The Great Dime Novel Project Proudly Presents:
The Great Dime Novel Project
Learn How to
Establish Your Presence on the Web
By Ron S. LaVine, MBA
| This chapter provides a step-by-step program to establishing a powerful presence on the web which will meet your exact needs | The key to marketing your services effectively on a web site revolves around explaining what you do and how your potential client's will benefit. |
Given you a PC, modem, an Internet Service Provider (visit: http://thelist.internet.com/ to locate an ISP), establishing your presence on the Web can be easy with some marketing forethought and desktop publishing package design to build web pages and upload them onto the web.
Look for publishing software packages that are easy to use, have templates you can write over and an easy method to upload your pages to the web (My Software in Menlo Park, CA 415-473-3600 and Microsoft Publisher are a couple of examples).
The name of your web site will live with you for years. Choose an easy to remember name that is as short as possible. For example, if your company is named The Intellworks, you may choose to use http://www.intellworks.com.
Using this marketing tip will make it easy for your prospects and clients to remember the name of your site while shortening the amount of time you invest in registering your web page with key search engines (i.e.: Alta Vista, Excite, Infoseek, HotBot, Lycos, Yahoo, etc.).
To register the unique name of your web site contact Internic, one of the agencies that registers custom domain addresses.
Building Effective Web Pages
A web page acts as a 24 hour per world-wide marketing service for your business. The key to marketing your services revolves around explaining what you do and how your potential client's will benefit (a.k.a. What's in it for me?).
Try the following format (which also works well for brochures):
Other page suggestions would include a copyright page, article(s) page (of articles written by you), an other valuable links page. It is important to provide potential clients with information and benefits that will differentiate your services from your competitors. Offering basic instruction or tips on what you do will not only demonstrate your expertise, it will also encourage people to seek your services in areas where they are not competent or do not feel like investing the time in an area which you specialize in.
Each page you publish, adds to the probability of potential clients being able to find you. The greater number of pages you have, the more pages you can individually register with each search engine. In fact, you can even create separate web sites for different types of services you offer and register them separately to gain additional exposure.
Helping People to Find Your Business on the Web
The first thing most search engines do is to look at the first 100 or 200 words used in your index page. Before you register your web site with multiple search engines (it is better to do this process yourself than to rely upon a registration service since each registration has unique requirements) prepare a title, a set of key words and 25, 50 and 100 word descriptions of your business using as many buzz words (popular words you think a prospective client would use to search for your services) as possible.
Here are some examples of popular search words: "marketing, sales, free, newsletter, selling, tips, free, market, industry, company, profiles."
Using User Groups to Your Advantage
Look for user groups on the internet in industries where you specialize and contribute helpful comments showing your expertise along with information on where to reach for additional assistance. Advertising your business in a user group discussion is frowned upon but offering helpful advice is not.
An easy to use software package combined with good service providers, can enable you to have your web site up and running on the web in less than a day. Do a search on your specialty and visit other web sites for ideas. Then create your own web page marketing machine to establish your presence on the Web. The web is an information based medium.
Cost versus Payback
You are looking at an investment of less than $1 per day, on a yearly basis or more for the services of an ISP and a Web Page Hosting Service (I recommend http://www.stairway-to-webbin.com/host.html). By offering information in the form of reports and newsletters, you can accomplish this goal.
Here's some more helpful articles from Ron LaVine
Target Market your services using direct marketing techniques.
How to find the blessing disguised in downsizing.
Turn Data Into Dollars with free resources.
Lessons Learned from business by Mr. LaVine
Building an Effective E-mail Newsletter to Increase Sales
Learn How to Establish Your Presence on the Web
Meet the Author, Ron LaVine
Click HERE for other helpful articles
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