Do you have a website?

[XxKarToonxX]

Just curious how people are (or aren't) using the web to promote their business.

Interested to hear what people's experiences have been with it.

Lisa

 

[alphabetsoup2]

mine has been priceless. 95% of my clients schedule via email and love that I am online. also the instant gift certificate feature from spaboom has been great.
clients comment all the time how great they think my site looks. I think it really adds to the professionalism, I wouldn't be without one now.

 

[Mindy joy]

I feel that my site has been really important in many ways. It gives people the opportunity to learn about my services and "get a feel" for me and my practice. I have had several clients who found me online via a web search and then booked after visiting the site. I also use SpaBoom for instant gift certificates and have a listing on Spa Emergency, and both of those have brought in new clients as well! :

 

[liney]

My primary website is also my primary advertising. Yes, I use business cards and the occasional brochure, but I spend little time or funds on marketing, other than online. No yellowpages, no local listings, no citysearch, no adwords.

If it weren't for the site, I would not be busy like I am... at least not without considerable effort and expense.

But LOTS of effort went into creating the site. I probably invested a couple hundred hours on the writing alone, then many MANY more hours on the design, then a re-design and complete edit, and manually submitting my site to the good search engines, getting my name out there online, etc. Plus, my husband built the site to look like what I drew up.

My hosting + private domain reg costs just under $100/year. Less than a month's business card sized print ad in the local holistic newspaper. When I did that print ad (I ran it three times - that's over $300, IOW, 3 years of website expenses...) I got one client. I see her about every 2-3 months, so it took me 8 sessions with her (nearly 2 years,) to recoup the costs of that one print ad.

On the other hand, at least 1/2 of my regular clients found me online by using google. And my original insurance client who has sent me so much business from his clinic also found me through my website.

At present, my secondary business site needs a complete overhaul... looks, text, images, everything. I've needed to do it for months, but keep procrastinating. Part of me feels like if I do re-vamp the other site, I'll have too much business to handle, and I'm not ready to expand yet. (TOO MUCH PRESSURE! t101 )

Stacey

 

[Christina]

Breathe, if you don't mind me asking, why do you have two sites for your business?

 

[Random Hangman]

I have the primary site that I designed to really "sell" the massage business. I have the second site (which is not particularly good,) to explain to doctors and clients about treatment-oriented massage and insurance coverage.

I've since revised most of the text, but have yet to replace what's on the website with the revisions. (I'm also still working on a visual redesign.) My forms have been redesigned, and I think they're up there. I actually have two businesses, one that is cash/check/credit only, and the other is for billing only, or for prescription clients who need documentation for their lawyer/insurance/FSA/ etc.

I don't do any website promotion or optimization on the second business site, it is primarily there to be a tool for clients who already know they are coming to see me.