Okay, so you’re wondering how you can advertise your products without spending a fortune. Well the easy answer is… you can. Viral Marketing is the cheapest (virtually free) and the quickest way you can get your products out.

The Subservient Chicken (http://www.subservientchicken.com/) has to be one of the most ubiquitous and talked about sites out there. It’s a fun site where you can have the chicken do what you command it to do. The “chicken man” in the center and the black background captures most of your attention but if you look closely, you’ll notice that it’s an official Burger King site.

The buzz for this site spread like crazy. It started off with a something like, “have you seen the chicken site?” to “have you seen the Burger King chicken site?” to “have you seen the Subservient Chicken?” to “have you seen Burger King’s Subservient Chicken?” and on and on…

We as the public are numb to advertisements and image branding. In this day in age, we find ways to avoid unnecessary advertisements and programmed to overlook print ads and annoying banners on websites. So what can companies do to promote their products?

They’re going old school. They’re depending on people to spread the words. If you are a member of facebook, MySpace or any other social networking sites, you’ve seen and used the free applications. If you look closely enough, you’ll notice the big company name behind it. Like the Subservient Chicken, they’re hoping that eventually, people will be talking about the application in conjunction with the company name.

Web 2.0 is the web standard used today. Unlike the first version, Web 2.0 allows us to interact with other users of the Internet. Instead of only retrieving information provided by the administrator of a website, we can communicate with others. As opposed to the Internet being a one-way resource for the users, the Internet became a mere “tool” for users to communicate with each other. With it came the birth of social networking sites (facebook, MySpace, linked-in, etc.), social bookmarking sites (dig, delicious, etc.) and social shopping sites (kaboodle.com, thisnext.com, etc.).

Check out this amazing You-Tube video put together by mwesch!!!

Web 1.0                                            Web 2.0
Reading                                            Writing
Companies                                       Communities
Client-server                                     Peer to peer
HTML                                                XML
Home pages                                     Blogs
Lectures                                            Conversation
Advertising                                        Word of mouth
Services sold over the web                Web services
Portals                                               RSS
Wires                                                 Wireless
Netscape                                           Google
Owning                                              Sharing
Web forms                                        Web applications
Screen scraping                                APIs
Dialup                                                Broadband
Hardware costs                                Bandwidth costs
Internet Explorer                              Firefox

I’m sure everyone is already familiar with the current economic crisis. At the beginning of each day we are bombarded with news from the TV, radio or print reminding us that the country is going broke. The current recession that the nation is enduring isn’t something new. It has been in the works for the past few years. The cost of items has slowly risen while the average amount of expendable income has declined. Naturally this is going to affect how consumers shop. Here are some reasons why having an online presence will help your business:

It is a fact that one can find products online for a cheaper price than they could find that same item in the store. How many times a day have you heard: “Check online, I bet you can find it for a fraction of the price”? Don’t you want your store to have the opportunity to sell to the millions of people shopping online for the best deal?

• During 2008, a good number of large retail stores reported sizeable growth for their online ventures. These statistics aren’t only true for large businesses. Just about any business that develops an online identity is rewarded with sizeable growth year after year.

• Online sales are often exempt from sales tax. Sales tax for online shopping is only applied to a sale when the item is being shipped to a state which contains a physical office of seller’s company. If the company that conducts the sale doesn’t have an office in the state that the item is being shipped to, there isn’t any tax applied.

• Online stores are open 24 hours a day. Having website is equivalent to opening a storefront up for 24 hour assistance. With today’s busy lifestyle, people don’t have the time to go and physically shop. By providing your customers access to an online store, they are able to shop after hours from the comfort of their own home.

These are only but a few reasons why an online presence will help your business grow. The same facts hold true not only for an online store, but for websites in general. More and more often people are consulting with Google for services. Whether someone is checking into a place to get their hair done, or if they are shopping for a new exhaust for their 57 Chevy they are going to check online during the buying process. Don’t you want your business to be listed when your service is searched?

