Often I see people without a website, trying to promote products, services, and opportunities.
Some may argue they don't need their own website, especially if they're simply promoting an
affiliate splashpage. Others simply see no tangible value in owning and maintaining a site,
to them its just an extra expense that can't be justified.

The most significant reasons for having your own site is accessibility. Accessibility is key to
establishing credibility, integrity, and trust. Trust is an imperative factor in all relationships.
All successful Salespeople and Marketers know all sales are inevitably relationship based.
You'll find logically, very few prospective customers are willing to buy anything from Mr.
or Mrs."justaname(@)anonymous.com" !

Think about it... you go to a trade-show and spot a cool new technical gizmo being sold at two
different tables. Both Merchants at the tables have the identical product at the same price.
The first merchant is evasive when queried, has no name-tag, no company literature on display,
and no business cards. He claims he can give you a special price because he's overstocked,
and will be on the road as soon as these last few units are grabbed-up. You feel uncomfortable
and walk away.

You still like the idea of owning the product, so later, you wonder back to the two Merchants,
but this time decide to try your luck at the second table. The second Merchant introduces
himself, asks you if you have any questions, freely offers you his literature with full contact
details. Which of these two Merchants would you buy from?

Other advantages of having you own site would be recognition and association. Prospective
customers will associate your site with the types of products or services you offer. They
become familiar with the colors, graphics and layout and begin to associate these things
with your products and services. Even if they can't remember the name of your website,
they will recognize it when they see it. In most cases; if you have something of interest on
your site, they'll hopefully have bookmarked it anyway.

Let's say you've managed to sell a product using only an email address, and the customer is
very happy with the product. The odds are they'll want to see what other products you have
for sale. Now they have the chore of trying to retrace the purchase through their email
archives, just to find a way to contact you. Whenever you make it a challenge for someone to
buy something from you; you'll find your potential customer will give-up quite easily. People
just don't have the time to go through a lengthy hunt to stuff money in your pockets!

Now that we've established the need for your own website; its time to think of a name for it.
Sometimes people will use their own personal name for their site, with the intention of
promoting themselves. Often the name of a site reflects the type of goods being sold. Once
you have a domain name in mind for your site, you'll need to see if the name is available. You
can check for avalable domain names at domainsearch.com or whois.com. If the exact domain
name you want is taken, you can try a variation of the name, or a different extension
(.com, .net, .org, .biz, .ws, etcetera).

Once you have a domain name selected, you'll need to register the name, so you become the
owner. Hosting companies (the people who rent you space on the internet for your site)
often have "all inclusive" package deals. You can register your domain and get hosting
for your site from the same Merchant. The cheapest service you can find may work for you
initially, but will it be adequate for your needs in the future? Does the site offer
sufficient storage space and volume (monthly bandwidth) suitable for your needs?
The cheapest service is not always the best way to go, and the service provider's track-
record for customer support and server "uptime" are important factors to consider as well.

Now that you are a "Webmaster" how are you going to design your site? All webmasters
should know at least some basic HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). HTML is the basic
communication standard of the internet. You can find many free online tutorials to learn
HTML. One of my favorite sites is w3schools . They have numerous (all free) lessons, you
can try online. After only a couple hours; you'll already have created your first webpage!

Many web hosting services offer a web-site creator program free with your hosting package.
A very easy to use and effective website creator program is offerred by GDI (Global Domains
International) GDI runs a very thorough service, they've been in business for several years.
I have found GDI to be both reliable, and very affordable.

Trying to promote anything on the internet without a website is simply a waste of time, effort,
and money.


Respectfully,

Brad Alguire,

Yourbetterbiz.com
Skype: brad.alguire

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