When I describe what I do to folks who are not business owners or who don’t operate on the Internet, they’re baffled. “There are plenty of free website templates out there: do you have customers for what you do?”

Yes, absolutely. If you’ve spent any time on the Internet trying to attract customers, you quickly discover that simply putting a website up is not enough. You can set up a website or a blog and have it live in relative obscurity for months, even years. I know this from personal experience…!

“You don’t need to learn HTML to have a website.” That’s true as long as you don’t have a preference as to whether the website is blue or brown or purple. Perhaps you don’t mind that your website looks like the 762 other websites using the same template. However, when you begin to develop a brand for your business and you want your sites to reflect your brand, your colors, your logo, you will start to care very much.

“Have your web designer add this, (and this, and this) to your site.” Why do the experts say use this phrase? Because the assumption is that you as website or blog owner are not willing to learn HTML or Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) skills necessary to make the changes yourself. Perhaps not at first; but as time passes and your sites sit in cyber-obscurity, your priorities change. You can certainly choose to depend on your web designer to make updates, but why not learn how to do the simple things? It makes fiscal sense, and your site updates will certainly move along a lot faster. And on the Internet, fast updates are the name of the game.

When it comes to marketing over the Internet, you need more than just a website or a blog. You’re going to want to create squeeze/opt-in pages, confirmation and thank-you pages, custom HTML for the top and bottom of your shopping cart pages, and of course, pages where you post downloads or giveaways. You can certainly copy and paste from existing pages, but are you confident that you know what to add and what to remove without breaking the template?

There are plenty of things you can do to attract traffic to your site. And what do they usually involve? More often than not, it’s jumping into the HTML or CSS to make changes. The good news is that HTML and CSS are a lot simpler than you think. They’re detailed, but they are not difficult. And that’s where my business is: showing entrepreneurs, virtual assistants, and small business owners a simple method for learning the HTML and CSS they need to feel confident and be competent to work on their own sites.

I’ll have more to say on this subject in the weeks to come. Stay tuned for more of my gentle truth-telling…

Meanwhile, be sure to sign up for Thursday night’s Free Website and Blog Makeover Webinar.

It exciting to watch: entrepreneurs with important things to share with the world are getting ready to make it happen through new or redesigned websites and blogs.

• A professional with valuable but highly specialized skills is going to be able to communicate her solutions with distressed parents in a meaningful way through her new website.
• An entrepreneur who knows about an IRS-approved, low-cost health insurance plan will be able to help small businesses take care of their employees through his expanded website.
• An entrepreneur who has unique merchandise will be able to expand both her market and her product line with her new website and blog, and she can add new information to both whenever she wants.

Being able to empower other people with new skills that help them support themselves is what gets me out of bed in the morning! To use a “vehicle” metaphor, it’s the difference between hitchhiking to get to client meetings and having your own car that gets you wherever you want to go. With the latter approach, you’re not always dependent on someone else.

There’s still time to book an appointment and talk to me about your website or blog project AND take advantage of 30% discount on coaching sessions. Visit http://www.ToolieCoaching.com to get all the details and click on the Live Chat icon to tell me about your project.

Toolie

After last week’s free webinar (view the recording here) I was inundated by entrepreneurs with requests to help them learn how to start, fix, update, refine, and/or finish their websites and blogs. It’s so exciting to see these folks take the reins of these incredibly important business assets and make sure their websites and blogs are as bright and shiny as possible. And what’s even better is that they’re getting help at 30% off my usual hourly rate!

Discount Coupon Code: 09SUMMERSALE

It makes good business sense too, to understand how websites and blogs work, to be able to update them at any time of the day or night. Business on the Internet moves QUICKLY and you’ve GOT to be able to keep up with it.

So what about your project? What would you secretly like to have look better on your website or blog? What do you want to add or improve? The discounted rate lasts for another 23 days (expiring at 11:59 pm on 09/09/09) so now would be the time to make your appointment at http://www.ToolieCoaching.com. If you’re not sure where to start, I recommend a Basic Website/Blog Checkup to get you going. You can always click on the Live Chat icon on my websites to ask me questions.

Remember to use the discount coupon code when you go to pay for the session: 09SUMMERSALE

Let’s get started on YOUR project!

Toolie®

We had a great call last night, with lots of websites and blogs reviewed. The recording is now ready for viewing at:

http://www.fixmywebsiteplease.com/20090811/index.html.

What you’ll see in this webinar recording is coaching very much like what I do with clients, one-on-one. If we worked together, you could bring me your websites, blogs, opt-in (squeeze) pages, thank you pages, autoresponders, HTML ezine templates, aging logos, mangled menus, fuzzy photos, distressed graphics: anything involving a web page, (happy or not) and I would help you figure out what needs to be done.

On my www.ToolieCoaching.com website, you can choose a 1-hour checkup, a more detailed 2-hour checkup, or bring your own list and Design Your Own Plan. You can click on the session length of your choice, make your appointment online, and pay once you receive confirmation. It couldn’t be easier!

You and I would then meet via my GoToMeeting account (which includes a voice-over-Internet connection — no telephone toll charges), where we can see the same website or blog, talk about solutions, fix things immediately, and make plans for where to take your site from there.

My sessions on www.ToolieCoaching.com are 30% off until September 9th (09/09/09)! Now is the PERFECT time to take care of the updates you’ve been thinking of making but have been putting off.

Write this discount code down: 09SUMMERSALE

When you get to the check-out page, enter that coupon code and click Apply to see your savings.

Make 2009 your best year ever by taking ACTION. Click through one of the links above and make an appointment. I’ll be waiting!