Have you ever come across a website that was so ugly, you just had to cringe?

Well, before researching this article, I hadn’t. Because chances are, if your website is butt-ugly, I probably won’t be wasting my time on it.

But, it’s the holidays and hey—at Indexsy, we like to give. So we’re going to throw in a free website redesign for any of the companies that are featured on our “ugly” list this year.

And by ugly, I don’t mean ugly-Christmas-sweater-that’s-so-ugly-it’s-cute ugly. I mean hey-your-website-is-so-awful-it-deters-customers ugly.

You’ll see what I mean. I mean, for Pete's sake, use a website builder, or hire a developer will ya?

1. 3WGroup

Let’s start off the list with what may be the most boring thing you will see today.

First of all, those stock photos look like they were from the 90’s, when computers were the size of small cars.

Second, the landing page is seriously lacking in engaging content. Or any content, to be honest.

There’s no clear call-to-action, no value proposition, literally nothing that makes the audience want to purchase their services. 

In fact, with the current design (or lackthereof), I’d be surprised if anyone were to even stay on the page for longer than 3 seconds.

2. NazI Jew Creative Anarchy

Now, even though I’m considered Millennial, which means we get offended by anything and everything, I consider myself pretty laidback. I mean, I love dank memes and I wrote a whole blog post featuring my favourite meme: Pepe.

However, I was slightly disturbed by this site.

At first, I thought I had accidentally landed on the homepage of some anarchist cult, due to the company’s rather creative name.

Then I realized, OK, it’s design company that’s trying a little too hard to stand out.

The sci-fi theme is cool and all, but the design of the website itself is a little distracting.

I’m no grammar-Nazi (pun intended), but when there’s a glaring grammatical error in the headline, I’m not sure if I can take anything else seriously:

Kind of reminds me of this awesome tattoo:

We all make mistakes, which is why proofreading is pretty important, especially when it comes to your website’s headline.

As well, the arrows below suggest that the audience should read the content in one direction, but it brings you in a full circle, which forces readers to scroll back up.

That’s confusing-should you scroll back down to continue browsing? Or is that the extent of what the company wants you to read?

Although the website definitely stands out, it didn’t blow my mind.

Which means it looks like their art director may have to cut off his genitals, as promised:

3. Echelon Media Group

Just when I thought I could go about and life the live I love, another ugly website catches my attention.

Similar to our first offender, this site has no clear CTA, and no real value proposition.

For one thing, their video player is outdated and hard to navigate. The navigation bar also disappears when you click on a video sample:

For an company that deals with media content, their website is seriously lacking interactive media that’s engaging and appealing.

P.S. Do people still watch DVDs??

4. BSI Biodegradable Solutions

The first thing that struck me was that the landing page looked purely one dimensional.

The links don’t stand out (you can’t tell which text is a link and which is static). It’s not until you hover over specific text that you realize it’s actually a link in disguise.

The background image looks like it was taken with a potato, with the resolution equal to that of a VHS tape.

The image colors and the text also clash, with the white text on bright yellow background, which is distracting and causes the audience to skip to more readable text.

Again, no CTA, unless they really just want us to follow them on Twitter.

Overall, I think they have the right idea but just need to work on the site’s aesthetic and design.

5. INC Business Lawyers

I get it, if you’re looking to incorporate your company, you don’t really care if your lawyer has a fancy-schmancy website. You just want a solid, reputable attorney that you can rely on to do the job.

But that doesn’t mean that law firms can skimp out on their website. Any website that is easy on the eye and simple to navigate will always win over ones that are ugly and overwhelming.

Unfortunately, this site falls into the latter category.

When I first clicked into the site, I paused to wait for the CSS to load.

It never did.

That’s because the site literally has no CSS (or design) elements to it.

The links are the standard “link-coloured”-blue, there are no images (other the ugly ad at the top of the page), and all you see are walls of text.

The font is generic and rather small, there’s an overwhelming amount of information on each page, and let’s be honest-it’s just plain ugly.

Oh and if you take a look at the blog, it’s probably the most unappealing thing ever. The whole purpose of a blog is to engage readers to read the content, which is hard when it looks like this:

I mean, do you want to “Read more”?

Not really.

