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It’s hard to beat original content and images when attracting new customers, but sometimes things get busy and there isn’t time to create the image you need. In those situations, it’s good to have a few sites like with high-quality, free stock images and graphics to use as you need.\nWe’ve pulled together seven go-to sites for free stock images. These are great, high-quality sources with files large enough for moderately sized printing. They’re great for promotions, branding, blogging, website background images, and more.\nWith no further ado, and in no particular order:\nGratisography\nGratisography is a good resource if you’re looking for outside-the-box, creative photos with a healthy dose of playfulness and nonsensicality. These images are great for stopping people in their tracks, making a point, and just about any other fun kind of use you can imagine.\n\nVisit GRATISOGRAPHY\n\n \nPexels\nPexels has an abundance of images, well tagged and searchable, and they add images frequently. They have images ranging from automotive to nature, fashion, and style, as well as food and hospitality. There is no shortage of options on Pexels.\n\nVisit PEXELS\n\nStocksnap.io\nRight up there with Pexels, Stocksnap.io has a wide variety of image options. They also have a great selection of photos great for those milestones in life. Sports, weddings, graduations as well as home and garden, fitness, and so much more. Whether your promoting a life-event or your collaborative, work-friendly brunch spot, Stocksnap.io has a wealth of free, high-quality images to browse.\n\nVisit STOCKSNAP.IO\n\nUnsplash\nUnsplash has some of the most artistic everyday use images. They also cover a wide variety of categories, but with a certain flair for beauty. Several of the photos they offer would look just as good in a frame on the wall as they will in your marketing and branding. They have images ranging from the Aurora Borealis to beautiful top-down, flat lay photos waiting for your messaging and promotion.\n\nVisit UNSPLASH\n\nBurst\nBurst is great for the industry-specific user. From exercise to jewelry, Burst offers a very curated and beautiful supply of images for general or specific use. What we love most about Burst is their Tips and Ideas links at the top. Not everything will apply to small and local businesses, but it provides a beautiful gallery of ideas. It’ll get your creative juices going, especially if you’re feeling a bit stumped.\n\nVisit BURST\n\nFoodiesFeed\nFoodiesFeed is dedicated to—you guessed it—food. It’s not a huge library, but it’s packed with fresh, professional looking photos of food, preparations, party settings, and more. Perfect for augmenting meal images at restaurants, cafes, bars, and lounges.\n\nVisit FOODIESFEED\n\nISORepublic\nOne thing we’ve found as we’ve scrolled through multiple free stock photo websites is a bit of repetition. It’s not surprising when considering the nature of common licensing of these images. ISORepublic, on the other hand, has a great set of images that are categorical, but not typical. It leans a bit more abstract and has a great swath of active, exploration, and adventure photos. If you’re not finding the stock images you need on other sites, this one may have the gold nugget you need.\n\nVisit ISOREPUBLIC\n

7 sites for free stock images for small businesses

Imagine you want to take someone out on a charming date and you’re sweating cold bullets. It’s gotta be good. And you know it.\nYou know that your date loves Mexican cuisine, so you pull up a web browser and punch in the search query “mexican restaurants near me.” The first result is a list of top Mexican restaurants on Yelp.com, the popular local business review site that seems to always be at the top of the page when it comes to local restaurant searches.\nYou find two spots. You investigate their websites and find that they’re essentially carbon copies of each other. Exactly the same. They’re equidistant from your house. The entrees and margaritas are priced in the same range.\nHow do you decide between them? The star rating, which comes from online customer reviews, breaks the tie.\nThe online “word of mouth” site Yelp had approximately 178 million people read its reviews on an average monthly basis. \nSo what?\nAbove all, this means more people find your restaurant on Yelp than from your own website. Scenarios like the one above happen millions of times every day. Explorative customers search Yelp to make the right decision for their night-out budgets, so you can’t ignore it if you want to attract customers.\nRestaurants especially can’t ignore Yelp reviews\nWhether they had a dazzling night or a sour experience, most people go to Yelp to talk about their experience at a restaurant. Of the (as of 2021) 224 million reviews on Yelp, the “Restaurants” category is tied with Home & Local Services as the most reviewed category \naccording to Yelp data\n.\nThe good news for restaurant owners is that \n51% of Yelp reviews are five stars\n. That means over half of the visitors to Yelp are there to rave about their positive experiences.