One of the seminal tasks facing many of the business owners that I speak with in my consultancy is that of finding and using the best online resources for hosting, running and promoting an online business. Below I will give you a few tips that I have gleaned from a few years of both observing successful online businesses and helping entrepreneurs grow their online brands.
Business Hosting
Getting your business website set up is important. This is usually the first step that small online businesses undertake. So where to host? Here is a short, but by no means comprehensive list of a few choices you have. For a modest shared account I would look to HostMySite.com or if you are an ASP.NET professional, DiscountASP.NET. These folks offered solid shared accounts – and in the case of HostMySite.com they have made a reputation based on support. On the dedicated server side, I would look to either NaviSite (more value focused) or Rackspace (full featured with a reputation for support). For those needing business hosting over the pond – I recommend 34SP.com for service again.
Design or SEO Freelancers
Once you have a host established you can launch your site – that is, if you have a great design. If you don’t and you are seeking a designer – or for that matter, an artist, writer, or SEO expert – you should check out eLance.com. This is a great aggregator of freelance talent that will bid on any individual job that you throw at them. Here’s how it works. You can just search for a particular category – say, web design – and then browse the freelancers. Their credentials, pay scales and previous work plus references are usually included in the listing information. Pick a few you like and contact them directly.
Self Educating SEO
If you are looking to become a self-styled search engine optimization expert yourself, then you should be a frequent visitor to Sphinn.com. This is a ”digg-like” website that allows users to rate content and then displays the articles based on the popularity. What makes it different is that almost all the content is centered around SEO. Additionally, most of the readership is made up of SEO professionals as well. The net results is that the most impactful SEO articles percolate to the top of the list. This allows you to quickly gain knowledge without having to wade through junk articles.
PR
Any good business knows that public relations (PR) is a necessary component of the marketing mix. So where are how to do PR for an online business? I recommend PRweb.com. While you can actually distribute press releases for free, it makes sense to pay a modest amount (usually around $200) to get the release listed in the proper category with hyperlinks and some additional exposure. Setting up a PRweb.com account is easy. It just requires a credit card. I think that an intelligent business person can publish their first release in about 30 minutes – even the very first time. The service distributes your release to a variety of online news outlets that will give your business great exposure.
Travel
Although not strictly speaking an online-only activity, most business people travel at one time or another. My recommendation for an online travel service is Expedia.com. It is similar to other online travel search engines, but has a great feature that I often use: customer reviews. This feature allows only those who have reserved travel or accommodations through Expedia.com to rate the services. So if I wonder what is up with a certain hotel – I check the reviews from actual guests in the past few weeks. Often these reviews will reveal hidden problems such as construction, or recurring problems such as poor service. I have leaned on this service often and it just keeps getting better. I have never been surprised at the travel accommodations after referring to a customer review on Expedia.com.
So those are my business hosting resources of choice. I know there are many alternatives to each category, and that there are plenty of additional categories that one may consider. I’ll try to tackle those in a future post. Good luck with your online business!
This content was written by Derek Vaughan exclusively for the Host Discussion Blog.
