It’s been a busy quarter, and today topped it all off with some very exciting news. An online information website has contracted myself to be the Pittsburgh Technology Examiner. Learn more about it here and be sure to subscribe to the Examiner updates.
Where to Host: An Important Choice
As discussed in Choosing A Website Developer, there are some options when deciding how to begin developing your online presence. Depending on the initial direction you take, your developer may or may not include hosting in the services they propose. But whether you are making the “hosting decision” as part of the initial consideration, or it is something you won’t evaluate until the actual site development is done, there are several things to bear in mind regarding the selection of your hosting provider. Here is a fairly comprehensive list that covers the bases:
1. Technical Support – Does the company provide technical support via the phone? Or is it available via email only? Is there an extra fee? Is the support unlimited, or do the technicians have quotas or a limit on the time they can spend on each call? Consider all the details. For example, Company A offers 24-hour support and charges extra, whereas Company B provides support during normal business hours for free. Will you typically need support at 3am every night and be willing to pay extra for it?
2. Security – You do not need to be an online security expert to ask about a hosting company’s record regarding online security. Your developer can help you find a reliable company that had a track record of exceptional performance. You should not accept anything less.
3. Traffic / Bandwidth – Are there limits to the amount of traffic your website can handle? Are there limits to the amount of bandwidth your website is permitted to use each month? Inexpensive hosting often involves hidden glitches you may not recognize until after you have signed on with a provider.
4. Additional Services – As your business grows, will the needs of your web presence? What does your hosting company offer in terms of what you may need in the future? For example, are they providing full support of your email and ecommerce/shopping cart needs? And what is their history and track record? Will they continue to be around for you?
In the case of web hosting, you definitely get what you pay for. Cheap hosting is often just that…cheap. Make sure you find out why a deal may seem better than the rest, and use the above information as a guide.
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Maximizing Local Search Engine Results
Internet marketing is a very complex endeavor. In the last several years, new businesses and even new entire industries have been created as a result of the need to properly optimize websites and promote them and the businesses they represent on the Internet.
One simple and easy way to promote your business online is to submit it for inclusion in the local search engine results. This is one of the many ways to promote your business online, but it is one of the fastest and least complex. Now, many of my customers ask me if I can do this for them. The simple answer is no…it’s best and easiest if you do it yourself. The submission process is mainly designed to be done by the business owner, not the Internet consultant.
The purpose of this post is to give you some simple and easy access to submit your business for inclusion in local results. But before you continue, please bear in mind a few things:
1. This is not a terribly complex or technical process, and the results are worth it. However, you should understand that there will be a few minutes of work and attention required. Set aside about 30 minutes before continuing.
2. Verification is required by most of the search engines. This means they will want to immediatly verify that your listing is real, the information is correct, and email addresses and phone numbers actually are functional. When you decide to move forward with this process, you should be in your office or accesible at the main contact telephone number and email that you intend to use in your listing.
3. In some cases, you’ll need to sign up for an account. No worries…this is perfectly safe.
4. Finally, you should have a brief description of your company, and all relevant information including hours of operation, pictures, or logos you wish to associate with your company.
Now let’s move forward. Thanks to fellow blogger Cody, from Thrillingheroics.com, I’ve been able to provide the following simple links. Thanks, Cody. Here are most of the popular local search engines.
- Google Local Search
- Yelp (feeds data to Windows Live and Yahoo)
- Yahoo Local Search
- Live Local Search
- CitySearch (feeds data to Ask.com and Windows Live)
Let me know how it works. In many cases, the results will be almost immediate! Gotta love the power of the Internet.
Understanding Ecommerce and Merchant Services
I recently spent half-a-day on the telephone with a website customer who was concerned that, when she purchased her website, she was told that the site would be “fully e-commerce enabled” and that this was included in the cost; however, she was surprised to learn that she would need to pay additional fees for credit card processing. Let’s clarify, because this misunderstanding is not uncommon.
Often, the term “e-commerce” is incorrectly understood to mean the process by which a merchant collects payments over the internet. In actuality, e-commerce (or electronic commerce) typically refers to only the logistics and mechanics involved in the creation of transactions over the internet or through a customer’s website. When we develop a website for a client, if they desire to conduct commerce through that site, then we will create all of the functionality necessary to allow for these transactions to occur. This can include the create of items within a catalog, catalog pages within the site, and shopping carts that will allow customers to identify the items they wish to purchase and prepare an item or group of items for a check-out process.
