Journal
the hiring dilema
May 05, 2011
Hiring can be a drain!
It's time consuming, and time is the most precious thing any of us have. Therefore, hiring needs to be executed as efficiently as possible.
We already know people follow the path of least resistance, but that's doubly true for job seekers. Yea, the application instructions are at the top of the page in bold print, but they may as well say "Ignore Me."
Still, employers really need job applicants to follow instructions. You can try installing more technology, but technology won't change a mindset. There will always be vexing problems with job applicants, but how you deal with them is all up to you.
The healthiest solution is to create a hiring culture that suits YOUR ideal workflow—not the assorted habits of job seekers. Small shops should take notes from big employers. Go fill out an application for a major corporation. They don't fool around. You can't go to B without completing A; and that's only if you are persistent enough to find the application. Short of a quarter million dollar IT budget, the small shop can still create a highly efficient online hiring process. It's all in the approach. Just think through the steps you take. Take time over coffee some morning while you're fresh and...
Ask some basic questions
- Do we want just anyone to fill out our job application?
- If not, then why does our job application form have a direct link on our home page????
- How can we qualify applicants?
- What minimum information do we need to qualify them?
- What can we do to inspire the most thoughtful applications? Video? Graphics? Humor? Colorful text?
Employers who upload "defenseless" job applications know how much precious time they spend sorting out information and weeding out unqualified candidates. The time you take to plan goes a long way, but don't turn it into rocket science. That coffee break planning session will be very revealing. In the meantime,
here's a list of suggestions:
- Remove the direct link to the job application from the home page. You will never see such a thing on a Fortune 500 website.
- Don't just hide the link, move the application to another page. I assure you, Google has indexed that URL.
- Write out a paragraph about the kind of employee you want and what you expect from them.
- Replace your job application with that paragraph.
- Add a NOINDEX metatag on the new job application page.
Now sit back and relax. Not only have you inspired a better crop of job applicants, but you just saved yourself a lot of precious time.
real stopping power
September 30, 2010
I was up late researching hosted wireframe solutions and multi-tasking on twitter when I came across a headline about HTML5 and CSS3. One thing led to another and there I was, trying to piece together how a .44 caliber firearm could help me steal people's attention. It helped that I'm a wild-west, Bonanza enthusiast in Arizona, otherwise the mention of "stopping power" might have gone right over my head. The website was Information Highway Man, and it had real stopping power. Apart from his engaging writing style, highway man had engaged modern coding features without overdoing it. The site owner is a marketing copy writer located in New Zealand. And after only a few of his very educational emails, it seemed good to share my fortune with you: InformationHighwayMan.com
Taking Payments Online
February 19, 2011
In a nutshell, accepting credit card payments online involves setting up definitive prices for a service and inserting the pay button(s) on your site.
You'll need a pay button or a pay link for each different price a client might have to pay
The basic components for accepting online credit card payments are:
1. Merchant account - These are best obtained through your bank for your business account. You must specify that you will be accepting online payment and "card present" payments and affirm that they are providing you with the right product.
2. Payment gateway - These are companies that handle exchanging currency between banks. These companies provide various services like a secure connection and other technology that might be needed.
3. Shopping cart - Only required if a merchant is offering multiple for purchase at the same time. This is special software that is designed to communicate with the payment gateway.
4. SSL Certificate - This is a software feature added to your site for the purpose of encrypting sensitive information from web forms. It is a separate purchase obtained through your hosting provider. The proper set up of an SSL certificate is critical. Having your hosting company perform the set up is wise and worth any additional set up fee.
PayPal eliminates the need for four separate components which is why it's so popular. PayPal has serious drawbacks in that people who inadvertently set up a PayPal account while making a purchase with their credit card will not be able to purchase your goods using that credit card. Instead, they will be prompted to use that long-forgotten PayPal account.
email must haves
January 18, 2011
We're doing a lot of email campaigns this season and more are coming down the pike. Email campaigns require planning ahead, and few site owners are prepared for the myriad of details that need to be addressed. So, I'm writing this blog post to discuss basic email must haves. This first list does not address style—just function, but subsequent lists will. Some of these requirements are provided by good email marketing software, but the rest are easy to address with a little foresight.
elements to include
• An unsubscribe link. Why? Compliance with CAN-Spam laws are designed to protect the public and are taken seriously by ISP's and reputable email marketing providers. Too many people are still exporting their computer address books into email marketing software and blasting away. Unfortunately, this practice hurts everyone— sender, hosting company, email software provider, recipient—and generally results in IP blacklisting.
