Options for establishing your web presence

There are several ways of establishing a web presence:

1. Website: This is where you establish purchase a domain name and fill the site with customised content. This is the more expensive route to online expression because you need to customise your webpage, you need a domain hosting service provider to provide a server for any content you which to place on your website, or which to provide access from your website. Of course you can host the website yourself but this is not an appealing proposition to people lacking the technical knowledge.

2. Blog: The low maintanence option is developing a blog. Blogs are standardised webpages that are designed for information presented in a diary or chronological format. There is no reason that the website cannot be personalised, but the tools for doing so are provided in-house. In as much as the content is hosted by the blogging company, you are dependent on their format options.

3. Social Networking Member Sites: The last option is online websites that provider you a member page so that you can relate to other members on the basis of shared interests or activities. These types of pages perhaps offer the most compelling service because of their ability to capture the person information of members. These websites offer the most compelling model for advertising.

The best option to suit your needs depends on what you want to achieve. Some flexibility is provided, in the sense that you might secure a domain name, only to redirect inquiries to that address to your blog pages. The most important reason for securing a web domain name is to ensure ownership of your name - and that can be important if you want to offer some sense of continuity, for the sake of networking or branding. Redirecting a blog allows you to capture the low maintenance benefits of a blog at the same time, and because you can always move the content, you dont risk loosing business when you change blogs or domain names. For these reasons a website is important for anyone intending to establish commercial goals for their online presence.

If your intent in merely to offer friends a way to catch up with what you are doing and to interact with them, or to meet new people, then some type of social networking based on shared activities or interests makes alot of sense. These sites tend however to not provide the same options for self expression, so you might prefer a combination of social networking and blogging tools.

The future belongs to those companies that provide an integrated and comprehensive service. eg. Google, Yahoo and Facebook appear to be the leaders in the social networking stakes.

Developing a marketing strategy

A decision to sell products or services online starts with a strategy. Issues that you need to consider are:
1. Identifying your style of selling - will you offer a narration of your life and the opportunity to buy the products you used, or will you adopt an online shopping cart, so people can easily select the products you offer.
2. Identify your selling advantage - you will need to identify what is unique about your product or service. You cannot proceed unless you have done that. People make the mistake in thinking that they need to take on the world, but anyone can distinguish themselves if they decrease the size of their target market. There are some pretty flashy websites on the web, but alot of them are not interested in selling outside of their home markets.
3. Developing a revenue model: You need to think about how you intend to generate revenue from your website. Are you going to sell books - physical books sold through Amazon, or downloadable books sold through online credit card and paypal transactions. For credit card transactions, you will need to get a merchant account. In some countries that is not an easy thing to do. Instead you might offer the content for free, and hope to generate revenue from paid advertising. You can solicit companies interested in advertising on your website, or you can sign up for Google's Adsense.
4. Adopting a payments solution: If you hope to generate profits from your website, then you need to establish a payments solution. The options available depend on your location and credit history. If you have a good credit record and are based in a western market you will be able to establish a merchant account with one of the credit card companies - Visa, Mastercard, Diners Club and American Express (Amex). Failing that you can still set up a Paypal account, but with this option your ability to engage in online transactions depends on your customers having a Paypal account as well. Unfortunately many more people have a credit card account than having a Paypal account. This will change eventually. Another payments provider is Verisign, however they are move expensive. Lastly Google has established Checkout as a payments solution, however they are curently only operating the service to residents of the USA and UK. For prospective merchants operating out of developing countries, they can still get a merchant account, but they will only be able to process transactions for customers in their own country....a significant restriction. It becomes apparent that your payment options are likely to determine your marketing strategy. If constrained, and you are able to develop a customer following, the Paypal option is still likely to be a good one since online banking is already popular. Paypal is very easy to set up.

Google hits its limits

Its interesting to ponder market theories and the corresponding government policies and forecasts of future earnings that impact corporate valuations. I can think of several examples:

1. In the 1940s the Australian government fearing a storage of iron ore outlawed the development of new resources to ensure there was adequate supplies during any war period. In the 1960s Lang Hancock discovered the first of many iron ore deposits. Today Western Australia is the centre of iron ore mining.
2. It wasnt many years ago that there was a fear that Microsoft would control the online world, yet just 5 years later, the company seems to be disappearing into irrelevance.
3. Today most people are thinking much the same way about Google. Yet I would highlight an issue that might yet bring Google to its knees. Success - like Microsoft - but in a difference sense. Google's Blogspot is a useful utility because it integrated well with the rest of the Google features. The problem is that the web-based utility was exceedingly slow on the weekend. Might customers migrate elsewhere? It highlights the loss of credibility that can occur if you grow too fast, such that you undermine the services of your existing customers.

I love Google, but it has me thinking that maybe I depend too much on them. I use them for email, voice, online commerce, online writing. Hmm...care is warranted.