Investing Online

I am at the doctor’s office getting my eyes checked & hopefully will be getting a new pair of glasses because I spend my time making a living in front of a computer which probably isn’t the best thing to maintain good vision. Maybe there is some truth to what our parents told us when we were little: ”don’t sit so close to the TV – it’s bad for your eyes!”

Anyway, these times are the rare occasions when I’ll pick up a magazine & read an article that I wouldn’t normally read online or in a forwarded e-mail. So, I picked up the most recent edition of Fortune magazine as I was intrigued by the cover that eluded to the magazine being chocked full of articles of still being able to make big money in a rapidly declining economy. Guess what over 50 percent of the articles were focused on? The internet! Microsoft is buying Yahoo, should have bought Facebook, needs to make better computers & stay away from the web, Apple is going to take over the world, phonebook advertising will soon be something we tell our grandchildren about, & my son won’t know what a CD player is. As a web designer, my digital world seems behind the times. When I once felt on the cutting edge with my gadgets, I feel as though the tools & gadgets I have now, even though the help me accomplish great things, will soon need upgrading. Actually, I am writing this blog entry using my already out of date & no longer cool Palm TREO 650 🙂

So how do we stay on the up and up with technology and continue to have time for family & business? Answer: we simply cannot. We as business owners must make decisions within the confines of out niche & the market we are trying to reach. One way we can do this is to find ways to spend advertising dollars that provide us with a measurable & goal-oriented method to reach our market. 9 times out of 10 that way is going to be accomplished online. Never before have we been able to obtain accurate metrics so quickly and in real time about how well our marketing campaigns are doing. Money spent to develop a classy website & money spent making sure it is consistently updated with relevant, searchable content is first & foremost a basic way to ensure that you & your organization do not become invisible to the people that you are trying to reach. If you think you are saving money by not updating your website, you are sorely mistaken. Visitors want information from you. Returning visitors want new information from you. You know what happens when neither one of them find what they are looking for. They’ll find someone else that is willing to provide it.

For you old schoolers out there: stop shying away from investing your money to promote yourself online. It will be one of the smartest things that you did. Having a website is rarely enough anymore.