Someday these blog entries will be a regular habit! Then I may add more than anybody cares to read. For now I am lucky to get in an entry a month! I decided to share this entry I offered in another industry blog. Hopefully you will find some value in the info.

Our time at CG is dedicated primarily to designing marketing materials for various clients, service companies, retail, wholesale, etc. Frequently we find our time is spent being advisors to our clients and friends for “all things internet”. We can’t answer “all things internet” but I do have answers to some of the web marketing questions many people have.

Ecommerce and any marketing is just like running a business – you have to balance the cost, value, time and appropriateness to your message for your service or product. For instance this blog, currently I don’t add to it daily. I knew I wouldn’t when I launched it. I also know I am a person who needs to have deadlines and consistency. So, for keeping in touch with my clients and sharing information I think they will find useful, and possibly even entertaining, I committed to a monthly e-newsletter. Being a small shop I know we can’t do it all, so I focus on what I am most comfortable with and what my staff is best at – plus what meets our target audience best.

What I stress to my customers after the nuts and bolts of content, price and value is, fit. A blog component for some businesses may work best with a more organic approach. If it feels more authentic to just post and promote the blog through current connections rather than blasting other blogs to link to and from, I say do what fits your style for your service or product. It needs to feel right, not forced. If you really want to market that blog, get out there and do it all.

I have also put together a list of questions and outlined some advise for those who are not familiar with hiring web design too. Please check back on the tips page for “What to Ask a Web Designer” in the near future. Because there is so much confusion to pricing, what content is important, who is doing what, etc. there is a lot of fear and confusion out there hiring a Web site designer.

One last thing…watch for choosing Web site designers based on price alone. Heed the warning, you often get what you pay for and some times three months late! Even those of us in the industry who know what to ask for with programming or production have been burned. Do yourself a favor and work with someone you can speak to on the phone prior to hiring them and be sure to check out samples on their own Web sites. If they don’t have published samples (real clients) OR their own site. or their site is functioning poorly – be wary.