10 ways to help me really like your website

I have been away for the last week in Germany at an international trade convention. It has been an interesting time where you get to meet all sorts of interesting people from different cultures.

It is amazing how many people have referred me to their website at the show. It makes sense – suppliers from all over the world use a website when promoting to an international market.

But as I sit here in my hotel room and finally plucked up the courage to pay the high costs of internet access – I have used my final minutes of airtime to browse a few of these sites. Here are some tips for those website owners:

1. Never ever use just flash for your website! Add static and flash content, and then give me the choice on which one I want to view. Don’t make it my only option.
2. Make information easy to find! Add a site map, make your menus and navigation obvious – please! I hate it when you have to hunt for information.
3. Ignore your designer and listen to your copywriter. What do I mean by this? Well, it is great that you site looks great – but please make the content interesting and compelling to read. I hate being bored by meaningless text on websites.
4. Make your text easy to read…please! Add headlines, break up the text. Add a few pictures, maybe even humour. But make it easy to find the bit of text I want – I don’t have hours to read through everything.
5. Put your contact details on every page. Put your phone number and your email address in a place where I can easily find it without having to click through to the contact page unless of course, you don’t want me to contact you – in which case hide them away and let me get frustrated!
6. I don’t care about your company logo. You may care, but I don’t. It doesn’t need to take up a large part of your website page. It is irrelevant (unless your website is about creating logos).
7. Please remember the law of accessibility. It is now law. Don’t be put off by the term accessibility – embrace it. You will benefit in the long run. My laptop has a high screen resolution which is great for DVDs but difficult to read small text – therefore make it easy for me to increase the size of the text! Simple really.
8. When I have to fill in your contact form – please test it with Autofill from the Google toolbar before making it live. I hate filling in forms so I love Google’s AutoFill feature – so do 1000’s of others. Let me use Google AutoFill!
9. Assume that I want to leave your site quickly and make your site grab my attention and give me what I want ASAP.
10. Be consistent. You have invested £’000s into the trade show. You have worked on your stand, your brochures. You have staff there and biscuits for me to eat. Well done! But when I come to your website it looks awful. It looks like you have thrown something together in a rush and is nothing like the rest of your marketing literature. Be consistent. Don’t confuse me – I am, after all, a simple being.

Anger management therapist – don’t make me laugh!

I heard this story on the news and it caused me to laugh. An anger management therapist lost his temper and drove a car into a club that wouldn’t let him in. He is now in jail, and I couldn’t help but laugh when I listened to the news in the car.

Whilst it is one of the funniest things I heard all day, it does lead me to point out the obvious here: you have to practice what you preach. Customers can spot a fraud. Perhaps in the short run they do OK but in the long run, they are always discovered.

Read this story. Laugh along at the irony. But learn the lesson here. Practice what you preach. Be a company of integrity.

Read the story at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/5371480.stm

Affair proof your marriage

Proverbs 5
18 Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice with the wife of your youth. 19 As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love.

This chapter of proverbs is geared towards avoiding adultery, or “affair proofing your marriage”. Solomon asks

20 For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?

The bottom line is – you shouldn’t! Verse 18 tells you to always be enraptured with her (your wife’s) love. The word entraptured can be translated “intoxicated”. Always be intoxicated with your wife’s love. That’s how you affair proof your marriage.

My question, then, is simple – are you always intoxicated with your wife? Or do you stray a little – not physically necessarily, but in your thoughts?

Let’s read this again:

Let your fountain be blessed – fountain is a term Solomon use a lot to talk about a men’s sexuality (for obvious reasons). In other words – blessing comes to your sex life when you are pure towards your wife.

And rejoice with the wife of your youth – this speaks to me about having fun together. Live a life of joy together.

As a loving deer and a graceful doe – this is about caring and looking out for each other.

Let her breasts satisfy you at all times – have a great sex life together, but make sure that it is your wife you are having sex with at all times.

And always be enraptured with her love.  Be enraptured with your wife. Be intoxicated with your wife? Why? Because drunk people become addicts to getting drunk. Addicts don’t want to stray. Become addicted to your wife.

What is success

A group of us the other day were discussing this question: What is success?

The problem for most people who want to be successful is NOT that they can’t achieve success. The main obstacle for them is that they misunderstand success.

Then I read Seth’s blog the next day – where he asks the same question.

One thing that I am convinced of is that success is a journey, not a destination. I am also convinced that the picture of success is different for all of us.

