I was reading my horoscope today and it had some words of wisdom that can apply to you and your business of making a living online. It said:

There are many ways to connect with others, but the most effective method is the one that puts you in the most comfortable frame of mind. You need to feel relaxed in order to make other people feel that way. So if you don’t like noisy, crowded bars, don’t go to them! You’ll only feel anxious the entire time — not to mention the fact that you’ll meet people who like what you don’t like. Where you go and what you do is an extension of your personality.

While I agree with that premise completely when it comes to life in general, I also agree with it as it refers to you, your business, and your site or blog. Your site is an extension of your personality as well. Everything from its design to its content reflects you as a person - or it should!

While you may have downloaded and used a pre-made theme, or hired a designer to create something for you, you’ve hopefully injected your own personality by choosing a design that reflects your personality. Likewise, the content you create should be a direct reflection of you, and not just some stilted words on a page.

In this online world, the direct connection from me to you is missing. We can’t shake hands. You can’t see my facial expressions or see me smile. I can’t judge how you interpret my words when your eyebrows raise, and know that I need to clarify what I just said. Instead, we have a medium where you must judge me by the visuals that my site evokes, and the words I say on the page. You don’t really have anything else to judge me by, and I don’t have any other immediate way of communicating with you.

It is vital that my site reflect me if I hope to connect with you. Your site/blog must do the same for you. Our connections with our readers are tenuous at best, so the few strings that we have available to us must be utilized or the connections will never happen.

Doing business online requires establishing levels of trust via methods that are different than in the “real world”. This trust begins with the first glance at your site, and the first words that are read on the page. If you hope to make a connection with your readers, you must be reflected there. If you hope to do business with your users, you must make that connection.

Your business IS you. Make sure your site is as well.

(from Smash Mouth. "AllStar" Astro Lounge. Interscope Records, 1999.)

Posted on September 25th, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Making Money Online