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How much does it cost to put a business on the Internet? Much has been written on this issue by people who like to be paid for adding URLs to search engines, for technical design, to design banner ads, etc. But one big misconception is to expect a successful Internet presence to be created overnight. Many businesses hire expensive technical specialists in order to create an Internet presence quickly, only to become dependent on such specialists. Initially, such businesses typically envisage specialists only to be necessary to build up a site in a few days, but in many cases, such specialists will still be working on the site many months later. Instead, it may take months, even years to build up a successful presence on the Internet. Nevertheless, a successful presence on the Internet can quite easily be built up without incurring much cost, if one is prepared to spend time on it. Most things can be done without specific technical skills, it may only cost a bit or sometimes a lot of time, but doing things yourself will also save you a lot of money. If you operate a business, consider this:
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1. Take the Step and set up a site yourself!
Many of the services through which you have access to the Internet (ISPs),
also give you capacity for your own pages. It's often there, unused by the
many people who pay their ISP a monthly amount. One problem is that the
URLs associated with those pages will be part of the ISP's domain name.
That means that, if you changed to another ISP, the URLs wouldn't work anymore.
Therefore, you should get your own dedicated URL. You can get a free site at
a place such as Geocities and you will
also have great online tools there to build a site. But such a site typically
is advertising-supported, you may need to login and change things to keep your
site alive, and such a free site comes with someone else's domain name.
The best solution is to get your own domain name, if not for yourself,
then just out of marketing considerations for your business, even if you
initially only used it to receive email. Yes, a domain name is not just about
a site, it also gives you email addresses. Getting a site with a recognisable
name, preferably using your own domain with a .com root, is not just a question
of prestige or vanity, it also serves genuine purposes of credibility and
security. It is as important as having letterheads, business cards and an
office address.
At GoDaddy, you can register a .com
domain name for $7.95 per year, which includes forwarding of email to your
existing address and have the domain name point to your site of choice, e.g.
with your current ISP.
Many businesses demand lengthy cost justifications before starting with
something like a website. Yes, a lot of hours can and probably will go
into creation of pages and graphics, technical design and marketing, before
any sales will be made. If you try and do everything yourself, then at least
you have things in your own hands and you will also learn the necessary skills
in the process. Look at it this way: if you are a shopkeeper, you will have to
know how the telephone works, how to plug in a vacuum cleaner, how to operate
a barcode reader, etc. The best way to learn all this is by doing it yourself!
So, instead of balancing the cost of employing professionals against
projections of future profits, get over it! Put your business on the
Internet yourself and don't expect this to be profitable for, say, one
year. If you after one year conclude that you do need to spend some money
on technical assistance or marketing, at least you will know exactly what
you want! |
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2. Think about Site Content!
Ask yourself what people could be looking for. People may send you an
email asking for more information. Anticipate this by having standard
replies ready! Put yourself in the position of a potential customer. What
would you be looking for? How would you like to be welcomed at a site?
What can you offer to people who visit your site? Do you have
information that is hard to get elsewhere? You must have something to
offer, something that people may be looking for, or something that may
somehow assist them. Marketing is the obvious reason for creating pages.
But this doesn't mean that pages with order forms should be all that your
site offers. Concentrate on content in the widest sense, including prices,
product manuals, service information, technical specifications, warrenty
conditions, contract clauses, disclaimers, instructions, updates, etc.
Content is King, it's the most important reason why people visit a site.
Information about your products and services is content that people may
come looking for. Make it as easy as possible for people to find such
information, make such information the main content of your index page,
while linking to other pages, such as ordering forms, in a non-intrusive
way for marketing purposes.
Create a front page that says exactly what the site is about, what the
benefits are of what you offer, what the advantages of your site are over
any competition. The point where you have an edge should feature high on
your frontpage. This means it should be displayed prominently at the top
of the page. Prove that you know your product or area of interest! Add
links to free advice, tips, ideas, etc. If you have nothing better to
offer than what a dozen other sites are offering, than you are in trouble.
Think and rethink where you differ, specialize if necessary. Above all,
make clear what your site offers! Pricing is one area where you may have
an edge.
Be open about such information, especially regarding prices! Make your
pricing policy clear. Try to keep things simple, e.g. charge $US 5.-
P&H cost worldwide and make P&H free for any order over $US 100.-
People generally do not like to spend minutes working out the costs. If
you are cheaper than the competition and if you have a simple pricing
policy, then people will remember your prices and remember that you were
cheaper, if they ever try out the competition.
Once you have got the above two points right, you can start thinking
about additional points. Some examples are:
Keep in mind that any addition will cost time. Measure the popularity
of such additions to justify continuation. Keep in mind why you set up the
site - don't let the additions become the main focus of your attention!
