In this article I will discuss how important is it to build community websites rather than straight forward sales pitches. Selling online is about bringing people together, not about stuffing products down your visitors throwts and expecting them to buy from you.
We have conditioned our minds all of our lives to accept advertising billboards, radio ads, newspaper ads, commercials, and all sorts of other advertising materials wherever we go. The same applies on the internet. This "conditioning" has enabled us to see past all the ads and look directly for the pertinant information that we are seeking.
People who are new to the internet are more likely to click on your ads for no apparent reason but to simply search and keep searching. Others that have beed online for years now, tend not to pay attention to as many ads on a daily basis like they used to.
If you are serious about making money online without having to spend too much of your budget, create a "community online". It is in our nature as human beings to want to belong, or to be involved within a community setting. Communities come in all shapes & sizes and are not limited to gender, race, nationality, or religion. A community can cater to whatever topic you wish and welcome whomever you desire.
Same concept applies to your website!
Building a community within your website is the key to increasing your business, keeping visitors coming back, and keeping your advertising budget in the bank. Show your visitors that you aren't just here on the internet to sell them something. For example, we (Smartads), we are here to teach what we know about internet marketing. By teaching, we too learn more, gain more business, and attract new visitors.
RESIDUAL TRAFFIC IS THE KEY!
As i've always mentioned to my clients & readers, getting people to your website is the easy part. Anyone with a $500 credit card can get traffic to their website, it's keeping them there and getting your visitors to come back on their own time is what makes owning a website a dificult proposition.
Visitors always come back to communities they can relate to!
I always to go back to internet marketing communities online like:
www.webpronews.com
www.sitepronews.com
www.searchenginewatch.com
and so on... There are many internet marketing resources available for business owners. We are fortunate to have access to the vast amount of resources that we do, in order to increase our business & to increase our knowledge.
More resources online also increases competition. There are literally millions of websites out there and many of them might possibly be your competitors. Without building a community, people won't remember who you are, or what it is that you do. Infact, if you are spending all of your money on banner ads, pay per click advertising, affiliates, and other marketing areas online, and at the same time you aren't paying attention to increasing your home base, when your advertising budget runs out so too will the bulk of your traffic.
If your website isn't good enough, your sales won't be good enough. Granted; building a website can be very time consuming but just remember that you don't need to create an empire over night. Just a little here, a little there, and before you know it, it all adds up to something you can be proud of. Over time, your website traffic will constantly be increasing.
PLEASE NOTE: If you stop advertising, your traffic won't grow. Growing your website is all part of the whole plan.
What do we need to create a community website?
You always want to add extras to your site that interest you. By doing so, you will also attract people with similar interests and help to bridge the credibility gap online.
You can always add these to your website:
Personal blog
Helpful tips
Mini-ebook courses (on how to be a better client for you)
Other people's articles
Chat forum (requires a lot of maintenance & promotion)
Free business directory listings
Family albums for users
Fun online questionnaires
Mind benders
Games
Contests (with actual prizes)
"How to" articles
Government resources
Local community resources
Support local companies & vice versa
I think we can now get a sense of what building a "community" website means. The key is to take your industry (even if it is boring), and teach someone about what it is that you do. The internet allows us to take in more information than we could ever imagine. There is always someone out there who wants to learn about your industry.
The key is to add on a little at a time. Talk to your web designer. Try and find unique little ways to build a community website online. Ask people what they look for within your industry. After time, you will know what it takes to keep creating more for your company online, and your wallet will love you for it.
Just remember the more you build, the less your advertising budget will be when you get there. Just keep it up until you get there, don't give up on yourself, your company, or your future.
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Forum Community
Forums and online communities are excellent additions to websites that make them interesting and informative. Forums provide a means for your website's visitors to interact with one another to discuss about anything they wish, or about products and services you are offering. With human activity on your forums, visitors are more inclined to stay and interact with other members. What your forum members post may be added content to your website as they bring with them unique knowledge and experiences which are added to your website, thus expanding your offerings. Other visitors who are reading these forums may find information useful and stay to learn more or join the forum in order to ask the other members of the forum.
The most successful forums turn a website ‘sticky’. A sticky website is one in which surfers are interested in visiting over and over again. One reason for the stickiness of a website is the content available, and forums have information that is updated frequently if members are very active. Visitors transform from one-time browsers to residents and regulars of the website just to check out what is new and what others have to say. A “sticky” website also attracts more visitors as members of your forum grow with the community and spread your website’s URL to friends and contacts. This word-of-mouth marketing is priceless and can very often generate a lot of traffic to your website with almost zero costs. These new visitors who become members then continue to spread the word about your forum community and very soon you would have a thriving community that supports and feeds your website with new traffic.
In addition to turning a website sticky so that visitors come back often to find new information and content, forums offer additional content that may improve your search engine ranking. As every webmaster knows, a tremendous amount of traffic can come from a first position ranking in the search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN. These 3 search engines account for almost 100% of the web-searches done by people on the net. Being ranked number one for the search term that your site is optimized for, such as the keyword “sports shoes” will almost ensure that everyone who searches for that keyword would click on the first returned result from the search engine and land on your website. If your website sells sports shoes, you can almost guarantee that that tremendous amount of traffic can be turned to huge sales and revenues. So by adding a forum where members can discuss sports shoes on your website, you are generating content related to “sports shoes”. These content pages are then indexed by search engines and increase the number of pages that your site has on the search engine. With such relevant content, other sites linking to your content and the content itself will aid in your climbing of the search engine rankings.
