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October/September 1999
Two Easy Ways to Build Business With WebNow.com

With WebNow.com a free web site is just the beginning. We want to show you how to integrate your web site into your daily business practice and achieve online success. There are many way to do this, but today we will focus on two simple solutions that will help you encourage referral business: 1) build your own online referral network, and 2) build sites for clients, associates, vendors and others.

Build Your Online Referral Network
An online referral network is easy to make with your WebNow.com web site. It’s a great way to encourage referral business and build customer loyalty.

The whole thing takes place on the eCards page of your web site. eCards allow you to post information about other businesses on your web site. It’s like an online business card bulletin board.

To create your online referral network, enter information about customers’ businesses, associates, colleagues, vendors, etc. Be sure to let them know that you have done this for them. Encourage them to post information about your company on their web sites. Soon you will have a local network of web sites that refer business to each other. Accompanying verbal referrals will help enhance this network.

But what if your customers, associates, etc. don’t have a web site? That takes us to the second part of today’s tip:


Build Web Sites for Clients and Others
You know how easy it is to build your own high quality web site with WebNow.com, so why not spread the joy? You can create sites for clients, associates, vendors and others just as easily as you created your own site, but when you build sites for others, you get the credit.

To build sites for others, simply go to www.webnow.com and click on the Members Login button. After you enter your user name and password, you will be taken to the Site Status Clipboard. Scroll to the bottom of that page and click on the Build Sites For Your Clients button and follow the instructions. It’s easy and fun!

We provide you with an online report that details your site building activity. Plus, when one of your customers upgrades their site with our premium services, you get a commission.

To further enhance your referral business, create an eCard on each site you build that points people to your web address. Add eCards to the sites of the businesses of your clients.

For more information about our reselling programs and what it can do for you, go to www.webnow.com/members/resell.asp.

How to Promote Your Web Site

Without promotion, your web site is as effective as a brochure that is never taken out of the box. People can still find it, but they have to work awfully hard to do so. To make a brochure effective, you have to get it in the hands of your audience. You do this through mailings, countertop displays, handouts, etc. Like a brochure, there are specific methods for getting your web site in front of your audience—both online and offline.

Online Promotion
The best way for your web site to get noticed is to submit your site to search engines with key words. A search engine is an online utility, like Yahoo or Lycos, that helps people find what they are looking for on the Internet. Users tell the search engine what they are looking for by using "key words." These key words describe what goods or services they are looking for. It is important to realize that search engines will not know about your web site until you tell them about it.

NOTE: It normally takes two to four weeks for search engines to process your submission.

That's where WebNow.com can help. Our online service allows you to automatically submit your site to the ten largest search engines on the Internet along with multiple sets of key words.

About Key Words
Our unique service allows you to submit your site to search engines with up to ten sets of key words. This is important for companies that offer a variety of services. Each set of key words can be used to describe a different facet of the business. For example, a CPA that offers bookkeeping and publishes a newsletter about investing offers two distinct services that cater to two distinct audiences. The CPA could submit one set of key words like: bookkeeping, accounting, tax preparation, and another set like: investing, financial newsletter, investment advice, investment publication.

Offline Promotion
There are also effective ways to market your site offline. These methods will inform your customers, colleagues, friends, neighbors and vendors that you are a proud owner of a great web site.

  • Tell others - word of mouth is always the best advertising
  • Print your web address on everything: business cards, letterhead, business forms and checks, proposals, contracts, newspaper and yellow pages ads, and on advertising specialties.
  • Record your web address on your on-hold and answering machine messages.

These methods of promoting your web site are easy and effective. By using them, your web site will go to work for you and help you achieve online success.

Web Site Marketing Tips

Now that you have a WebNow.com web site, you should spread the word about it. Nobody will know it's there unless you tell them about it. Here are a few tips:

  • Use the phrase "Visit us on the web: www.webnow.com/yourbusiness" on all your e-mail correspondence.
  • Print your web address on all your business cards and letterhead.
  • Include your web address in your yellow pages ad, association listings, newspaper ads, etc.
  • If you have an on-hold phone message and/or after hours phone message, have the narrator mention your web site.
  • Ask your friends and associates with web sites to create a link to your site. You can create eCard links to their sites. Soon, a professional referral network will be born.
  • Offer to make free WebNow.com web sites for your clients to get them started. Create an eCard link on their sites to yours.

Add Zing to Your Text


You can draw attention to key parts of your web site's text by applying special formatting. Our online formatting tips will show you how. Before long you will be making bold text, enlarging your type size and aligning paragraphs like a pro.

Before you start, let's learn a little about HTML, the text language of the Internet. HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. Don't be alarmed. You don't have to transform yourself into a geek to succeed. Just a few pointers will help you achieve the desired results.

HTML commands, or tags, are contained in brackets like this < >. HTML tags must be placed before and after the text you are formatting. Here's an example. To make a word appear in bold text you must open the command with <B>. All the text after this command will be bold. To end the bold text, you must close the command with </B>. The forward slash inside the brackets indicates the end of the bold text. So, your line of text might look something like this: Masters Green has <B>25 years of experience</B> in the lawn and garden business. Of course when your customers view your web site, they won't see the HTML tags. They will only see that your web site is cool.

With this basic knowledge in mind, here are some more HTML tags that you can apply to your web site's text.

Paragraph and Text Alignment Commands
<P> starts a new paragraph
<P Align="left"> starts a new paragraph with text aligned to the left
<P Align="right"> starts a new paragraph with text aligned to the right
<P Align="center"> starts a new paragraph with centered text
<P Align="justify"> starts a new paragraph with justified text

Text Formatting Commands
<B> Bold Text
</B> Ends Bold Text
<I> Italic Text
</I> Ends Italic Text
<U> Underlined Text
</U> Ends Underlined Text

Text Size and Color
To change the size of your text (font), type <FONT SIZE="#">. Replace the # with a number from 1 to 7, 1 being the smallest and 7 being the largest size. Standard sizes are 2 and 3. To end a font size type </FONT>

To change the color of your text, type <FONT COLOR="Blue">. Replace Blue with any of the colors listed below:
* Blue
* Darkblue
* Black
* White
* Red
* Darkred
* Green
* Darkgreen
* Gray

You can combine font color and size commands in one tag, like this:
<FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="BLACK">

For more formatting instructions, see Formatting Tips while in the edit mode of your web site. With a little practice, you'll be able to add emphasis to key areas of your web site, making it even more effective. E-mail us for help @ design@webnow.com
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