You’ve heard all the buzz about social media and now you want to throw your hat in the ring, so where should you start? You cannot throw a mouse these days without hitting a self-proclaimed expert on social media but with all the conflicting views on how things should be done the best place to start is to get back to basics with a few simple social media best practices.

1. Create a Plan
   It may sound like a very simplistic practice but you would be surprised how few people actually consider a social media strategy prior to embarking on a trek through this brave new world. Making sure you understand your audience, the different ways in which to reach them, and the tools that are available for your intended purpose are key to social media program.
2. Be Committed (No straight jacket required)
   An effective social media program requires a great deal of time and the commitment to see things through. If you commit yourself to properly developing your social media objectives, that commitment will be rewarded with measurable results for your social media programs. I am not saying you need to hire someone specifically to run your social media programs, especially in the beginning, but if you play your cards right that position may just be needed down the road to handle this new channel for your business.
3. Be Honest
   Transparency is not just for window anymore. Be upfront about your objectives. People appreciate honesty and are willing to get involved as long as they do not feel like something shady is going on. Being disingenuous can make for a very lonely social media existence. Provide honesty and value with your interactions and you will be rewarded with loyalty and valuable feedback.
4. Become an Enabler
   Encourage interaction with your social media followers. Their insights and feedback can help drive your business in new directions or reinforce the vector you are already on. Beyond that, this type of interaction allows you the unique opportunity to turn followers into evangelists for your brand creating a type of unpaid sales force that is ever willing to sing the praises of your greatness whenever the opportunity presents itself.
5. Make It Count!
   Social media objectives should be easily measurable to help determine the efficacy of your programs but keep in mind that social media programs build on each other. Unlike traditional marketing techniques, in social media there is not always a unique result for each facet of a program. Layer your programs with small objectives that will build into a more measurable one. While the ultimate goal may be increased interaction or sales, you have to build up to them with smaller objectives like number of comments, friends or even how many people just DIGG what you have to say.

Any social media program should be carefully considered before it is executed but keeping these simple guidelines in mind as you go through the process will help you on your way to developing a winning social media strategy.

When developing your companies social media strategy, the first thing you need to determine is your company philosophy (for lack of a better term) for its use. Many old school marketers (as well as self-styled social media mavens) push the idea of social media simply as an additional channel for positioning a brand but it can be so much more. Don’t get me wrong, this type of social media marketing has its uses and on its own can yield the awareness and support you seek but it should not be the end all be all of your strategy. It should be but a part of a more comprehensive immersion that can affect the company at a cellular level (and no I don’t mean phone).

Think globally, act socially.
Think of social media as an extension of your company rather than simply another way to advertise. Social media puts you in direct contact (most of the time) with your most involved consumers and this is contact that should not be wasted. Take the opportunity to not only talk about your new products and how wonderful your company clearly is but to get direct feedback from those active customers. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter can create focus groups for you without all the mess of standing about in malls handing out surveys. You can talk directly to the people in the best position to tell you something about you, that you don’t know (or may not want to hear). The point is this type of feedback, if taken in the spirit it is given, can help drive product advancements, fix problems you didn’t know you had and open your eyes to new markets you had not specifically started to tap with your conventional marketing efforts. In short, social media can help your company evolve to the next level if you are only willing to put in the time to see where your consumers are pointing.

No matter what business you are in, you can always benefit from interaction with your customer base. Explore this new channel to its fullest extent. Don’t limit yourself to just another advertising channel that may or may not bear any fruit. Build a cohesive strategy that combines keeping top of mind with the valuable interactions that this medium allows. Get your customers (and prospects for that matter) involved in your business. Ask questions and make serious use of the answers you receive.

Customer involvement is the key.
Whether it is simply getting the opinions of your new unwitting focus group participants on new product options using a survey or more involved personal interaction with a select few customers that seem to speak well for the larger group (good or bad), once you get those individuals involved, they will begin to have a vested interest in the company’s success that will manifest itself with evangelism to everyone they know.

The bottom line is the depth of connections that result from properly handled social media can lead to exponential growth in your target markets in both sales and goodwill.  So take the time up front to fully consider your plan and make sure that whatever you decide to do includes a combination of awareness and interaction. It may take more time to maintain than simply doing some old school marketing but in the long run your business will be better for the effort.

