tagline underneath that supposed to tell me that I'm in the right place that I get what I want is almost invisible it's like a light grey almost the same color as the background and it's tiny so a powerful moment what does that mean? It doesn't mean anything to me I want to know is this place built for me doesn't help me get what I want um samoon now we got a lot of stuff, you know? You you look a little bit like more like a publishing platform. Do you know what I'm saying? Like there's? A lot of different things because she's got her blogged in these little boxes here. Do you do a lot of blogging? Actually, I built that thinking that's what I would do but that's not what I'm goingto continue to do. So here's the thing if I have this option, tio okay, so sign up to know what's happening behind the scenes. I don't care what's happening behind the scenes, you know, I want where I want it. Oh, I want my scenes to be happening. So what you gonna give me? And then how you gonna follow up with me? Right then on the left side, you go to search box, you don't need a search box always coming your website like a google to search for stuff. Um so it's just a distraction and it's unnecessary. You got a welcome video with the welcome video is down and then you will obtain the kid shit the chaos in the kitchen and oh, so she like kitchen organizer that's what she does right she's like a kid organizer and comes into your kitchen and, like, fix up the shelves and stuff that's not what you do, but that's what I'm thinking here and I see this so I looked through the little pictures except doesn't work, and I click on it just one right there right now, that's usually where I put any of the good source one picture, but it has arrow was telling me there are more pics. Yeah, there's nothing that could do to take that out right? Because you're trying to make the website yourself? Well, no. Well, I actually had that done by it's a it's, a theme and it's part of the theme that I couldn't figure out, I didn't see it waited that could be removed, so whoever made this theme for you should, uh, customizing should get rid of that if you don't want to use it and you might not want to use it at all, I don't want teo, then you might want to adjust to a different thing. The thing you think about these themes from word president yoo gun, you know, move, change themes without too much trouble, and I want to see a lot less out here. I don't want to see this as ah block home page, you got categories on the right side I'm just going to put around here and so to look at stuff and maybe I'll like it maybe I won't I don't know you know even if I like it you know oh so I'll be there in a minute sallie right? You get distracted by something you desperate housewife is on and then you go you know so do you know what I'm saying? I didn't yeah so we want to get this you know, really really streamlined and focused on who's coming where you want them to do how you gonna get them to do it so good sense great are right fashion needs faith online school of intimacy powerful moment block so these these thiss crumb trail is what it's called you've got it's it's supposed to be a um it's supposed to be the navigation items these air the navigation items but technically when you have those little arrows in between it looks like a crumb trail a crumb trail tells you where you are on the site so if your four pages in it'll tell you the four pages that are the senior pages to that page simple example if someone goes to say, book yourself solid the book yourself solid block and they click on a particular block post the main directory the main like book yourself solid dot com for such blah gould will be a little link in the top then there'll be a carrot or ah like a greater than symbol kind of thing and then you say the name of the post because that's the link the name of the post is a link of the post it's a crumb trail so you can get back to where you work by clicking back okay, so it just looks to me like a crumb trail and I'm thinking and almost building over the crumb shell is but I'm looking at it going what do they have to do with each other and what the heck does this have to do with being an author? Absolutely nothing right? Because this wasn't built for that at all oh, now she tells me you had a good excuse yes then she didn't even tell me you've got no excuse all right get so we'll go onto matthews but so basically you need a new site absolutely great. Okay, I wanted to get the foundation you are worked on the side I think susan is so cool and I love her excuse but your excuses no you know what? Yes okay, thank thank before we move on can you take a couple of questions? Sure. Absolutely alright, I've won from tapley johnson photo who says michael you mentioned viewers being drawn to the right side of the web browser so is it better to have your page menu on the left side or your page menu on the left side of the bright side of the page? And what about ordering your page menus from top to bottom for instance, I have my pricing page below my about paige shouldn't be vice versa I know that was a lot yeah there's a lot of different questions in there and again there isn't gonna be one way to do this the wave it your website converts is influenced by all the different things going on not just whether the about is at the top and then the services so many different things that are happening which is why the testing is so important and you continue to test test test test now with that said she's got to remember the goal what's the goal what does she want to get people to do if they're going to look from left to right? What does she want to put on that right side? There is the most important thing that menu navigation items if it is then that's maybe where it goes but it might not be the menu I mean personally I tend to do sights I don't I'm not a designer but I'm saying my sights I tend to do the navigation items across the top because on the side is a little more is a little outdated it's not done that way as much anymore? I do have one site that has those items on the side though but it's a site that's this big it's michael port dot com and there's only four items here is just a branding site and you can click on any one of these items and the pages don't even change it just content slides inside the little window so you're not don't feel like you're going anywhere it's super simple could breathe through into click but the thing you land re breeze through quickly but the thing you land on is here's all the free chapters you want him name and email, and here you'll also get the newsletter which has tips to bubble above of about and you joined forty nine another thousand people that kind of stuff so it's, so simple that all it is is a brand identify our site with an opt in at the front and some information on, you know, speaking entrepreneurship and mentoring and this is this is all you need for each one of those things so converts very, very well it's very simple I think we made that in two days and he uses what's called a slide deck my god makes a custom but there's a company called slide deck that you khun sort of by the technology from and it slides up or down. We do one more quick question michael from online think is maybe a great example for what you have up right now the question is this from blasting would be better to put your name as the name of your business or have branson, for example give mike report that comma charles have beyond books I'll we've seen now self made renegade we've seen jenna dalton dot com we've seen a powerful moment so your name vs creating a brand a company well, it depends what you want to brand initially to some kind of business you're in right? Um for me personally I wanted to brand michael port first and then when I was creating individual product brands inside my overall brand because of what I do for a living the kind of thin people need to, you know, associate with michael port, then each one of those became its own platform generally if you're starting uh eh, you know, ah business, a retail business that you might want to sell someday you're not branding it under your own name, your branding and under a particular business name, but you also might develop a whole fashion line based on individual brand name that becomes these stores all over the world and then you get bought by macy's or something. So there isn't one answer to this question. It really depends on what her personal goals are with respect to her business development self re renegade has got his blogged as his home page and you've got this thing on the right side that shows me a box free starter kid get the freeze very small little language it's not really clear to me because it's a long thing that at the bottom there's just little upton so it's not actually above the fold right? Okay so I'm not really sure what to do here with this you know the thing I really see first is this cool logo but then I'm looking oversee members area members area general should not be the top right corner because members who are already members and sound right corner is very powerful important place to bei er s um our coaching I don't know what that isthe so I don't think I click on it and there's a block when I'm already on the block it's a little confusion there in the navigation um and you know look I might read