Years ago advertising in a Leaflet, Newsagent Window, Magazine, Classified Ad and so on were your only real "Advertising Avenue towards Revenue" options, especially if you could not afford to advertise on TV!, but these days you can use a website and the internet to get your product(s) and/or service(s) even more publicity and sales. All at a fraction of the cost. With a lot more people using their computer and audio/video players with the internet, as opposed to watching TV and listening to the Radio, it makes sense to invest in a website and the services that surround it. Your first question should not be Do I Need A Website? it should be How Can A Website Help Me?

The only real reasons for not having a website is if you are a person or company that has enough work/money coming in all year around and/or a person or company that does not want to expand their business. The latter could be because you would not be able to find skilled workers or you may love what you do regardless of business size and wealth, so an expansion due to website-customer demand could be the failure of your own success. On the internet I have seen a D.I.Y Shop and a Sandwich Maker mentioned, as examples, of those not needing a website. However. It could be argued that in order to stay in business in the future that D.I.Y Shop and Sandwich Maker should think about selling their products online.

Years ago local Take-Aways (i.e. Chinese and Pizza Take-Aways) used to deliver food to your house but these days, with society becoming dangerous, a lot of take-aways do not bother with a delivery service. A company picked up on this and started doing the deliveries for them (on a commission basis) - The company set up a website of its own with menus on it, from the various take-aways, whereby the customer can order a take-away from the menu belonging to their local chinese take-away for example. Although a Sandwich Maker could join such a website scheme he/she could also sell their own sandwiches on their own website, with no commission to pay (lower costs, cheaper for the customer).

WEBSITE ASSOCIATED SERVICES / REASONS

Advertising On The Internet

When advertising in magazines, locally and/or nationally, you are normally limited by the lack of magazines to advertise in. Usually because the subject associated with your product(s)/service(s) only has a few magazines written for it. With the internet though you could look worldwide for magazines to advertise in, either paper magazines or web based magazines, as well as advertise in Blogs, Forums and Guest Books, Classifieds and so on. As many of these are FREE to advertise in, it only costs you the time it takes to post your advert all over the internet. The beauty of advertising on the internet is that you only need to advertise your website address with a small description because your website should be advertising your product(s)/service(s) to the full.

Email / Newsletter

The main benefits of using Email are that it saves on Postage Stamps and it can be delivered within seconds to groups of people from all over the world. Even unimportant/non-urgent scanned documents are becoming widely accepted as "Original" documents these days, mainly due to scanners and copiers being so perfect you might not know an original document from a copy. Email is also good for Newsletter purposes (sending groups of people your Latest Promotions, News, Software Updates and so on).

File (Product) Downloads

Producing a CD/DVD for your product(s) such as your Video Tutorials and/or E-Books is a great way to promote them and sell them, and every penny counts, but it involves a lot of energy - Place the CD/DVD into a jiffy bag. Walk in the cold weather to the post office. Join the busy, mile long, queue. Weigh the CD/DVD package. And then pay the postage. Having the same product(s) as a File Download cuts out the hassle. People simply pay for your product(s) and then download each product as one file download or as individual file downloads. Either way. All you had to do was upload the file(s) to your website. Other forms of file download include PDF (.pdf) files which could contain an Application Form or Manual for example.

Forms

The creation of a Form web page allows you to incorporate features such as an Application Form, Order Form, Helpline Form and Appointment Form into your website. This in turns saves you time and money in terms of you not having to answer the phone - Your visitors fill in the helpline form and wait for your email response. They book an appointment which you can confirm in an autoresponse email. They can apply for a job by filling out your online application form or by downloadable your application.pdf file (no paper and postage costs for you, just a reply email) and they can order products via a PayPal order form for example. Basically. Online forms make you look more professional, save you money in the long run and target only those visitors needing your product(s)/service(s).

A Forum / A Blog

A Forum (Questions/Answer Board), and even a Blog, allows you to interact with your visitors and better support your product(s)/service(s) as well as get feedback. They can save you from repeating the same answer to different people, especially if you set up a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) area on your forum/blog.

Photographs

Photographs are very effective tools, especially when compiled as a slideshow, because they allow your visitors to see you, your products and/or your venue for example. A Slideshow can eliminate the need to send out brochures while individual photographs can help visitors decide whether or not your venue is suitable for their reception party or monthly meeting place for example. With no photographs you will be losing potential customers.

A Website

Having a website means you are automatically open for business 24/7 with a potential local (i.e. .co.uk) or international (i.e. .com) audience of thousands. An audience you only get when you have a website. They can see straight away What You Are About, What You Sell, What You Do Not Sell, What Your Prices Are and can therefore judge whether or not to buy from you. The beauty of being open 24/7 is that while you are asleep, and your website is running itself, you can be earning money. And because your potential customers are already searching the internet for your particular product(s)/service(s) all you need to do is attract them over to your website, in the way of advertising/promoting it. In other words. Half of the work has already been done for you.

The services associated with a website, as mentioned above, can save you time and money. For example. If you spend £100 having 1,000 Advertisement Flyers made (so 10p each) and they are printed with common problems (spelling mistakes, not sliced properly, not aligned properly and so on) you either have to send them out (not professional) or waste your time and money recreating them (professional but costly). With a website you avoid these problems. Spelling mistakes can easily be corrected, Prices can be changed very quickly and no paper needs to be aligned/sliced correctly. On top of this, all you would need to put through peoples door is a little business card with your usual details on it and your website address. The business card would probably cost around 1p each. Better still. You might only need to advertise on the internet. Many classifieds websites are free to advertise in.

According to the UK Government 18.3 Million (70%) Households, not people, in the UK had access to the internet in 2009. Even if you doubt this figure, for whatever reason(s), you still have to admit that most people could have access to the internet using a Library, Internet Cafe and so on. Another UK Government statistic is that 9 out of 10 connections to the internet are via broadband (2007 Report).

Nielsen Net Ratings also have similar statistics on the US market (2009 Report). For example. 163 Million people online per month (home and work combined). Out of that, 131 Million people are watching internet video (i.e. YouTube) for an average of 3 Hours per month.

Although statistics are not to be taken at 100% face value, they do give you some clues as to the Average 50%. Meaning. Even if you said to yourself "I will half that statistic", because you feel that would be more realistic and satisfying, that 50% would still read as over 9.1 Million (35%) Households, not people, in the UK having access to the internet and 4.5 out of 10 connections to the internet are via broadband. So even by halving the audience, it is still a huge audience to be selling to!

On top of this. When you get a website your web hosting package normally gives you an Analytics control panel (program) that displays all kinds of statistics relating to your website - How many people visited your website, What web pages were visited, On what day, Which websites are linking to your website and so on. You can also sign up for a free Google Analytics account that far outweighs any statistics you get with your web hosting package. Either way, you have instant website statistics - Statistics that you cannot get unless you have a website.

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