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Making_e Business_Your_Business
| Making e-Business Your Business
If you don't use the Internet in your business today, even the
word "e-business" may be a little intimidating. But it doesn't
have to be if you take it one step at a time. Here are a few
tips that can help in building and promoting your e-business.
ˇThere are many ways to leverage the Internet in business, so
start with what you do best. For example, if you are known for
putting out an excellent newsletter in print, make your first
e-business application an online newsletter. Surprisingly
enough, in many cases this will also help to increase your
overall circulation.
ˇBuilding traffic is much easier when you carefully select your
target audience. While there are some exceptions to this rule, a
focused approach to promotion usually wins the traffic war. For
example, let's say you run a small hardware store and you want
to conduct business over the web. If you focus on luring the
masses to your site using search words such as "hardware" or
"do-it-yourself", you will find that you compete with many
hardware stores. However, if you focus on providing a specific
product line, such as paintbrushes to a very focused target
market, your odds of succeeding skyrocket. My Yahoo search on
hardware stores turned up 146 hits; wholesale paint suppliers 41
hits; and wholesale paintbrush suppliers just 1 hit. So, you
have to ask yourself, do I want to fight for traffic with 146,
41 or 0 other sites?
ˇDesign with promotion in mind. If you design your site without
taking promotion into consideration you may inadvertently derail
your promotion efforts before they begin. One example of this
can be seen when you redirect traffic based upon the site
visitor. Incorporating a URL redirect to personalize the site
visitor's experience can help you earn kudos with your visitors.
This could also cause great site promotion problems because some
search engines reject sites that immediately redirect visitors.
You can compensate for this, but it's much easier to do so
during the design phase.
Be the master of your domain. Build your site and promote your
site using a domain name that you own. At some point you may
have to part ways with your hosting service provider, which
means, if you don't own your domain name, you may also have to
say goodbye to your traffic. If you do own your domain name, the
ability to relocate the traffic you worked hard to build is not
left in the hands of your hosting service provider.
About the author:
Greg McNeil is the founder, CEO and president of e-Business
Express, Inc; an Internet start-up specializing in providing
businesses with the building blocks of e-business; e-business
planning, site development, industry leading hosted
applications, and e-business promotional services.
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