While a business web site can be a very modest investment in advertising and customer service, it packs a powerful punch. The availability of your business 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to an unlimited audience is a valuable marketing opportunity. BUT…it’s not an overnight success. Building credibility, and search engine rankings, and repeat visitors, takes time, patience, and quality content on the site. You can’t just put up a one-page virtual business card and expect to have thousands of visitors the moment you go live. BUT, if you incorporate your site into your existing marketing plan, and are patient, you, too, may be telling a story similar to the Marathon Motel, in Marathon, Texas. This article illustrates how a web site can impact your business…. (more…)
A web site is a very cost-effective way to offer up-to-date information about your company to a very wide audience, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. No matter what kind of company you own, retail or service, you will benefit from the information people can find out about you online. For example:
- Business hours
- Menus
- Contact information
- Specials and sales
Imagine being able to answer frequently asked questions for your customers at any time:
- Product specifications
- Information about how to initiate returns and refunds
- Instructions for using products or services
Your web site is also a great place to help your customers compare your business to your competitors. The more information you provide about your competition, the easier you are making it for your clients to choose the best company for their needs (which should be YOUR business if you stack up to your competitors well enough!)
- Press releases
- Price comparisons
- Client testimonials
- Awards, degrees, specialized recognition in your field
Your web site can open your business to a whole new market
- Travelers researching available services and stores in the places they will be going through or staying at
- Customers from around the world to purchase your products
- Targeting specialized markets such as hobby enthusiasts
You can scale your web site to offer services based on your company profile.
- Sell your products online
- Offer product information to entice customers into your store
- Offer more information about your service so customers will know what you offer
- Schedule service calls
- Initiate quotes
- Answer frequently asked questions
- Receive feedback and suggestions from customers
These are just a few of the benefits you’ll receive from a business web site. It’s great tool to provide better service to your existing customers, and a wonderful way to win new customers.
Later, we’ll look at how web sites can help social and civic groups and even individuals.
While I have received exactly 42 emails concerning the Cookies and Dignity Challenge, no one has guessed the source, nor have they entered the writing contest. So…was the quote too obscure? Too short? Did it not strike anyone as funny? I found the phrase hilarious. Cookies and dignity just don’t seem to go together, and I thought we’d get some very interesting uses of the two. But I guess not. OK. I learned a little from this, and the next challenge will be different. In the the meantime, here’s another hint: (The first hint can be found in the comments to the original challenge)
The author is Rene Guttereridge.
Todays links include online training for small business owners, and learning more about today’s web technology, such as Web 2.0 and RSS. I hope you find something to entertain, enlighten, encourage, or empower you and your business. Happy surfing!
SBDC Online Training: Free online business courses from the South-West Texas Border Small Business Development Center (SBDC). From starting your business to managing your finances, they offer many quick beginner courses. Examples of available courses: Advertising, Building Your Brand, Valuing a Business, Balance Sheets, and Legal Structures.
RSS: Really Simple Syndication provides a method for you to get the headlines, or even the full text, of all new content from your favorite sites and blogs. This web site explains RSS in a non-technical format, with links to resources to get you started using the many feeds available on the web.
What Is Web 2.0: by Tim O’Reilly. “This article is an attempt to clarify just what we mean by Web 2.0.”
Better Invoices for Better Business: by Kevin Potts. Invoices that obfuscate information, incorrectly state terms or arrive incomplete can be a massive headache for all parties. Strategic timing and attractive presentation are also important, as they can help “soften the blow” by making your invoice seem less like a stale demand for money and more like a friendly letter.
UC Berkeley web casts: Listen to free lectures from Biology through Sociology from UC Berkeley. Subscribe to your favorite course and get the latest lectures delivered to your podcast software. If you love to learn, here’s higher education at no cost.
Art Buchwald died at the age of 81 last night.
He turned his wonderful wit onto his own failing health in his last book, Too Soon to Say Goodbye, and had me both laughing and crying at a talk he gave in DC late last year. I recommend you watch the program over at CSPAN’s Book TV. I have to admit I never really gave him much thought, and by sheer chance was able to see his talk. It only took a moment for him to capture my attention, and he’s someone I won’t forget.
So, goodbye, Mr. Buchwald, I’m glad to have met you, even if I was little late to join the parade.
Having a conversation with an angry teen is not something for the squeamish. Add the step-parent dynamic to this, and you have a whole new level of anger and blame. Even though my teen step children have lived me for quite a few years now, there is still quite a bit of tension between us. With one in particular, we seem to have hit the worst time of our relationship. I know many of you in blended families are in the same situation, or will find yourself in it soon, and today, I have found a way that helped us both to have a conversation about something that usually ends up with her screaming, and me so mad I can’t talk through my tears. Involve a 3rd party that is known to both of you. This has to be someone you both you both respect, or it won’t make a difference. Let me share with how this dynamic made the biggest impact on a reoccurring sensitive topic in my home. (more…)
Creating Passionate Users: Who’d You Make Smile Today? Going beyond the text-book formula of customer satisfaction and actually making them smile.
Free Fonts: Download hundreds of open-source font styles for free.
Texas Gas Prices: Monitor and submit gas prices in your area. Great resource to find the cheapest gas, and to avoid the gougers. Free.
LibraryThing: Create and maintain your own library catalog. Easy to use, easy to search, easy to share. Great for all bibliophiles. Free.
Texas Best Cowboy Culture: Artists, poets, real cowboys and more. All the best people, places, and things in Texas.
Web 2.0 Design Style Guide: Describes various common graphic design elements in modern web design style and attempts to explain why it works,as well as how, when and where to use, and not use, these design styles
That’s it for today’s web tour. I hope you find something to entertain, enlighten, encourage, or empower you and your business. Happy surfing!
This is a great example of *blend. “Rock the SAT”, a study guide that includes a CD of songs that most teens will enjoy, with the added bonus of improving their vocabulary…hopefully leading to higher scores on the verbal section of the test. When I first heard about it, I thought “My kids won’t listen. They want cool music”. But I was wrong. The songs were catchy, and no more corny than what they listen to every day. I also thought the songs would not be able to actually teach them new words, because teens are notorious for not understanding contextual use of words. But the lyrics go beyond just using the words in context, they actually define them without hitting you upside the head. It was impossible for my girls to listen to the songs and NOT know what the new words meant or how to use them.
You can sample two of the songs at the January 6 Weekend Edition on NPR. Listen to track one at the official web site for the Rock the SAT study guide. Or go ahead and buy it: it’s only $10.17 from Amazon
This one from Booking Through Thursday
Keeping it Simple
Let’s keep it simple today:
What are you reading right now?
My response:
Severance: Stories by Robert Olen Butler
Boo by Rene Gutteridge
and
Cell by Stephen King
oh, and on the non-fiction side: CSS, DHTML, & Ajax by Elizabeth Castro
My question…how many books are YOU usually reading at any given time?
Tina asks…
Hi Renee,
Have a question…how do you delete the addresses from something that was forwarded to you? Some of these fw’s are really neat, but have a gazillion addresses on them that makes it difficult to forward.
Appreciate your help.
