Website Builders, ready for Hosting and Marketing

Posted by arlene

When you build a Web site, you construct an island. Forget the Information Superhighway analogy. The Web isn’t a stretch of road lined with sites that everyone notices. The Web is much more like a vast ocean of information—an ocean with very few navigational tools. The success of your site depends on your ability to make enough waves to attract the surfers.

Anyone, even the smallest company, can apply most of these techniques. But a professional Web marketing firm can usually apply them more efficiently and effectively. These firms devote a lot of time and effort to keeping up with the various site marketing services and can make these services work well for you.

The final step in this process is really a continuing effort to ensure the success of your Web site. These ongoing efforts include:

Operating the server and the Internet connection

• Counting hits
• Counting interested hits
• Counting visitors
• Registering users
• Conducting market research
• Making improvements
• Training your staff
• Restructuring your site
• Contacting your visitors
• And much more

For now, we just want to make the point that most of these tasks can be handled internally or farmed out to marketing firms or advertising agencies.

Of course, you can just forget all these details and hire somebody to do everything. You can contact a Web presence provider by telephone (or over the Web) and be online in two days. We call this technique the no-hands approach to Web marketing. (Well, you might need one hand to dial the phone.)

There’s nothing wrong with the no-hands approach. But businesses that choose this route should understand that designing most basic turnkey sites involves very little marketing expertise. You can’t expect someone who knows little or nothing about your company to design a Web site that reflects your company’s character and enhances your current marketing strategies. A few companies do provide turnkey systems that incorporate your current marketing strategies, but these companies are exceptions. They’re more expensive and require some level of cooperation from you and your staff, which makes hiring them a little less “no hands.” Of course, this interaction also makes the solution providers more effective.

You may be able to get a no-hands site from your local ISP. The majority of Internet presence providers offers a service to create simple Web pages for its customers. Unfortunately, these pages generally incorporate very little marketing value. ISP-designed sites are among the most common and least expensive form of no-hands Web advertising.

Despite the uneven quality, the no-hands Web site can be an option worth considering. For small businesses, the low cost and minimal hassles of no-hands Web sites makes them the perfect vehicles for developing an on-line presence. With this approach, you don’t need an Internet connection, an e-mail address, a domain name (although it’s optional), or any Web expertise. The Web presence provider creates your Web pages and maintains them on its own server. The provider can even issue reports showing how much traffic your site receives. It’s really very painless. In fact, considering the small price tag, this route can be the most cost-effective way to start an on-line campaign.

Companies opting for the no-hands approach should understand that not all Web presence providers are created equal. Some won’t provide quality pages. Others won’t complete their work in a timely manner. Some have Web servers that are so prone to crashes and network problems that your site may be down more than it’s up.

When you look for a turnkey Web presence provider, look for more than a low price. Find a couple of companies in your price range, and choose the one that seems the most professional. Don’t discount a company just because it’s small and young, but make sure the company has the talent and desire to grow along with your needs. If you choose a company that provides only the services you’re looking for now, it won’t be of much use to you when you’re ready to expand your site and include advanced features.

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