In terms of textual content, this site is off the hook. Just add some images, some interactive, engaging content, maybe use a colour other than blue and black, add a background, change the landing page… basically change the entire website, and we’re good to go.

And that’s all I have for now, the 5 ugliest local websites that made our Ugly List this year.

Stay tuned.

If you liked this post, or have other ugly sites you want to be featured, comment below or email us.

Or, read my post on the Ultimate Instagram Strategy Guide (yep, it's a mouthful) HERE.

If you’re offended by this post, relax. We’re just offering our opinion and our expertise to help other companies succeed.

At the end of the day, at least your website doesn’t look like this:

Happy Holidays!

Today, I'm going to show you the ultimate Instagram strategy that resulted in:

An increase of over 8000 followers.

Featured on Ask.com and local news.

Over 50 leads and 5 sales.

Boosted traffic by 750%.

Oh, and did I mentioned it all happened in just under 6 weeks?

Before we dive in (incoming shameless advertising), if you, or your company needs help with digital marketing, feel free to contact us here.

Instagram Marketing:

A Social Media Strategy That Works

1. Pick a Theme.

Ideally, you want to post things that interest you, but that doesn't always have to be the case. The most successful accounts on Instagram have an overarching theme to their posts, such as comedy, lifestyle, fashion, etc. People are more likely to search for accounts with themes that relate to their own personal interests and having a theme to your posts will make your account more reliable, leading to more followers! 

Not to mention, when the posts are consistent with your theme or topic, it adds to the aesthetic of your Instagram page and makes it more appealing to potential followers. You can have multiple accounts for multiple themes-I've had about 5-6 different Instagram accounts running at the same time at one point-go big or go home right?

2. Create a Profile.

Believe me, this is the hardest part. In fact, I put off this whole Instagram business for months just because I couldn't come up with a good username. If you are able to land a catchy username with no numbers or symbols, congratulations, you're already halfway there!

Once you have created an account, make sure to add a short but witty bio to your profile with a relevant user photo. You could also add a custom hashtag for your account so that anyone interested can immediately see what you've posted.

3. Socialize.

Luckily, this is rarely as painful as socializing with real people in real life. Socializing on Instagram is probably the easiest way to gain followers. Like the photos of your friends (or even randoms on your explore feed) because that's a quick and easy way to gain awareness for your account. Go into the hashtags to find accounts and posts similar to yours and like a whole bunch of posts.

Make sure you follow lots of relevant accounts too. For example, for RSLW, I went to the page Artforthesick since they post similar images and followed them.

This will automatically influence the posts in your Explore feed (due to Instagram's algorithms) and make it easier to find similar accounts to you. And guess what? By mass following the followers of that account, you have already built up a list of users that are interested in the theme (or similar theme) to your account.

Finally, find hashtags like #L4L #like4like #follow4follow, etc, and start the reciprocal process. Most users will like and follow your account too. Remember to also comment on other people's posts to get your account noticed.

I'm not going to lie, it's hard to come up with a unique comment every time you want to interact with someone new. For me, I actually just copy and pasted the same two comments when I first started out-no one suspected a thing.

You can even comment with just an Emoji:

4. Sometimes You Have to Cheat (Sort Of).

I mean, sometimes, even your hardest efforts don't seem to bring in enough followers and engagement on your account. If you're feeling lucky, try sliding into the DM's (Instagram lingo for "messaging") of an Instagram "celebrity" by asking for a shoutout. A shoutout is a quick way to gain followers by having another account mention yours in their post. It's not cheating really, it's strategy.

Once you have gained a sizable following on Instagram, you'll find that other users may ask you (or even pay you) for shoutouts too. Some of the most successful accounts on Instagram today only got there by doing shoutouts for others and receiving shoutouts in return.

5. How Many Is Too Many?

It's hard to say really. Random posting schedules do not attract as many followers because people want their social media posts to be reliable. They want to be able to find new Instagram posts on a regular basis and not have to look at old information. I mean, no one likes that feeling of scrolling through their Instagram feed and running into old posts. People are constantly searching for new information and fresh content.

Your account is only really as good as how often you post. Aim for 3-5 posts per day. Too many and you risk flooding the feeds of your followers. Too few and your account could easily become insignificant.

