Advertising Web Sites Before Completion

Posted Thursday, April 17, 2003

ou are working on creating a new Web Site. You have the basic layout done and a few of the main pages up. Do you start promoting the site now, or do you wait until it is finished?

YOU WAIT!

Building a web site is the same as building any other store. You want to attract good, qualified customers that will keep coming back and buying from you over and over again. To achieve this, you must provide them with the SERVICE that they are looking for. If you don't, they will go somewhere else and get it. Let me give you an example;

You are driving down the highway in your car. You are hungry. You see a billboard for a new restaurant in town and it has a picture of a big, juicy steakon it. You drive to the restaurant, park your car, and go into the restaurant. As soon as you get through the door you run into a barricade with a yellow blinking light on it and there is a man in there shoveling dirt who looks up and says "sorry, under construction. Come back soon.". Are you going to wait to eat or are you going to go somewhere else?

You are going to go somewhere else. And so are your prospective customers.

I don't think it matters if your web site has 2 pages, 10 pages, or a hundred pages, you have to wait. You cannot afford to risk offending or losing clients for a site that isn't even up yet. If you cannot provide the product (your site) don't offer it. You could lose some of your best potential customers by having them come to your site just so you can tell them to come back later.

Would you like someone to ask you to go somewhere, then when you get there you are told that they aren't ready for you and that you will have to come back some other time?