Or maybe you're thinking of getting your business online, but you've heard it takes too much time and money. It's tempting to ignore issue and hope it goes away, but there are some very good reasons to get moving - and here are 8 of them:

1. GEOGRAPHIC TARGETING.

Geographic targeting, or geotargeting, is ability to target consumers by geographical location. Using a combination of I.P. address and/or zip code, ads can be presented to only those consumers to live in certain geographic locations.

Localized advertising allows is very targeted, and can be used to quickly and cheaply test online campaigns. With increasing availability of demographic data, targeting capabilities and options are endless.

2. IT'S PRACTICALLY FREE

It's so cheap to have a website now, why wouldn't you? You can get a domain name for $10, get a build-it-yourself website (more about this later), and you're in business for $20-25 a month.

Compare that to outrageous prices charged for yellow page ads, which can range in price from $1,000 to over $100,000 per year.

Combine this with fact that a growing percentage of population is turning to web for information every day, and you have a powerful marketing tool.

And as I mentioned earlier, there are tools available now that will allow you to build your own website just by pointing and clicking. These aren't tacky looking cookie-cutter websites -- they're very professional looking, and actually look better than a lot of websites built by "professionals."

So you no longer have to shell out hundreds or thousands of dollars to get a great looking website. And as your business grows, your website can too -- add new pages, a message board, email marketing, ecommerce capability and more. You can add any or all of these features quickly and easily...all at click of a mouse.

3. IT'S A GREAT COMMUNICATIONS TOOL

The Internet is ultimate communications tool - fast and cheap. You can use it to communicate with suppliers, resellers, and of course, your customers. Some uses include:

- Send discount coupons by email, reducing direct mail costs.

- Get customer feedback through email or feedback form on website -- it's quick and it's easy, so you're more likely to get customers to participate.

- Send product information or announcements via email or posted on website.

- Send periodic newsletters with useful information and special offers, or just to stay in touch. To follow up with 1,000 customers through direct mail would cost $340 or more for postage alone ... but with email it's virtually free. And being able to interact directly with a customer on a regular basis is priceless.

- Put your brochure or catalog online, reducing printing costs.

For some businesses, simply putting their catalog online has saved them thousands of dollars a year in printing and mailing costs.

Of course there will always be people who want printed catalogs, and not every customer will have email. But in terms of cost, you simply cannot beat economics.

4. TO MAKE CONNECTIONS

There are lots of business people online, including people from your local community. People from same communities have a way of finding each other online... and as always, it's not what you know, but who.

Just as you might pass out your card at a local chamber meeting, you can do same thing online with your signature file - and a lot more people will see it.

It's also a lot more time-effective than face-to-face networking. Rather than driving somewhere and sitting through another boring chicken dinner, you can get online and meet prospects and colleagues at any time of day or night.

Also, you can develop a reputation very quickly online, adding to your credibility and opening even more doors for yourself - all without setting foot outside house.

5. TO SERVE YOUR LOCAL CUSTOMERS.

A website can be a worthwhile investment even if it's just an electronic version of Yellow Pages: street address, phone number, business hours, forms of payment accepted, contact information. Put this same information in Yellow Pages, and guess what happens if you move or change your hours or get a new area code? You know answer to that one.

But a website is dynamic -- information can be updated at any time, plus you're not limited to 2 or 3 lines worth of information. And there are so many great ways to interact with your customers, which is more interesting for them and potentially very valuable to you. Here are some very low- tech examples, very easily added to your website:

- FAQ

Thankfully local online market has finally started to take off. As more local information becomes available online, people are starting to look at Internet as something useful instead of a passing fad.

And where people go, advertisers are sure to follow. The amount of money spent on local online advertising has steadily increased in last few years. According to The Kelsey Group (http://kelseygroup.com), geocommerce, or local advertising revenues, are expected to reach about $50 billion by 2006.

Here's another reason local online market is heating up: technology. The ability to target online users by geography - Geotargeting -- allows websites to present ads only to consumers who live in certain geographic location. Local advertisers can now be sure that only local eyeballs will see their ad.

Localized advertising is very targeted, and can be used to quickly and cheaply test online campaigns. Local merchants can use a combination of online and offline advertising to drive traffic to their store and website.

Geotargeting has great promise, but it's not without problems. The main issue is accuracy. There is a big difference in accuracy of methods used to target based on user location.

COMMON GEOTARGETING METHODS

- I.P. Address

Targeting based on I.P. address (a unique string of numbers that identifies a computer on Internet) This method works by using I.P. address to identify a user's geographical location. It can home in on a user's city - sometimes even their zip code - within U.S. and internationally. Many of major Geotargeting vendors use this method, including www.quova.com, a major player in geolocation market.

There are a couple of weaknesses in I.P. method. The biggest problem: for various reasons, not all I.P. addresses can be mapped to a geographic location.

A good example is AOL user population. Because of way AOL handles their web requests, all of their users appear to be coming from Virginia. Of course that's not true.