In This Issue:

• Random Free Hosting Site

• Web Site Content

• Promote Your Site Offline

• New Clients

Random Free Hosting Site

We'd like to congratulate Granbury Log Cabins for being the winner of this month's free hosting site. At the beginning of each month we will call up our own site's homepage. Whomever's site is the featured site when the page loads will get FREE hosting of one domain for one month. It's just our way of saying thank you.

Web Site Content

Content on your site is one of the most important factors for successful search engine optimization. Your Web site should provide valuable information on specific subjects relevant to your Web site. Furthermore, your content should be updated regularly. It's not enough to just put up a few content pages full of information on your site and then never add to it. This is a continuous process that will help your search engine rankings if done correctly.

It's also important that you don't try to trick the search engines by flooding them with multiple versions of the same page, repeating the same content over and over. Doing that will not help your rankings and will eventually lead to your site getting banned from the search engines.

Promote Your Site Offline

• business cards

• letterheads

• envelopes

• address labels

• fax cover sheets

• checks

• invoices

• receipts

• reorder forms

Gift Certificates - Gift certificates are good because they allow your customer to share their discovery of your products and services with friends, family and colleagues. To be effective, especially in connection with services, a gift certificate needs to have a tangible dollar value to the recipient rather than merely offering to redeem the certificate for a particular service. This is because the referral customer probably has no conception of the dollar value of your service. The potential customer can, however, readily appreciate the value of a "$30 toward your purchase of $60 or more" gift certificate.

Brochures - Brochures are an effective way to create a professional image and promote your products and services at the same time. Give them to prospective customers for a quick overview of your business and to give them a reason to visit your Web site for more information. Distribute your brochure whenever you get the chance: carry them with you wherever you go and hand them out whenever you hand out your business card. Mail your brochure to current clients to inform them of additional products and services that they may be unaware you offer and to prospective clients sourced from rented mailing lists.

Classified Ads - Place small classified ads in your local and city newspapers and include the URL of your Web site.

Yellow Pages - If you purchase display advertising in the Yellow Pages, be sure to include your URL.

Word of Mouth - Finally, perhaps the most effective and under-appreciated tool of them all - word of mouth. Talk about your business and your Web site at every opportunity and encourage your customers, friends, family and colleagues to do the same. You would be surprised at just how many businesses out there owe their success to little more than word of mouth referrals.

Successfully promoting an online business requires a sound understanding and methodical application of the principles of online marketing and promotion. But to focus on online methods to the exclusion of offline does only half the job. Give due attention to offline methods of promotion in conjunction with your online promotional efforts to ensure the widest possible coverage of ALL of your potential markets.

New Sites Completed Last Month

• Rod Broussard

• The Shelby

• Sandy Creek Farm

• Crescent Quarters Hotel