With Good Planning, Your Website
Can Earn More Than Its Keep....
Article by Rivka Tadjer (adapted from ZDnet)
October 15, 1998

You set up that darn Web site. You pay an ISP significant rates for the ISDN or T1 line, Internet access, domain name, and e-mail services. Yet the question still nags: How do I make money from this thing?

Though hitting pay dirt on the Web may seem elusive, it's not out of reach. You just need to get organized and approach it methodically--which means learning the methods of the Web. The good news is that there are many low-budget, proven methods to get what you want out of your Web site and transform it into a healthy, thriving Web storefront.

There are essentially four steps to creating a profitable Web operation: setting goals, doing research, designing the site, and promoting it.

The following lessons come from an amalgam of small and midsize businesses that have succeeded in turning lifeless, static Web sites into animated, interactive money-makers. Here are the approaches and decisions that worked for each step, and the budget-minded strategies that take advantage of what Web technology you can afford--before you spend a dime.

Step One: Establish Goals
The biggest mistake people make with their Web operations is rushing to "get something up" without thinking through its purpose. Yes, the pressure is there to have a presence on the Web, but the sensibility that there is no time to plan simply illustrates a lack of understanding about what building a brand name on the Web means. Remember, your Web site is a reflection of your company.

Consider your objectives. Do you want a true point-of-sale Web storefront where the sale of products and services adds to your bottom line? What proportion of revenue do you expect it to secure, relative to the company total? If you do want to sell, consider what you have for sale. The items that tend to sell well on the Web are familiar commodities--books, music CDs, flowers, wine, computer equipment, electronic components, and games are some examples. Services that do well target personal finance, investment, travel, clerical tasks, and tours--either to the Web itself, or to cities and such.

You need to determine how salable your goods are. If this proves too elusive, recognize that there are cheap enough Web storefront hosting services--as little as $100 or less a month for everything--to let you test the waters without investing too much.

Of course, if you fall into the class of businesses that have highly marketable products in a direct-channel environment, you will be able to generate revenue directly. But even if you don't have a product that translates well to the Web right now--such as consulting services--don't write off your site as a pure expense.

Other popular goals of Web sites are geared toward marketing--managing the relationship between your company and the customer. Unlike any other form of advertising, the Web is interactive. This gives you a unique opportunity to build loyalty to and involvement with your company. Offering customer service on the Web can not only endear your company to consumers, but it can be an effective method of tracking customer needs: You have a digital paper trail of what they want.

For a Web operation that pays for itself, think about other customer-service tasks--ones that are particularly time-consuming for employees, such as answering questions about the company and products. Taking the Web-brochure concept to a more elegant level with FAQs, product or service demonstrations if appropriate, and e-mail access to experts in your company can do a lot for business.

Whether your goals are retailing, marketing, or streamlining access to information, remember this mantra: self-service. Take advantage of the interactive medium, and think self-service in terms of every design element and every function.

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Step Two: Guest or Host?
Once you've figured out the "why" of your site, you have to determine the "how." Do you handle the Web storefront in-house, or do you outsource it? The simple answer for small businesses today is to outsource. Unless you have a compelling reason to run the operation in-house, it makes no budgetary sense. Web hosting services are cost-effective and offer such comprehensive service options that it's barely worth debating--especially if you do not have a full-time IS person. You must have a full-time IS person to run a Web site.

And don't just consider local or national ISPs, such as PSINet, UUNet, or NetCom as your provider. Thanks to heavy competition from long-distance carriers, regional phone companies, and upstart Web-hosting consultants, price wars have spawned a buyer's market.

Even with a conservative estimate, you should be able to get up and running for under $1,000 if you offload the work. And you should expect server hosting; financial-transaction settlement; reports of your site traffic; 24-hour, seven-day-a-week emergency server maintenance; top-level security; and consulting services.

On the other hand, it requires a hefty infrastructure investment for do-it-yourselfers to get those elements in-house. To get a Web site up and running first means buying a server with the right Microsoft or Netscape merchant software--$4,000 to $6,000 when all is said and done. Then there's the security system--at least $2,000 for a firewall (a software system that prevents unauthorized people from getting into your network). There's also the design work, software programming, network integration, and ongoing upgrade and maintenance of the site; for these specialties, you're basically talking about at least $50,000 for a salary or a consultant on retainer. Finally, setting up the transaction-processing system can be a complicated process.

Nevertheless, there are reasons you may need to run the operation in-house--if your company is a financial-services consultancy that plans to interact with its clients a lot on the Web and whose clientele would be mistrustful of outsiders, for example. The mistrust is all about security--clients equate outsiders with a security risk. Ironically, though, small businesses generally can't afford the elaborate security schemes that an ISP can. But perception is often reality--especially when dealing with finicky customers--so some folks may have to handle the operation themselves.

