If you are paying for print advertising, or handing out business cards
and do not have a website you are missing a crucial key component to
your business. Today consumers want to be able to get a
reassuring impression of your company before they make a phone call.
That impression comes from your website. The first thing that a
potential customer does after seeing your print add or look at your
business card is go to your web site for more details.
Websites are not as expensive as you may assume. A few hundred
dollars can go along way especially if you compare it to some of the
paper advertising rates you may pay.
It saddens me to think that some
businesses are dumping several thousand dollars on print adds and they
don't have a website for consumers to gather more information from.
A website is an essential extension of your print adds.
Brochure sites are typically 1-5 pages and are very cost effective
starting at about $300.00. Unfortunately Most of the initial
$300.00 costs goes to set up, and home page design. Once the
Scheme of the website is in place, other pages can be added quickly as
long as content is ready to be added. Brochure sites can again
range from 1-5 pages up to dozens of pages.
Selling products online can get very
complicated. That is why it is very important to have all the
tools at your fingertips in order to compete online. The
solution is to make sure that you have a very well built back end
Shopping Cart software which is equipped with multiple features.
This software is the key to allowing your customers to make multiple
secure transactions via your online store.
Ecommerce sites are a bit more
expensive for three main reasons. One the software must be
installed and configured to suit your business. This typically
costs about $2,000.00, which is pennies compared to 5-10 years ago
when companies had to have software designed for them. Secondly
the design is a bit more complex and does take a bit longer. The
minimum design time costs about $2,000.00 - $2,500.00. After you
have the site up and running you will need to secure the site with an
SSL certificate which typically costs $500.00 - $700.00 a year.
Shopping sites take a bit more band width so a hosting upgrade may
also be needed but that is not much more expensive.