Remember what your site is about. Is your main aim to sell a product? Or
are you selling advertisement space? Or do you just aim to make your site
popular, in order to sell it later? Whatever the purpose is of your site,
do not charge for the entertainment that you add to attract visitors.
People dislike paying for such extra entertainment, especially if they
don't know in advance what they are going to be paying for. Give free
access to your site and to such entertainment. History shows that it is
hard to get people to pay for entertainment, but people are prepared to
accept advertisements as the price of being entertained. If you want to
make people pay for some items, at least make a substantial part of what
you offer available for free and let people pay only if they want more or
extra. This means offering free content, free services, free facilities, I
repeat FREE, FREE, FREE! If you have nothing to offer for free, you can
add contests, giving prizes to those who answer questions correctly, etc,
etc. Approach suppliers and say that you want to advertise vouchers on
your site, give discounts to people who mention a word that is changed,
say, each week, so that people return to your site to get the word of the
week if they want another discount, say, on long distance telephone calls,
petrol, books, CDs or other things that most people buy. Team up with
other suppliers, in order to give free advice, etc. Put lots of links on
your site to other sites that may have information that you are not
providing on your site. Create a facility on your site allowing people to
add links to their own sites!
People visit websites for all kinds of reasons, they may come looking
for specific details, or they may just be browsing and surfing, popping in
expecting to find something interesting and leaving again after shortly
glancing over a page if they do not immediately find it.
Such occasional visitors could become good customers if you do have
something to offer. Again, content is what could keep such visitors at
your site for longer than one or two seconds. Try out things that could be
interesting for the occasional visitor, such as details about people
working in the industry, tips, news, etc as long as it is free. Below,
some extra features are mentioned that can spice up your site. |
| 3. Extra Features
Navigation tips, features and facilities: | ||
| Navigational links With frames, you can display links to major pages on the left-hand side. But consider not using frames - simply add links at the top and/or bottom of pages. Be consistent! Either use frames throughout your site or not! Use the same links in the same order. Text links are quicker than icons. show a change in color for visited links! |
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| Index page Your index page (yourdomain.com) should feature links to all major pages on your site. It should be the main point of entry to your site and should clarify what the site is about and what it has to offer |
Tree View A dedicated page with a site map is recommended, but it may require a lot of maintenance if your site changes frequently. You may want to start with one page that shows your site's major pages, and where they are located within your site. |
Site Search The above search panel is a free site search facility offered by Google. You can set it up to cover one or more of your domains. |
| Discussion Forum A discussion forum can greatly enhance FAQs. Visitors can be allowed to post and their messages will be kept in a public archive, while they can always delete their own messages. Questions, discussions, complaints, requests, etc, an archive like Optionality Messages can be a valuable asset. Make sure people can choose to post and read messages either by email or on the web. |
Personal Messages Invite people to post a message to you personally. New members can automatically be set to moderated, so you can simply take note and delete a personal message, and it will never reach the archive or other members. You can be notified of pending messages, so you can respond immediately. Approved messages are kept in a public archive, so they can be referred to later, while members can always see and, if they want, delete their own messages. |
Uploads Public folders can be created where members can upload photos or files, while in private folders only the creator can add or delete photos and files. You can be notified of uploads, so that you can respond immediately. All messages, files and photos are kept in public archives, so they can be referred to later, while members can always see and, if desired, delete their own files and photos. |
| Sign-up box Allow visitors to join your group, so they can receive your newsletter by email. Tell them they can also join by sending an email to mailto:optionality@yahoogroups.com and that they can get the source code to add the sign-up box to their own site. |
Welcome messages On joining, people can be automatically sent an email message and selected files, e.g. explaining how they can post (or delete) messages, upload photos, etc, and inviting them to send a message to introduce themselves, not only to you, but to all members of the group. |
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| Chat An example is the Optionality Chatroom. You can announce at the group when you will be available in the chatroom and what the theme of the discussions will be. It's great to get a celebrity or an expert to join in! |
Mailing Lists,
Newsletters Use groups such as at Yahoo to send out a regular newsletter, to keep people up to date with changes at your site, new features, etc. Display a link at appropriate places at your site to allow people to join or change settings |
Allow others to link! Allow people to either add links or post a message with details. You can check your group from time to time to see if there are any links you would like to display at your site. Announce such site updates at the group! |
| Interaction Allow people to vote in polls and surveys. An example is, what would you like to see more at this site? |