However, these e-commerce functions do not include the actual collection of payment or the processing of credit card transactions. This is a different service we refer to, in general, as “merchant services.” Typically, this actual processing of credit card transactions and the collection and appropriate distribution of funds is done by financial institutions such as banks, for example, though there are other companies that provide merchant services as well. The important thing to remember is that merchant services will always carry additional costs for the ability to accept credit cards, which is typical whether the credit card is being accepted in person or online, as well as specific predetermined fees associated with each and every transaction.
The combination of E-commerce and Merchant Services, when properly designed and implemented into a website, provides a great deal of advantages and allows for business to often be conducted more efficiently and in an equally secure manner. And e-commerce is not limited to solely “selling items online.” Here are just two examples of our “nontraditional” e-commerce website customers:
1. A refuse collection company services over 11,000 individual households and receives 11,000 pieces of mail every quarter, each containing a $19 check. The mail must be received, opened, processed, and then taken to the bank for deposit. By accepting payment through their website, we have reduced the mail and associated processing costs, and we also were able to automate the website e-commerce system to communicate with the accounting software and automatically record the payments and update the accounts.
2. A non-profit organization established a donations section of their website to accept online donations.
These are just two examples of the countless ways that an e-commerce enabled website can provide great service to your business. Contact us today to learn how we can quickly design your e-commerce enabled website!
Reasons to Not Consider a Website
Does that sound like a strange title of a blog post from a website developer? Granted, there is some sarcasm in my words. Here’s a list of reasons some business owners shared with me about why they do not need a website:
a. I am about to retire.
b. We are changing our name.
c. Our business is being sold.
d. The company will not be in business much longer
e. I only give my website out to my customers.
f. That’s handled out of our Corporate office (click).
g. I am a manufacturer’s rep…I work for dealers/distributors only.
h. We are a wholesaler…we work directly with only retailers.
All of these reasons, while the business owner may really believe they have some relation to a lack of need to consider a website, all suffer from the same flaw: they are illogical. If the business owner woke up, went to work, and opened their office….in short, if they answered their phone…then they should – at a minimum – consider how a website could help them grow their business.
As a business owner, does it not stand to reason that one should be open-minded to any opportunity that exists that might enable expansion of business or provide expansion or additional stability to the client base, regardless of what extraneous circumstances might be going on with the business?
After all, you are still in business, right?
At least for now.
Business to Business
Just as with any business, an important aspect of what I do is sales. And as a part of what I do to market my business every day, I make cold-calls. In some weeks, I may place as many as 500 cold calls to a wide-variety of businesses. I prefer to operate in this “business to business” environment, because it is what I have known for the majority of my life. Yet, there is one thing about this B2B relationship that baffles me.
Isn’t there a mutual respect accorded among business people? When I call you to offer what I clearly feel is a valuable solution to help you grow your business; I am doing so in a manner of the utmost professionalism. Yet I am often met with rudeness. Granted, it is often a person who is of the opinion that a website would be a waste of time and money. But even still, is there not a more professional and cordial way to handle this situation? When a potential customer calls and asks for a product that you do not offer, do you tell them they are stupid for asking? Or if you are backlogged with work for several weeks, do you tell a caller to quit wasting your time because you do not need their business? Of course you don’t. So why treat a fellow business owner in that way simply because you may think you are not interested in the service they have to offer?
I understand that a cold solicitation is an interruption and sometimes a distraction. But simply asking for a 2 minute explanation to understand what the call is all about is preferable to rudeness. Even if we put professionalism aside for a moment, how about doing what makes good business sense? What if I am, in addition to being a website developer who is cold-calling your business, also a potential customer? What if I am presently in need of the products or service that you offer, and you choose to treat me with disrespect? And moreover, if I am insulted by the way you treat me, does it not stand to reason that I might tell other friends, family, and associates that they should not patronize your business? What kind of impact could that have on your bottom-line?
I am never dishonest, but there are some times when I truly am a potential customer of a business I am calling. And I make it a habit to always endeavor to do business with people who do business with me. So when the opportunity presents itself to tell the business owner that I am also a potential customer, I often times hear the very tone of their voice change. I guess it is just sad but true that a business owner might react so quickly, without thinking, until they are presented with the possibility that there might be some immediate business on the other end of the phone.
So perhaps, in the end, there is a very basic lesson to learn in all of this. In the spirit of the writing, “everything I need to know I learned in kindergarten,” we should ask ourselves, “can’t we all just play nice?” Having an effective online presence is, after all, a wise business practice and so is demonstrating a respectful degree of professionalism.
