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ABOLISHING BORING WEBSITES
ARTICLE SERIES By Julia D. Stege
ARTICLE 3
Abolishing Boring Websites:
Bringing Your Website out of the Cyberspace Black Hole
ARTICLE 1
Abolishing Boring Websites:
5 Steps to Creating a Successful Website Campaign
ARTICLE 2
Abolishing Boring Websites:
Creating Powerful Content that Inspires Action
ARTICLE 4
Abolishing Boring Websites: Cool Tools
How your website can save you time, effort and resources.
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Bringing Your Website out of the Cyberspace Black Hole
Now that you have a website up and running, you wonder why that “visitor #” clicker isn't rising. You haven't received any calls telling you how great your website is and how much your services and products are desired. If this has happened to you, your website has been lost in cyberspace. I know you didn't spend all that time and money producing your website just to have it sit there collecting stardust. In this article I'll be giving you some tips to help you market your site and get it circulating among your target audience.
Step I:
Tell Your Current Clients About Your Site
It may seem obvious to send out an announcement about your website, but frequently people overlook this step. There are many ways to announce your site, depending on the status of your client list or mailing list. If you have a large database of leads that you use to send out a newsletter or other mailings, using a well crafted post card announcement is a good strategy for you. You can find inexpensive post card printers online who charge about $100 for 500 cards, and some will even send them to your mail list for an additional fee.
If you have email addresses in your mail list, sending email announcements is much less expensive and can be more effective than a post card because you can put a link to your website right in the body of the email. Write a snappy introduction to your new site in the email and invite clients to visit your site. You can even design your email with elements from your site, photos, colors, fonts, etc.
If you don't have an email list yet, you will want to develop one. One way to build an email list is to have your programmer or web host post a small form on your site so visitors can sign up to be on your email list. Put this on your home page in an obvious place so visitors can easily see it and submit their email address. Another way to build an email list is to contact current clients and leads and request their email addresses, and to start asking new leads for their email addresses in your initial conversation.
Other ways to announce your site are:
- Always include your website address in all of your email and snail mail correspondences.
- Throw a “website launching” party where you have laptops with your website displayed set up around the room. Decorate the party with posters of your site layout, or space themes, or your company branding. Be sure to have visitors sign in with their email addresses.
- Send out “birth announcements” instead of a post card, indicating the time and date of your website's birth, and the weight in number of pages.
- Use your imagination…
Step 2:
Tell the Search Engines and Community Sites About your Site
Another important step in bringing your website out of the cyberspace black hole is to submit your URL (website address) to search engines and post listings on community websites like craigslist.org, tribe.net, ryze.net and others.
There are thousands of search engines on the Internet, and millions of people use these to find websites. The first thing you'll need to do is to put a “META tag” in your website's code. A meta tag is comprised of a short 25 to 50 word description about your company, and a set of key words separated by commas. You will want to think of the words you'd use to search for your site and include those. Your programmer or web host will know how to program this tag. Once you have the META tag in place, the search engines will be able to find your site. Some search engines send out “spiders” over the internet that find your site and list them. Other search engines require that you go to their sites and “submit a URL” or “list a website.” You can either go to your favorite search engines and post your website yourself, or you can find companies who will do this for you. There are services that will submit to hundreds of search engines for a small fee, and others that charge more, but will guarantee top placement on the search engines. To find these companies, go to your favorite search engine and submit a query such as “free search engine placement” or “guaranteed top placement in search engines.”
Many search engines change their protocol regularly, causing your #1 placement to suddenly change. If you are hoping to rely heavily on search engines to bring visitors to your site, you will want to set up a system for regular repeat search engine placement, and perhaps hire one of these placement companies to help you.
Now find your community websites --- communities you'd like to join or who service your area. Search www.yahoogroups.com for areas of interest to you and your customers. Join those groups and post frequently. Try to offer free advice and help to others and always put your URL in your email signature. Step 3: Inspire Repeat Visitors
Once you have completed your initial announcements, you will want to create repeat visitorship by your potential customer base. There are several tried and true ways to do this. You may either try these, or use this opportunity to brainstorm to think of new ways that forward your business or organizational vision.
I have found that the best way to inspire repeat visitors is to have a section of your site that changes on a regular basis, whether that be monthly, quarterly, or bi-annually. Some of my clients have found it useful to have a “Current News” section of the site to announce changes in the company, post press-releases, announce company accomplishments, etc.
People who are proficient writers have found success posting their articles on their websites, either one at a time, or in the form of an online newsletter or Blog. This serves a two-fold purpose: one, to inspire repeat visitors by those interested in learning more about you and your topics, and two, to promote your professional image. You can write articles that discuss success stories from your business, or give in-depth information about some element of your company or organizational focus.
If you have a product line, you may want to feature “the product of the month,” with an article about the product attributes, success stories, unique qualities, etc. Whatever content you choose to inspire repeat visitors, you will want to use your email list to announce these changes and draw people to your site.
If you don't have the resources to change your site regularly, you could create an email newsletter or one page article on a regular basis and send that out to your email list. This will keep you in the forefront of your customers' minds while creating a professional image for yourself. And of course you will always have your website link featured prominently in the newsletter.
The key to bringing your website out of the cyberspace black hole is to use these tips, but even more importantly, use your imagination. Imagine for a moment that you are your ideal customer looking for your service or organization. What would be the most effective way to inspire you to go up online and check out a particular site? Chances are that same method would inspire your target audience as well.
Julia Stege is owner and principal designer of Graphic Girlz Design Solutions, a Bay Area based marketing, graphic design and website development firm. She specializes in market strategy, project management, product development, logos and branding, design, content development, and production of Internet and print marketing campaigns.
Contact Julia at inquiry @graphicgirlz.com and request a free initial phone consultation to review your marketing needs.
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