websense

So, this may be the last place I should put a political rant…on my blog about the web business. I’ll do my best to find some tie to our industry, but I really just want to complain.

Despite the fact that I believe the polls are just a tool that the media uses to both push their agenda and keep us all as glued to our TVs and their websites as possible; I do believe we’re going to elect Obama. That frustrates me, but it’s reality.

It does amaze me how many folks in the web development and marketing industry are promoting Obama. Considering the fact that we’re a pretty young industry and one that’s made up of many small businesses, you’d think we would realize that we’re exactly the kind of people that Obama wants to tax so he can “spread the wealth around”.

There are many reasons I don’t support Obama

• Obama believes in Redistribution of Wealth.
• Socialist approach to health care
• Total lack of understanding of international affairs
• Extremely Pro abortion

As it relates to our industry though, Obama’s anti small business approach (more taxes) will have significant impact on the web industry. If he holds to his tendencies, I think its also safe to assume that we’ll soon see taxes and significant regulation on web related activities. I know that these things have been passed around for years and have not gotten traction, for good reason, but with a radical like Obama in office nothing will surprise me.

Everyone, even PC people enjoy the Mac commercials with “mac guy” and “pc guy”.

If I were Microsoft, I’d be having some fun with this one. What a black eye the iPhone 3G is.

We had a couple of first gen iPhones, and based on our experience with them ended up with a handful of 3G’s a couple of weeks ago. What a great device, it is. It looks cool, does all kinds of cool stuff, usability is amazing (with the exception of a few stupid things in the mail client).

Now, if only it could access the Internet and make phone calls. That would make this device really awesome. Apple should really consider it.

iPhone Problems we’ve experienced:

• Dropping 20 to 30% of calls (confirmed by AT&T)
• Constantly searching for and changing networks (causing dropped calls and data)
• Exchange syncing issues (I live by Exchange and have used it with many devices successfully)
• No, or minimal, coverage more often than not

Apple has released a couple of updates (sounds a lot like Microsoft eh?) to alleviate these problems. So far, they’re about half way there. I think they’re going to pay, for a long time, for the choice of an inferior cell network. It’s so inconsistent with typical Apple quality.

So, the economy is hurting a bit. Even those of us that are eternally optimistic are willing to recognize that. Yeah, there are some positive signs trickling into the stock market, but we’re not out of the woods yet. Our government is headed in the direction of socializing the financial industry, so we know there’s more trouble ahead. Sure, they say it’s temporary, but I don’t buy it.

Okay, enough politics:

Costs are rising in every direction for businesses right now: energy costs, materials costs and so on. That means every business owner or decision maker has to make even better decisions with regard to how they spend their money.

Don’t stop Marketing!

A slow economy is a great opportunity to expand market share and position your business for growth. Assuming you’re confident in your business, that is.

When times are tough, one of the first things a business owner will cut is the marketing budget because they perceive that to be an “extra”. Smart businesses, on the other hand, increase their marketing in times like these because they are confident and willing to invest in their long term success.

So, why do I say SEO is more important now than ever?

• It’s less expensive than traditional marketing
• It’s far easier to track ROI when compared to traditional media
• It’s effects are longer lasting than traditional media or PPC

My advice, market more now than ever. And start with your website and SEO.