Free websites
Get your clever little site for free
Okay, we know that paying £99 per year for a website is not much money at all. However should you wish to eliminate this overhead then you can with this great offer to all clever little site owners.
How to get your free website
Simply introduce 6 people to the clever little site within 12 months and your next annual renewal will be paid for you, simply get those who you introduce to the clever little site to email us with your website address when they have their clever little site and we will make a note on your account.
Who to introduce?
Anyone will do, whether it is a family friend starting up their own business, a fellow business colleague who needs a marketing website or why not recommend your favourite charity so that they can save on their marketing expenses, which means more money to those they are trying to help.
Good luck with your online ventures 
Sales Risk for Small Business Websites
37 per cent of consumers have walked away from a small business because of its poor website
“Research shows that keeping an ugly or badly functioning website online can comprise a risk to sales revenue. Consumers have ever higher expectations, and it is essential that every company website inspires confidence. Businesses that invest carefully in their web experience will see higher levels of customer spend, retention and referral”.
| Oliver Mauss, CEO 1&1 Internet Ltd.
Bad websites cost SME's Business
A total of 46 per cent of British consumers have cancelled plans to spend with a small business after finding a poor quality website, according to research released today by 1&1 Internet Ltd, www.1and1.co.uk, a global leader amongst web hosts. From a study of more than 1800 UK adults, 37 per cent have walked away completely whilst a further 9 per cent have opted to spend less as a direct result. Many consumers feel that small business websites today are mostly unattractive and often contain errors. Whilst 1 in 3 consumers are willing to provide valuable feedback to business owners, a further study of small firms finds that half have never asked clients about their experiences of using their website.
The majority of UK businesses have now taken steps to launch a website and battle for valuable online visibility. However, 1&1’s ’2011 Digital High Street Audit’(1) finds worryingly low levels of consumer satisfaction with the small business websites available to them. The risk to firms from providing a bad online experience is clear – 49 per cent of consumers believe that a bad website makes a worse impact than a business having no website at all.
Read full article on the 1&1 Press Room
Get a clever little site and ensure you are seen in the best possible light
Free Twitter Plug-in
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Coming soon to all clever little site owners
In our batch up upgrades we are adding a plug-in that will enable you to easily add your Twitter Tweets to the pages of your clever little site. This means that everytime that you t a tweet it will appear automatically on the pages that your plug-in is placed, nice!
Oh by the way did I mention that you will get a Free Blog with your clever little site should you need one? Yes this is another great addition coming soon to all clever little site owners.
For Free Twitter news and more.
Subscribe to this Blog or follow us on Facebook, Twitter using any of the links below.
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Free Blog Website Plug-in
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Coming soon to all clever little site owners
In our batch up upgrades we are adding a plug-in that will enable you to easily add Blog Posts to the pages of your clever little site. This means that everytime that you write a new Blog Article it will appear automatically on the pages that your plug-in is placed, nice!
Oh by the way did I mention that you will get a Free Blog with your clever little site should you need one? Yes this is another great addition coming soon to all clever little site owners.
For Free Blog news and more.
Subscribe to this Blog or follow us on Facebook, Twitter using any of the links below.
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Is my email account working for me?
Unprofessional email addresses can cost you sales
What does my email account can say about me?
If you are in business you do not want to be using a Hotmail account with an email address like mycompany@hotmail.com or a Gmail email account with an email address like mycompany@gmail.com.
Potential clients want to believe that there money is going to be spent with a professional company and often perceive business without a professional email address such as hello@my company.com as not being established or big enough to cater for their requirements.
But my email account is easy for me to use!
If you are in business your first consideration should be, “what can I do to make my clients trust me”. since you are in the making money game you do not want to needlessly lose potential sales because what you currently have is easy for you.
If you are they type of person who is looking for every opportunity to increase your conversion rate, then a professional email address is a simple and straight forward improvement that will have a very positive impact on your company’s profile.
If I delete my email account my contacts cannot email me!
If you have lots of people who already know your email address you do not need to worry in fact this is a great opportunity to get back in touch with all of them.
