In this hyper-connected era people come to your web page long before they come to your restaurant, your store, your church, your meeting or employ your services. What does your web site say about you? Does it connect with your current followers or is it aimed at reaching people who aren’t yet in your loop of influence? Does your site clearly and quickly convey your core message? Does your site reflect your style, your values or your unique position? These are all very important factors to consider because whether or not you have intentionally designed your site with these things in mind, these are the types of things that people are inferring about you based on the experience on your web site.

Huge reminder = People DO make decisions based on your web presence, fair or not.

Some quick and easy things tim make improvements:

- Determine your audience – Identify your target audience and always have them in mind when doing anything on your website.

- Clean up your content - Keep it straight forward and easy to understand. Most people say to much and don’t get to the facts and basics fast enough.

- Less is more – If you don’t have high level of graphic design abilities or insights then certainly error on the side of ‘less’. Keep your site clean, fresh and under control. Don’t over use graphics (especially ones you copied & pasted), fonts, font colors and amateur photos.

Sure many of you think Veterans day is a fluff holiday for banks and government. We take the day off here at Factor1. Want to know why?

1. We are thankful to the men and women who fight for our rights.
2. While no one on staff here at Factor1 has served directly, we all have friends and family that have.
3. Our great military doesn’t fight to keep America free so we can overwork ourselves.
4. We enjoy taking a few extra holidays here at factor1. Not because we dont have better things to do, but because we value family time, and feel that because we live in such a great free country, we should enjoy our freedoms, just at home. So we take more holidays than the normal company, and I think we are healthier because of it.

So go home, and celebrate Veterans day with your friends and family. Thank a vet, and enjoy your day!

So last month we launched the all new factor1 website. Over the last few weeks we have heard tons of praise, comments and questions about the site. I want to share some background to it. Not because I think we are cooler than sliced bread, but because I feel like we did things different, in a good way.

Some background.
There have been 5 or 6 (maybe more) versions of the factor 1 site. Each design was often born out of boredom, disgust, or some need that wasnt being met. And to be honest, most lacked in creativity.

In the past, our methodology was pretty simple. We wanted a clean corporate feeling site, that would appeal to a business owner, non-profit director, church pastor, my mother, your mother, and the dog. We would often use safe images, typical content, and basically end up with something predictably average. Which is terrible considering we expect more input from our clients on their projects.  What hypocrites we where right?

Onto the new site
So we threw it all out, and found some core things to stand by. here they are.

1. We are fun. I, Matt, am a goofball. We love having fun, laughing and enjoy each others company here at factor1. Our site needed to reflect that.
2. We are not corporate. Jeans, Flip flops, and helmet hair are the norm for me. I rarely wear slacks. I only wear ties to funerals. Not even weddings (ask Shannon, I didn’t wear one to her’s either, but I did have on a suit). So corporate gibberish text was not us.
3. We are simple. No, not simple in thinking, just simple in a less is more, be clear, say what you mean kind of way.  Again, our past sites had tons of content that said nothing but corporate speak.
4. We are easy. No not that way, get your mind out of the gutter. We are easy in the sense that we dont want to over complicate things. Sure some contracts and proposals get long. At the end of the day, we wanted our users to find our site easy to use, read, and find what they need.
5. We are passionate about what we do here. One of the big reasons factor1 exists, is because we deeply care and love what we do. So passion, excitement, and love needed to show on our site.
6. While we would love to appeal to everyone, its just not possible. And the truth is that if we have to stretch to appeal to someone, it may be a hard relationship to maintain. So we want to make sure our site attracts people who want to work with a firm like us. If they dont, they dont. Good luck to them.

So our site was born. We went from 30+ pages, to 12. clean, clear and easy to use. And best of all, its way fun. To be 100% honest, this is the first site of our own that I have truly loved. Sad that it took 7 revisions over many years, but i think it took that long to work through the junk.

How can this help you?

• Find who you really are. Sure goals and projecting who you want you customers to see is a valid point, but dont loose site of who you REALLY are.
• Break things down to small chunks. Simple goals and bite sized pieces
• Pick your priorities.
• Let things simmer. Sometimes good ideas need to cook longer before they are ready.
• Break the mold. Just because its the norm, doesnt mean its for you.

I’d love to continue this conversation. I think this is a growth and exploring yourself  kind of exercise, that needs to be revisited often.