10 Ways to Get Your Lazy Website to Work

Did you know that the average person in the USA spends over 36 hours per month on the internet? That’s more than 9 hours per week, and almost 1 1/2 hours per day. And that’s nothing; the average business person spends more than 30 hours per week online.

Here’s another statistic—there are now over 125,626,329 websites (as of July 2007).

With the amount of time people spend online, having a web site is critical to your small business. But you can’t just “have a website”. With over 125 million sites, the web is huge and growing explosively.

Is your website keeping up? Or is it just sitting there waiting to be obsolete?

Having an interactive website will help you build a community, draw people to your website, and give you a valuable resource for your small business. It can also help your business stand above the competition.

Here’s a quick list of some ways to make your website more interactive and more useful for your small business.

• Start a Blog (with comments) Blogs are a great way to give customers some free information, keep them up to date on your company, and get good feedback.
• Sell your products/services online There is nothing more useful than selling your products/services through your website. Your customers and your bank account will thank you.
• Run a contest in return for participation Free stuff? Did somebody say free stuff? One of the best ways to increase website participation is to run a contest and give something away. More participation means more business.
• Create an email newsletter or RSS Feed This can easily go hand-in-hand with the blog. Keeping people interested and up to date will boost your traffic and build your small business.
• Put up a calendar of events If you’re running a workshop somewhere or giving a presentation, this could help generate awareness and bring in participants.
• Give specials and coupons to website visitors People like to save money. If you give them some savings in return for visitng your website, it’s very likely they will check it out.
• Start a MySpace or Facebook or LinkedIn account and link it to your website Social networking sites have become so popular that they can literally transform your business. It can’t hurt to check them out.
• Put a button so they can contact you on AIM, Skype, or any other message service Interactivity is key. People like to talk and they like it to be easy. Giving them a button that connects directly to you could increase your sales significantly.
• Put out surveys or polls to get feedback from your customers Customer surveys are a win for everyone. They get to help you build something they like more. And then they’ll buy more of it.
• Open discussion forums related to your business Create a place for people to interact, learn, and voice their opinions. Building a community around your small business is one of the best ways to ensure success.
• Provide something interactive and useful, and your customers will keep coming back The general idea is: provide something interactive and provide something your customers can use. If you do that, your website (and very likely your company) will be a huge success.

These ideas are just the starting point. The next step is for you to go out and learn what to do, or hire someone to do it for you. I recommend checking out WordPress or ExpressionEngine if you want to build a site yourself.

If you’d rather hire someone, you should take a look at our store or call me at 800-571-6027 (I’m extension #1).