By George Stephanis

It’s a tragedy, really, and I’ve seen it hundreds of times. Upstart brick and mortar (hereafter called b&m) businesses get together capital, redo their storefront, redecorate inside, spending thousands of dollars to put together an appealing face to the public — and then neglect the one way to spread their business, that will reach the largest audience, for the smallest investment.

The internet.

Now, I’m not talking about paying out thousands of dollars to some major design firm to engineer you a massive web presence, but here are some key points that are simple to hit on, and are (mostly) free to set up.

Get a home on the web

Have a home that is your own. Not your content, encapsulated in branding for someone else, like a Facebook or MySpace page. There are two main options that I recommend for this, one free and the other low-cost.

As with all things, you get what you pay for, so the low–cost will give a bit more flexibility than free, but you can sort it out yourself.

FREE!

Start a blog at wordpress.com!

You can use the ‘post’ feature as a news feed for your business — advertising specials, news, or other time–sensitive things, while using the ‘page’ option for more static entries, such as an About, Location, Contact, or Menu page. You can manage pages, include posts as a newsfeed, select a free theme off a large list that they offer … all without costing you a dime.

LOW–COST!

Go to GoDaddy, and register a domain name. You can get a .info for a buck your first year, or a .com for about $10.

This will give you, firstly, the ability to set up email accounts from your domain. Very professional — I can’t tell you how many times I go to a business (even some that have a website) and look at their cards, only to find their email address is @zoominternet.net, @comcast.net, or (saints preserve us) @aol.com! I do recommend heading over to Google Apps, and setting up their free domain email hosting. Don’t bother with the Business or Premier options, their free Standard edition is more than enough. They walk you through the process of setting it up, step by step, and even offer specific directions for GoDaddy.

Next is hosting. Currently, GoDaddy’s basic hosting accounts, if you buy them a year at a time, sell for about $55 annually. They have auto–installers for software, and it’s integrated to the point where you could get an entire website setup and running without having to even know what a FTP client is! For now, don’t worry about E–Commerce, plugins, or custom designs, just pick a design that matches the feeling you try to put across to your customers.

Create a Twitter Account

Go ahead, do it. I dare you. See how simple it is. Once you’re set up, try using some automated tools like HootSuite to find people to connect with. Twitter is a great tool, firstly because it’s free — but also because it lets you build up a following for your business. It’s great to have dedicated customers, right? Well, a great way to do that is to pick a ‘daily deal’ or something of the sort, and Tweet about it each morning! If people come in and mention that they saw the offering on your Twitter Feed, they get the daily deal. Perhaps a free small coffee when you buy a muffin, or half off a ream of paper. Nothing big, but everyone loves saving money, and it’s a great way to reward loyal patrons and draw in fresh customers.

Make a Facebook page

As lots of people have already noted, Facebook is a giant beast of social networking. Setting all privacy concerns aside, it provides a great and easy way to get the word out about your business. I’ve seen some businesses where their Facebook page is the sum total of their online presence. Now, I’d not recommend that when there are so many other avenues to getting yourself out there, but as part of an integrated front, it’s terrific. Post photos, news, whatever you like. It’s even possible to integrate WordPress, Twitter, and Facebook so that whenever you update your WordPress site, all the others get bumped as well. Talk about killing three birds with one stone!

Google Local Businesses

Finally, every client that I’ve ever had wants to know one thing — how to get to the top of Google. Now, doing that globally for a popular search term may be difficult, but for local searches, it becomes much easier.

If I were looking for a coffee shop to visit in Grove City, Pennsylvania, I’d probably search Google for something like … ‘coffee grove city pa’ and see what came up.

Here, try it yourself.

Now, you don’t need to jump to the top of the search listings to get to the head of the class! If you’re listed in Google’s Local Business directory, they’ll do it for you. All you have to do is submit yourself via their simple form at google.com/local/add

Once you get rolled in to their system, you should start getting noticed alot more by people searching for local businesses. Not bad for a free tool, eh?

