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William Girona
04-10-2014, 11:32 AM
My Thoughts on Websites and Advertising

Hi everyone, my introduction has not been released yet but I thought I take a moment to talk about just a few points of making a website and starting some advertising.

1) Learning your needs....
On of the first questions you should ask yourself when getting started is what do you need out your website. Based on this you can find a suitable host, third party services and if you are not wanting to make the site yourself a suitable webdesign firm or freelancer.

1.a) Do you need to sell a large amount of products?
If so then you want a host that allows control over your PHP (server-side code) and MySQL (Database code). The reason for this is that for fully dynamic filters, like you see on eBay, you must use server-side coding to tell it what to get and how to function while using MySQL to tell it what there is to choose from. If you are only selling a few items and not an entire catalog worth of products then a simple static gallery that links to the products individual page works fine.

Personally I do not know much about server-side and database coding so I can not go into more details but for now I can say that unless you are going to use dynamic filters on large scale products it might be best to stick with online auction/flee market sites like eBay or Etsy.

1.b) Do you want to attract more attention to your physical location?
Not all the time you want to attract people to your physical location, like for example if you are small home business that does not have a brick and mortal location then you likely don't want to have people visiting your home unless you're providing something like a Barbershop or Tax Filing service. If you do a great way to do this is through photos of your location, make sure it is wide enough to see the whole location, and through Google Maps. With Google Maps you can also make a input field that once the visitor enters their location then clicks the button connected with it the visitor will be shown exact directions from their location to your location.

1.c) How far do I want to reach and how far can I currently?
Now sure most of us want to become global but to get there you do not start there so lets talk about audience reach potential. If you are a small restaurant your main focus will likely be local or statewide, or relative to this term if you are not from the U.S, since unless you are selling goods online, which some do, your service has no way of being provided outside your immediate location. For things like blogs, online merchants, etc. your reach will be much wider.

For localized marketing fliers, coupons, SMS text promotional market, local events, store events and a few other things work great. For a wider audience base online ads like Adsense from Google can be targeted by country, state and even city however devices do not accurately say the persons city so I would not recommend such advertising for localized targeting. In addition there are several social sites that can fit your needs. Foursquare is great for restaurants, hotels, spas and other locations that might benefit from a check-in system....specially ones that get people in and out all the time. Linked in is great for professional services like web design, home remodeling repair, tree removal services, etc.

Now this can go on for a while so I will skip the other social sites for now. QR codes are perfect for localized and national, even international, audience grabs. With their huge trend, new affordability and the increase in mobile devices capable of reading them there is little reason for any business not to have one. QR codes can link the users mobile device to nearly anything you need it to from any medium including but not limited to paper, webpages, promotional magnets, cups and t-shirts. Well for now I am done with this specific section since this along can fill a few books/threads on its own.

1.d) How much can I truly afford to put into this every one, six or twelve months?
Most services offer monthly to yearly membership fees, and some even longer then that, so when considering what you want to spend keep that in mind. Some quality services out there cost nothing, others cost a small fee and some cost a great deal but try not to focus solely on price....just focus on it enough to know your budget because not all affordable services are bad. Take uqr.me for example, it costs almost half the amount of visual land QR code however from my experience with their service the QR codes you can make with it does not lack in style or functionality.

The jest of this section is always do your research, price check and if they offer a trail membership give it a go as long as they seem reputable because you might be surprised by how untrue the old saying "You get what you pay for" has become.

Well for now that is all I am going to put down but from time to time I will update this with new information since times are ever changing. :)


NOTE: This is all merely personal advice and opinions. Nothing in the above should be considered anything other then so. I by no means make any claim that by following anything stated above you are guarantee to find success to any degree. I hope you all have enjoyed this thread and find its advice potentially useful.

William Girona
04-11-2014, 02:23 AM
If anyone has any input on the topic they would like to share or questions they would like to ask please feel more then welcome to help shape this thread into something to help others think about what they might need to do when considering starting their own online presence. :)