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[E160]Ek The Power Of One Online

by Anu G Khurana, Anu

In Canada where I live, this is a regular sight and a sure sign of the seasons passing.

From time to time, it's easy to notice that there is a certain pattern to the flying geese. Often, they fly in formation, in a shape that makes it easier to fly as a group than alone, something that conserves energy for the trip.

Online memberships, when built right, are built on the same philosophy, even though they consist of bits, bytes, pixels and websites and not beaks, down or wings.

Have you noticed that things are easier to do when you're delimited by like-minded people going for the same goal?

Training for a marathon seems less onerous when you run with a bunch of buddies.

A garage sale seems like too much bother until the neighbourhood holds one together.

And of course, goals become so much more attainable when there's a coach in the picture.

An online membership usually consists of a private website available to a certain set of people with common interests and goals.

Much like a library, online memberships take on a certain form, often containing resources such as books, magazines, articles, and even audio and video materials.

Premium membership sites will often incorporate a personal touch by providing support from a real person, whether that be by email, help desk or at a conversation board.

At its most elaborate, membership websites can leak over into the offline world, and members who were previously cyber-buddies only meet face-to-face for the first time and the bonds get cemented. These tend to be memberships that have the most longevity online...they achieve this by weave in real meetings so the online connection takes on a new measurement.

Online memberships have certain significant characteristics:

A membership site gives your clients access to the information they need, when they want it, not just when you are available by telephone.

A membership site gives your clients access to each other, and the body of knowledge they represent, which can be huge. The powerful connections that are made are very good fodder for a multidimensional coaching experience for your clients.

A membership site can be demanding to maintain, since new content and material need to be developed to ensure the membership is fresh and up to date.

With more than a million people in the world now identifying themselves with one of thousands of online groups, online memberships are modern 'tribes' that are filling the gaps being left by neighborhoods and even church groups of old.

Writing software manuals is boring, isn't it? We often think: “My software is easy to use. The user interface is intuitive. Why should I waste so much time for writing the document which nobody reads anyway?” Sometimes it's true – I've never read the WinZip or Internet Explorer manuals – everything seems clear without explanations. Nevertheless, even if your manual doesn't help to your software users, it may help to you. Publish it online and turn its hidden power into the real benefits for your business.

Online Manual Makes Your Web Site Visible

User manual is a huge bunch of words, the highly targeted words, which are specific for your software market. For instance, if you develop a database management system, its user guide will certainly contain such words as “database”, “query”, “transaction”, “table”, “record”, and etc. On the other hand, people use these words in their queries when they are looking for a database management solution on the Google, Yahoo, or other search engine. Let the interested people to find your web site and your product. Upload your manual on your web server and make it available for indexing by search engine spiders. This area specific content will make your web site and your software more visible to potential customers. Making the user guide available online will increase your web site rank in relevant search results and will bring highly targeted traffic to web your site. Let the manual to work not only for your users, but for you as well.

Online Manual Saves Your Time

A picture worth a hundred words. Those who are engaged in user support know this for sure. When replying to user concerns, very often we have to write sentences like this “Open the Document settings dialog. Choose the External modules tab. Select the ‘ABC Spell Checker' in the module list. Enter your registration key and verification code in the corresponding text fields which will appear at the bottom of the window. Then, press Activate”. If your application is simple the user will likely understand you right and will do everything as you have explained. However, if your application is a complex system with lots of setting windows which behave differently in various modes, the user may be puzzled which window and which fields do you mean. In this case you risk getting into a long conversation by repeatedly explaining the same things again and again.

The screenshot could be a very helpful illustration of your explanations. You may run your application, go to the certain window, open that tab page, activate the corresponding item in the list. Then make the screenshot of the window by using Alt+PrtSc key combination or another screen capture tool, save the picture in a file, and finally attach it to your message. Sometimes it's also necessary to add callouts, annotations and other enlightenments to the screenshot picture. Thus, you have to launch your image editor and to manually draw all the elements required. As you see, it may takes up to a half hour to reply to a single message only. And how many messages are yet in the queue?

Having the screenshots prepared is a good approach which may save your time. But having screenshots already prepared together with callouts, explanations, and annotations is a great approach which will save you much more time. Most likely, you have all that stuff prepared in your software manual but it's not very polite to reply to the user: “Read that fantastic manual”. User may have no idea where the manual is on the PC and on what page is the looked-for solution located. On the other hand, you may also have no time to manually cut particular pages with screenshots and related instructions from the manual and to attach them to each support message.

The solution is easy. Put your manual on your web site in the form of HTML pages. Make all the pictures, screenshots with callouts, descriptions, and instructions accessible for every user. When you are processing another support request, simply insert an URL link to the appropriate page of your online manual and add just a few clarification words – more words and pictures are already on that page. You will save much time and nerves because you will be sure that the user is looking at the same thing which you are describing. At the same time, the user will get a fast solution which is supported by clear pictures and neat instructions.

Online Manual Makes Your Products Trustworthy

Besides the users get the faster and more helpful support, they also see that you did this tedious job – writing the handy and well structured manual with great screenshots and clear explanations. They know that this job is boring and developers don't like to do it. Therefore, if you did it and if you did it perfectly, it means that you respect your customers, not only their money. Good manual means that you consider your business and product seriously yourself. This helps your business to look more credible and serious. So, make your manual available online and prove your respect to your existing and prospective users. Make them trusting in you and in your product before they even download a demo copy of it.

Online Manual Brings Sales

As we see, the software manual which is a part of your web site generates a targeted traffic. The people may easily find your product because online help makes your web site more visible in relevant search results on the search engines. Those new visitors get more loyal when they see a well done help system. Also, if a prospect experiences difficulties with your software and asks for technical support, you may easily resolve the issue by referring the user to a certain page of your online help. With just a one click the user will see screenshots and explanations which will help them to settle the case. So, you have a motivated and targeted visitor, who feels loyal to your company and products, and whom you can easily help in case of a technical problem. The probability of such visitor ordering a license is several times higher than of the average one.

Don't miss these prospects. Don't lose the sales. Make your software manual a part of your web site and start receiving new sales that you have not ever dream about.

Article Source : Pg. 229

About Author

Both Anu G Khurana & Dennis Crane are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Anu G Khurana has sinced written about articles on various topics from Software, Family and Computers and The Internet. http://www.awesome-membership-riches.com http://www.www.membe. Anu G Khurana's top article generates over 14800 views. Bookmark Anu G Khurana to your Favourites.

Dennis Crane has sinced written about articles on various topics from Computers and The Internet. . Dennis Crane's top article generates over 880 views. Bookmark Dennis Crane to your Favourites.