Here’s a quick tip for you. One of my clients just asked for her service packages to be discounted 10% for the holiday season. She uses PayPal Buy Now buttons on her site.

PayPal’s discounting functionality is rather lacking and unintuitive, but there are some things you can do. Here’s what I did, and it’s something you can do yourself if you’re comfortable editing your own PayPal buttons.

1. go to edit my saved buttons and find the button you want to discount. Go into edit mode for that button.
2. Scroll down to Step 3 of the button, “Customize advanced features“. Look for the Advanced Variables box.
3. For a 10% discount you enter “discount_rate=10″ in the Advanced Variables box. (screenshot below)
   

   Setting up a Discount in PayPal Advanced Variables

You can also enter “discount_amount” if you want a dollar amount instead of a percentage. And apparently you can get into different amounts for the 2nd item, etc. You can try to figure out the possibilities by reading PayPal’s somewhat cryptic documentation, if you’re game

Now, as far as I know there is no way for the discount to automatically expire. So we’ll have to remove the discount_rate at the end of her promotion. So why not just change the price? Doing it this way shows the buyer that they are getting a discount, and you don’t have to think about what the adjusted price is. Just slap in your 10% discount and remove it later without worrying that you might get the price wrong.

Neat trick, huh? If you have some PayPal tricks up your sleeve why not share them in the comments.

Finally, since we’re on the topic of Seasonal Marketing, have you checked out my stress-free, paper-free way to send holiday greetings?

In case you haven’t heard, I’ve launched a new seasonal service called Holiday Wishes. If you feel like you should be sending out greeting cards to your clients, friends and family, but the idea of it makes you a little Bah Humbug, then this is for you! I’d love for you to check it out and let me know what you think.

I’m pleased to say that $30 from each sale will be going to support good causes! Proceeds will be split between Kiva micro-loans and The Sunshine Coast Community Services Society which supports food banks, women’s transition, and other great work in my local area.

Late summer is one of my favourite times of year because with it comes this:

My crazy, beautiful, bountiful fig tree.

Fresh figs from my orchard! (And by “orchard” I mean our handful of fruit trees surrounded by weeds.)

I grew up near Vancouver BC, where figs are not a common fruit tree, so I didn’t taste fresh figs until I lived in Melbourne Australia during university. I was hooked! Years later I was so excited to discover that our current house had a fig tree.

This tree gives such an amazing bounty of figs that I end up offering figs to almost everyone I come in contact with over the length of the harvest. (Come to think of it, I’m a much better salesperson of figs than I am of anything else.)

Invariably I get 3 reactions to this offer:

1. Enthusiasm. Their eyes widen, they smile, and they quickly take one (or more) as if they have just won the fruit lottery. They know the beauty of the fresh fig and they are sold before the words even come out of my mouth.
2. Confusion. “That’s a fig? How do you eat it? What do you do with it?”
3. Rejection. An emphatic, quickly-delivered “No thanks”, sometimes accompanied by a wrinkled nose or followed by reasons why they don’t eat figs.

Guess which group ends up taking the most figs the fastest.

The Enthusiasts, of course.

The Confused end up taking some, but I have to educate them. I do this joyfully as any True Fan would. After all, some of them end up becoming Enthusiasts and share the joy with me. But still, it takes more time to convince them.

I don’t even bother trying to convince the Anti-Fig Folks: life is too short, and it leaves all the more for the rest of us.

So ask yourself…

Are you offering an exotic fruit?

Are you offering it to the folks who will receive it most enthusiastically?

Are you wasting time offering it to folks who will never appreciate it?

P.S. This summer I found a new way to use figs – sliced on peanut butter toast. YUM! How do you use them?

Recently I started renting movies from a different store than my usual. It just sort of happened naturally – my usual store didn’t have a movie we wanted to watch, and it wasn’t available on iTunes, so we ended up at this other store. We discovered a bunch of movies there that our old store didn’t have, so we kept going back for more.

I realized last night that consequently, I’m ending up at a different grocery store and gas station more often as well. This got me to thinking about business ecosystems.

Thriving neighbours in one of my favourite places on earth

In a brick-and-mortar situation, one business thriving or failing naturally affects the businesses around them. If you have a really hot shop on your block you’re likely to benefit even if you’re in very similar businesses (how many times do you see two sushi places right across the street from each other? How often do folks cross the street when there’s a long wait at their first choice?)

In the online space, your colleagues and even competition can affect the success of your online marketing by how they use social media or how they link to you (or not). If your business is largely driven by referrals (as mine is), then it’s affected by the success and networks of the people who refer you and of course by your relationship with them.

