Why Your Brick-and-Mortar Biz Needs A Website – Domain Name
Why Your Brick-and-Mortar Biz Needs A Website
Kelly Kyrik
The internet has taken over our lives with a vengeance, and has changed the way many of us do business. More and more consumers are now doing their shopping online and, unfortunately, some business owners have felt the pinch.
But there are many small businesses that have been virtually unaffected by the internet boom. Those professionals in the more service-oriented fields - veterinarians, chiropractors, beauticians, dentists and more - do almost all of their work in whats now affectionately know as the brick-and-mortar business, and as such can never be fully replaced by internet technology.
However, many of these businesses, from tiny mom-and-pop stores to small health care centers - have yet to merge onto the information highway, and its costing them plenty; of customers, that is.
Thats because, although traditional advertising phone books, flyers, radio ads, etc. are still widely used, there is no doubt that the most effective advertising now takes place online.
As our society becomes increasingly computer-savvy, consumers are turning more and more to the internet for information and advice on where to do their business. Your potential customers would much rather type your business name into a search engine than ferret out your phone number in some ratty, old phonebook.
And who can blame them
On the web, your potential clients can find out your hours and location 24/7, get a feel for your business philosophies and practices and can learn about your services and pricing without having to listen to annoying hold music or endless phone menus. Even better, they can get all the information they need at their own pace, taking breaks to feed the cat and burp the baby as needed.
Of course, they cant do any of the above unless your small business has its own website, preferably with a recognizable domain name YourBusinessName.com and Search Engine Optimization, which makes your business easier to find on the vast world wide web. Now that so many consumers are turning to the internet to find the services they need, its imperative that your small business has the same or better web presence than that of your competitors.
Luckily, web design now comes in all flavors and sizes, so you wont have to look far to find a designer and a site thats right or you.
Often a simple one-page website is enough for very small businesses; hours, location, contact information and basic services can all be presented in a professional way for your prospective customers. A medical professional may require more pages; perhaps choosing to explain particular procedures and detailing insurance information. And some small businesses prefer to put everything online, from articles and interactive forms to detailed descriptions of their personal business philosophies.
No matter which design and options you choose, your website will reassure and impress potential consumers, leading them directly to your brick-and-mortar door, and leaving you to concentrate on what you do best; running your small business.
About The Author
Kelly Kyrik is the owner of Tech-Know-Girl Web Design - http://www.tech-know-girl.com - which provides custom designed websites to meet all your small business needs. She can be reached at Kelly@Tech-Know-Girl.com or toll-free at 1-877-554-6500.
Why Directories Might Save Your Websites Life – Site
Why Directories Might Save Your Websites Life
Mike Cheney
Many business owners and online marketing experts focus their efforts on search engine optimisation and ensuring high search engine placement for a website. Although search engines should play a crucial part in any online marketing campaign they are but one element to that equation.
Although they are unlikely to send as much traffic to your website as search engines, directories are an essential online resource that need to be considered when developing your online marketing plan.
Directories differ from search engines in a few ways though the most important ones are as follows:
Directories usually have some form of human involvement in the editorial process
Because of the above there is a quality check in place
Because of the above fewer sites will get listed
Because of the above the quality of traffic from them will be higher
Surfers use directories differently to search engines. With a search engine a user would normally just enter in a phrase and hope for the best. With a directory the user is encouraged to drill down to the relevant area and select the appropriate category from a list.
This means that visitor who comes to your website from a directory is far more likely to convert into a customer as they will already have a greater understanding of the products and services you provide. Whereas those coming from search engines may simply have matched your website to three of four words in a phrase.
Directories are often categorised on a regional basis or by industry sector which means that visitors finding your website via a directory are more likely to be relevant potential customers and therefore will be easier to convert into clients.
So - dont rule out attracting traffic using directories as part of your online marketing campaign. It is an essential element in the over all online marketing mix.
