One question which needs to be asked is if you really need a website. One could argue that in this time and age a website is essential and my initial feeling was that most of my customers would be coming through the more powerful and highly useful word of mouth. I was selling myself and not a product so my background and reputation should do the trick right?
Whilst not many people will be finding me online (unless I up my game with a Marketing specialist) a few people in my network had asked me for more info so that they can give it to other people they know. Just sending them to my LinkedIn page will not be inviting enough so a website was the next thing to add to the SOS branding.
Should I be creating and designing my own website and how much information should I use? Too detailed and no-one would read to the end. Too brief would mean no-one would find the info they are looking for. And the domain name… if it was too complicated then people will make spelling mistakes and all of the sos.extensions were already taken. I wanted to use my gmail account to start but one of my potential customers works with patients and is not allowed to send anything to accounts which are not secure. Yet another thing to keep in mind.
Having previously worked in a company who registers domain names, I was aware of the concept of new TLD's and the possibilities of registering a unique name with a different extension. I mean everyone can register a .NL or a .COM but MY options were limited. After some research, and yet again asking my friends and family's for an opinion, I ended up using a .WORK extension.
One of my coworkers really liked the idea: it was short and clear. Another coworker thought it was confusing and not easy to remember. So I was to make a decision based on my gut feeling… I created my own website and choose the name www.officesupport.work with an e-mail address shelley@officesupport.work.
Up until now my experiences have been both positive and negative. Some say it is original, some get confused about the .WORK extension (what is that?) and once I even filled in an online form with my valid e-mail address and kept getting an error as they did not recognise it.
In spite of some negative experiences I am a little bit wiser and a website, even for a small-timer like myself, is a must of you are going to be spreading the word online.
Feel free to roam my pages, comment and give your thoughts on www.officesupport.work.
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