Now this is one thing that we get all the time.. “What are the best ways to advertise my new website and how to get people to my new website”. This is a perfect question to ask us.

The other day we launched our brand new DEMO for future clients to try out. It was nice to get a phone call from a current client (Cocoa Jeans USA over at www.cocoajeansusa.com) as this really broke up the stress of demo release day, not to mention since we did that I thought why not re-do our website a bit (is short kind of like cleaning house).

In a nut shell. The best ways to advertise your website is really up to you. Every person likes to do things different. When it comes to the big word of ADVERTISE there really is not a right or a wrong way to do this. Some folks are excited about pay per click others say the new web 2.0 mumbo jumbo via social networks is the best way to go.  So with that said, it is safe to say that if the world just offered one way to advertise the entire world would be doing it.

So where do you start? This question reminds me of a movie that BIll Murray was in called “What About Bob”. If any of your recall this movie, Bob had some problems (very funny movie). His Dr. told Bob all about taking what he called “Baby Steps”, so that is a perfect way to go about things. Advertising your website and business or service shold be done in steps.

Your first step should be placing a few advertisements on some online classifieds (see list below). Reason that I say this is… One of our clients Tahoe Pine Works (www.tahoepineworks.com) has done this very same thing, starting out with just a few ads per wk. to now placing ads daily… With permission from them! I can tell you that they pick up about 40,000 hits per month. They have done this without spending one dime on ads. We know this works because of course we also do this.

Step Two: Now I have to be upfront and tell you that I really am not sure about this one, but I see a lot of people doing it and I can tell you that it makes my teeth grind. The new wave these days is to hire a company to (a company that cliams) that they can get you listed in a matter of 24 hrs in all the top search engines… for a fee (FYI: You can do this free yourself). I ran into one company that cliams that they can have you listed in a day… If you ask me this is just not possible as they places do not control what Goodle or Yahoo and for that matter MSN does, sites they list, etc. Now I am not saying to NOT DO THIS! I am just saying that you should really look into the company prior to sending in any money, You can also call us at 1-866-720-3012 if you would like us to look into this company with you.

Step 3. Of course we always have the pay per click deal… Most of you know my stand on that one.. Nothing wrong with doing something like that.. Just watch your account so you do not have sticker shock when your bill comes.

With all that being said.. Take a look at this list and try out some free places to run ads.. I think you will be suprised on just how many customers you pick up.. Best of luck and do not forget we are always around should you need any help with this.

www.adlandpro.com

www.adpost.com

www.backpage.com

www.buysell.com

www.chooseyouritem.com

www.classifiedads.com

www.craigslist.com

www.e-classifieds.com

www.epage.com

www.gumtree.com

www.inetgiant.com

www.livedeal.com

www.tahoewebservice.com

Hello All,

We thought we would share some questions that have been rolling into Tahoe Web Service with you. We also noticed that it is has been some time since we last did a blog (we have been very busy), so what a perfect way to start.

We have several things lined up for this blog and we promise we will try to do this once a week. We hope you enjoy the questions that have been asked.

Technical Support:
how strong is your technical support division?

Our tech support division is very strong.. We pride ourselves on being able to help our clients at all times.

What do they provide?

We provide full support. We take calls that last a few seconds and we take the calls that can last over a hour. We never limit our clients when it comes to support.

When are they available?

We are always around M-F 8:00am to 5:00pm pacific standard time. After hours we offer a service that will find should you call in. Not to mention all of our clients know how to reach us via cell phones, email or home phone numbers

Does tech support cost extra?

Will Tahoe Web Service register your Domain name?

Yes we will register the domain for you. We will do this under our name Tahoe Web Service (this saves you the charge of private registration).  You have total control over your domain. If you choose to have the DNS pointed to another host! Just call us with the name servers and we will be happy to change the DNS for you at no charge

How long will it take?

It takes about 10 min.

 Is there any extra cost to you?

Design:

Do have a builder that I can manage easily?

Yes we do. Our interface is very easy to use. We offer hundreds of templates (more on the way). Stock photo images, banner programs, etc.

What type of computer background do you need to design your site?

The great thing about our interface is as follows. We have expert web designers building amazing websites and we have clients that have never built a site that are cranking out amazing sites as well. We have hundreds of help pages listed as well as tech support. Once you get in and start to play around with our interface you can have your website up and running in minutes.

Do you have internal control over content and updates?

Will they have your domain name in them for a more professional appearance?

They sure will.