Conclusion

There really are an abundance of ways for people with a of technical know how to establish a low–cost base of operations on the world wide web. If you’re not sure how to do something, give it a shot. Things are normally self–explanatory, but if you do get stuck, go find your nearest techie, or contact me, and you’ll get patched up and on your way in a jiffy.

George Stephanis is a code monkey, tech geek, and typographic elitist — all of which work out quite well for his clients. His company, Archer Web Designs, provides affordable website design, construction, and maintenance to a terrific bunch of companies and non-profits. Hire him to get in on the action!

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While our economy might be starting to turn around, there is no doubt that small businesses are selective about where they spend their money, if they spend it at all. I have one client who canceled my link building service because money was short. My response was that now more than ever he needed to spend money on marketing if he wants to increase sales! He still canceled.

So that left me a hole in my lineup and I needed to fill it. 2 years ago I had a waiting list of clients, today I’m actively seeking clients. Some of my clients rank #1 for all of their top keywords, while some canceled because they couldn’t see the value in my work. Part of that is my fault, and part of that is because they’re expectations are not reasonable, also partially attributed to me.

So what did I do? I found 3 new clients and now have a waiting list again! Here are 3 quick and easy ways to find new clients in a down economy.

1. Become the visible expert.

You might already be the expert, but that doesn’t mean people know that you’re the expert. In my city of about 50,000 people, I am about 99% sure there are no better link builders than me. I say that because I know almost everyone who does search engine marketing and optimization and all of the marketing companies. I know their clients and I’ve done my homework on them. With that in mind, there are still many businesses who don’t know me and what I do, so I need to become the “visible” expert. I need to show them that I am the expert. I do that with face-to-face meetings, newsletters, examples of past clients and their current rankings and offering my best clients as references.

2. Offer a deal they can’t refuse.

With link building, I don’t have set prices. Some keywords are more difficult than others and will take a greater effort to get to a #1 ranking, so each of my clients have different prices. With my new clients that I know price will be an issue with, I quote them higher and then give them a discount that expires at a certain date. Of course I’m just removing a mental barrier for them, but small businesses with a physical storefront often expect to get a discount so instead of me telling them, “No, I can’t offer you 20% off.” I lead with, “And I can give you 20% off, if we start by the end of the month.”

3. Ramp up your online marketing.

The great thing about extending your online marketing presence is that it nearly lasts forever. This is a huge selling point for many businesses who are experienced with buying traditional media advertising. When you pay $1000 for a billboard, at the end of the month, you lose that advertising and you have nothing more to show. When you spend $1000 building links, at the end of the month, you have links to your site that will still be providing value years down the road. I have clients that I built links to 4 years ago that still have #1 rankings! That is the power of online marketing.

Depending on your link building skill level, you can outsource this work or you can do it yourself. Depending on your keywords, the competition might be easy to beat, or it could be impossible for a single person.

DIY Link Building
If you’re determined to do it yourself, make sure your content is link-worthy. This means that you give webmasters a reason to link to your site. Also, check out some paid web directories like Ezilon Regional Web Directory (great for small businesses), BOTW, and even the Yahoo! Directory. These are great for quick and easy (maybe not free) links. Often times these directories are scraped by a lot of other websites so you have a good chance that you link will show up on other sites.

Outsource Link Building
If you decide to outsource your link building, make sure they companies you’re talking to can prove that they get results. Ask to see client rankings, ask to see the types of links they build. The content of the page and the relevancy of the site shouldn’t be high up on your list, but seeing the anchor keywords should. The company should be able to show you current and past clients. Their past clients should still have some rankings if they did their job right.

In a nutshell, become a presence in your community (online or offline), offer great deals, and do it online and offline and you’re sure to find new clients!

Bio: Brandon Hopkins is a freelance link builder and small business owner. You can find him on Twitter and you can see his SEO Services and prices at his website.

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