Starting an Online Business For Dummies®, 6th Edition

Chapter 5. Organizing Your Business Presence and Attracting Customers

In This Chapter

• Establishing your business presence(s)

• Organizing an easy-to-navigate business Web site

• Optimizing type and images to build a graphic identity

• Creating content that holds your customer's attention

• Promoting trust with concise, well-designed Web page text

• Inviting interaction through forms, e-mail, and more

In the previous edition of this book, the title of this chapter began with "Organizing Your Business Site . . ." This time around, I changed the word "site" to "presence." It's a subtle but significant difference. A Web site is still a "home base" for an online business. But even more important is a business presence. A presence can include a blog, ads on Craigslist, or storefronts on a variety of marketplaces. Wherever you do business, the same basic principles work on the Web just as well as they do in the brick-and-mortar world: Attracting customers is important, but real success comes from establishing relationships with customers who come to trust you and rely on you for providing excellent products and services.

Achieving these goals on the Web requires some special strategies, however. First and foremost, you want to be found. Update your content frequently, and market yourself by using multiple points of entry. That way, you'll reach Web surfers who are increasingly mobile and increasingly accustomed to sophisticated content.

This chapter examines some of the best ways for standing out from the ...