What is the cost to add extra emails?

 Are there any additional costs?

$20.00 a month for hosting. Unless you would like us to build the site for you you will be charged for hosting as well as a build fee. This build fee will always remain in your budget.

What are the initial setup fees and what do you get exactly?

The initial setup fee is your hosting and domain name.

What are the monthly maintenance fees are what do they cover?

We do not charge you a monthly maintenance fee what so ever.

 
Are there any additional charges?

No. We do not use contracts with our clients. You can come and go as you please.

May I cancel at anytime?

You sure can.

Are there any penalty fees for switching or closing my account?

No.

What happens to my content?

Who owns Tahoe Web Service? Is it a public company or Private company? Can I contact the owner? How many people work at Tahoe Web Service? Can I work for Tahoe Web Service.

Tahoe Web Service is owned by Len Cavanaugh and is a private held company.  Of course you can always contact him as he has an open door policy. Try calling or sending him an email Len@tahoewebservice.com . As for the people working at Tahoe Web Service.. Right now 5 people are working non stop at Tahoe Web Service. Not to mention our partners that help us. We like to keep things small, this way we have a personal relationship with clients. In other words you will never be a account number with us, we have clients that call just to call and say HI (we really enjoy that). Of course you can work for Tahoe Web Service, anytime we have a postion open we post an add over at www.craigslist.com or we post something on our blog or website. As for right now we are really not looking for people as we have everything covered the more we expand we will start looking again.

Does Tahoe Web Service offer a referral program?

We sure do! Send us a client and let us know and we will give you a free month of service.

Kathy C.

Hello,

Today we had the great pleasure of speaking with one of our clients in detail about getting posted or I should say listed in Google. So I thought I would pass on some information that I have found useful on getting into Google and other search engines.

We all know the majority of visitors to your web site will probably come through seach engines. We also all know that there are currently 4 major search engines (if I have missed a few by saying only 4, sorry and please feel free to add the search engines that you like.) and search listings services that you should be aware of. They are Google, Yahoo, DMOZ and MSN, the main search engine being that of Google. (we shall see what Yahoodoes since the purchase, read last blog about that purchase.)

Google is ranked right now as the largest (ranking info comes from most major news sites). I would say that 70% of all searches done on the Internet are made using Google’s search listings.  I know myself I spend most of the day searching Google should I need to look up things, on the rare occasion I may venture on over to Yahoo or MSN to look a few things up.

One needs to know that it is FREEto get listed on Google, Since they account for such a large number of searches on the Internet, I feel that it is very important to make sure that you get your web site listed in Google. If you notice I said it is FREE to get listed, I always hate to hear a person paying some company thousands of dollars to list them in Google. FYI you really do not need to pay people do this for you, you can do it yourself as chances are it will be done! (no pun intended to those honest companies out there that do really help one get listed in Google.)

There are two ways to get listed in Google.

1. You can submit your site to Google directly. You can doing this yourself by heading on over to http://www.google.com/addurl/  and entering your domain name. Once on that site you have to enter your domain name in the following format http://www.anydomainname.com of course replace the anydomainname.com with your own domain name.

Do not submit your web site more than once a week to Google. They will no doubt think you are spamming them, it could also delay your site being listed or even worse it can get your web site banned which you DEFINITELY do not wan to take place.

Google says they update their web site listings every few weeks or so ( I think that would be pretty safe to say they crawl maybe once a month or so?) however I could be way off base as I have listed web sites that have shown up in a day or two. You can read more about the crawl process over at Google’s crawl information by following this link.

2. Google can and will find your web site on it’s own. The second you start to work on your web site, Google is going to crawl this web site. Google has tons upon tons of robots or as some like to say search spiders which travel from web site to web site (I would assume just like Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.) When one of the spiders visits a site the spider will catalog all the information about that site. Google uses the information it may gather from spiders to help decide weather or not to list the web site in a specific category and to decide where the web site will show up within that category. For example, on page 1 (we all want page 1) of the results or on page 50 or page 150, etc. etc. etc.

Google goes from site to site via links as well. How do you get Google to visit your web site via links? simple if a link to your web site appears on another web stie taht Google spiders already listed in Google, Google will go from that site to your web site and then get all the information from your web site. This is why at times you may index your web site on Google (index like site:yourwebsite.com) you will find your web site mixed upon a lot of other things. This is something Craigs List is very well known for. You may post a add on Craigs List, index your web site, chances are you will see your site link mixed with other places that have posted on Craigs List that day.

