Home
>
Web Site Promotion
>
If You Build It, They Will Come?

If You Build It, They Will Come?

Many of you will remember the line from the movie Field of Dreams, "If you build it, they will come." Many businesses apply this methodology to their business model. I can't tell you how many times I've come across this misnomer in dealing with hosting and web design customers. They figure, "I've got a website now. The customers will start to buy my stuff. I can wait for the orders to start coming in." A few months later they call to complain that it isn't working and it must be something wrong. When I ask them what they have done to get customers, a lot of times they don't know what to say because they never thought of that approach. If we pause to think about the build and wait approach for a moment, we will soon see the error in this idea. Unlike a physical location, where you have customers driving or walking by all the time, online businesses need some way to attract traffic and customers to their website. In this article we will discuss a few methods that can be employed to bring customers to your website.

Search Engines

Getting listed in the search engines is usually a good place to start. There are two ways to get listed in the search engines; Pay-Per-Click placement, and organic search engine results. Depending on the industry and online competition, PPC placement can be a very inexpensive or very expensive way to attract customers to your website. If the cost per click starts to get high, be very careful, you could spend a lot of money and not be able to recoup those costs in sales.

Getting into the search engines themselves is quite another task, left for another article. There are many websites and articles that detail the process needed.

Advertising

Doing some type of advertising is absolutely necessary to gaining customers. Many times I hear "I can't afford to pay for advertising." My response is "How can you afford not to?" Owning a small business myself I know how intimidating advertising can be. However, there are a few methods of advertising that require little investment which I will discuss

-Direct Mail
There are many companies that offer postcard printing and mailing services at VERY affordable rates. Now the goal is to only send mailings to your target audience and avoid sending to those who wouldn't be in interested. This will maximize the success and minimize the cost of your mailing.

-Press Coverage
Getting your local media outlet to do an article on you can be a great way to get some local customers. Many newspapers like covering these local stories. Prepare a press release and follow up with a personal phone call to the reporter that usually handles these types of stories.

-Build a Sales Team
Now, the sales team I'm referring to isn't the one that sits in an office and cold calls people all day. Get rid of that overhead and get your friends, acquaintances, and family to "Sell" your product for you. Offer a good commission if they make a sale, and you'll have others doing the work for you. A good side effect of this is you've got lots of people spreading the hype about your business.

-Message Boards
Get out on the message boards and be active. Put you web site link in you signature and make good posts. It is much better if you are genuine in your postings, than if you just post the get your signature listed.

Good Service

If you provide an excellent product with excellent service the customers you've already gotten will help spread the word. Remember, it can't be just good service it needs to be next-level service. Service they don't usually receive. An impressed customer is priceless.

To sum it all up

Now the items discussed in this article are by no means the only things will work, and won't be a guaranteed method. A concerted effort of these tactics will bring customers to your site. If you work hard, keep focus and stay on the cutting edge you can have an advantage over your competition and be successful.

Scott is the owner and head designer for Smith-Concepts a successful web development firm. Related Links: http://www.smith-concepts.com

best cleaning company Highland Park ..

In The News:

MIT develops needle-free glucose monitor using light technology. Revolutionary device could replace painful finger pricks for diabetes management.

The ClickFix campaign disguises malware as legitimate Windows updates, using steganography to hide shellcode in PNG files and bypass security detection systems.

Researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University designed a 21-foot dome that combines aquaculture and hydroponics to create a self-sustaining urban food system.

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

ChatGPT data breach exposes personal info of users through partner Mixpanel. OpenAI confirms names, emails compromised in security incident.

Android rolls out Emergency Live Video for 911 calls, letting dispatchers see real-time scenes during emergencies. Great for holiday travel safety.

Malicious Chrome and Edge extensions collected browsing history, keystrokes and personal data from millions of users before Google and Microsoft removed them.

Google's new Call Reason feature lets Android users mark calls as urgent before dialing, displaying an urgent label to recipients using Phone by Google app.

Medical history made as surgeons successfully restore sight to legally blind patient using world's first 3D printed corneal implant grown from human cells.

Data brokers aggressively collect your holiday shopping data to fuel scams and targeted ads. Learn how to delete your digital profile before 2025 starts.

Scammers are sending fake MetaMask wallet verification emails using official branding to steal crypto information through phishing links and fraudulent domains.

Learn what background permissions, push notifications, security updates, auto-join networks and app refresh mean to better manage your phone's privacy settings.

Criminals test stolen data by applying for deposit accounts in victims' names to prepare bigger attacks. Learn why banks won't share fraud details.

New study of 10,500+ kids reveals early smartphone ownership linked to depression, obesity, and poor sleep by age 12. Earlier phones mean higher risks.

A phone phishing attack compromised Harvard's alumni and donor database, marking the second security incident at the university in recent months.

AutoFlight's zero-carbon floating vertiport uses solar power to charge eVTOL aircraft while supporting emergency response, tourism, and marine energy maintenance.

A new phone return scam targets recent buyers with fake carrier calls. Learn how criminals steal devices and steps to protect yourself from this fraud.

New Anthropic research reveals how AI reward hacking leads to dangerous behaviors, including models giving harmful advice like drinking bleach to users seeking help.

The Fox News AI Newsletter gives readers the latest AI technology advancements, covering the challenges and opportunities AI presents.

Holiday email scams, including non-delivery fraud and gift card schemes, spike in November and December, costing victims hundreds of millions, the FBI says.

Holiday visits offer the perfect opportunity to help older parents with technology updates, scam protection and basic troubleshooting skills for safer digital experiences.

Swiss scientists create grain-sized robot that surgeons control with magnets to deliver medicine precisely through blood vessels in medical breakthrough.

Researchers exploited WhatsApp's API vulnerability to scrape 3.5 billion phone numbers. Learn how this massive data breach happened and protect yourself.

Travel companies share passenger data with third parties during holidays, but travelers can protect themselves by removing data from broker sites and using aliases.

Xpeng's humanoid robot moves so realistically that crowds believed it was fake, marking a major advancement in robotics technology ahead of 2026 commercial launch.

If You Build It, They Will Come?

Web Site Promotion