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Event: How your website can convert sales

SBOCTeam — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 21:13:01 GMT

Looking to drive traffic and grow your small business online? Jordan Fladell of Web.com is joining the Community to discuss:

Best use of pay-per-click advertising
When to modify and redesign your site
Lead generation
Brand and logo development

About Web.com
Web.com, http://www.web.com, is a leading provider of online marketing services for small businesses, offering a full suite of solutions that make it fast, easy and cost-effective to attract and convert new customers on the web. Web.com offers a full range of web services, including website design and publishing, online marketing and advertising, search engine optimization, lead generation and e-commerce solutions for every stage of the small business lifecycle.

About Jordan
Jordan Fladell serves as Vice President of Business Development for Web.com and is responsible for working with strategic partners who services the small business community. Prior to Web.com, Jordan co-founded Definition6, a full service interactive agency where he was primarily responsible for all business development activities.

Jordan has consulted on several Internet/Intranet development projects with companies including The Coca-Cola Company and Deloitte & Touche. He also has been a featured speaker about the future of new communications and the technology environment at functions for several large corporations such as General Electric and BellSouth.

Post your question here and then check back on October 28 at 2:00PM EST for Jordan's response. You can also pose a question to Jordan anytime during the event.

Re: Live event now: How your website can convert sales

blitzlocal — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:44:02 GMT

flex00,

You should outsource the actual programming, but not the strategy or marketing. You can get a decent site built for under $1,000 by going off-shore and letting these folks know EXACTLY what you want. They can build a site that copies any of the sites you like-- and then you can login and post content to your heart's content, with no extra charges.

Best of luck!

Dennis
dennis@blitzlocal.com
small business web advertising

Re: Event October 28: How your website can convert sales

blitzlocal — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 18:41:32 GMT

Caffeinated,

If I may, I wanted to tell you that-- YES-- you can definitely see measurable success advertising on Facebook and Myspace, provided that you geo-target for your coffee shop. You also have to bid on a CPC-basis, not CPM, to get better performance-- probably start at 15 cents and see how much traffic you get. Place your phone number and/or address in the ad, so that folks know you're a real business, not the typical spam.

Hope this helps and let me know how it goes. It's easy for anyone to start advertising--- you don't have to be an on-line advertising professional or hire an agency.

Best,
Dennis
dennis@blitzlocal.com
small business online advertising

Re: Live event now: How your website can convert sales

SBOCTeam — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:06:41 GMT

Jordan,

On behalf of the SBOC Team and the members of the Small Business Online Community, we wanted to say we truly appreciated your time today and your professional responses to user questions.

Community members, while our session with Jordan has now concluded, please feel free to discuss today's session and the questions answered. Again, if you'd like more information about Jordan and Web.com, visit:

http://www.web.com

Thanks again,
The SBOC Team

Re: Live event now: How your website can convert sales

jfladell — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:02:13 GMT

First I want to thank everyone for participating today in our forum and I appreciate the opportunity to answer your questions. In general I would suggest that each of you remember that not everyone is a jack of all trades and the internet is a medium which changes daily if not weekly so before you spend one dollar on your website or search campaign make sure you have properly evaluated the cost of outsourcing versus the cost of doing it yourself. Finally please remember to have a call to action for all of your site visitors and give them an easy way to contact you so you can track the performance of your website and search campaign.

Thanks,

Jordan

Re: Live event now: How your website can convert sales

SBOCTeam — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:58:01 GMT

Jordan,

All perfect responses! As we approach the end of the hour, do you have any words of wisdom for the Community that you would like to leave with them?

The SBOC Team

Re: Live event now: How your website can convert sales

jfladell — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:57:10 GMT

SBOC:

The most common mistake SMB's make when launching their SEO/SEM campaigns on their own is they tend to pick keywords based upon cost rather then what their potential customer would use to search for them. The SMB owner does not recognize that the expensive words are the ones that used to search often and therefore drive the best results so they pick words that are rarely used and generally underperform. The second most common mistake is using generic words instead of specific phrases that target your customer which is why I recommend you outsource this function to an expert service provider.

Jordan

Re: Live event now: How your website can convert sales

SBOCTeam — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:53:00 GMT

Jordan

What is the most common mistake SMB's make when first using web marketing tools like SEO & SEM?

The SBOC Team

Re: Live event now: How your website can convert sales

jfladell — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:52:57 GMT

Flex_00:

My general opinion is that a small business should outsource 100% of their web development and search marketing with the exception of daily content updates. The reason for this is that your expertise is not in web development and your time is better served growing your business and working with your clients then it is trying to build your site and manage your search campaigns. It would be like a client developing their own exercise program they might get good results on their own but thier odds would increase by using a professional trainer who has expertise in that area.

Thanks,

Jordan

Re: Live event now: How your website can convert sales

flex_00 — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 18:35:47 GMT

Are there elements of a website that I should definitely outsource? What do you feel would be too much for a small business owner to handle on their own?