You can use apps like Latergramme to schedule and manage your posts:

6. Prime Time on Social Media?

It depends on your followers' demographic, but the best time to post may be in the morning and in the evening. You can use apps like Iconosquare to find out what the prime posting schedules are according to the times of the day when your account has the most traffic or activity.

For me, I found that most of my followers were active in the morning (between 8 AM and 11 AM) and then in the evening (anywhere from 5 PM to 10 PM). Here's an example:

7. All About That #Hashtag Life:

There’s a fine line between looking desperate and making sure your posts get the attention of possible followers. We all know that one basic friend who bombs their posts with a paragraph of (often irrelevant) hashtags. A good Instagram strategy is to try and mix it up with a couple of regularly trending tags (try this site) and unique hashtags that might not have as many posts in them.

Be sure to remember that the tags should be on topic. Pictures with unrelated hashtags just look like spam, like this:

8. Spend Time on Your Content:

This one might be obvious, but no one is going to pay attention to the thousandth coffee cup post on their feed. Cultivating a creative and unique spin on even the most tired subject will end up bringing your Instagram account needed attention and follows. The key here is to make sure the posts are relatable, inspirational, funny, or all of the above.

Good content should be able to stimulate some sort of emotion from the audience. Often, to find this content, you may have to spend a lot of time scrolling through feeds. But don't fret, many successful Instagram accounts with so-called "original content" actually just repost it from sites like Tumblr and Pinterest.

9. Interact with your Followers:

Once you’ve worked on what you’re posting each day you should respond to comments. People are more likely to keep following someone who they feel they know, even if it's all business for you. If there’s a follower who constantly likes or comments, arranging a mutual shoutout is definitely the way to go. Keep working the angle of personal interaction for attracting and maintaining followers!

Hopefully some of these tips will help you grow the amount of likes and followers on your Instagram account exponentially. Soon you’ll be busy liking photos, talking with your growing list of followers, and taking more photos for your account. Hell, it might even become a full-time job! Have fun implementing this Instagram growth hack!

…Sound familiar?

You’re frustrated because your emails seem to be getting through to no one.  Read on to find out how to Get YOUR Emails Read!

1.      Subject Lines Need To Be HEADLINES (yes, in capital letters)

I want to close your eyes right now. Now, imagine that the target of your emails is a young, social-media savvy office worker. She opens her inbox and sees 100 unread emails. Yours is a part of that long list.

Her fingers scroll down to your email. But…what’s this? Her eyes move right past the subject line of your email, and instead, she clicks on the email below yours that reads:

“50% SALE – last chance @ Aritzia!!”

Oh snap!

Now, don’t fret. It’s not the end of the world.

Let’s take a look at some of the types of things you could use in your emails to improve their click-rate:

• How to: How to Double Your Revenue with one Little Known Email Marketing Technique
• Humor: Forget Black Friday – Enjoy Wine Weekend
• Shocking: How I lost 48 pounds in ONE WEEK
• Testimonial: “MarketBeat made me $12,384.32 in one trade”
• Time Sensitive: Tonight’s Deadline (Last Chance!)
• Warning: Don’t Miss Out!

Symbols, free stuff, CAPITAL LETTERS – all of these help to make your email stand out!

2.      Your Readers Need to Know YOU

Communication is never one-sided – it is an interactive process involving someone on either side of the line! Just as you should know your audience, it helps to let them know YOU as well.

“Why do they care who I am?” you ask.

Well, would YOU rather read an email with personality or an email that looks like it’s been generated by a bot?

How do you prove you’re not a bot?

For starters, how about changing your email name from do-not-reply@abc.com (best way to PREVENT engagement with your readers, btw) to first.lastname@abc.com?

In addition, if humor aligns with your brand - USE IT!

Imagine having to go through hundreds of emails a day…what are you more likely to read? An email with a creative title or an email without?

What are you more likely to remember – an email that made you laugh or an email that only “spoke business”?

Depending on your business image, it may be okay to embed totally irrelevant – but hilarious – content in your emails, just to give your clients a laugh! Hey, happy clients are more likely to buy-in, right?

Let me give you an example from Bonobos. If you purchased from their website, you receive a confirmation email that includes a cute cat video. Make your customers happy, and you’ll be happy too!  

Although it had nothing to do with their brand, but you can be sure with little gems like that in their emails, Bonobos readers will be 10x more likely to open emails from them.

