Archive for November, 2011

24. Do you want to start your business today?

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2011

Many people dream of building a business so that they can give up their day job and pursue their dreams.  Unfortunately many people do not get past the dreaming stage and in 5 or 10 years they will still be talking about the dream that will happen one day!

The great thing about the internet it has provided everyone who has an internet to start an online business very, very cheaply.  the hard part is deciding what you want to do.

Below are some tips and resources that will help break through this challenge and set you on the way of taking real action to start your business TODAY!

Choose your niche

Every day, a huge amount of new websites are being published.  This means that competition is growing.  A proven way of establishing an online business is choosing a niche.

Think about what you like doing, what you enjoy.  Do some research by entering search phrases about the niche and see how many people have websites advertising products.  Look on the right hand side of the Google search screen.  These are paid adverts and a good indication there is money to be made (why else would someone pay for an advert?).

Buy domain and web hosting

This is a very easy step.  Find a reliable, feature reach service such as Digital Ark, search for the domain name you would like to call your business.  If it is available, register it.  Please take a look at out Learning Zone that will provide guidance on choosing and buying a domain and hosting.

On our service you can have a free .co.uk domain, web hosting and e-mail for £2.49 a month – no hidden extras.

Build your web site

This is the part where people can struggle.  So there is a couple of answers.

Use a service such as WordPress.  This allows you quickly to build a professional website with no skills.  Our web hosting packages include 1 click install of WordPress to make it even easier.

Use a software package to build your website.  All of our hosting includes a free wysiwyg editor that is easy to use, even for a complete beginner.

Have some design the website for you.  We offer a range of small business website design services.

Online payments

It is now easier than ever to add online payment facilities without having to open an account with a credit card merchant service.  If you are just starting Paypal is a great choice.  There are no set up fees, it is safe, universally recognised, no monthly fees and you only pay for each transactions (currently 3.4% of amount plus 20 pence).

It is very easy to create Paypal Buy Now buttons and then add them to your website.

Conclusion

As you can see.  By following the above steps you could very quickly have a website up and running today ready to take orders.  Why wait?  Seize the moment and start your business today.

I also recommend 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris a great guide to lifestyle design by setting up an online business.

 

I would like to add that unlike many web design and web hosting companies, I work with my clients, provide support to help them be successful.

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23. Is your small business website delivering results?

Friday, November 4th, 2011

Do you run a small business?

Do you have a website?

Do you know if it delivers results?

On the assumption your are running a small or home business, I suspect that you probably will be able to answer “yes” to the first 2 questions.  However, if you can not answer “yes” to the 3rd question, you need to stop and ask yourself, am I making the most from my website?

Unfortunately many small businesses think that just having a website is enough.  Just by publishing one, that it will automatically be on the first page of Google results and that you are getting lots of business.  Alas this is not true.

Now you may have got someone to design the website for you.  Therefore, you may think that as they are the experts, they will ensure that the web site is designed to deliver results.  Alas again not always true.

So what can you do?

Step 1

Make sure that the major search engines (Google, Yahoo and Bing) know about your website.  Your website will not be returned in the search results if it is not in the index.

Pro tip: You can check very simply if your website is in the index by typing the exact URL into the search box i.e. for Digital Ark type www.digitalark.co.uk.

Hopefully your website is in the index.  If not then you will never show up in the search results until your website is.

Step 2

Assuming you are in the index, you should track performance.  A good way to do this is by setting up Google Analytics for your website.  This is a very good tool provided by Google that allows you to track visitors, pages visitied, average time on page / site, entry page, exit page, search phrase and much more.

Just using the basic metrics of unique visitors each day / month will allow you to track if the number of visitors are increasing.  Knowing the popular pages allows you to fine tune the content to increase conversions.

Step 3

Having your web site in the search index and monitoring visits does not mean you are maximising the potential of your website.  Websites that achieve the best traffic are the ones that appear on the 1st page of Google.  Unfortunately, this usually takes more than a website in the index.

While there are many factors, backlinks are very important.  Websites with many relevant backlinks tend to perform better than those with less.  Therefore, strategies that attract natural backlinks are very important.

Summary

The whole topic of SEO for small business websites is vast and these are only 3 of many.  If you would like a free, no obligation review of your site, please visit small business website performance review, complete the simple form and we will provide you with your free report.

 

 

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