WinWeb

Building An Online Home For Your Small Business

May 4, 2010

Over the course of the past decade, the Internet has developed into one of the most powerful tools at the disposal of small businesses. A cleverly designed website with good content will attract customers from around the globe that you would never previously have been able to reach. The great thing now is that it is no longer necessary to be an expert in web design in order to make an excellent website. Website builder software allows even novice web users to create a fully functional website with a secure online store.

Many small businesses create a website using a free host and then forget about it. A search on any search engine will quickly find numerous bad examples of amateurish attempts at building a company website. A good small business website will:

Have a functional and secure online store selling the products or services of the company. PayPal integration is becoming an increasing vital part of this, because customers feel far safer paying this way rather than entering their credit card details.

Generate leads and create additional selling opportunities. Many companies offer something for free (information, product samples, discounts etc.) in return for permission to contact the recipient again in the future. Refer customers towards the physical premises of their business, by highlighting its location and providing driving directions.

A great website is often the deciding factor in whether a potential customer is going to buy from you. It can legitimise your business and extend the reach of your brand. It is vital for your website to be as user-friendly as possible or else visitors will just go elsewhere.

Your website will be online 24/7 and will be permanent form of inexpensive marketing for your business. By conducting SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) you will make it easy for your target audience to come straight to you, rather than spending a fortune on a hit-and-miss advertising campaign.

If your competitors are already online, there really is no time to waste. Any further delay in getting your own small business website is just allowing them to corner the market even further.

How we can help…

WinWeb.com is committed to eliminating the barriers that stop many small businesses from going online. This is why we provide the following services:

Web Builder Software – Creating a website has never been easier or more affordable. When its this easy, there really is no excuse not to get your business on the web!

Website Design Service – Our Business Support Services team can help you build your dream website. A professionally designed website, at an affordable price.

Online Shop Setup – The Business Support Services team can fully build your online store and stock it with your products. If you have an online shop you can be open 24/7 – whenever your customers need you.

To find out more about the software or services that we offer visit our website, or contact us for more information.

Building a Profitable Website

April 12, 2010

It is now absolutely necessary for every small business to have a website with an online store to sell or distribute their products or services. Many small businesses launch a website without any knowledge of how to monetise it and turn it into a profitable venture. The first step for all business websites is to look professional and the best way to do this on a tight budget is to use website builder software with pre-existing templates.

Your website must be easy to navigate and not be so badly designed that is difficult for visitors to find the information they want. This is another reason why it is useful to use website builder software, as the template will not be confusing or distract from the message that you are trying to convey.

A website also allows you to cross-sell to existing customers by learning what they are purchasing and then offering them complimentary or alternative products. You can also provide support outside of office hours without much hassle. This allows you to build a better relationship with customers and means that they can purchase from you in complete confidence.

Having a website for your small business can not only help you retain current customers, but also bring new customers to your business. Can you afford not to have a website?

How we can help…

WinWeb.com is dedicated to improving the standard of small business websites. This is why we provide the following services:

Website Builder Software – Choose from a large variety of different templates and quickly build a professional website, which allows your customers to find you quickly and easily. A professional website has never been easier, or more affordable.

Website Design – If you can’t face the thought of building your own website, or simply don’t have the time, WinWeb.com offer a professional website design service to meet your exact specifications. Contact us for a quote today!

To find out more about any of the services WinWeb.com offer, or to discuss a quote, just contact us today – you’ll be amazed at what your small business can do!

Web Hosting For Small Businesses

April 5, 2010

The importance of good quality, reliable web hosting is often overlooked by small businesses launching their first business website. Without the reassurance of a excellent web hosting company supporting your business, it won’t be long before your website starts to run into problems.

The main mistake that many small businesses make is to rely on a company providing free web hosting. Many hosts offer free web-space as an incentive to increase the number of people they have signing up for an account. They will soon pull the plug on your website as soon as you exceed a certain amount (usually, not a lot) of bandwidth. This will leave your website completely offline for the remainder of the month and you will not generate any sales.

Free or inexpensive web hosting companies also have very little commitment to ensuring that you have a high level of service. They often have long periods of downtime and outages that will leave your website inaccessible at certain times. Once again, this will cost your company more in lost sales compared to the amount you save from selecting a cheap host.

Without a good web hosting solution, you will also find that the amount of disk space you are allocated by the provider is extremely low. This will seriously limit the options that you have available in terms of website design.

