MySpace is seen as a viable alternative to buying web hosting and a domain name for some businesses, according to an article in Honolulu’s Pacific Business News.

Local Web designers face competition from MySpace.com
Pacific Business News (Honolulu) - May 25, 2007

On the face of it, this is a good counter-argument to my post about Free Web Hosting and Blog Services vs. Buying Web Hosting and a Domain Name. It seems that some small business owners are using MySpace as a way to create a website for their business — for free — and they are getting good results in the form of new customers and purchases. One business featured in the article is a clothing boutique.

It makes sense that people who might be looking on MySpace for things to buy would be interested in fashion and shopping for new clothes. And there are lots of other businesses that would appeal to the same MySpace demographic: coffee shops, skateboarding shops, surf shops, music stores…

Part of the appeal of MySpace is that people don’t necessarily go there looking for things to buy. They go there to talk to friends, share stuff they find interesting or funny, etc. But the fact that someone may find a store on MySpace that sells cool clothes, and then go to the brick-and-mortar store and have a great shopping experience, well, that’s huge, of course, because they are likely to talk about it on — duh — MySpace.

Obviously, if you are selling something like legal services or rare books, then MySpace may not be for you. However, if you have a business that appeals to 16-24 year olds, then setting up a free MySpace page might just be a no-brainer.

The Business News article sets up a false dichotomy — a choice you don’t really have to make — between creating a small business website on MySpace and buying a full-blown, professionally designed website for, as they say, anywhere from $5,000 to $20,000.

My point is, you may want to spend $5K to $20K, on a business website. You may need some serious eCommerce capabilities, or cutting-edge graphic design, or pages and pages of product samples or whatever. Most very small businesses should not pay anything like $5,000 for a site these days. There are just too many good low-cost options available — using WordPress, for example. But, regardless, there’s no reason you can’t have a site on MySpace in addition to a dedicated business website with your own hosting and domain name, and then link the two together.

The same is true for a listing sites like MerchantCircle.com. Check out the McBuzz Communications listing on MerchantCircle. These are free, easy to set up websites, and they are just one more way to increase the visibility of your business on the Web.

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Web Markting Tip #2 told you how to use the free XML Sitemap Generator service to create an XML Sitemap of your website. Once you have your sitemap file, you need to create a Google Webmaster Account, then add your website to that account, and submit the XML Sitemap file. Google makes this process pretty easy.

1. Go here to create a Google account.
2. Login to your account.
3. Click on the Webmaster Tools link under Services.
4. You will see the Webmaster Tools Dashboard. It looks like this (below - click for full size image), without all the sites listed, of course. You will add your first one.

5. Put the address of your site in the Add Site box and click OK.
6. Now click Add a Sitemap for that site.
7. You will see the following (click for full size image).

8. Choose Add General Web Sitemap.
9. Now you need to upload your XML Sitemap file to the “root directory” of your website. (”Root directory” just means the location of your homepage file.) Most website hosting services allow you to do this using the “Control Panel” for your account. If you need any help with this, just add a comment at the end of this post. Be sure to tell me who your hosting service is (for example: GoDaddy or Network Solutions or whatever the case may be).
10. Once the file is uploaded to your website’s root directory, enter that location into the “My Sitemap URL is” box. As noted, this will be http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml where “example.com” is the name of your domain.
11. Click the Add Web Sitemap button.
12. Done!

Let me know if you have any questions.

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Someone asked me yesterday about the state-of-the-art in website development for beginners or for people who don’t want to spend a lot of time learning HTML or CSS. I told him to check out mcbuzz.com for ideas about what’s available, but I realized I don’t have a post addressing this.

Web publishing has changed a lot in the past 4-5 years. You really can have a website or blog up and running in less than a day — without knowing HTML, CSS, PHP or any other code. You don’t even need to know how to use FTP (File Transfer Protocol), which is what you normally use.

The way to do this is by using one of the many free services available.

• One of the easiest to use is Blogger.com — brought to you by Google.
• Google also offers a different kind of free website creator called Google Page Creator.
• There’s also a free website/blog service offered by WordPress.
• And if you google “free blog service” you will find many more.

What’s the difference between a blog and a website in this context? Well, WordPress allows you to use a “static” webpage as your home page. A “static” page is one without any chronological (aka “blog”-style) entries. Blog entries are short “posts” like the one you are reading right now. They always have a date, and they appear in order of most recent to least recent.

