Build a Network of Business Sites

This post is apart of the 3 part series “The Basic Principles behind Building an Online Presence“. This is one of many howto guides featured in my web coaching program, join the group for more tips.

Long gone are the days when it was okay to have one site for your business. At the very least, today’s online entrepreneur has one core site, a blog, and at least one business profile on a social network. Whatever your business may be, if you want to optimize your online presence, you have to understand how using social media forms like blogs, or social networks like MySpace, can help your business grow.
Now I know this is something you have probably heard before, but I am not sure if this is something you have actually taken to heart. You might be thinking to yourself, “Yes. I do have a blog and a MySpace profile, but I’m still not making any money and my business is not getting any bigger. I know these things are important, but I just don’t understand how they are going to help me. My blog gets little to no views. I don’t have many MySpace friends. I kind of understand this stuff, but I still feel lost.”

Let me simplify all these big concepts into a few sentences. In a nutshell, you want to create your core site where you bring in the sales and then create these other sites to promote your business (or other businesses.) With that thought in mind, all of these sites have to clearly be linked together. It’s a simple thing to say, but for some a hard concept to learn. So many people neglect to add their blog or profile pages to their site. Moreover, they create profile pages that don’t really sell their projects or showcase what their business is all about. Your network of sites needs to be in sync. On your main site you should have a space where you say, ‘You can also find me on: Black Planet, Ning, Myspace, LinkedIn, etc.’ On your profile pages, they should either have designs similar to your main site so that you create a ‘Brand’ for yourself that people remember and/or they should be filled with banners, product images, and content that direct people to the links you want them to click.

If you want more people to buy your product, you should have a banner or link that takes them directly to that page. If you want to get more people to visit your blog, you should NOT just link to the blog itself but rather a GREAT post that you wrote. Send people to a specific space, so that you can get more specific results. If you want them to sign up to your newsletter, don’t simply give them a link to your main page. Tell them you are hosting a contest or sharing some great news so they absolutely must sign up to your mailing list to get it.

Your goal should be to clearly define the purpose of each site you create and work on sending people to that site who will take part in the activity you are sharing with them. For profit sites need to have all products and services clearly visible, with the best content and incentive promotions at the top. Promotional sites like blogs need to be eye catching, they need to draw people in and that usually occurs when you figure out how to target people interested in the topic of your blog. When you find them, tell them about this great thing you found, created, or wrote about. Once they click that link, it’s up to you to control what happens next. If you want them to buy a product, are your products featured on that page? If you want them to tell their friends about your site, do you have a tell-a-friend script? If you want them to link to your page, do you have banners that you are sharing? Whatever you want them to do on your site, don’t just think about it. Create ways for them to interact with your site, and you will see the results you are looking for.
This post is apart of the 3 part series “The Basic Principles behind Building an Online Presence“. This is one of many howto guides featured in my web coaching program, join the group for more tips.