Byte to Byte with Steve Johnsen

I’ve been reading an awesome book by Gary Keller (founder of Keller Williams) called The ONE Thing. He writes about the amazing power of focus in work and in life. The key to success, Gary tells us, is to figure out what is the #1 most important thing to be doing and forget everything else.

A lot of us have no problem with wanting to figure out what is the #1 most important thing, but I find myself often wanting to take care of three or four or maybe five really important things in my business. But as Gary points out in his book, the key to be really successful (not just moderately successful but really successful) is to focus on one thing. What is the one thing that you could be doing in your business–that no one else can do, that only you can do it–and that really has an impact on your business growing, that’s where you want to figure out how to block out more time for that and let all the other distractions go or delegate them to someone else.

Darren Hardy in his success training course teaches something very similar. In order to be really successful, we need to figure out what is the number one most important thing to be focusing on for our business, and learn how to let the other stuff go or delegate it.

My approach to building a website is very similar. When a client comes to me wanting their website to be their #1 employee, I bring them through a consulting process to figure out what is the #1 most important thing that their website should be doing. There was a best-selling book on Amazon called 5 Easy Steps to Make Your Website Your #1 Employee that talked about this in the chapter called “Define Your Website’s Purpose.”

A lot of times people want the website to do a whole bunch of different things well. They say the website has to sell product and it also has to get people to sign up for our email list and it also has to present our brand and it also has to provide information for existing customers etc., etc. Unfortunately (or fortunately) people just don’t have the ability to focus on four things at once. They can only focus on one thing. If you present four things for them to focus on, typically what happens is they focus on nothing–and end up leaving the site.

So when you build a site you really want to know what is the website’s purpose. It’s amazing how much clarity this brings to the subsequent steps of creating your key messages, crafting the user experience, writing the website copy, and designing the site to communicate your story and your brand. It’s having a focus of what is the one thing the site is going to do that just helps everything else to line up. .

Now don’t get me wrong, I am a man of action as much as the next businessman, but if your first step is not pointed in the right direction, then where do you think you are going to end up? Obviously not where you wanted to go.

So some things to think about related to your website:

• Who is your website visitor?
• What are they looking for?
• What is the context in which they came to your site–did you invite them there or were they online searching for you?
• Did they hear about you from someone else (i.e., get referred to you)?
• What must this person visiting your site know before they will decide to do business with you?

Those are some great questions to start with in figuring out your website’s purpose.

These questions, and many others, must be answered before you even begin to write your catchy taglines or design a page. These are some of the questions that we start with when we’re consulting with new clients on creating a custom website that will actually make them money.

To your success,

Steve Johnsen

The late Peter Marshall was an eloquent speaker and for several years served as the chaplain of the US Senate. He used to love to tell the story of the “Keeper of the Springs,” a quiet forest dweller who lived high above an Austrian village along the eastern slope of the Alps.

The old gentleman had been hired many years earlier by a young town councilman to clear away the debris from the pools of water up in the mountain crevices that fed the lovely spring flowing through their town. With faithful, silent regularity, he patrolled the hills, removed the leaves and branches, and wiped away the silt that would otherwise have choked and contaminated the fresh flow of water.

The village soon became a popular attraction for vacationers. Graceful swans floated along the crystal clear spring, the mill wheels of various businesses located near the water turned day and night, farmlands were naturally irrigated, and the view from restaurants was picturesque beyond description.

Years passed. One evening the town council met for its semiannual meeting. As they reviewed the budget, one man’s eye caught the salary figure being paid the obscure keeper of the spring. Said the keeper of the purse, “Who is the old man? Why do we keep him on year after year? No one ever sees him. For all we know, the strange ranger of the hills is doing us no good. He isn’t necessary any longer.” By a unanimous vote, they dispensed with the old man’s services.

For several weeks, nothing changed.

By early autumn, the trees began to shed their leaves. Small branches snapped of and fell into the pools, hindering the rushing flow of sparkling water. One afternoon someone noticed a slight yellowish-brown tint in the spring. A few days later, the water was much darker. Within another week, a slimy film covered sections of the water along the banks, and a foul odor was soon detected. The mill wheels moved more slowly, some finally ground to a halt. Swans left, as did the tourists. Clammy fingers of disease and sickness reached deeply into the village.

Quickly, the embarrassed council called a special meeting. Realizing their gross error in judgment, they rehired the old keeper of the spring, and within a few weeks, the veritable river of life began to clear up. The wheels started to turn, and new life returned to the hamlet in the Alps.

In my business, which is turning people’s website into their number 1 employee, the “keeper of the springs” is the webmaster who keeps the site up to date. Without regular care, over time, your website will become stagnant, and it loses its value and effectiveness, both with the search engines and with the people visiting. That’s why we can offer huge value for clients simply by providing a professional webmaster service.

Take a moment to review your website right now. Make sure that your site is up to date, with accurate information, no broken links, and all the software up to date. Then, if you’re not doing it already, go one step further and put in place a plan to keep adding fresh, relevant content to your website on a regular basis.

To your success!

Steve Johnsen is a marketing strategist, a business coach, and the Founder of Cloud Mountain Marketing. He is also the author of the Amazon #1 best-seller, 5 Easy Steps to Make Your Website Your #1 Employee.