The web continues to thrive. Do you?

As suggested last time, this month we'll be discussing what it takes to be a living, breathing part of the web in 2011.

(Off-topic: By the way, did you know that we provide very effective website usability reviews helping our customers find a stronger vision for their website?)

There's a trick or two to making your online presence felt, and we'd like to step you through a few of these tricks shortly. And there's a free book in it for you. Keep scrolling for more details. 

But first, it's insightful to look at some recent internet failures (and almost-failures) of the last wee while.

Internet ventures that aren't thriving

• Google. No, we haven't suddenly gone insane. In spite of their obvious success (we're Google fans around here), Google has been struggling with social for a while. Google Buzz? Google Wave? It will be interesting to see what happens with Google +1.
• MySpace & Bebo. Another two biggies, but these guys don't just have a couple failed side projects. They've failed at their core business. MySpace is quickly losing the music community to Facebook, and Bebo, well, the fact that you can login using Facebook on their homepage says it all.
• Delicious, Reddit, Digg, StumbleUpon. All still alive and kicking, but none of them have quite made it to the center like Facebook. Why share links & content with the anonymous public (in return for anonymous votes), when you can get it Liked by all your Actual Friends on Facebook?
• Diaspora. Chances are you haven't even heard of this committed open-source attempt to compete with Facebook. Apparently Mark Zuckerburg himself gave them a bit of cash, perhaps feeling a little sorry for them.
• Apple's Ping. If Apple wanted, they could pick up where MySpace left off. But it's too commercialized, and will never attract the grassroots music crowd that gave MySpace their edge.
• Wikileaks. Everyone kinda lost interest, didn't they? Turns out that whistleblowing is nothing radically new, and that just because you can post secret documents all over the net doesn't make those secrets very interesting.

Lesson learned: Social is a difficult game to compete in, and there's not much space for more than one global network of friends. "I told you you were my friend on Facebook. Now stop begging, Bebo."

It's about people knowing & interacting with people, and people don't care about your fancy API, features for advertisers, or anonymous votes, so long as they can share stuff and talk about it with people they know. 

Tips to thrive online

Sorry, we don't have 3 easy steps for you. But if you keep up with what's happening on the net, a number of themes start to become apparent as contributors to the success of great websites. Here's some the most important things the experts are saying:

• The old rules apply. Just because you're on the internet doesn't mean you shouldn't still phone up your customer to say "Thanks for your order, I've just sent it off". You still need marketing, great customer service, community, and a local presence.
  
• Get feedback. For example, usertesting.com will provide excellent video feedback of customers browsing your website. So will your friends, but they won't tell you the hard truths.
• It's not a business side-line. Give your website the serious focus it deserves -- fund it adequately, and give it your full attention regularly, with a planned schedule.
• Quality content is king, but it takes effort. There is no magic formula to getting your website listed at the top of Google, but websites with lots of interesting content will be linked to, and Google will rank sites with lots of good links. It's that easy, apart from the bit about "quality".
  
• So get writing. Write about your industry. Write useful things (don't just brag about your products). Post it on your website, and talk about it on Facebook, Twitter, and wherever people in your industry hang out.
• And keep writing. One interesting blog post isn't going to transform your website into a top-ten listing on Google. Keep adding fresh content, but make sure it will still be interesting in 4 years' time.
• Don't lose site of #1. Whatever it is for your business, there will typically be one thing that is more important to you and your customers than anything else. This needs to be clear and easy to achieve on your website. In concrete terms, use big, attractive buttons that no one can miss.

Where does Brush fit into all this?

We specialise in advanced, highly customised websites and web applications (in addition to our depth of software and electronics experience).

This sets us well apart from the average web company. If your business needs more depth than simply a brochure on the web, we'd like to step in and help out.

Where do we come from and where are we going?

One of our earliest forays into the web was a web 2.0 product called microPledge. It was a great idea whose time had not yet come, providing a risk-free way for people to fund non-profit organisations, creative projects, or open-source software.

Since then, a lot of things have been happening on the web to make concepts like microPledge more feasible, and some great projects along a similar line have cropped up around the place. Having been in that space, we have a lot of respect for projects like Kickstarter.com or Kiva.org, both of which have executed their concepts very uniquely.

Since then, we've advanced our capabilities by building great, customised, highly functional websites for businesses like yours, and we continue to have a strong focus on the people who use the websites.

Here's a brief outline of The Brush Way for creating great websites:

1. Get loads of good ideas from you, and give you loads of our own.
2. Sketch like crazy. Why? Well, this article from ZURB might give you a fair idea. Sketching is the rapidest prototyping ever.
3. Get your feedback.
4. Do some more sketching and get some more feedback.
5. Create a beautiful, colourful, attractive draft website with strong usability features and plenty of quality pictures
6. Get some real-world video feedback from independent real-world users who aren't afraid to call us on our bluffs
7. Get sketching again, on any features that don't ring true. Rinse & repeat.

And the book?

We're offering a free copy of the excellent, easy-reading Website Owner's Manual to five people who rate their website within two days. If you own or manage a website, you're eligible.

Here's the deal:

• Go to our website quality rating page and fill it in
• If you're one of the early birds, we'll send through a copy of your book
• Whatever happens, we'll get back to you within the week and give you some helpful expert feedback on your website where applicable
• No obligations, but we'd also love to be given the opportunity to help out further with your website if possible

Till then, enjoy your week,
The team at Brush Technology