Shameless Self-Promotion

Written by Janice D. Byer, MVA


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Also, a few weeks back we had our water supply guy here filling up our well and we talked about his father’s business. Well, I didn’t give uprepparttar chance to say, “Does your father have a website? I can design one for him.” Well,repparttar 106178 conversation went from there and I ended up giving him several of my business cards.

My husband is alsorepparttar 106179 owner of a small business; a tow truck and storage business. Well,repparttar 106180 other day we had a fellow here delivering gravel for our driveway and, as he is always onrepparttar 106181 road, I asked him if he sees accidents and such. So, my husband gave him some of his cards and it has paid off already. Yesterday this dump truck drive called to tell my husband about an accident that he had just seen.

And, don’t forget your existing clients. Do they know everything that you offer? I have a wonderful steady administrative client that I told a few times about some ofrepparttar 106182 websites I am designing. Well, he was impressed and now we are in talks to design his website. He didn’t know I did website design until I told him. And, this may be true for you as well. Your clients won’t know everything that you can do for them unless you tell them. They may not need any of your secondary services right away, or at all, but they may know someone who does.

My administrative client, which I mentioned above, has now given my name to some of his customers who need help with their office tasks and web design needs.

As I said before, there is a time and a place for shamelessly self-promoting yourself and your business. Be careful not to sound arrogant and don’t be pushy. But, as a small business owner, you arerepparttar 106183 best person to tell others about what you offer and you should take advantage of situations that will allow you to do so.

Janice Byer is a certified Master Virtual Assistant and owner of Docu-Type Administrative & Web Design Services (http://www.docutype.net). Visit her website to read more of her articles, sign up for her award-winning newsletter, and browse her various services, testimonials and resources.


Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Website

Written by Scott Buresh


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How many visitors takerepparttar desired action? Duringrepparttar 106177 same time period that you trackedrepparttar 106178 total number of visitors to your site, you should also trackrepparttar 106179 number of visitors that takerepparttar 106180 action that you desire. For instance, if your primary goal on your site is to get visitors to fill out a contact form, how many forms did you collect inrepparttar 106181 allotted period? This number, coupled with your traffic data, formsrepparttar 106182 basis of your site conversion rate. For example, if you had 1000 visitors over a one-month period, and 10 of them sent in a form, your site conversion rate is 1% (10/1000). It is important to draw a distinction between your site conversion rate and your regular sales conversion rates (unless your site is selling online). Not all people who send in a form, for example, will become customers. However, your site conversion rate is a very useful piece of data to have, as you can use it to measurerepparttar 106183 success (or failure) of changes that are made torepparttar 106184 site.

Three Quick Tips for Improvement: 1. If your traffic levels are too low to draw any meaningful data, consider launching some traffic-building initiatives, such as search engine optimization, affiliate programs, or pay-per-click advertising. 2. Be sure to make it easy for your visitor to takerepparttar 106185 desired action from any page of your site. For example, if you want them to fill out a contact form, make certain that there is a prominent button inviting them to do this on each page. 3. Check your sales copy to be sure it also invites visitors to takerepparttar 106186 desired action. Too often, companies use offline brochure copy on their site without taking into accountrepparttar 106187 unique opportunities thatrepparttar 106188 online arena affords.

Conclusion: While launching a website can be a big step for any business, it is equally important thatrepparttar 106189 performance ofrepparttar 106190 site can be measured objectively. Understandingrepparttar 106191 goals of your site and establishing a benchmark from which future success can be gauged is critical to your site's long-term success.

Scott Buresh is Co-founder and Principal of Medium Blue Internet Marketing . For monthly tips on how to get the most out of your internet presence, sign up for our Internet Marketing Newsletter


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