The Studio Source.com

Do you have online digs with your own domain name?

If you’re starting a business, it’s time. If you’re already in business, it’s way past time. Say goodbye to the Blogger account and stake your claim.

Domain registration and hosting plans can be had for very little money (see if you can beat the price at Network Solutions). When you have your own domain name, you show the world you’re an owner, not a renter. You show the world you’re here to stay.

If it comes down to choosing between the electric bill and a domain name, obviously you’ll hold off on the domain. Otherwise, get the vanity license plate, already.

Then put your website to work.

Put your stamp on it
Good design goes a long way to establishing your personal brand. If you can’t afford a designer just yet, you can try a free WordPress blog theme. If you have a small budget, it’s possible to hire a designer to tweak a free theme to make it look like a custom design. Most hosting plans let you set up a WordPress blog, and have a selection of themes available. There are a staggering number of themes available (Google “free WordPress themes”), and there are lots of WordPress tutorials to help you set things up. You can also import a BlogSpot blog into WordPress.

Sell your work under your own banner
If you sell tangible items, you don’t have to spend a  fortune on an eCommerce solution to sell through your website. If you sell one piece at a time, PayPal is an easy, low-cost way to do it. It’s also a decent solution if you sell services online. If you need a reasonably priced shopping cart, check out E-junkie. (I have no commercial interest in either, and they’re not the only solutions available, but both are worth investigating.)

Sell it your way
If you and your customers are strictly old school, list your prices with the items you want to sell from your website. Make it as easy as possible for your buyers to say, “I have to have that. How soon can you get it to me?” Have them send you a cheque or money order, and ship when the cheque clears. Old-fashioned mail order still works just fine, even in the 21st Century.

Addressing the elephant in the online selling room
Etsy is inexpensive and relatively easy to use, but you still want your own domain name—you should only send customers there to buy from you, and only if you don’t have a better alternative. The idea is to establish your site as the destination for your customers.

You’re working hard to attract prospective buyers, so you don’t want to sell under someone else’s brand. You’re stuck with their template, which may not allow you to show your work in its best light. All of that has an impact on how your customers perceive your work. Before you go that route, or continue on with it, think carefully. It may not be right for your audience, your medium, or your selling price. If you have to go with an online shopping site, start planning your escape now. Your own presence will be much stronger in the long run.

(Whatever solution you choose, make your purchasing, shipping and return policies crystal clear on your site. And make sure you figured out your shipping costs and capabilities beforehand, particularly if you’re crossing international borders.)

Bring visitors back with good content
If you only want a calling card website with directions to your studio, hours of operation and show dates, at the very least, switch out photographs every few months, and make sure dates are current. If you mostly sell through shops and galleries, a calling card may be all you need—just keep in mind you will attract a bigger audience if you give people a reason to visit more often. Maybe you can only manage to do a monthly newsletter. If you publish on the same date every month, your audience will watch for your updates.

If you sell services, you can do the same. Write short articles showing you’re an authority in your field. Encourage your audience to ask questions and give you their opinions. Web 2.0 is about interactivity. Smart marketing is like that, too—reaching your audience also requires listening.

Consolidate your online position
Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, MySpace, Flickr—they’re all good marketing tools, and all serve to reinforce your personal brand, but you don’t want to send people all over the web to find you. If you use social media, give people a choice about where to follow you, but make your website a place where they’ll want to stay a while. Give them good things to look at, good things to read, good things to listen to—provide the best possible online experience they can have with you and your business.

Don’t be an absentee landlord
Maintain your online presence. A brochure-style website is okay, but people have bigger expectations when it comes to social media. If you have social media outposts, make sure they’re active. If you haven’t tweeted in three weeks, you lose some of the credibility you’ve worked so hard to build. There’s nothing worse than someone seeking you out, only to find your Facebook fan page hasn’t been updated in nearly a year. Are you still in business? How hard will that person work to find out?

Rule your domain like you mean it
If you promise to publish a newsletter on the 15th of the month, do it. If you have a blog, decide how often you publish, and stick to the schedule as closely as you can. Pay attention to your audience, pay attention to your content, be consistent, professional and personable. What more could anyone ask of a benevolent despot?

Over to you: What’s the most important thing about a website? What’s your favourite online artistic stopping place? Are you avoiding claiming your own domain?