Internet Marketing and Online Advertising Without a Web Site

By Dan Harley, Jr.

It is common knowledge to believe that a business needs to have a Web site in order to market and advertise on the Internet. After all, how are Google or Yahoo going to find your business if you don’t have a Web site. If the search engines can’t find your Web site, then how are people going to find your business in the search engines. You might be surprised to know that is not necessarily the case anymore. In fact, there are now several means to promote and advertise a business on the Internet without a Web site. I’m sure this is going to contradict with the opinions of my Web developer colleagues, which will result in a plethora of hate mail. However, facts are facts and I will lay them out in this article.

Back in the late 90’s and early 00’s, it was thought that all businesses would have a Web site by now. A Web site would be a common staple with any business along with business cards, stationery and a phone. Well, that didn’t happen. There are some estimates indicating less than 15% of small businesses in the United States have a Web site and fractions of that are effectively promoting their Web site or business on the Internet. Whatever the reason for the low number of small businesses having Web sites is irrelevant to consumer demand.

More and more adult consumers are using the Internet to find local businesses or services than ever before. The phone book is rapidly loosing ground to the search engines for adult consumer preference in finding local businesses or services. This trend continues to grow despite the small business community being way behind in keeping up. Instead of waiting, Google, Yahoo and the yellow page companies have taken alternative measures to accommodate the growing consumer demand for online information, which has opened opportunities for a business to promote itself on the Internet without the need of a Web site.

Most small business owners don’t realize that their business may already be promoted on the Internet for free. Most of the online business directories (Yahoo Local, Google Maps, etc. ) are populated from yellow page information. Such information are formatted into business profiles in Yahoo Local, Google Maps and other services, which are given preferential placement in local search results over organic and even sponsored listings.

For instance, you can review the local listing for my own company [ click here ]. If everything goes right, you will see the PrimeConcepts local listing on the “sweet spot” of Yahoo’s search results for “internet marketing apple valley ca”. This listing is in better position than the sponsored listing and the organic listings. What’s interesting is the local listing placement has little to do with my company’s Web site. All I did was update my Yahoo business profile, which cost me nothing. My profile has enough information for potential customers to contact me even if I remove my Web site link. One thing that I should mention is my local business profiles on Google, Yahoo and the other directories generate more new customer referrals in one month than my yellow page ads generate in a year.

The online business profiles are certainly not the only means to advertise on the Internet without a Web site. In fact, there are countless others ways with more being created all the time. Having a page on MySpace, Facebook and other Web 2.0 sites are becoming prudent for small business advertising and especially for the cost (free). I can’t conclude this article without mentioning Craigslist. Putting it simply, Craigslist is phenomenal. A modest ad campaign in Craigslist, which costs nothing but my time, generates a steady flow of new customers. Although most all of my ads are linked to my web site, some ads divert to a tracking phone number and don’t even have reference my company.

What all this means to small business owners, especially to those who don’t have Web sites, is they can focus on online marketing and advertising first before investing in a Web site. A Web site is still very important to any business and every business should have one. However, delaying such an investment in favor of generating new customers by utilizing Internet marketing could be the edge a new business needs to be successful.

About the author: Dan Harley, Jr. is the founder and owner of PrimeConcepts for Internet Solutions. Dan has over 25 years experience as a professional computer programmer, decades of experience with sales & marketing and over eleven years of experience in Internet marketing. For questions concerning his articles or for more information, contact Dan at danharley@primeconcepts.net or visit http://primeconcepts.net

Why The Internet Is Beating the Pants Off Of Yellow Page Advertising

By Dan Harley, Jr.

If you have a small business you probably have a yellow page ad. Be it a full-page ad or a simple phone listing, the yellow pages have reached out and touched all of us in our wallets and for good reason. The yellow pages had been the most practical and reliable means of attracting new customers for small businesses targeting a local market or community. The yellow pages had been among the best ways for any small business to advertise, and that includes my own business. However, I learned a very hard lesson that yellow page advertisement is no longer effective and has become of a waste of money.

Despite having an abundance of resources available my fingertips to advertise online, my Internet consulting and marketing business is not much different from any other business when trying to find new customers. I spend money on yellow page listings just like any other small business owner would. In fact, I had counted on the yellow pages to help boost my business a few years ago. I quadrupled my yellow page ad budget in 2006 over 2005, because I was pushing a new product line and I wanted deep penetration into my local market. The shocking part was discovering that I acquired two more clients in 2006 than the year before despite four times the effort. Ironic to myself and with my business, the problem with my yellow page advertising was because of the Internet.

