... So the guy stands there with his mouth agape and says, "But Doc, why do you have to operate on my foot? The splinter is in my finger!"

Why am I leading off with a punch line? Because it applies to about 80 percent of people who can't figure out why their website doesn't "work."

Pretend your website is the patient in my half-a-joke. Now toss in a "web guru" as the doctor. There are two main reasons why you've gotten surgery on a foot when a finger was the problem.

1. You didn't correctly explain the symptoms. If your product or book is not selling from your website, don't tell the doctor you don't like the colors. Or that you need more Flying Thingies on the page. Tell the doctor that your product is not selling from your website.

Some people consult with their sister-in-law, best friend and lawn boy before seeking the help of a professional. Or, they guess at the cause of the problem themselves. When they finally consult with a professional, they tell him or her what they want: Use blue not red, make that picture bigger, add a joke of the day. For the right diagnosis, just tell the doctor, "The site's not selling" and let him or her figure out why.

2. There are a lot of quack doctors out there! Let's be honest, a surgeon makes his living performing surgeries, and a web guru makes his living performing guru work on web sites. The moral? Without patients and web projects, the surgeon and the web guru go on unemployment.

In all aspects of business, and especially Internet marketing, some people may say whatever it takes to sell you on "surgery." Proceed with caution! Before you hire someone to develop, design or "fix" your site, get referrals. Ask people you trust for recommendations.

Ask the "doctor" questions. If he or she can't take the time to explain every procedure, find someone who will. You need to understand the suggestions - and the reasons for them. Also, be warned there is no Standard Pricing Guide. My best advice is to avoid being sucked into the cheapest deal you can find, or being fooled by the "we are the best so we charge the most" designers.

If you're not getting the results you need from your site, ask yourself a few questions:

• How does your site stack up against your competition? We'll assume you already have a website ... Whether you're an author, manufacturer, business or blogger, you have competition. Surf around and take a LOOK at the other guy's site. How does his LOOK compare to yours? We're not talking about what the site says, just the overall aesthetics. Does yours look as good, or better?
• When visitors open your site, do they know what you're selling? Obviously, you know your product or service, but is it plainly visible to visitors? Is the information your visitors are looking for easy to find and understand? Are the "calls to action," such as "sign the petition," "read the blog" or "buy my cool book" easy to find?
• Did you check your ego at the door? Who is your site trying to please? Are you trying to impress yourself or your customers? Too often, websites get hung up on self importance. While it IS important to show your visitors that you're an expert, the product or service needs to be the focal point. If you're selling beans or bikinis, nobody really cares that you climbed Mount Everest in your pajamas last October.

Common sense is the most valuable tool at your disposable, but be smart enough to know what you don't know! Successful websites don't just appear. They're properly developed, cultivated and then regularly watered.

Developing a successful website is hard work; finding the right surgeon can be even harder.

About Joe Thomas

Joe Thomas is the founder and owner of Left Brain Digital (www.leftbraindigital.com), a web development company. He's an award-winning web designer/developer with more than 18 years of experience in print and web design and development. Thomas' work became a major influence in graphic and web design in the "Y2K" era of the Internet's dot-com explosion.

DAVENPORT, IA - On June 8, 2012, Yolanda Marie Fitts, age 47, of Davenport, Iowa, was sentenced to 12 months and 1 day of imprisonment for two counts of wire fraud and one count of structuring financial transactions to avoid reporting requirements, announced United States Attorney Nicholas A. Klinefeldt. United States Chief District Judge James E. Gritzner also ordered Fitts to serve a term of 3 years supervised release, pay an assessment of $300 to Crime Victims Fund, and pay $ 64,189.10 in restitution.   At her guilty plea, Fitts admitted the following:

• of an individual with the initials "AS" be liquidated and transferred to the defendant's account at RIA Federal Credit Union (RIA), thereby causing the resulting funds to be wire transferred from the account of "AS" at PNC Bank in Pennsylvania to Members United Corporation Federal Credit Union (Members United) in Warrenville, Illinois, Members United being a correspondent credit union handling incoming wire transfers for RIA.

• certification/notarization known as a Medallion Stamp Guarantee (MSG) on each letter of intent, a notarization required to certify the legitimacy of the letters of intent.

• Fitts created and mailed two bogus letters of intent directing that certain investments Utilizing the services of MidWest One Bank, Fitts fraudulently procured a letters of intent to PNC Funds in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

• the PNC funds on the Member's United computer system in Illinois to the defendant's RIA account. She then withdrew the funds for personal use via RIA's branch in Bettendorf, Iowa.

•  RIA account in ten separate wire transfers beginning on March 18, 2008, and continuing through March 20, 2008. From March 18, 2008, through March 24, 2008, the defendant withdrew $64,189.10 from her RIA account for personal use.