How we can help…

WinWeb.com understands that the website of any small business is vitally important. This is why we provide the following services:

Web Hosting – WinWeb offer reliable, secure and consistent web hosting for any business. Try WinWeb Hosting and see the difference it could make to your small business.

Website Set-Up - Our experienced staff and reliable staff can build a website for you to meet your exact requirements.

Website Design - Our professional team of designers can design your website to your specific requirements. Let us take the load off of you and you can see just how easy it can be to get your business online.

You can try WinWeb’s software free for 30 days by visiting our website, or contact us, if you would like more information about our web hosting, or any other services offered by WinWeb.

Make Your Business Website More Search Engine Friendly

March 31, 2010

It can be very frustrating when you have an excellent business website that nobody ever sees. There are a number of tweaks that you can make to your small business website in order to generate more traffic. This is known as Search Engine Optimisation.

The most important thing to remember is that search engines love content. The more text you have the better – so start writing about your business on the website! Search engines cannot read graphics, so having a beautiful graphic based website will not help attract visitors. Having a blog and updating it daily is a good way of quickly increasing the amount of content on your site.

Identify the keywords relating to your business and try to use them as often as possible throughout your website. However, make sure you don’t just cram a lot of keywords in to your text as the search engines will be able to detect this. Try to use about five or six keywords for every 100 words that appear on your website. You should even include keywords in the title tags for each page.

The more links to your website that the search engine is able to find on the Internet, the better your rankings will become. This will often involve working together with other websites serving your industry to establish a link exchange. If the page linking to you is relevant, it will improve your ranking. Don’t forget to also manually submit your website to as many search engines as possible.

Successfully optimising your website takes time and effort- don’t expect results overnight! Keep at it, though, and you, and your business, will reap the rewards.

How we can help…

WinWeb.com appreciates that it can be tough for small businesses to have a successful website. We provide the following services to them:

SEO Service: We can improve your search engine ranking and get new customers interested in your business. Why not try our service and see what it can do for your business?

Website Builder: Our web builder is simple to use and we also offer a personalised website building service.

Domain Names: We can register your preferred website address on your behalf and direct it to your new website.

Try our software free for 30 days, or contact us for more information.

Be Open 24/7 With An Online Shop

March 26, 2010

As a retailer, have you ever considered having an online shop? The recent economic climate has meant troubling times for small businesses, and with confidence still low retailers are struggling. Long hours, reliance on local custom and difficulty obtaining credit have all hit shop owners hard. An online shop could, however, make life easier for retailers.

With a business premises, and a shop front, your main customer group is limited to those within your local vicinity. If unemployment in your area rises your small business could be threatened by people having less disposable income. With an online shop, however, you can reach customers nation – or even world – wide!

Having an online shop can help your small business reach customers who are miles from where your business is based. And people don’t only make purchases directly from the internet; they also research products that are available to them and look for reviews and variations in price. As a retailer there has never been a more important time to have an online presence.

So, with an online shop you can reach more customers, broadening your business possibilities considerably, help local customers find you through search engines and free listing sites, and accept payment quickly and easily online.

With so many benefits creating an online shop must be incredibly complicated, right? Wrong. Creating an online shop can be quick, simple and affordable. With such huge benefits isn’t it time you moved your retail business online?

How we can help…

WinWeb.com think that retailers should not only be able to reach customers around their chimney breast, but also around the world. For this reason we offer a number of services to help you build your business online.

Online Shop – Quickly build an online shop, add and amend products. With more business being done online, can you afford not to be?

Website Builder – Even if you don’t have products to sell it is more important than ever for your small business to have a presence online.

Online shop setup – Don’t want to do it yourself, let us do it for you!

If you’ve got any questions about how an online shop can help your small business, or about WinWeb’s services please contact us, or why not sign up for our 30 day free trial?

A Website Builder Can Put Your Business On The Web!

March 23, 2010

It’s the 2010, and you can find nearly everything you need on the web. As a small business you know your business should have a website but where do you start? A website builder is just what you need.

For a novice building a website can seem like an insurmountable task: html, xml, all sounds like double Dutch and just looking at it can have your head in a spin. If this sounds like you then an easy to use website builder is just what you need.

A website builder allows you to create a website without the need for manual code editing. For someone with little experience of building websites, and no time to learn the finer points of coding, website builders offer a way to get anyone, and any business, online.

