As an Internet consultant, strategist and developer for over 20 years, one of the greatest concerns I hear from my small business customers is that building traffic to their Web site is too great a task, particularly as more Web sites compete for online consumers and strategies have become more and more technical over the years. 

If you share these same concerns, my advice to you is to start where you’re comfortable, and grow from there.There are a number of activities you can start with to increase your Web site traffic that don’t require any Internet knowledge at all.  Here are three options:

Word-of-Mouth.Don’t forget to tell every person you meet about your Web site.Strangely, people seem to overlook this easy yet powerful resource.Perhaps they think that their Web site is too simple compared to some of the more extensive sites they have seen. Others just forget that it’s a valuable resource for someone wanting to learn about what you have to offer. Be proud of your Web site and let every person you talk to know why they should visit it.

T-Shirts.  Have a black t-shirt made with your Web site address displayed in yellow, gold or silver.Before putting this tactic into action, I would wear a suit to my speaking engagements or educational seminars. Now, instead, I wear a very nice long sleeve shirt with my HereNextYear logo embroidered on the front.  Along the back collar, www.HereNextYear.com displays. If I am attending a workshop or seminar, I plan to sit front and middle. At the break, someone always comes up to ask me about my business.   

Don’t skimp on quality here.  It is some of the most effective and targeted advertising you can invest in.  Buy a nice high end shirt and take it into an embroidery store with a digital copy of your logo to have your Web site added.  It is one of the best investments you will make to spread the word about your Web site and build traffic. 

Give-a-Away Premiums.   Have pens, magnets, cups or other small items available to give away to anyone you see.Give something that is related to your business.If you sell mobile phone service give a small phone case, or if you are a financial advisor hand out inexpensive calculators. Remember the whole point is to provide a reminder to your prospects and customers that your business exists. So be sure to display your Web site address on all those items.

Business Card.Most business owners are familiar with business cards and probably exchange them with other people all the time.However, the aim with this business card is only to direct your prospective clients to visit your Web Site.  Consider offering a free report with information of value to your customers when they visit your site.Promote the report and the Web site address they should visit to receive it on your business card.  Give a card to everyone you meet and post one on every bulletin board you see.

True, there are many options for building traffic to your Web site, and many of them require some real time and skill.However, it is critical to keep in mind that many of the most effective actions are the same approaches people have been successfully using for years and years.Word of mouth and personal publicity will always be one of the best advertisements for your Web site, and the good news is that it is a simple strategy you can begin immediately. 

To find out even more Web site traffic builders that you can start using today, get your free report:  “101 Ways to Get More Web Site Traffic”. 

You may be asking yourself “How do I start my own website?”.  Well, for starters:  What do you want your website to portray?  Thoughtful consideration of your website’s future direction will help you in deciding on the optimum domain name for your site.  Careful consideration of your website’s domain name can pay off in dividends once your website is published online. Good search engine optimization, or SEO, begins with domain name selection.  Not to mention your positioning and branding with your customer.

What if someone already owns the domain name you covet?  But you really wanted it badly.  Can the domain name still be acquired?  Well, let’s consider that.  It’s possible, but there are some things to consider.  However, with a little luck and enginuity you can get the domain name you want even if it is already spoken for.  There are other ways to get the domain name you want:

Hyphenated Names Sometimes it is a good strategy to just take the same domain name and hyphenate it as in turning bobsautoparts.com into bobs-auto-parts.com.  Is hyphenating the best way to go?  Yes and no.  If you are dealing with an already well known name, generally the answer would be no, as most web surfers would usually just enter the non-hyphenated version in, and end up at your competitors’ website instead.  Not a good strategy.  Also, the longer the name you have chosen, the more tedious and error prone it becomes for the surfer to type in the name correctly, again foiling the chances that they will end up at your website.  So keep it short.  Another school of thought: IF the web domain you want is already taken, IF the owner of the domain name won’t give it up, and IF the website associated with it is non-existent or poorly designed with low traffic, hyphenating the name might make sense after all.  But be careful:  the last thing you want is to cause internet domain name confusion because you have decided on a domain name registration that is so close to a major competitor’s name that you end up losing business to them.