We hope this information was of some help. Keep in mind it may take some time on when you will get listed in Google or other search engines. Rest assured your web site will get picked up sooner or later.

Len Cavanaugh

Owner

Tahoe Web Service

www.tahoewebservice.com

REDMOND, Wash. - Microsoft has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion, seeking to join forces against Google in what would be the biggest Internet deal since the Time Warner-AOL merger in 2001.

The surprise offer of $31 per share, made late Thursday and announced Friday, seizes on Yahoo’s weakness while Microsoft tries to muscle up in a high-stakes battle with Google likely to define the technology landscape for years to come.

Yahoo repeatedly has rebuffed Microsoft’s advances in the past but in a statement Friday the company said it will “carefully and promptly” study the bid. The Justice Department also said it would be interested in reviewing the antitrust implications of the offer, and analysts expect other enforcement agencies to follow suit.

With its profits steadily sliding, Yahoo’s stock slipped to a four-year low this week, and a new management team has been trying to steer a turnaround but sees more turbulence through 2008. Yahoo Chairman Terry Semel, who had rejected an earlier bid from Microsoft, resigned from the company’s board Thursday.

Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, still one of the company’s biggest shareholders, took over as chief executive last year after Semel was forced to step aside. Former advertising executive Roy Bostock, who has been on Yahoo’s board since 2003, was named chairman Thursday.

The announcement of the Microsoft bid lifted Yahoo’s share price by almost 50 percent in Friday trading, while Google fell almost 8 percent, dragged down by a fourth-quarter earnings report that missed Wall Street expectations.

In conference call Friday morning, Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer indicated he won’t take no for an answer after Yahoo rebuffed takeover overtures a year ago.

“This is a decision we have — and I have — thought long and hard about,” Ballmer said. “We are confident it’s the right path for Microsoft and Yahoo.”

To underscore its resolve, Microsoft is offering a 62 percent premium to Yahoo’s closing stock price Thursday. If the deal is consummated, it would be by far the largest acquisition in Microsoft’s history, eclipsing last year’s $6 billion purchase of online ad service aQuantive.

Jordan Rohan, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, said there was no way Yahoo shareholders could turn down the offer.

“The company has been floundering, and this is a great way to save face,” he told CNBC. “Management has no reasonable out here.”

Microsoft publicly disclosed its cash-and-stock offer in hopes of rallying support from Yahoo’s shareholders, making it more difficult for Yahoo’s board to turn down the bid.

“It puts a lot of public pressure right at the point where Yahoo’s management seems vulnerable,” Rohan said.

In a letter released Friday, Ballmer pointedly noted Yahoo’s financial performance has deteriorated since Microsoft was spurned a year ago. At that time, Ballmer said he was told Yahoo believed it was better off on its own.

“A year has gone by, and the competitive situation has not improved,” Ballmer wrote in his letter.

Microsoft sent its latest takeover offer to Yahoo late Thursday, shortly after Semel resigned as chairman.

In a prepared statement, Yahoo said its board “will evaluate this proposal carefully and promptly in the context of Yahoo’s strategic plans and pursue the best course of action to maximize long-term value for shareholders.”

Microsoft views Yahoo as its best chance to thwart Google, which has leveraged its leadership in Internet search and advertising to emerge as an increasingly serious threat to the world’s largest software maker’s persuasive influence on how people interact with computers.

Google already controls nearly 60 percent of the U.S. search market, and has been widening its lead, despite concerted efforts by both second-place Yahoo and third-place Microsoft. By combining, Microsoft and Yahoo would have a 33 percent share of the U.S. search market, according to the latest data from comScore Media Metrix.

Nevertheless, the potential acquisition of Yahoo would raise questions on competitiveness about everything from search engines to online advertising, analysts said. A federal judge this week extended by 18 months court oversight of Microsoft’s market power, which began in 2002 after a landmark antitrust settlement.

“If this deal goes through, there will be a lot of very close scrutiny … there appears to be lots of overlap,” said Harry First, a professor at New York University’s School of Law. “It’s complicated and very big, and a lot of enforcement agencies will be interested.”

But Keith Hylton, a professor of antitrust law at Boston University, said Google’s success in online search and advertising means a combined Microsoft-Yahoo would have significant competition.

“The fact that Google dominates this business will be a big factor in their (Microsoft’s) favor in trying to get this approved by the regulators,” Hylton said.

