How do you decide on the content, products and or services you will promote on your Web site.

Or should I go back one step further and ask why did you decide to create a website in the first place.

Just thought I would ask to see if you are still on track or if your Web site has strayed away from the original reason, product or service you started promoting.

We all know of the importance of owning a Web site and having the ability to promote our business on the Internet.

Many business people working from home require their own Web site to promote more than one company or product, so creating your own Web site makes good sense.

Little do many people know what is required to build a functional Web site, let alone a profitable one.

Most companies hire a web master and have copy writers and large advertising budgets. So how can you compete?

Lets go back to my first question, what you are promoting and why are you promoting it.

One would assume you fall in the category of running a one or two person, small business.

Weather your business started out from a hobby or from joining an Opportunity, it doesn't really matter. You will know your own reasons. Then you will have registered a (hopefully) suitable Domain name, one that described your business focus or reflected your business, its name or your own name.

Well I hope that is the case, as some domain name choices are very weird. Some sites use way out names, which have little or no meaning to the potential customers or site visitors.

Assuming you have a Domain name, hosting and a focus for your Web site the next step usually involves content and layout of your site.

Why then is so little thought put into the products and services we add Willie Nillie to our sites.

As an example, if a site is promoting Web site hosting, I would expect the focus to be Hosting and related services. There are many hosting related products and services that could be added to the site.

The idea of any Hosting related Business Web site should be to provide products, services and information that relate to Web sites that would be of interest to the site visitors and potential Web site owners.

Here are a few suggestion of possible add on's or value added products and services that blend in well with a Hosting site.

Domain Name Registration.

Web site Templates.

Web site Builder.

ISP and Dial-up services.

Search Engine Information.

Search Engine Submission.

Note.
All these value added products or services will be used by customers of most if not all hosting companies.

That's probably the main reason I use ItsYourNet hosting as they have the above list of services available to all their members or customers. There are many hosting companies but few that provide a one stop shop when it comes to Web sites resources and hosting. http://www.ItsYourNet.co.nz

But what I see so often with small business sites are a range of seeming un-related products and services, hey this is fine if you are providing a directory or information and links, but my way of thinking is to have a focused site using products or services that complement each other.

How can anyone promote their website if it contains 5 or 6 totally different and unrelated services. It can be done but will take a little more work!

Over the past few years many marketers have jumped form one opportunity to the next and have added a new page to their site to promote the new program they joined and deleted the old page.

Web sites are a long term way for promoting services as opposed to sending out email which is a one time promotion. This is very much hit or miss, depending on ISP Filters and is even effected on how the receiver is feeling at the time they receive your email.

Most search engines only allow you to list your home page. Ok so if you have a small write up of each service on your home page with links to the various other pages on your site. This will get your home page listed but not usually on the first page of search results.

Most search engines list pages dedicated or focused on one product or service higher than a page containing a product mix.

Good content is equally important for both search engines and site visitors. You can get past search engines by paying for placement to get hits or visitors to your site but there are no second chances with people, prospects, customers, site visitors or what ever you want to call them. If they don't find what they want on their first visit. There is little chance they will return a second time.

The point I am making is that the content of your site plays a very large part in the successful promoting of your site, so a little planning and providing value added services for your customers is a bonus for them and a bonus for your bank account too.

Web sites that have quality content that is focused on a specific product group or service seems to rate higher in search engines.

The content you place on your site, has, is and will always be the main factor for successfully promoting and listing your site in search engines and in motivating your Web site visitors into making a positive decision and finally it will determine your level of success too.

May your week be a successful one.

PETER GREEN
Editor of ~The INDEX Ezine~
Editor@Internet-income-index.com
http://www.Internet-Income-Index.com

Your Free Weekly Internet Marketing News, Ideas, Resources and Sources Ezine.