At Lutroo, our mantra is “your success is our business”. For me success comes when we help our customers gain success. For example, we took someone who didn’t know anything about the internet, helped them developed an idea (doing what we do best), and he sells thousands of pounds worth of products on his site every day (after 4 weeks of trading).

But for another client, success is not selling beauty products online but rather gaining another lead or managing their accounts better.

So success for one might not be success for another.

That said – whilst the picture of success is different for each of us – the principles of success are still the same. John Maxwell tells us that

Success is…
Knowing your purpose in life,
Growing to reach your maximum potential, and
Sowing seeds that benefit others.

When Seth tells us that success is keeping our word – absolutely! It is a big part of it. You can’t reach your potential with out. But for me – success is much more than that.

So let me ask a question – are you successful, right now? You should be! Can you be a success tomorrow? Absolutely. Success is a journey, not a destination.

What is Success

Suggested reading: The Success Journey by John C. Maxwell.

Success is a journey, not a destination.

The problem for most people who want to be successful is NOT that they can’t achieve success. The main obstacle for them is that they misunderstand success.

Who or what do you think is successful?

To be successful, YOU have to be successful

Whilst it is good to have a mentor – it is bad to be an imitator. Most people live their entire lives as complete strangers to themselves. Don’t let that happen to you. Leo Buscaglia counseled, “The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people want you to be. Don’t let them put you in that position.”

The opposite of courage is not fear. It is conformity. No one ever became great by imitation. Imitation is limitation. Don’t be a copy of something. Make your own impression.  Dare to be who you are.

(from the If you are not going to be you who are you going to be? post)

Herb True observed, “many people succeed when others do not believe in the. But rarely does a person succeed when he does not believe in himself.”

You can’t be a success when you are trying to be someone else.

And because we are different, because no two people are the same – then the picture of success is different for each one of us. This is because God’s calling on our lives is different. For me to be successful, I have to do what God tells me to do. If you do what God tells me to do – then you aren’t being successful.

But just because the picture of success maybe different for each one of us – the principles of success are the same for each one of us. John Maxwell defines success as:

Success is…
Knowing your purpose in life,
Growing to reach your maximum potential, and
Sowing seeds that benefit others.

Knowing your purpose

Each of us has a purpose for which we were created. Our responsibility – and our greatest joy – is to identify it.

Eph 2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

On our success journey, the goals you set become your road map. “The world makes way for a man who knows where he is going.”

Growing to your potential

It has been said that our potential is God’s gift to us and what we do with it is our gift to Him. We can do anything, but we cannot do everything. So we need to concentrate on our goals, and say no to many good ideas.

Sowing Seeds that benefit others

We have been “blessed to be a blessing”. We make a living by what we get but we make a life by what we give.

Whit Hobbs wrote: “Success is waking up in the morning, whoever you are, wherever you are, however old or young, and bounding out of bed because there’s something out there that you love to do, that you believe in, that you’re good at – something that’s bigger that you are, and you can hardly wait to get at it again today.”

Advice for those starting a new business

I was talking to someone the other day about when we set up Lutroo and what made me decide to take the plunge. At the time, my wife and I had a new baby – our first born but not much else. Dan (the other half of Lutroo) didn’t have kids then but he didn’t have much else either.

Both of us left our jobs to work on our company. I had a new baby and a wife that wasn’t working.

Some people think this is risky, but for me it seemed like the right thing to do. Sometimes playing it safe is the riskiest thing you can do. So we jumped right in.

Fear of faliure is one of the main reasons that we don’t do thing in life or in business. People don’t start their business because they are afraid to fail. We don’t launch a new product, call the person we need to or confront someone.

Abraham Lincoln said, “My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure.”

I guess we weren’t afraid to fail when we started the business.

So my advice to anyone thinking about setting up their own business – get a good accountant, have a supportive wife and enjoy the journey.

I am well able

Last night was great for me. At cell – we took communion. It is always good to get back to basics, to put aside your fears and concerns, to stop thinking about your troubles and to focus on Jesus.

I have had a lot on my mind recently and when I am in the presence of God, it is easy for me to bombard God with a bunch of questions. But last night, I took my own advice and put those troubles to one side and just thought about the fundamentals of my faith – the death and resurrection of my Lord.

I found that thinking about this brought great peace and everything else seemed insignificant.

And it was in this place of worship that I heard the following words: “You are well able”. God repeated these words over and over to me – “Matt, you are well able!”

It is funny how in the quiet place, when we focus on Him rather than ourselves – how often the answer comes to us.

