by Rahimah Sultan

So what do you need to establish your online presence?

You want people to know about you, to know you are open for business online. People need to know you exist in order to connect with you.

Setting up shop on the Internet entails the same process as creating an offline business. You have to come up with a name, find a suitable location, and advertise it.

Following are three tips for establishing your online presence.

Address

Just as with an offline business, you first need to decide on a name. Your online address or domain begins with buying virtual real estate so you can brand yourself. You need to look for some online real estate to which you can attach your name. This means purchasing a domain name that is unique, easy to spell and sound out, and not already taken.

You need a name that defines you.

Make your domain name relevant to your content, service or business. Keep it short and look for an exact match. Ideally, you want your own name. If it’s not available, look for something as close as possible.

You can use your name or place a hyphen between your first and last name or use your name along with some aspect of the business.

Choose wisely or it could become costly or even impossible to change it later. Use the “com” extension as opposed to “org” or “net” for business names whenever possible.

There are many domain name providers you can use. Run an online check for a few and compare prices. When buying a domain name, purchase the name only and do NOT sign up for anything else they offer like web hosting special security or other available services.

When you select a web hosting account, you’ll have access to what you need for setup.


Location

Now that you have your domain you need to choose a web hosting account. This is where your domain (website / business) will be housed. This will be where your shop or business is located online.

Buy your own hosting package so that you have total control. Once you have your hosting you can then install a WordPress blog for free, as it will be part of your package. It is the most popular blogging software in the world, it has unlimited plugins and themes, free templates and much more.

This is your asset that is totally under your control, and it can be monetized. Do not use free blog hosts, as you will have absolutely no control if you later decide to change anything. Any work you do on it will be for nothing. I suggest a WordPress blog over which you have total control.


Advertising

If you have an offline business that you are bringing online, use blog posts to talk about how to perform what you do. It could be consulting, making jewelry, presenting seminars, speaking engagements, writing books, affiliate marketing, creating online courses, writing eBooks, etc.

You can monetize your blog by including an appropriate link, in your posts, to something you are selling. This can be your own products, affiliate links or other offers.

You can get visitors to your site (blog), through social media, visible content on search engines, reading and commenting on other blogs, linking to other blogs, and regularly blogging. Post a minimum of once a week, especially, when just beginning to blog.

There are many advertising resources available both free and paid. Know that you will not develop a huge following overnight. It takes time, patience and perseverance. In time, some of your site visitors will become buyers.

You want people to know that you exist, so create your online presence with a domain name appropriate for your business, get a hosting package, set up business on a WordPress blog, and advertise to let people know what you have to offer.

Use these three tips for establishing your online presence.


Get Your System With Autoresponder Here

by Rahimah Sultan
 

There are many options available for advertising your business. Six advertising tips are listed here that could be the best way to reach larger audiences within a short period of time for the least amount of money.

Create a website

You can create a website and then place a link to it on other sources that accept ads.

You can optimize your pages and submit them to search engines. Some take money for placing an ad or link on their website, some take money only if a visitor clicks on the link or website and some take money only if the visitor visits a link and buys a product or service. There are many options available for the type of ad to be placed. These include pop-up ads, banner ads, wallpaper ads, video ads, etc. A low-budget option is sending emails to targeted customers.

Presentations of your products

Another way to advertise is giving presentations for your products. Brochures and business cards can be inserted into the business presentation package. Be sure to have accurately designed business cards that include all the vital information about the business like the name of the company, location, services provided, hours, phone number, cell number and contact person. Personalized business cards are a good way to reach customers.

Distribute newsletters with information about your latest offers and discounts. Informational letters of a page length and e-mails can also be sent on a regular basis.

All of this can be accomplished a lot easier by contacting companies who can provide the mailing list of a particular locality, for a small price. You can check the yellow pages for such companies. After getting the information get in touch with the company to get a copy of the latest mailing list. The fees differ from company to company.

Yellow pages

All businesses both large and small place ads in the yellow pages and have benefited. When you place the ad you should include your contact information and products and services.

Radio and TV stations

Radio and TV stations offer better prices during non-peak times, especially after midnight. Check with your local stations for pricing, time slots and discounts.

Newspapers

One can always use newspapers for advertising. First decide on your target audience – age group, sex, and location. Then choose the local newspaper and section where the ad will be placed depending on the audience to be targeted. The classified section of newspapers has special offers. Check the details of the pricing structure for the size of the advertisements, number of words, font size, etc.

Word of mouth

Last but not least, there’s always word of mouth. You can grow your network by joining organizations that deal with advertising like trade associations and chambers of commerce. Active participation in events of these organizations eventually helps you to reach a larger number of prospective clients.

Start using these 6 advertising tips in your business today.