If you’re in the process of considering a big, expensive website re-design (and isn’t everyone?), stop what you’re doing and read this NY Times article, Strategies to Succeed Online. Then take the money you save from the re-design and put it into content.
These days, a Web site may not even be the best place to start
promoting your products or services. Instead, you can consider setting
up a blog, participating in social-networking communities like Facebook and creating a storefront in virtual worlds like Second Life to get the buzz going. . .
What a company should not be doing is spending lots of money on dot-com
speculators, buying specialized software or even paying for the
services of Web developers.
I know what some of you are thinking. You don’t have time to keep a blog or a Facebook profile fresh — so you think it’s a better use of your resources to spend money on a traditional website. I think that’s a mistake, for most of you. Why? Because the thousands of dollars you spend on traditional website development could be spent on new content. You could bring on a freelance/part-time blogger or podcaster to work as an extension of your staff, generating engaging, interesting material. You can open up new conversations with people to establish yourself as an authority in your field. You can tell stories. I’ve seen this work with some of the small organizations I’ve worked with, and for most of you, it’s a far better investment than a static website that’s essentially just a slick brochure.
Technorati Tags: nptech, marketing, social_networking, NYTimes
Thanks for the validation. My “marketing plan” had website at the top of the list. However, I became impatient with the web developer and started my “website” by creating a blog with typepad because I could do it myself. Now that I have the blog, I kept asking why do I need a website? I decided to scrap the website plans altogether and saved lots-o-money in the process.
The only thing I haven’t figured out is the seo – is this something I should hire out?
Hey Susan — good for you! I’m headed off to check out your site right now!
If you have a good blog, and you’re updating it frequently and with good stuff, I think SEO will take care of itself. Someone may pop in to tell me I’m full of beans, but in my opinion, fresh, relevant content with lots of links in and out is plenty good enough to do well with Google.
Now, just be patient. Let your archive grow and don’t worry about the numbers. You’re building something valuable there, whether people find it right away or not. They will find it eventually.