Michael Bloch of Taming the Beast shares a study showing that 30% of US small businesses are still without a web site. Mid-size businesses check in with 15% not having their own site.
Not surprising on this end. I’ve been doing research for some rural Chamber of Commerce and Merchant Associations. Frankly, I’m surprised the number isn’t higher.
Take a look at Old Town Salinas (CA). Over 300 members, but a large portion have no web site listed. And they’re less than an hour drive from San Jose.
Michael shares his thoughts on four possible reasons for these numbers:
- a fear of cost
- a fear of jargon and technical concepts
- trust issues
- a general fear of the unknown
Yep, yep, yep and yep.
If you’re a small or mid-size business looking to get a web presence, I’ll suggest two things:
- Consider blogware to battle a few of the reasons above. You can use blogware to produce a static web site or better yet – engage in a conversation with your customers.
- Research other business blogs by visiting iBlogBusiness Directory. Contact the business bloggers you find. Send the author an email and ask questions.
If you’re a business blogger and not yet in the iBlogBusiness Directory, what’s holding you back? Here’s a niche site I found there: Seeking Succession
If you’re a web developer and you’re looking for affordable solutions for your prospects who push back because of price, check out the directory, grab the feed right from the listing and plug it into your GreatNews feed aggregator – then show your client the example.
What’s that? You’re a web developer but don’t read feeds? I Hear that Train a comin’…
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Find Your Social Media ROI
I hear it from a lot of business owners: “Where is the ROI with all this Social Media?“ If this is a question you ask yourself, maybe we should work together a bit more. We can work together solo, or via a professional learning community. Find and increase your ROI. There is a “there” there.
