How to use the internet to help grow your business.

Part 1 - Getting Started with the web.

This article serves to illustrate some effective ways for small business owners to put the web to work for them.

What's in a "DOMAIN" name?

dot.what?

Soon after came the country designations, and then a whole slew of new ones such as .biz, .cc, .info, .tv, .ws, .etc... Some are more expensive, but most top-level domains can be purchased for under $20/year.

You already have one... right?

If you haven't yet secured a domain name for your business, stop whatever you are doing, stop reading this and register a name right now. Even if you don't get a web site for a year or more, you should not wait to get your domain, every business needs one as much as they need a phone! Domain names are disappearing at the amazing rate of 10-20,000 a day!

A web site for your company is more important than a phone number, as you will invariably get more visits to your web site than you will phone calls. Of course if you do not have a web site up, you will not be found. So that is coming up next.

Then you owned the name, next you had to get your web site on the internet. Additionally you need to have your web site designed and developed to meet the needs of your company, and the needs of you customers.

Do-it-your-self-er ehh?

There are many places on the web that you can get a "make your own" website under another companies domain name like Geocities and Yahoo, but if you have your website within those, you don't have control over the name, it may change, and its probably longer than your own domain name would be and far longer than the average human can hope to remember.

There are also pop-up ads and other issues that can be detrimental to your website. These so-called free sites are the equivalent to low-income housing projects.

You can get a domain name and hosting for around $20/month or less. Of course there are design and development cost to consider, but that is another article.

Think Globally, Search Locally.

Today the web is becoming the main source of information in many homes. And broadband users that are always connected are increasing everyday. More than 15 million American households have broadband connections through cable modems or Digital Subscriber Lines, known as DSL, offered by telephone companies. With new households signing up at a rate of 100,000 a week, the total should climb to more than 20 million by the end of the year, or nearly 19% of the 107 million U.S. households. * These broadband users are demographically in higher income brackets, they are willing to pay double the price of dial-up to have the "always-on" internet. *( quoted from the WSJ)

The new Full Color 3 billion page Phone book

Historically, when people want to find a business in their area, they would pick up the Yellow Pages. While they still do, many people will search the internet first! And they are searching for local business, including their city or neighborhood name in the search. Personally I always search Google first, then only resort to the phone book if I cant find it on-line. The benefits are obvious, with a website, you can learn much more than you can from even a full-page advertisement in the phone book. Get the hours, maps, see pictures and merchandise, staff, and more.

Having a web site listed in the major search engines is an excellent way to have new customers find you, and its very inexpensive compared with traditional advertising.

Ok that does it for now, this should be good to get you started, look for my next article on Pet Industry promotions:

There are a few things to keep in mind when working on getting your site listed successfully. First you must make sure your site has good content, well written text describing your services...