Start Your Business Online the Easy Way January 3, 2007
Posted by Sonia Chen in Business, web site.add a comment
It’s happening everyday, everywhere. More and more small and medium-sized business owners are going online. The benefits are obvious: you can be open for business 24 hours a day, everywhere. If you’ve been considering a web site for your business, or if you merely wish to reinvent your existing online image – a web host has many ways to help you succeed regardless of your technical expertise and the other demands of your business. There are three options for building your on-line presence:
Building your site on your own
Web hosts commonly provide powerful, easy-to-use tools for building, managing and promoting your Web Site from anywhere in the world using only a computer, Internet connection and a browser. Interactive wizards guide you through the Site building process. Online help files and a customer support group provide additional guidance. Additional capabilities can be added with just a few clicks of a mouse, allowing you to enhance your site as your business grows. Larger hosting organizations such as Gateway also offer shared hosting plans allowing you to use the software of your choice to build your Site and then easily upload it to a secure environment.
Learn to create your site
Building your own site may seem to be a daunting task – especially if you possess little in the way of design training. But you don’t have to do it alone. Many hosting organizations provide a wealth of online training, design, and knowledge-base tutorials to help you get your site online quickly. For example, Gateway currently offers an eBoot Camp service – a series of hands-on workshops for building your own Web Site. Covering all the basics of online business processes such as accepting payments online, order processing, billing and product shipment as well as Site design and online marketing.
Have your site built for you
For more complex, function-based web sites, it is sometimes better to have a professional designer build your site. To do this, most hosts only require some basic information about your company to create a custom web site, professionally designed just for you, including all the necessary end-user components:
- Professional, dynamic designs
- Home, About Us, News, …
- Additional custom pages
- Catalog and online sales functionality
- Order processing and management
- Shipment tracking
- Customer management
Pointers for your new web site
Check your competition. You can find out all sorts of things about what to do and what not to do by looking at their web sites. Also, try looking at sites of companies and organizations that you respect to find out how they handle things on the web.
More isn’t always better. Yeah, that dancing baby is cute – but can take a long time to download over that phone line at the airport. The best web sites are simple to use and get the user to where they want to go the fastest.
Ask your customers. Do a little marketing study of your own by just talking to them or even sending out a little survey. Your customers may be able to give you some insight that you may not have thought of on your own. They may let you know what they don’t like about the competition. Also, it doesn’t hurt to make your customers feel like they played a part in determining how your site was built.
Let ‘em know you’re out there. Just because you have a site doesn’t mean anyone will visit, so submit your site to search engines. Next time you print stationary or business cards, make sure you add your URL. Give your customers a reason to visit like web promotions of forms they can download.
Follow up. It may take a little experimentation before your site is one of the most popular on the web, so be patient. Follow up with your customers after it’s been up for a little while to find out what they like and don’t like. With a little extra effort, your site can make your business better.
