Q. How can I make money from my web site?

A. Put an order form, telephone number, email number, address, fax and 800 number on the site so people can contact you easily. Sales will come to you if you have positioned your product so that it is unique and people can find you easily in the search engines with keywords. You will also need to have an order form that is "secure" so people will feel comfortable giving you their credit card numbers.

However, look at your web site as an opportunity to tell your customer more details than they would get in a yellow page ad or in a brochure. Tell your story with details and pictures. Like all advertising it takes repeated exposure to generate sales. The web is a marketplace to show your catalogue of items that are for sale and to talk about why your products are new, unique, better or different.

After you create the catalogue you need to identify who your customer is and learn how to get that catalogue (or your web site) to that customer who most closely fits your customer profile. This is done through advertising your site to that customer profile.

Q. You mean after I put up a web site I have to advertise it?

A. That's right. In order for all of the different web directories to know about what your site is about you have to tell them. You do this directly by the text on the page, but also with certain "tags" in the programming. Also, with targeted advertising you can focus on various interests to select the person most likely to want to look at your products - maybe a person who looks at other similar sites on the web would be interested in looking at your's. "Top of page" advertising can be selected for specific interests so that only those people looking at similar sites see your ad.

Free Banner ads with Link Exchange can help, as can putting your web site URL or address on everything you print. Mostly, a web site is like your store. It's open for business but you need to promote it with advertising.

Q. So what can I expect from having a web page?

A. Exposure to people on the internet. All over the world. A picture is universal and your customers probably are too. With the right style and look, and proper advertising you can reach many more people than will ever visit a particular location. And you can refer people to your web site anywhere in the world and save the time, trouble and expense of mailing them catalogs and pictures of your products.

Q. What if I have a service that is generally local. Will it help if I put up a web page?

A. That is hard to tell. Unless your patronage/customers are using the internet it might not do anything. However, if there are some questions people ask you all the time, it might be a good operational point to post that data and let your customers know they can find it on the web. That way, if someone needs this information after hours, or knows that they don't have to speak to someone in order to find out, you can provide it to them. Do you have certain information about your business that would be important to your clients that would give them better service by posting this?

Q. I don't have a computer. How can I have a web site?

A. Assimilated Multimedia can create a web site for you and put this information on a computer where they "serve" the information to the internet. You can receive information from fax, telephone, mail, or have the internet server receive computer email or orders through the internet.