For me – when I have challenges, I need a rhema word from God. Something that I can believe wholeheartedly. Once I have that word – I have faith, and I know then at the end of the day – what God has said will come to pass.

When I heard the words, “you are well able”, I immediately thought of Caleb and Joshua.

Numbers 13:30; 14:8-9
Then Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, “Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are WELL ABLE to overcome it.”…If the Lord delights in us, then He will bring us into this land and give it to us, ‘a land which flows with milk and honey.’ Only do not rebel against the Lord, nor fear the people of the land, for they are our bread; their protection has departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Do not fear them.”

Looking at the same problem, 10 people thought it was insurmountable whereas 2 people thought that they were WELL ABLE.

The Holy Spirit said to me, “this is not something that you will barely get by in, for you are WELL able!”

The ability you have is not just enough to get by, it is more than enough. We are not just conquerors, we are MORE THAN conquerors.

Caleb saw his ability in the fact that God delighted in them. We are WELL ABLE because God DELIGHTS in us. Sometimes I seem to neglect this simple truth.

There were some caveats though for this promise:

1. Do not rebel against God
2. Do not fear the people of the Land.

In other words, we are well able because God delights in us and because God told us to go and do this. We can’t give up, we can’t go back because that would be rebelling against what God has told us to do.

It is great to hear the voice of God and to get revelations from His Word – but this means that we cannot rebel against it.

Fear the people of the Land is looking to the problem. The problem for the 10 spies was the size of the people. “We are grasshoppers in their site”.

For me, with what I am facing, I have a choice – do I look at the size of the problem, or do I look at the size of God?

So this morning as I woke up, hope was renewed and faith was strengthened. We are well able to overcome. You are well able. I am well able for God delights in me.

Why you shouldn’t use UPS

Today the UPS man arrived at my office with some software upgrades that I ordered from the States.

Now, when I was on the website ordering the upgrades (there was no download available), the only shipping option for me was UPS because I was outside the States – this already meant an increase in $30 in my shipping costs which I was annoyed about.

But the thing that really gets to me is UPS. The guy arrived and told me that this was cash-on-delivery parcel. I had to pay more money to them. Why? VAT (OK – no problem with that), but UPS charged me an £11 administration fee.

Not only did they charge me a fortune for the carriage – but I get an admin charge that I have to pay to take the delivery.

So my advice, forget UPS for your website, especially if you are shipping internationally. There is no way for your website to predict these charges that UPS make – but one thing is for sure – your customers will get annoyed.

You can have a great company with great customer service, but you have no control over what UPS guys does and what image that paints about your company. UPS are the link between you and your customer — and for me, they cause a lot of frustration on my international orders.

Don’t get me wrong, we use UPS a lot on orders in the UK. It is a great, fast and reliable service. But I would never use them when they would cause frustration to my customers.

For the software company, they should have offered a download alternative. That would have been quicker, cheaper and a lot less frustrating. It also means that I would be likely to come back.

Today confirmed something that I have been thinking for a while – I will stop buying stuff internationally from companies that use UPS whilst they continue to make these charges without my agreement.

Make sure your customers are not doing the same.

When things aren’t going the way they should

If you have been following along on this blog for the last few weeks – you will have discovered that I drive a Mazda RX-8. You will also know that I felt strongly that God told me to get this car, and that it was a fulfilment of a long-standing dream of mine.

But since I have owned that car – a lot has happened to it. It has been vandalised about 5 times, where people have scratched all down the side of the car with their keys, so about 5 panels on my car now need re-spraying.

I reversed it in to a post that I just didn’t see. I have never done this in over 15 years of driving.

Someone ran their car in to the back of it, scrapping the paint of the back bumper. They then drove off without telling me about it. So much for honesty.

All told, there has been about £2,000 worth of damage done to that car.

A few weeks ago, I had 2 new tyres put on the back at a cost of £380. Last week, one of those tyres needed replacing – it had burst. This was not a “warranty issue” according to the tyre people – so that was another £180 on a tyre.

Never have I had some much bad stuff happen to one car. Even my non-Christian friends tell me that the car is jinxed.

But I distinctly remember what God said to me. I even wrote it down. He told me what car to get off what person. So I did. I was obedient.

So why so much attack on something that I believe God is in?

Could I have missed God? Believe me when I say that I have asked this question many times throughout the last year of owning this car. Maybe I did miss God? Is it too ostentatious? Was it just materialism raising its head?