\nAnd if you’re curious, the other 49% breaks down like this:\n4 Stars 17%\n3 Stars 8%\n2 Stars 6%\n1 Star 18%\nAre you paying attention to Yelp now?\nIf you’re a restaurant owner, consider this logic:\n92% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase, recent \nstudies\n say (up from 88% in 2014).\nYelp is the \n4th most visited customer review site\n on the Internet, after Google, Facebook, and Amazon (and Amazon isn’t really used for restaurants, so we could argue Yelp is actually 3rd on the Internet).\nTherefore, 9 out of 10 customers visiting your restaurant (for the first time) likely checked Yelp first.\nThe question for you as a restaurant owner is then this: did you meet them there?\nThe more you are where your customer is, the more sales you will probably make. After all, this is the goal of your marketing and advertising budget — to put your message in front of your customers.\nSo if the majority of your customers are visiting Yelp, then maybe it’s time to meet them there.\nIs Yelp worth the time and effort?\nI know this already, you might be saying. It’s not worth my time.\nA \nHarvard Business School study\n shows that a one-star Yelp rating increase can lead to a 9% revenue increase. You may not think customer engagement matters, but it does. In any event, money talks, and a 9% revenue increase is probably worth someone’s time on your staff.\nYour business is automatically listed on Yelp and users can leave reviews, whether you do anything or not. It’s on you to claim your business. Photos, menu items, and open hours won’t fill in themselves.\n2 crucial reasons to claim your business listing on Yelp\nBe found online: 91% of all online searchers use Google Search, as of January 2022. And the bulk of Yelp’s users come from Google. Yelp’s CEO Jeremy Stoppelman \ntold TechCrunch\n, “About 75% of Yelp’s traffic, overall, is sourced through Google one way or another. About 50% is traffic coming from people who start their search on Google and eventually find their way to Yelp; the other 25% is people qualifying ‘Yelp’ as one of the keywords in their search…” In other words, millions of people start searching for a bite to eat in Google and end up looking at Yelp profiles.\nCustomer reviews on Yelp can be a source of inspiration, ideas, and encouragement. Whether it’s \nputting a honey bear in the guest’s condiment area\n or just \n“keep doing what you’re doing!”\n, combing through customer reviews can lead to the affirmation or improvement restaurant owners want. \nOne Noodle Bar owner in Palm Beach, Florida said\n he always looks forward to reading over his Yelp reviews, both the good ones and the not-so-good ones.\nOne owner said, “All and any customer feedback is helpful! It’s a must for growing our business, this is why we value tools like Yelp to help better our restaurants, whether it’s positive or negative feedback it’s how you use these tools to better your business that’s most important!”\nWhether you’re not on Yelp yet or you’re an experienced Yelper, it’s time to augment your Yelp activity and generate more foot traffic for your restaurant.


Restaurant owners: Why Yelp is more important than your own website

In this article:\nWhat is a chamber of commerce?\nWhat does it mean to join a chamber of commerce?\nHow can a chamber of commerce help your small business?\nAre there any downsides to joining a chamber of commerce as a business?\nHow to join your local chamber of commerce\nHow to make the most out of your membership in the chamber of commerce\nOther local marketing opportunities\nChambers of commerce are an amazing local resource that small businesses should be aware of in their community. From networking to marketing, your local chamber of commerce can provide your business some great benefits. \nThroughout this article we’ll guide you through the chamber of commerce system, how they can help your small business, and whether or not you should join your local chamber of commerce. \nWhat is a chamber of commerce? What do they do?\nA chamber of commerce is essentially a network of local businesses. It is an organized group of business owners and professionals who seek to help other businesses grow through networking, marketing resources, financial assistance, guidance, and more. \nChambers usually take on several community functions, including:\nTourist information center\nBusiness spokesperson\nEconomic planner and developer\nGovernment relations\nHuman resources adviser\nPublic relations adviser\nEconomic counselor\nThrough these functions, chambers work to serve local businesses and keep the local economy strong. \nChamber of commerce members\nThe members of the chamber of commerce are the individuals, businesses, and organizations that volunteer their time to help improve the socioeconomic climate their community. When joined together, this group of people have a much stronger voice than they would as individuals. \n\nAnyone who chooses to get involved in their local chamber of commerce can become a member. \nEach chamber of commerce is run by its members. They will elect a board of directors to help set policies and determine specific goals to work towards. The chief officer will preside over all meetings, while day-to-day operations are typically handled by a professional manager (this is often a paid position). \nChamber of commerce objectives\nMembers are often split into committees to help organize and more efficiently accomplish the chamber’s objectives. \nThe general objectives of every chamber of commerce are as follows:\nIncrease local job opportunities\nHelp local business grow and thrive\nEncourage expansion of the community in an efficient and organized manner\nContribute to the economic stability of the community\nPromote a free market economy through assisting of private businesses and organizations\nWhat does it mean to join a chamber of commerce?