I-Net Ad Spending Up 13% in 2Q 2006
July 8, 2006
Let Low-Cost, All-In-One Hosting Put Your Money Where Your Market Is
Most newcomers to the world of ecommerce don’t have a clear picture of how their start-up money should be allocated, whether starting with a few dollars or going all out with a five-figure site launch. How you budget the dollars for your new online business will often determine whether you actually have a business – or just a broken dream.
Marketing, Marketing, Marketing
Most people believe that the single most expensive aspect of starting an online enterprise is site design, followed by monthly web hosting costs. So, they place the bulk of their initial capital into site development and sign a long-term contract with a web host. The problem that many new entrepreneurs encounter is this: they have a decent-looking site and an on-ramp to the Internet courtesy of a web host. But they don’t have enough capital left over to effectively market their sites. Sure, it looks good. Problem is, no one knows it’s there.
The key to any successful commercial venture is marketing. Advertising. In the local paper, billboards, local cable TV and other media outlets. Interesting statistic. Marketing dollar growth on the Internet has outpaced all other media in the past few years.
During the second quarter of 2006, online marketing expenditures increased 13% over the 2Q of ’05. Direct email marketing increased 6%. Why? Because online marketing works.
The Point of Marketing
Why market your site? Marketing enables you to determine what site visitors want and how you can meet their desires and turn a profit in the process. So, if you aren’t spending enough on your online marketing, you aren’t identifying your market as clearly, you aren’t providing the products or services customers really want and need and, finally, as a result your site won’t ever hit its max earning potential.
Low-Cost, All-in-One Hosting
Many hosting services deliver everything a newcomer needs to get started. These all-in-one hosts provide free site building software, free checkout software, free metrics (analytics) software and a tool box full of applications designed to build, administer and grow a new online business. The point? They do it at lower costs than other hosting services, leaving you more money to market your site.
Let’s consider two examples. In the first case, a site owner hooks up with a hosting service and pays $19.95 a month for a few web pages and some application freebies. In the second case, our owner signs on with an all-in-one hosting plan and receives tons of applications (everything she’ll need to build and run her site), a little more server space and at a lower cost of only $6.95 a month.
Same service, same security, same look, feel and features as the high-priced host. The only difference is that in case number two, our site owner is saving $13 a month. Big whoop, right?
Well, let’s look at what an additional $13 can get you in the way of marketing a site each and every month.
How about using the Google Adwords program wherein you bid on certain keywords against other site owners trying to reach the same demographic? Let’s say you land a decent keyword for $0.05 per click, which means every time a potential customer does a Google search for your products, your sponsored advertisements appear on the right-hand side of the search engine results page (SERP) for that particular keyword.
You control the budget by limiting the number of allowable click-throughs to the $13 you designate for the Adwords program. So, at a nickel apiece, that $13 a month will buy you 260 sponsored links a month on Google. Annually, that’s 3120 times your site will appear on Google’s SERPs. And after a while, people will notice.
Saving on Site Design
A simple website with a checkout and a few bells and whistles can cost anywhere from $2 - $3K, as in thousands of dollars. But what if you could design your own site using the applications provided by an all-in-one hosting service? Do you think you might find a better use for those site design dollars?
You bet you will. With a marketing budget like that you can afford banner ads on affiliate sites, paid links from sites carrying synergistic products, direct email campaigns and, you can even produce a couple of visitor freebies (an e-book, e.g.) to drive more traffic to your site.
Saving on Site Optimization
Site optimization is a process by which your site is configured and organized to appeal to search engines like Google, Yahoo and the over 4,000 SEs currently spidering the www. It can be an expensive process if you go with a professional SEO (search engine optimization) firm and results may be spotty at best.
But, what if you optimized your own site by using the metrics software these low-cost hosting sites offer to all of their customers. It’s not brain surgery. It’s not rocket science. It just takes a little common sense and a bit of analysis to determine how visitors are finding your site, how long they stay, how many pages they view and so on.
Optimizing your own site is a process, not a goal. It’s on-going, with tweaking a routine part of your work week. But over time, you’ll find the flaws and fix them. And, in the process, save yourself a big pile of cash.
Let’s say you paid an SEO $1,000 to analyze your site. You may discover that you have more traffic. Maybe not. But, what if you took that $1,000 and put it into marketing your site. You could create a list of opt-ins who receive your monthly newsletter and advance notice of your site’s sales – for a full year! That’s “face-to-face” advertising – the kind that delivers the best ROI (return on investment).
With that $1,000 savings, you can easily integrate your on-line advertising with traditional advertising media. Display your site address on local TV or in the local newspaper. The object is to keep your site name in front of the customer. There’s an old adage in advertising that says an individual must see an ad or company name six times before it registers, that is, makes an impression. (We’re all so distracted.)
Chances Are, You’re Undercapitalized
Most new business are. These companies are always scrambling to meet the month’s payroll or keep up with inventory needs. Dreams come easily; cash doesn’t. That’s why you have to cut corners on everything you can except marketing.
Cut design costs by going with a web host that provides the applications you need to build and launch your site for pocket change – less than $7.00 a month.
Cut SEO costs by doing it yourself. The metrics software available through some web hosts is simple to use and even simpler to apply.
Finally, cut your monthly hosting costs to the bone without giving up the features you need to run an effective site and grow it to profitability.
If you’re undercapitalized, your best solution is an all-in-one hosting service that also delivers the lowest hosting fees each month. Also, watch out for costly hidden charges when shopping for a low-cost host. Set-up fees, maintenance, overage fees – all of these can sap your marketing budget and slow the growth of your e-biz.
Put Your Money Where Your Market Is
At least until you become established. It may take a few months to start generating the traffic you had expected. It may take even longer to improve your site’s conversion rate – converting visitors to buyers and buyers to regulars. But the only way visitors are going to find your little site (the one that shows up on page 56 of Google’s SERPs) is through marketing. PPC (pay-per-click) like Google Adwords, banners and paid links, bringing in affiliate sites that steer traffic in your direction – all of these and more are being used by little mom-and-pop sites as well as sites for Fortune 500 companies.
Sure, you can play with the big boys, but your site will grow faster and become more profitable when you allocate the bulk of your start-up money to marketing your site.
And you can do just that by working with a hosting service that not only offers low monthly hosting fees, but also provides the tools and experience you need to DIY and save.
Then, put that start up money where your market is. In no time, you’ll start to see traffic and sales increase and you’re well on your way to becoming another www success story.
Copyright 2006 © Website Source, Inc.
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