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View Full Version : Is it good to have own website?



khushi86
07-26-2013, 05:10 AM
Basically nowadays we see every person has their own website whether it's personal, business, informative or commercial one. Do we really need a website? Is it really helping us to know worldwide. Anyone can tell me how I'll be able to promote my website so worldwide people can get to know my site. Is there any technique which will help for all those people who are new to online business.

markhendricks
07-26-2013, 09:34 AM
If you are in business, you must have your own website.

Some people think only having a Facebook Fanpage is enough. What happens if Facebook discontinues those, or starts charging you lots and lots of money for them?

So yes, have your own business website. It is your store-front on the internet and is simply another marketing channel for people to get to know you, like you, and trust you enough to do business with you.

It's also a great referral tool to have your happy customers give your URL address to their friends and associates too.

I have free video series on what ever business owner should know about their website.

As always, my best to you --

Mark Hendricks

OlegLola
07-26-2013, 10:34 AM
If you don't have a website for your business, you loose a great opportunity for promotion and cooperation with your audience. I should say that it's not even desirable to have a website for your business – nowadays it became even compulsory. Here are some working ways that can help you to promote your web site:

- make sure that your site is ready for promotion, work with content, improve the design and usability

- work with Search Engine Optimization techniques

- use e-mail marketing

- write and publish press-releases

- create your blog and write related articles

- interact with your audience

- use social bookmarking

- work with SMM

Freelancier
07-26-2013, 11:02 AM
If you are in business, you must have your own website.

The independently owned mini-mart around the corner from me does not have a web presence. And he does good business too. His "presence" is his corner of the intersection.

But people don't drive past my home enough to find me for what I sell. So I need a web site.

I have a client who was doing $70 million in business without a web site. It wasn't the most efficient sales operation, but it worked well for them, because the industry they are in has a small set of vendors vying for a large set of clients, so everyone knew all the vendors, and sales calls were the key to winning business.

You never start your marketing decisions with absolutes. You start it with figuring out how your customers want to find someone like you. And then you spend your money in a way to make sure that customers can find you that way easier and better than anyone else.

Business Attorney
07-26-2013, 12:05 PM
Freelancier has a point, not every business will benefit from a website. On the other hand, I am hard-pressed to think of many businesses I deal with who would not benefit from a website. Even the mini-mart might benefit from a simple website that at least provides its hours of operation.

The fact is that most businesses will benefit from some form of web presence. As more and more people have smart phones, it is becoming even more important.

I do agree with Freelancier that it is important to understand how your customers are likely to find you and spend your marketing dollars accordingly. Even if there is some benefit from having a website, the question is whether the money spent on a website could be used in a different way for better results.

cbscreative
07-26-2013, 02:04 PM
This thread has already demonstrated that there are varying degrees on the importance of a web site, but as a rule, a web site is very beneficial to almost any business. David's point about the mini mart publishing their hours is excellent. The key is to determine how your customer can benefit from the site and make it happen. It must serve a customer driven purpose.

highcoast
07-27-2013, 03:16 AM
Oleglola makes some very good points above allied with those point I also believe:
Your website is the center to everything you do online. It really is your home online.

As a business you need a website but not a website that acts like a shop window.
Your website has the potential to work for you 24/7 if you optimize correctly for people and the search engines.
Sadly many business owners go out their and get a website designed and that is it. The website have a few generic pages and that is it. This is a waste of your money and is far from gaining an online presence. With this approach your business will not be found online.

You need to take a pro active approach you need to produce fresh content on a regular basis to stand out as we live in the information age therefore you have to educate and inform your potential customers.

In order to gain customers you have to climb the search engines you have to target the correct keywords and phrases and build your content around this and share across various social media platforms to broaden your online marketing net.

It is from here you will gain your customers.

mattchambers
09-21-2013, 04:39 PM
doing SEO properly and the right advertising with a targeted audience in mind

there's more but these 2 techniques help a lot but it's the best advice I can give since I don't know the type of website you have in mind

smartlink
11-30-2013, 02:45 AM
It's essential to have a website for any business, even if it's only 1 page. You need a page to do seo. You need business leads and business branding, requires a webpage. Even if you're a local business and never plan to go worldwide or even country wide, a website will give customers reassurance to trust your company or service over someone without a website.

If you have a website you're showing the customer you have commitment and an understanding of trends and culture. Basically keeping up with the times.