\nJoining a chamber of commerce can provide several benefits for your business and individually. The chamber is often a powerful influence in the community, and your joining it will give you a voice in important community development projects. \nThere are a couple different ways to get involved with your local chamber of commerce. You can go all in and join the board (if you’re elected) to have a wider influence in the community, or you can simply join your local chamber, representing your business, and take part in networking opportunities and board meetings without the additional responsibilities of being an officer on the board. \nchamber of commerce members voting\n\nWhat are the responsibilities of chamber members?\nLet’s break this down into your typical chamber members and board members. \nResponsibilities of the average chamber member usually involve the following:\nPaying specific dues (you can look at it as an investment in your local chamber)\nInvolving senior level employees in the work of the chamber\nParticipating and helping further the goals of the chamber of commerce\nYour specific chamber of commerce may delegate tasks to your business and employees and assign you to various committees as participants in the chamber. Be ready and available to assist with these where possible.\nChamber board members have a few additional responsibilities:\nRecruiting new members\nAttending board meetings\nVoting (on by-laws, budgets, new member requests, and other important board decisions)\nHiring and searching for a chamber president (this doesn’t occur frequently, but it is the board members’ duty to take this on)\nRewriting by-laws when necessary\nSelling tickets to chamber events\nGoverning and legislative initiatives\nLeading committees\nRibbon cuttings and public appearances\nRepresenting the chamber at all times\nBecoming a board member is no small task, so make sure you’re up for the responsibilities and can devote the time to your community before taking this on. \nHow can a chamber of commerce help your small business?\nJoining a chamber of commerce can provide many and varied benefits to your small business. Determine if these benefits will ultimately help your business grow, and think about all of the good that you’ll be able to do within your community. \nResources\nChambers of commerce seek to help businesses in their community grow and thrive. Therefore, they provide resources and opportunities to help with just that. From marketing tips and materials to advice about day-to-day operations, you can gain invaluable knowledge from just being a part of your local chamber. \nNetworking\nMost chambers hold networking events for their members to connect and learn from one another. At these events you can start some valuable relationships with other business owners in the community. \nDiscounts\nOften at chamber events, there are giveaways, fun discounts, and freebies that you can take part in. Also, networking with chamber members may provide you with some coupons or discounts to their businesses. \nMailing lists\nEvery chamber of commerce has a directory of their members that is available to chamber members and non-members alike. Being a member just gives you that extra edge when reaching out to other members on this list. \nMore exposure\nBeing a member of a chamber can give your business more exposure within your community. The chamber will provide a link to your website on theirs (hello, \nsmall business SEO\n!) and point people in your direction when someone knew in the community is looking for your services or products. \nCredibility\nParticipating in a chamber of commerce gives you and your business additional credibility with members of your community (and other members of the chamber). \nAre there any downsides to joining a chamber of commerce as a business?\nWe wouldn’t necessarily call these items the downsides of joining a chamber of commerce, but an investment in the benefits that you and your chamber can generate for your business and the community. \nMembership fees\nEach chamber of commerce has membership fees that every involved business must pay. This varies between chambers, but it can be significant. \nSometimes you can even join a group of chambers and pay just one membership fee for all of those groups rather than having several different fees to pay. \nAsk your local chamber about discounted or sponsored memberships or other promotions.