Mike Cheney
www.magnet4web.com
About The Author
You can get free access to lots more of my articles plus a FREE Special Report "How To Turn Your Website Into A Customer Magnet" worth a value of
Top Three Reasons For Why Your Product Is Not Selling – Affiliate Programs
Top Three Reasons For Why Your Product Is Not Selling
Radhika Venkata
Huh You are selling a product I didnt know that! Why didnt you say so... So Top *ONE* Reason: You dont advertise.
Oh...this product They are giving it away free. Why should I pay for it if I am getting it for free... So Top *TWO* Reason: You are trying to sell a freely available product or service.
You have any other product I dont have much use for this. So Top *THREE* Reason: No demand for the product.
Getting the grip We will see how true they are.
***Top ONE Reason:***
The people and the world should know about your product or service. They have to visit your website to see your product. Then why are you waiting for Tell them that you have this great product that they can be benefited from.
Go for pay per click engines. Bid for the keywords. See how your website is getting hits. People think that PPCs are expensive. But no. If we bid reasonably with out getting in to a bidding war, pay per click engines are very reliable source for getting targeted traffic to your site.
http://www.goto.com/
https://adwords.google.com/select/
Submit your website to Search engines. Optimize with good keywords and title tag before submitting. Buy a submitting software. You cant submit by going to every search engine site and filling the form. You have to learn how to automate your business. Otherwise you will end up wasting lot of your time. Choose the software that updates its search engine databse on regular basis.
http://cyberspacehq.com/products/AddWeb/home.shtm
http://www.webposition-gold.com/
http://www.promotion-expert.com/submitter/ds2.htm
Write ezine articles. Submit them to articles accepting web sites and publishers to reproduce them in their ezines. Ezine articles are a great way of getting traffic with out spending a penny. Go to http://www.ezinelocater.com and search for the ezine publishers that accepts articles. Select your target ezines and send the publishers your articles. Remember the golden rule - Dont flood them with articles. They might refuse your articles once for all. Nobody likes flooding of their inboxes with mail.
Start your own optin list. Anything like an ezine of your own or a free course that people might interested in. You can send promotional emails to your subscribers, a great way to promote your business.
Other methods of advertisings are:
Ad swaps
Free and paid ads in ezines
link exchanges
Classified ad submissions
Banner advertising
Participate in discussion forums,message boards
Offline methods
Really there is no end to this list. What ever you follow free or paid advertising methods, ALWAYS spend 70% of your time on advertising.
***Top TWO Reason:***
You are trying to sell a freely available service or product. When people are getting it free, why they bother to buy the same for money
Before start selling a product, look around you. For example, people are getting web site templates freely on the internet. If you keep website templates in a box and try to sell them, it wont be much profit for you.
You can question me. Quality! Paid templates are always be little bit more of quality products. I will answer that Anybody can improve the free templates to their needs.
How do you know that the product that you are going to sell is freely available on the net Simple. Add the word free to your product and search the term in search engines. Sites offering similar product freely will show up. For example, take above example. You can search for free website templates.
OK...Still want to sell a freely available product Then give it a Unique Selling position. Add some unique property to your product. Add bonuses. Offer free upgrades that they wont get with free products. Hope you can survive with these tips.
***Top THREE Reason:***
No demand product. Right now information products are number one selling products on the internet.
People are seeking information. Information about making money online, building a website fast, selling their product, how to cook and serve, how to repair electronics with out paying lot for repair services...
There is no end to the above list and there is no limit to the information seeking areas. All you have to do is just find out the hot market.
Here comes the affiliate programs. Great way of having your product with in few seconds. Having your own product is always better. But people making lot of money with affiliate programs too.
Select a good affiliate program that gives you 50% of commission. If you join in an affiliate program and if you see your affiliate ID at some thousand number, dont be scared. So many people selling the same product and how come you are gonna make money with competing so many people Most of the times people join in affiliate programs and forget about them. May be only few people work sincerely and stick to one or few programs. So dont bother if your affiliate id is some 18746.
So sell a product that has demand. It is not matter whether it is your own or affiliate product.
About The Author
Radhika Venkata - Subscribe to EbookBiz Magazine which is completely focused on ebook business and Internet Marketing. Receive FREE Ebooks with Resale rights every month!
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