Blah, Blah, Blog

Here is a question someone with a brick and mortar asked me recently, and I wanted to address it here because I think this is a common one:

Here’s a story that illustrates that. My Mom owns a real Tea Room. I built a site for her with the business hours, contact info, events listings, menu, pictures, etc. Every time a new customer walks into her business she asks them how they heard about her. Many of them say a friend referred them, but a large number of them say: “I saw your website.”

Who would think that people would Google a tea room? But they do! When was the last time you sat down and Googled to find a local business? I did it just a few hours ago. I have NO idea where my phone book is. The dsl is always on and it’s so much easier to search online.

So if you have your own site, people can find you online. If you don’t… well… they won’t.

Keeping Up With Your Customers

If you have a website you can gather your clients and customers email addresses. Offer them a free article, report, a coupon code, a recipe, whatever is appropriate to your target market and ask them to sign up. Send out a newsletter every month letting them know of your newest product or service offering. Remind them to make an appointment or reorder product. Give them some informative content in the form of tips or what have you.

Not everyone will hire you or patronize your business just because they landed on your site. But they’re gone forever and won’t ever turn into a customer if they never hear of you again. A newsletter lets you keep in touch.

This leads to the third reason you should have your own site:

Extra Income Streams

Let’s say you are a financial planner. You earn money selling your financial planning services by the hour. If you had a website and sent out a newsletter, you could recommend products to your subscribers/clients that will help them with their financial concerns.

For instance, an online budgeting system or a subscription to a magazine on finances. You can use your affiliate link for this product and earn additional income. A customer who already trusts your expertise and values your opinion is likely to take your product recommendations seriously. You can write these product recommendations on your website too.

What about creating your own information product? Why not write an ebook with your best tips and offer it for sale? You could do this easily by simply asking yourself what the top questions of your clients are. Answer the questions and you’ve got a product to sell.

More Customers

What’s not to love about that? But how does a website help you get more customers? In addition to local search, your website will make it easier for the media to contact you. If a reporter is looking for a good quote from an expert, they often go online to search.

Should you hire someone else to build your website?

I actually don’t recommend this. Why? Because you give control of your marketing over to someone else. Hiring a web designer can be expensive, and the ongoing updates you’ll pay them to do will add up quick. If you build your own, you can add content quickly. Content that drives free search engine traffic, that showcases your expertise, and builds trust in you.

But what if you don’t know html?

Then use an Easy Site Builder. These are so easy to use that even the most beginning-est beginner can have an attractive, professional looking site. Easy Site Builders use templates (this one has hundreds to choose from) so all you have to do is add your content… which is much like using an email program or text editor.

Give it a test drive, it has a 10 day free trial. I’ve used this one to build several sites and I highly recommend it. It also features a built in newsletter management system and hosting in the price.

A website is more than an online business card… it’s a marketing tool that works for you 24 hours a day.

Because really, a little knowledge and a lot of sweat is what it takes to make money online. It’s so easy to get stuck in the minutae, and it’s easy to be an everlasting student of internet marketing and never really get going with your plan.

My friend, Nicole Dean, has just launched a fun new site with business ideas for moms, and it looks promising. She’s offering instructional ebooks to teach you how to do it, plus (and this is cool) an audio Success Story for each business idea to help you with motivation and to show you how others have had success with the idea.

In her usual goofy way (check out the pic on the home page!), she’s come up with a very interesting website name and even a mascot “Babs VonScambuster”. You’ve got to check this one out: Just Add Sweat

And, if you’re not interested in the home business ideas she offers… get on her list because they’re adding four new books and audios very soon.

Keeping motivated long enough to meet your goals with your business, that is
Today on Wahm Talk Radio, Kelly talked about a Mom who said her greatest challenge in her business was her inspired/depressed cycle of feelings. She needed consistency.

I struggle with this sometimes! When you have challenges and obstacles that inevitably arrive, how do you respond? To keep on keeping on, and think positively, is a real challenge sometimes.

I got permission to share this wonderful report on Self Improvement in Business. It discusses ways to meet your goals, how to use gratitude to change your state and attract more success, seeking out resources like mastermind groups and coaches, and other tools that can help you through the slumps and bumps in the road.

You can get it here:
http://www.CarrieFAQ.com/self-improvement-secret.html