Every time I have asked that question, I always come back to the same answer – God definitely said it was OK. Even my wife thinks so.

So one of the big questions on my mind – if God said this was OK – why so much attack?

This was my answer from God.

“The answer is simple, Matt. The enemy attacks most what you have been called into. Take on of your heroes, Joseph.

Did you ever notice that I had called Joseph in to leadership? I called him to influence a nation. The enemy knew this, so he turned his brothers against him and got Joseph into slavery. Slaves don’t influence nations. Slaves are the opposite to leaders.

So I worked with Joseph as a slave. Has his favour grew, the enemy stuck again. This time putting him in jail. If there is one person who is less like to influence a nation than a slave, it is a slave in jail.

The two big areas of attack in Joseph’s life were against his calling to leadership.

I have called you into prosperity, to live it and teach it. To demonstrate it, so don’t be surprised when the enemy tries to attack this area of your life the most.

Your first big attack in life was towards your finances. The second was towards your job. But I have worked in both.

Don’t be afraid of the attack. Don’t get frustrated when it happens. Just laugh, and sit back – because I will turn it around.”

For me, it took a while to get my head around owning an RX-8. It was a dream that God fulfilled – and the enemy hates that. He couldn’t stop me getting in – but he seems to be trying to make owning it miserable.

So it is not jinxed. The enemy is scared. Scared of what this means for me and for him. I know the call of God in my life – to live and teach prosperity, God’s true prosperity. I know that my business and my ministry are the same thing. I know that I desire to give.

That is my calling. The enemy cannot stop this from coming to pass. No way. But he will try and make it seem that the path is difficult and frustrating to walk. He might not be able to take me off “this path”, but he will try and slow me down.

So how do I handle it now when this happens? Well I just do what God said. I just sit back, and laugh. I refuse to get annoyed or frustrated, but rather I set myself in faith to see what God is gonna do.

God always wins. He always has the final word and the last laugh. Just watch and wait because something better will happen now as a result of all of this.

1 Corinthians 15:57
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Lessons from Joseph

Read Genesis 39

1: Joseph Dreams

Joseph had a dream about his future. Successful people always have a dream to go after, and they go after it. People dream about winning the lottery – this will not make them successful, just dreamers. But people with a dream that they go after will always be successful.

2: Not Everyone will like your dream

When you go after your dreams – sometimes people will not always understand what you are doing. This is OK.

Also, don’t be jealous of other people’s dreams.

3: Things don’t always go the way we hope

I am sure that when Joseph was beaten, rejected by his brothers and sold into slavery that he didn’t think “I love it when a plan comes together”. Sometimes our life might be the furthest thing from our God-given dreams, but that doesn’t mean the dream won’t come to pass. Keep dreaming. Keep believing.

4: Prosper where you are at

3. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand.
4. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority

God was with Joseph. When God is with you – His favour and power are with you, so as long as you pursue Him, you will always be successful. God being with you is key – because without him, and success you do get it hollow and in vain. But with God – he will make everything you do prosper.

Joseph was serving his master. It is an absolute fact that you cannot be successful in God without being a great servant.

5: Integrity

Because Joseph still kept his relationship with God strong whilst he was being successful and because he didn’t forget God, he was able to stand strong against this women, who would have been really pretty and desirable.

It is important to keep a strong relationship with God if you want to be successful. He will not only help you through the bad times, but he will keep you safe in the good times.

There is an old-fashioned word that is still key to success – it is called integrity. It means doing the right thing even if you look bad or even if it costs you something. Joseph did the right thing – he was full of integrity.

6: Doing the right thing can lead to bad things

Because Joseph showed integrity and a commitment to doing the right thing where Potiphur’s wife was concerned, Joseph ended back up in prison.

He has been taken from a great job and put into jail because some lied.

Sometimes things happen to us that are not fair. And they seem totally distant from being successful. But the thing is – events in life will change, but the promises and word of God to you will not.

Being successful will not make problems go away, you may have more problems. But if God is with you – you can deal with whatever happens as we will see.

7: You may be in jail for a while

God didn’t get Joseph out of jail straight away – but did make him successful in jail. You might be put into something that you don’t really like, but remember – you might not be there forever, but whilst you are there – be successful

8: Dreams do come true

Don’t give up on your dreams. A God given dream can come to pass. Joseph’s dream not only came true, but at the same time God restored Joseph’s family.

Being a man of God may not cause you to win instantly, but rest assured – you will win in the end. God always has the last word.