Nyquist
12-02-2013, 12:34 AM
It's essential to have a website for any business, even if it's only 1 page. You need a page to do seo. You need business leads and business branding, requires a webpage. Even if you're a local business and never plan to go worldwide or even country wide, a website will give customers reassurance to trust your company or service over someone without a website.

If you have a website you're showing the customer you have commitment and an understanding of trends and culture. Basically keeping up with the times.

Agree with smartlink. With the internet explosion, everybody is searching for products and services using internet and having a website for your business ensures you have a stake with these consumers. Proper SEO will benefit your website and the longer your website is on the internet, the more authority you will be looked at. Another extension of your advertising is really to invest a mobile website for mobile consumers. Do a quick check in google mobile trends and you will realize you cannot ignore mobile customers.

Chris Clayton
12-02-2013, 07:52 AM
As everybody has pointed out, it is essential to have a website (and a web designed one) for any business. But sorry to be the bringer of bad news, it's both hard work (you're going to have to learn a lot of new skills (especially web marketing)) and it's difficult for any new website to get any traction (getting ranked high in search engines, which brings visitors) at the beginning.

If you are selling your own products online, I'd recommend that once you've got your website up and running that you try to both get your products reviewed by other websites and if you have the money, pay for web ads on Google search results (through Google AdWords). Both of these methods will bring more traffic to your website at the beginning than you will get through organic (unpaid) search results in search engines.

cbscreative
12-02-2013, 01:03 PM
As everybody has pointed out, it is essential to have a website (and a web designed one) for any business. But sorry to be the bringer of bad news, it's both hard work (you're going to have to learn a lot of new skills (especially web marketing)) and it's difficult for any new website to get any traction (getting ranked high in search engines, which brings visitors) at the beginning.

If you are selling your own products online, I'd recommend that once you've got your website up and running that you try to both get your products reviewed by other websites and if you have the money, pay for web ads on Google search results (through Google AdWords). Both of these methods will bring more traffic to your website at the beginning than you will get through organic (unpaid) search results in search engines.

So far, the main theme of this thread has been a web site for your business. A web site for an online business is really a different subject. First of all, the make money online schemes are just that, schemes and scams with almost no exceptions, if any at all. Developing a successful online business takes time, planning, and lots of money. Any kind of turnkey "opportunity" is set up to part inexperienced dreamers from the asking price. Worse yet, you'll get taken twice when you spend more money to promote a hopeless cause.

However, I am NOT referring to building your own online store with a well developed plan. If you have handmade items you could be successful with Etsy or even eBay. I wouldn't discourage anyone with a desire to be successful online. I'm just pointing out that there are bloodsuckers in every corner of the Internet looking to exploit that desire.

But to be on topic with this thread, having a business without a web site (or a properly planned and developed one) is a gift to your competition.

Chris Clayton
12-02-2013, 02:09 PM
Valid point about the opportunist out there. But I have to disagree with you about it having to cost lots of money to have a successful business website (or website for that matter of fact). If you are prepared to put the time in and learn the ins and outs of running and marketing a website, you can cut down on the costs. Although sometimes difficult to find, there is plenty of free and good advice on building and running a business website on the web.

Apart from setting up and running the ecommerce aspect of the site, is there really much difference between a business and an online business website? The purpose of both is to promote and persuade people to buy the business' products.

billbenson
12-02-2013, 02:38 PM
There is a lot you need to learn about building and running a website. I think realistically its a several year process. Sure things like WordPress can speed up the process of getting a site up, but really knowing how to make money with a site takes time.

As to the difference between an ecommerce site and other types of sites is a ecommerce site needs to have an immediate call to action. Other types of business sites might be used for branding etc. Just my opinion, but I view them as completely different animals.

Qmind
12-02-2013, 05:48 PM
I agree with freelancer, for some businesses a website might not be the right avenue.

If you are looking to star a website I would think about what purpose would it serve. Awareness, information, new clients etc.

If you feel there is potential to grow your business through having a site, then work it into your marketing strategy. It should be an extension of your current marketing. I wouldn't just make a site for the heck of it and expect to drum up new business. Decide what customers would want from your site, what you want, and go after it.


You never start your marketing decisions with absolutes. Wise Words!

cbscreative
12-02-2013, 11:18 PM
Chris, my statement about lots of money is not just about forking over money to a designer. If you hire a qualified pro it will require significant investment, yes. If you hire an unqualified designer, it will cost even more; or you won't survive and quit which I guess you could consider less cost. If you choose the DIY option as you advocate, you could argue less cost which would be true when only considering the out of pocket that you can measure. However, the learning curve causes lost opportunity and I can assure you that is extremely expensive.

