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HOW TO SET UP & MARKET YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

The Internet can be a very daunting and confusing place to the novice who wants to market his/her business on the web. What do you do first..... do you hire a web designer to put up your web presence? .... what is a domain name and how do you get one? ..... isn't there supposed to be something called a domain host? .... do you hire a marketing consultant to promote your site? Just what do you do?

What is a Domain Name and do I need one?

For the purpose of this article I will assume that you have at least bought a computer with a modem and have signed up with a local or national Internet Provider (this is called your ISP), and that you have some product or service you wish to sell or promote on the web. The first thing you'll need to do is determine if you want to register your own domain name.

A domain name is a catchy combination of words strung together to describe your business, such as toyparadise.com, greenthumb.com or blastfromthepast.net. This name is sort of like a trademark, you have to register it with the Internic. In order to reserve your special company domain name for your sole use only, you will first have to find out if your chosen name has already been reserved by someone else.

There are many places on the net to see if your domain name choice has been taken.... in fact, I have one on my site - Domain Name Search. Not only can you check there to see if your name has been chosen, but I also provide domain hosting services.

Once you determine which name you want to choose you can sign up with me, or any other domain hosting service. The cost for registering a domain with Internic is always $70.00, which will register your domain choice for two years. After that, upon renewal, you will pay $35.00 per year. Internic will bill you separately for this registration.

The good news is...... I CAN REGISTER YOUR DOMAIN FOR ONLY $15.00 a year!

Here's more good news.... I can register those new great LONG names for you too.... up to 67 characters! And you can secure your name(s) for one year, ten years, or anything in between. Once the form is filled out and your payment accepted by the domain-name registry, the name is yours. As long as you renew it on time, it's locked in forever.

Naturally you can still have a web site without registering a domain name. Most ISP's will give you space for a web site for a nominal monthly fee.

Do I Want to Design my own Web Site or hire a professional?

There are many good HTML editors on the market and you might want to try your hand at web design. However, if you want to put up a web site that will have the "business-like" look of your company and will project the image you desire to your customers, I recommend that you talk to a professional designer. I am a professional designer and you can view my work at - LWD Portfolio, but whatever you decide, be sure that your site displays your company and product to it's best advantage.

Do I Need to Accept Credit Cards online?

If you have many products to sell online and the majority of your business will come from online customers, it is almost essential that you set up your web site to have a Merchant's Account to accept credit cards. 90% of people who do their shopping online will want to do their buying with a credit card. It's fast..... it's convenient. There are many companies online which can set you up to accept credit cards. The one I currently recommend is GoE-Merchant, where you can get your own Merchant Account and complete Internet Store for only $49.95 per month. This price includes a full shopping cart which is easily configured into your web site.

If you don't feel you have so many products that you need to make full investment in a Merchant Account, there are other ways you can accept credit card and bank transfers from your web site. One of these services is Pay Pal . . . By using Pay Pal, your customers can have money transfered to your e-mail account with the click of a button. If you register as a Business with Pay Pal they even provide a seccure order form for items on your site.

I have a Web Site - Now What?

Did you think your work would end once you have a beautifully designed web site? Not quite.... in fact, this could very well only be the beginning of your work. How are your potential customers going to know about your web site and how are they going to be enticed to visit your site unless they know it's out there? It's important to have a marketing plan for promoting your site.

Here are some popular ways of promoting a web site:

Search Engines - Potential customers will be searching for the places they want to visit by using "keywords" to indicate the topics or products they want to see. If your web designer did his job, your web pages will have "Meta Tags" which will include the popular keywords to describe your site. There are only a few main search engines, which include Yahoo, Infoseek/Go and Alta Vista. Unfortunately, only a few sites will be listed in the top 3-4 pages under any given keyword, so choose your keywords carefully.

FFA Link Sites - There are hundreds of "Free For All" link sites on the web today. These are sites that will link to your site for FREE and your site can be submitted to these with various kinds of Submitting Software. One of the main reasons to submit your site to these FFA sites is that many of the major search engines will classify your site as a "popular" site according to how many other sites are linked to yours. You must submit your site often with these to keep links to your site active.

Trading Links - Another way to promote your web site is to trade links with other sites that will compliment yours. Suppose your site sells home decorating items and kitchen ware.... perhaps you even give away free recipes to entice visitors to your site. A good site to "partner" with could be one that sells personal products or bath products, or even food items. Spend a little time browsing the net for possible partnering sites and approach them to exchange links.

Web Rings - Another popular way to draw traffic to your site is by joining web rings. Web rings are made up of site owners who share a similar theme or group interest. For example, dog breeders might form a large web ring with other breeders, or sellers of health products might ban together in a ring. You can search for web rings at the Yahoo web ring directory or even start your own.

E-Mail Discussion Lists - There are literally thousands of e-mail discussion lists available by subscription on the internet. All that is required is to have an e-mail address. These lists hold discussions on every possible subject known to man. To find names of e-mail lists on all kinds of subjects, some popular list hosts are: EGroups, and SmartGroups. Find groups to join under the categories of your interest..... categories that will complement the subject of your web site, then join these lists.

One thing to remember about these lists, however, is that these are discussion groups and you must adhere to the subject of the list. If you blatantly advertise your web site or products, you will be attacked with flame letters. The best way to advertise on an e-mail discussion list is to use the Signature File in your e-mail software to it's best advantage. Get creative with a few lines such as: "Is your husband afraid to come home for dinner? Try this FREE cookbook at - (your web site URL here). It would surprise you how many potential customers you can draw to your site with a well-placed signature line.

Newsgroups - Newsgroups are an avenue of advertisement similar to E-Mail Discussion Lists. Your e-mail software will also have an option for joining newsgroups. Use the Search feature on your browser to search for keywords that compliment your web site business, then choose a few select groups to join. Again, newsgroups aren't the place to blatantly advertise your web site, however, a clever e-mail signature will also bring visitors to your site.

Online Auctions - If you have a product that might go over well at an online auction, don't ignore this very lucrative way of marketing. Ebay is one of the best auction sites. Browse this site in the various categories of merchandise and notice how other resellers auction their products. There are several different kinds of auctions and you will be able to set a "bottom-line" price for each of the items you choose to sell.

Advertising a web site can be a time consuming task, but however you choose to do this, look on this as a regular task, one that should be budgeted into your daily schedule. You might want to make a "To Do" list of tasks and vary them each day, setting at least an hour a day aside specifically for marketing your products. I'm sure the increase in traffic to your site will be worth the effort.

Above all..... be optimistic! You have a web site... now Promote - Promote - Promote!!

by Lonna Poland

Lightning Web Designs

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