By joining forces, Microsoft and Yahoo also would widen their narrowing advantage over Google in providing free e-mail accounts — a service that helps foster more loyalty with users and create more advertising opportunities.

Advertisers around the world are expected to double their spending on the Internet during the next three years as more people get their news and entertainment on the Web instead of television, radio, newspapers and magazine. The trend is expected to create an $80 billion online ad market in 2010, up from an estimated $40 billion last year.

Despite an aggressive push in recent years, Microsoft’s online advertising expansion hasn’t paid off. Last week, the Redmond, Wash.-based company reported a 79 percent jump in its overall profit, but its online division’s loss widened to $245 million.

And Yahoo has been struggling to attract more advertising even though its Web site attracts one of the biggest audiences. The Sunnyvale-based company’s profit has declined for five consecutive quarters, prompting plans to cut 1,000 jobs later this month, a 7 percent reduction of its 14,300-employee work force.

Besides helping to boost its online ad revenue, Microsoft believes it could mine more profit from Yahoo by jettisoning workers and eliminating overlapping operations.

Microsoft said it sees at least $1 billion in cost savings if it buys Yahoo. Combined with Yahoo’s profits that would generate free cash flow of $2 billion a year on an investment of $45 billion for a return of nearly 5 percent, according to Rohan of RBC.

“This doesn’t change the popularity of the Yahoo or MSN brands in the eyes of consumers, but what it does is it creates one large, more efficient competitor to Google,” Rohan said.

Microsoft executives deflected questions about how many jobs might be lost, but the company emphasized retention packages will be offered to Yahoo engineers and other key employees, including some executives.

The fate of Yahoo’s brand also is unclear if Microsoft takes over. Both Ballmer and Kevin Johnson, president of Microsoft’s platforms and services division, hailed Yahoo’s strong brand value but didn’t commit to keeping the name alive.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22947626/

The break down on E Commerce Shopping Carts, Cost associated when you choose some carts and the small print that you might not see when you order a cart using other companies.

When our user interface was launched our programmer that wrote all programs in house was not only on the ball but did a lot of investigation when it came time to use the shopping cart feature.

We offer a full E commerce service when it comes time to build your own website. When we say full E Commerce we are speaking of “Every website comes with a cart, weather you choose to use it or not”. For the flat fee of hosting you have the option of using the cart.

We thought we would share some information we gathered when shopping around for carts. Sure we did this to compare ours to theirs, after all they advertise online, so we wanted to see just what they have to offer.When we did this comparison it made it real easy to launch our program. We are in no way saying the other carts are cheap or a rip off or company A is better then company B. We will let you be the judge when it comes time to decide what program is better. After all it is about your business and what works for you, if you do not mind paying more for a cart, paying transaction fees per sale, etc. and the carts works for you! Then we recommend by all costs that you stay with or choose the one that works for you.As I have mentioned above, you be the judge on the findings. Below is what we found.

1.     Company Y:  offers a full e commerce solution, when we looked into this program for the shopping cart, we found the following charges and costs associated when using Company Y’s Service. Company Y offers three plans. It looks as if they base this plan off of three levels of sales by calling them Starter, Standard and Professional. Each cart is able to hold 50,000 items 

The Starter Plan: This plan is charged as follows-If you expect sales of 12K per month. This will cost you $25.97 for the first two months. After the first two months of service you pay $39.95 per month with a 1.5% transaction fee. (see the table below) 

The Standard Plan: This plan is charged as follows-If you expect sales of $12K-$80K per month. This will cost you $64.97 for the first two months. After the first two months of service you will pay $99.95 with a 1.0% transaction fee. (See table below) 

The Professional Plan: This plan is charged as follows;-         If you expect sales of more than $80K per month. This will cost you $194.97 for the first two months. After the first two months of service you will pay $299.95 with a 0.75% transaction fee. (see table below)Company Y’s Cart Table with Transaction Fee Included

Company GO DA: offers a full e commerce solution, when we looked into this program for the shopping cart, we found the following charges and costs associated when using Company GO DA’s Service. Company GO DA. offers three plans. Company GO DA’s three plans does not include hosting service. So when choosing company GO DA’s cart add hosting to the price of the cart per month (company GO’s offers hosting at three stages of hosting Stage

1 $4.99 a month you get 5 pages.

Stage 2 $8.99 a month you get 10 pages.

Stage 3 $12.99 a month you get unlimited pages (but they have a discloser as follows).