some of these read some of these it's good I mean look if you're going to be primarily a blogger then at school to make it as your home page but I think if you're going toe you want to a lot of blogging but you want to look at how somebody very effectively um designs a block and also sells other things she look a copy blogger yeah they actually just did a redesign of the site because their business is now very different than it was when they were just primarily a blogging site selling services related to that now they have software products but nonetheless you know they're they're top of the class in this okay s so I I just I don't really know what to do here I want something simpler I want something a little younger you know I mean it looks a little bit like I don't know it looks a little amateurish which is not bad for your target audience if they think you made it as long as it's cool does that make sense yes yeah it's hard to listen to this stuff isn't it I know I know um but I like what you did at the top he put a little hello bar it's called hello bar top although it didn't really pop out of me because that colors it's the same family as the color below feels orange would pop out at me but he didn't welcome creative live users a special gift just for you it's brilliant because every day he's here standing up saying his website and people may go check him out and I was just giving him a special gift that's perfect is great so he gets this concept of conversion now you just gotta start working at sort of upgrading the quality of the site and the design of the site and focusing more on your conversion to make sense because it does yes I went through all the websites they gave me here which is pretty cool and I think I went through I went to everybody's website no not yours did you have one right? Who made this? Who made this? Um I have somebody to do it to hire someone to do it. Um okay, so it looks a little dated dated? Okay, little dated a little. Yeah, it is stated and this is perfect because I'm in the process of having it redesigned. Oh, good website, but here's the thing we're in the process redesign it's hard to help the new redesign if it's going to be very different than this one, of course, just like you know, with tanny um, so you know, I think what you get here is that you want to convert people. I mean, this is what's called a squeeze page, and as much as you don't mind not like a squeeze page, I tested the squeeze page for book yourself solid against the regular home page that was there previously that a lot of different options and my conversions for options to the newsletter went up one hundred seventy six percent. I gave them the option in the bottom left corner to either go to the block or the home page. There was a little link there, so they weren't absolutely squeezed into only doing one thing, but nonetheless you can't really argue with those conversions made a big difference, and I was just giving away two three chapters from book yourself solid actually four, then six, then but another less so she understands the conversion on this site because it looks it does look a little bit dated. Um, you know, the opt in the personal information of first name, last name? Uh, it's it's obviously not designed it's not changed from whatever system you're using, like a weber constant contact. Whatever. It's the code is lifted directly from there and put here so it looks, um, stock kind of ugly. Do you see what I mean? Like I know these platforms so I know that that's that's not changed should easily be changed. The font should change to be the same as the other fun. The design should have the same coloring, same design. Same look and feel that kind of stuff showed some garment is like heavy, right? Because you have all this dark color around the edges kind of heavy. I want light, you know, now you've got this sort of purple in the light, you know, it's got like, a new agey kind of thing. And if that's good for your audience that's. Good. You got to make sure that your audience resonates with, you know, the way that you designed it. Of course, get a free book uh uh what's any book, right, so I don't want to be a book I want some kind of specific information is going to solve the problem right now is going to take me somewhere right now it's gonna inspire me right now click here for your coaching program I don't know I had a coaching program you see the language is very important click here for your group coaching I didn't know I had group coaching cool um and then before I started work and then there's testimonials but I'm not actually sure it's a testimonial until I start reading it then go I this a testimonial so I really feel like you're not talking to me because you got these testimonials someone else's talking about themselves now maybe I can associate myself into that story, but you're asking me to do a lot by forcing myself to try to associate with a story that I may not necessarily associate with but can you talk to me even if you decide the first thing you're going to talk about is a client's story but you're relating it to me. Okay, um so a couple of those things there to think about and then again you know there's some redundancy in your navigation um you know, it's his coaching and then it also says program well what's the difference and what's different in corporate and non corporate because there is nothing that says the opposite of corporate so so for all of you guys, we'd go back to the home page now for all of you guys thiss simple a formula that I gave you who's coming what do you want them to do? How you gonna get them to do it will dramatically change all of these pages and every single one of you has something to improve some need total redesigns some just need some redesign that makes sense the only thing I don't like about this being our last thing is kind of like a down are you? Oh man, you know so like that's kind of a bummer I don't want that but just remember, every single day every one of us is finding a place for improvement I could show you a million things in my business that need improvement, a million broken things and that's what we're doing that's our job, our job is to get up every day and solve problems that's it this works well for us today but now I just found out a way to improve it I'm going to prove it that worked well for me tomorrow I found another way and now I'm going to prove it again and so that's what we're trying to do and so when I say you got to do this on your website you got to do this and where are you going to do this? You decide whether you do it or not not up to me that's just my perspective but if you think that makes sense I should do that now you put it into your plans for whatever projects you're working on okay when I work with folks in the alliance with michael mentoring program everything every ninety days we come together to look at four areas our sales goals are marketing goals are process goals systems and our project girls so you know this is the exact amount of money I have to make this month is the exact amount of money have to make this quarter these are the number of services or products I need to sell at these price points in order to hit those goals how do people have very very clear sales goals right now one two, three four then once you know what those goals are then you look at your marketing goals what marketing goals so I need to achieve in order to create enough awareness to hit those sales goal lt's what are they going to be what am I going to do and then how am I going to do it and when am I going to do it? You got it down on paper you know exactly what it is for ninety days you do the same thing with your systems what systems do I need to create in order to achieve the marketing goals and the sales goals and then so important, what projects do I need to do in order to create the systems that achieve the marketing goals and the sales goals? No matter what stage of business development you're at, these are the four categories you must always be focusing on and the book yourself solid work we're doing focuses on the first two because I got to make sure you got enough business you know going to keep you afloat till you get deeper into the process, but the project work is essential no matter what stage you're so all of the things that you're taking away from here work on the website to work on your tag lines whatever it is work on your sales cycle to work on your information products put them into a project plan some of the projects may go out over ninety days that's fine, but I think what I have found most effective is the ninety day chunks because most of us can handle looking at ninety days looking at a year two years, three years very difficult at your stage of business development ninety days at a time great and for the sales goals it's very good to look one year this wanted to make this year then you could break those up into quarters okay, so I want you to as we're leaving here I want you to think about putting your work into that kind of structure and the reason that I bring my folks together every ninety days is because if you don't have some accountability, you're not going to do it. A few of you may, but not as a sort of lee as you probably should. And so how do you create that kind of structure of accountability in your life in your work?

