Why Web?
 

Why, you ask, do I need to have a website? What's so important that I spend my valuable time and money on such a thing?

The answer is easy. It has been proven time and again that small businesses having a web presence have increased the foot traffic to their retail store. How does this happen?

Think of a website like it’s an electronic press kit helping you advertise yourself.  Who are your customers-- your audience?  Who do you want to reach that you are not reaching now?  How do you want to present your product, or make professional connections, or generate leads for school visits?  Do you want to offer your customers/clients a source of up-to-date information about your business?  Do you perhaps want to offer customer incentives by way of discounts?  A website can offer all these things and more.

Are you intimidated by the thought of creating a website?  Even trying to figure out why you want a website can make your head spin.  But in this day and age, many people don’t seem to take you seriously unless you have email and a website. 

You can create your site to your own standards of excellence – making it visually pleasing while detailing your work. After all, you are promoting yourself.  

Promotion. Promotion. Promotion.  That’s the name of the web game.

By creating a well organized website, you can direct people to the specific areas they want.  Like our website - when you log onto BCEofNC.com, you can easily go to each of our areas of expertise. A click of the mouse lets you jump from The WebMistress to Print Studio to the Info Center.

While the reasons why you want a website are endless, one thing is certain -- if you present a web site that is visually appealing, easy to navigate and informative, your customers WILL respond!  

Why, you ask, do I need to have a website? What's so important that I spend my valuable time and money on such a thing?

The answer is easy. It has been proven time and again that small businesses having a web presence has increased the foot traffic to their retail store. How does this happen?

Think of a website like it’s an electronic press kit helping you advertise yourself.  Who are your customers-- your audience?  Who do you want to reach that you are not reaching now?  How do you want to present your product, or make professional connections, or generate leads for school visits?  Do you want to offer your customers/clients a source of up-to-date information about your business?  Do you perhaps want to offer customer incentives by way of discounts? A website can offer all these things and more.

Free web promotion is always best.  Email and website addresses should be prominently displayed on business cards, letterheads, and email signatures.  Don't forget to include this information on your brochures, postcards, and free samples.

There are numerous tools on the market that will help you create and maintain your own website.  Just look in your local office supply stores to discover what’s currently available.

“But,” you say, “I need to spend my time selling my product or service – not working on a website.”  If this is the case, you might consider hiring someone to help you.  Prices of web developers can vary from $50 - $250 per hour.  It can take between 3 to 5 hours to create a simple site, so budget accordingly.  Make sure you find someone that makes you feel comfortable.  Be actively involved with everything your web developer does.  A long-distance relationship with a developer is usually not a problem.  (My company supports people living 3 states away and we’ve discovered this works very well.)

Another cost issue to consider is where to host your website.  Usually, if you have an email account with a major internet service provider such as AOL or EarthLink, you have free web space available at no additional charge.  The drawback of this is the website name is long and not easy to remember.  Instead of having a web address that helps advertise your business, you could end up with something like http://www.yadtel.net/~momofmany/index.htm.  Real user-friendly, right?  But it’s free so you get what you pay for.  And remember, there are some website host services that will also design your site, so be sure to check to see what services are included in your fees.

If you don’t want to have user-unfriendly names, you can create and register your own name.  This is your “domain name”.  You might want to pick something like “MyCompanyName.com” for your website address.  That way, whenever anyone even looks at your website address, your business name is right in front of them, reminding them of your work.  Pretty good advertisement, isn’t it?  It usually costs between $3-15 to reserve the name you want for two years.

The final costs to consider are search engines. Many search engines charge you to be included in a search list.  The larger fee you pay generally puts you closer to the top of the list.  But several, such as Google.com and Yahoo.com are free. By using proper meta tags and keywords, your business can start appearing near the top of the list.

Any questions? Please send an email to The WebMistress.