13 tips on webforms, programming, international English, and recycling
Categories: Marketing and PR Operations and Legal Strategy and Leadership R&D and Quality International Focus
by Gordon Graham, Editor, SoftwareCEO
For marketers: Here are 25+ tips on how to tweak your webforms to be most effective.
For developers: Here's a major website with thousands of tips and articles on programming.
For anyone who travels: Here's how to speak international English that everyone can understand.
For everyone: Did you know you can take old computer gear to Staples to be recycled?
Marketers, tune up your webforms
The fewer questions you ask on the web, the more registrations you will get.
But if you want to keep your webforms, at least give them a tweak to make them as effective as possible.
Here's a great list of 25 things to check in your webforms, from Justin Palmer's Palmer Web Marketing blog.
Among his recommendations:
Webform tuneup #1: Ditch the captchas
"Captchas are great for blocking spam, but some evidence suggests they are just as good at blocking conversions," says Palmer.
"A little spam isn't the end of the world, and definitely isn't worth losing conversions over. If you must use a Captcha, make sure it's easy to read."
We concur. It's annoying to have to squint at some dim little squiggle on the screen, trying to guess if it's a "9" or a "g."
Webform tuneup #2: Remove unnecessary fields
We've written about this before; in fact, it's one of our pet peeves.
"Do you really need to ask for your customer's date of birth and gender? Even if your customers aren't concerned about privacy issues, odds are they… might just abandon your excessively inquisitive form," says Palmer.
Other questions we think are unnecessary: education, mailing address, budget, and buying intentions.
Education: Are you really going to turn down a prospect's money because they went to the wrong school? Remember, Bill Gates himself is a college dropout.
Mailing address: Ask for a country and postal code, and then have your system allocate that person to the right territory.
Are you really going to turn down a prospect's money because they went to the wrong school?Budget and buying intentions: No one will tell you the truth about these on a webform. Why should they, so your sales team can either start harassing them with phone calls, or else bury them in the "tire kicker" category?
The point is to use a webform to gather the appropriate information for the content and value you are about to deliver, no more, and no less.
Webform tuneup #3: Remove forgettable security questions
Palmer goes on to point to some great advice from the "Get Elastic" blog about registration forms.
Among the advice from Get Elastic: Ditch those silly security questions, like, "What is your favorite color?" Research shows that most people don't like them, and can't remember what answer they gave anyway.
Webform tuneup #4: Avoid obnoxious password requirements
Did you ever receive this annoying error?" asks Palmer:
"Your password must contain at least one letter, number, and at least X number of digits."
"Requiring passwords to be formatted a certain way may help security, but it will likely discourage return visits."
Whoever said "Submit" was the only way to label a button?Why do people need a password to your site, anyway? What is this, Fort Knox? Or just some content that you want people to see?
Webform tuneup #5: Use strong call-to-action buttons
"Sometimes 'Submit' just doesn't cut it. In other words, be specific and action-oriented with your form buttons."
Whoever said "Submit" was the only way to label a button? How about, "Send me this white paper…" or "Register for free system guide now…"
The rest of Palmer's 25 items are just as worthwhile. You can access the whole article here.
Why not give it to your web designers, and test all your webforms against these best practices from now on?
Developers: learn from this major website
As noted in our current online Feature, Dundas Data Visualization created a tremendous site for developers called The Code Project.
Launched in 1999, it's a vendor-neutral resource for software developers that claims 6.3 million registered users and 3.5 million visitors a month.
The Code Project includes a forum, job board, marketplace, and almost 24,000 articles on programming in various languages. There's source code, tutorials, and rants.
"The Code Project is a community of software development and design developers joined together with certain common goals: to learn, to teach, and to have fun programming," says the site.
The Code Project includes a forum, job board, marketplace, and almost 24,000 articles on programming in various languages.There are sections on ASP.NET, C##, Java, LAMP, MFC/C++, mobile, SQL, VB.NET, and Windows 7. There are sections for architects and development managers.
You can find articles for beginners and the editor's picks. You can vote for best articles of the month, and the winners pick up hundreds of dollars worth of swag, books, and software.
And there are surveys.
For instance, one survey answered by 700+ people by our deadline asked, "Has the downturn in the economy affected your income this year?" Less than 30 percent said yes. Twice as many said no, or they will make more this year.
It's free to sign up for an account and start accessing all these goodies from The Code Project.
Learn to speak international English
If you're travelling overseas on business, it's critical to be properly understood.