\nROI isn’t immediate\nLike with most investments, you won’t likely see immediate ROI from your participation with your local chamber. It takes time. \nBut the more you participate in networking events and gain exposure in your community, the more opportunities your business will have to grow strong and gain revenue. \n\nTime investment\nJoining a chamber can result in a good amount of time invested, whether from you individually or your employees. \nFrom participating in local community events to help further to goals of the chamber and build the community to networking events to help grow your business, you can be volunteering a decent amount of your time. \nFor busy small business owners this can be difficult, but the benefits can make this sacrifice worth it.\nConflicts with competition\nYou aren’t going to be the only business in your industry that gets involved with a local chamber. You may have competitors that are members of the same chamber. \nStay civil and remember that you are all working towards a common goal, and can grow your businesses and community together.\nHow to join your local chamber of commerce\nIt isn’t difficult to join a local chamber of commerce, but there is a little bit of work involved to get to that point. \nResearch \nFirst, you need to do your research to determine what chambers are relevant and active in your area. Some communities have several different chambers of commerce that work towards different goals. \nThere are also often regional or state-wide chambers as well as city-level chambers. Determine which chamber (or chambers) you will want to join, and get involved!\nContact\nOnce you have decided on a chamber or two that you want to join, contact them to determine next steps. \nThe process for joining each chamber can vary a little, so you’ll want to reach out and make sure you get the right information. \nAsk for membership packets\nReview the info and become familiar with your chamber\nAsk lots of questions to learn more about the process and the chamber itself\nAsk if they have an established political stance so you don’t get yourself stuck in an organization that you don’t agree with\nAttend an event\nChamber events are great opportunities for you to talk to current members to see what they think about their membership, the benefits they receive, and the work they do for the community. \nSet up your membership\nOnce you’ve made your decision, it’s time to set up your membership. The following steps are typical for most chambers:\nMeet with the director to look over membership levels and payment options.\nFill out your application. Some chambers will accept your membership immediately while others may want some time to review your application. \nHold a ribbon-cutting ceremony to announce your membership in the chamber of commerce. \nsmall business chamber of commerce ribbon cutting\n\nHow to make the most out of your membership in the chamber of commerce\nOnce you’ve joined a chamber of commerce it’s up to you to make sure you get the most out of your experience and reap the benefits that it can offer. \nIf you follow each of these steps, you are sure to gain a valuable experience as well contribute well to your community. \nAttend chamber events regularly\nGet a calendar of events from your chamber and start planning the events that you and your employees will be able to attend. \nFrom seminars that teach more about running and managing a business to networking events with other businesses, you can gain expert knowledge and meaningful relationships to help your business succeed. \nHost your own event\nYou aren’t limited to attending events hosted by the chamber and other businesses. You can put on your own networking event or seminar and invite chamber and community members alike to attend. \nThis helps you provide more value to the community and gives you some great exposure.  \nVolunteer\nYour chamber will likely have several committees working on different projects at any given point. Volunteer your time to help a specific committee that is right up your alley. Meet new people and gain more exposure in the community as you volunteer. \nAttend ribbon cuttings\nShow your support to other local businesses by attending their ribbon cutting ceremonies. If you can’t make it, reach out and congratulate that organization on their membership and be a support to them in that regard. \nOther local marketing opportunities\nBeyond local chambers of commerce, there are several ways that you can market your business for a low cost (or even for free).\nCheck out this guide:  \n25 free local advertising ideas for small businesses\n

Chamber of commerce basics: what they do and why you should join

