Exhibit A

Me neither.

Other than the tacky legal graphic that does not fit the color scheme in the upper right corner and of course the name (which I whited out to save the firm total embarrassment) you would have no idea this site had anything to do with law.

If hiring a professional webpage designer isn’t in your business’ budget and you have the time and talent to do your own website, then go for it. Just avoid the following DIY website mistakes.

Mistake #1 : Using a black background.

A professional webpage designer might be able to make it work, a DIY designer can not. White text on a black background is difficult to read. Save your customer’s eyes and use a white or light colored background with dark text. 

Mistake #2 : Using too small of font.

Visitors spend an average of 10-20 seconds on your website. The font has to be large enough that readers can skim through the text. If they can’t read it, there is no way they will remember it.

Exhibit B

Mistake #3 : Making navigation difficult.

Navigation should make it easy for customers to move through your website quickly and easily. Buttons and links should be well defined and work. Exhibit B, above, has well defined page links, but none of them work. Customers who have to make an effort won’t stick around.

Exhibit C

Mistake #4 : Having a bad layout.

Exhibit C is from another law firm. This is obviously a DIY setup by someone who knows the most of HTML, yet isn’t proficient enough to correct the layout problems. Your page should be centered and not off to one side or the other. Use one of the many webpage templates available if you need help.

Mistake #5 : Having an unprofessional website.

Your website should not scream uneducated, shady or low quality, like Exhibit A and C. Proof all text for spelling and grammar and avoid blinking text or tacky graphics. Your website should reflect the quality of your business and bring them to you, not make them run away.

If your website does have any of these mistakes, don’t panic, they can be fixed. Stay tuned in the coming weeks and I’ll show you how.

My article on the Game of the Goose is out in this month’s issue of Fun For Kidz.

A website that tells a story can change that. A good story draws a reader in and doesn’t let them go. It makes them pause long enough to learn about your great company, its products and services. Research shows that emotion increases learning and memory

1.  Stories elicit emotion

According to a study recently published in the Journal of Consumer Research, the emotional state of a person effects how they connect with a product or business.

That will be a problem if all you do is present the features and benefits of your product. The mood of the buyer will have a direct effect on whether or not that message resonates with them. So, your marketing can be hit or miss because it would require the consumer to already be in a certain frame of mine.

If you can get the consumer’s emotion to change in a favorable direction, you have a better chance of selling them on your product or service.

Story telling can do this for you.  Stories are designed to elicit particular emotions. This can be done through images as well as text.

Romance novels are the number one selling genre in book sales. Although the plot  is basically the same for every single novel, women eat them up. They produce a desired response through story telling. The readers get their emotional high and the sellers make a nice profit of these sales.

2. Emotions elicit action

“The essential difference between emotion and reason is that emotion leads to action while reason leads to conclusions.” ~Donald Calne

Studies are undecided on how exactly emotions effect action, but it is generally accepted that they do. One recent study poses that underlying emotions (confidence, betrayal) rather than overt emotions (happiness, anger) play a role in whether or not someone makes a purchase.

Using the example of romance novels, the stories elicit overt emotions of love and happiness. They also produce underlying feelings of acceptance, security and confidence. These emotions, both overt and underlying, draw women back to these novels over and over, even though the readers know the story will end the same way.

3. Action leads to sales

According to research by Creston Limited confidence, status, responsibility, effectiveness and individuality are the top emotions that affect purchases. Confidence for women and status for men were the two highest factors.

When a customer equates your products or services with those emotions, your chance of selling them on your product or service increases.

Using your website to create a story can get potential customers to those feelings faster than than if you just put your product out there and regurgitate the features and benefits of using the product. Same with your business. Get your customers emotionally involved and you will make more sales.

How does your website get readers emotionally engaged? What story do you have to tell?

What inspires you to succeed? To be the best in your field? To volunteer your time to others? To do what you do?

For me, the story is my inspiration for writing. That story might be the amazing life of someone who carried the mail every day for 40 years. Or, it might be the story behind a product that was just released. Or, it might be the story of betrayal and rekindled love.

Even before I could hold a pencil, I was creating and telling stories. They were full of the excitement that only a young child could imagine, and like any self-respecting older sister, I’d force my brother to listen to them or help me act them out.

Once I could write, my stories covered pages and pages of notebook paper and eventually whole notebooks. I still have a few of these poorly written stories with their bad penmanship and terrible spelling. They are fun to pull out every once in a while and relive the pure innocent days when trees could talk and fantasy lands were around every corner.

I didn’t give up on the habit of making up stories on the fly and convincing (or forcing) others to act them out. In first grade, I recall being a fighter pilot with a boy on the swings. We were fighting the Japanese and dropping bombs on them as we “flew” over Japan in our “jets.” I don’t remember the story behind it, but I’m sure it had something to do with WWII. I’m pretty sure the US wasn’t at war with the Japanese in the late 70s, early 80s.

In fourth grade my love of writing turned into a love of reading. Who knew that others could write as well as me? Prior to that, I had little interest in reading. (Except for the Dick and Jane books. I loved those.)  As my reading tastes changed, so did my writing. I went through a number of phases, from my horse phase, to my magazine phase, and finally my historical romance phase throughout junior high and high school.

My writing picked up considerably between my junior high days and into high school. Everything inspired me to write. There was no shortage of ideas for my short stories. Around this time, I also discovered a talent for art.

At this point, I could no longer convince anyone to act out my stories, so I turned to illustrating my stories instead. I thought that eventually I would go into art. Because, I considered writing just a hobby. No one ever made a living from it, or so I was told…repeatedly. I needed to consider a real career.

After high school, I didn’t go into art. Instead, my desire to draw steadily faded away. I still love art, but not like my love of writing. After trying several different majors in college, I ended up studying to be a paralegal (still under the delusion that writing is not a job) where I learned to love prose writing.

It was during this time, that I began to think about getting published. I sent off a few short stories that were published in newsletters and small publications. I turned to the internet and connected with real live writers online and started making plans to get my name in print. Even if it never amounted to anything more than a hobby, I was going to do it. In 2005, I had my first magazine article printed.

I wrote my first completed novel shortly afterward. Okay, it was just a first draft, that really wasn’t very good, but it was an accomplishment and a jumping off point for other novels.

My copywriting debut happened a bit earlier in 2000 when I was working for a printer doing typesetting. A local hotel needed a brochure and while our office didn’t normally do this, I volunteered. I took the pictures, wrote the copy and did the layout. It was a success for the short time that the hotel remained open. When I left the printing business, I did some copywriting here and there for local charities and organizations I belonged too. While I liked copywriting, I was looking more to spending my time writing fiction.

Fast forward to 2011. That was the year, that I was laid off from my job and I quit writing. It didn’t last very long. (Yes, I’m a failure at quitting.) Within six months, I was back working on a new novel, picked up some copywriting jobs and fired off several queries that landed me article assignments. Not long after that I was back to work and I could relax. (A pay check does make it easier to pick and choose what you want to write.)

Every day I sit down at my computer and do what I am meant to do…tell stories.

What is your inspiration? What makes you wake up every day and do what you do?

Free Alternatives to High End Software Programs is in the Jan/Mar 2103 issue of Paralegal Today.

When you can’t convince your boss to invest in high end office software, check out five free alternatives to Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Outlook and Westlaw.