As the Internet becomes a part of everyday life, and many purchasing decisions are made online, a website becomes increasingly important to any business. Having a website can increase your small businesses exposure, and even help you reach customers across the country or even around the world!

A website builder means you can create a website in under an hour- giving you more time to focus on running your small business.

How we can help…

WinWeb.com believes that by having a website your small business can be a big business online. We offer these services to help get your business online.

Website Builder – WinWeb’s Website Builder allows you to build your website quickly, and easily using a range of designs and templates.

Website Hosting – WinWeb’s offers reliable and secure hosting meaning your website it online whenever your customers need it.

Online Shop – WinWeb’s software allows you to build an online shop, showcasing your products and services.

To find more ways that WinWeb can help your small business get online,contact us today or why not try our free trial?

Does Your Small Business Need An iPad?

February 4, 2010

Apple have launched their latest offering, the iPad, and in the way that only Apple can they have most certainly got people talking; although not all of the comments about the iPad have been singing its praises. So, what functionality aspects of the iPad make it a must-have for small businesses? Or is it a case of style over substance when it comes to the iPad?

The main function of the iPad that will make it beneficial for small businesses is the ability to access the internet from wherever you are, using 3G technology. This will allow iPad users to visit any website they can from their PC or Mac from the iPad; for WinWeb users in particular this opens a whole host of possibilities. When the iPad and WinWeb are used simultaneously a small business will be able to send e-invoices and e-quotes to customers wherever they are. Those cumbersome train journeys will never again be wasted hours as you will be able to be in contact with customers and potential clients on the go!

The ability to access your email anywhere that there is 3G capability or a WIFI hotspot is also a major positive; never again will you miss an email whilst you are out of the office. The application that Apple has developed to allow users to use iWork on the iPad means that users will also be able to create and edit documents on the go. These reasons alone, added to the fantastic screen, portable size, 3G capability which sets it apart from most Notebooks, and quite frankly, gorgeous styling means that the iPad has our thumbs up!

Try WinWeb’s OnlineOffice free for 30 days to see how useful it would be to be able to access all your small businesses information from anywhere, at any time!

Online Working Doesn’t Have To Be Isolating For Small Businesses

January 21, 2010

As you might be all too familiar with, typically work-at-home professionals or independent contractors spend a lot of time alone and end up working in relative isolation. However, a new global trend is emerging that helps break the monotony of working alone and it’s called co-working.

Wikipedia defines co-working as the social gathering of a group of people, who are still working independently, but who share values and who are interested in the synergy that can happen from working with talented people in the same space. Co-working spaces are usually very informal and open-concept. Don’t expect separate offices and isolated work spaces. But the benefits of co-working are plenty and include:

• Inspires creativity by giving you an opportunity to work in proximity to other like-minded professionals.

• Instant professional networking at your finger tips

• Can develop a community spirit where you can find support and encouragement from others

• Social interaction can keep you from feeling like you’re all alone.

• You may even make friends!

At its core, co-working can be an excellent way to get away from distractions at home, while getting work done in a social, collaborative and informal environment, alongside other local professionals.

If your colleagues are miles away, making co-working impossible, use WinWeb’s easy to use software to interact and share data.

Save Your Small Business Time- Just By Being Online!

January 20, 2010

The old saying goes that “time is money” and this is true for no-one more than the small business owner.

In the modern society in which we live time is an all too precious commodity, with there being far more drains on our resources than we can possibly manage; whilst all the time trying to squeeze our precious family and friends in to whatever time we have spare at the end of the day. This isn’t why you started your small business, right?

When you set out on your small business adventure you envisaged flexible working, with time dedicated to your customers, and enough leftover to still be able to spend quality time with those nearest and dearest to you. It is well documented that having a stressful work life not only affects the balance of society but can also have a detrimental effect on the health of the workforce; increasing work pressures and stress can lead to an increased risk of heart attack and make people more prone to illness. You got out of the rat race to set your own pace, but why does it still feel like you’re on the treadmill with someone else controlling the speed setting?

Time is our greatest commodity and yet it is the resource that is in greatest demand. WinWeb realise this and have developed the OnlineOffice system that aims to take the daily admin pressures off of you, the small business owner, allowing you to focus on what is really important: your customers, your family, and your friends.

Try OnlineOffice here , it’s free for 30 days and could make a huge difference to your small business.