In this article:\nThe problem with Facebook ads\nCreate and claim your Facebook business page\nTry boosting Facebook posts before you pay for ads\n“You should get some ads running on Facebook!” How many times have you heard that from your friends or business associates? Facebook is astonishingly popular for private individuals as well as businesses, and it’s understandable to want to boost your business’s presence there. But there are some little-known issues you need to be aware of. Here’s what you need to know before you advertise your small business on Facebook.\nThe problem with advertising on Facebook\nFacebook’s massive popularity is also a potential sticky wicket for small businesses. 7 of 10 US adults (roughly 240 million Americans) use Facebook, and 74% of them check the site at least once every day. 97% of business-to-consumer marketers use Facebook. In short, pretty much \neveryone\n uses the platform. \nWhy is that a potential problem? It’s a huge market and it’s hugely crowded. That’s a lot of eyes and a lot of high-value, fast-spending businesses clamoring for customers’ attention. Simply throwing “an ad” up “on Facebook” isn’t going to get you any local customers, unless you’re extremely lucky.\nIn fact, 62% of small business owners feel their paid Facebook ads don’t work. In another poll, half of small business owners don’t feel the time they invest in Facebook is worth it.\nHow can you help ensure the time and money you spend on Facebook will pay off? First, define your expectations, and have a plan.\nMake sure you have a plan\nFirst, think hard about what you actually hope to accomplish with your Facebook ads. Are you trying to build brand awareness? Convert more customers from your website? Get more in-store visits? Build customer loyalty for valuable repeat visits? Spread the word about a big sale?\nPaying for Facebook ads with no plan for tracking goals, measuring success, or creating specific messaging for the result you are seeking is literally throwing money away. Facebook overall doesn’t have a stellar conversion rate (meaning how many “viewers” of ads actually end up purchasing). So you need to really think about what you are trying to accomplish, and have distinct ways to track and measure the success of your efforts.\nIf you don’t feel like you know exactly what you’re hoping to accomplish, or you aren’t sure which groups of customers you should be targeting in the first place, you might consider hiring a social media marketing expert or firm to get the ball rolling until you learn the ropes.\nTry “boosting” Facebook posts first, before paying for ads\nIt might be a good idea to try “boosting” your company Facebook posts for a while to improve views and engagement, rather than spending on Facebook ads specifically. The most successful small businesses know how to use social media as “free advertising.” This can only happen once they have a large, loyal following.\nWhen you pay Facebook to boost a post, you are essentially creating an advertisement that gets shown in the Facebook feeds of audiences you select. \nHave you seen “sponsored” posts in your online news feed? These are frequently boosted Facebook posts. \nWith boosting, you choose a specific audience with location targeting, gender, age, financial profile, and interests. Then you set your total or daily budget, length of the boosting, and add in your payment information. It’s pretty easy and not very expensive. \nIt can be useful to spend a little of your marketing budget boosting your posts to win more followers as a first step, and then use quality, high-interest, high-value Facebook posts as the primary means of “advertising” on the platform.\nCreate a Facebook business page\nObviously the first thing you need to do is create a business page on Facebook if you haven’t already. You will need to have your own Facebook profile to get your business page created. Here’s a \nquick tutorial\n to get you started. \nMake sure you include:\nYour store’s name (this should be the same as what you list on your \nGoogle\n and \nYelp\n business profiles)\nStore address\nPhone number\nOpen hours (including any special holiday hours)\nDescription of your store\nWebpage\nEmail address\nProfile picture \nCover photo or video (a picture of your storefront or product spread would be perfect)\nProduct types and price range \nCreate your own ad campaigns with Facebook Ads Manager\nWhen you’re ready to try Facebook ads, you can either pay an outside marketing firm to create and manage the ad campaigns for you, or you can try it yourself first with Facebook Ads Manager. \nAds Manager allows you to choose a goal for your campaign (like brand awareness, increased reach, getting more traffic, lead generation, conversions, or  store visits). Then you can set up your own ad with your created messaging, images, video, etc., and choose a target audience for the ad campaign. \nThe budget is set in a similar way to boosting your posts. You can set a spend limit based on clicks, impressions, or by date.\n\nSet up your Ads Manager account\n with these simple instructions. \nSources:\n
\nhttps://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-stats-for-marketers/\n
\nhttps://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/06/01/facts-about-americans-and-facebook/\n
\nhttps://www.manta.com/resources/small-business-research/poll-business-owners-devote-little-time-facebook-april-2017/\n
\nhttps://smallbiztrends.com/2017/01/do-facebook-ads-work.html\n
\nhttps://neilpatel.com/blog/small-business-facebook-ads/\n\n


Facebook ads for local business: Read this first!