3.      Optimize for Mobile

We live in a mobile world where people are always on the go. Increasingly more people are viewing their emails on their cellphones instead of their computers. Those of us who don’t have gigantic Samsung notes, are not going to read your email if we have to keep zooming to see all of it!

Keep in mind that although a pretty layout with lots of columns and images look nifty on a desktop, it’s not so sharp when it’s been resized to a mobile-sized screen.

Instead, consider using responsive templates which will optimize your content for the screen it is displayed on (i.e. wider for desktop, shrunk for cellphones). Learn all about responsive templates here.

Also, they say that images speak louder than words.

…But not if I can only see a corner of it on my phone!

According to a research by Fractl, Buzzstream, and Hubspot, an ideal size for images is between 600-800 pixels. The same principle applies to fonts – the bigger, the better!

4.      Cash Out on Capital Real Estate

A.K.A the preheader text. What’s the preheader text, you ask?

Preheader text refers to the few lines that show up in the email preview:

Most people neglect to capitalize on these few lines. Instead, they waste valuable real estate on lines such as “having trouble viewing this email?” (Doh!)

I know you’re probably starting to sweat, thinking “Shoot, does my preheader text say that?”

Don’t sweat. Find out how to make your preheader text reads exactly what you want it to here.

5. Don’t Trap Your Readers  

Make the unsubscribe button clearly visible and easy to click. Some people think that if they hide the “unsubscribe” button really well, their readers will be forced to read their emails. Nuh-uh.

If readers are disengaged by your content, and are unable to easily unsubscribe…guess what? They’re just going to send you to their “blocked senders” list or worse, report you as spam!

You can make it easy for your readers to unsubscribe, yet still encourage them to stay on your subscription list by giving them the option of selecting which types of email to opt-out from (rather than an all-or-nothing approach).

Remember, your readers will LOVE personalized content!

6.      Give More Than You Take

Do you send out an email with free resources for your readers once in a while? One freebie per two emails selling your services? How about reversing that order?

Try sending your reader two emails that GIVE value for every one that TAKES from them.

•         Emails that give value: provide free resources, tips, training videos (stuff they can use)
•         Emails that take from them: asking them to buy something or provide you feedback

You may be protesting “Hey, this isn’t a charity organization!” but doing good is never a bad thing. Maybe your readers will want to buy-in to your products or services simply out of sheer gratitude for all you’ve provided to them!

Do YOU have any other tips for email marketing? Let us know what’s worked for you, and what you’ve struggled with!

Picture this:

Four people, sitting in a boardroom, three pairs of eyes on one person:

That person-he’s talking, no, babbling, really, on and on while trying to maintain his composure. 

But look at his hands-they’re gesturing wildly-almost as if grasping for the few remaining traces of control he has before it completely slips from his fingertips.

Beads of perspiration form on his temples, glistening in the afternoon light that lazily makes its way in from the window.

He realizes he has no idea what he’s talking about anymore, but it’s too late-he’s too far gone. Inside, he was all but ready for this:

Meanwhile, his beautiful, perfectly-poised assistant for the day (me), watches, already brainstorming the title of the blog post that would perfectly capture this moment...

4 Ways We Screwed Up With a Lead

(And What We Learned):

1. Preparation was largely overlooked on our part.

And it's not really uncommon. I mean, if you had an exam, and you knew the course content like the back of your hand, would you study?

For us, it was the same idea: we know our service, we know our industry, we researched our lead, we're charismatic, and we're passionate about what we do, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, everything and then some.

See, once a question catches you off-guard, it may often take the entire meeting for you to recover (unless you're naturally amazing at thinking on your feet; in that case, you, sir, are a wizard).

For us, this was when we were asked how much we charge as an hourly rate. Now, with all our past and existing clients, we have always charged a flat or monthly rate.

Call it a rookie mistake, but we hadn't anticipated being asked this right off the bat.

So we sat there, staring back at them, mouths opening and closing as we struggled to form coherent sentences.

Feels pretty bad, man.

What I learned: There is absolutely no such thing as being over-prepared.

Try to get an outsider's view on your business: it helps if you get a friend to take a look at what you do and then throw random questions at you in preparation for the meeting.

Oh, and if you ever get asked something like an hourly rate, it's better to make it up, and contemplate later, than to sit in awkward silence for a full minute and come up with nothing!

