How NOT to Drive Traffic to Your Website
Interest in your website is good, except when someone is really ticked off.
Real story here. When disaster strikes, what else can you do except roll with the punches, take care of business, and try to laugh about it later? Here's what happened to me a month ago, just days before my family and I left for a beach vacation. Which, by the way, was just in time to coincide with the onslaught of Hurricane Debby, but that's a story for another day.
We all know that sh*t happens and often at the least opportune time. I used to take it all so seriously and stay upset for a very long time, which didn't help much except to keep me upset for a very long time. I still take problems seriously, but after dealing with them as best I can, I turn to humor. Gallows humor, dark humor, whatever. Sometimes I like to get downright silly and sarcastic about it, 'cause what else are you gonna do?
So in the spirit of throwing up your arms and saying, "All right, what else you got? Might as well bring it on, too" ... I give you ...
If my life were an infomercial
(Enter the over-the-top, overly-caffeinated host.)
Hey, kids! Now you too can learn how to drive traffic to your website the WRONG way. Ready? Let’s get started!
Step 1. Encourage the hacking of your email address for spam legal threats by someone unknown, parts unknown (but we suspect a Nigerian prince or two).
Step 2. Discover that threatening and absurd emails sent from your email address have now traveled all around the world. Isn’t it nice to meet new people?
Step 3. Watch your website clicks escalate into the stratosphere! Woo hoo! They like me! They really like me!
Step 4. Appreciate all the kind people who suggested that maybe, just maybe, your email address had been hacked. ❤️
Step 5. Apologize and explain to those who reached out to give you a piece of their minds regarding the lovely threatening emails. Thank you, kind monsieurs et madames. Your messages are coming through louder and clearer than any of my daughter’s eyerolls.
Step 6. Have your website developer/tech guru - now your best friend - get it all fixed. My hero! Now if the transferring process to a safer host just wouldn’t take so long….
Step 7. Find the humor in it, shrug, and go for a long walk on the beach. Or whatever else gives you that same “eh, screw it, this too shall pass” attitude, ‘cause what else are you gonna do? Ha ha ha!
Step 8. Figure out a way to turn this into a good story for future presentations. Or blog post. Or another reason for your kid to roll their eyes and say, "GoDaddy? Really? That's so early 2000s. Boomer...."
Even if you fall on your face, you're still moving forward. - Victor Borge
What, me worry?
Yes, actually I did worry. Quite a bit. It only takes one malicious usurpment of a valuable asset like my professional email account to undo years of building a reputation for quality work and excellent customer service. Fortunately, based on a number of emails I received almost immediately, quite a few people recognized a hacking job when they saw it and alerted me to the situation.
It took two weeks without that professional email account, but eventually it was successfully moved from GoDaddy (where it had been for years) to Google. Evidently, GoDaddy is far from secure (duh!), but Google is solid. I certainly hope so! I'd contacted agents and current clients and transferred things temporarily to my personal email account, but there's always something that falls through the cracks. Fingers crossed it wasn't potential business.
“In adversity you have to learn to live off your sense of humor.” —Peter Taylor from his book A Summons to Memphis
Laura's Quick Tips
Moral of the story: stay current with tech and ahead of problems.
When major problems strike, be upfront about them and deal with them as quickly as possible.
Keep your perspective - and sense of humor. At least no one had died.
It was a challenging time. In addition to the hacked email, we did lose half our vacation to the hurricane. We also had to deal with our 10 year old SUV losing its air conditioning as soon as we got on the road (it was a hot and sticky trip there and back). And to top it all off, we also discovered that our irrigation system went on the fritz and flooded part of our basement while we were gone. Fun times. But like I said, no one died and everything's fixed now. Finally. Whew.
Yup, a good sense of humor comes in handy from time to time. Hopefully, we won't need it again for quite a while.
Got any funny (at least in retrospect) disaster stories of your own? Here's a story about the bus ride from hell I had a few years back ... Read more about it here >
I'm Laura Doman, a voice & TV/film actor and video communications coach. As an actor, I create memorable characters that tell my client's stories well, from the friendly CEO to your sassy best gal pal dispensing real-world advice. As a coach, I help you become more comfortable and charismatic on camera yourself for videos, presentations, and online appearances. Got a project in mind?...Let's Talk!
Comments