Being that I've been a web developer and administrator for a half
decade, people regularly ask me if they should get a website. Some of
them reason, erroneously, that if they put up a website, business will
increase dramatically, since the Internet has millions of surfers.
This is sort of like saying, if you open a store in New York City, your
sales register should ring non-stop, since New York City has millions
of people.
This is not exactly how it works.
The big question on the Internet is the same as in any conventional business: How do people know where to find you?
Ironically, with a conventional business it's probably easier to luck
out by opening a store on a busy thoroughfare and doing well from day
one. On the Internet, it's not that simple -- any "busy thoroughfare,"
is already someone else's website. For a new website, heavy traffic,
and subsequent sales, usually comes with a vigorous promotional
campaign.
At some point in the past, there actually was a way to get inexpensive
Internet traffic with little or no promotion. During the "gold rush"
days of the Internet, which goes as far back as eight or nine years
(the Internet, as we know it, is little more than a decade or so old),
if you got a generic name like register.com, cars.com, stocks.com or
store.com, you could pretty much expect instant success. Such names are
so generic in nature, that they generate constant, massive traffic.
Can you still get names like that? Not for the going prices of between
$10 and $35. For several hundred thousand dollars, or, in some case,
millions of dollars, you have a shot.
To generate traffic, there are also the old standbys -- search engines.
Here's a list of some of the top search engines and their addresses:
There are many software programs and web applications that will submit
your site to hundreds or even thousands of search engines. But when it
comes to the top search engines, it's recommended that you actually
visit each one of their sites and submit your website manually.
Why?
Major search engines account for over 90% of search-engine-generated
traffic -- they're too important to leave to an automated procedure.
What's more, some search engines don't allow automatic program
submissions.
Also, a very important aspect of doing business on the web is to get
"targeted traffic." Targeted traffic means getting people who in some
way are associated with or have already shown interest in your product
or service.
Virtually every search engine will ask you for a "category." By
choosing a category that properly describes, or at least comes as close
as possible to describing, your website, you'll be maximizing on
"quality" traffic.
Specifying the "wrong" category or neglecting it altogether, will only
waste your time, money and efforts. For example, if you're running a
bakery, and you wind up in some category like "hobbies," getting tons
of people who are looking for kites and train sets won't add much to
your pocket -- unless you happen to sell bagels that fly or apple
strudel that goes "Choo Choo" when you bite into it.
The bottom line is, if you're going to spend time and money on a
website, do it right, and for the right reasons. Instead of asking
yourself that age-old philosophical question, to be or not to be (a
webmaster), you should be asking yourself that other philosophical
question: If your website falters in the forest (of websites), and
nobody hears your cash register ring, did it make a sound in your
pocket? Philosophers are still grappling with this question.
Josh Greenberger: As a computer consultant for over two decades, developed software for NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, AT&T, Charles Schwab, Bell Laboratories and Chase Manhattan Bank. Letters and articles have appeared in The New York Post, New York Daily News, New York Times, Village Voice, Jewish Press, Hamodia and others. Topics of articles and letters have ranged from humor to science to politics to current events. Wrote a book disproving the theory of evolution, available at Amazon.com and other online and retail outlets. Wrote several screenplays.
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