Making Your Website Profitable

"A web site is just a great big, really expensive business card."

"I've been to the roundtables, and everyone has the same experience: you don't make any money off your web site, but you have to have one because people expect it."

These are comments from people who later became my clients. They represent the way that a lot of small business owners feel about their web sites. Your customers and clients ask you about your web site, and you can't just say you don't have one, so you get one.

Do people visit? Who knows? Some businesses only find out what their web sites were doing for them after they close down the site and see their business drop. Other businesses feel fairly sure that their web sites just aren't doing their jobs, but have no ideas about how to improve that.

Here's what your web site should do for you:

• Drive traffic to your place of business.
  
  Many consumers nowadays shop online for products and services before they ever leave their homes. The internet has replaced the phone book in many households. Your clients are probably comparing your web site with others in your community before they decide to visit you. The upside -- when your web site reflects well on you, the people who come in are closer to committing than those who haven't visited you online first.
  
  
• Pay for itself.
  
  All good marketing provides a good return on investment. Your web site, however, can also pay its own monthly fees in direct sales to your visitors. If you're like me and you're providing a service, not a product, you may not actually sell anything at your web site. In that case, make sure that your site lets you add to your contact list. That way you know that you are gaining new contacts and clients through your internet presence.
  
  
• Increase your value to your clients or customers.
  
  I think it was William Morris who said "Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful." (Actually, I know it was William Morris, since I'm a researcher and would never attribute a quote without checking it; it's just traditional to say it that way.) If you follow this rule at your web site, your visitors will find it interesting, enjoyable, or useful. They'll appreciate the extra service of your web site the same way they appreciate the service you provide them at your physical place of business.

The people I quoted at the beginning? They've changed their minds.