The latest research shows that Americans now are more likely to go to the internet than to a phone book.
Not younger Americans. Not urban Americans. Not tech-savvy Americans. Just Americans. The computer is now the first place we look for information.
So if you’ve been thinking that maybe someday you ought to have a website, or maybe when you can afford it you’ll get a website, or that a website would perhaps be a good thing for your business in the future — well, then you’re working way too hard.
I was being interviewed yesterday by a nice person from a national newspaper (if you know me IRL, then you already know about this, because I was childishly pleased by it and went around saying, “How cool is that?” and stuff), and she asked me about my website.
Had I paid for it? she wanted to know. And was it worth it?
Well, yes, I paid for it. I tried not to sound as though I were saying, “Excuse me? You don’t get a gorgeous website like mine for free, you know!” So I pointed out that it was built by a local company at a reasonable rate and I wrote it myself and that was a savings, but a professional website was a necessary investment for anyone planning to support herself.
It certainly has been worth it. I get most of my work through my website. It was paid for the first month I had it.
Can you do business without a website? Perhaps you can. But many of your customers will go to a competitor who has a website. The money they would have spent with you is the cost of not having a website. It is probably a good deal more than the cost of having a website.
You can do without the phone book.
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