websites

[m2nb]

hey guys,

im only new to business and am still setting up.. i would like to make a website to promote my small beauty salon. It doesnt have to be a grand website as my business is located in a small country town so the main place i will be advertising is locally. But i would still like to offer my clients and furture clients a place to go to online to check out updates, pricing etc.

I dont want to spend much on this or any at all if i can! (hehe im on a bit of a budget) so i was wondering if anyone knows of places where i could make a website and put it online for free or a small fee? im pretty good with computers so im happy to do the website work myself.

any advice would be great! =)

[FS Concierge]

Sounds like a great idea m2nb, and I'm sure you'll receive some suggestions shortly.

Once it's up and running be sure to invite us all in for a look around

Best wishes,
Jayne

[John Debrincat]

Originally Posted by m2nb

hey guys,

im only new to business and am still setting up.. i would like to make a website to promote my small beauty salon. It doesnt have to be a grand website as my business is located in a small country town so the main place i will be advertising is locally. But i would still like to offer my clients and furture clients a place to go to online to check out updates, pricing etc.

I dont want to spend much on this or any at all if i can! (hehe im on a bit of a budget) so i was wondering if anyone knows of places where i could make a website and put it online for free or a small fee? im pretty good with computers so im happy to do the website work myself.

any advice would be great! =)

Hello and hope your business booms.

Couple of suggestions:

1. Check out any web developers in your local town, maybe go ask the local chamber of commerce.

2. You can get free business website from Google - Google Sites

3. Spend some time and list your self in Google Local and also on TrueLocal. People searching for your business type in your area can find you that way. There are other directories like Hotfrog, Cooeeonline, again and web-diredctory-australia etc where you can add free listings. The more the better.

4. Start a Facebook and Twitter pages for your business and start connecting to friends and sending out messages about your new business. great for getting know.

5. Create a free blog at blogger.com and start posting some information and ideas about what you do and how to do it.

All the best

John

[kbrookes]

What John said.

That said, I'd like to bolster John's point #2: local search will still be extremely important to you. Are there other towns close by? You could also capture some leads if you're clever about any search marketing you undertake.

[braddown]

Great ideas above, also very important especially in a small town, make sure you capture everyone's email and phone number wherever you can. It won't take you long to build your own strong local database of customers that you can email and SMS offers too. There are some great do it yourself email marketing products like Mail Chimp and Campaign Monitor and also I will plug my very own Burst SMS product here here.

We have several rural beauty salons and day spas now generating up to 75% of their appointments using SMS marketing. It's also great for reminding people when their appointments are coming up so you don't get so many missed.

[Syed]

Yes you can start with Google Site/ Blogger/ Wordpress with analytics so you have an idea how and where traffic gets to your site. Can later further improve your site if needed...importantly updates and pricing and phone no. on the website.