These days, any
serious business owner with a brain in their head has a website or blog to help
market their business. A website with your own domain name (URL) establishes a
professional online presence and offers a central hub for all of your online
and offline marketing efforts. However, if you have not updated your website
recently or posted fresh content to it, it’s time to enhance your online
presence to improve your chances of succeeding in a competitive niche. If you don’t have any interest in your
website who will?
If your website is
more than a few years old, chances are it might not be mobile-friendly. With the
boom in Smartphones and tablet computers, this should be your first
enhancement. It’s not a difficult thing
to do, but you must make certain that it gets done and don’t rely on “I think
it is!” mentality.
Second, do you
have a blog? A blog is a fun and interesting way to present fresh
niche-related content on a regular basis. Write the content, or commission it,
upload it, and set the publication date.
Your blog will be updated regularly without you having to work on it
every day. Remember that even if the
process is automated you will still need to check on it from time to time to
make sure everything is going as planned.
If you are working in
a small company or are a solo entrepreneur, you might be thinking that you have
no idea how to do either of these task and have no budget to hire anyone. The
good news is that you can kill two birds with one stone with a completely free
program: WordPress. (www.wordpress.com )
There are two ways to
accomplish this. The first is to set up a free blog at WordPress.com. This
basic version of the program is mobile-friendly and will show you just how easy
WordPress is to use. Link to your site
and vice versa to drive more traffic.
The second way to do
this is to download a copy of the free program at WordPress.org and upload it
to the main folder of your website, or to a subfolder, such as one called
blog. Install the program and start
adding content.
The full version of
WordPress includes 2 key items that can really help your niche business take
off. The first are themes and the second are plugins.
Themes set the
overall appearance and functionality of the site, such as a text-based blog
versus a photo blog. Search through all the free professional-looking themes
available to find the one that is right for the look and feel of your business.
Plugins are little
mini-programs that add a range of functions and tools to your pages and
site. These can range from social media
links that will let you promote your site on all your accounts and allow your
customers to promote your site as well to a number of exciting niche options
that will make your site a magnet for customers, such as:
- Auctions
- A forum or discussion board
- Top niche products lists with links to buy
- An article directory
- A membership site, free or paid
- A Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) portal
And much more.
If your site isn’t
getting the kind of traffic you want or enough repeat visitors, update your
site/blog, add functionality, and see what a difference it can make to your
profits. Your business should be ever growing
and to do that in the market of today you must periodically review your use of
technology and make sure you are up-to-date on what is available and what is
being used. Otherwise you may become the
“rotary phone” of your niche!
QUOTE TO CONSIDER
THOUGHTFUL GEM
"You can get really tangled in the web.
Know your way in and know your way out.
But don't get lost while you're there."
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