How to establish yourself online while you are building your website

In business and creativity today, if you do not have website, you are not really considered a professional. These days, no business can survive without a website.

A website not only runs your business for you 24/7, it also offers clients worldwide the time and convenience to browse your products and services.

Now that you know that you really need a website, you want it done professionally and quickly. Finding the right web designers and web developers to create your website can take time, ranging from weeks to even months.

Time is money, isn’t it? In any case, you still need some sort of online presence even if your website is not ready. After all, you need to provide your prospects and clients the convenience to access information about your business, so how are you going to do that?

Here are a few things that you can do while you are working on your site.

Set up a holding page
A holding page is usually an inexpensive but effective one-page, simple online presence. It acts as a temporary stand while the full structure of the website is being built, and conceived as much more professional than a page that says “under construction”. Your holding page should consist of your logo, company name, summary of what your company does, what your company can offer to clients, and contact information. Do ensure that you have purchased a domain name, registered with a web hosting provider and set up email accounts containing the domain name.

If you are a designer or product seller, ensure that some of your artworks or products are displayed on the holding page. Embed videos or slide shows of your products and services on your holding page. This not only enhances your page, but it also captures your viewers’ attention.

A holding page acts as a bridge that establishes your brand, allows people to access your information and introduces your domain to the search engine, so that when your actual site is completed, you gain a better competitive edge.

Make use of free online applications
Even if you are not sure of which web hosting provider to go with, or which web package to choose from, it’s still not an excuse not to have a web presence. If you want to save money on creating a holding page, there are free applications available on the web for you to create a simple online presence.

Make use of blogs, like WordPress or Blogger. They’re free and easy to use. It’s also advisable to custom your domain to the blog.

Blogs can be a great way of providing updates on your business, loading images and offering tips and advice so that others can see you as an expert in your field.

Sites like Weebly allow you to create a free site or holding page with templates. However, this should not be a used in the long run or be the main tool to create your main website as explained in this article that warns about the problems and disadvantages of free hosting and free website creation applications.

Utilise the social media
Social networks and applications like Facebook, Myspace, Flickr and Twitter allows you to reach out to your consumers. If you have products or artworks to sell, they can be great tools to allow you display your images and let the online community access what you offer, and provide updates on your business, even if your main site is not yet ready.

Various business online networking sites like Million Impossible, LinkedIn and Dreamstake enable you to connect with entrepreneurs and like-minded people. There are so many online groups that cater to specific industries, such as fashion, PR, music, etc, whichever is your target group. The web is not only a great tool to reach out to millions worldwide, it is also a fantastic platform to test your market before venturing out to the real world. Participate in forums, write articles and offer tips and advice through blogs, so that you can be better established.

Remember, your blog and social media accounts are NOT there to replace your website. In other words, they should complement it. Once your website is complete, getting established in the market becomes a lighter task.