• The Internet is a very powerful media, which when used properly, can give a company a significant business advantage. It is also extremely cost effective when compared with other advertising media.
• The Internet can help create worldwide awareness about your company and its products / services. The Internet works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Your web site is constantly giving out information about your organization - day and night.
• Foreign visitors and tourists can connect to the Internet via a laptop from their hotel rooms or elsewhere and seek information regarding your company.
• The way a web site is well designed tells a visitor a lot about your company. A well-designed site can do a lot to enhance the image of your company. This is an important first step in getting additional business.
• For a web site to be effective, it must be properly positioned with search engines. Feeding site details to search engines requires a lot of skill. If a web site is not properly 'found' by search engines, there is no awareness generated and consequently the very purpose of having a site is defeated. Since search engine rankings change with time, it is important to periodically review where a site stands vis-à-vis the various search engines and keep re-feeding the site details as and when required.
• Many companies are not found on the search engines. For example: a search on the search engine Yahoo for the words "Plumbing, Northern Kentucky" does not return any sites. The fact is, Northern Kentucky has over 100 plumbing companies. 
• How a site is designed is also very important. Most web designers try and incorporate a lot of "creativity" into their sites. Creativity, when properly used, is good - it attracts interest. However, excessive use of creativity can actually work negatively. Web design companies sometimes use excessive creativity, which could actually go against the process of communication.
• Companies and individuals that visit web sites do so because they seek information. Therefore, a site primarily must have a very high level of information content. A site that offers constantly updated information attracts repeat visitors - people or organizations that bookmark the site and come back for more information.

Successful companies use their web sites in a variety of ways:

1. Apart from offering general information, a web site can offer specific information. For example: price lists can be held on the site. Changes in price can be communicated almost instantly via the Internet. The last time your company changed its price, how long did it take to disseminate the information through conventional means?
2. Companies that sell products and offer service routinely get a lot of inquiries. Most of these, when analyzed, are found to be repetitive in nature. This takes up a lot of human time (and money). Customers appreciate such product and service information being held on the company web site. Service can be offered round-the-clock, even when the company has closed its offices for the day.
3. Companies can hold their inventory and stock positions online. Customers (or even the company's own sales force) can check the stock position and then book orders.
4. Companies can encourage online bookings. This saves on telephone and fax costs and is more efficient.
5. Companies can use there website to sell their products and services 24 hours a day without a break.
6. Companies can advertise job openings on their web site.  Advertising job openings on the Internet is cheaper and faster than advertising in other conventional media.
7. Companies can hold sensitive and internal information on its website and make it accessible to eligible employees (via password protection) at multiple locations using an Intranet. Companies that went in for an intranet found that overall efficiency increased dramatically. There was significant cost and time saving. Company bulletins and circulars could be instantly updated and flow of communications streamlined. Employees had greater access to company information and this helped them in better decision making on the job.
8. Companies can use Internet technology to reduce communication costs. It is now possible to use the Internet to videoconference with a sales office; it is also possible for several company executives at different locations to hold a conference in real-time using the Internet.
9. We have known companies to design their web sites in a brochure format. The company executives then need not carry large quantities of corporate brochures to Trade Fairs and meetings. They just log in to the Internet and color print out their site, which becomes a ready give-away brochure.

How much does having a basic internet web site cost?  For a complete site with 5-10 pages.  Dlhost can usually do this for under $300. Click here to see a sample of a site that was done for under $300.  To find out more about what a business card website consists of click here.