There was a BusinessWeek survey back in 2005 that I overlooked, which indicated most adult consumers at that time were already using Internet search engines to find local businesses or services over any other form or advertisement. Such information could have told me not to pursue heavy marketing through the yellow pages, but I wasn’t listening. There was also just plain common sense in realizing the pattern and habits of my target market. Putting it simply, I stopped using the phone book and I started using the Internet to find things and so did my customers. You can prove this to yourself by asking a few simple questions:

• Where is your phone book right now?
• When was the last time you used the yellow pages?
• What did you use last to find anything?

Your answers are very likely the same as mine:

• I have no idea where my phone book is.
• I haven’t used my phone book in months.
• I used the Internet.

How do you think your customers will answer these questions?

The consumer driven trend towards using the Internet over the phone book is no secret. It is much easier to use a search engine than to lug out a heavy phone book and dig through hundreds of pages to find information on a local business. Ironically, most all of the search engines and online business directories at this time are filled predominantly from yellow page listings as the primary source. They had to do something to fill the rapidly increasing consumer demand to find things online instead of digging through a phone book. This is adding nails to the coffin for the physical phone book and certainly devaluing advertising in the yellow pages.

Yahoo, Google and even the yellow page companies very well know about this trend and lots of technology is being developed or re-developed to accommodate it. Yahoo has had Yahoo Local for years. Google has integrated Google Maps into a means to promote local businesses. Don’t think for a minute that SuperPages, AT&T and the other phone book companies are twiddling their thumbs, because they know their business will be all but dead if they continue to sell nothing else but yellow page ads. All this activity brings new challenges for small businesses to use the Internet.

Believe it or not, you don’t have to have a Web site to be listed in the search engines and your business might already be listed. Your yellow page listing is all you may need to be listed in Google, Yahoo and dozens of local business directories on the Internet. If you don’t manage your online business listings, then you will be randomly placed in the search directories. Despite it all, you’re probably receiving more business from your online business listings than you realize and it’s relatively easy to generate more business.

Most online business listings aren’t managed because most business owners or managers don’t realize they are listed. This means even simple management of such listings could give your business favorable ranking, which will translate to more new customers. After several months of terrible yellow page ad results, I started to manage my online business listings in hopes of recovering lost ground. It cost me nothing but my time and I generated more business in a couple months than I did in the year’s worth of yellow page ads in 2006. Today, I purchase the bare minimum (about $150) to keep my yellow page listing active and carefully manage my online business listings. I already realize several times more new customer inquiries from my online listings than I have ever generated from my yellow page ads in the same timeframe. Several of my clients who are utilizing my strategies are realizing the same thing.

Has the Internet replaced the yellow pages as an effective small business marketing tool? It already has in my opinion. What's your opinion? Leave a comment and let me know.

About the author: Dan Harley, Jr. is the founder and owner of PrimeConcepts for Internet Solutions. Dan has over 25 years experience as a professional computer programmer, decades of experience with sales & marketing and over eleven years of experience in Internet marketing. For questions concerning his articles or for more information, contact Dan at danharley@primeconcepts.net or visit http://primeconcepts.net

Launch of Redesigned 2SeeWhales.com

It is with great pleasure to announce the launch of the redesigned 2SeeWhales.com Web site, which happened on Friday, February 15^th, 2008 @ 12:00 Noon.

Danny Salas, President of Harbor Breeze Cruises, is a long time client of PrimeConcepts as good friend of Dan Harley, Jr., Owner of PrimeConcepts. 2SeeWhales.com is the flagship Web site of a family of Web sites owned and operated by Harbor Breeze Cruises. 2SeeWhales.com is instrumental in generating a substantial amount of business for Harbor Breeze Cruises’s whale watching cruise operation, which is renowned for being one of the longest running whale watching operations and the best service in all of California.

2SeeWhales.com has been through two previous redesigns as an ongoing effort to keep the Web site up with modern designs and concepts. The objectives of this redesign project was:

• Update aesthetics to the latest concepts
• Enhance the Web visitor’s experience
• Increase functionality to more easily manage the Web site
• Add features to more easily enhance Web promotion efforts

All of these objectives were accomplished while still maintaining the original site during the peak of whale watching season.

The new theme and navigation will make it a lot easier for Web visitors to find the information they’re looking for regarding whale watching cruises and more easily access the online ticketing system.

There are already improvements on 2SeeWhales.com slated for the near future. Harbor Breeze Cruises is planning on taking photos during select whale watching cruises and post them into the photo gallery. This should be a smash hit with whale watchers as they can relive the experience again. Adding to all this is lots of information about Gray Whales and other marine life along the California Coastline, making 2SeeWhales.com an important online destination for aquatic life information.

Come visit 2SeeWhales.com and appreciate the hard work that was put into updating it.