-
A web site is a way to present yourself online
- How does a Web Site
work
- Promote
your ideas, hobbies, or beliefs
- To
advertise your company or product
- Make loads of
money really fast
- Provide
customer services and support
- To keep
your customer base informed
- Give or sell
information
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Create an 'Extended Business Card' for your company
-
Provide internal information and services for your company
Important: The purpose
of this faq is to give the reader a general idea on the
content covered. John Klor, johnklor.com is not
responsible for the accuracy nor for the functionality of
links provided.
1. A web site is a way to present yourself online
Essentially, a Web site is a way to present yourself
online. Your Web site is a place on the Internet where
anyone in the world can visit whenever they want to find out
more about you, ask you questions, give you feedback, or
even buy your products. Think of the Internet as the
world's biggest trade show, and your Web site is your booth.
Six years ago having a Web site was a vanity. In
the year 2000 having a Web site was just trendy. Today
having a Web site is a necessity.
People are using the Web for everything from re ing
schoolwork to buying dinner. It's quick, it's convenient,
and you never need to leave your desk. Even people who
prefer to shop off-line are reing products on the Web.
These days when people are trying to find you, the first
place they look is on the Web - and if they don't find you,
they will probably find someone else!
Before you start planning your new web you need
to ask yourself if you really need a web site or do you just
want one because you have been told that you have to have
web site these days.
Or have you been told you need to get a web site quick
before your competition does. This is probably the biggest
blag when it comes to the Internet.
If you are own a Sandwich shop chances are you won't ever
need a web site. How many people do you know look up a
sandwich shop on the Internet. You wouldn't, you would just
walk to the local shops and find one.
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2. How does a Web site work?
A Web site is simply a collection of files that reside on
a computer connected to the Internet. When someone visits
your site, they are actually contacting that computer, and
that computer (called a Web server) gives the visitor the
files they want to see. It sounds very simple, but most
normal computers don't have the power or the software needed
to constantly respond to all the requests made by all the
visitors to a site. And even if they did, they'd need an
extremely fast connection to the Internet to keep up with
all the requests. Most people and small companies don't have
the resources to run a Web server, and that is where Web
Hosting comes in.
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3. Promote
your ideas, hobbies, or beliefs
This is probably the biggest reason for setting up your own
personal web site.
There are countless web sites on the Internet that people
have created, not to make money, but to promote there ideas,
hobbies, or beliefs.
In fact the Internet is an excellent way to do this and you
can create a real community of people with the same ideas,
hobbies, and beliefs as yourself. It's also great way to
meet people.
Your Web site can be used for a large number of tasks
such as:
- Making public announcements
- Providing support to your customers
- Receiving feedback from your visitors
- Sharing/distributing files and images
- And, of course, selling your products
Those might not sound impressive, but don't forget that
you'll be able to do those things for people around the
world at any time of day or night. You have the potential to
become a house-hold name 10,000 miles away.
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4.
To advertise your company or product
The Internet can be an excellent way to promote your
company or a product, but it needs to be used along with
traditional ways of advertising.
With so many web sites out there and 100's more being
created everyday it becomes harder and harder to promote
your site on the Internet.
The best way to promote your product is to use traditional
advertising and let potential customers know they can find
out more information through your web site.
Attract these potential customers into you web site by
offering quizzes and prizes and give them information on
your company or products while they are there. Forums and
chat rooms can also help with this and allow your customers
to discus your product while they are there.
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5. Make Loads
of Money Really Fast
Yeah right. If you want to make loads of money really
fast then the Internet is probably not the place to do it.
Most of the large companies on the Internet such as Amazon
don't make a penny from the Internet. In fact they are
losing money hand over fist.
This is not to say you won't make any money from the
Internet, as there are many people who do.
The main companies making money from the Internet are
companies offering Internet services such as Web design
companies, Web Hosting companies, ISP, etc.
Other companies making money on the Internet are mainly
smaller companies that are bricks and mortar companies that
make there main living through normal outlets such as shops,
but also make some money each week from Internet sales.
The only other types of company making money through the
Internet are small companies with low overheads offering
unusual products or services that cannot be found locally.
This still requires a lot of hard work, the right type of
promotion, and allot of luck.
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6. Provide
Customer Services and Support
Having online Customers Services and Support can be a
very good idea for any company that finds that they have
phone calls from customers asking them about how to use a
product or service.
Companies with Customer Support departments may find that
they can save money by having online support.
Many of the questions asked by customers seeking support
will be the same. Therefore it would take some of the strain
off the support staff by placing the most frequently ask
questions on a web site.
This isn't to say that you will be able to scrap your
Customer Support Department altogether as many questions
will not be answered through generic questions on a web
site.
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7. To Keep
Your Customer Base Informed
A web site can be an excellent way to keep your customers
or share holders informed about the company.
You can let them know about new products, or ventures the
company is undertaking, and you can also use this as a way
of getting customers to upgrade or by new products.
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8.
Give or Sell Information
Now this is what the Internet was created for and still
used for mainly now, getting information on everything and
anything.
However, if you want to sell information you need to ask
yourselves some questions.
- Is there a demand for the information?
- Is it already available on the net for free?
- Is it available at a local for free, in a library,
etc?
If the answer is yes to any of these questions then you
probably won't sell any or much to make it worthwhile.
The only information that does seem to sell well on the
Internet is pornography. You only have to see how many of
these sites you accidentally stumble across to realise how
many there are out there.
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9. Create an 'Extended Business Card' for your company
Now this is something that maybe worth considering even
for those companies that would otherwise never need or want
a web site.
This type of site is usually small and quite cheap with just
one or two pages just giving a customer or business
associate a little bit more information about your company
than you can fit on your business card.
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10. Provide Internal Information and Services for Your
Company
This can be very useful for large companies or companies
that are spread throughout the country or even the world.
This can be done either through an Intranet or a password
protected area of your web site.
It would allow your employees to communicate faster and more
effectively. Memos will be able to be sent to all parts or
persons within the company at a push of a button.
Information such as the latest sales figures and targets can
be made available to all employees no matter where they are.
In house online training programs can be run across the
Intranet, and many other things as well.
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