Another time to bring a project in-house is when you start making serious money. Taking over the reins of a profit center is a long-standing business practice, and Web storefronts are no exceptions. Businesses that start with an outsourced Web site that begins to account for 10 percent or more of revenues often pull it in-house.

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Step Three: Meld Form and Function
All the preparation is for nothing if you falter at the site-design stage. A good design can gain you a regular customer; a bad one can drive the same customer away forever with a single click. Competing for attention in the virtual world is much more difficult than in the physical world: Your competitors are literally a split second away.

Before you get carried away with the Web equivalent of flashing neon lights--cool Java applets, twirling videos, and animated logos, all of which become especially tempting when you've outsourced the laborious programming to a consultant--make sure that the glitz and glamour don't detract from informing and involving the visitor. Gratuitous design elements not only make the site busy and confusing, they also can make it slow.

Remember: Visitors are customers. Everything about the site must make them comfortable enough to either buy something or create an interactive relationship with your company. That relationship has everything to do with building brand recognition and loyalty on the Web.

For the best guides to practical site design on the Web, check out Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox (www.useit.com/alertbox) and Fixing and Preventing Web Pages That Suck (www.webpagesthatsuck.com). Also, check out tips on how to structure your content in a manageable way.


Here are a few golden rules of site design
guaranteed to increase your repeat business.
  1. Design to serve. This means easy navigation and fast page download. Also, make sure there is an obvious click path to the cash register.

  2. Create a guide. Don't assume surfers are seasoned Netizens who know how to navigate a site. One of the greatest advantages of today's digital marketplace is how fast the typical surfer demographic expands to include a cross-section of society, not just the prototypical 15- to 35-year-old computer-savvy male. Work hard to keep users from feeling inadequate. Links to a search mechanism and a site map are simple keys to user-friendly solutions.

    Also, accommodate shoppers who want to browse a bit by providing a navigation bar with product- category icons on each page. This allows shoppers to skip around randomly without becoming disoriented. Make sure the "purchase" button always stands out.

  3. Limit forms and make them appealing. If you run a contest, keep the form short. If you want people to register, point them immediately to a privacy policy so that they don't feel you are simply trying to obtain data on them without their consent. And never make people fill out a form just to find out a price or add an item to their shopping carts.

  4. Keep it current. It is absolutely essential that you keep your site up-to-date. Stale content can destroy a site's reputation. This dynamic marketplace's ability to reinvent itself almost constantly serves to intensify people's expectation for novelty. A tip for flexibility: Use text titles or headlines instead of graphics wherever you can get away with it. This way the Webmaster can make changes easily--no waiting for the art department.

    The same goes for your site's content. Don't structure it with a few big elements that need to be replaced every week; if you make your content modular, you can roll pieces in and out on a regular basis. That way, there's always something new, but you only have to write or design a few small elements at a time.

  5. Don't skimp on the info. Unless you have a compelling reason to try to force potential customers to call your company, post all the information they could possibly want on your Web site. That means everything from price lists to case studies about satisfied clients: Show off your portfolio, expound on your technology, provide industry news, list employment opportunities. To draw those return surfers, you've got to keep their heads engaged--if you are to have a chance to sell to them.

  6. Disclose your business practices. Using cookies--those strings of identifying numbers placed on the visitor's hard drive that caused such a public uproar--isn't a crime. Keeping it a secret can be bad for business, though. Be public about it: Create a link called "Privacy Policy and Business Practices" on your home page. Tell people what you use cookies for, what you intend to do with their personal data, and whether you track their click-stream (movement around the site). Privacy issues never have been under more scrutiny than they are today. Gaining trust therefore becomes the linchpin of digital commerce.

  7. Design with security in mind. If you are going to sell anything on the site, you must have a secure server for all sensitive information--the actual credit-card transaction and forms people fill out. It is not necessary, however, to create a secure link for every click they make on the site; this is not only an administrative headache but imposes cumbersome overhead on surfers.

  8. No spam, please. Spamming visitors whose e-mail addresses you've collected will make you some fast enemies. Give visitors the option to get e-mail notifications of sales or new products.

 

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Step Four: Grab Attention
Remember that the only way to take a small business out of obscurity and into profitability is by building a brand name. You need to start by thinking of your Web site as part of your advertising budget and strategy. Instead of what Madison Avenue used to call "the Big 3" of advertising--print, radio, and TV--today's advertising lexicon refers to "the Big 4," adding the Web to the list of must-dos. The two major ways to build a brand name on the Web are through banner advertising and marketing strategies.

Banner ads can be expensive, though certainly not as expensive as ads in radio, TV, and print. Still, $15,000 or so is a big chunk per banner-ad placement, so you want to get as much as you can out of every ad. That means placing ads strategically. Small businesses with invariably tight advertising and marketing budgets are therefore trying to leverage bigger companies' market presences by buying ad-banner space on their community sites. Consider brand-building on the Web the business version of social climbing.