Think about your business ecosystem…

• Is it diverse enough? Do your own products and services have the right variety and support? (If something’s missing people may try someone else and find they like it). Is there a complementary business missing from your block or your referral network?
• Is it lush enough? Could it use some fertilizer? Could you, your team, your neighbours or colleagues stand to step up your game somehow? Perhaps consider arranging some group training in online marketing, or launching a joint promotion, or simply checking in with each other more often to see how you can support each other.
• Is there anything polluting or draining resources from it? This could be a related business that is somehow losing clients (draining) or even pissing people off (polluting). It could be a customer who’s complaining about your business and costing you new customers.
• Is it welcoming enough? Is it the kind of environment people want to visit at length and often?

I find there is always more I can think of to improve my business than I can possibly fit in. Perhaps thinking of all of it in terms of an ecosystem will be an interesting framework to use as I consider such options.

What do you think? What other questions come up for you if you think of the ecosystem of your business?

A while ago I used Bridget’s Button template to make myself this:

You see, I forget sometimes to do that: to look inside. Maybe you do too?

I am an information glutton. I spend a lot of time absorbing information from my clients, my network, the media & markets I pay attention to. All of this is great for my design and internet strategy work. It’s part of the mojo I use to translate the business & personality of my clients into their powerful essence. It allows me to connect the dots between the people and tools and information. In short it makes me very, very handy to my clients.

But all of this absorption has a dark side too. It feeds the comparison monsters. (Why didn’t I think of that? Uh-oh, they’ve launched something like I was thinking of doing!) While it feeds me in some ways, it can eat a lot of energy, too. And energy, my friend, is so valuable. So I made myself this little reminder that…

as much as there is really interesting stuff out there, there is really magical stuff inside. Let’s take the time to explore it!

I thought if you’re anything like me you might enjoy this little reminder as well. Here is the full size you can grab for your desktop or otherwise. Enjoy

P.S. If this particular button isn’t your thing, do check out Bridget’s Button Book. She is so warm, soulful, and funny, and it’s full of things that ring true for so many of us.

We hear a lot about transparency and authenticity in online circles, so in the spirit of small thoughts I just want to share two examples of transparency from promotions going on right now which I find inspiring.

In both cases I believe the author’s transparency increases trust and will lead to more action.

Cath Duncan and KidneyRaffle.com

Cath has not only shared her very personal inspiration for organizing the fundraiser for kidney research – inspiring and heart-wrenching in itself – but she did an excellent, open summary of how the fundraiser is going. It makes you want to contribute more and share the news more, doesn’t it? It’s also great information for anyone looking to organize a similar fundraiser.

On another note I think this is the first time I’ve seen a raffle done like this. I’m looking forward to seeing more from Cath about the process and outcomes.

If you want to support the Kidney Raffle and enter to win some awesome prizes, do it now. The raffle ends today.

Danielle LaPorte’s Telejam

At the WDS conference I attended last weekend, Pam Slim gave Danielle as an embodiment of the Fire element. No doubt! I admire how quickly Danielle moves with her ideas, and how she has turned a screw-up into a teachable moment. Again, the openness makes me so appreciative that I want to help spread the word.

I saw Danielle at WDS and the insights she shares are priceless. If you’re compelled by her writing and thinking about signing up, just do it. You won’t be disappointed.

That’s all I’ve got for today. What about you?

As I promised in my last post, here’s a short one for you.

I just wrapped up my quickest redesign ever on this here website. It’s long overdue, and despite doing it in a rush I’m happy to say I think this represents me much, much better than my old site did.

On the downside of rushing it, I decided to use custom post types for my portfolio so I could learn more about them. And so far I’ve learned it’s making a few things more difficult on mobile.

I’m writing this on my iPhone, awaiting takeoff for Portland (Woot!) so please pardon the dust and minor glitches. When I get back I’ll fix those and add some more juicy stuff to the site

I’ve had some ideas bouncing around my head lately which I’ve been thinking of writing about. I realized tonight that they have a common theme:

Small is wonderful.

This is what I do. I absorb massive amounts of information and ideas, and I find the pattern. The essence. The crux.

Those ideas that I was thinking about? So unconnected (on the surface).

• How the tiniest details of design and development are so much larger than the sum of their parts.
• Well-curated content is so much more valuable and accessible than a firehose of content.
• It’s easier to care for a smaller collection or group of anything (from things to people), than a large unorganized mass.
• Observations about social media and connections and business.
• I’m going to try an experiment in blogging small.

All these ideas, you see, wait for me to write about them. To do them justice. They bounce around in my head enough that they seem a little worse for wear. As if they are such old, worn-out ideas that nobody will care to read them.

So I’m going to try posting small ideas – maybe even half-baked ones (and boy does my perfectionism freak out at that idea) – more often. It won’t be a firehose, but perhaps just enough heavy raindrops for something interesting to bloom. Maybe just enough for you & me to share an umbrella and get to know each other a little better. We’ll see.

A wonderful tiny miracle in February, in a year past that did not involve nearly much rain as this one.

On April 11, 2007, I left what many would consider a golden job as a senior designer on a web team at TELUS. Although I had learned an incredible amount, managed a team, and worked on some really exciting projects, it was time for me to go. The hardest part of the decision was leaving my good friends and Herman Miller chair behind.