²Performance may begin to slow at varying numbers of pages depending on potential physical and practical constraints, including (but not limited to): system architecture, system capacity, system load, end-user Internet connectivity and end-user computer configurations.“Unlimited Pages” does not apply to Premium versions prior to 3.0. These earlier versions have a 20-page limitation and are also limited to the Disk Space and Bandwidth allocated at the time of purchase.If you are unsure what version you own, set up/launch your site from My Account. Version 2.7 users will find their version number above ‘Current Page’ near the top/left side of the page. Version 3.0 and higher users will find this information directly below. 

If you forgot we said we would read the small print (well above is the small print!!).

Now onto Company GO’s shopping cart price. 

-Plan Economy Edition is charged at $8.99 a month (plus hosting of $4.99, $8.99 or $12.99 per month) this plan allows you to list 20 items only. 

-Plan Deluxe Edition is charged at $29.99 a month (plus hosting o f$4.99, $8.99 or $12.99 per month) this plan allows you to list 100 items only. 

-Plan Premium Edition is charged at $49.99 a month (plus hosting of $4.99, $8.99 or $12.99 per month) this plan allows you to list a unlimited number of items.

When we called to ask about the unlimited number of items we were told that they needed to transfer us to business support as we would need some extra bandwidth usage. So since I was told I will need some extra bandwidth (we are talking thousands of dollars per month) and we all know I would like to sale things online and would not like to be limited I will use the premium edition as a example for a break down on price.

I will use this example on what we have to offer should I choose to sale 2500 items (that really is a lot of items). I will pay $12.99 a month for hosting plus the $49.99 for the cart (after all I would like to sale 2500 items) for a grand total of $62.98 per month. 

So with that being said with the above examples. I invite you to contact us about our shopping carts ($20.00 a month that holds 2500 items) we take NO percentage of sales and hide no fees. You be the judge… 

Len Cavanaugh

Owner

Tahoe Web Service

www.tahoewebservice.com

1-877-720-3012  

Good Evening,

We had the pleasure of reading an article by Penny  Sansevieri CEO and founder of Author Marketing Experts, Inc.

Since we like to pass on information to our clients that we feel are terrific ways to get more traffic to the websites you are working on we thought we would pass this on for your reading enjoyment.  Now I cannot tell you much about the program or books they offer. I can tell you that after reading the article I was impressed enough to pass it on to Len Cavanaugh owner of Tahoe Web Service. Len then contacted Penny to see if we can pass this news along to all of you. In the brief conversation Len had with Penny I can tell you I received two thumbs up to post the information. With that said I would like to thank Penny for allowing me to use the information, any CEO or founder of a company that will take time out of a busy day to help others shows they hold the same standards as us. I for one am sure to look into this service Penny has to offer further. If any of you look into this prior to me! Then please let me know what you thought. Till then good luck and enjoy…..

Matt R.

Tahoe Web Service Designer

Matt@tahoewebservice.com

www.tahoewebservice.com

Embarking on an Internet marketing campaign doesn’t have to be difficult, tricky, or complicated. Here are a few simple ways (twenty in fact) that you can easily implement to get tons of traffic to your site right now!

1) Write articles: believe it or not this is an incredible tool for driving traffic. Well-written, relevant articles can net quite a bit of activity to your web site. Don’t forget to add your URL in your byline. Articles should be 500 to 2,000 words in length. You can send articles to sites like: Article City, GoArticles, Submit Your Articles and Ezine Articles.

2) Social bookmark *everything* - and I do mean everything - you can bookmark each page of your site and each blog entry you post. While this might seem tedious, it’s worth it. You’ll see a strong increase in traffic if you social bookmark each page on your site and each of your blog entries.

3) List yourself in the best directories – you’ll have to pay for this but since most people don’t do this (since everyone’s looking for a freebie) you could really enhance your traffic by getting a listing: dir dot yahoo dot com, business dot org, botw dot org.

4) Get yourself listed at: DMOZ dot org – it’s not easy to get listed there, but worth the effort.

5) Review: if you can review hot new products or books within your market, head on over to Amazon and start positioning yourself as an expert. In order to do this effectively you’ll want to create an Amazon profile and make sure and sign each review with a reference to your URL (your web site). You can also go to Epinions and Revoo to review products as well.

6) Offer a freebie on Craig’s List: you’ll be amazed at how much traffic you get from a single Craig’s List ad. The key here is to send people to a page on your site and make sure they have to sign up for something (like your email newsletter) before they can grab their freebie. That way you’re not just getting traffic, you’re also building your list.

