When you are on the Internet, you cruise websites for certain kinds of information. You may know of a website that you are familiar with, or you may have to type in a keyword, to find the website that you need. No matter what website you find, the promise is the same, you find information on it and your browser displays this information. How does your browser know what to display? It goes by code. Your browser was created to recognize HTML (HyperText Markup Language). This is code is what the browser recognizes. When you type in the web address (URL) of the website you want to see, the browser finds the web page and reads the code associated with that page. It then displays the results on your screen.
HTML is basically a list of commands that tells your browser what to show on your monitor and where everything should be placed. The code tells the browser what colors to use, where the images are located, where to place them on your screen, what sound files to load, etc.
Every web page must contain certain elements to work. Without these elements the web page would not be pleased to the eyes. The main thing any web page needs is content. This content is mainly in the form of words or copy. Every web page must use copy of some type in order to introduce the page to the visitor so the visitor knows what to expect while using the site.
Every web page needs images. Well placed images on a web page will make it more appealing. Images can also help the webmaster or web owner showcase their products or services in order to attract sales or to provide information, depending on what the site is all about.
2) Have a website. This is very important. No matter what kind of internet business you are eyeing, you still need a website. Whether you are planning to do affiliate marketing, direct selling or blogging, a website is a must. So have your website set up. Pay attention as well to the overall design and features of your website. You have to make sure that the design is appropriate to your type of online business.
3) Have a business plan. Breakdown your business into workable and digestible bits. What is your online marketing strategy? What is your social media strategy? What are the products or services you are going to sell? What are the plans in case some things do not work?
4) Polish your marketing plan. Marketing is very important in online businesses. If you do not market your business, you will not have any customers. You have to understand that you are not the only seller online. There are thousands of you and most of your competitors are probably burning their butts marketing their businesses. Most marketing tools, strategies and resources in the internet do not cost a thing so there is no reason why you should not make use of them. These free tools include social media sites like Facebook, search engines, article directories and blogs.
5) Optimize your website for the search engines. This allows your website to be found by people searching via engines like Google and Yahoo. SEO involves deliberately researching keywords and placing such keywords in your business website. Make it as easy as well for web spiders to crawl your site.
6) Get involved in social media sites. Facebook has more than half a billion registered users already. Twitter does not have as much but it's still in the tens of millions. What you do is create profiles for your business in these social networking sites then start connecting with friends, contacts and potential customers.
7) Be patient. As stated earlier, building an online business is never an easy thing. It takes time before you get to see any income results. So just stick to your guns and keep doing the right marketing and selling strategies.
Only you can answer that question about your own business. But in my opinion if you want to grow and prosper in today's competitive marketplace a well designed and marketed web presence is essential to your success.
Whether you are selling a product or service, whether you are large or small, whether you are well established or a new start-up, a website can be a very powerful tool on the road to achieving your business goals.
Here are some of the things a website can do for your business.
1. Reduce overall Advertising Costs.
Spending money in the traditional media such as Newspaper, Radio, Magazines, Billboards or Television can require an investment of hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars. The problem with these traditional methods are increasing segmentation, decreasing audience and in almost every case a finite lifespan in which to attract your customers. When you amortize the cost of a well designed and marketed website over the life of that site site it is without doubt the most cost effective means of advertising and marketing your company to your potential clients.
2. Increase your revenue with an E commerce Solution.
How would you like a salesperson working for your organization that never rests, never takes vacation, never asks for a raise and is working for you 24 hours a day and 7 days a week? Integrating a shopping cart solution into a new or existing website is an efficient and cost effective way of increasing the revenue from the products or services your company offers.
3. Increase your company's exposure to a larger audience.
Today, more than ever, customers are learning about products and services by looking online long before they ever contact a business to actually make the purchase. By having a well designed and implemented web presence that can be found by the search engines you are opening up your company to many more opportunities for business. Many times the way in which information is presented online determines which company the customer will buy from.
4. Level the playing field.
On the web every business is the same size. A professionally designed website will help you to lease the web and level the playing field by introducing your company as a bigger or better alternative to any of your competitors.
5. Convenience for your customers improvements service.
Most potential customer's do their preliminary homework on the internet and they want to shop and browse for information at their convenience, not yours. Having a well designed website filled with relevant information with a way to purchase online shows your customer's that you respect their time and convenience and want their business. A website also allows your customer's to contact you whenever they want and answering promptly to all inquiries will help raise your level of customer service.
This is not meant to be a complete list, but simply a short list of the more important reasons to have a website.
The Web Site ( construction ) is the part everyone can see at the designated address. The " Real estate " is totally invisible but it's size determines how big your website can be, how much content it can hold and deliver on the web.
Domain names ( addresses ) are provided by "Registrars"
Web Space is provided by "Hosting Services"
Very often you can find all of these services with the same provider or you can choose to buy them from different specialized sources. Most of the time "Registrars" also offer Web Hosting, Site Builders, email services and many other options. Hosting Services often offer Domain Names Registration services, options like Site Builders, Content Management Systems and many others. Most Design and Programming Services will also offer Domain Name Registration, Web Hosting and all related services.
With "Automatic Site builders" you choose design, colors and fill in the blanks with the information you want to show on your site. It is the quickest and easiest way to make your own websites but you will have to make many compromises if you choose this solution. Layout choices and features will be very limited and a quick look at your website will reveal your choice for this cheap solutions.
A Content Management Systems is a Software that runs on your website and allow you to make your own websites and add to it an incredible number of advanced features. Anybody with basic word processing skills can easily learn to add or edit content, update images, and other data to show on the site. It takes a bit of learning but it allow for a quick start, unlimited growth and easy management. You can also easily change the layout of the site with already made "templates" and modify them to your liking.
Website Templates are design layouts you can modify with a text editor to insert your own content and images, save to your PC and then upload to your web hosting account. Here it gets more technical so it requires more time to learn and to produce but there is no limit to what you can do with your website.