mdvaden
02-08-2007, 09:49 PM
There's a website category here too, but I decided to post this thread in light of starting a business and advertising, since there have been several threads about those.
If you are in a city where hardly anybody has internet, a website may be irrelevant. But even in Jacksonville and Medford, Oregon, here, about 8 out of every 10 people I ask, have internet.
Portland seemed like 19 out of 20. That's in the context of homeowners who can afford to hire services.
You don't have to have a ton of pages. I think that even 1 page is great to start. Photo, description of work and phone number. More pages are good too, but not essential to start.
What I like about websites, is that it helps me keep flyers and advertising simpler and cleaner. I can list the bare-neccessities on a flyer, or newspaper ad, like what my main services are and how long I've been in business.
But my ads list the website address in nice big letters with a statement that references, photos and much more information is on the site. I have extra pages, so it works. Someone with one page, can tailor a statement for their door hangers that's appropriate for their needs.
I never put my address on a business card. But always put my phone number.
The added bonus of a website address on the card, is that people can easily find me if our number changes. When we were in Portland, we were obligated to change our number one time, when we didn't even want to. The area grew, and numbers and area codes were redistributed to the region.
A website enables a fast way for people to see an image of you clean-cut 365 days per year.
Anybody in business, should consider having a site if they don't already.
For anybody just getting ready to start, I think it's the first thing you should do, before your cards, signs and flyers. Then you have the address. I'm estimating that you can, at the least, get a single web page made and put online with your own address for $150 or less. That's nothin'.
For further discussions specifically about web page design, hosting, etc., etc., there is a Web Page forum catergory here (which probably should have 10 times more use than it gets).
If you are in a city where hardly anybody has internet, a website may be irrelevant. But even in Jacksonville and Medford, Oregon, here, about 8 out of every 10 people I ask, have internet.
Portland seemed like 19 out of 20. That's in the context of homeowners who can afford to hire services.
You don't have to have a ton of pages. I think that even 1 page is great to start. Photo, description of work and phone number. More pages are good too, but not essential to start.
What I like about websites, is that it helps me keep flyers and advertising simpler and cleaner. I can list the bare-neccessities on a flyer, or newspaper ad, like what my main services are and how long I've been in business.
But my ads list the website address in nice big letters with a statement that references, photos and much more information is on the site. I have extra pages, so it works. Someone with one page, can tailor a statement for their door hangers that's appropriate for their needs.
I never put my address on a business card. But always put my phone number.
The added bonus of a website address on the card, is that people can easily find me if our number changes. When we were in Portland, we were obligated to change our number one time, when we didn't even want to. The area grew, and numbers and area codes were redistributed to the region.
A website enables a fast way for people to see an image of you clean-cut 365 days per year.
Anybody in business, should consider having a site if they don't already.
For anybody just getting ready to start, I think it's the first thing you should do, before your cards, signs and flyers. Then you have the address. I'm estimating that you can, at the least, get a single web page made and put online with your own address for $150 or less. That's nothin'.
For further discussions specifically about web page design, hosting, etc., etc., there is a Web Page forum catergory here (which probably should have 10 times more use than it gets).