Web design and development is full of shiny baubles and neat gizmos.  There are all sorts of things that are just fascinating.  We know because we love looking for and integrating new technology.  BUT....what you really should be asking yourself every time you think of doing something new is "How will this improve my organisation; Is it worth the customer's time?; and What is the value that it offers the user?"

Online users have a short attention span and little patience for things that do not directly serve them.  You shouldn't waste the user's time talking about yourself.  Make things simple and efficient, and above all else ask yourself, "If I were a customer would I enjoy doing this? Would I tolerate it? Would it make me angry? or Would it entice me to take action?"

Websites are about your customers, not about your business!  They want information, service, and efficiency. Every step in the information, service, or buying process that you put in front of them will reduce your positive outcomes and maximise your negative ones. Every field that you put into a form for people to fill out will make people suspicious and angry.  Keep it simple!  Customers want websites that are self explanatory, useful, and easy to use.

Its about improving your business.  The best way to do that online is to make your website useful and usable for your customers.  That all starts with a plan:

•     Learn how your customers think with web research.
•     Analyse your true competitive position in your marketplace, and differentiate yourself by offering the best value.
•     Focus on the user perspective, and never make them do something you wouldn't enjoy doing yourself.
•     Don't try to emulate your offline business with an online brochure - think Internet efficiency!

Dan Warner: Internet Strategy and Innovation

A specialist in Internet strategy and innovations, Dan Warner has a proven track record for building businesses that work. He has great experience in the complete value chain including strategy & innovation, research, product design, web development, business development, internet marketing, social marketing, mergers and acquisitions, and exit strategies. He has a specific talent for making Internet start-up companies successful. He has a Masters of Business Administration – (Queensland University of Technology, Australia); Bachelor of Science - Zoology (Central Washington University, USA).

Accomplishments:

Heading strategy and operations for Dark Blue Sea Ltd (Fabulous.com) for 8 years [start-up] - He led it from a $3 million start-up company to a $100 million offer and eventual takeover from another public company. Dan spearheaded the development of more than a dozen substantial products including a domain registrar becoming 14th largest in the world; a domain sales platform (DDN) with penetration into 80% of the worlds registrars by volume; an affiliate marketing network ranked as 5th in the world; a dynamic web development engine which published over 1.2 million websites; a search directory which peaked at nearly 350 million visitors per year; and acquired more than 600,000 domain names as investments by the company.

DomainAdvertising.com [start-up] – inspiring a vision of "research | innovate | create" Dan acted as CEO to design, develop, and launch an Internet company which infused strong design, complexity and graphics into the domain parking industry which had become stale and lack lustre. His innovations were proven to increase revenue from a $35 CPM to $67 CPM (91% increase) by aligning user interests with advertiser outcomes.

Interweaving.com [start up] – Interweaving was founded on reducing costs and increasing velocity for SME businesses to become active on the web with highly functional ecommerce websites. Utilizing open source programming and design the company process cut development costs by more than half and shortened the time to market to less than a third of comparably developments.

Globally Renowned Internet Authority

A frequent public speaker, his thought leadership has directly influenced substantial movements in Internet marketing and development. His topics covered a wide gamut of topics including Internet strategy, research, innovation, futurism, analytics, online company valuation, natural brands, and social marketing. His speaking engagements have been all over the world including: England, France, Czech Republic, Australia, Canada, Bahamas, United States (Los Angeles, New York, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle). He has been published in the Sydney Morning Herald, Brisbane Times, Melbourne Age, and via a wide spectrum of online publications. He has been cited by Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and has been frequently consulted by venture capital firms.