IN WITH THE NEW

GETTING YOUR SITE LIVE AND LAUNCHED
is only part of the battle. If you want to be successful, you’ll need to give people a reason to visit your site often. Give visitors an incentive to keep coming back. One of the best ways to do this is by offering new or refreshed content. Frequent updates to your site will keep customers engaged and assure them that you’re on top of things. But nothing turns off customers more than seeing outdated or irrelevant information.
The “K.I.S.S.” (keep it simple, stupid) principle still applies. Resist the temptation to put something on your site just because you can. While video, audio, high-resolution graphics and Flash animation can certainly add value to your site, they can also make your pages slow to load. Remember, never post content that slows access to a page. Your customers will get tired of waiting and leave your site.
So what works? There are many ways to introduce content that gives users reasons to linger longer and absorb more of what you’re offering. Try out a few tools, monitor user response and delete the ones that don’t prove valuable. Update your content regularly. You know best what will work for your business, but a good guideline is to add new content weekly, or at least monthly. This isn’t hard to do. But if you feel like you don’t have the tools to modify the site yourself, you can use third-party companies, which provide tools to let you easily create and update your site with just a few clicks and no HTML knowledge required.
CONTENT CREATION
There are many ways to create interesting content:
■Polls and surveys: People love to share their opinions. Polls work because they provide
instant gratification and underscore interactivity—one of the net’s best features. Ask any relevant question, whether it’s related to a current event or connected to your site. If you’re selling music, ask, “Who’s your favorite Beatle?” On an auto site, let them vote for their favorite classic car. Polls should be short (never ask more than 10 questions in a poll—five or fewer is ideal). Posting a poll is fairly easy. Your web hosting provider might offer a tool that lets you post a poll or survey. Or you can use a free website service that generates the HTML for you. You just copy and paste it where you want it to appear on your site, and you can get the results by e-mail. You can also use surveys to gather information, but keep them short and offer a small reward (like a discount on a future purchase or a free sample item). Randomly choose a number of customers to survey, and then read and record every answer that comes in. Be specific about what you want to know. Ask your customers questions in such a way that you will get the answers you need. For more advanced surveys, check out a survey service provider, who can handle the setup and reporting for a small fee. This can be worthwhile if you expect hundreds or thousands of responses.
■Blogs: A blog is a frequently updated online journal with lots of links. Blogs are a great viral marketing tool because they incorporate the elements of interactivity, community and collaboration. Use blogs as a platform to showcase your expertise and engage your customers on amore personal level. Blogs give your business added credibility and visibility. Use them to offer content (tips are always good blog material) and to drive readers to your main site.
■RSS (really simple syndication) feeds: Originally built to distribute syndicated news, RSS promises a host of other uses, including innovative marketing and content building on your site. RSS lets you instantly publish and receive bits of text. You can bolster content by adding RSS feeds from news services or blogs that will intrigue site visitors. RSS is still fairly technical and is used by savvy surfers, but it is gaining a wider audience. To see RSS in action, download and install an RSS reader from the web and follow the directions. You can also look for the small orange RSS icon on your favorite websites. Most browsers now have built-in RSS tools that let you view and organize RSS feeds. One powerful way to use RSS is to have an RSS feed from your site that notifies subscribers when you update with new content. Talk to your web designer or web hosting company about adding RSS to your site, either as a way to bring in content from other websites to enrich your own site, or as a way to send out updates to interested visitors that want to keep track of your site. It can be a very flexible and powerful tool.
■Customer-driven content: Constantly updating your content doesn’t have to cost you endless hours or big bucks. One great way to get new content without having to write it all yourself or hire expensive freelancers is to ask your readers or customers for contributions. Many readers will jump at the chance to contribute just for the thrill of seeing their names in virtual print. For an easy way to provide content, offer a tip regularly. Post daily, weekly or even monthly, and don’t worry about coming up with 365 daily tips; work on them a month or two at a time. When it comes to the web, content is king. With tools ranging from polls to RSS feeds to blogs and even video, there’s no reason not to have an updated and interesting website. Keep your content relevant and fresh, and you’ll be able to give your web customers a compelling reasonto revisit your site on a regular basis. That’s the sort of customer relationship that is well worth cultivating.