2. We kept emphasizing how busy we were without realizing the impression it gave off.

It started with a simple "We've been pretty busy with projects lately", when asked to introduce ourselves.

Once that seed was planted, Jacky found he couldn't stop using the "B-word", B as in "busy". He then proceeded to ramble for a good ten minutes on just exactly how "busy" we were, and how completely SWAMPED we will be for the next while.

Meanwhile I'm like:

And yes, this meeting was supposed to be a sales pitch.

It wasn't that we were trying to be cocky, or that we wanted to give off the impression that we had a solid client base, but that we were being brutally honest about the amount of work we were grinding through every day.

Unfortunately, Jacky had been too transparent, and ended up sounding like we didn't want their business. Which of course, is completely the opposite.

What I learned: There are some things better left unsaid.

Now take this with a grain of salt. Transparency is crucial in business but does your potential client really need to know that you were so busy working you couldn't even make it to your date last Saturday night?

Unless you're the Steve Jobs of your industry and can afford to turn away clients, I'd avoid talking about your struggles with time-management.

Your client wants to know (or at least be under the impression) that they will be your first priority while you are working together. Treat them like you would treat your needy girlfriend: with love and respect. Keep any sidechicks on the down-low.

3. We didn't bring any samples?????????????????we went empty handed??????

No excuses for this one. Should be a given for any meeting, nevermind a lead!!

We started to become discouraged.

As soon as we realized things had taken an entirely different direction to what we were expecting, we became extremely flustered.

To be honest, it went south the moment we couldn't come up with a quote for the hourly rate. As such, the potential lead actually began to dominate the meeting as we realized we were no longer in control.

Like I mentioned before, once you slip, you don't stop falling until you hit the bottom.

We weren't able to regain momentum and redirect the topics of discussion to safer waters, topics we had actually prepared for. As such, the rest of the meeting was spent listening to the potential lead other guys give us feedback on how we can improve our approach in the future.

Basically, a good 15-20 minutes of Jacky and I sitting in uncomfortable silence, contemplating our life choices.

What I learned: Don't give up!

Even as you see the situation spiraling out of control, attempt to steer it back to what you're comfortable with.

Have you already pitched your product/service? Talk about it even more. In fact, just keep talking about how useful and beneficial it is until you get yourself in check.

Don't be afraid to ask for feedback after, especially if you're new/a start-up. People love giving feedback, trust me, and feedback can always be used constructively. Just don't take it personally though.

The bottom line:

We may have bombed this lead but now we know how to approach future leads and clients-especially what NOT to do. In the meantime, we have some work to do.

Disclaimer: I am not by any means an expert on this topic; these are just my two cents. All Pepe images are also not owned by me.

Everyone gets email spam, your contact info is plastered all over the web.

No, I don't usually reply the emails written in terrible English and offering to destroy my SEO with combined Fiverr gigs.

Today I thought, 'fuck this, I'm going to do something about it'.

Here's what I did:

1. Take your average email spam offering SEO and/or web design services

Hi Dear,

I am Vanessa,

Manager Online Marketing

To introduce, we are an ISO 9001:2008 certified Indian Web Design and Development firm and have over 10 years of experience. We have been partnering various digital agencies all over US, UK, Australia and Europe.

As you offer Web Design and Development Services to your clients may I propose an association between the two firms. In these tough times, where it is hard to maintain the top line, we can help boost the bottom-line for you.

We can execute the Web Design or SEO projects on a white label basis for you at a much lower cost than what it might be in house - No compromise on quality!

Our Primary Services includes:

Web Design and Development

SEO

Ecommerce

Web application development

HTML5 Development

Mobile web development

Do let me know if you are interested and we would be happy to connect with you and discuss more in detail about your project requirement.

I look forward to your positive responses mail.

Kinds Regards,

Vanessa Freed

Marketing Manager

Email id: Vanessa@xxxxxxxxx.org

2. Reply with Interest

Talk to them, pretend like you're actually interested in their terrible white label SEO services.

The key is to build some trust here, I doubt you'll have any problems here.

Ask them about what they offer in their packages, types of backlinks, onsite SEO and all that good stuff.

Hi Vanessa,

Do you offer review copies for your SEO services?

Send me your package info.