In this article:\nWhat is an online forum?\nFind top-quality groups to participate in\nCheck back often and follow up\nAvoid spammy practices\nChoose discussions wisely\nStand out from the crowd\nOnline forums have been around for a couple of decades, but people are starting to rely more on these sites for answers to their questions as they dive into internet searches. This creates a good opportunity for small businesses to stand out and market themselves effectively.\nIn most online forums, anyone can ask a question that they are seeking the answer to, and then, generally speaking, anyone with an answer will respond. \nYour business can develop an online persona via which you can be answering questions that are relevant to your industry. \nYou can help guide consumers toward your business as an online resource and start to stand out as an authority in your market.\nLet’s go over what online forums are and how you can best utilize them for your business. \nWhat is an online forum and why should you care?\nAn online or internet forum is a website where people can have discussions about various topics. \nOften a forum will be specialized to one particular area of interest, such as Mopar automobiles, Sonoran cuisine, Pudelpointer dogs, vintage Apple computers, Finnish death metal, or whatever else you can think of.\nCurrent forums are the descendants of the early dialup bulletin board systems and Usenet groups of the 1970s and 80s, but are far more robust in features and usability.\nIn your industry specifically, there may be several websites or forums dedicated to online discussions relevant to industry news and topics. You name it, there’s probably a forum dedicated to it.\nFurthermore, there are huge, more general forums where you can find “subforums” or groups dedicated specifically to your industry.\nkeyboard with forum button for small business marketing\n\nSome examples of popular, large, diverse forums include Reddit and Quora. Even within broad forums such as these, you can often find topics related to your industry that you can get involved with.  \nContributing to the conversation on these forums is a great way to help spread your brand awareness and establish your business as a leader in the industry. We’ll guide you through some best practices to help you along the way. \nFind a few “top-quality” groups\nAs you are making the business decision to start participating in industry forums, you need to decide which forums you will participate in. There are tons and tons of forum sites out there, so don’t spread yourself too thin by trying to participate in every one possible. \nInstead, pick a select few that seem like good options for your business. Do your research to determine which forums are the most relevant to your industry. \nAsk these questions to help you decide which forums to use:\nWhat is their visitor traffic like?\nAre people asking questions relevant to your business and industry?\nWhat forums are your competitors participating on?\nWhat forums are other industry laters conducting discussions on?\nTop-quality forums will have a lot of traffic with people asking all of the questions that you know how to answer well, and other industry leaders and businesses will be active on those sites. \nOf course, if your business is very esoteric or specialized, there may only be one or two “main” forums relating to your particular specialty (such as the tongue-in-cheek \nmongolian underwater basket weaving forum\n), so modify this advice as appropriate.\nAnd if there isn’t an existing forum relating to your particular industry, perhaps you should consider starting one!\nCheck back often and follow up\nWhen you start engaging with industry forums, it’s important to keep that engagement up. You don’t want to go through the trouble of getting your forum membership approved and answer someone’s question and then find out three months later that they asked a followup question that you neglected to respond to (or even worse, one of your competitors responded to it). \nThat’s why it’s important to check back on the forums that you engage with often and follow up with the people you’ve had discussions with to see if you were able to solve their problem. \nOn most forum sites you can set up email notifications to be informed when someone comments on one of your posts or engages with one of your comments. Set up these notifications so you can promptly reply. \nAlong the lines of checking back often, you should also set yourself up to receive notifications when new questions or relevant posts are published so that you can be Johnny-on-the-spot and get the first response to these posts. \nDon’t be spammy; be forthcoming\nNo one likes spammy practices, so just don’t do it. One of the most common ways that people are spammy on forums is by posting links in the comments (usually to their own websites). This used to be a common practice to help websites get backlinks to their websites for SEO purposes. They would just spam links in the comments of forum discussions to get more links to their site. \nWell, our advice is to not do that. It makes your business look spammy, it doesn’t reflect well for your online reputation, and it doesn’t help you rank better in the search engines. Google can see right through spammy practices like this. \nWhat’s more, this type of practice is often frowned upon by forum administrators, moderators, and members.\nThat doesn’t mean that you can’t or shouldn’t ever post a link in a comment or forum post. When you have some valuable information or resources that are relevant to the discussion, then by all means, share it. Just be careful about the number of links you are sharing as you get involved in these discussions, and don’t just provide the same rote answer to every question. \nTake some time and actually participate in the forum and develop relationships of trust with members.\nIn addition, we recommend you be forthcoming about your business, including your forum “avatar” and persona. Make it very clear that you own a business and include links and info about it in your forum profile.\nYou will be much more likely to be accepted and recommended by long-time forum members if you are up-front about your business purposes rather than get exposed as a “company shill.”\nMany forums prohibit blatant commercial posting, but many also allow forum sponsorship, and/or provide additional posting privileges to businesses who sponsor the forum.\nSome even provide dedicated sub-forums for businesses who are authorized forum sponsors. This can be an effective method of advertising to your specific audience, particularly for businesses that sell goods and services online.\nChoose your forum discussions wisely\nJust like you should choose the forum websites that you participate on wisely, you should also be smart about the specific discussions that you choose to engage with. \nOne thing to look for is how active and recent the discussions are. If there’s a discussion with a question that you could easily answer, but it was posted several months (or years!) ago and the discussion has died off, then you won’t want to waste your time with that one. \nIf you just run a global forum search and start “bumping” old threads that are related to your business solutions, you’ll anger the membership and get banned quickly.\nbanned stamp from industry forums for small business\n\nFocus on discussions that currently have active participants so that your company is gaining good exposure and actually providing value to the conversation. \nSet yourself apart as an authority in your industry\nAs you participate in discussions with a lot of participants and activity, it will be important to make sure your comments stand out from the rest. If people are not reading, liking, and/or upvoting your comments, then they will fall to the bottom of the list and won’t be as likely to be seen. \nMake sure your contributions offer some unique value to the conversation, whether that’s a differing perspective than everyone else or a new solution that is proprietary to your company. \nEvery business and person that comments on any discussion wants their comments to stand out so you’ll have a lot of competition here, especially on high-traffic forums. Do your best to set yourself apart from the crowd so that you can become a thought-leader for your industry. \nClaim your online business profiles and participate in related forums\nSeveral \nonline business listings\n host their own online forums. As you are setting up your online business profiles, check out the additional features offered on those sites. Will their online forums be of value to your business and relevant to your industry? If so, then use them!