Class Description

Book more clients, earn more referrals, and build profitable, long-lasting professional relationships with Michael Port's best-selling Book Yourself Solid system. Whether you are a photographer who needs to book more portrait sessions or an acupuncturist who needs more clients, this business workshop arms you with better marketing techniques that immediately bring more clients and money into your business.

Michael will teach you:

  • How to find ideal clients that energize and inspire you
  • How to understand your clients' needs
  • How to master the 4-part simple sales formula to book the business almost every time. 

Michael will also show you methods for reaching out to prospective clients and referral partners, tips to help improve your website, and strategies for building your social platform to help grow your business.

If your business is just getting off the ground and you need help finding the perfect client, this workshop is a must-see.  


a Creativelive Student

What marvelous three days those were! Michael Port is unbelievably generous and nice. A real blessing to the folks in the studio audience and us at home. I watched all three days, but felt compelled to own the videos as well, because it's by practicing and revisiting this content that we can all get booked solid. I want also say that Antonio and Kenna were great hosts. Book Yourself Solid has been my mantra for the last month and I hope it continues to be for years and years to come. Read the book (it's important) and watch the videos (they complete your view of the whole system). Thanks Michael Port. Thanks Creative Live. Good luck to us all!


I would recommend this for most. I loved listening to Michael but as a photographer I felt a lot of his applications and exercises did not apply. I heard reference to "Wedding Photography" more times than I would have liked. Since Creative Live is such a big photography learning site; I would have liked to hear more reference to where this would work say for a Day In The life, Pet or fine art photographer. I suppose just more photography relation's would have been nice. All in all I had fun doing the exercises and there was a lot of phenomenal info in these videos. I'll be watching them again soon.


This is an amazing course, this is what a lot of marketers are teaching but with even more clarity and with his personal systems added that help with your work in the world. This information is so easy and clear, he takes you step by step, and the workbook is essential and extensive and easy and fun to follow, I've been listening over and over again, because there is just so much info that you have to hear it numerous times, at least I did, if you follow all the steps this course is better than courses that cost thousands of dollars. And he's a great presenter!