7) Create a “recommended by” list on your Delicious page – you can do this by logging on and creating an account and there and then tagging articles, blogs and other content you think is important to your readership. Then offer this page as a resource site. You can add a link to this page in your email signature line or on your web site.

The Tahoe Web Service classified program is a great option for any active website that wants to capitalize on its traffic by selling ad space or providing a free classified for their users. The program is a standard feature at Tahoe Web Service and is available to everyone with a hosting account.

The classified is very configurable allowing you to specify categories, sub categories and pricing and options to us. This program will allow users to post free ads or you may charge them for the ads. The program will auto expire ads at the time interval you specify, so all ads are current. The maximum ad duration is 3 months with a minimum ad duration of 1 day.

Ad pricing can be set by category, so you could allow free ads for “lost pets” and charge $10 for “realestate for sale” and charge $5 for a car for sale. This allows you flexibility in ad value.

The program supports up to 500 concurrent ads with 1 photo each. Photos are optional and you can even charge an additional fee to insert a photo in the ads. You can let users edit or delete the ads or just let them expire at the set interval automatically.

You can also charge a premium for featured ads. The featured ads will appear on the main page as well as appearing in bold print in their main listings and searches. You can choose to fill the slots with unpaid ads when there are no paid ads available. As soon as there are paid ads the system will stop displaying the standard ads.

The program also allows users to search all the ads so they do not have to scroll through 50 pages of 10 ads each as your classified fills up.

This classified will work well if you want to run a small classified for an organization such as a church or club or an all out business to business services classified. It will work as a personals classified, a jobs classified, an industry specific classified, a local community classified or pretty much a classified for anything you can think of.

The program can also be a huge income generator. If you run ads for 30 days and charge $10 for each ad, 500 ads would give you a monthly income of $5,000.00 or $60,000.00 a year. Even with only 100 ads at $2.00 each that is $200 a month less the cost of hosting.

A program of this caliber has massive potential and appeal. The earning potential is huge and the possibilites are endless. But don’t get over confident and don’t lose sight of what your website already has in the search of the big advertising bucks.

It is always easier to launch your classified in a smaller or targeted market. If you run a car club, offer the listings to your members and others will surely add their own cars. Or target a local market or community that is reachable through local advertising. If you can get people to your classified, the programing will do the rest.

This is a fully automated system that can change the dynamic of your website and make it an interactive and informative marketplace for your industry.

The program should be used for what it is and you should not expect to be launching the next craigslist. It will serve as a great small classified and a powerful tool on your website. A website can be built around the program or the program can be an extra for the main site content. In either case, it is a powerful tool and is available to every website.

You are free to contact us if you would like this system installed on your website. Or if you would like to try your hand at running a full classified website you can purchase a domain name with hosting to give it a shot. Please note you must be using our shopping cart for this system to work. If you had us build you a website and did not want the use of the cart you are going to have to figure out a way for us to make the cart work on your site (looks wise).

You can view a sample of a live working classified we launched a few days ago. You are free to post your website or services on this classified. If you are posting a paid classified please contact us and we will allow your ad to be placed for free. View the classified at www.theliveclassifieds.com

 Do you treat people with whom you do business with correct? Tahoe Web Service thought we would come up with a few things that might help you out when it comes to customer service when launching your business online. Many times people forget about customer service when dealing with sales online. The online sales world is so automated we forget that one is dealing with real people. Does your customer service create fans or does it send people into the lost world of online sales, never to be heard from again, minus the back feed back they may leave you via Ebay, Etsy, or some list about a company to not do business with?

What is the real price one pays as an online business owner for customer service? The real price is word of mouth advertising. If your customers likes the way you handle things, he or she will tell maybe 20 other people. However, if he or she feels they were treated poorly or better yet in an unfair way, they will tell thousands of people.

To help you with your online customer service, here are a few tips you might want to consider.

1.      Let’s walk in your customers shoes for a second. Would you want to be treated the way you might be treating your customers? If the things you are doing to your customers is upsetting you and keeping you up at night, that is your instinct shouting at you that what your are doing is not correct.

2. Make it simple to do business with you. We all have seen the never ending TOS (terms of service) pages on websites. Keep yours straight to the point and worded in ways that customers do not need to be a Harvard law professor to read. I have found out that customers just want to take a quick look at a TOS to see the rules on shipping and returns all the other information I have found they bypass (of course I’m not saying to not include all the other mumbo jumbo). Just make the most important regulations stand out and have them right at the start.

