Small Business
Internet Marketing 2007

It's not just about finding you

If they can't do these things at your Web site, and they can do them at your competitors' Web sites, who do you think will get the business? Hint: not you.

If your business is like most small businesses, you can send and receive email, and maybe you have a "brochure" Web site. But you don't use the Internet effectively to generate business, to execute transactions, or to make sales. You'll be able to go on like this for a while, but those businesses that are aggressively expanding their use of the Internet are already beginning to pull ahead.

The Internet redefines local

In some markets, the Internet is enabling small businesses to grow, by extending their reach beyond their local area. So even if your region is still free of the Internet-savvy competitors, that can change overnight.

Fortunately, for most of us, it's not too late. We can begin to expand our use of the Internet, and there's still time to do it somewhat gradually. But there isn't much time. Starting now would be a good idea.

What to do first

But where to begin? Here's the good news. It almost doesn't matter. Oh, there are some things that you just can't do until you've done some other things, but the order of those items is pretty obvious. It's only when the order isn't obvious that people tend to worry. The point is that when the order isn't obvious, it also doesn't matter much.

This ebook is packed with ideas for small business — ideas you can use to get started on the Internet if you haven't started yet, or to accelerate the use of the Internet if you've already started. It includes dozens of links to resources on the Web, and to examples of what to do and what not to do.

What's in it?

Here's a list of chapters:

1. Get ready for the storm
2. Understand how the Internet is different
3. Have a Web site
4. Have your own domain name
5. Promote your Web site
6. Have a well-designed search strategy
7. Keep your site fresh and clean
8. Design for usability
9. Especially for professionals
10. Publish an Ezine
11. Build and manage your ezine's circulation
12. Publish a blog
13. Download podcasts
14. Produce podcasts
15. Use autoresponders
16. Create and sell downloadable products
17. Know the basics of managing Web site development
18. Know how to choose a Web site developer
19. Know what contract terms you need
20. Manage the relationship with your developers
21. Watch for red flags
22. Use the Internet to increase agility

And here's some sample content:

Post articles as Web pages, not just PDF

Some Web sites post articles intended to be valuable and helpful to site visitors, and they usually are. But at some sites, these articles are available in Acrobat format only. Sometimes, there's a good reason for this — the articles contain complex graphics, or unique fonts, or they're reprints of journal articles or newspaper articles. But more often, the reason is simple laziness or cost control: the site maintainer didn't want to create a Web page for material that was already available in PDF.

Downloading an Acrobat document is an obstacle in the path of your visitors. They don't mind doing it if they know they want the article, but they'd like to see it first, and for that, they prefer HTML. Make your articles available as Web pages. If you have them in PDF too, that's great — offer that as an option in the form of a link from the Web page.

But as a minimum, show enough respect for your visitors' time to present your articles as Web pages.

Be aware of the anti-phishing browser security flap

There's an incipient security standards flap afoot as of Fall 2006, with implications for ecommerce Web sites of small businesses that aren't incorporated: sole proprietorships, partnerships and individuals. Internet Explorer 7, which is already available, and which is standard equipment in Windows Vista systems beginning in January 2007, displays its address bar with a green background when it visits a site that Microsoft considers "legitimate."

The green background is used for sites that use Extended Validation Secure Sockets Layer (EV SSL) certificates and which Microsoft has no complaints about. They use yellow for EV SSL sites that are under investigation. They use red for known phishing or scam sites. They display a white background in the address bar for sites for which there is no information, even if they're legitimate, and even if the site has an SSL (but not EV SSL) certificate.

The trouble is that most small businesses can't buy EV SSL certificates, because they're available only to firms that are incorporated. If your company isn't incorporated and online sales are important to you in the short term (before September, 2007), you might want to consider incorporating.

My personal belief is that criminals (or others disturbed by the impact of Microsoft's action on small business, and hoping to render that action useless) will soon figure out how to make the browser's address bar any color they want, and therefore Microsoft's action will have no long-term impact on small business. But in the short term, the impact could be significant. Small businesses that aren't incorporated might have to incorporate in order to qualify for EV SSL, and those that do incorporate or those that are already incorporated would then acquire and install an EV SSL certificate at considerable expense (probably near $500). For more information, see "Software to Spot 'Phishers' Irks Small Concerns," The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2006; and "With IE 7, green means go for legit sites," at CNet.com.

Require incremental delivery of your Web site components — no hockey sticks

Your agreement with your site developer should include a delivery schedule for capabilities of your Web site, or possibly terms for the delivery of a delivery schedule. That schedule should specify incremental delivery of the Web site. Each increment should leave the site in a usable state. That is, you want to avoid a delivery schedule that has the site essentially useless until the last day of the schedule, and then it all comes up at once. Instead, you want incremental delivery — delivery of small, usable chunks — so that your site comes up fairly quickly without much in it, and then gradually blossoms.

Each delivery increment should trigger a payment once you've accepted the delivery. That way, you gradually get what you want, and the site developer gradually gets paid. It's a clean, step-by-step process. And if things aren't working out, you'll find out sooner than you would with a "hockey-stick" process.

With each delivery, make certain that you receive a complete copy of all site files, all jigs and fixtures, and a complete site installation on your server. That way, if you want to terminate the relationship after any delivery, you can, without any waiting around for your site files. If at any point you become unhappy with the way things are going, you can easily exit. This keeps the developer honest.

Details

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