The most successful forums turn a website ‘sticky’. A sticky website is one in which surfers are interested in visiting over and over again. One reason for the stickiness of a website is the content available, and forums have information that is updated frequently if members are very active. Visitors transform from one-time browsers to residents and regulars of the website just to check out what is new and what others have to say. A “sticky” website also attracts more visitors as members of your forum grow with the community and spread your website’s URL to friends and contacts. This word-of-mouth marketing is priceless and can very often generate a lot of traffic to your website with almost zero costs. These new visitors who become members then continue to spread the word about your forum community and very soon you would have a thriving community that supports and feeds your website with new traffic.
In addition to turning a website sticky so that visitors come back often to find new information and content, forums offer additional content that may improve your search engine ranking. As every webmaster knows, a tremendous amount of traffic can come from a first position ranking in the search engines such as Google, Yahoo or MSN. These 3 search engines account for almost 100% of the web-searches done by people on the net. Being ranked number one for the search term that your site is optimized for, such as the keyword “sports shoes” will almost ensure that everyone who searches for that keyword would click on the first returned result from the search engine and land on your website. If your website sells sports shoes, you can almost guarantee that that tremendous amount of traffic can be turned to huge sales and revenues. So by adding a forum where members can discuss sports shoes on your website, you are generating content related to “sports shoes”. These content pages are then indexed by search engines and increase the number of pages that your site has on the search engine. With such relevant content, other sites linking to your content and the content itself will aid in your climbing of the search engine rankings.
Church Website
Building a sense of community among church members is valuable to church leaders. Networking through interactive social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are popular tools that people use—including church people—to stay in touch. An interactive church website provides an opportunity for both. Such a site can be customized to support the unique ministries of an individual church.
Here’s why you may want to consider an interactive website for your church:
An interactive website combines a church picture directory with social media
Picture directories acquaint church members with one another by helping them connect names to faces. Social networking media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn include that feature along with the capability of interactive communication. Combining these features in an interactive church website creates an environment that improves recognition and encourages personal interaction among members that helps build healthy relationships.
An interactive website improves organizational communication
Along with encouraging interpersonal communication, an interactive church website also enhances the communication of organizational information. Telephone and e-mail lists are easily generated and announcements can be quickly sent to all members or targeted to special groups and committees.
The site can include other helpful communication tools as well, like online calendars, department information pages and customized pages that promote opportunities and serve particular church ministries.
An interactive website is easy to administrate & update
An interactive church website de-centralizes data entry by allowing members to enter and update their own pictures and personal information. This removes the burden from administrative staff who are normally responsible for assembling picture directories (that are quickly outdated), and managing information through client-server applications, spreadsheets and other database programs.
The information itself, however, is centralized and easy to access (based on security clearance) from anywhere. The interactive website can also be updated in real time so pictures and contact information are current and relevant.
An interactive website increases security
The Internet is full of spammers and other predators. It’s hard to be sure the person you’re communicating with is who they claim to be. An interactive church website controls the environment in order to maintain propriety and insure personal integrity.
It also secures information. The common practice of e-mailing Excel Spreadsheets can expose sensitive and personal information that puts a member’s identity at risk. A password protected, interactive website secures information and makes sure the right people have access to it.
An interactive website assists in enlisting volunteers
Enlisting and maintaining volunteers is a challenging and time consuming task. Often, filling the position with a person takes priority over finding the right person. An interactive website will help by allowing you to conduct searches based on pre-defined criteria.
You can search by hobbies, professions, volunteer experience and other search criteria to identify talents and abilities. You’ll more effectively match the right person to the right job, which will increase volunteer longevity and overall ministry effectiveness.
An interactive church website is only a tool. But it’s an interactive tool that promotes and improves the communication that is essential to building church community.
Here’s why you may want to consider an interactive website for your church:
An interactive website combines a church picture directory with social media
Picture directories acquaint church members with one another by helping them connect names to faces. Social networking media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn include that feature along with the capability of interactive communication. Combining these features in an interactive church website creates an environment that improves recognition and encourages personal interaction among members that helps build healthy relationships.
An interactive website improves organizational communication
Along with encouraging interpersonal communication, an interactive church website also enhances the communication of organizational information. Telephone and e-mail lists are easily generated and announcements can be quickly sent to all members or targeted to special groups and committees.
The site can include other helpful communication tools as well, like online calendars, department information pages and customized pages that promote opportunities and serve particular church ministries.
An interactive website is easy to administrate & update
An interactive church website de-centralizes data entry by allowing members to enter and update their own pictures and personal information. This removes the burden from administrative staff who are normally responsible for assembling picture directories (that are quickly outdated), and managing information through client-server applications, spreadsheets and other database programs.
The information itself, however, is centralized and easy to access (based on security clearance) from anywhere. The interactive website can also be updated in real time so pictures and contact information are current and relevant.
An interactive website increases security
The Internet is full of spammers and other predators. It’s hard to be sure the person you’re communicating with is who they claim to be. An interactive church website controls the environment in order to maintain propriety and insure personal integrity.
It also secures information. The common practice of e-mailing Excel Spreadsheets can expose sensitive and personal information that puts a member’s identity at risk. A password protected, interactive website secures information and makes sure the right people have access to it.
An interactive website assists in enlisting volunteers
Enlisting and maintaining volunteers is a challenging and time consuming task. Often, filling the position with a person takes priority over finding the right person. An interactive website will help by allowing you to conduct searches based on pre-defined criteria.
You can search by hobbies, professions, volunteer experience and other search criteria to identify talents and abilities. You’ll more effectively match the right person to the right job, which will increase volunteer longevity and overall ministry effectiveness.
An interactive church website is only a tool. But it’s an interactive tool that promotes and improves the communication that is essential to building church community.
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