Getting The Word Out

Written by Dave Barrett


You've finally done it! You've readrepparttar how-to manuals, taken your first steps onrepparttar 121316 way to financial independence and set yourself up with an Internet business. You have your product, started an account to accept credit cards, registered your domain name, and set up your website. So why aren't web surfers flocking to your site to buy your product?

As with any business,repparttar 121317 key to success is advertising. You may haverepparttar 121318 best product anywhere, but if no one knows about it, you'll never be able to get it offrepparttar 121319 ground. This is especially true onrepparttar 121320 Internet. With a "brick & mortar" business, you may get by if you have a great location that gets a lot of foot traffic regardless of how much you advertise. Onrepparttar 121321 internet, however, if you don't advertise you won't get any hits at all.

The good news is, there are many different ways to getrepparttar 121322 word out about your site, some for free. The bad news is not all of them work. The most popular form of advertising onrepparttar 121323 Internet is throughrepparttar 121324 use of banner exchanges. This kind of advertising may have been effective inrepparttar 121325 past, but today it is perhapsrepparttar 121326 least effective way to advertise.

The biggest downside of banners, aside fromrepparttar 121327 fact that they have very low click-through rates, is that many ofrepparttar 121328 exchange programs force you to place a reciprocal banner on your site. This is a bad idea for two reasons. First, it cheapensrepparttar 121329 look of your site, and second, you have no control over what your customer sees. Besides, you should never give your customers an opportunity to click away from your site before they've made a purchase.

Another popular form of free advertising is placing classified ads on FFA (Free For All) pages and Safelists. Don't be fooled, these methods of advertising are little more than ineffective spam generators. Most people who sign up for these pages don't even use their regular email addresses. They create dummy accounts forrepparttar 121330 sole purpose of receivingrepparttar 121331 spam that inevitably floods their email box as a result of signing up for these lists. The truth is, almost no one actually readsrepparttar 121332 posts to these lists. The time it takes to submit to them could be spent much more productively.

Hosting Hints

Written by Dave Barrett


To succeed in today's world of e-commerce, it is absolutely essential that you have a website. The host you choose can have a profound impact onrepparttar success or failure of your business.

One thing you need to consider is whether to use a professional host or a free host. I understandrepparttar 121315 desire to keeps expenses down, especially inrepparttar 121316 critical start-up phase of your business. You'll be tempted to cut corners, but there are some corners you just shouldn't cut, and deciding on your web host is one of them.

Onrepparttar 121317 Internet, image is everything. Do you want your visitors to see a professional business they can trust, or a business that's too cheap to pay a professional service? Or worse, to be dismissed as an amateur. That'srepparttar 121318 image a free web host conveys. When you weigh inrepparttar 121319 cost of buying software andrepparttar 121320 time involved to do it all yourself, you really aren't saving anything.

Onrepparttar 121321 other end ofrepparttar 121322 spectrum, there are some web hosts who try to justify charging higher than average prices by offering a vast assortment of extra features. Most people don't haverepparttar 121323 computing skills required to take advantage of allrepparttar 121324 features they offer, and they know it. By offering tons of extras that almost no one will use, they can jack up their rates and gouge their customers. Keep your future needs in mind, but don't pay for services you don't need.

Look for price and volume flexibility. Your host should haverepparttar 121325 ability to expand your services as your business grows. Most good hosts offer different pricing packages and let you upgrade to a larger package as your needs expand. Pricing varies widely, from inexpensive to unaffordable. Remember, you get what you pay for.

Make sure they offer a full range of hosting services. Even though you may not need advanced features now, it's probably a good idea to go with a host who offers them. Byrepparttar 121326 time your business expands torepparttar 121327 point where you need to upgrade torepparttar 121328 deluxe package, you'll have more than enough money to payrepparttar 121329 extra costs to incorporate them into your site. Most hosts will even do it for you.

You probably won't need all these features when you are just starting out, butrepparttar 121330 most common ones to look for are:

* 24/7 support * 24/7 FTP access * Guaranteed uptime * Regular daily backup * Personal CGI-bin * Java, Perl, and PHP enabled * Browser-compliant * Web based email * Autoresponders * High bandwidth & connection speed * Compatible with your software and skills * Microsoft Front Page compatible

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