Today I attended the final day of NYC Entrepreneur week.  The opening speaker, Peter Shankman, spoke about the different methods we use to communicate in today’s fast moving world.  Whether it is Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc., people all around the world are following others actions using technology.  In the 21st century, we rely on social networking sites to keep track of our friends and family as well as our business contacts.  As the internet grows and more and more businesses are going online, it’s not a shock to see links to our favorite spots spring up on these social networks.  What a great form of free advertising for the business behind the links.  And, for these businesses, there is no better sales person than the potential customer’s friend.  We are more apt to listen to the advice of a friend about how good or bad something is.  For example, the movie critics could give a movie 4 stars and call it the best film of 2009. But, if your friend says it stunk you’re likely going to listen to your friend and skip the film.

For a business, not having a website is no longer an option.  With more and more people communicating through social networking and consulting with Google before leaving the house, companies that do not have an online presence are going to consistently fall two or three steps behind those that do.  Especially now in a rough economy, it is important to cater advertising funds to an area where it is going to receive the most exposure.  Where is there more exposure than online?

While dealing with small to mid-sized businesses, we get a lot of questions like: “I know search engine optimization works, but will it work for me?” The truth is, search engines optimization actually benefits small businesses more than large corporations. Large corporation are already branded and known so most users are not out there searching for them. Smaller stores are like diamonds in the rough, and search engines can help customers find them.

In order to attract customers as a small online store, a slightly different method should be used:

• Find out what specific advantage you have over larger companies
• Figure out who would appreciate it
• Optimize your site accordingly

Here is an example:

Joe owns a small online shop, JoesPetBoutique.com, which sells unique and trendy fashion items for dogs. His inventory is filled with cool dog apparels from Spiderman t-shirts to NFL jerseys as well as some more formal-wears like sweaters and jackets. When Joe opens up his online shop, he automatically assumes that his customers will be searching on Google for the keyword phrase “dog clothes” or “dog apparel.” After months of adding the word “dog clothes” and “dog apparel” throughout his site, he finds out he just cannot compete with larger websites like TerrificPets.com or PetSmart.com in terms of search ranking. Joe realizes that he is doing something wrong and he tries to figure out what he can do to benefit from search engines. [READ MORE]

Most small to mid-sized business websites are built by web developers and web designers with little or no understanding of the commercial needs of your business. You can’t blame them because their expertise is in creative and technical services, not in your business.

There is a simple and fundamental process to consider when it comes to having a successful website:

1. Define the goal of your website. Make it clear and measurable.
2. Find your competitive advantage
3. Create a user-friendly website that will engage your visitors to take action
4. Measure the success of your goal and optimize your website

Here is a good example:

XYZ Candles sells candles that last 25% longer than any other candles in the market. They have a website with lots of information, but it doesn’t really seem to bring in a lot of customers. Here is what they did to turn this around: [READ MORE]

Sale Agent Partner

Top-quality sales companies become Sales agent partners for any number of good business reasons. They want to expand their product offerings. They want to increase revenues. They benefit from associating with one of the nation’s top Website Design and Online Marketing companies. Whatever the reason, partnering with Wevio is a great step to increasing your business sales and volume. [READ MORE]

Wevio is hiring most talented individuals within their fields of specialization. Our company was established in 1998 and have focused on providing a wide range of web services to small and mid-size companies.

Job Description

Sales/Account Executive Position

Wevio is seeking dynamic, motivated, energetic eMarketing Account Executives for our New York City office. This position would sell to medium- to large-size business including the US Fortune 1000 as well as to international firms. [READ MORE]

Dear Customer,

I am pleased to announce today that Wevio and SEA Interactive are now officially operating as one as of September 1, 2008. Our combination unites two market leaders, Wevio in small to medium size web design services and development services, and SEA Interactive in premium web design, consulting and online marketing services.

Together, we are uniquely positioned to provide the world’s best web design services with the most comprehensive set of web design solutions available to extend high end design services, mission critical services and assure they are managed, secure and compliant. The resulting product portfolio will include solutions for SOHO Web Design, Premium Web Design, Web Development and Online Marketing. The combined company will operate under the name Wevio NYC, LLC. and be headquartered in New York. [READ MORE]