So you are ready to go with your new site: You have the perfect domain, you have set up hosting, you have found a fabulous designer but you are stumped when it comes to adding the content to your site. So what do you do? Well, every site is different and what works for company A will not necessarily work for company B so that is a difficult question to answer in absolutes but when in doubt, always go back to basics. There are certain types of information that most websites have in common and they are a good start for any site outline:

Home
The home page is the place where everyone lands when they first visit your site so, as with everything else, it is important to make a good first impression. You already have a professional designer on board so the Wow factor is covered, now let’s think about the meat that supports that attractive looking garnish. At a very base level your home page should succinctly explain to visitors what you can do for them. This can be done as simply as with a clever tag line for your logo are be as involved as a paragraph introducing your services. This page should function as a kind of dashboard highlighting the most important aspects of your site whether they be having products front and center, readily available event information or the latest news about your business. You want prospects to find what they need here and allow it to lead them deeper into the site.

Product/Service
The next most important page is one that give details about your products or services. There can be many of these pages but you need to make sure that you at least have one good page that details what you can do for your prospects. And the more specifics you have about why your product/service is THE solution to the ills of potential customers, the better it will be received.

About Us
It seems pretty obvious but it is something that every site should have. Everyone wants to know who they are dealing with. This is a great place to tell prospects your company history including awards that have been received and charities that it supports. You want to make the prospect feel that they know you because the more that they feel the know you, the more comfortable they will be with you as a product/service provider.

Contact Us
It is very important that contact information is as easily accessible as possible. Prospects and clients alike want to have the ability to communicate with you if they have questions or problems. An address, phone number and email address are ideal but this is not feasible for companies that have a number of products/services and not as many people available to deal with that type of direct inquiry (especially by phone). In these cases, a contact form will do the trick. A simple form capturing Name, Email and Comments can handle a variety of different issues and allow the business owner to deal with things at their own pace without being inundated with emails and phone calls. A form of this nature can also be expanded to suit any business need and the results can be directed to someone best equipped to handle the inquiry.

With the basics down, you can begin to expand your outline to include news, events, additional product pages, additional forms, e-commerce and more. If you work collaboratively with your designer, they can help you determine the best options to show on your home page and throughout your site.

Think it Through!
No matter what business you are in, fully consider the information you want to provide your site visitors. The idea behind any site is be as sticky as possible so that once visitors arrive, they get stuck in the gooey deliciousness of your content and don’t want to leave. Once you have found the formula that works for your business then it is time to rinse and repeat. Regular updates to your site (especially on the home page) will help ensure that visitors will come back time and again to see what is new.

If you are not living under a rock and do not rely on the “Trash Heap” to give you the latest news of the day, then you have probably heard the term “Social Networking”. And while it is all the buzz on the internet, many people are unsure of what it is exactly.

So what is Social Networking anyway? Well, Social Networking, in general, occurs when individuals interact with other like-minded individuals in a social setting. But the definition of the term has morphed somewhat in recent years to refer more specifically to Online Social Networking which is the same but with a (cyber) kick. Online Social Networking occurs when these same individuals come together through various member access mediums to chat, share photos and generally connect online. There are many things online that can be considered to be social networks but for the purposes of this article we will confine the definition to connecting with individuals through things like Facebook, Twitter and Linked-In.

Ok, I get it but so what, isn’t that stuff just for teenagers? Well, not exactly. Although many of the largest social networks initially catered primarily to high school and college students, times they are a changin’. Now you will find a great cross-section of society getting involved with social networking because of how convenient it is to stay in contact with friends and family along with re-connecting with old friends that you lose touch with over time. The median age of your average social networker has been steadily climbing over the past few years. In fact, in 2008 social networking outstripped email in overall reach with 66.8% of internet users accessing member communities online compared to 65.1% for email.

So what does this really mean to you? Well as a business owner, you have an opportunity to take advantage of all this virtual water cooler milling. Make hay while the virtual sun shines. With the proliferation of these groups and their ever-increasing depth of connections to others, your message can go viral in no time at all. And the SEO potential is staggering. If you can reach one person at any of these online watering holes, that message can potentially be carried infinitely as well as being picked up by your favorite search engine with yet another golden link to your website. Think back to your favorite shampoo commercial. You get one persons attention and they’ll tell two friends and they’ll tell two friends, and so on and so on…

So how do I do it? The key to effective social networking, like with may other things, is planning. If you come up with a solid strategy for your business or product, you can hit them over and over without them even knowing it. And remember, don’t put all of your eggs in one basket. The best part about social networking is that the networks themselves can interconnect to reinforce your message. Make sure that any strategy includes multiple points of contact.

