Hook, Line & Thinker newsletter, published by Troutdream Graphics - December, 2003

Working hard or...

If your website were an employee, what kind of performance review would it get? Is it representing your company in a positive and productive way? Or is it shuffling papers, looking busy but accomplishing little or nothing? Companies plow thousands of dollars into websites and yet tolerate poor performance that would get any other worker the axe.

But a website, if properly managed, can be a valuable, contributing team member. And you can apply the same standards you would to any other worker.

You site should:

• Be productive. It's one thing to look busy, it's another thing to contribute to the bottom line. We've all known employees who were good at looking busy and creating a lot of stir that looks like action. But it's the hard-working team members who, no matter how quietly, consistently complete the tasks that are most beneficial to the company.
  
• Have a clear job description. You can't really know if your site is a productive worker if you don't know what it's supposed to be doing. If you have clear objectives then you will have some basis on which to judge performance.
  
• Consume resources in proportion to its benefit to the company. If your site is productive and hard-working - bringing in new business leads, supporting to customers, aiding communication - then plowing more company resources into maintaining and upgrading makes sense. But if it's costing you more to keep it going than you're getting in return or if it's taking up space that would be better used by a go-getter, it's time to make a change.
  
• Be held accountable to management for performance. Again, this goes back to having clear objectives - standards by which to judge performance. Like any other employee, your site should have periodic performance reviews so you can make informed decisions about its future.

Like an employee, sites vary a lot in their performance. Sometimes it's worth investing in a low-performing employee because they only need additional skills to achieve their potential. Some employees are less amenable to improvement and should be replaced. In either case, it's hard to know if you don't take a good, hard look.

TroutDream Graphics would like to take this opportunity to wish you a wonderful holiday season and a prosperous new year. This is always a good time to take stock and give thanks for all the blessings of the past year and make plans to ensure that next year is even better. I'm thankful for you, my clients and newsletter readers for giving me reason each month to ponder the bigger picture of doing business on the web. I'm also thankful for my wonderful supportive husband and my sons, who are rapidly turning into terrific adults. Here's our 2003 holiday card.

If you have a web-related question, drop me a line. If I don't know the answer, I'll find out.

You can find other articles and past issues of this newsletter at http://www.troutdream.com/stories.html

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