This may not always matter. If you're operating a side business out of the home with little or no consequential expense, then it can be a non issue. If your goals are to operate a business that is more than just owning a job, then the rules change significantly. This distinction is not always made. There's nothing wrong with either model depending on your objectives, but owning a job is too often equated with owning a business and there is a difference.

billbenson
12-03-2013, 12:21 PM
I've said this before, but I think all (perhaps with a few exceptions) small business owners or owners to be should build a web site and get it ranked in the top 5. Toss a little money at AdWords as well. It's a skill most business managers, small business owners etc need.

Harold Mansfield
12-03-2013, 04:31 PM
You never start your marketing decisions with absolutes. You start it with figuring out how your customers want to find someone like you. And then you spend your money in a way to make sure that customers can find you that way easier and better than anyone else.

Yep, that's it. Yes, you probably need a website. But no it's not going to immediately be the sales and marketing powerhouse just because you put a site online. There is no one method of internet marketing and it's not a "set it and forget it" thing.

I would honestly say that if you don't know what a website would do for you, or how you want to utilize it.....figure that out first. Or else you'll just build any old thing just say you have a website and waste your money.

Chris Clayton
12-11-2013, 03:31 AM
Steve, I'm a strong believer that anybody given enough time and access to the right (free) information can learn the basics of marketing a website. Of course it is easier to pay somebody to do it for you (and there are a lot of people making a successful living from doing exactly that), but this could become too costly for many small businesses.

If as we are all saying, a website is essential for many small businesses, then it is in the best interest of the owner to understand themself what works and doesn't work?

cbscreative
12-11-2013, 01:23 PM
Steve, I'm a strong believer that anybody given enough time and access to the right (free) information can learn the basics of marketing a website.

I've never argued that point; for one, you're absolutely correct.

However, your statement about it becoming too costly for many small businesses, that I would say is stepping over a dollar to pick up a dime. Which is costlier? Paying $5k and being able to document and extra $100,000 or mulling over free info for a year or two, designing your own site through trial and error, and maybe hitting $60,000 if you're lucky?

Of course I expect you will counter with the fact that you can't know that the $5k investment will yield $100k, and you'd be correct, but in practice it tends to work that way. There are no guarantees, but the odds are in your favor provided the track record of your designer has been proven. That wasn't just a random example either. I am using actual numbers from a recent conversation which is consistent with many examples I have observed over the years. I've also seen DIY people do extremely well but it is the exception, not the norm.

I may not be able to persuade you of these facts if your mind is made up, but I just turned 53 this week and my first company was started in 1986. I learned the value of marketing the hard way with that first company which is one reason I now do marketing. I've seen the model of investing in your business work considerably more effectively than the DIY approach. Even if you "can" do something yourself, that doesn't necessarily mean you should. In business, you can easily be your own worst enemy.

Freelancier
12-11-2013, 02:25 PM
Of course I expect you will counter with the fact that you can't know that the $5k investment will yield $100k, and you'd be correct, but in practice it tends to work that way. There are no guarantees, but the odds are in your favor provided the track record of your designer has been proven.

The odds are not in your favor if you have no idea who your customer is or how to reach them most efficiently. Building a web site without having a clear idea about who your target audience is... well, that's just going to be a waste of money. And many businesses when they start out really don't have a clear idea who their customers are going to be... they just have a "great idea", but not so much a clear idea what they have to do next... and creating a web site isn't the next step.

I get it: most web designers think that creating a great web site is essential to having a thriving business. Sorry, it's not true. I spent 8 years with a thriving business and a crappy web site (with clip art superheroes on each page! My wife is still not letting me live that down.). People didn't care about the web site, they cared about what I offered them that no one else offered. I spent 10 years before that with NO web site and a thriving business, just because word-of-mouth carried me along. Like I wrote earlier: I worked with a $70 million company that had no web site, because in their business the web site really didn't matter to their best potential customers, because the niche was small and the customers all knew who the vendors were.

Is having a web site a good idea? Yes, but only once you know who your best potential customer is and what will drive them to buy what you're selling. Until you're clear on that, you really don't need a web site, you need to do the hard work of researching your client to find out whether they'd even LOOK for your web site.

cbscreative
12-12-2013, 01:31 PM
The odds are not in your favor if you have no idea who your customer is or how to reach them most efficiently. Building a web site without having a clear idea about who your target audience is... well, that's just going to be a waste of money.