It’s 2010. Can Your Small Business Afford Not To Have A Website?

January 19, 2010

If you’re like most people today you turn to the web for everything. Find a plumber. Get directions. Organise a holiday. And chances are your clients are no different.

However, according to emarketer.com “only 38% of small businesses polled have a company Website,” but as Trynka Shineman, chief marketing officer for Vistaprint North America says “the internet is where potential small business customers are moving”.

Building a website may seem like a daunting and time consuming task, but it’s actually a lot easier than you think. WinWeb’s Online Office has a template that takes you through a simple step-by-step process:

• Choose from a selection of over 100 images for your website header.
• Upload your company logo
• Choose your page layout from a selection of options
• Add content – you don’t have to add all the content today. Maybe add a couple of lines that you can build on over time.
• Add your contact details
• Publish!

It may take some experimenting, but the beauty with technology is nothing is set in stone. If you see another website that has features that you really like then adopt them for your own website. Websites are easy to maintain and change so you can always keep your clients informed.

In this day-and-age the web is an integral part of our daily lives. Can you afford not to be part of it?

WinWeb offer an easy to use, time efficient and effective website building service @ WinWeb Website. Give it a try and see how easy it is to get your small business online!

A Virtual Address Book for your Small Business

January 18, 2010

Keeping track of your business contacts can often be quite difficult. Nowadays, you will often have multiple phone numbers for each contact and then an e-mail address in addition to these. This quickly becomes confusing and difficult to manage.

The traditional address book is now obsolete. They are difficult to search quickly and very easy to lose. This is why the online address book included in the Contacts module of OnlineOffice is extremely useful for small business owners. You can access your full list of contacts from wherever you are in the world.

The online address book is fully integrated with the rest of OnlineOffice. This means that you can quickly e-mail clients without switching over to e-mail software. You can also easily view the history of the customer or supplier and all previous transactions that you have had with them. Also, you are able to send a contact an e-Quote directly from within the address book.

It is easy to look through your entire contact list using the search bar. You can even arrange your contacts into custom groups to make sorting easier. If you already use Outlook then you can import your existing contacts and you can also export a copy of your address book data if you wish.

You will never lose track of your contacts again using OnlineOffice.

Find out more @ WinWeb OnlineOffice

A New Year Online. An Updated SWOT?

January 15, 2010

Do you know where your business is going and how it’s going to get there? This may seem like a silly question, but many small businesses do not know the answer.

Would you go on a road trip without knowing your destination, without taking a map or without having an understanding of how long it will take you to get from A to B? Not likely! The same applies to business. Without some sort of strategic plan you’re more likely to get lost a long the way.

A good place to start this process is with a SWOT analysis. It is simple and only costs time to do:

• Strengths: What do you do better than your competitors? You may have greater market share relative to company XYZ but offer better customer service relative to company ABC. That’s ok. Write down everything you can think of and be specific.
• Weaknesses: What does your competition do better than you? (Some might be the opposite of “Strengths”).
• Opportunities: Consider trends in your industry. Based on your strengths, where do you see opportunities for your firm?
• Threats: Again, looking at trends, could a competitor or new technology threaten your business?

Keep track of this electronically in your OnlineOffice so you can refer back regularly and update it as things change. This will help guide your strategic direction so you don’t get lost and overwhelmed along the way.

Plan your SWOT online @ WinWeb Business Planning

Don’t Let the ‘Deep Freeze’ Impact your Small Business

January 7, 2010

Much of Britain ground to a halt yesterday as Arctic conditions severely disrupted transportation and infrastructure services.

The Daily Telegraph reported today that the cost to the economy could top £14.5 billion by the end of January due the inability of millions to get to work. It’s not surprising that adverse weather conditions will have an impact on all sorts of businesses, however with modern technology any small businesses can minimise this disruption. This is where hosted online services can keep you and your staff productive despite the “deep freeze”.

Hosted online services are offered through Cloud Computing. For those new to this term, cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet and cloud computing is used to indicate online business applications which are accessed from a web browser while data and software are stored on external servers. Not only does it reduce your costs by eliminating hardware and additional IT personnel but it also allows greater flexibility and mobility for you and your staff.

So, instead of pulling out your hair along the M4, hosted online services allow you (and your staff) to log-in to your office in the cloud and access your documents from the comfort of your kitchen table. Already you have the capability of being much more focused and productive than many of your competitors. So turn on the kettle, make some tea and get to work.

