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Do surfers see their fantasies or nasty gorillas?
Over the last few weeks Steve and I have been looking around at the competition we would have here in the town where we live if we were to branch out into commercial web design. We have already done several commercial websites for local businesses that have come to us through recommendations from satisfied customers but we have never gone out and advertised our services.

Now we're seriously thinking of doing just that so we have been looking at the competition to see what we are facing. There are three businesses here in town that claim to be web designers and after looking at the work of all three I have to say that we don't think we really have much competition at all.

They're work seems to be fairly lacking when it comes to such important basics as search engine optimization and some of the fundamental points in designing successful e-commerce sites. So that is encouraging but there is one major sticking point.

To someone who has little or no knowledge of the Internet and how to market here our competitors have the look and feel of what they claim to be. They walk the walk and they talk the talk even if the sites they design look like crap.

On the other hand we don't have the look and feel of successful web designers. Steve may have all the knowledge under the sun but would anyone believe that a guy who looks like a gorilla is good for anything but taking out bad guys?

Only yesterday I was reading what one successful web designer down in Brisbane had to say about getting started in the industry. He was quite frank when he said that getting into the industry wasn't about designing sites that sell but rather about selling yourself.

You could be the best web designer in your town but if you don't look the part and sell yourself through the image you project then others who can will do far better than you will.

It's an interesting thought for anyone of us who wants to branch out into mainstream. Because we usually work at home and are fairly relaxed about the way we do business with each other we tend to forget that mainstream does thinks quite differently.

So if you want to go into mainstream think about what you are really selling and what the potential buyer is seeing in your product.

Gorillas in Adult
In some ways the question of what your selling comes over into the adult industry too. Here I'm not talking about what we're selling when we sell our services to other webmasters but rather what we are selling to the surfers.

Sure, you and I think in terms of selling porn but while we sell porn what is the consumer - the surfer - seem themselves as buying?

If you think of yourself as selling porn then think about it for a moment or two and you will begin to see that there can be a vast difference between what we are selling and what they are buying. You and I might be selling porn but the surfer is more often than not buying a fantasy and when you think about it you will see that there is quite a difference.

So, go back to your last marketing effort - the free site or the gallery that you have just submitted and take a good look at it. If the surfer wanted to buy a fantasy is that what he found in your sales pitch?

Do the words and the concepts that you have used in your site or gallery convey even the hint of a fantasy or are they all about porn? Have you tried to gather the surfer up in a fantasy that he can enjoy or have you just hit him with the same old porn hard sell words?

Do the words you have used encourage him to dream or are your words cold and factual? Do you encourage him to seek more of his fantasy with your sponsor or do you just tell him plainly that the only place to find the porn he wants is at your sponsor's site?

If it's important in mainstream to look, walk and talk like a clients vision of a successful and trustworthy web designer then would it not be important to walk and talk like your surfers fantasy?

So there is something to think about before you jump into building your next free site or gallery. Perhaps it's time to develop the ability to appeal to the surfer's fantasies rather than the realities.

Meanwhile I'm off to try and teach Steve to walk and talk like a web designer instead of a grumpy old gorilla.