3. Make It Easy to Contact You.  Do not make your customers only form of contact with you done via email or contact forms. Many times business emails are captured into a spam filter, thus your customer is going to send you a message and chances are your reply is going to get stuck in their spam filter, leaving your customer wondering “hey they never got back to me”. You are going to want to list your phone numbers, address and any other form of contact you can think of. Customers feel safe when they know they can contact you at any time in re-guards to their orders.

You can try a few of these things listed below.

-         Set up a FAQ page on your website. Include some questions that you think your customers might ask you.

-         Try listing your AIM, Yahoo, or MSN Messenger for a way customers can contact you as well. I have been running across several websites over the past few months that are listing these services. You can even list the hours you may be on these messenger services.

-         List your phone numbers. I know you may not want to list your home phone number or your cell phone number (hey we do like to keep some things private) so either install a second business line via your local phone company or you can use a virtual phone. You can find tons of 800 numbers that offer voicemail and or find me follow me transfers, these are great for customers as when they call you! These services will ring a few phone numbers that you have listed and send you the caller’s information, giving you the option of either speaking with your customers or sending them to voicemail. You can try a few of these businesses that I have used in the past. One Box  or J2 Global.

-         Try Ventrilo. We offer Ventrilo (VoIP) that will allow you to speak with your customer’s right over the computer like a phone. This is an easy to use feature; however it will require a small download (free of charge) for your customers. This service is also great if you would like to conduct business meetings or would just like to chat with friends or family.

4. Ask your customer what they would like done. If you and your customer can not reach a happy resolution to the problem! Then ask them what they think will be a good resolution. Be prepared to hear that they would like a full refund, want you to bend over backwards, etc. Do this and do not forget what I said above!! They will tell many people what great customer service you have, you have just entered word of mouth advertising and that is the best. This will end things on a positive note.

With the above said. We hope this may help you out some with your new business. Of course it is your business and you can choose on your own how you should do customer service! However do not forget you can either have tons of repeat business or you can make just one sale and move onto the next customer.

We know who we are, what we do, and why we do it. We deliver our message on a daily basis knowing full well that people are not going to purchase our service or buy into what I have to say, but the ones that do purchase our service are happy clients. As for as the ones that pass us by, the world offers loads upon loads of business and we know we are not going to get it all. Even though we would like to think our service is something everyone wants.

You have to know who you are and what you do when you venture into the World Wide Web for business. You have to understand that six million people are thinking of the exact same thing that you are (maybe they even are a step further then you). Having a plan of attack is a key solution to having your website or your business a success.

Is Entrepreneurship For You? In business, no one has a guarantee. There is just no way to eliminate risks people take when they are starting out a business, however you can improve your chances with good planning and preparation. One should always start out looking into the strengths and weakness. You need to look into a few things when you consider starting out.

Are you a self starter? Keep this in mind as the start of your business lays all on your shoulders, it is up to you to manage your time, develop projects that will help your business, follow through on details. If you find your self thinking you can take time to hit the golf course when ever you want! Well then starting your own business is something that is just not going to be for you as you will fail if you do things like this.

Do you get along with people? As a new business owner you are going to be dealing with many different personalities in people. Sure you can sit back as the owner of your company and tell a customer to take a hike! However do not forget that this customer you just told to take a hike could have been a returning customer or a customer that would have told 100 people positive things about your business. If you take the back seat approach to business and things! Well then once again you are going to fail. You need to deal with everything that is brought to your attention and you have to do this in a positive way.

Are you good at making decisions? I’m hear to tell you as a small business owner or a large business owner, you are going to be faced with making decisions constantly – often quickly, independently, and under an extreme amount of pressure at times. These decisions that you may be faced with can make or break you and your business. You need to keep a level head at all times. If this is something you can not do, well again a business is not for you. Be like fonzey calm, cool and collective at all times.

Do you have the stamina to run a business? Get ready as the start of your business is going to force you to work six or seven days a week, 12-15 hours a day. This at times is going to cause havoc in your family life, personal life, etc. it is going to effect a lot of people around you. However if you are a success this will all pay off in the end for you. If you are not prepared to do this and only put in a few hours a day! Your new business is either going to fail or it is going to take you years and years to make your business worth anything.

How well do you plan things out? Research has proven that poor planning is a major resource for failed business. Good planning of financial records, inventory, production, etc. can help you prevent major business pitfalls. By not having good planning for your new business you are going to fail.

