These are only two examples of traditional business being conducted successfully over Internet. I am sure there are millions of other such examples, but I simply wanted to show you that Internet can be used as an effective medium for traditional business. In both cases they are not putting their faith in specialized Internet marketing techniques or employing search engine optimization specialists or any of those concepts that generally scare old-fashioned business owners away from Internet. They are simply using Internet in a fashion that adds value to their businesses. Isn’t that whole idea?

So how do you get started? There are millions of articles on “Getting your business on Internet” and I won’t repeat that here. If you approach a web design company and ask them to “put your business on Internet”, they will most probably sell you a complete restructure of your business with online payment and product catalogues and whatever else goes with an online business. Not because they are necessarily trying to make a quick dollar out of you, but simply because this is what most people think they want from Internet. My advice to you is this: Before you approach anybody about designing a website for you, decide what it is you want. How can Internet add value to my existing customers? Think of two examples above and try to use that approach in your own business. If you can find a solution to that question, then, by default, you will have a solution that will add value to new customers as well and your business will sell itself on Internet.

Search engines like accessible websites. An accessible website is text (or content) based. Search engines only read text. Accessible websites are more likely to be listed favorably with search engines because they provide more content, which makes them appear more relevant.

You can improve website efficiency through satisfying accessibility standards. Websites are easier to maintain by staff and are generally loaded faster by web browsers.

Most businesses stress their commitment to enriching their community. An accessible website is an example of such a commitment.

With anti-discrimination laws on books, an accessible website can help public institutions like university, municipalities, and other publicly operated entity avoid legal issues as it is required to cater to needs of all individuals.

These are but a taste of benefits an accessible website can offer your business. For more details, visit: http://www.w3.org/WAI/bcase/benefits.html.