A website can be created and maintained using “blogging” software like WordPress without including any chronological entries. In terms of what the reader sees, there is no difference between such a site and a standard website. I don’t think Blogger has this feature.

Google Page Creator uses a more traditional website format: you create a home page, then add other pages like a Contact Us page — or whatever you want. There are no chronological, blog-style entries.

THE BOTTOM LINE: SHOULD YOU USE A FREE SERVICE?
Some small businesses might want to use a free web publishing service to get a site up quickly. Put the domain or URL (the website’s address) on your business cards and other promotional materials and you’re good to go!

Is this a good long-term strategy? For a business, I would say definitely not.

As Rae Hoffman says in this excellent post, “Before You Launch That Small Business Website“, one of the most important — and easiest — things you can do for your small business website is to buy a domain name.

One of the main advantages of doing so is the stability it offers for your site and for your business’s image or “brand”. Search engines like domain names that have been around for a while better than domain names that have not. So buy one now, use it and hang on to it. No matter where you decide to host your site, you will always have the same domain name and people will always be able to find you there. (You can change hosts without changing your domain name. — not true if you use a free service like Blogger.com, Google Page Creator or WordPress.com)

And, with your own domain name, you can create e-mail addresses for you and others that use the same domain. Again, as Rae Hoffman notes, “yourname@yourbusiness.com” looks much more professional and permanent than “yourname@hotmail.com” or “yourname@yahoo.com”.

Can you still use software like WordPress if you don’t use a free web publishing service and you don’t want to learn HTML code, etc.? Absolutely.

Many web hosting providers now offer WordPress installation as part of their hosting services. Ask about it before you sign up. If that’s not available, there is also a group of altruistic voluteers affiliated with WordPress that will install WordPress for free on whatever host you select.

If you need help with any of this, post a comment below!

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Choosing a Domain Name? Don’t even bother with a “.net” domain.

A”.com” domain name is usually worth 10 to 20 times as much as the same name ending with “.net“, according to Ron Jackson, editor and publisher of the online magazine Domain Name Journal - The Domain Industry News Magazine.

Cobb.com domain name worth at least $45K, experts say
Jacksonville Business Journal - May 11, 2007

Jackson attributes the difference in value to the fact that people are conditioned to type “.com” rather than “.net” in an address. But it also seems fairly clear that a “.com” address carries more weight and respectability. I would be willing to bet there are no Fortune 1000 companies with a “.net” domain for their website — except for communications companies like Verizon, Comcast, Adelphia and Cox.

This is because the “.net” top level domain was intended for use by Internet service providers (ISPs) and other companies involved in Internet infrastructure, just as “.org” is for non-profits and “.gov” is for US government agencies.

When it comes to marketing on the Web, what’s good for Fortune 1000 companies may not always be good for smaller businesses and organizations, but in this case it is, because it’s a matter of branding your business: conveying an image of professionalism and permanence.

Do you think that the market value of a domain name — .com vs. .net — is an accurate indicator of its worth to a company’s brand? I do. Let me know if you disagree!

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This post answers the question of what to do if you discover that not all of the pages in your website (or blog) are listed in Google. See Web Marketing Tip #1 to figure out if this is the case.

The quickest way to fix this problem is to create an xml sitemap of your website and submit it to Google. There are a lot of web services that will make an xml sitemap for you. Many of them are free.

I have had success with xml-sitemaps.com and their free online XML Sitemap Generator.

Follow the directions on their site to create a sitemap. If you have more than 500 pages in your site, you can purchase a standalone version of the XML Sitemap Generator for a nominal fee.

Another nice feature of the sitemap tool is that it will find any broken links in your site. Web crawlers like Google’s need all the links in your site to work properly so that they can follow them and then let the Google PageRank software figure out how important or authoritative your site is based on those relationships. If you have a bunch of links that point to pages that no longer exist, that suggests you don’t maintain your site very well and, that your site must not be one that many people use. So find those broken links and fix them!

Now that you have your xml sitemap, you will need a Google account to perform the next step in the process. Go here to create a Google account.

Once you have a Google account, you can go here to see how to add a website to your account. And, when you have added a site, you can then submit the xml sitemap for that site to Google. You will need FTP access to your website for this.

Next, I will go through the process of adding a website to your Google account and submitting an xml sitemap for that site in greater detail.

If any of this does not make sense, just send me a comment using the handy dandy comment form and I will answer ASAP!

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