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Websites are only as good as the information found on them. If you haven't updated your website lately, now is the time!

• Contact information (addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses)
• Listing of affiliations, organizations belonged to, partners
• Latest news/press releases (are items shown as "new" really new?)
• Should any pictures, graphics, logos, etc. be updated?
• Proofread your site! (better yet, have someone else do this).  Spelling and grammar errors really matter to some people. Don't lose a potential customers through lack of attention to detail.

Marketing Your Website

"If you build it they will come" makes a great line in "Field of Dreams" but it's not true on the Internet. Chances are there are 100 or more people out there in the world doing what you do. How do you get people to come to your site? We can help.

Traditional marketing on paper is not going away, and as a first step in marketing your website is to add your address to all of your other marketing pieces. See our basic suggestions for publicizing your site, then call us to set up a time to talk about the myriad of options and which one is right for you.

Subscription lists are a great way to keep in touch with your clients. Whether you send out a Tip of the Week every Monday morning or a notification of your quarterly 1/2 price sale, the bigger the mailing list the more people you will have knocking down your door.

We can put a form on your website where people can sign up to get information from you. Whether it's a quarterly newsletter or a daily inspirational message, you want people to sign up for the email. Any email sent without permission from the receiver is considered SPAM, and may drive more customers away than bring them to you.

If you have an existing customer list, start gathering their email addresses. You can send a marketing email to someone who knows you, once, but make sure that you offer the ability to unsubscribe to the list.

We can automate this entire process for you so you are not manually adding, changing and removing email addresses from the list. Call today and ask how you can start making the most of your mailing list.

Frequently Asked Questions ("FAQ"):  Are there common questions you field via telephone or in person that could be covered on your web site?

Reduce support phone calls to your business by providing information on your site that helps your customers get the information they need, when they need it. Your customers won't have to wait for you to be in your office, and you will reduce support phone calls.

Here are some examples of content for FAQ pages:

• How do I....? Every time you hear a question from a client for the second time, that's a good item to put on your website.
• What can I expect? A sailing company has a list of suggestions for what to wear on the boat. A manufacturing company answers questions about their production cycle. A chiropractor lays out the process of that first, perhaps scary, appointment.
• What should I do? A travel company provides suggestions on where to have dinner in various locations. An insurance company tells people what steps to take when they have a claim to submit.

You know your business and the questions you get asked. Start making a list and then call us so we can help you make effective use of your time by answering those basic questions your customers have.

Discussion boards are a place for your customers to ask you - or each other - questions about a variety of topics. You can let the questions and answers flow freely or read and answer them before posting them for others to see. There are various levels of security that can be applied. We'll help you find the one that's right for you.

Discussions are called "threads" and are generally filed by category or topic. You store the conversations so people can refer back to them at any time, from any where.

Here are some uses for Discussion Boards:

• Do you have a book to sell? Let your readers talk about it with each other.
• Software companies often have forums where there more experienced customers can help newcomers find solutions and better utilize the product. This can relieve some of the strain on your technical support personnel.
• Provide a place for clients to ask you questions and find answers. By utilizing a discussion board the content can be more fluid than a static FAQ page.
• A board can be a place for employees or members of a group to talk about and store "threads" of conversations. For people from diverse locations and various time zones, a discussion board is a good way to converse on a topic over a length of time.

Can your clients find you? Read our primer on search engines, then call us and set up a time to talk about how we can make your site more visible to potential clients.

More than "hit counts," statistics help you determine who is visiting your site, from which website, from which geographic area (note: AOL users all show as if from Virginia), which pages they visit and for how long, and various other pieces of information.

By analyzing your statistics you can make determinations on where to spend your marketing dollars, recognize trends, see what parts of your website are attracting visitors and which are not.

Would you like to be able to sell your products, accept donations, or allow payment of your invoices via credit card on your web site?  E-commerce websites take many forms, and we have experience in them all.

There are three parts to e-commerce; the website hosting company (Plum Creek), the merchant account (handles the credit card processing on-line or otherwise), and the on-line processor (they transfer the money from the on-line order to your account).

See some details about how all of this works, then call us and set up a time to talk about how we can help you make your e-commerce site a reality.

Here are some suggestions for the basic content every website should have.

• Directions. If you have a storefront people need to know how to find you. At a minimum you should have a link to MapQuest or a similar service. The best sites have complete, clear, printable directions.
• On the Whirlpool website you can see all of the specifications for everything they build. No more faxing customers that have lost their manuals.
• Contact information. How can someone reach you? Your company phone number should be on every page of your website and there should be an obvious Contact Us button on every page.
• Don't forget to put the location of your company somewhere on the site, especially if you are a location specific business, such as an Inn or service company that only works a certain region. Add city AND state. Even if you sell around the world, tell people where in the world you are. It lends credibility to your company.