Abbott-Infotech - The Fix your small business web site resource and advice center - Understand the basics and get it right, download a few smart tools and experience the small business success you deserve!

Email me direct: Tel: +27 12 331-0921		Your all in one source for Register at Search Engine and Search Engine Position Tools! Could this be the solution to your Register at Search Engines and Search Engine Positioning Tool questions? (Hint: Put the cursor on the blocks below for a drop down menu!)		Ms Moneybags... ..Will she find you?

Why you should market your small business on the internet and how to avoid the pitfalls!
(Run a full colour centre-spread advert for a full year, at half the cost
of a single one-eighth-page insertion in a trade magazine!)

On this web site you learn about things that work, that I have learned the hard way in my 7 years of doing business on the internet - In short, you learn why some people succeed and why others don't!

The first thing you must fix in your mind, is that computers, the Internet and Internet marketing, is a rapidly moving and advancing arena.

On the one hand you have probably heard the stories about school kids making millions online and about the number of people who recently became millionaires through online marketing.

On the other hand, you have heard about numerous "dotcom-businesses" which are folding. You have also heard about several large multinational companies closing down or selling their online divisions.

If you are like me, you have probably asked yourself "What gives? Why do some people and companies make a fortune online, and other people or companies loose millions?"

As a departure point, I assume that you already have a web site and want to improve your number of visitors, get higher ratings on the seach engines and want to increase the profitability of your web site.

If you don't have a web site already, or find that the discussion is a bit over your head at this stage, please explore some of the menu items on the right. If you are still a bit new to Internet marketing, please select one of the alternative entry points below. If you aren't sure, which section to choose, don't worry, just continue reading, you will have plenty of opportunity to come back and explore the other sections later.

1. Please tell me about the advantages of Internet marketing for my business (I don't yet have a web site)

If you don't have a web site yet, it is probably because you think getting your own web site is very difficult or very expensive, or both, or you don't realise how you can use a web site to improve your business and its marketing. Go here to find out how you can use a website to improve your business and your marketing.

You will also find out, that with recent advances in technology, it is not nearly as difficult or costly as you may think, and you don't have to spend many thousands of rands on consultants and web designers to get your own web site and use it to improve your business and your marketing. As a matter of fact, if you click here, I will show you how easy it is to make your own web site for a hobby, an interest or a business!

2. Please give me a few pointers about my planned or recently developed web site

If you already know the advantages of internet marketing, but have only just or not yet started with your own web site for your business, you can go here for some important pointers about what you need, how to evaluate your options, the various possibilities and how to choose a web designer with the necessary marketing and business savvy.

3. I've had a web site for some time, but would like to increase the number of visitors and my web site's profitability, please tell me how to do it! (If you don't even know how many visitors you get to your web site or whether they buy anything, you have come to the right place!)

The first two headings can be considered as introductory and digress a bit from the main issue I want to discuss here, but contains many important issues that you should think about if you have never used the internet in your business. This section (section 3) contains the nitty gritty about business and marketing on the internet.

4. I am web professional or Internet consultant, and I know most of this already, please tell me how I can use these strategies and concepts to the advantage of my customers.

Please click here for more info!

The main body of the text continues here .....

It is of cardinal importance to get the right (interested, pre-sold, "hot" or "pre-qualified") visitors to your web site, or everything that follows goes for nothing. Therefore, the rest of this page is about using the right keywords and the search engines to literally "drive" visitors and customers to your web site.

Right, your new web site is almost as beautiful to look at as a brand new Cadillac or Mercedes (substitute whatever expensive automobile you fancy!). That is after all what you would expect, if you look at the amount of money you spend on it! (go here for a discussion of reasonable development and hosting costs) If your web site contains no database or other specialised programming and cost you more than R10 000 to develop, you might want to read about the reasonable costs for a web site!).

Yes, your web site may be attractive and even pretty, but does it bring you visitors and customers? That is the important question and it will finally make or break your business!