As I stated before, there are a number of popular social networking sites out there but I will focus on some of the most popular:

Facebook
Facebook is the quintessential social networking site. Anyone who is anyone online is on Facebook in some way shape or form. Any business or product can set up what is known as a Fan page on Facebook. It is essentially an online profile for you business that allows you to post messages, upload photos, share success stories or even have discussions with clients and potential clients. It can be like having your very own conference room in the ether where you can post the latest information about your products and services or share your success. And the best part is that when you post a link or even just make a statement about your business, it automatically shows up in the news feed that your “fans” spend their time with every day. It is a great way to keep top of mind with current and potential clients.

Twitter
Twitter is a micro blogging platform that allows you to send updates to your “followers” 140 characters at a time. It does not seem like much, but it is enough to drive traffic to product information, blog postings or to inform “followers” of events. These quick postings are called Tweets. It is used by many as a means of communicating what they are doing “right now” but as a business medium it is growing daily to help connect businesses with potential clients, value added resellers and vendors.

Linked-In
Linked-In is the only one of the networks I have listed that was specifically intended for business use. You can add a complete profile about you and/or your company and then you can connect with people you have worked with in the past or present. The people in your network can then connect you with people in their network who are looking for someone in your field. The connections can get pretty deep so it kind of becomes like the 6 degrees of separation from Kevin Bacon but with potential business connections and who knows, maybe even Kevin Bacon himself.

Now that you are setup with your accounts, don’t simply rely on Linked-In,Twitter, or Facebook alone, use them in concert to make your messages sing. There are applications available that will allow you automatically post your Facebook Fan page status to your Twitter account (or vice versa) and Linked in will also display your tweets. And if you really want to melt your brain, set up a blog and set it to update Twitter, which can then update Facebook and Linked-In thus allowing you to post a single piece of content related to your business and have it reach multiple levels of people on multiple networks all at the same time…now talk about a Breck Shampoo moment.

The biggest thing to keep in mind when developing your Social networking strategy is that you have to update regularly to see any impact form your efforts. Social networking is not a fix it and forget it type of meal. This is the type that requires a candy thermometer and patience while you stir and stir to make sure that it doesn’t get scorched.

The biggest mistake that marketers make when developing their collateral materials is focusing too much on their brand and not enough on their products or services. Rather than focusing on the Who, what marketers should really be focusing on is the Why. Whether you are creating a new brochure or adding to a website, the best way to set yourself apart from the crown is with effective content.

Effective marketing materials should be constructed to persuade and inform. And as much as it pains me to say, design isn’t everything. You really need to have solid content to support your flashy graphics because once they snap out of their sense of awe and wonder about your stellar design (which they WILL experience 🙂 ), they will be ready to feast on the information your materials have to offer. If there is no substance to be had, they will leave and move on to a company that can satisfy their hunger.

The 5 D’s
In order to give yourself a fighting chance against all of the five-star competition out there you just need to ask yourself a few questions as you go through the process of developing your content:

1. Definition – Is your product or service clearly defined and are all of the important features enumerated?
2. Differentiation – Have you clearly stated how your product or service differs from your competitors and what specific pain it remedies?
3. Demographics – Does your content clearly speak to your intended audience?
4. Design – Is your content easy to read and understand and will it get your points across without confusing a layperson about your product or service?
5. Distribution – Will the material you plan to produce be easy to distribute to your target market and be understood without interaction from a member of your sales team?

Answering these questions as you develop your materials will help your content to be more effective which will translate into more sales.

The trick to creating truly effective marketing materials is finding the right balance between form and function. As I have stated before, content is king but great content is useless if you don’t have anyone reading it. Enter Content’s flamboyant cousin, Design. Good design can have as much of an impact on the bottom line as content because the flash of a great design, like a carnival barker, is really what brings in the crowd.

So what can you do to make sure what you are creating is both visually and substantively powerful?