We've come across a great little booklet called "Borderless English: A Guide to Speaking Effective English Internationally" by Nathalie Kleinschmit.
She's the founder of Global'ease, a company that specializes in training business people to adapt to other cultures.
Her booklet is a handy 20 pages full of tips on using international English that everyone can understand.
Here's a sampling, used with her permission.
Speaking effective English tip #1: Avoid vague adjectives
"Adjectives such as 'long,' 'quick,' 'large,' 'expensive,' etc. have different meanings for different people," says Kleinschmit.
"A 'long-term project' can mean anything from a six-month project to a 30-year project.
In fact, this applies to anyone doing business anywhere. Have you ever asked a developer how long something will take to code? In any language, it's best to get down to specifics.
A ‘long-term project’ can mean anything from a six-month project to a 30-year project."Avoid ambiguities by starting specific figures, sizes, and times."
Speaking effective English tip #2: Avoid local references
"Most people in the world have no idea how baseball is played.
"Therefore, any references inspired by the sport such as, 'He struck out' or 'Give me a ballpark figure' will only serve to confuse," she says.
Local references are any allusions to things that are not known in other countries, including people, places, activities, food, and holidays.
Don't assume your audience will know what you mean when you touch on any of these.
Speaking effective English tip #3: Be careful of "false friends"
A "false friend" is a word that means one thing in one language but something different in another, even though it sounds or looks very similar.
And they can cause a lot of grief and embarrassment.
"René, a top French manager, almost lost his job when he presented his business plan to the company's board," says Kleinschmit.
"The American bosses were shocked to hear about the many 'delays" he'd included in his plan… It took them awhile to realize that René was using the English word 'delay' to mean the French word 'delai' which means only 'cycle time.'"
Similarly, "demander" in French means to ask, not to "demand." "Frei" in German means on holidays, not "free" to come to a meeting.
"Thousands of 'false friends' exist between English and other languages. Don't hesitate to ask your colleagues for examples; you may be surprised at just how often they occur, and the misunderstandings they provoke."
So don't be quick to take offense or jump to conclusions when speaking English to non-native speakers. Make sure you learn what they really mean.
Speaking effective English tip #4: Allow enough time to be understood
Don't expect to carry on business with non-native English speakers at the same pace you do at home.
"When you schedule a meeting, leave enough time to allow sentences to be paraphrased, questions to be asked, and for misunderstandings to be cleared up," advises Kleinschmit.
"Most important, leave room for frequent breaks. Speaking another language is tiring, and a quick break will allow all to return in good spirits."
Don't expect to carry on business with non-native English speakers at the same pace you do at home.At the end of a day of working in a second language, even the most fluent people have been working over-time.
Speaking effective English tip #5: Use short sentence
Use shorter, simpler sentences than you would at home. These are easier for everyone to understand.
Speaking effective English tip #6: Use a clear opener before your comments
Always use a clear opener that states your reason for speaking, such as, "My question is…" or "I have information to share…"
Kleinschmit says a rhetorical question aimed at no one, such as, "What does George think he's going to get out it anyway?" will confuse many of your listeners.
To request your own copy of the complete booklet, e-mail nathalie@global-ease.com. If you want a copy for each of your people who travel, she can arrange a bulk buy.
Take old equipment to Staples to be recycled
With more than 1,800 stores in the U.S. and Canada, and operations in 25 more countries in Europe and Asia, Staples is the world's largest office supply retailer.
The company has certainly supplied a lot of gear to a lot of people. So it's only fair for them to help recycle it.
You can bring any brand of PC, monitor, laptop, printer, fax machine, and all-in-one MFP to any Staples outlet in the U.S. to be recycled. There's a $10 charge for larger units.
You can hand in smaller items like old mice, keyboards, and speakers for free.
The company has certainly supplied a lot of gear to a lot of people. So it's only fair for them to help recycle it.After being bagged and sealed, according to the Recycling page of Staples' website, "the equipment is then picked up and delivered to our recycling provider Eco International, who uses industry–leading standards for data destruction, and disassembles the equipment into its component parts for environmentally responsible recycling."
You can also drop off old cell phones, chargers, digital cameras, pagers, and PDAs; all these are recycled free in the U.S. through Collective Good.
Don't forget to bring in your used ink or toner cartridges as well. And if you drop off an HP, Lexmark, or Dell cartridge in the U.S., you get a coupon for $3 off the next one that you buy from Staples.