As a speaker and author about doing business online I’m asked all the time for examples of Websites that work.  There are plenty to point to but almost all have one or more things that don’t meet what I consider certain standards.  Well here’s one that does and scores a 10 out of 10 on just about every measure of an awesome productive site.

Don’t Bother Calling a Web Designer

Roman Pavlik, the owner of this Web marvel is a member of my ULTRA eTEAM Alumni and is frankly one of the most coachable sales associates I’ve ever met.  Instead of hiring the best Web developer he could find, he spent the first four months planning and outlining every aspect of his site www.DowntownLivingMiami.com from the perspective of his target market.  Once he had his written site plan completed (and fully vetted by me and the rest of the ULTRA eTEAM) then and only then was introduced to the best Web developer I know of.  With a written plan in hand (including most of the copy produced by a professional copywriter) it was relatively easy for the designer to manifest Roman’s vision for his site.

Hot Seat Wunderkind

During our Tuesday evening Live Group Coaching sessions we will occasionally have what is affectionately known as a “Hot Seat”.  This is where a sales associate volunteers to have their site evaluated by me and the group live during the session.  For most it is an extremely useful exercise on how to improve their sites dramatically.  The video below is a recording of the recent DownTownLivingMiami.com site’s hot seat session.  In this particular case it was a struggle to find any way to improve this site.  Check out the video and you will see why (and you will also see which criteria I use to evaluate sites.)

(NOTE: it is strongly suggested that you play this video full screen to see all the details being discussed.)

Nothing is Ever Perfect…

You are probably wondering why this site is referred to as “nearly” perfect.  Well, if you watched the whole hot seat session video above all the way through (it’s about 71 minutes long) you will have seen and heard about “constant refinement”.  There is no such thing as perfect, only a constant state of refinement to continually improve a Website’s ability to generate business and differentiate you from your competition.  By the way, Roman’s is the first of several “nearly perfect” Websites we will be highlighting here and during our future live Hot Seat sessions.  These others will also be coming from my ULTRA eTEAM Alumni.  You will find that their sites are just as impressive and unique as Roman’s but for different target markets.

The moral of the story here is don’t even THINK about contacting a Web designer before you do your planning and outlining first.  To do otherwise you are inviting much frustration, financial pain and ultimately ending up with a business Website that is anything but perfect.