|
|
|
|
|
The Lowdown
|
Feb. 16, 2009 Post
|
|
Here's the The
Lowdown from DNJournal.com! Updated
daily to fill you in on the latest buzz going
around the domain name industry!
|
Compiled
by Ron Jackson
(DN Journal Editor/Publisher) |
 |
Subscribe
to our
RSS Feed |
|
|
|
|
New
information from Webvisible and Nielsen shows
that there is still a great opportunity for
domain owners to profit from an enormous untapped
pool of small business end users. MediaPost's
Jack Loechner broke down the research results in
an article titled
|
|
|
Small Business Not Keeping Up With Online Presence
that was published Friday. In a nutshell, the research
showed that even though small business owners prefer
the Internet, by far, over any other medium when
they personally search for information on local
companies - only 44% of those same
business owners have a website of their own! What's
more, they spend less than 10% of their ad
budgets online even though that is where they go
themselves for business information!
In other words they are
utterly clueless about how to get online
and market their businesses to the countless
potential customers who, like the business owners
themselves, turn to the Internet first. That is a
huge disconnect and sooner or later, in order to survive,
they are going to have to stake out an online presence
for themselves. |
|
The survey
found that among business owners and consumers the most
popular ways to find information about local providers of products
and services were as follows (respondents checked off
every source that they used):
-
82% use search engines
-
57% use Yellow Pages
directories.
-
53% use local
newspapers
-
49% use Internet
Yellow Pages
-
49% use TV
-
38% use direct mail
-
32% White Pages
directories
Of those surveyed, 50%
said search engines were the first place
they looked when seeking a local business, while less than
half that number, only 24%, chose the Yellow
Pages directories. What's more all of the
traditional sources are losing market share year after
year as the web takes over. Webvisible found that online
search and e-mail newsletters are the only
forms of media that are growing among consumers who
wish to locate local products or services.
|
I have to admit I am
stunned by the survey results. When I was in the
retail music business I had a website up in 1997
and it played a crucial role in making that brick
and mortar business profitable. I can hardly
fathom that 12 years later more than half
of similar small businesses still don't
have a website - even though that is how the vast
majority of their potential customers now look
for products and services. What could these
business owners possibly be thinking?!
Having said that, my
own sales results |
|
|
indicate that more
and more small businesses are finally starting
to see the light. Despite the meltdown in the
general economy I have made more domain sales to
small business end users over the past 12 months
than ever before and thus far in 2009 there
has been no sign that demand at the low to medium
end of the market occupied by small business end
users is drying up. If anything the current severe
recession should force the 56% of them that
still have no online presence, to get moving before
it is too late.
(Posted
Feb.
16, 2009) |
|
|
For
all current Lowdown posts - Go
Here
|
|
We need your help to keep giving domainers The
Lowdown, so please email [email protected]
with any interesting information you might have. If possible,
include the source of your information so we can check it out (for
example a URL if you read it in a forum or on a site
elsewhere).
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home
Domain Sales
YTD Sales Charts
Latest
News The Lowdown
Articles
Legal Matters Dear Domey
Letters
to Editor Resources
Classified Ads
Archive
About Us |
|
|
|
|