Simply set up your professional email address in your new account and then add a forwarder onto your current email address in your old email account, this will push every email from your old email address to your new email address.
Now the good part, contact everyone that knows your old email address and ask them to upgrade their contact details to reflect your new email address. This is a great opportunity to inform them of a promotion or new product line / service that you currently have.
Let us know if you have any thoughts on email accounts
Being Seen: Promoting Your Website
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This is an important one, so let’s get straight to the point: Sometimes a business will have a website set up, and then assume that’s that, and leave it well alone. This is, I think, a bit too laid back an approach to what can potentially be a great tool for your business. If you keep your website up to date and make sure your clients and contacts are aware of it’s existance, it can carry a lot of extra promotional power for your business.
One of the best (and most cost effective) ways to get people to remember that you have a website is to show them the address a lot. But in a subtle way. People hate having things shoved down their throats every 5 minutes. This doesn’t sound like the easiest thing to do, but actually it’s really quite simple. Just make sure you include your web address on all your company materials. Here’s a quick list to get you thinking – don’t just stop there though! There are no-end of opportunities to get your company’s website address out there.
Business Stationery
Include your website address on…
- your company’s headed paper.
- compliment slips.
- business cards.
- presentational folders (this works well on the inside pocket, with your other contact details).
Merchandising Materials
You can also include it on any promotional gifts and things your company has, such as…
- ballpoint pens.
- notepads and Post-It pads.
- stickers and transfers.
- clothing (baseball caps, t-shirts, etc).
- mugs.
- usb drives (this one’s great, because chances are people will be near a computer when they see it!)
It doesn’t stop there though.
There are a few other places you can put the address too:
- When making comments on people’s blogs, and setting up profiles on networking sites or online forums, there is often the option to add a website address. You know what to do. This is also a good one for helping with your search engine rankings, as links back to your site from others will improve your website’s credability.
- You can also add the address to your business email signature, so it automatically appears at the bottom of your emails with your name and other contact details.
- If you have any company vehicles, such as vans or trucks, you may already have decals with the company name and phone number – this is another great place to put your business website address.
All these ideas are great for getting your website into people’s consciousness, without annoying them. Your site then allows people to get some information about your company at their own convenience.
Start promoting your business online with a clever little site
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Start Your Own Business – get clever
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Why use a clever little site?
Here’s a bunch of reasons why right now might be a really good time to give that entrepreneurial idea some serious consideration, and maybe think about starting your own business.
- People are looking for work. In the current economic climate, a lot of people are already finding it hard to find work, so if you’re able to create jobs for them, you should find it easy to find people to fill the vacancies.
- Banks are looking for worthwhile investments. While banks are no longer carelessly lending out money they may not see again, it is still in their interest to be lending out and investing money in viable businesses. If you can present a solid business plan and valid market research to back it up, the banks should still be listening.
- You may already be out of work yourself. A lot of people put off starting their own business as they are busy with their current job, working for another employer. However, with recent job losses and redundancies from large corporations who are “slimming down” their operations, many people are no longer in this situation.
- You can do something you love, instead of “working”. The Chinese philosopher Confucius once said: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” This is exactly what starting your own business can allow you to do. By running a business that focuses on something you’re passionate about, you can indulge that passion whilst earning a living. Also, it won’t feel so much like hard work, and you’ll find that your enthusiasm for what you’re doing is infectious, and people will be interested in what you have to say.
- You stand to gain a great deal. If your new business grows and is successful, you’ll be the owner of a valuable financial asset, that keeps on giving. You could be the next Richard Branson. He started off selling Christmas trees in his hometown. Then he sold records out of a room above a Doc Marten’s outlet, which, as he had no money, he managed to rent for free, after persuading the shop owner that the extra foot traffic through the store would help sell more boots (which apparently it didn’t). And look where he is now. So we’ll see you in the pits of the next season’s Formula 1 championship, right?
From humble beginnings, Richard Branson is now a player in the world of F1 racing
So what are you waiting for? If you have an idea, develop it into something you can run really with.