Find out more @ WinWeb OnlineOffice

Securing your Small Business Data Online

January 5, 2010

The importance of keeping back-ups can never be overstated. There are numerous factors outside of your control that could easily result in data loss for your company. With luck you will not be losing anything significant, but without a backup system in place you could easily lose all of your electronic customer records or important contact information.

There are some frightening statistics surrounding hard drive failure. It is believed that every year one in ten drives will fail with the financial cost for even simple data recovery by an expert to be very high for any small business.

Theft is also a leading cause of data loss. In the United States, 600,000 laptops are stolen every year. The FBI statistics suggest that 97% of stolen computers are never recovered. There are also a staggering 12,000 laptops lost in US airports every single week and two-thirds of these are never recovered.

The consequences of data loss can be huge. It is a very real possibility that a significant loss of data could actually do enough damage to put you out of business. Unfortunately, even if you take precautions, a massive disaster like fire or theft could even result in the loss of your backups.

Keeping an online backup with WinWeb ensures that your important files will still be safe, even if you suffer a disaster. Our customers get a massive 10GB of webspace (included in their subscription) on which to store their data, offering them security and peace of mind.

Try OnlineOffice free for 30 days @ WinWeb OnlineOffice

Small Business Online Networking Through Twitter

December 15, 2009

Roland Millward, founder of The Entrepreneur Club, gives the following advice on networking your small business through Twitter.

It is true to say that a great deal of business is generated through networking with like minded people. To that end there are many networking groups where people can meet over breakfast and build business relationships and make new contacts. You will have also seen websites designed specifically for the same purpose, for example LinkedIn.

However have you thought about the power of Twitter? Twitter enables you to locate people that share your interests or that would be good networking partners. Once you have found the people that you would like to network with introduce yourself using the mention sign @ before their Twitter I.D. by simply saying, ‘hello’ and tell them that you are now following them and look forward to keeping in touch.

Treat your conversation in the same way that you would if you were physically meeting them for the first time. Don’t try to sell your services or do deals of any kind, simply be friendly and build a relationship.

It is a good practice to spend a little time each day looking at the ‘tweets’ that your contacts have made and re-tweet some of them. This will build a rapport and your tweets are also likely to get re-tweeted. Make sure you reply to any messages and keep in touch with people with a brief message when you can.

It is amazing how you can build up a good network in a short period of time without leaving your keyboard!

Get more useful small business tips and advice @ The Entrepreneur Club

Unleash The Power Of Your Web Browser With OnlineOffice

December 3, 2009

It can be annoying and time-consuming when software on your computer has to regularly download updates from the Internet in order to keep you up-to-date with the latest version.

You often have to reboot your computer after installation and there is no guarantee that you will not face problems with the latest update that could take the manufacturer a long time to patch.

This is why the future of software is moving towards applications that run inside your web browser. It removes the hassle of ever having to update your software again. It also means that developers can react quickly to issues that arise and release a new version far quicker then traditional software vendors ever could.

This software model, known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has grown in popularity over the past few years. WinWeb have been providing this type of on-demand software for a number of years now. Users of OnlineOffice are able to check their e-mail, store files, work on their business accounts and much more – all from within their web browser.

Try OnlineOffice free for 30 days @ WinWeb OnlineOffice

Working Online With WinWeb To Benefit Parents

October 23, 2009

Flexible working or working from home can be a daunting prospect for many parents.

Those parents who spent the majority of their careers working from offices are used to having all of their IT and many of their admin tasks completed for them.

Using an online office solution can help parents cut the hassle from IT problems associated with working from home and provide them with many other benefits along the way.

WinWeb OnlineOffice helps parents by providing them with a complete small business infrastructure, allowing them to act as flexible independent free-lancers or simply provide a more professional image when dealing with larger organisations. Whether they are backing up or sharing files through the Online Disk, building a website to represent their skills or planning their income and overheads with the cash-flow plan, OnlineOffice helps parents by providing an integrated IT solution, without having to spend a large amount of money. Using an existing internet connection, parents can access OnlineOffice via their home computers, so child care won’t be the only large overhead they will be reducing.


Best of all, OnlineOffice can allow parents to collaborate with other parents, providing businesses with a more complete solution to their projects.

Try OnlineOffice free for 30 days @ WinWeb OnlineOffice