Ricky’s Online Business Blog

I got an enquiry from a member of a reputable direct selling company in Singapore.  As member, she was given a special web page with her name and photo on it.  She asked how to promote her web site.  I’m not really an expert but ventured to answer her question.  Please add to my answer if you have any good ideas.

Question

Hi Ricky,

I need a favour from you, can you please advise me – How can I promote my website (http://name.company.com) as you are an expert in this.

Answer

I’m still long way to become an expert.  Anyway, here’s my brief feedback.

I have checked your web page.  However, as the web site does not belong to you, and so you have not much control over the web site content, there is not much thing you can do on the web page itself.  Otherwise, you could do some search engine optimization (SEO) to attract Internet traffic.

But I guess there are at least two other ways to promote your business online:

First, use social media like Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn and even Twitter.  Not only mention what you do, but treat these media like your “mini PR agencies” to constantly update and tell the world how you are doing in your business.

Second, set up a blog and tell the world what you do.  Although you don’t have control over the web page your company gives you, you have control over your own web site.  Use blogging not only to attract Internet traffic from search engines by SEO, but also to show your products and services, with photos and funny stories.  Those people having similar mindset as yours can get attracted to you, and maybe your business.

I’ve been looking for dedicated hosting solution for a special client.  But after weeks of close-door negotiations with my “cronies”, the result is not satisfactory.

But now “tsunami” has come, time has changed.  So I guess it’s time to open up the deal for “open bidding”

• To support a large-scale web portal consisting of applications such as chatting and video sharing.  You can think of it as a mini version of YouTube.com.
• To support up to 2000 concurrent users (will be more in later stage).  They may be chatting, or watching video at the same time!
• Capable technician is needed to take care of the server, including doing backup, finetuning, troubleshooting and other maintenance works.
• Fast connection with lots of dedicated bandwidth.
• Virus-proof, hacker-proof and problem-proof!

Perhaps even a cluster of servers are required.  I know it can be very expensive.  But i can tell you money is NOT a problem.

So if you can satisfy these requirements below, please contact me here.

By the way, the client will need to “interview” you to decide who will get the “concession”

Check here on previous post on the same project

What someone you first meet asks you, “What do you do? What does your company do? Why you do it better?”, how would you answer?

in just a few sentences and short span of time, you need to catch his or her attention and leave a good first impression. Perhaps he or she will want to hear from you again and become your customer, or develop a business relationship with you later.

That is called the elevator pitch, a little sales pitch in as short span of time as an elevator ride.

When people ask me such questions, I normally answer “I’m an Internet business developer”, “I run a few dot com web sites”, “My main business is web hosting”, “I operate an education portal” and the like.

Non-technical people may reply, “Oh I see. So you design web sites!” Sometimes I just said, “Something like that lah!”, although I’m not a web designer. But it seems this is more understandable to many people.

Anyway, I have failed to explain and failed to impress them. Lost opportunities

So now I need to think of a better pitch. Do you think these are a little better?

• To business and finance people – “I develop Internet businesses that generate positive cash flow within 6 months for its owners”
• To non-technical people – “I build businesses that operate on the Internet. Learning to earn money in my pyjamas” :-)
• To bosses, sales and marketing people – “I sell products and services on the Internet using the latest technologies”
• To technical people – “I develop dot com web sites with PHP and MySQL”
• To hosting customers – “I provide you a platform to put up your web site and email accounts on the Internet”
• To people in education industry – “I do a little match-making in the tuition industry. Are you interested to be matched?”
• To my mother who doesn’t know what I’m doing – “As you can see, I sit in front of computer everyday to earn money!”

How about you? What is your elevator pitch? Feel free to introduce yourself!