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Are you running a small business that needs to create an online presence? Maybe you own a clothes tailor, an cake shop, or work as a eatery from home? Irrespective of the type of business that you have, if you are wondering how you can use the Internet to boost your business profile and gain more customers, then read this article before you go out and spend money on a web design company to put together a website for you.

Although it may not be your core business, it’s worthwhile to educate yourself a to some extent first before you spend any $$. This article will give you a grip on the basics of web marketing before you hire someone to put together a website for your business so that you are not flying blind. It will also educate you about some things you can do yourself, which you may choose to do on your own and save you the cost of hiring someone else.

Web 2.0 Websites

Another way to spread the word about your business without the need to create a website, is to put together a free page on one of the many Web 2.0 content sites such as Squidoo and Hubpages. Here is an example Squidoo lens review of Success University.

These are even more simple to setup than a blog because they require no technical knowledge at all, leaving you to concentrate on your content and writing whatever it is you wish to write to your chosen audience. Pages on Web 2.0 sites also frequently appear towards the top of the search engine results pages, further boosting the means by which more people can find out about your business.

Social Networking Sites

Facebook, MySpace and Lincked In are amongst the three most trafficked social networking websites. As with Hubpages and Squidoo, social networking websites are also based on pre-coded styles and templates, negating your need to have any html knowledge and enabling you to save the money you would have otherwise invested with a web design company and invest that elsewhere.

Consider A Blog

If you don’t mind providing regular news and updates relating to your business, you might consider establishing a blog instead of a website. A blog works like a diary. Each entry is time and date stamped. Here is a blog about finance as an example. See how each post is dated and note the optional Peel Away Ad in the top right hand corner of the page. You don’t need to have any knowledge of html or programming to use a blog.

Once your blog is installed, you just login to a control panel interface, write out what you want to say into a box, and click “Publish”.

Blogs are also very easy to setup. Why not have a play and see if you can install one yourself. You can get very affordable cPanel webhosting nowadays beginning at $4.95 p/mth. cPanel hosting comes with a feature called Fantastico, which allows you to install a blog with a few clicks of a mouse. A decent hosting provider should be able to help you install your blog as well, even if you have very limited knowledge. After all, it’s in their interest to secure your business.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization

Having now installed either a blog, or setup a Social Networking or Web2.0 page, the next thing is to make sure that your page has good exposure in search engine results, thereby delivering more traffic and awareness of your business. This is where Search Engine Optimization, comes into play. Don’t be daunted. You can learn about SEO by borrowing a book from your local public library or investing a little time researching it online.

There are a tonne of free websites containing search engine optimization information, as well as paid membership websites such as Portal Feeder that will assign a mentor to you to assist you in your SEO knowledge and site creation endeavours. There are some really simple things you can do that will heighten the profile of your website and drive traffic to it.

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 30th, 2008 at 4:39 am and is filed under Working Online. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.