• A link to an online version. Why? Webmail applications like gmail yahoo and hotmail routinely prevent images and flash content from loading and for good reason. Users automatically receive a warning that the images were prevented from downloading and prompted to respond by changing their settings for that contact. If you are spending time and money on good-looking newsletters, a link to view online helps protect your investment.
• A link back to your website. Why? Email browsers don't display everything a web browser can, and hardly two programs are alike. I get numerous marketing emails that don't link back to their site which is a mistake. I click on homepage links 90% of the time, especially if I like the content in the email.
• Links out to more information. Why? The most basic email marketing platforms measure the effectiveness of the email by tracking click thru rates for your outbound links. These statistics tell you which content items where of the most interest to your audience, and that makes it easier to improve your technique as you go along.
• A headline. Why? Readers immediately judge how interested they are in your material whether you have a headline or not. Headlines give them an instant a reason to open your email and read it.
• Carefully worded alternate text for all images in the email. Why? For HTML emails, some email clients prevent images from displaying appear after the email is opened. The "alternate text" shows up instead. It's easy to see how useful alternate text can be, but this is not an opportunity to load up keywords. Think about relating to another human being and insert meaningful descriptions of what the image is about.
• An engaging preheader. What's a preheader? The gurus will lead you to think this is programming code, it's not. A preheader is simply the first line of text in your email. Although for mobile email apps, it's worth making a fuss over because the first line of text, the preheader, is visible right after the subject. This line can say something advantageous like "Grab two shirts for the price of one," but it usually says something not so useful like, "View this email in browser."
• A true subject line. Today's email marketing software forces you to create a subject line. Some software requires you to assign a default subject line that can be edited later. Don't forget to check and double check it. Bad subject lines can result in unsubscribes and abuse complaints.
• Inline CSS. For HTML emails, there's no getting around this. In 2001, email programs are still behind when it comes to cascading style sheets. If you want "red" text in an email, you've got to spell it out everywhere it occurs with inline styles.
3D digital prints
December 08, 2010
Really amazing technology. Thanks to PetaPixel.com for tweeting this video. Zebra Imaging's ZScape™ digital prints present 3D data in a true 3D format—no need for cumbersome glasses. Scalable and portable 3D imaging with viewing continuity over the 360 degree viewing range.
net neutrality
September 30, 2010
Recently, I contacted my local reprographics center about getting a high-res scan of the cover of a magazine purchased at a newsstand. Not a chance, they have rules, no reproductions without a written copyright release. To my knowledge, there has been no public outcry about this rule at copy centers, but that's not the case on the internet!
The FCC has lined up new rules for the internet called net neutrality. The argument started over a technology called BitTorrent. With BitTorrent, when you download a file, other people doing the same thing at the same time will be downloading parts of the file from your computer/connection in order to free up the host server's bandwidth and protect it from crashing. Quite innovative actually.
The current campaign for net neutrality was inaugurated back in 2007. It branded ISPs as monsters, as people feared ISPs were planning to tier the cost of internet access and restrict access to various content. ISPs were blamed for stifling global innovation and censuring the web.
The unreasonableness only grew from there.
BitTorrent protocols were designed for very large files like movies. Comcast had been tarred and feathered because sometimes it blocked the part when BitTorrent uploads a file from your computer to someone elses. Frankly, there may be instances where this kind of "network management" is appropriate. At least Comcast thought so, they fought and won their FCC court case in April 2010.
However, the battle did not end. Now with wildly-charged emotions and the argument for government-management of the internet introduced, the net neutrality message was significantly overhauled. You guessed it, the new charges are "discrimination!" The proposed legislation addresses discrimination on the part of ISPs on 7 out of 13 pages. No longer a management issue, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2009 is effectively human rights law. The FCC's quasi hands-off policy toward internet management will be traded-in for one beset with hard-to-qualify federal regulations.
I pay a tiered price for my ISP service. The "freedom" I want is the right to switch to a competitor when I'm ready. The new rules do nothing new toward that end. Instead they are vague and mysteriously open-ended about future government constraints. Far from preserving my freedoms, the FCC will accomplish little more than the need for my ISP to retain a larger legal team.
Investigate on your own, here is a way to start your own education about net neutrality and the actual legislation.