What’s On Your Mind?
Dear Reader:
Your opinion is important to me, so much so that I’ve designed a contest to encourage you to share it with me. I want to ask you, ‘what’s on your mind?’
As a business owner, how much do you value the Internet?
How do you think a website can help your business?
If you already have a site, what’s working well about it and what needs improvement?
If you don’t have a website what’s your reasoning for not having one?
What other questions do you have for me?
What specifically would you like to know about websites and Internet marketing?
Has the online world changed the way you do business?
Do you think you are fully taking advantage of the growing online audience that’s looking for a business like yours?
Every question posed here as a comment or in answer to one of my questions gets an entry into a drawing, which I’ll pull on Aug. 26; one entry per business please. The winner will receive $377 off the price of a new website or $377 in web consulting if you’ve already purchased a website from me.
How Much Does a Website Cost?
How much does a house cost? A new truck? A new piece of machinery? It depends, doesn’t it?
No doubt, these are all significant financial decisions, and the final price tag is something that affects the kind of item a consumer might decide on. But in all of these cases, the answer to the “cost” question depends on a lot of different things – mostly what the consumer wants included in the item. And more than likely, the first response to the “cost” question must be “well, how much do you want to spend?” or “what price range is in your budget?”.
Yet, when a website developer answers the “cost” question by asking what is in a potential customer’s budget, the potential customer invariably thinks the website developer is asking because he intends to gouge the customer for as much as possible. Why?
And consider this. If a consumer were to find a realtor that would answer the “how much does it cost” question without asking you for any more information, what would the consumer think when he told him a price that was more than he thought he could afford? What if this was you? If the realtor said, “well I can sell you a house that costs $300,000” and you knew it was about twice what you wanted to spend? You would probably respond with something like, “Well, that’s too expensive. Can you help me find a house around $150,000?” What you would NOT think is, “Wow…that realtor was trying to take advantage of me. I better go find another realtor that is willing to sell me a less expensive house.”
Here’s the difference in how most business owners look at the website in comparison to how most consumers look at the other financial decisions previously mentioned: when one goes to buy the house, he is a consumer who has already decided that he will likely make a purchase of some kind. With the website, however, many business owners ask the “cost” question with the intent of factoring the answer into whether or not he will continue considering. This is where the shift must occur. Some even ask how much something costs for the main purpose of saying “no thank you, that’s too much.” What they really ought to be asking at this point is, “What do you think a website can do to increase my business?” Followed by a discussion about what they want and need in a website and how much it will cost to create it, based on their desires. Eventually, like all other business purchases, a decision can be made on a cost/value basis.
You must first embrace the fact that you must have a website to continue to do business. Only after you have accepted this fact will you then be able to approach the decisions about a website from the proper perspective, only then will you be able to discuss the feature and benefits you want in a website in an effective way, and only then will a developer be able to provide you with the high-level of service – like what you receive from the realtor – and help you make the correct decisions about a website that will function for your business while also falling within the confines of your pocketbook.
A Website That Pays For Itself
Is developing a website for your business really an expense? Perhaps it’s not. If designed, maintained, and promoted properly, a website can actually make you money. In fact, you should expect it to.
Frequently, I am faced with the objection of a website being cost-prohibitive for a small business. Especially when a small business may already be struggling to make ends meet and cover already existing expenses, often times it is difficult to imagine spending money on developing a web presence. Arguably, however, a business owner in this predicament may be examining their situation from the wrong perspective.
As we see more and more people going to the web to not only explore options for doing business but also for ways to do business more easily, it is apparent that the Internet is not just a passing fad. In fact, the Internet itself is already an indispensible component of today’s economy.
In fact, it’s not unrealistic to consider the possibility that one of the reasons cash is tight and business is slow might be because you are missing out on bringing in your share of online business. If you are not selling where customers are buying…if you are not promoting and advertising where customers are researching…then they are likely buying from someone else.
So how do you bridge the gap? First of all, know that a website actually increases revenue and more than pays for its investment. The reality is, time and time again, companies that have chosen to invest in a website have proven this to be true. Now, go out and find a web solution provider that you can trust…one that you know has your best interests in mind and one who will be there for you long after the sale. You want not only a website developer, but a partner in your Internet marketing…someone who is invested in your success.
Don’t be intimidated by the Internet. Embrace it. Your business might just depend on it.
