Lance, this is for you.
The Big Business Show is a very informative radio show broadcast from Sportsradio 1260 “The Zone” in Salt Lake City, Utah County, and Davis County on Saturdays from 12noon-2pm. There are a number of things you can do with your web site on a very limited budget.
First, I’ll tell you that I love that you have a podcast. It’s awesome.
Move to a blog
Some people talk about using a CMS (Content Management System). I feel like I blinked, and the Internet world changed. Maybe I was just in denial for too long. After all, I like to be the one to make the web site updates! Yet, however it happened, the Internet is now different than it once was.
Post site content yourself
It is now vital that you, the site’s owner, have the ability to publish your own content online easily. It is also very important that your site has fresh content weekly.
Blogs are great to use for content management. The newest information can be placed at the top of the main page, and all of the content can be be archived, searched, categorized, and tagged. Soon you’ll have a database FULL of great content for your readers.
Get a site for cheap or free
Blogs can come cheap, and even free. My personal favorite is Wordpress because it is free, versatile, and fairly easy to use. Anyone who’s talked to me knows how important I think it is that a professional sets up your site. But if the budget just isn’t there, do it yourself. It will be sufficient to meet your needs until you grow bigger.
Post at least one entry after each show
If you have a guest speaker on your show who talks about his web site, it’s natural to want to post a blog entry that thanks him (or her!) for his time and linking to his web site.
If a topic comes up and you don’t have time to go into the subject, follow up your show with a blog entry that goes into the subject in more depth.
Market your site
Your radio show is all about your listeners. Yet, two hours a week is just the tip of the iceberg of resources you have to offer your listeners. You have previous shows, guest speakers, books, resources, and lots more to offer your listeners. All those happy listeners will use your web site for authoritative entrepreneurial information if you just offer it to them.
Encourage your listeners to subscribe to your blog
Tell your listeners to subscribe to your blog, and promise to post something on the subject. Then follow up on your promise, of course.
Encourage visitor interaction
With a blog, you can allow your visitors to post comments. Host a quick, easy contest. For example, solicit the biggest success story on your blog. Create a post saying, “Put your story in a comment on this page, and you could win.” Announce the contest on your show. Get a sponsor to put up a prize, or a guest speaker. Invite the winner onto your show to tell everyone their “award-winning” story.
Get your readers involved in your site. Ask an open-ended question. Host a poll. The possibilities are endless.
Make it easy for people to share your site
My personal favorite share site is Add This. Even ABC News uses it (or if they don’t now, they did at one point). It’s super easy to put an “add this” popup anywhere on a web page. Put one on every category and one on every blog post page.
Cross-Market on Facebook
You have a Facebook group, and that’s good, but so are Facebook pages. Pages help new people discover your show/site (friends of fans, etc.), and groups help you regularly communicate with your more dedicated listeners. Cross-link between your site and Facebook as much as possible.
The PSYCH TV show on USA did some pretty cool promotions with their page last season.
Cross-Market on Twitter
Twitter is a great way to blast a quick show reminder to your listeners, or let people you posted the link to that book you promised in last week’s show. It takes two seconds, and the little alarm will reach a lot of people all at once.
Place a Twitter link on your blog, so people can follow these info blasts.
Get links to your site
The more your supporters create links to your site, the better. Ask your station to link to your web site where they talk about your show. Ask your guest speakers to link to your site. Ask your listeners to link to your site. If you can, offer some designed logos with sample code that will help them more easily create those links.
Monitor your stats on Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a wonderful tool to use, and it’s free to boot! It’s the most feature-rich free stats program I’ve ever seen. Even if you have access to free web stats using your service provider (and/or Wordpress’s integrated stats program), I highly recommend that you monitor your site using Google Analytics as well.
Google Analytics is most useful after a few months of monitoring. If you take the time to learn how to use it, and/or have someone set up your account, it is the best tool available to help you understand your visitors. The more you understand your visitors, the better able you are to meet their needs.
If you ever choose to move from one blog platform to another, switch web platforms, or switch service providers, you will be able to take your Google Analytics account with you. It’s so exciting to see how your site grows over the years, and the sooner you install your Analytics tracking code, the sooner you’ll be able to see long-term data and web trends.
Make money online
Show Google AdSense Ads
Put Google AdSense on your site. I think it will probably be more worth it if you have 500+ visitors a day, but making money with AdSense makes working on your web site worth it… so give it a try.
Be careful with ethics when it comes to Google AdSense. Follow their rules to the tee; i.e., don’t click on ads yourself. If they even imagine you aren’t being completely ethical, you could find yourself blocked.
Sponsors
Treat your sponsors well. Sponsorships are wonderful, and the happier they are, the better. The more business you send them, the more willing they will be to continue their sponsorship.
Link to their site in a bit more obvious way (the logos you have now don’t appear “clickable”). Put them in the masthead or footer if you can.
Track those links in Google Analytics, so you know exactly how much traffic you’re sending them. It will be helpful when it’s time to re-negotiate!
Have a professional upgrade your web site ASAP
As soon as you find it in your budget, have a professional upgrade your web site to a custom Wordpress blog. You will get a site with a custom professional design, it will be easy for Google to find, and it will more directly give your listeners access to the resources you have to offer.
Start a weekly (or monthly) email newsletter
I prefer the Constant Contact email newsletter tool above others. It’s easy to create a very professional newsletter. I actually used my account for a women’s group back in Colorado and everyone just loved the newsletters. They always opened them, so once you do this, I can give you some tricks to ensure your letters are always opened.
Improve the technical aspect of your site
I’m not going to go into this online because it would just bore you and most of my readers, but I did see a bunch of technical stuff on your site that could stand to be improved. These are the details that make a big difference to search engines like Google, but first you need to work on your online cross-marketing. You should, however, email the guy who does your site right now and ask him to put a title tag in your header and use H1 and H2 tags where appropriate and as often as possible.
Lance, that’s about all I have time for tonight. If you have any questions or need anything, I’m here to help!