•  time she went to the bank, the defendant said that the first time she went in a lady at the bank told her that with a withdrawal of $10,000 or more the IRS would be notified. The defendant made the decision to take out less that $10,000 each time so that she would not have to fill out the paperwork

This investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bettendorf, Iowa, Police Department, and was prosecuted by the United States Attorney's Office, Southern District of Iowa.

Fitts forged the signature of "AS" on the letters of intent. She then mailed the bogus Fitts caused RIA employees to transfer, by means of wire communication, credits for As a result of Fitt's actions, credits for $113,125.79 were wire transferred into her
When asked by law enforcement if she purposely withdrew less than $10,000 each

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Majority passes funding bill with no cut to Congressional office budgets

Washington, D.C. - Congressman Dave Loebsack released the following statement after House Republicans passed legislation to provide funds for Congress in FY 2013 that did not include a reduction in member office budgets.  Loebsack voted to cut Members' of Congress' budgets in both FY 2011 and FY 2012.  Members of Congress' budgets were cut by 13.5 percent over those two years.

"Once again, the House majority missed an opportunity to do its part to have a personal stake in our nation's recovery and help reduce the budget.  I have voted in the past to cut the budget to congressional offices because it was simply the right thing to do.  When families and small businesses are making tough decisions about their finances, it is important that Congress do the same thing.  Unfortunately the House Majority declined to make the same sacrifices in this year's bill that families and employers across Iowa are making every day."

Since coming into office, Loebsack has set out to change the culture of Washington.  He has worked to pass the biggest ethics reform since Watergate, ended insider trading by members and helped get Congress' own fiscal house in order.

He has also pushed to cut member's pay, which hasn't been done in 77 years, end the revolving door between lobbyists and Congress, get budgets passed on time, and fought to hold members of Congress accountable for actually doing what they were sent to Washington to do.

Additional information on Loebsack's work is included below.

Loebsack's Work to Ensure Members of Congress Have a Personal Stake in the Nation's Recovery 

No Budget, No Pay

Loebsack was the second Member of Congress to cosponsor the No Budget, No Pay Act. This bill would stop Members of Congress' pay if a budget is not enacted on time.  Members of Congress would not receive this pay retroactively; it would be permanently cut.  Given Washington's track record of partisan gridlock, measures must be put in place to ensure Congress does its job. If Congress doesn't do its job, it shouldn't get paid.

Stop the Revolving Door 

Loebsack was the second Member of Congress and first Democrat to co-sponsor the Stop the Revolving Door in Washington Act, which would more than double the length of the lobbying ban for former Members of Congress.  However, he supports going even farther and was the first Member of Congress to co-sponsor legislation, HR 3491, that would impose a lifetime ban on lobbying by former Members of Congress.  Violators of the ban would be subject to penalties of up to $50,000 in fines and a year in prison.

End Insider Trading by Members of Congress
Members of Congress work for their constituents - they are not elected to make money and trade on the information they get as part of the work they do for the American people.  Congressman Loebsack was the fourth Member of Congress to co-sponsor the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which prohibits Members of Congress and their staff from profiting from non-public information they learn as part of their official positions by requiring them to play by the same rules as everyone else.  He has also urged House Leadership to get the strongest possible final STOCK Act to the President's desk as soon as possible.

Cut Congressional Pay
Members of Congress should demonstrate a personal commitment to getting the Nation's fiscal house in order.  That is why Congressman Loebsack and former Congresswoman Giffords co-introduced the Congressional Pay Cut Act, which would cut Members of Congress' salaries by 5 percent and would end the automatic pay increases that occur unless Congress votes to stop them.  This pay cut would mark the first time in 77 years that Congress' salaries will be reduced.  Loebsack also co-sponsored legislation in 2010 and 2011 that successfully blocked the congressional pay raise.

Shrink Congress' Budget
Loebsack has voted to cut Members of Congress' budgets, including his own office's budget, by 11% over the last year.  Loebsack helped pass legislation to cut Members of Congress' budgets by 6.4 percent for FY 2012.  That bill also cut the budget of Congressional Leadership offices, the Library of Congress and the Government Printing Office, among others.  He also voted to cut Congressional office budgets in FY 2011, and they were reduced by 7.1 percent. Small businesses throughout Iowa are struggling to make it through this downturn, and this was a small step toward restoring common sense and discipline to congressional spending.

Raise Age Congress Can Draw Pensions
Congressman Loebsack was the first Democrat to join Congressman Schilling (R-IL) in introducing legislation that would tie the eligibility for Members of Congress to draw their pension benefits to their Social Security retirement age.  Currently, Members of Congress can access their full pension benefits at age 62 after five years of service, but can be eligible at age 50 if they have served long enough.  This bill would tie Members' eligibility for their pension to their Social Security retirement age (65 or 67 depending on when they were born).