TypePad taught me how to turn an evangelist into a mere customer. The experience leaves me wondering if  I’m downshifting customers too; perhaps it’s also happening at your company.

I’ve used TypePad for every blog I’ve ever done. While it has some limitations, its elegance made it a more user-friendly choice for my clients. That changed this week with a forgotten password.

Ever forgotten a password? Who hasn’t. That’s why sites assist  by either reminding of or resetting your password(s). This week my addled 50-plus brain blanked out on my TypePad password. I submitted the assistance form to reset. I got nothing. Tried again. Nothing. Wrote tech support. They suggested I check my SPAM filter. Did. Nothing. Wrote again. Two days later, same response. Wrote AGAIN. This time someone writes back, “I tried it and it works for me. Check with your email provider.” Heh?

Elegance is irrelevant if  support doesn’t back it up. TypePad traditionally shined in both the elegance and tech support areas. My experience says something has changed. I found no mechanism for escalating my issue. I found no “feedback” loop on tech support replies: I couldn’t respond to TypePad’s messages. Instead, I had to restart and restate EVERY time. There’s no excuse for this.

I once recommended TypePad without qualification. I no longer do. I will include them as a potential solution provider, but there will be at least one other option going forward. It’s a lesson I shouldn’t have had to learn. Even more so, one we don’t want to teach.

Interactivity is the sweet treat that lures repeated visitors to your site earning you increased impressions.
The degree to which you’re willing to cede some measure of control to the consumer will be reflected in their level of commitment to you. This is the new reality.

When you’re able to interact, you’re creating something all your own. When you allow your customers to do so, every experience of your business becomes a custom-tailored one. Whether it’s an option to arrange the page in a way that suits them, or create a customized landing experience for returned visits, user-crafting creates a sense of connection and ownership.

There are ways to begin a dialog that don’t require major surgery to your site. By co-opting existing resources available on the web, you can create a hipper user experience. For instance, visitors can’t resist a poll. They vote, they see their result. And, you get constituent credibility by asking their opinion.

There are resources for creating your own online poll. We like Survey Monkey. It’s clean, easy to use and provides easy-to-read results–even for the math challenged. (like moi) You can use it free and try it out; for a full functionality you’ll have to subscribe.

I found a new little gem you can embed on your site: slanty is still in beta, but has great promise. It’s slick looking and returns immediate feedback to the user. And, because it’s as easy to embed as a YouTube video, integrating it into your web experience is a piece of cake. Here’s an example:

There are dozens of resources like this out there. I’ve tested many and narrowed down to some I find effective without diminishing your messaging alignment. Creating a shared experience is only the most important thing you can do to build results on your site. Let me know if we can help.

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Carnival barkers stand outside tents along the midway calling out, luring you to just step inside and see…
"Click bait" is their cyber-equivalent. It’s a website link that gets attention, piques curiosity and draws you to click through just to see what’s on the other side.

News sites like CNN and USA Today are rich with click bait. So much so that someone has created a blog of some of the best examples. WTFCNN is funny on the surface and illustrative on a deeper level. This is what it takes to draw people into and through your site.

It’s easy to scoff at click bait, the same way you laugh at Dancing With The Stars–after watching it all season. The purpose of your site is to draw visitors into a deeper relationship. Using click bait helps that happen if, for no other reason, to satisfy their curiosity. Understanding what makes visitors click and writing with that in mind magnetizes your copy, bringing your core messaging into alignment.

Have a laugh. Learn a lesson. Are you baiting visitors? Or, simply giving them choices.

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We expect portability. Coffee. Pull up. Get it done. Drive away. Banking. Meals. Dry cleaning. It makes sense, then, portability should extend to content online. If I see it, I should be able to take it someplace else. My browser lets me send whole webpages (or a link to them) with a keystroke.

What if your messaging was portable? If that was possible, a consumer could lift your message and place it in an email, embed it on his My Space. Is your messaging something that connects on that level? Does it create a value-transfer that would even stir that idea?

MTV recently made it possible to embed videos it plays. You can plug in some code to your site or HTML-friendly email and BAM, you have a video–just like the one below. Cool,eh?

Even cooler would be placing content on your site consumers would find valuable enough to share. It would then be possible for your messaging to work here or to-go.