I have been blogging about the things that impact my daily life as a village retailer on Village Counter Talk for more than three years. Last week I was asked by our dry cleaner if he could put a link to our shop website from his.
We didn’t have one!
Not to miss the opportunity I have put together this site on Blogger. It’s quite a simple process, just set up a Google account and you’re off. My shop website is pretty basic so far, but I have our opening times and I am building a record of the services that we provide. I have a digital camera and a scanner which help with adding my own images to the site. Over the next few weeks I will be developing it further.
Clearly I am not the first to use a Blog to promote a business, but I would recommend the format as a platform for your business. You can set it up yourself and the domain is free.
After having my shop site live on the internet for 3 days a customer told me that she had looked at it and would be posting a comment as soon as I allowed them. Great feedback.
pat walkington
16/09/2010
Hi steve,
Fan of the web that I am, I have a couple of thoughts. Firstly, Blogger must be a good choice in that it’s both free and easy to use. These have to be important points to any retailer. However, so is Facebook which has the added advantage of “friending”. Hideous word, but useful function. Is there something similar on blogger?
Mind you as I write this I remember your demographics and wonder if there is much use of Facebook in your catchment area.
Thought provoking post as ever-thanks
Pat
Jai Singh
16/09/2010
HI Steve,
I have recently setup a website for my Premier Store in Sheffield. The site Mirrors the Premier Site: http://www.premier-stores.co.uk
Our site has a twist on this so its more personal to our store and area.
Feel free to look and any comments are welcome!
http://www.singhs-premier.com
regards,
Jai
Robert Ratcliff
16/09/2010
Wow Jai, that’s a great site! Did Premier help you to set it up or did you do all the work yourself?
Jai Singh
16/09/2010
Hi Robert,
Thanks. No help from Premier apart from gaining permission to use layout and format etc. I wanted something easy to use and more personal. We have also added a Community Forum which has only just recently been added.
We also added a BBC News Ticker and Google search Bar. A friend of mine has a website who is also a Premier Retailer. I saw his site and we worked together to create mine.
Eventually I will look to sell on the site, but thats a long way away. Take a look at Toms site its very impressive and if you need to get in touch with him im sure hed be happy to help.
Thanks again,
Jai
Jai Singh
25/09/2010
Toms site is http://www.premierdelivered.com
Also Social networking sites are also a useful tool as the majority of our customers are all members and also this is also available on Mobiles too!
The use of Facebook & Twitter has helped get our business on the www. This is an easy and free way to start and see the results before spending hundreds on a website.