Best practices for small business participation on industry forums

In this article: \nTop free website builders for small businesses\nPros and cons of several popular site builders\nExamples of free templates and features for free site builders\nThere are tons of free website builders that can help you get a start to marketing your business online. These are generally pretty simple to set up, too, so you don’t need a professional web developer or any knowledge of how to code. \nPrebuilt templates and drag and drop features make creating your own business website a breeze. But how do know which website builder is right for your business?\nIn this article we’ll walk you through the pros and cons of the top free website builders so that you can choose the one the suits the needs of your business the best. \nYou may also like: \nAre free website hosting and domains really free?\n\nBest free website builders for small businesses—pros and cons\nLet’s dive right in. Check out these website builders to see which one might be best for your business. \nWix\nWeebly\nJimdo\nSite123\nWordPress.com\nWix\nWix is a widely used free website builder among small businesses. However, generally speaking, most business owners that use Wix have upgraded to a paid plan in order to have their own custom domain on the website (like www.yourbusinessname.com) instead of the free subdomain that Wix gives you (accountname.wix.com/customname).\nPros of Wix’s free plan\nWix has tons of great features and reasons that it can be a good free option for your business. \nHundreds of template options to choose from for all business types\nDrag and drop features to make your website look exactly how you want it to\nOver 100 fonts to choose from and the ability to upload your own fonts\nWix ADI (Artificial Design Intelligence) can custom design a website for you with the input of a few options from you \nSEO customization\n500MB of free webspace\nCons of Wix’s free plan\nWhile Wix offers tons of features on its free plan and gives you the capabilities to create a beautiful business website, there are some limitations of the free plan. \nYou can’t have your own custom domain\nYour website will have ads on it from Wix\nYou can’t have an online store on a free Wix site\nLimited bandwidth and storage\nBy upgrading to Wix’s Combo plan for $13/month, you can remove the ads from the site and connect a custom domain. This is usually enough for informational websites. \nHowever, if you want to have an online store or accept online payments, you’ll want to look at Wix’s \nbusiness and ecommerce plans\n that start at $23/month. \nExamples of templates and demo sites from Wix\nHave a look at the below to get an idea of some of the templates and features Wix offers: \nhttps://www.wix.com/website/templates\n(Image)\n\nDemo site: \nhttps://www.wix.com/website-template/view/html/2651\n(Image)\n\nFeatures: \nhttps://www.wix.com/features/main\n(Image)\n\nWeebly\nWeebly is a free website building solution that partners with Square for its ecommerce capabilities. They do provide the option to have a free online store, however, that does come with the \ntransaction fees\n of using Square for payment processing. \nPros of Weebly’s free plan\nEcommerce capabilities, including the ability to manage inventory, add coupons, and automatically determine taxes\nMarketing features like SEO, lead captures, and the ability to add your Instagram feed to the website are included\nChat and email support are available\nCons of Weebly’s free plan\nYou can’t add your own custom domain to the free website plan (you’ll have to use customname.weebly.com)\nYou have a limited amount of storage for the website, which can become an issue if you have a lot of pages or products\nSquare ads will be on your website\nA slideout “powered by Weebly” ad will be in the footer of your website\nThere’s a cookie notice that you can’t disable on the free plan\nYou don’t get free phone support\nMost of these cons can be bypassed by upgrading to Weebly’s professional plan, which starts at $12/month. \nExamples of templates and features from Weebly\nHave a look at the below to get an idea of some of the templates and features Weebly offers: \nTemplates: \nhttps://www.weebly.com/themes\n(Image)\n\nHere’s a demo site we created using Weebly:\n(Image)\n\nBelow you can look at the breakdown of Weebly’s pricing and features: \nhttps://www.weebly.com/pricing\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nJimdo\nJimdo is another website builder that is easy to use, and it will allow you to create a simple and professional-looking website for your business. However, the