Note: If you do not know how many visitors you get to your web site, or where to see your web stats (=statistics about visitors to your site) click here. Whatever you do, it is in my opinion critical to have easy access to your web-stats. If you cannot easily get an idea of how various changes to your website affects your number of visitors, where they come from and where they go, you are operating blind and may implement something that actively drives your visitors and clients away, without ever knowing it. Click here for a crash course on what you want for web statistics. If your web master or service provider cannot give you this, or see its importance, I strongly suggest that you think about taking your service somewhere else.

No matter how much you, or your wife, or your partner, or your friends, or even your existing customers like your web site, it will just sit there and slowly suck your business dry, unless you know how to make it attractive to the Search Engines and what Keywords to use. (Notice that I say "existing customers", as you will have very few "new customers" unless you make it easy for them to find you. Conversely, even if a customer would perhaps go to great lengths to "find" you, he won't try to "find" you if he doesn't even know about you!)

I can almost hear you say, "But that is something taken care of by my Web-designer or Web-master!"

I am sorry to tell you this, and you may be in for a rather rude shock, but - The majority of courses that teaches people Web design, teach them about the technical details of making a web-page, but it only teaches them the rudiments of Search Engine optimization, if anything. None of the popular courses that I know of, has anything at all to say about keyword selection. About marketing and writing for the web, there is no single available web-design course that I know of, that teaches even the rudiments!

Of course, any web designer worth his or her salt, will pick up some of these skills along the way, but many doesn't. It's about like expecting the typist, who knows and has been trained to type a beautifully spaced and formatted letter, to write you a winning submission for some grant.

Perhaps you are saying "Don't worry, I am an ace marketer with 20 years experience!" All I can say from my side is "Congratulations and Good luck!" Although marketing on the web is similar in many respects to marketing by mail or other media, it is different enough to be a study on its own. Why do you think there are so many Multi-million dollar companies, some of them real heavy-weights, using top marketing firms, that have seen their on-line efforts gone belly-up, after spending millions and millions of dollars?

Now listen carefully, and fix this thought in your mind: "Marketing on the Internet is a totally new ball game, and although it looks deceptively easy, and are in many respects similar to the many kinds of marketing that has gone before, in some respects it is very, very different, and this is where even the large companies become unstuck..

On top of this, it is today one of the fastest changing fields in business and marketing, in a world that is already moving at a fast pace. Many things that worked well, as little as six months ago, are no longer state of the art, or are no longer effective, and things literally change by the week.

Large business, similar to government, is slow to change and slow to react. Can you imagine how long it takes for a decision to be made, if there are five levels of management that each has to give their OK before something can be implemented? You will be glad to hear that these factors work to the advantage of the entrepreneur and the small and medium business. The small and medium business can react rapidly and effectively, which, you will be glad to know, gives you a distinct tactical advantage.

Lets look at the typical Internet business process:
(You will find many similar listings that differ slightly or use different words, but this one is simple and it works for me!)

The customer is looking for something
The customer finds your site
The customer decides to browse further or to leave (Within 10 seconds or even less of landing on your site)
The majority of people who visit your site will be looking for free information
A few will be looking for something to buy
Of these people looking for something to buy, some will be looking for what you have to offer and
Some will be looking for something related, but not quite what you have to offer.
After browsing or buying from your site, the customer will decide if he should file this site for future reference.
Over-deliver, whatever the product or service it is that you deliver

You have to take care (and great care at that!) during each step of this process to get everything just right.

Get these few necessities correct and in place, and you could be the next internet millionaire, or you could at least make a very comfortable living out of it!

The further issues of electronic information products, electronic payment and electronic delivery, often known as e-commerce, is discussed here. [Click here] There is a tenth, very, very important step that I left out of the little list above. I have done so on purpose, to bring it home to you how often this fundamental step in the entire process is left out of most web sites. You must use every excuse possible to get the e-mail of your visitor so that you can contact him again!

If you get these 10 steps right, or even fairly right, your business on the Internet, will prosper.

