20 Reasons to have a website

After listing some of the most popular excuses people make to avoid getting a website, I compiled a list of reasons why you need and should have a website. So check them out.

1. Greater reach.

Unlike your local brick & mortar shop, your website can reach millions of people in the United States alone! Why limit your business to your small local community? If you look outside of the United States, it is estimated that over 2 billion people use the internet regularly.

2. Staying relevant.

Your top competition is online. The company that is taking money from your family, taking a client away from you, they’re online. The top performers in your industry are online and they’re taking business away from you. Being online is one of the most important things you can do to stay relevant.

3. Establishing Trust & Confidence.

With a website, you will be able to improve your image. You will be able to inspire trust in your consumers and ultimately this will generate more business for you. In today’s day and age, the first thing people do when they are considering doing business with you is look you up online.

4. Increase business.

Increased sales and new customers. No doubt about it that repeat business keeps a business in business, but new customers make your business grow. A website helps new customers find you and gives them the nudge they need to do business with you and not one of your competitors.

5. Always on, always working.

Your website doesn’t sleep, it doesn’t fatigue. Unlike you or your employees, your website runs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It doesn’t get tired, it doesn’t need to be paid, compensated or encouraged to perform. It just does. Day in and day out.

6. Establish authority.

When you have a website, you have a platform to share your views, ideas, projects and success. You have a place where you control the message. You can showcase your latest products, your participation in the industry. You can even start a podcast or a video series where you answer questions and provide advice to your customers and vendors. All of this will set you as the authority in your field or niche.

7. To market your business.

Use a website to promote changes within your organization. Long gone are the days of press releases and calling up the newspaper to write a story on you. The power is now at your fingertips. With your website and blog, you can announce events that are coming up in your area. You can describe your product in detail. You can publish video clips on how to use your product or take advantage of your services. A website can be one of the greatest marketing assets any business can have.

8. To accept reservations online.

Often we overlook specific functions that a website can help. Things that can make our lives easier when running our business. One of them is accepting reservations for our service based business. Restaurant, hotels, campgrounds, hair salons, auto mechanics and many other businesses can greatly improve quality of service and efficiency by allowing their customers to reserve their service online.

9. To earn additional income.

A website is a great tool to generate income. Whether you want to use it on a part time basis and keep your day job, or whether you want to do it full time and earn a great living, a website can help. There are so many ways to monetize a website that I can’t list them all here but a few include: advertising, selling a product, a membership website, or even using the website to earn affiliate commissions. You can make anywhere from an extra few hundred dollars each month to over 100,000 each month or more with a website. Some people have become so successful at this that they eventually quit their jobs and make hundreds of thousands of dollars per year or more.

10. To build a community.

With a website, you can build a community center for enthusiasts or professionals around an industry or hobby. You can publish information updates, news, guides, and have the members participate as well. This is a great way to introduce members to each other and find out about events happening around the industry.

11. Update friends and family

If you’re not interested in making money or using your website for business, a website is a great way to keep your friends and family up to-date with your life. Use it like a blog and share pictures, adventures, videos and dreams. After you setup your site, just email the link to all your friends and family so they come and visit your site.

12. Document your life or project

Maybe you want a personal space to document your project or adventure. Many people like to describe each day or each step of a journey and use the website as a journal. Think of it as a very focused blog. I know people that have used this to document their journey as they bike across the country, or build their first computer from scratch.

13. To have your piece of the internet

A website is your very own little piece of the internet. You get to call it your own, it is your name, and only the things you want in it will be shown. Unlike a social network, you get to chose your own terms, your own rules, and it’s a small space on the internet to do whatever you want, whenever you want.

14. Sharing videos

If you like to share videos with your friends or family, or even with anyone because you’re really good at finding cool new videos on Youtube or Vimeo or any of the other video sites, you can share them on your own blog. You can keep a video log of these too and be able to go back to them anytime you want without having to search for the video each time. You simply copy the URL of the video and post it. This will display the video to your visitors and save it for you to watch it later too.

15. Show expert stauts

Not only can you establish trust and confidence from your audience, you can use a website to showcase your expert status. You can show pictures or videos to previous speaking engagements, display your academic and professional achievements and much more.

16. Sell your photos

Using a couple of plugins, you can setup your own photo store to sell photographs you’ve taken. Whether you take photos for weddings or events, or whether you photograph landscapes and cityscapes, you can profit from your work by making it available online. You can sell different sizes, finishes, you can even let people download the photos immediately after they pay for them.

17. Share good and bad experiences.

If you like visiting different places, or if you’re an avid shopper a website is a great way to keep a log of these and make your own review site. You can talk about the food, the service or the products you’ve used. Unlike social networks or other people’s websites, you can say whatever you want. You can share good experiences or bad experiences. Remember, this is your website we’re talking about here. Your website, your rules!

18. Fundraising

Are you trying to save the dolphins? Helping children in Africa get a better life? Maybe you just want to raise funds for your kids sports team. A website is a great way of doing this. You can showcase your cause, ask for donations or sell products that will provide funds to power your cause. In fact, if you have any kind of charity, or fundraising project, you must have a website to give your project and idea the proper validity.

19. Find a girlfriend, wife, partner or job.

This is really three reasons in one, but they can all be related. When you’re looking for something, there is no better way to explain what you’re looking for than a website. You can use pictures, video, regular text and you can organize it in the best possible way. Looking for a soul mate? Setup a website and showcase what a great catch you are. Trying to find a new job? Use a website as your living resume and portfolio.  And whether you’re looking for a business partner, a hiking partner or any other type of relationship, you can increase your chances by putting it up on a website and sending out the link to friends, family, Craigslist and other networks.

20. Because the world is online.

The last reason is simple. We’re moving to a digital world. Everyday we find that one of our trusted long time technologies is being replaced by a digital counterpart. The book is being replaced by the ebook, the music disc, by the CD, then by the mp3. Home movies are now on YouTube. All is going online and you’d be a fool not to join the digital revolution. Get a website

Thank you Heather from Heather in BC, my buddy Marc, and John Chow  for ideas and your contributions!

Can you think of other reasons? Drop them in the comments!