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So it's getting towards the end of the week and if you're serious about your business you should be starting to look to see how much ... or how little ... you have achieved in the last seven days.

Sometimes you just know that you have really done well and other times you just know that it's all been an epic fail and you don't need to sit down and review the week to know that. At other times though a little period of review can be a very good thing because impressions can be very wrong.

I was beginning to think that this week was verging on the epic fail end of the dial ... it just seemed that way to me ... but when I stopped and looked at what my staff and I had actually achieved this week I was pleasantly surprised. It's been a tough, hard slog this week but we've certainly achieved some results so I should stop being so hard on myself.

So what have you achieved this week?

You don't get much for free anymore
During the past few days I've met with four different clients or potential clients and there has been a common theme running through all the meetings ... every one of them has wanted to know why their websites aren't doing better in Google.

That's a question that I get hit with so many times that it's hard not to bang my head on the desk in frustration. It just amazes me that there are so many people out there with business websites that still seem to think that Google owes them something just because they have what they consider to be a "good" website.

These are business people who expect their clients to pay for the services they provide and yet these people expect Google and Facebook to give them something for nothing. And if the latest changes that seem to be occurring over at Facebook are actually happening I'm sure I will soon see clients coming in and asking why people aren't seeing their posts on Facebook anymore.

In case you've missed the very latest news about Facebook it has been reported ... but not yet confirmed ... that Facebook is winding back the reach of businesses to the point where only one to two percent of followers/friends will actually see any post a business makes.

Of course that number will go up if a business wants to pay to have their posts promoted but if they don't pay then they shouldn't expect too many people to see their posts.

While I can see ways around that for some businesses I think that the majority of businesses on Facebook that were really engaging with their customers for free are now going to have to reconsider whether paying for that engagement is a good idea/investment or not.

Persuading people to buy that you're selling
In the very early days of the Internet making a sale online was as simple as throwing up a banner and giving a potential buyer a way to part with their money. Then along came the need to encourage people to buy ... show them that they had a need in their life and that you had the solution before hitting them with a call to action.

Now all that seems to have changed as people become more savvy about buying stuff online. They're more cautious, parting with their money is more painful for them and they're always sure that they can get something cheaper somewhere else... so now we're moving into the age of persuasive design.

We're not trying to bludgeon people into buying our product anymore ... where not trying to trick them into buying either. What we're now trying to do is persuade people to buy what we're selling. If you haven't heard about persuasive design before then you really are falling behind because it's been around for a while and it's something that you really need to understand.

A search on Google for the term 'persuasive design' will soon give you a list of websites that will help you understand persuasive design so jump on it because more and more people are wanting to be persuaded to buy your product rather than having the order to 'buy now' thrust into their faces.

Responsive design
So you understand the importance of responsive design but you either can't get your head around the CSS that you need to make your websites responsive ... or you're starting to get a little tired of using WordPress even though many WP themes do a reasonable job of making your sites responsive?

Well there may be a reasonably simple solution coming in just a few days. On March 25 Coffecup.com will be releasing their Responsive Layout Maker and it definitely looks as though it's worth checking out. Even at full price it's going to be worth buying but if you get in early you can grab it for $99.

It's definitely a tool that I'll want to have a look at because I have to admit that I am getting just a little tired of WordPress and sometimes I find myself wishing that there was an easy way to go back to the old ways of building a website rather than a content management system.

Agghhh ... that's enough of the nostalgia ... it's time for me to get back to work ... so I'm heading for WordPress yet again.