The 5 C’s of powerful marketing materials

1. Clear Headline – Think about it, you are standing in line at the grocery store, you glance over at the magazine rack and see one headline that says “Cow has Human Baby” and one next to it that says “Beige is the new Off White” which do you gravitate toward? Unless you are planning on auditioning for the next edition of Project runway, you will likely be more intrigued by the former. Although this may not be a good example of a brochure headline, it illustrates the point that the right headline can make the sale.  A clear and catchy headline can be the difference between someone stopping to read your material and moving on to the next more “off white” marketing piece in the rack. Make sure your headline is clear and catchy. Make people want to read more.
2. Clean Layout – A good layout bolsters that great headline and helps direct your prospects eye. It leads them through the content and helps them digest the material the way you want them to. Using short paragraphs that are broken up by larger (and sometimes colorful), informative headings allows your reader to get the point even if they only have time to scan the material. Good layout maximizes the efficacy of your content.
3. Clever Graphics – There really is something to the old adage “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words”. Maximize your exposure with graphics that help to define the information you are trying to get across or at very least helps draw the reader further into the content you have worked so hard to develop. A nice graphic presentation can draw as much attention as the aforementioned “Cow has human baby” headline. Make the most of the little time you have and give those visual learners out there something to absorb. Whether you use drawings, maps, or photos as long as they help illustrate your products benefits, visuals can help tell the story when they don’t have time for the words.
4. Call to Action – One place many marketers fall short on their materials is in the lack of an effective call to action. No matter how savvy your prospect base is, when you are marketing to them, they are sheep and you are the little pig asking them to kindly move along. Don’t be afraid to be forceful. They are looking to you for guidance so don’t disappoint. Make sure to tell them what they should do next. Click Now, Call Today or whatever is appropriate for your product or service. If you don’t tell them, how can you expect them to do what you want them to do?
5. Contact – Don’t forget to tell them who you are. You got their attention, you have directed through the information, you have stunned them with your graphics and you told them what to do. Make sure they know who you are. Always include your branding and multiple ways to get in contact with you. You need to ensure that you don’t blow the excitement generated with your awesome graphics and brilliant prose.

Make a Memory
The bottom line for any type of marketing material is usefulness. The goal should be to create something that clients will want to hold onto. They might not be ready to purchase immediately but if you find the right balance between content and design, they will hold onto your materials (or bookmark your site) until they are ready and when that time comes you will be their first contact.

So you are finally online. You have a great new custom designed website but now you want to make some content changes, so what’s next? It can be easy or it can be hard, it is entirely dependent on how your site was developed. Keep in mind I am only talking about content here, changing the design of a site can be much more involved.

If your website was built to be dynamic (your website content is stored in a database and served up as it is requested – usually done using ASP, PHP, Cold Fusion or some other type of interactive programing language coupled with CSS or standard HTML), you may be in luck. Most of the time when web developers put together this type of site, they also usually build a content management system (CMS) as an easy way to input, edit or delete information on your web pages. This is great for you because that usually means that no coding knowledge is required to make simple updates to your website. If you can use a word processor, you will likely be able to update your website. But keep in mind that not all CMS’s are created equal. They can range from a simple web based form that allows you to enter raw HTML to a full on system of forms to handle all aspects of your site (up to and including uploading images and changing menu items). It is important to discuss this with your developer during the construction process to ensure that what is being built has all of the functionality you need for your (or your designees) skill level. This level is usually pretty low (that is why you hired a professional) so you will want to make sure it is as easy as possible to update without the need for the developers help on an ongoing basis. These types of sites are more expensive to build but save you money in the long run if you plan to update the content on your site as often as you should.

If you are like the majority of site owners out there, your site is static (using basic HTML and/or CSS to build everything). In this case it can be a bit more involved to make your changes but fear not, YOU CAN DO IT!

So what do you need to make a go of it? For starters you will need an HTML editor but don’t be afraid, you don’t need to have the fanciest WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, you can get by with little more than your basic text editor (like notepad).

Next you will need a way to download the files from your server so you can edit them and re-upload them when you are done. This sounds complicated but FTP (File Transfer Protocol) is far from it. In many ways it is no different from moving files around on your own computer and the interface is very similar to how things work in Windows Explorer or the Finder (for you Mac people out there). On a budget, no worries, there is a free tool out there just waiting to be downloaded. Filezilla (http://filezilla-project.org/) is a free download for both Mac and PC and it is very simple to use once you figure it out.

Now that you have your tools, it is time to get to work. The first thing you need is the FTP information for your site. This can usually be found in the control panel for your sites web hosting. What you need are the URL, ID and Password for your hosting. In general your URL will follow this structure ftp.your_domain_name_here.com (you need to check with your web host to be sure). That along with your ID and PW is generally emailed to you when you set up your hosting initially.