Longer or Shorter?  Domain names can be up to 67 characters long.  You could purchase a domain name like thelongestdomainnameintheworldandthensome
andthensomemoreandmore.com which is 63 characters long, but why would you want to do that?  Who would want to type it into a browser?  My website is www.StartYourWebsiteToday.com  and features a name that in a few words encapsulates the purpose of the site.  Good name selection can be helpful also with search engine ranking.  When choosing your domain name try to keep it short and concise, and if at all possible let the name tell the story of the site.  Keep it as short as possible.

Brand Name or Generic  Whether or not to call your website by a brand name or to make the name a more generic description of your business online is the question.  Definitely if your business is known by a fairly well known brand name, then you would want to try and secure that as your domain name.  Budweiser.com is a site that is well known and gets a lot of traffic, even though there is nothing specifically in the domain name that says anything about beer.  But because Budweiser is known all over the world as a beer brand, people know what they are getting when they surf to the website.  If your brand name is well known, definitely try to obtain your brand name as a domain name.  But if your company is Nike or Coca Cola or Budweiser don’t discount the idea of buying the domain name shoes.com or soda.com or beer.com if they are available as well.  People often search the web using generic terms, more so even than brand names.  A person is more likely to search the internet with generic terms like shoes or footwear or sneakers than to search by a single brand name, even one as big as Nike.  Research your domain name as thoroughly as you can, including looking for generic keywords which could be a good fit as a potential domain name.  You can have as many domain names as you want pointing to a single website, so the more generic terms you can acquire that directly describe your business, the better.   A generic name if your business is new or not yet well known can get great results, if you can find a good one.  To start your search for your own unique domain name, here is a link to a domain name search engine.  So in conclusion, the first step in “how to start a website” is in the wise choice of your domain name. 

A crucial building block in setting up a website is the registration of a domain name.  Whether you are building a site to advertise your local business, an e-commerce site, photo or video or music download site, information site, or if you want to start up a website to display photos of your newborn online, the entire endeavor begins with the registration of your domain name.

Next you might ask- “What determines a good domain name choice?”.  The answer to this depends on what type of site you are planning.  The domain name chosen for a family and friends website won’t be as crucial as with other types of sites.  Why not?  Most likely in that circumstance you’re not looking for tons of traffic, friends and family are your desired audience, to keep them up to date.  In a case like this, it does not matter whatsoever if you find a domain name like “bobswebplace.net” or not, since most likely you will only be giving out the name of the site to a few friends and family and maybe some coworkers.   

So really what is most important in coosing your unique domain is the TYPE of site you want to publish.  If it is only for friends to see, it hasn’t got as much relevance as a business related or e-commerce website.  However…

What if the website is for business?  What if you want it to attract attention?

It pays to have a domain name that draws attention to your site or business.  If your website is about car parts for example, do you really expect the average web surfer to remember how to get to your website if it is named “bobsthingsforsale.com” or some other unrelated name?  The best strategy is to find a domain name that directly relates to your business, whether it is the business name itself or related to the category of business.  For example, a jewelry website should have a domain name like jewelry.com or jensjewelry.com, something that immediately associates the domain name with the theme of the site.  It’s all about branding, and making a lasting impression on the target audience or customers.

You can find domain names by checking the WhoIs database on the internet.  To aid you in your domain name search, I have conveniently placed a domain name search engine on StartYourWebsiteToday.com for this very purpose.  When searching for the domain name, the results given will instantly show whether or not the domain name is available, and if so, give you the option to immediately register it.  If it’s not available, several alternative domain names will be proposed, to help you fine tune your search, or possibly giving you an acceptable alternative domain name to register instead.