free plan is pretty limited compared to some of the other popular free website builders. \nBeyond a website builder, Jimdo offers some other products (for additional cost) that can help you get your business off the ground: online store, custom domain options, and a custom logo builder. \nPros of Jimdo’s free plan\nYou get 500 MB of free storage for your website\nYou can start an online store (the free version is capped at 5 products)\nSeveral free templates to choose from, all you need to do is change the fonts and colors to match your brand\nYou can easily embed videos, contact forms, and Google Maps on your website\nBuilt-in tools for social media are included along with share buttons for your pages, products, or blog posts\nCons of Jimdo’s free plan\nYou can only have 5 web pages\nYou can only have up to 5 products in your store\nYou don’t get a custom domain connected to your site (you’ll have customname.jimdosite.com)\nIf you want unlimited products and pages on your website, you’ll have to use Jimdo’s unlimited plan, which starts at $39/month. If you only need a few pages or products, but you want a custom domain, then you could do just fine with their Start plan, which is $9/month. \nExamples of templates and features from Jimdo\nTemplates: \nhttps://www.jimdo.com/examples/\n(Image)\n\nDemo site: \nhttps://amanda-brennan-creative-producer.jimdosite.com/\n(Image)\n\nBelow you can see the pricing and features breakdown of Jimdo: \nhttps://www.jimdo.com/pricing/creator/\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nSite123\nSite123 claims to be the easiest free website builder “by far.” They help you get a website started in just three steps:\nSelect the type of website you want\nAdd your business name\nCreate your account\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nOf course, there’s more to actually building your website, but this is all you need to do to get started in editing and building your new website. \nPros of Site123’s free plan\nFull use of Site123’s website editor with easy drag and drop features and clickable fields to edit content\nTons of professional templates to start from \nEasily add multiple pages\nCons of Site123’s free plan\nYou can’t have a custom domain\nYou won’t have ecommerce capabilities\nThere’s a small banner ad at the bottom of the free sites. Currently it looks like this:\n(Image)\n\nSite123’s Premium plan starts at $12.80/month and eliminates the cons of the free plan. \nExamples of templates and features from Site123\nTemplates: \nhttps://www.site123.com/website-templates\n(Image)\n\nDemo site: \nhttps://www.site123.com/templates/preview/1278915\n(Image)\n\nFeatures: \nhttps://www.site123.com/features\n(Image)\n\n \nWordPress.com\nIf all you need is an informational platform, then WordPress.com can provide a quick, free solution. WordPress.com, \ndifferent from WordPress.org\n, is primarily a blogging platform, but you can use it to provide information about your business services and products in a beautiful and professional way. \nPros of WordPress.com’s free plan\nDozens of free website templates to choose from\nAny content you write on your WordPress.com website remains your property\nEasy-to-use editor that automatically saves your work every few minutes\nCons of WordPress.com’s free plan\nYou won’t be able to use a custom domain\nCustomer support is limited, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid plan for good support\nStorage space is capped at 3 GB\nSEO capabilities are limited\nYou won’t have access to install plugins for additional functionality on your site (i.e. contact forms, slideshows, online booking, etc.)\nNo ecommerce capabilities\nFor as little as $4/month, you can have your own custom domain, 6 GB of storage, and basic customer support. For additional features, you can check out their other payment plans at \nWordPress.com\n. If you want to have ecommerce capabilities with a WordPress.com website, you will need to upgrade to their Ecommerce plan for $45/month. \nExamples of templates and features from WordPress\nTemplates: \nhttps://wordpress.com/themes\n(Image)\n\nDemo site: \nhttps://wordpress.com/theme/maywood\n(Image)\n\nFeatures: \nhttps://wordpress.com/features/\n(Image)\n\n(Image)\n\nWhat should you do after your website is published?\nCreating a business website, whether free or not, is only the first step to increasing your online visibility. There are several steps involved, most of which revolve around \nlocal SEO\n and getting reviews to your \nonline business listings\n like Google My Business. 

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