Once you are confident that you have the correct information, the next step is to launch Filezilla (or the FTP client of your choice) and add a new site. By default most FTP sites use port 21 for this protocol so don’t freak out if you see that it is required in your client. After the info is in, click connect and what you will see is kind of a split screen. On the left you will see the files on your local hard drive and on the right you will see the files on your server. You may have to drill down into a “www”, “public” or “your_domain_name.com” folder to fine the files you are looking for.

So now you are connected to your site, you have found your files, now what? Well, it is all down hill from here. You can simply drag and drop the files you want from the server (the right side of the screen) into the folder you have chosen on your local hard drive (the left site of the screen) and watch the magic happen then rinse and repeat for each file (or if you want to be tricky you can highlight a group and move them all at once).

Once you have your files, it is editing time. Open up your spiffy new HTML editor (or Notepad/Text Edit for those of you on a budget) and find your way to the memorable location where you downloaded your site files. Once you find it, simple open the file you want (you may have to change the files of type to “all files” to ensure everything shows up in the window) and start editing. Now, I know what you are thinking, why oh why did my word processor choose to throw up in this file? Well, that is not all just bits and pieces of undigested parts of speech, that is the code that makes your site a living breathing thing. Embrace it! Roll around in it, but whatever you do, don’t change it (unless of course you have an idea of what you are doing). Just look through or even search it to find the content you want to change and change away. And if you need to make some basic formatting changes there are a number of simple primers available to tech you the basics of bold, italic, line breaks and more (although if you site was done using CSS, you may need to understand what each style does before you decide to make changes).

Once you finish changing your file, it is good to test what you have done before uploading it back to your site. And remember that since you do not have all of the files on your local machine, things may not look exactly right over all but your chief concern to reviewing the changes you have made. If you want to make sure that what you see locally is exactly like your site, you will have to download all of your files (including and scripts, style sheets and graphics) exactly as they are online to ensure that the site will work offline. This is not a guarantee that it will be exact, differences in the ways pages are coded can result in things not looking right offline.

Now you can then go back to your FTP client and reverse the process to upload your files. Make sure you drill down to the proper folder then Drag from the left, drop on the right.

Once your new files are uploaded you can take a look at your handiwork and marvel at your own brilliance! Then email all of your friends and business associates and tell them about the awesome new update to your site.

Whether you are dealing with a custom dynamic site, or a simple home grown static HTML site you should be able to make the changes you need to keep your content fresh. If you are not comfortable making the changes yourself, there are many qualified individuals out there who would be happy to help but it is always good to try so you know how you want to proceed with ongoing changes.

Finding content for your website is not so much about quantity as it is about quality. And quality content can be hard to find.

So where does quality content come from?

First things first,  lets define “Quality” in this context. Quality content is any information that your target audience will find of value and therefore want to read. Quality content can come from many sources but the best person for the job can largely depend on the subject matter. If there is a great deal of information already available on the subject, you can choose to turn to free sources (which can vary depending on the subject) or to license content from another provider. Although these options will provide you with information to fill the holes in your site, it is not likely to win clients or influence sales the way you were hoping for your online venture.

You may be the right person for the job.

If you sell a specific product that you know better than anyone else or have a great deal of experience in a certain area, you may be the best person to write your own content. The problem is that you may not have the writing chops to turn your knowledge into effective content for your prospective clients and I am not just talking about grammar and punctuation either. Sure, you need a decent grounding in those things to communicate effectively and not make your company look bad in the process but the larger issue is the ability to make the information interesting for your average intended reader. If your prose read like stereo instructions, you will lose more people even if your information is the best available source for it.

To write or not to write – that is the question.

Many people can communicate well and in an interesting fashion in text (even the ones like me who have a tendency to write like they talk) but there are an equal or greater number of people out there who should “Just Say No” to writing their own content. Once this realization occurs, it is time to bring in a professional. There are varying degrees of skills out there just waiting to be found. You can find writers with skills ranging from basic press releases all the way up to the ability to write full on technical white papers with web content specialists falling in between. And many of them can do it all end to end so you if find the right person, you can get everything you need all in one place. The thing to keep in mind though is that what you need for web content is a writer who understands how to distill information into easily consumable blocks of content while understanding enough about SEO to help increase the keyword density in your pages. Just because you find a highly skilled writer, does not mean they are automatically skilled at web content.

When it come down to it, the right person is relatively subjective, but if you are going to make the investment (be it with time or money), you have to make sure that whoever you chose is  the best one  for the job.