Calendar An example is the Calendar at the Optionality group. Use it to announce chatroom appearances, site updates, conclusion of polls, and other upcoming events. |
Database Create a database with specific variables people can enter. An example is the Database at the Optionality group. You can allow members to enter or delete (their own) data, such as times, dates and locations of events. |
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Promotional tools and facilities: | ||
| Create further sites Consider setting up complementary sites that link to your site. As an example, PageTV is a separate site with up-to-date newsfeeds and links to articles, inviting visitors to go to discussions and to join newsletters and mailing lists. You can register new domains or transfer existing domains to Godaddy.com, and you can have them point to a page at your site (masked if you want). |
Autoresponders You can register a new domain or transfer an existing domain to Godaddy.com and select their free email forwarding facility. Then, tick the box for autoresponder and enter a text, which will be automatically returned to anyone sending a message to that email address. It's great for updates of events, pricelists or the most recent copy of a newsletter. |
Networking Adding links to other sites on a reciprocal basis is an inexpensive way of networking. You promote their site and they do the same for you. Find sites that have common ground and that can complement your site! See above for the use of groups to allow visitors to add links and post messages. |
| Special Interests Add pages to your site on specefic topics. They can deliver extra visitors and promotional opportunities. It's great if you can find interests that compliment the primary purpose of your site. Check traffic statistics to see what works and what doesn't. |
Awards and prizes Allow visitors to rate your site, e.g. at Awards. You can also allow visitors to nominate their own sites, e.g. for the Best-site-award.com. You can also offer prizes, e.g. for ideas that improve your website. |
Webrings Go to Webring to join and create webrings. It's a free way to promote your site, while you can also earn money by allowing selected sites to feature at your own rings. |
| Free
Stuff Many sites offer links to free stuff. The Free Stuff area at the Optionality Network has many links. Visitors can win a Palm III by recommending the page with promotion tips. For further free stuff tips, join the Free List at Topica. |
Search Engines Submit the URL of your site to search engines and make sure that all your pages are linked to directly or indirectly from that main page, then the robots sent by search engines will do their job of collecting data on all these pages. For more details on this, go to search engines page. |
Reviews and Affiliate
Programs People who are interested in books, movies, etc, may buy them from your site, if you have reviews. Affiliate programs such as by Amazon.com allow you to earn commissions for referrals. You can use a group to allow people to make comments and suggestions regarding reviews. |
| 4. Design and Re-design your
Site!
Navigation and Functionality
The first big issue is navigation. The paradox is that it may require a
lot of thinking, resulting in quite a complex site design, all in order to
make navigation easy. People dislike making unexpected 4-pages deep
journeys when they expect to find something through a single click.
Complicated navigation is not the result of the complexity of the site,
but of bad design, sometimes it even is the deliberate result of the
site-designer wanting to make visitors see things that they didn't really
ask for. Don't do this! This is worse than upfront advertising - it is
promotion by stealth. People who dislike advertising generally dislike
this even more. Get friends to test your site - what may be obviously
clear to you may not be so for the average visitor. Consider making a
tree-view of your site. The first priority should be to put the customer
first.
Extra features such as mentioned above can attract more visitors to
your site. But if such extra features are only added for their
entertainment value, they may irritate visitors who come looking for
specific things. Ensure that such additions do not create navigation
problems or create unnecessary delays or distractions. Again, it may take
some sophisticated site design to create easy navigation through your
site, e.g., it may take the complexity of duplicate pages. You may have to
create many different ways in which people can navigate your site, one
short path that is strictly business and numerous other avenues for people
who like to see more.
Similarly, it takes some sophistication in site design to maintain
clarity about what the site is about. Many sites feature a panel at the
left-hand side of each page with links to other pages that are part of the
site. The immidiate viewing area of many screens is limited to a width of
640 pixels. Put a standard 468-pixels-wide-banner in the right-hand
panel and there is not much width left in the left-hand panel.
Alternatively, such links could be spread out over the full width of the
page, either at the top or at the bottom. Repeating such links on
subsequent pages is helpful, it gives people some stability in navigation.
Also, once the associated icons have been loaded for the first time,
subsequent pages load faster. But all this does not apply to first time
visitors who leave after taking a glance at only one or two pages. Also,
such links take away 'real estate' on each page. Think such issues
through!
If extra features add entertainment value, that is a bonus, but keep in
mind why people come to your site. Is entertainment the main purpose of
your site? Games, jokes, funny pictures may attract some people, but they
can be regarded as distractive by more serious visitors. Also, such
features must be updated frequently to attract return visitors. A novelty
wears off quickly, especially if it adds extra loading or navigation time.
Choose extra features for their functionality, rather than for
entertainment!
