If you’ve been following this series of posts, you’ll know that we’ve been discussing reasons you may not be getting clients as a direct result of your website or blogsite. The first three reasons had to do with your content/copy and yesterday’s reason was all about how easy you make it to contact you from your site.

Reason #5?  You aren’t promoting your site.

I’m not talking about SEO (search engine optimization) here, I’m talking about good old fashioned telling others about your site.

When you speak to someone about what you do, do you always mention your site? And if so, do you tell them how much great information they can get there?  How helpful they may find your blog posts? Don’t stop with your elevator speech, make sure you let those that you talk with know they can find great things if they take the time to visit your site.

How about when you comment on other blogs or on forums?  Most commenting systems allow you to put your website address in so that clicking on your name takes a reader directly to your site.

The same goes for Twitter, Facebook and other networking sites.  Set your blog up so that whenever you post new content an announcement with a link automatically posts on these sites. If you run some sort of special on your services you can announce it on these sites as well.

Do you have your site listed on your business card?  Most people do, but try adding a line about the great tips/advice there. How about your invoices and letterhead?

And finally, is it in your e-mail signature? Not just your business e-mail, but your personal e-mail as well. You never know who you might be corresponding with who might be interested in the services you offer.

When looking to gain clients via your website, don’t be shy. Promotion makes a difference!

I’m not getting any clients from my website/blog.

It’s the complaint I hear from business people most often.
It’s a frustrating situation, especially if you’ve spent a lot of time and money on a website and/or writing content for your blog.  The fact is, ‘if you build it, they will come’ only applies to the field of dreams.  Simply building your website or adding content to a blog and waiting for your e-mail inbox to fill up with contact form requests is like waiting for Shoeless Joe Jackson to show up at your little league field.  It’s highly unlikely to happen.

So what do I do when a client asks me why their website isn’t generating business?  I take a look at their website.

What I’ve found is that their problem usually lies within 6 common areas.

Rather than just touch on each problem area briefly in one post, I’m going to do a daily series of posts next week.  Monday through Saturday I’ll list each problem area along with tips on how to determine if that’s your problem and if so how to fix it.

And since this is such a common complaint, I’m also going to offer the series in the form of a newsletter, delivered right to your inbox, so if you don’t feel you’ll remember to check each day’s post next week, make sure you sign up for the newsletter so that you don’t miss anything.  Of course, you can also subscribe via RSS so that you don’t miss any posts at all.