You Must Be Master of Your Own Domain 

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Well, after a small amount of work, I came up with several conclusions, the first one being that the travel industry is pretty hot, but not as hot as I would like it to be.   But that is not what I want to focus on. The problem I came across, which I'm sure is not specific to the travel industry, was not only shocking but appalling. Out of the 22 businesses I contacted, two of them had Web sites, or claimed they did, and didn't know what their Web addresses (URLs) were.   Can you believe this? Is it possible that companies spend money on something that will send their image out to 45+ million people, that may be able to increase revenue substantially through this new wonderful medium called the Internet, and they don't even know what and where it is?

When I contacted these two particular examples (who will be left out of this article for obvious reasons) my first reaction was shock, which quickly moved to disgust and then anger. I should have helped those people. I should have queried further into their psyches and found out what was really going on. I could have even tried to sell my services as a Web marketer, but I didn't. They sounded disinterested in the whole concept of the Web, wanted me off the phone so they could go live in their cloud of ignorance, and as such, I politely said goodbye.

I suppose the old saying, "You don't know what you have till it's gone", just might be true.   The first purpose of this little article was to spout my frustrations against some businesses who do not take the Internet and the World Wide Web seriously, who do not see the potential of creating a solid Web presence, with a plan, a strategy and a system. But I also want to quickly go into several marketing methods that can be used for a Web presence. Maybe someone will read this, and then realize that the site they have (or the one they are planning on building) needs to be better organized, and implemented with a marketing plan in mind.

Registering a domain name:   What does this mean? Well, registering a domain name means that your Web address (your URL) will look like this www.company_name.com instead of www.yourisp.com/companyname. For example the patil group's Web address is www.patil.com instead of www.hello.in/patil. The differences are very important.   It looks more professional: Since you are already building an 'entire package' and not some 'quickie-after the thought-job' registering your domain name is one step to finish off the product.

Easier to change Internet Service Providers (ISP): Once you have registered the domain name it is always yours (as long as you keep paying for it) and you can move it from ISP to ISP with less hassle, and no one will ever know the difference.   Better advertising: Why advertise your ISP, when you can focus your advertising on your own company. Since your URL is going on all of your paper products (see below) it is important to focus people's attention specifically on you and your business.

There are different ways of registering a domain name (and there are even different domain name types), but usually your ISP or Web design consulting company will help you through the process, and in fact they should be able to do almost everything for you at a low cost.   Publishing your Web address:   This is the biggest step you must take. You have to get your Web site address out there in as many ways as possible. And this doesn't mean simply through search engines, which are one step, but certainly not the best, or the only step you should be taking.   Here are some methods you should definitely use and others that you may want to consider:   Put your URL on all paper products: This includes your business cards, brochures, flyers, proposals, etc.

This is the first and ultimate step you must take. Once you have a Web site address, it should become as important a piece of information as your telephone number.   Take out an ad in the local newspaper Write press releases for your Web site launch and changes that occur on your site.   Cross linking with other sites: Spend some time finding other sites on the Web that may be suitable for creating a cross link with your site.  Going on the search engines: There are hundreds of search engines out there, some are very popular and others are pretty small. Putting your Web site on search engines can also take a lot of time (if you do it manually) or take an instant (if you get someone else to do it - see http://submit-it.com for an example).

There are several companies now that will register your domain name with tons of search engines, for a fee of course.   Newsgroups: There are several newsgroups that allow you to publish announcements about new Web sites, and events and changes on Web sites. Check out alt.internet, and alt.internet.services as examples.   Overall, a good Web design consulting company can help you with all of these marketing techniques and others. Before venturing on to the Web, as has been said so many times, make a plan, and often it's best to get someone to help you with it. Most people don't write business plans without some expert advice, so why would this be different? And for heaven's sake, keep yourself informed, aware and alert at all times. If I ever call you and you mumble something about having a site, but not knowing the address, and not really knowing what it does, or how it works; I might just have to kill you, or try to save you...