Fast Loading
It is imperative that pages load fast. In many cases, pages do not load
fast, not properly or not at all. Many people surf the WEB using old
computers with little RAM, slow processors and old browsers. Java, frames
and large pictures may frustrate visitors - they will go elsewhere before
they have even seen what is on the page. They may never return to your
site! This may not immediately show up in statistics, you may see many
hits, without realizing that few visitors have even read any text on your
index page. Make sure that at least the index page loads fast. Give
choices and warnings if visitors are about to face long loading times.
Apart from the technical design, the artistic design is important.
Things should be clear even for first-time visitors. Many visitors will
only glance at a page and move elsewhere if they do not immediately find
something of interest to them. The following points may help to smooth
navigation:
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| 5. Marketing Issues: promotion and
popularity
How is success of a site measured? Many will regard the bottomline to
be the profits that result from having a website. But on the Internet, few
sites make profits (yet). A site such as Amazon.com has become an empire
worth billions without yet making any significant profits. Success is more
often measured in terms of name recognition, reputation, popularity, etc.
These factors contribute to asset appreciation, which may be more
lucrative that immediate revenues.
Many people measure the success of their sites in terms of the number
of visits that pages receive or the number of links that are made to their
pages on other sites. Another measure is search engine ranking. Having
your own domain name will help achieving a higher listing with many search
engines. You will still have to enter your site name and URL in as many
search engines as possible and do so repeatedly. For a higher listing, the
choice of the URL, the site name, the titles of pages and whether specific
words appear on pages is all important. Make sure you've got the Meta Tags
right, incorporate 'keywords' and 'description' in the code of each page.
See Quintessence's Search
Engines Tips for more details.
Search engines can also give you an indication how often your site name
is mentioned on other sites, as well as the number of links to your site
from other sites. In some cases, you will have to pay search engines and
other services to get a top spot. So, you may want to set some money aside
for marketing and get into an arrangement with someone who knows about
search engines to spend this money as efficiently as possible. If you need
to use a technical person to check the code of each page and to submit
your pages with search engines, consider paying that person a fixed amount
every month, but only if your pages do show up consistently among the top
ten URLs at, say, five out of the top ten search engines. It's a good idea
to subscribe to the Search Engines Email
List.
To further measure the popularity of your site, keep track of
statistics, especially: The following points may also help you attract more visitors:
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| 6. Become part of networks!
Existing customers may know how to find your site, but many if not most
newcomers will have to find you through search engines, directories or links
at other sites. Simply budgeting for some advertising may not work in
this case, you may need to put some effort into getting others to link
to you, in order to make your site more visible.
It may make sense to emulate such a network on the Internet, thus
offering quick ways to find other people, place orders, track sales
records and keep up-to-date with developments. However, from the customer
perspective, it does not make much sense to surf through pages of such a
network. The network may well keep its most sensitive data on an intranet,
hidden from the outside world. Moreover, someone who is looking for, say,
a videorecorder, will only get confused and frustrated within such a
network. Such a customer is not interested in who provides the legal
services to the retailer that sells videorecorders. Such a customer is not
interested in who designs the advertisements for that retailer. Such a
customer is even less interested in who cleans the kitchen at the factory
where one of the videorecorders is made that is offered for sale by the
retailer.
When joining a network that is publicly accessible, a business should
take the customer perspective. Customers like to go to places that feature
many of the things they are looking for, browse and surf to see if there
is anything they like, compare prices, sales conditions, delivery times,
etc. Don't be afraid that customers will end up with your competitors.
If you're offering a good service, such comparisons will only strengthen
your name with existing customers. Respect first-time visitors - they
don't like to be told what to do, they want to browse and compare things
and make up their own mind as to what the better choice is. Take the time
to point out why your products and services are indeed the better choice,
even if it takes you several pages to explain that in detail.
Don't be afraid to admit if some
competititors are better in some respects, as long as there are points
where you have an edge. People appreciate someone who tells the whole
story! By presenting yourself amidst competitors, you display the
confidence that people expect the better supplier to have. Visitors
appreciate suppliers who are confident enough to admit who their main
competitors are. Instead of sending customers away to the competition, it
may make customers change their minds and come back to place an order.
Remember that in the physical world, another shop may be miles away.
Customers who want to buy something, will buy at your place, even if the
competitor is slightly cheaper. But on the WEB, the competition is only
one click away. People may indeed go and check out the competition. But
people may just as quickly click to come back to your place. Hyperlinks
are the essence of the World Wide Web. Without interlinking, your site
will become isolated. A network of similar, but complementary sites may go
a long way to enhance your Internet presence. |
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