You want to save money, so you decide that a Do It Yourself Business Website is the way to go. Stop! You may be making a terrible decision if you go with a Do It Yourself Business Website.

I did coaching over the phone with a Baltimore area businessman who had a Do It Yourself Business Website that he discovered had suddenly crashed. He had saved a lot of money by struggling with the technical difficulties of creating, launching, and maintaining his business website. He thought he had derived value by doing his business website by himself. Then, he discovered that he could not fix his defective do it yourself business website because he lacked the experience in diagnosing and repairing websites.

Don’t Let This Happen to You

You may think that you’re sensible to save money by having a do it yourself business website. In today’s reality, however, you should learn from other people’s lessons: Saving money in the short run with a do it yourself business website can cost you money later. This lesson is real. This lesson is no exaggeration.

Don’t let this happen to you and to your business website. Unless you, personally, have over 5 years of hands-on business website creation, launching, and maintaining, you should never do it yourself.

Brand Damage

The strongest danger in a do it yourself business website is brand damage. That business website that you saved money on by doing it yourself just may be causing serious damage to your brand. You may have brand damage to deal with if your business website that does not work properly, look visually appealing, and have specific content that is adapted to your target audience.

Brand damage is very difficult to repair. The best advice is: Don’t allow your brand to be damaged in the first place.

Trust a Professional

You can save yourself potential brand damage and costly website repairs down the road if you just make the correct decision: Don’t do a business website on your own. Trust a professional to help you succeed with your business website. You will end up saving money by wisely avoiding the dangers in do it yourself business websites.

Very recently, two friends of mine asked me: Do you have a hard-copy version of your book that you can send me? Is your book available anywhere else except on Amazon? These both are valid questions.

As I writer, I see my purpose as sharing of ideas, not the selling of computerized or hand-held devices.

I have not owned a Kindle device even though I am a classic early adapter. I will admit here, however, that I ordered the new Kindle Fire on the very first day that it was announced. Now I eagerly await the day when my Kindle Fire arrives at my door!

I completely respect Amazon as a company. In all the many years that I have been a customer, Amazon has never once failed to impress me. I have dealt with many brick and mortar and online companies as a customer. In my opinion, Amazon’s customer service is second to none. Period.

But, back to the device question: Why did I choose to go with an eBook that is exclusively available on Kindle instead of going with the more traditional hard-copy version? The answer is simple. The future of book-length writing belongs to those who embrace eBooks. To me, this fact could not be more obvious.

For those who somehow do not want to spend money to own one of the hand-held versions of Kindle, the alternative is to use the FREE online version that Amazon has today for Windows and Mac.

Sometimes I like to annoy non-Boomers by quoting song lyrics written by from singer/songwriter Carly Simon. Usually, the annoyance fades especially when I am sharing especially profound Carly Simon lyrics that transcend generations.

Certainly one of the most profound of all the many, many lyrics written by Carly Simon is “We Have No Secrets” from 1972. In this poignant poem set to an irresistible melody, she warns of the sweet perils of being too honest in life.

I think that members of the younger generations who post on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and whatever other social media channels today need to memorize the entire lyrics from “We Have No Secrets” and maybe even learn the entire song to sing it themselves quietly and softly while they spend so much time online.
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Individuals, small and medium-size businesses, and nonprofits need a complete, yet affordable, selection of professional and customized services to enable them to win over their particular target audience with online marketing. But, there is absolutely no sense in paying today’s high prices for professional services to get your own website. G2 On is your alternative if you want to save money.

Nearly half of small and medium-sized businesses or nonprofits do not yet have their own website. One thing that I tell people today may sound shocking: You need to have a website if you want to have street credibility today in the business world.

I firmly believe in this need to have a website after working for nearly 15 years using the Internet for business. If you are someone who really does not want to have your own website, please read this one page and give me a chance to change your thinking.

I can help you if you start with an acceptance that yes, you need a website if you really want credibility in 2011 in marketing your business to your target audience.
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You may want to have a website that serves the function of being your online business card. Most traditional business cards that people have today are very small pieces of card stock. But, a business card is really only a piece of paper that you hand out to other people. There is a physical limit to how much information anybody can fit on any business card.

Using a website as an online business card, however, changes everything! A website is not presented on paper. Most websites contain what we all call “pages” but they are not really pages like in paper products such as magazines or books or newspapers. A “page” on a website can easily contain far more information than any single business card could ever hope to include.

This is why having a website as an online business card is a terrific idea. If you never have considered this, well, now you know that there are people who already use the Web to present themselves online using the concept of an online business card.
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Some people choose to get their own website because that serves as proof to other people that they are cool and relevant in the 21st century. It is certainly true that getting your own website does prove that you (or someone you paid) demonstrated certain relevant skills and talents to create a website that is viewable to the entire world. But, so what?

Having a website so you can say your domain name aloud to other people should serve a marketing purpose: You should say your domain name aloud to other people with the specific intent of motivating them to go look at your website right away.

Having a website so you can promote your domain name on a business card or in mainstream media channels (radio, television, newspapers, magazines, etc.) should serve a marketing purpose: You should have the specific intention of driving visitors to go look at your website right away.
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You may want to have a website so that you can group together individual items in one convenient place—such as photographs, videos, MP3s, PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations, spreadsheets, and so forth.

Using a website as a collection or archive is a very smart idea. You can delivery other people a special service by pulling together your collection or archive because your efforts can lead directly to being the first or only way others get to know about and enjoy what you are presenting online. If you have exclusive rights to material that otherwise would never be known about or seen by other people, by presenting that in a collection or archive online, you can make a significant contribution to other people’s lives.

Setting up a website as a collection or archive but not following up by promoting the existence of that website to other people is the equivalent of having special and valuable information, but never telling anyone about what you have. This usually means that you must pay somebody to promote your website.
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Without much effort, anyone can easily find false promises online. I am amused—sometimes I laugh out loud—when I see advice online about jumping into social media right now as the one-size-fits-all solution to marketing yourself or your organization or products and services. While I continue laughing at the ridiculousness of such advice about getting started using social media today, let me stop and ask you a question: Do you know how to buy the right shoes for blogging?

I previously ran every day. So, I guess I can claim to know a few things about running shoes. I do know that buying the correct shoes for running or for any other athletic activity can mean the difference between physical injury and physical health. Choose to ignore this wisdom at your own peril.

As someone who has built websites for others since the 1990s, I can claim to know a few things about marketing using the Internet. And, it may surprise you to learn that I see a relationship between buying shoes for running and buying into the current craze about getting into social media.
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There is a one “secret” to making social media channels work. Here it is: relationships. Succeeding with strategic marketing online demands that you know how and why relationships with people work.

If you remember nothing else about social media, you should keep these things in the front of your mind:
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One very humorous, yet truthful, exploration “How To Suck at Facebook,” provides highly useful tips on what to avoid doing on Facebook if you want to be taken seriously and not have people laughing at what you do online. (The rules are different, of course, if your mission involves comedy and satire.) There are also practical suggestions for proper etiquette when you use Twitter if you want to avoid seeming like you don’t really know how to use social media.
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