A very common question asked by internet neophytes and veterans alike is “how often should I update my website?”. Well, that question is kind of loaded. What do you mean? Are you talking content or are you talking design?

Even though I am a website designer, I know that when it comes to being successful, content is king. A good design is also necessary but when it comes to recurring traffic, it comes from the content. So how often should the content be updated? Well, the simplest answer is as often as possible. However often you are looking to have people return to your site is how often you should be updating it. Think about it like a periodical. If you want daily traffic, think newspaper (although you don’t have to update quite that much content, you get the idea) or if you want people to return weekly or monthly you can think Magazine. Either way, you need to offer something new to your visitors to keep them coming back. One of the simplest ways to do this is by starting a blog (like this one 🙂 )  where you are able to offer potential clients information that is useful to them. And the best advice I have heard related to blogging is that you should add at least one post a week for no other reason than to keep the search engines coming back for more.

Updating the design of your site is still necessary but does not have to be done nearly as often.  The best way to do it if you already have a solid design is in small tweaks and changes over time so it slowly changes and has more of the continual updating that works so well with content but is not as shocking to the system as a full re-design. Complete overhauls should be done at most annually and more likely every other year to keep from seeming unstable. Constant re-designs of a site is roughly akin to changing your logo constantly and have a tendency to make your business seem unstable. When it comes to a complete overhaul you just need to make sure that the new deign is fully thought through and when it comes time for the new site to launch you can get a lot of PR mileage out of layout, navigation and functional changes that can help drive new traffic as well as bringing back visitors that may have been lost over time.

No matter what type of site you run, the more often you content is updated (assuming that content is valuable), the more likely you are to see repeat visitors to your site and the more likely those people will tell others with similar interests about your site. This type of viral behavior is essential to many business sites and can be the difference between flat and increased sales. So just remember content, content, content, deign (had to throw that in there), and more content. Publish well and often you will be enhancing the success of your online endeavors.

Essentially there are two types of web sites, Static and Dynamic. There are pluses and minuses to both, what you choose simply depends on what you are looking to do, how much time you have to devote to your site and your skill level.

A static site is one that is coded in plain HTML (or Flash for you crazy people out there) and requires a general knowledge of HTML (or at very least a good WYSIWYG editor) for maintenance. The majority of sites out there fall into this category.  Some of these are professionally designed and maintained by the design company, some are professionally designed and maintained by the site owner and some are completely designed and maintained by the site owner.Unfortunately with most of the sites that fall into this third category,  the site users can probably tell because the site does not offer the best experience. This is not always the case, in fact I have run across a number of  sites developed this way that are just fine but not everyone has the time to work out the many design issues that plague some sites.

The primary advantage to this type of site can be cost and accessibility. The obvious disadvantage to this type of site is that the site owner needs to have a decent knowledge of HTML (even if they use a WYSIWYG editor) to ensure that you are able to avoid some issues either that or the site owner needs to employ someone with the appropriate knowledge (as a contractor or FTE) to get the job done.

A Dynamic site is one that has the content served up from a database as each page is requested. Most online stores and your more interactive sites out there fall into this category. Dynamic sites are usually programed in some form of ASP or PHP (although there is cold fusion, JSP and other XML based systems in regular use as well). These sites use some kind of database, like MySQL and MS SQL (even MS Access is used for some smaller sites), to house the site information.

Like with static sites, there are advantages and disadvantages to Dynamic sites as well. The biggest advantages are scalability and easy ongoing content management without the need for a third party. The biggest disadvantages can be the up-front cost can be somewhat higher than that of a static site and historically there have been more SEO issues with some dynamic sites. The cost disadvantage is mitigated by the fact that dynamic sites offer a return on that investment over time by not having the need to pay someone on an ongoing basis to make content updates and changes. In general, dynamic sites can be especially advantages for online stores, newsletters and sites with content that changes frequently.

A good balance between these two can be found with WordPress. Although it technically falls into the  dynamic category it can come without the high cost of development (but keep in mind that a good custom theme can get pricey in the same way any site design can depending on what you want) and with options to help expand overall functionality and minimize if not eliminate any SEO related issues that dynamic sites have had in the past.

The bottom line is that you need to think your site all the way through from the beginning. No matter what kind of business you are in, you just need to be sure to fully consider exactly what you want out of your site so you can determine the best way to go before you start the process.