Proceed with great caution with overly tricky Flash animations. Often the viewer perceives them as nothing more than a gimmick and they can detract from the site’s main message. Because using any graphics on a website can substantially slow it down, the relationship between information content and visual content is tenuous. So, like all specialist jobs, it is often best handled by a professional.

2. FREE INFORMATION, OFFERS AND COMPETITIONS:
As discussed in our article Websites that Work, providing free specialised information to a niche market is an invaluable draw card to your site. Promote it as a free service, and not only does it gain you a higher ranking with search engines, it gives your business credibility. Keep updating your information and your potential customers will return for more.

And show me someone who doesn’t like something for nothing! You can offer a free trial period of a product, a free bonus gift with every sale, or an on-line competition for offering two customer leads. Your special offers are only limited by your budget and imagination!

3. BE CREDIBLE:
Nobody in their right mind would buy anything from your site if they felt you weren’t a legitimate business. You need to provide this information, including company numbers, street address and land lines (not just a PO Box or a mobile number). Also including client testimonials or case studies from satisfied customers or well known clients will add to your credibility. Some websites even use photographs of their premises to alleviate any customer fears that they are not giving their credit card details to dubious fly-by-nighter operations!

4. ANSWER BULLETIN BOARD QUESTIONS:
Interactive sites such as small business advice websites invite discussion forums with their visitors. By responding to questions relating to your industry not only demonstrates your knowledge, it is also another marketing opportunity to include your name, business and website details. If your response was particularly enlightening and informative, you may just have generated more visitors to your site and potential business for little effort.

5. WEB CONTENT:
Good web design can make your site look attractive, but it is still the content that gets the real message across. For this you may need to invest in an experienced website copy writer to construct your information if you are having difficulties. How many times have you visited a website and not had a clue what is was about, let alone consider doing business with them. It is critical that planning, research and content are all up to a high standard to have a successful website.

6. MONTHLY NEWSLETTER:
Just as a published newsletter can do the job, an e-newsletter can also be an effective and even cheaper way to promote your products and services to existing and prospective clients. To generate a subscription, promote your e-newsletter on your site, inviting viewers to insert their email addresses to receive their copy.

Points to consider are:
• make it a valuable resource, not just one long ad
• keep it exciting with discount offers, competitions and giveaways
• make clear reference to the privacy of their contact details
• don’t abuse the relationship with constant advertising, once a month is acceptable.

Remember, you always need the recipient’s permission to send an e-newsletter, otherwise it is just another form of unwanted spam.

7. KEEP IT FRESH:
You may have a fabulous looking website, well promoted and getting lots of traffic. So don’t ignore it, it needs constant monitoring. Frequently check it is in good working order, with links going to the right destinations, pictures loading quickly, and outdated information and competitions promptly removed when completed.

If a visitor sends you an email, respond to it within 24 hours. If you receive an order, dispatch it in the set delivery time. And as frequently as you can manage, update the information content. Add new customer testimonials, recent case studies or staff appointments, and announce competition winners with a picture if possible. Basically, a good website has to look like the lights are on and someone is home!

8. PROMOTE YOUR WEBSITE WITH SEARCH ENGINES:
Surprisingly the easiest and cheapest method of gaining real traffic to a website is by submitting the relevant information to the popular search engines. A search engine will direct a user to websites that are relevant to the key words that you have submitted. By registering your site properly and gaining a high ranking, a user will find your site when commencing a search with one of the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo, MSN or Sensis.

But be warned, there are distinct methods to registering your site and if you do it incorrectly or before your site is search engine compliant, it can actually harm your chances of being ranked! So for more specific information, read our expert tips on Search Engine Optimisation.

9. PRESS RELEASE:
Is your website particularly interesting and useful to a certain demographic or industry? Send out press releases to relevant newspapers, magazines and trade journals promoting your website as a service. Highlight its unique features and benefits. You really have to be convincing that this is something new and different, because thousands of websites go on-line every day.

If you need help putting together your press release, look at our feature article Your Press Release Kit, it gives some excellent tips on how to stand out.

10. CREATE WEBSITE LINKS:
Linking your website to other topic related sites is a valuable cross-promotional relationship on-line. It can also greatly enhance your ranking in search engines if you link back and forth to reputable and well promoted sites. – Just make sure there is a mutual benefit to both parties when cross linking. The pitfalls of this however are if someone can come into your site from a link with another, then they can just as easily exit your site and forget to come back!

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