New businesses are starting up at a rate of thousands and thousands each month – there’s no reason you can’t be one of these have-a-go entrepreneurs too.
In these challenging times it’s important to remember one thing – in every difficulty, there is an opportunity.
Start up your own business with a clever little site
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Easy Start Up Websites
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The start up solution
It is important to give the right impression in business, but what if you are a start up, how can you afford everything you need to build confidence with potential clients?
With a £99 clever little sites you are able to save £1000′s on a website allowing you to spend money on the other items to make a good impression; a suit, business cards a laptop…
Do not be fooled into believing a website is just a website, you are judged on what you have online, think of it as a shop window; if it does not inspire confidence people will look elsewhere.
You will receive:
- The ability to edit your own text,
- Upload images & PDF documents from your desktop
- Insert YouTube videos
- A multi page website
- Templates and colour schemes to choose from
- Multiple professional email addresses
- and much more
Try our Free Online Demonstration and see how simple it is.
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From Little Acorns: Branching Out Into Ecommerce
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Make yourself a home in the forest of E-commerce
Warning: Please be prepared for more tree-related jokes and puns in the following blog post.
Yes, it’s important to remember that age-old proverb: “From little acorns, mighty oaks grow.”
For an established business, it can be difficult to take the first steps into Internet business, the cornerstone of which is, of course, a great website. Many businesses try to throw themselves in at the deep end of Ecommerce, with a large, comprehensive online shop.
There’s a lot for a business to think about in this scenario. “How do we take payments online? Should we list all our products and services, or just the most popular ones? Should we be managing stock through the website?” etc. We often find that people end up not being able to see the wood for the trees (boom boom).
Instead, allow me suggest a much more manageable approach. Until you’re sure people will use your website and buy online from you, don’t worry about an online shop. You can use a clever little site to establish your company’s online presence, list your products and services, and allow people to call or email you to place an order.
For many businesses, communicating with clients is pretty much essential when doing business with them, so this shouldn’t be a major issue anyway. Indeed, many people don’t like to part with money until they have spoken to a representative of a company they’re looking at.
If you’ve got a special deal going on, or some important piece of company news, you can always thicket (haha) on your website too.
So, in this way, you can use a clever little site as a tool to generate business for a fraction of the price of a full blown Ecommerce site. Then, when it starts generating more work than your staff can handle, or all your clients start clamouring for online payment facilities, you can think about upgrading your current site.
When that time comes, you will be able to draw on the experiences you’ve already accumulated, and make much more informed decisions on how your Ecommerce roots should spread (there was another). And you may find that money does indeed start growing on your Ecommerce trees (and another).
Don’t worry about losing your website address either – you’ll be able to take that with you too, whenever you want. Just let us know – we won’t mind. So there’s no need to call the copse (hahaha).
Okay. No more tree jokes. I’m done. Sorry everyone.
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Future Looks Promising For Start Ups
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A recent research study by Barclays Commercial has shown that, despite the recession, the general feeling among startups and small businesses in the UK is a positive one.
Of the companies questioned, 60% said that they were taking advantage of the recession as a time to restructure their business practices, expecting to emerge stronger than before. A further 25% said that they had not seen fit to alter their business model, despite the financial upheaval.
The study showed that many business owners were just anxious about late payments from clients and cashflow issues as people tighten their purse strings, rather than a lack of work itself.
So there you go, yet more proof that the times are as good as, if not better than ever to start up your own business.
Owners of smaller businesses also pointed out the opportunity to “leapfrog” competitors that has been presented by the economic downturn – as larger companies are forced to spend time and money altering their large-scale operations, smaller businesses are able to adapt infinitely more quickly to the swiftly changing economic climate.
We ourselves noticed many smaller businesses advertising “credit-crunch busting” deals and “beat the credit crunch” offers months before larger chains even seemed to acknowledge the situation. Indeed, our clever little websites themselves exactly fit this growing star tup market.
Get your start up clever little site today
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