Let's look at the 10 steps in a bit more detail

1. The Customer is looking for something

This is the old business principle of "demand". No matter how wonderful or exiting your product, service or information is, or how wonderful or exiting you, your partner or your friends think it is, people will not buy it or even look for it, unless it is something they are already looking for or wanting. (Although it is theoretically possible to create a totally new product and create a market for it, this takes big bucks and has a success rate of about one in 5! For the average businessperson, this is just not on).

Find something that many people are looking for, then supply it to them at a profit. Using the right tools and the power of the internet, it is surprisingly easy to find out what people are looking for, and even how many people are looking for an item.

2. The Customer finds your site.

In my experience, this aspect is of such over-riding importance, and so often overlooked or flatly ignored, that I am going to discuss it in great detail right now. My reasoning is this: If you don't get this aspect right, only a few of your customers will ever find your web site. If the customer doesn't find you, even the most attractive design, the most compelling copy and the greatest ease of navigation will be of no use what-so-ever! If your mind doesn't quite work this way, and you would prefer to see a short overview of all the steps in the full internet business process right now, and return here later, please click here.

For the customer to find your site, you must either tell him about your site, which will work mostly for your existing and known customers, who you can contact. On the Internet, the majority of new customers will find you by doing a search on one of the search engines, such as http://Google.com.

Let's look at the Search Engines in a bit more detail. If you are like me, you probably use one or more of the search engines to find something you are looking for, almost every day. Very few of us ever think about how this process can be manipulated to drive customers to our web sites. There are several websites and services available, that can tell us what people are looking for on the search engines. There are also several places where you are told how to make your web site attractive to the Search Engines.

You should be aware that this is a never-ending battle of wits. In order to survive, the search engines must find sites that are relevant to what people are searching for. Webmasters and designers on the other hand, have for many years analysed the way in which SRs operate and have devised numerous strategies for being listed on the first few pages of the search listing. Some of these strategies have damaged the ability of the search engines to give an effective service, and they are continuously changing and modifying their rating strategies.

Many so-called "Search-Engine Gurus" and web masters or web designers claim to submit your web site to "more than a thousand" search engines or something similar, but they never-the-less always expect you to supply the key words. I don't care how many sites your site are submitted to, if you don't know what you are doing and don't submit the right keywords, even submitting to a thousand SEs will not help you! Focus on this concept, and never let it escape your mind while you are marketing on the internet: Unless you submit the right keywords and appear in one of the first positions on a number of search listing, no one who searches will ever notice your site.

There are several tools that you can use to improve your listing. Go here to find the truth about your current listing - In essence it allows you to see for yourself: Can you find your own web site? Can your existing customers find your web site? Can your new customers find you? Has your website been made attractive to Search Engines?

By answering this quick questionnaire about an existing or new wed-designer you can get an idea of his or her marketing and search engine skills.

The principles of determining the best keywords to use and some tools that are available

Places where you can learn how to apply this info

Lets stop right here and discuss this in great detail, for no matter how informative, exciting and pretty your site is, nobody will look at it if they cannot find it!

The major search engines are becoming better at picking up information directly from a web page without any specific steps be taken, but unless you have some pretty rare keywords on your site, or are incredibly lucky, your chances of getting a listing on the first page of any search engine, is rather slim. With the right knowledge, the right tools and a bit of perseverance, you can tilt this equation into your favour.

Now lets talk about Return on Investment or ROI - Lets say you make a sale to 1% of the visitors to your web site. If you have 100 visitors a month, that is 1 sale a month. If you can attract 100 visitors per day, that is 1 sale a day. However, if you can increase your visitors to 3000 per day, that is 30 sales per day. If you can do this by using intelligently selected keywords, it doesn't cost you a cent extra.

The rest of the discussion continues here:

Please click on the subject that interest you:

Fix your web site.

Fix your web site traffic.

Start your web site.

Fix your small business.

Fix your small business marketing.

Start your business.

I will not share your email address with ANYONE!
Copyright © 2001   H.A. Abbott (All Rights Reserved)
Owner / Webmaster:- Henry Abbott             mailto:abbott@ccdweb.co.za
Tel. (international): +27 12 331-0921    Fax. (international): +27 12 323-0321