I was incredibly blessed to have some great connections when I started freelancing. It’s not like business boomed right from day one, but I really didn’t have to struggle a lot to find decent work.

And I continue to be amazed at the gift of connections in my life and business. Since Charlie Gilkey astutely commented that I am a Maven-Connector, I’ve become more aware of how I play that role for my clients and friends. It’s rare for a conversation to go by without me thinking of someone or something that the person I’m relating to should hear about or be introduced to.

With that in that mind, today’s post is an invitation to share and receive such gifts, together, here. I would love to hear about something you’re looking for so that I and others can keep an eye out for opportunities to connect you.

Oh, and if you aren’t comfortable sharing it here you could also get in touch by email or Twitter.

Here are some prodding questions to jump off from, but feel free to share whatever you feel appropriate.

• Who are you looking to meet? (e.g. types of clients or potential partners, employers…)
• What are you most excited to share with the world these days? Who do you need to share it with?
• What’s a problem you’re trying to solve?

Thanks so much for being here. (Yes, you!) Now how may I connect your call?

Tomorrow I’ll be presenting at the local high school’s career fair, and of course this has me thinking a lot about my career path and what I do. It’s also made me realize that the kids I’ll be talking to were born around the time I fell in love with the “World Wide Web”.  While I was thinking “Holy crap this is cool, I gotta learn it!“, these kids were in diapers. *gulp*

One of the first things I’m going to cover tomorrow is personality: are you the type of person who’s well suited to be a web designer? Here’s my take.

Good Web Designers…

• Are curious. They want to understand how things work so they know what is possible to create. They really want to understand not just their clients but people in general. What motivates people to take action? How do people use technology? They are keen to learn – important in a field that requires keeping up with constant change.
• Are empathetic. They can put themselves in the shoes of the client, the website user, the programmer they are collaborating with, and so on.  They are great observers & listeners & communicators.
• Pay huge attention to detail. Great websites are all about details. From how the graphics look, to whether the code they write will work, to typos in the content. Web designers have to manage all of these elements and more.
• Are problem solvers. The main purpose of design is to solve problems. Communicating messages, inspiring and facilitating action, meeting the needs of the business and the website’s users. Then, there are the technical problems that come with building websites. As a designer you need to work it through until you figure it out, or be in a position to solve the problem by bringing in someone who can.
• Are creative. Of course, right? But I don’t just mean visually. You need to know which types of creative solutions are appropriate for the problem at hand. You need to have creative ideas for your clients’ problems, because that’s where the real value in design lies. It’s not just about pretty graphics.
• Are technically inclined. A good web designer knows how to code at least some of their own stuff. They love to use the technology for which they are designing, while understanding that many people do not! They can communicate with programmers & other geeks to facilitate the problem solving and the building of challenging features.

All of the above applies whether you are freelancing or not. When you become self-employed though, another set of factors comes into play.

So, what does Freelancing take?

• Skills in your field. I think it’s important to have enough experience and training that you can be confident you are providing a great service. There is so much to learn about running a business that you are better off to have solid skills under your belt before you branch out on your own. I also believe that working in a company in a team environment teaches you a lot that you might miss (or take longer to learn) if you just start out as a freelancer.** My time on a TELUS web team gave me so much: mentorship, business savvy, understanding of working on huge websites and within well established brands, etc.  **Don’t get me wrong – I think it’s also great to start a little freelancing while you’re employed.
• Business savvy. Like it or not, as a freelancer you are running a business. It’s not just playing in Photoshop but securing the work, managing clients, billing, planning, etc. Experience from other jobs (which might seem unrelated) can actually help you succeed as a freelancer. It rounds out your understanding of business, your customer service skills, etc. And when times get tough, you can remind yourself that you never, ever want to go back to <insert crappy job here> again.
• Interpersonal skills. You need to be able to communicate well with clients, suppliers, colleagues. People need to know they can trust you. Your relationships and your network are one of your biggest assets so you need to be able to manage them well.
• Marketing. You need to put yourself out there in whatever way serves you and your business effectively. I personally am fairly shy and quiet about this, so my marketing consists of having a basic portfolio website, doing a bit of pro-bono work that gets my name out in my local community, networking events, and having relationships with people. Luckily I have a solid business through referrals and the strength of my small network, but depending on your type of business and personality, and especially while you are starting out, you might need to put a lot of work into your marketing.
• Self-discipline. As a freelancer nobody’s your boss, but both your income and your clients’ satisfaction depends on you getting the work done. You’re likely to work at home which can blur the lines between work and play. Bottom line is you’ll need to manage your time and habits well to find a balance that works for you and to make a good living.

Being a self-employed designer can be really hard work, but it’s also incredibly rewarding to help people with your creativity. If you love what you do, it’s a great career path to embark on.

What do you think? Whether you are considering this career, have hired designers, or are a designer yourself, I’d love to hear your thoughts & questions.