To me, that's a given but your points are well taken since it is not technically the job of the web designer to perform this function. Well, at least not most web designers but the good ones will want to know about the overall marketing and who the site is trying to reach. On the plus side, most of the ones that waste the client's money are at least cheap, but not always. The order of events in your post is spot on.

ryantc
12-12-2013, 01:41 PM
A website is pretty much essential for a business nowadays. Here are some things customers and future clients want to see on a website.
How your business is unique. A clear sense of what your company offers. Contact information, including a phone number and physical location. Third-party validation. Secure Socket Layer (SSL).

billbenson
12-16-2013, 11:36 PM
The odds are not in your favor if you have no idea who your customer is or how to reach them most efficiently. Building a web site without having a clear idea about who your target audience is... well, that's just going to be a waste of money. .

Ahh, but think about this from a different perspective. If you have some knowledge of SEO, are able to build an OK WordPress site, and some Adwords knowledge, you can build a site for the sole purpose of finding out the viability of your idea and finding out who your customer base is.

If I were to have to start from scratch again here is what I would do: I would look for a very niche product in an expensive field. I might study the mining industry, or oil, or government contracts to see what they need for building large bridges etc. Stuff that you never thought of.

Then I would make sure I could find a source of the product and still have a reasonable margin. The product would have to be expensive so even if I am buying from a lower level distributor I would still be able to make a living. I would like to see a path to becoming a distributor for the manufacturer.

If all of the above fell into place, I would write a WordPress site pushing the product using AdWords as a vehicle. Mind you I am not a professional web designer, but I could put something together that would work for this purpose.

I'd then put together an AdWords campaign. I'd use say an $80 daily budget for the first few days to see when I get traffic. Then I'd set it up so I'm not spending more than $200 a week. After a month, I wouldn't really have spent that much. What I want are the stats as to who is clicking, what products, and if I wrote the site properly, what their price-points are.

Now you are into this project for say $2k with 2 months of your time. Then I can look at the data and decide if this is a good project. Nothing says I couldn't have been researching other products and been doing the same concurrently.

If it's a go, I'd write the site until I could afford a professional. In general, I think it's good to write your own site, particularly with technical products, and then give it to a good web developer to perfect it. That can be done page by page...

If the numbers aren't there, it's like a bad stock. Sell it and cut your losses.

Anyway, that's how I'd approach it.

Freelancier
12-17-2013, 09:12 AM
If you have some knowledge of SEO, are able to build an OK WordPress site, and some Adwords knowledge, you can build a site for the sole purpose of finding out the viability of your idea and finding out who your customer base is.

And the average small business owner's knowledge of SEO, ability to build an OK wordpress site, have any Adwords knowledge...?

None. You can see that from many of the posts out here.

You'd approach it this way because you know how to do all that. But the average business wannabe sometimes doesn't even have knowledge of the area they're interested in pursuing as a business, let alone how to put together a technology solution to find out who their customer might be.

Could you outsource these steps? Absolutely! But I'd argue that instead of being active and talking directly to potential customers to find out who they are and what they would want -- something any average salesperson would do first -- you're hiding behind technology and hoping to get useful opinions that way. And that's just not an efficient way to go about starting your business.

KristineS
12-17-2013, 12:02 PM
Have to agree with Freelancier on this one. I've seen so many people waste time and money trying to reach their market through channels that just didn't work because their target market wasn't there. When I first started out in the industry in which I work I tried a few things myself that seemed like no brainer great ideas on paper and which fell flat in execution because our target market just didn't interact with our company the way that we wanted them to interact.

I would agree that almost any company can benefit from some kind of web presence, but I don't necessarily agree that it needs to be a company website. There are a wide variety of options for creating an online presence, a web site is one of them, but not the only one. Do the research, know your target market, and then make an informed choice about where to spend your time, energy and money.

billbenson
12-17-2013, 12:36 PM
Could you outsource these steps? Absolutely! But I'd argue that instead of being active and talking directly to potential customers to find out who they are and what they would want -- something any average salesperson would do first -- you're hiding behind technology and hoping to get useful opinions that way. And that's just not an efficient way to go about starting your business.

Are you referring to my method of using a website and AdWords to qualify a business concept? In the pre internet days I'd try to get purchasing agents to have lunch with me. Today that is a time consuming approach and expensive. Flying to company headquarters to call on purchasing agents who don't have time for wining and dining isn't very time or cost effective. And that's what I did as a salesman for 22 years until internet sales and technology changes made me obsolete.

