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by
Jeff Colburn

So many people who market their website business develop tunnel vision and forget that there's more to marketing than the Internet. They're so busy making website banners, trying to rank high on the search engines, refine their key words and do link exchanges that they ignore the physical world. In doing this they miss countless ways to market their business, and themselves.

I attend a club in town called the Flagstaff Business Network (www.FlagstaffBusinessNetwork.com). We meet twice a month for lunch, where we network and listen to two members give 15-minute presentations about their business. I chose this organization because they focus on networking and generating leads for members. By doing this I receive between $2,000 and $5,000 of business a year. Not bad for getting together for lunch with friends. And yes, you must network. It's certainly easier to sit at home and let your marketing do the work, but nothing will generate business like meeting people face to face.

This is just one-way to use the "real world" to generate income. By letting people know about your website, they can find out about your business 24/7. So do everything you can to put your website address where people can see it, such as:

• Business cards
• Flyers
• Booklets
• Product labels
• Signs
• Press releases
• Articles, written by you or by others about you
• Phone book listings
• Invoices
• On your after-hours answering machine message
• Promotional products, like pens, tables and my favorite, sticky notes
• Return address labels - I use a self-inking rubber stamp for all nonbusiness mailings, and it includes my website address.

The list goes on forever. Anything that comes from your business should have, in the least, your website address on it. You never know where new business will come from, so make it as easy as possible for people to contact you.

As a side note, you really, really, really should have business cards. I can't tell you how many people in business I asked for cards to be told they have none or have run out. Never let this happen to you. It makes you look unprofessional, and as for myself, I don't think much of a business that doesn't have business cards.

Become your favorite detective. Be like Columbo, Monk or Holmes and notice where other businesses put their web address, and places where you could, but aren't, placing yours. Then act, and place your web address everywhere so it can start working more effectively for you.

In Part 2 I'll talk about speaking to groups and writing articles.