Are you positive? You have to remain strong, you have dreamed up an idea so you should not allow a few bumps in the road prevent this dream of yours coming true. Remaining strong and motivated will help you get past these bumps, slow times, income loss, etc. You have to push yourself above and beyond. If you can not do this kiss your dream good buy and you need to head back to your old job.

Tahoe Web Service

Welcome to our list of tips helping you promote your site, improve search engine ranking and attract visitors. These are all free, easy to do, and do not require a large time investment.

Optimize your site and get listed: For starters if we have designed your site for you, your website is already ready for this. If you are working on your own website or just dropping in to check out our website then we hope this helps you out some. First and this is very important you must optimize your website for the search engines and then list it with them.

Exchange Links: Getting other websites to link to your site will increase your “Site Popularity” in the search engines eyes. Doing this is one of the most significant factor that will affect your rankings. Tahoe Web Services offers a linking program that we will add to your website. Joining link exchange programs will help in attracting people to exchange links with. If you google search “Link Exchange” you are sure to come up with thousands of places to do this.

Forums & Boards: If you join a forum that is related to things that your website is about is a prime opportunity to list your site URL in your forum signature (this will be crawled by the search engines) It also allows you to refer people back to your website. We are involved in a few forums “When We Have Time” and have spoken with many people about site development and hosting services; this has helped us bring customers that at the time were very unhappy with their host or the way their website was built. We have had the chance to turn things around for them and their website. So it pays to visit online communities as you never know when a customer is posting about something that they need and you can produce. We do not recommend joining every forum on the net! Stick with forums that are related to you and your product.

Newsletters: Publishing newsletter about your product is a great way to spread the word about what you are doing. You will want to try to send out one issue per month (anything more then that will be just like spam! And well every one knows that people hate spam). When you publish your news letter you are going to want to place links to your website or products or direct them to pages on your website that they can find more information on the subject. You can find many free mailing list programs by searching google.

ADD URL’s: By doing a search on the internet using the terms “add url” will help you find pages that you can add your websites link for free. Our you can try the term “niche and your subject”. By doing this, you will be listing your website on thousands of pages. Again you will want to stick to places that are related to your website! For example if your site is about “birds” well you are not going to want to list it on a page that is about “cats”.

Network: Place a link to your website when the opportunity arises. Try adding your link in your email signature, forums, business cards, voicemail, etc. The more your link is out in the publics eye! The better off you are.

Give Away Things: Offer free information, links, samples, what ever might be applicable to your website and business. This will better guarantee that your site may be personally referred to someone else. Doing this will also help by attracting visitors to your site and provide an opportunity for them to explore more of your website.

Business Cards: Hand them out with your website URL on them. Leave them behind in stores, after you dine out leave a card on the table, hand them out when you are in a large group of people, or whenever an opportunity exists. You can either pay to have these cards printed or you can purchase a program at a reasonable price in any office supply store. Of course doing this yourself will suck your ink dry! And we all know how much ink costs these days. Many companies offer deals of getting 100 cards free with the purchase of 100 cards, etc. Google will offer many locations that you can search for business card makers and programs.

Use Your Car: Have a bumper sticker, window decal or magnetic door panels created with your site’s URL. A driving billboard if you will. 

Wear Your Website: Of course this is an age old solution, but it works!! Place your URL on hats, shirts, etc with your logo and site URL. Wear them around town. Give them to friends and family or even send them out with product! Everyone likes a free shirt, Trust me they will wear these items and bring you free advertising. We  have seen and heard of  people using cafe press. I have no clue on the quality of product they offer! but it might just be something for you to check into.

Your Home Town: Do not forget about your home town. Many people when they get on the World Wide Web! They stretch their marketing all over the place and forget about the home town they are in. Many future customers are living in your home town or maybe even right next door. Place some of your logos, URL, flyers, etc. at your local supermarkets, post office, library, neighborhood, churches, schools, your local newspaper, etc. Chances are people will be pretty interested in buying or visiting the site of a local person.

Affiliate Programs: Sign up for one of these programs such as Commission Junction (cj.com) this will allow people to place your product or a banner on their site. Of course this can get pretty costly at times! However the price could be out weighed by some major sales on your end. I would look into any program costs prior to signing up! These programs may or may not work and could suck your budgeting for marketing dry very quickly. Hey but it is worth looking into.

Len Cavanaugh

Owner

www.tahoewebservice.com