As far as the approach I laid out it's kind of what I did. I could see that internet sales or lead generation was the way of the future, bought some dummies books, and found a really good webmaster forum. I built a website then I found someone to coach me through AdWords.

I didn't build a site for the purpose of qualifying a business as I described above, but I fumbled around and got it to work. I think somebody can do that today if they are willing to do the work and study.


And the average small business owner's knowledge of SEO, ability to build an OK wordpress site, have any Adwords knowledge...?

None. You can see that from many of the posts out here.

I agree, but some will study these things to make it work. I did and there are others out there like me. There are at least three other members of this board who have businesses and write and manage their own websites. I don't know how they got started, but somehow they got to that point.

DeniseTaylor
12-17-2013, 03:27 PM
It depends upon your purpose. If you have a business and want to stay relevant, then yes, you probably do need a website.

What you need to do then also depends up on the purpose. If you just want to give a listing of your services, make sure the site is clean and attractive and easy to navigate. Make sure your contact information is easy to find. Make sure that everything on it is up to date and relevant to what you do.

If you want to get lots of traffic, that's another matter and would take more than one forum post to cover.

The first and foremost thing that should be focused on is content that visitors love and find valuable. Everything else is secondary.

waynehat71
12-20-2013, 02:36 AM
No, you don't need a website if you are in business. My Marketing Mentor doesn't have a website and he's in business. Now spin your head around that one. It's like an oxymoron. A Marketing Mentor with no website....I still find it amazing.

cbscreative
12-20-2013, 12:34 PM
No, you don't need a website if you are in business. My Marketing Mentor doesn't have a website and he's in business. Now spin your head around that one. It's like an oxymoron. A Marketing Mentor with no website....I still find it amazing.

There must be some compelling reason this person qualifies to be a marketing mentor because that really is amazing. It's still not clear from your post whether this person doesn't have a site for their mentoring service or for another business. And without knowing anything about the business they don't have a web site for and why, it's difficult to provide much comment.

Sean_DeSilva
01-24-2014, 03:50 PM
For those of us who derive our income mainly from online sources, the world neatly divides itself into off-line and online. I couldn't imagine not having a website, because my website is my helpdesk, storefront, customer resource center, and so on.

I'm sure many off-line businesses are doing just fine with a physical presence alone, but in my opinion they're not reaching their potential if they don't have any website at all. Even a simple, one page website is 100 times better than having no online presence. For many people who often starts their search online, you may have the biggest storefront in town and yet not exist at all In their eyes. I know I've passed over businesses in the past because I couldn't find them on Google.

Fulcrum
01-24-2014, 04:49 PM
As one of the only, if not the only, member here without a website, I do agree with the above post.

Gabe
01-26-2014, 12:13 AM
I would consider a business website required. Personal websites are still optional, but they're helpful if you're trying to build your personal brand. Personally, I don't have one. But I don't use Twitter much either, so *shrug*.

FlyPizzaGuy
01-31-2014, 04:48 PM
Most definitely a yes. Makes for a Win Win situation. Feedback is a must and the website is a source of communication that is a must to survive in any business today.

michelle222
02-20-2014, 12:59 AM
Yes it is highly recommended that you get your own website rather than use the free hosting available online. Why? For a simple reason that when you have your own site, you have total control of things. You will realize that for free hosting sites, there are always limitations. Another reason is that you will never know when the free site will last. What if, the site owner decided to close down the site? What will happen to your content? These are all possible and I have seen this happen. So if you are really serious about putting up a good site for your products or services or for your affiliate marketing business, it is best to have your own paid site than take risk on a free hosting.

SkyyCreaTech
02-21-2014, 08:16 AM
Yes you need it. Having an online presence is prerequisite for any business or profession. People who still consider it as a cost , should realized that it is investment and not cost. You needa a professionally designed effective site which can serve its purpose. An to promote it, you can go for Digital marketing tools such as SEO, SMO, PPC, Online media buying etc.

levis_88
02-24-2014, 04:43 PM
websites are very essential especially to small businesses. people are very engage to social media. as a customer every time i need something i search on the web, this saves me time and effort. so do not hesitate on getting a website of your own. this will help your business grow and get customers as well. goodluck!

levis_88
02-24-2014, 04:46 PM
and btw, just make sure your website will be mobile compatible. try mobidart they provide free website to small business owners.