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Is your business worth $19 a year?
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Alpha-Omega
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Jul 30, 2003 16:54 PDT
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Is your business worth $19 a year?
How NOT to Make a Business Impression on the Internet!
By Jim Moore, Phoenix Technologies
If you wanted to make a business impression, would you use business
cards you had printed, rubber-stamped or even handwritten on the back of
someone else's cards?
That's what you're doing if you place your business web site on a
"free" web hosting service.
Web hosting - without ads - is available for as little as $12/year and
domain names can be obtained for as little as $7/year.
Is your business worth $19 a year?
A few weeks ago, a local businesswoman, a health professional,
contacted me because her web site wasn't getting any visitors and wasn't
listed in the search engines. I took a look at it and quickly found the
reason: it was hosted on a free web site service.
The site itself was attractive and well put together. But first, it was
designed in what we designers call "frames." You've probably seen them -
a top "banner" window, and perhaps a left-sided navigation window, both
stationary. The part that moved was the middle window.
The next time you run across a "framed" web site, go up to VIEW on your
top browser menu and select SOURCE. You'll see what I mean. Such sites
may be easy to create and take no skill, but they provide no way to
include "metatags". Metatags are the key words people use in their
online searches, as well as a brief description of the site itself -
what you see in the long list of results you get when you do an online
search.
These are great for do-it-yourselfers and even professional web
designers who are lazy and more concerned with collecting a fee than
delivering a service, but they contain no information that the search
engines can read ... and so they don't get listed.
Also, a growing number of search engines now refuse to scan the free
sites, perhaps because there are so many of them - used primarily for
personal or ego reasons.
In the interest of "saving money", this person decided to "stick with
what I have." Unfortunately, what she has will be of little value to
her, now or in the future. But, hey! She saved money, right?
Jim Moore is manager of Phoenix Technologies, a web site design firm
that has designed the Health and Wellness Magazine web site, among many
others. His online newspaper, TennTimes, has drawn nearly 80,000
visitors since May 2001 - with no advertising. He may be contacted at
phoeni-@mindspring.com.
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