|
|
Are You Blocked?
You have a website... now what do you do?
Think Outside The Business Card
Ok you have finally arrived, you made the decision to have a website.
You understand that at a basic level you need to have a web address that is retrievable on the internet so potential clients can find you.
It's no different
than a phone number or a mailing address. It's part of modern business promotional practice.
This is not the time to get cold feet.
Getting me to publish one page with your name and phone number and very little else is not
taking advantage of the power of the network. Your website is not a business card that extends into the world one at a time from hand to hand. Your website has the power to broadcast to many people successively and repeatedly. It is a
potential dynamo that can attract interest in what you do.
But this does not happen automatically, you have to provide content. Text. The internet is primarily a reading environment and all search engines use their proprietary
algorithms to search text and then index that text relative to all the other text in their database universe.
So if all you publish is your business card text or brochure text then that content is all that can be indexed.
Why
not make an effort to increase the likelihood of your website being returned in a possible search result? The whole point of your website is to publish. That is to provide information to your intended audience. Your intended audience is made
up of the fellow travelers who you want to attract and be attracted to. Your network is a two way street... publish or perish.
So please if you cannot write about yourself, your service that you provide or the products that you want
others to enjoy, find someone to help you organize your thoughts and get those descriptions down on "paper" (a digital copy-able document please). Ask your spouse, your friends, your parents to help you. If they won't, then hire someone.
Here is a simple way of letting the muse loose and allow your online persona to develop.
Concentrate first on the What, Why, When, Where, Who and How of what you do and the services you provide. Describe everything you can
about yourself and your offerings that can be placed under those 6 headings.
If you do that, you have created most of the basic material that results in a good website.
Now kick your website up another notch by applying as best
you can the same WWWWW+H descriptors to the people you want to attract into your alliance. Defining the people you want to provide your service or sell your product to, helps them to find you, and you them. This is not just an exercise in
vanity... you are actually helping other people to get the same things that you want.
By the time you have accomplished even half of the above you will be amazed at how easily your discourse is taking shape and combined with my simple
organizational skills you will get compliments all the time from family, friends and clients who are delighted to be able to get the information so easily from your website.
That's why you have a website; to broadcast information
effectively and inexpensively.
Now you're rolling. The basics are there and as your professional life grows and you get feed back from your activities in the world, you can respond and add to your website when the mood (the muse) hits
you. This is an ongoing process and if you add to your website over time, even if it's only once a year, your site will grow and reflect your success in the world.
Use your website to sell yourself.
There is much fear and angst
for some people about promoting themselves. It's usually about some early conditioning at the hands of their parents or teachers that selling or promotion is an ignoble endeavor to be avoided. Growing up in my house one of the scripts was
"children should be seen but not heard". (I guess that's why I prefer email to the phone!)
Get over it. You might have the greatest service or product completely beneficial to humankind but the world is not going to beat a path to your
website without some encouragement from you. Why? Because the rest of the world is just as fearful as you are.
The last part of the formula, not appropriate for everyone, but certainly effective for some, is to expand your digital
persona by giving the reader an insight into the areas of your interest that allow them to respond in kind. People want to associate with you if your goals and ambitions are similar to theirs.
Above all don't let yourself get hung up on
whether your text is flawless or not. It doesn't have to be perfect to be effective. I will correct any glaring grammatical or spelling errors.
Your website is part of a vast library, make your contribution, start writing now.
BACK TO FAQ INDEX |
