Issue 26, December 12, 1996
Welcome to Issue 26 of Web Marketing Today, sent out to 14,311 subscribers around the world.
In This Issue
Content Is King
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson
Real estate brokers tell us of three important factors in appraising a particular piece of property. They are, in this order: location, location, location. Translate to marketing your business on the Web and these become content, content, content. That could mean high quality graphics, or streaming audio, or interactive on-line games. For business Web sites, it usually means information.
Pocket Change
Benjamin Riggnor wants to move his small coin collecting shop (don't bother looking this up, you won't find it) to the Web, so he can reach a global audience, rather than just people in McLean Co., Illinois. On a limited budget he hires a Web site designer and ends up with three Web pages:- Welcome page which also tells about his business
- A list of 60 coins he feels would be of wider interest
- An order form
He advertises his Web site to the basic Web search engines, and after a few weeks, if he searches hard, he can find Riggnor Coins 17 screens deep on AltaVista under the words "coin collector". He gets a few hits, sells a few coins. But mainly he wonders: What's wrong? The answer is found in a word: Content.
To differentiate yourself from the hundreds, perhaps thousands of competitors, you somehow need to develop compelling content -- information -- which will draw the coin collectors of the world to your Web site. There are several options, most of which could be adapted to your particular business, and all of which take some work.
Developing Content One Page at a Time
Benjamin, why don't you develop a photo gallery of rare coins with a brief history of each specimen. Why don't you call it "100 Rare Coins of the World for Serious Collecting." What a mouthful, you say. Purposely. Web search engines will index on words in a title as well as other words on a page. What words might someone type in to AltaVista to find coins? Rare, coins, collecting. You get the idea. If you don't have 100 yet, do what you can and tell people you are working toward your goal of 100 by next summer, and then keep at it.
Now you begin to develop this one Web page for each coin. Make sure your Web site designer creates a template page you can use to create new, similar pages yourself with an HTML editor such as Microsoft FrontPage, or HotDog.
One hundred Web pages is a lot, you protest. Yes, but it increases dramatically your chance being seen on AltaVista under "coin collecting." It becomes an increasingly valuable resource which is both visual and written. While you're doing this, why don't you begin a free e-mail newsletter your Web visitors can sign up for. Each week or two you include the text of your latest Rare Coins, plus a list of coins for sale. Now your work is doing double duty: it is will increase your sales as well as attracting new coin collectors to your site.
Riggnor is giving too much away, you say. Yes, but he's attracting a growing stream of people who never would have noticed him before, people who have a strong interest in what he is selling.
This kind of plan takes a while to execute, but once you develop some momentum, you find that more and more people come to visit. There's a great line about patience in the classic film "Casablanca" where Humphrey Bogart says to Ingrid Bergman: "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life." That's the way you have to look at building content. You may not see the results today or tomorrow, but ....
Brothers-in-Law and Doll Houses
But I'm just not a writer, you say. I have trouble spelling my own name. Or, I can't make Web pages.
Adopt a barter strategy -- we call it developing a strategic partnership -- with people who have those skills. How do you find them? Frequent a newsgroup or mailing list on coin collecting and say, "I'm trying to photograph some of my coins, but can't seem to make my Instamatic produce photos like a Nikon. Any amateur photographers out there?" You may find someone in the next town, whom you could convince to photograph your coins in an evening in exchange for a couple of 3-cent coins and a good dinner. Your brother-in-law is a great amateur photographer and needs someone to build a dollhouse for his daughter for Christmas You're handy in the woodshop.... Do what you can, and then develop strategic partnerships with others by providing solutions for their vital interests.
Can't write? Ask some regulars on the coin collector's news group to write a short piece about their favorite rare coin for you and send you a photo. They'll be happy to see their name in print, and you'll get an article. Of course, a larger business can afford to produce such a resource much more rapidly and with less work on dollhouses.
Partnering to Develop Content
Here's another approach. Offer up-to-date industry headlines on your site: expensive? No, free. While I doubt that they offer a section on coin collecting, NewsPage has just offered a valuable resource to provide valuable, changing content for business Web sites. This is how it works.- Visit the NewsPage Web site and select several topics from among the 2,500 into which they sort 20,000 business news stories each day.
- Register for their NewsPage Affiliates program
- Have your Web site designer set up a template page on which NewsPage story headlines will appear each day. Your Web page template has links to a NewsPage cgi program which feeds today's headlines to your page each morning.
If something is too good to be true, it probably isn't. But mutual interests are being met, this is a win-win partnership. You get free content, but when your customers click on a particular story they want to read more about, they are transported to NewsPage's Web site where a banner ad generates revenue for NewsPage. You provide the traffic to them, they provide the content for you. If you want to see how we're implementing it at the Web Marketing Info Center, take a look at Web Marketing News Headlines for up-to-date news on doing business on the Web. (Come early and often!)
Create a Center
Richard Soos created the "Electronic Money Tree," a marketing e-zine created entirely from free articles written by marketers who get exposure for their services on his site. Mention in Yahoo Magazine and others brings lots of traffic -- and people return to read the next issues, since he renews content monthly and reminds former visitors via e-mail.Nancy Bargine, President of Impressa, targets business people who are also do-it-yourself Web page developers. She has assembled at Site Promoter a variety of tools and information for promoting a Web site.
- Articles she has written
- Links to Web sites offering related software tools
- Lists of linking sites on the Web
- A new, reasonably-priced software tool which enables small business people to do ongoing Web site promotion from their desktop.
Her carefully-built "center" will attract increasing numbers of visitors. Note that she gives a lot away. That is what brings you. She also sells a product related to the content which she is giving away, but adding to it.
What should you offer in your center? First, define demographically who are the best customers for your products or services. Then ask yourself, what do these people enjoy? What do they do with their spare time? What do they need which I could provide them? The better handle you have on your prospective customers, the better you can design content to attract them. Note: content does not have to be closely related to your product, but to your prospective customers' needs and desires.
Maybe you've begun with a presence on the Web in 1996. Why don't you set a goal to build a "center" in 1997 designed to attract increasing numbers to your Web site. Hey! If it can work for Benjamin Riggnor, it can work for you.
Nice Words from Massachusetts
Here are some nice words about Wilson Internet Services from the Optical Scanning Products Division of General Scanning, a $100 million corporation. We're very proud of the Web site we've created for them."Over the past several weeks, we have received numerous compliments about the site and its 'professional representation of the corporation.' Many of our viewers have told us that the information provided, in its present format, has allowed them to gain the necessary information they needed to evaluate our products.
"The web site was put together by Dr. Ralph Wilson. Ralph not only facilitated the web site, but his input and suggestions were extremely helpful to us during our consideration / review of the message and content we chose to use.
"Ralph maintained constant communication between himself and our group to expedite the project. Ralph is a pleasure to work with and I highly recommend him." -- Sharon M. Mooney, Marketing Communications
Odds 'N' Ends
You can find some wonderful articles to help your family celebrate the Christmas season at http://www.joyfulheart.com/xmas/ Make sure you read "Joseph's Letter Home" and "The Cradle."
Want to examine Christianity to see if it's credible? Why don't you be part of the "Intro to Jesus for the Undecided" e-mail study group in January and February? Details at http://www.joyfulheart.com/jesus/
Sponsorships are available for Web Marketing Today issues in January and February 1997. Get your message read by 14,000 Web marketers. http://www.wilsonweb.com/ads/
To all our loyal readers around the world, we wish you the priceless gift of God's peace this Christmas!
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