As an experienced freelance writer, I’ve been in contact with several potential clients that need me to create content for their websites so they can make their online presence known. Some clients are a little intimidated by the internet and view it as a giant, complicated monster where submitting your information is either very dangerous or irrelevant due to its size. They are traditional, small shop, brick-and-mortar businesses that make great products but need to make their web presence known.
If you fit this category, there’s no need to worry. There are five free simple ways to make your web presence known and increase traffic and visibility to your small business even if you don’t have a website. A novice internet user can get each step done in less than an hour. The key is to have your contact information on every listing.
Build A Facebook Fan Page To Increase Web Presence. If you have a Facebook account to keep in contact with your family, then build your business a fan page to increase your web presence. I did this for a client who sells custom dog treats. She already had a Facebook page. I asked for pictures of her treats, the basic ingredients, contact information and the pricing. I then added it as a location to the local town’s Facebook page. In less than an hour I had her page up and running. Her hometown and even her county know about her business. Now 70,000 people in the county can find her.
Create A Squidoo Lens. Squidoo is a website that allows people to create lenses about almost anything. It’s almost easier than creating a Facebook page because you can add different sections that scroll vertically. You can have personal fun with Squidoo and create lenses about your favorite hobbies as well.
Make a LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn is designed to let small businesses and career professionals make their web presence know. It’s also one of the fastest growing internet directories to contact professionals. LinkedIn profiles can also be searched by location. The basic profile is free and you can list as little or as much information as you want.
Local Chamber Of Commerce. This is one of the most under-used sources for small business to make their web presence known, in my opinion. Your local chamber of commerce almost always has an internet site. Contact them and submit your information to get it listed. If your town doesn’t have a chamber of commerce, they might have a local small business association that does the same.
Review Sites. One of my most profitable freelance writing ventures is to do legitimate reviews for businesses, especially restaurants. I don’t get paid by businesses to do them, but they appreciate a positive review. Put your small business information on a review site like Yelp! . They have an application on cell phones that lets people look for specific types of businesses within a short walk or drive. Instead of looking for a local person and asking for recommendations, they look on Yelp! to see how people have rated your small business. If you have good reviews, then this word-of-mouth web presence can be profitable to you.
Bonus Techniques. If you are feeling more comfortable with using the internet to increase your web presence, here are a couple of bonus techniques. Register for a forum that’s related to your business. For example, I’m registered in forums dealing with military lifestyle because my veteran status gives me authority to give out advice. I often add links to my Yahoo!Voices articles there to boost my freelance writing presence. Another technique is to add a website link to your e-mail signatures. Every time you send an e-mail to someone, your web presence will be on it.