Striking up strategic alliances on the Web and leveraging the brands of bigger entities makes a lot of sense; that's why everyone is trying to get in with America Online or put a banner ad on Yahoo or BarnesandNoble.com. Prices vary depending on the level of service, which can even include serving up the ads to key community sites.

Much of the advertising on the Web follows a similar business model to that of the print world: Rates are generally enumerated in cost per thousand impressions or click-through rates. That means that choosing an ad location depends heavily on the quality and veracity of the metering and reporting information provided by the potential ad site.

But before you spend any money trying to grab some of those cyber shoppers as they click by, here are some key marketing strategies to put to work. If you cover these bases, you'll have a better gauge of which steps you still need to take. These approaches--most of which cost nothing or very little--could start the ball rolling, and you'll develop some prospects or customers.

Remember, take advantage of the medium's real-time, interactive nature to test marketing waters slowly. You can always add more elaborate strategies. Start slow, and only purchase what you need.


Here are some no or low cost ways
to promote your website.

  • Splash your URL everywhere.
    Company letterhead, checks, invoices, and all packaging should bear your Web-site address. If you advertise on TV, print, or radio, make sure the URL shows up in these ads as well. This means that existing customers, as well as the press, will know that you have a Web presence.

  • Exploit search engines.
    Register with as many as possible. If you can afford it, pay the $49 for Submit    -It to sign up with 100 search engines. Other companies offer the same service.

  • Links, links, links.
    The nature of the Web is simple: The more links there are to your site, the more likely it is that customers will find it. Try offering other sites a free link exchange or joining a Webring. For instance, if you're a candle maker, offer to exchange links with other gift/household-item manufacturers who wouldn't consider you competition, such as a company selling housewares. Naturally, the Web has spawned companies to help you do this. Some people sing the praises of e-mail discussion groups. Of course, because there is a discussion group for virtually every subject, you can search them out on Yahoo and see if the people on them are interested in trading links.

  • Milk the META tags.
    Once you are registered with search engines, make sure the description of your company and products is as specific as possible. Doctoring META tags accomplishes this: META tags are the name, the description of your Web site, and the keywords that a search engine will parse during a query.

    The following code probably appears at the top of your Web pages:

    <EAD>
<TTLE><I>Name of Your Site</I>
</TTLE>
</EAD>

    By adding

    <META NAME="Description">

    and

    <META NAME="keywords">,

    You can ensure the accuracy of a search engine's
    description of your site. For example:

    <EAD>
<TTLE><I>Waxy Candles </TTLE></I>
<META NAME="description" content="Candles
 of all sizes, shapes, colors, and scents">
<META NAME="keywords" ="candle candlestick
 wick wax, decorative, gift lighting, light romance, holiday
 parties">
</EAD>

    So whenever anyone searches on any of those words or combinations, Waxy Candles will appear as a result. Keep in mind that you may have to pay a fee to enhance META tags.

  • Run a contest.
    Newsletters and optional e-mail alerts for new products, services, and sales are common tools for keeping visitors interested in a site. But perhaps the most successful campaigns are contests. Giving away free stuff not only gets site visitors to fill out a form so that you can contact them later, but also makes customers more likely to fill forms out honestly. Your brand name certainly will stick in their minds if they win something, but even if they don't, they still may remember your company. In any event, advertising contests on banner ads is an effective way to get people to click to your site. Some quick tips on running a contest:

    1. Keep the registration form short. People hate spending a lot of time filling out forms.

    2. Tell people that their information will not be sold to other merchants--and don't sell it.

    3. Psychographic (behavior and taste) data can be more important than demographic data, so don't waste precious space asking a ton of demographic questions--such as those about income--that many surfers won't answer anyway. Plus, you can phrase questions about behavior innocently enough that you have the opportunity to actually engage the consumer: What is your favorite Web site? What time of day do you surf most? Do you buy stuff on the Internet?

    4. Remember that all interactive commercial relationships are based on trust. Ask one trust-inspiring question, such as: Would you prefer to use a password each time you log on rather than have a cookie placed on your computer? Let the person specify. Remember, though, to follow through: If you ask people what their preferences are, be prepared to honor them.

If your business can only afford one brand-building program, demonstrating the prowess of the product at the point of sale can be your most powerful tool. And if your product or service can be demonstrated and sold on the Internet, that it may be the least expensive, most efficient way you'll find to do business. Netizens are a curious and willing universe of prospects, and businesses can find out more about what they think than is possible by simply finding out who saw an ad on TV or in a magazine.

Most important, use the steps we've suggested as a group when building a site. The combination of goal setting, research, packaging, and promoting is what can give you a decent return on investment. Skipping research and goal setting, for instance, in order to spend more time honing the marketing plan, is a strategy that will probably backfire. The first steps create the foundation on which to build a strong platform for Web marketing.

By Rivka Tadjer, October 15, 1998 (adapted from ZDnet)

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