How quickly a day can change…
Monday morning I landed a new client who didn’t blink when I told her how much her website project might cost, and wrote me a check right then and there as a down payment!
Flying high on her confidence in my writing and optimizing skills, I came home from the meeting, sat down at my computer, and started work updating another clients’ website with the new copy I had written for their home page.
I made the first few changes and then checked to see that everything looked ok.
Much to my surprise, everything was NOT ok. In fact, it was terribly wrong!
The graphics weren’t loading right. There were boxes on the right that should be on the left. Images were missing. Copy was missing. What the heck had happened?
I rechecked my work. The code looked fine. I double checked their website to make sure it was still ok, and it was. I downloaded the code again, and looked at it with my Internet browser, but the home page was still a jumbled mess!
After an hour and a half of going nowhere, I called my clients’ web designer for advice. He suggested I use a different FTP program and HTML editor, which I did, but the results were the same – a messed up website!
Now, I never expected to deal with html code when I became a copywriter. I figured I’d write new copy, give it to my clients, and let their web designers implement the changes. But I’ve found that most of my clients don’t want to deal with their web designers (for a variety of reasons), so I’ve made the changes to their sites myself. I had to upload content to a business news website several years ago, so I was a little familiar with html code. I’m also a quick study, so I didn’t think it would be that hard to handle…
Until now.
One of the first rules of business is to never over-promise what you can’t deliver. I felt terrible about not being able to upload the new home page to my client’s website. But I swallowed my pride and contacted my clients to explain what happened. I told them I’d get together with their web designer the next day to figure out how to get their home page updated.
The next day, I logged onto SixMinutestoSuccess.com for a little video inspiration from Bob Proctor of “The Secret.” The topic was “Don’t sweat the small stuff. All problems are small stuff.”
Potent words. So, I decided to heed his advice. I wouldn’t “sweat the small stuff” and instead, I’d find a solution.
I called up my client’s website online, looked at the source code, and compared it to the code I had downloaded. I noticed right away that there were some extra lines of html code in the “bad” page, so I deleted them. This time, the site showed some improvement when I viewed it with my browser, but it still wasn’t perfect.
Since I hadn’t heard back from my clients’ web designer yet, I knew it was time to call in my own personal web consultant. Don’t tell anyone this, but he’s my 14-year-old son. Hey – I may have a college degree, but I know when to call in an expert, and believe me, this teenager knows more about html code than I do!
After I explained what I’d done so far, my son had an inspiration. Instead of trying to figure out WHY the code was wrong, he just copied the “good” code from the website, and pasted it over my “bad” code.
Voila! Problem Solved!
So what lessons can we learn from all this?
1) Don’t be afraid to ask for help. (Even from your own son) and,
2) Don’t sweat the small stuff. Because all problems (even SEO ones) are small stuff!