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I LOVED your golfing
story. Read every word. You're a wonderful writer.
(Peter Bowerman, the Well-Fed Writer)
Big Things rule! ... and the video
of the Airbus is great. (Jim McDonald,
Birmingham, UK)
Having enjoyed reading your
biographical, They
can't take that away from me... I
would love to post your article (for my) course for
seniors entitled Autobiography and Journaling ... and
let them read your article as a good example of what
I call the reader's writer, clearly expressed and easy
to read. (Howell)
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every week, Jennifer, it's never boring and there's always
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USA)
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and quince, and found this page, great ;) (Marv, Zwolle,
NETHERLANDS)
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Keep going. (David Vasnaik, Bangalore, INDIA)
Read
more testimonials ...
Great newsletter -
originally found this site after searching for
clarification on a contentious
point amongst work colleagues. Just had to look at old
issues and now look forward to Fridays (Juliet Wallace,
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Women on the Web
By Jennifer Stewart
For some reason, when we think 'Business and Internet', we think
"man" - it just seems to be a 'guy-thing,' but recent findings
highlight the misconceptions in this. Did you know that in the US, women-owned
businesses now employ 18.5 million workers? That's more than the Fortune 500
companies combined.
This isn't a trend that's confined to just one country - four out of five
Japanese small business owners are women and it's estimated that by the year
2005, 40 percent of all firms will be female-owned.
Since 1987, women have increased their ownership role in business by nearly
80 percent and now own 8 million (or approximately one third) of all US
businesses. In fact, a new business is opened by a woman every sixty seconds!
 I
need help to get
I
need help to get my
site listed on Google
The figures are similar when it comes to Internet usage: findings from The
Face of the Web study (by the Angus
Reid Group) show that 150 million
people will use the Internet for the first time this year, joining well over 300
million current on-line users around the world. And of these current users, 59
percent are male and 41 percent female. However, the report indicates that 54
percent of the people who intend to go online this year will be female and 46
percent male. In the U.S., Canada, Australia, Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands
and Switzerland, the percentage of women intending to start using the Internet
this year jumps to 60 percent.
The Strategis
Group's latest survey of Internet
usage shows that in the US, 106 million adults, or 53 percent of the adult
population, use the Internet (either at home or at work or both), and women now
make up almost 50 percent of the online population, accounting for some 52
million users.
This continues a trend that was noticed back in 1997 when a
study showed that women business
owners increased their computer investments by 60 percent to $170.3 billion in
the previous year, and told researchers that they were planning to invest an
additional $67.2 billion in computer hardware and software in the current year.
Three years ago, about 23 percent of women business owners had a home page,
compared with 16 percent of men business owners, and 47 percent of women
business owners subscribed to an online service compared with just 41 percent of
the men.
Research shows that women in business do $2.3 trillion in annual sales - so
what's to be learnt from these statistics?
In order to market to these netrepreneurs on a business-to-business and
business-to-customer basis, you must understand the difference between the way
women like to do business and the way men do it! This can best be illustrated by
the following story by Faith Popcorn ( www.brainreserve.com
)
"Imagine that you're out to dinner and the waiter comes up and
introduces himself. 'I’m not really a waiter,' he says, 'I'm really an opera
singer.' What will the man at the table do? Act impatient and get right down to
the business of ordering. What will the woman do? Ask him about opera and get
into a discussion of what kind of opera he sings, what performances he's been
in, and what his plans for the future are. Relationships! She wants to know
everything about him so that she can make a decision. That's what women
do."
The Strategis
Group report agrees with this,
"Of all communications media we have access to, the web is uniquely
positioned to foster relationships. After all, the basis of the web is
relationships — the linkages between sites and data that allow users to jump
from one related topic to another with the click of a mouse. No other medium
allows this... least of all, the one-way broadcast media that we're used to. The
web not only allows linkages between content but also between people... a key
part of building relationships."
How can you build relationships with this rapidly expanding group of Internet
users?
- Keep the language on your site informal - that doesn't mean using slang,
but it does mean choosing words that reflect a friendly, easy style. Chat to
your visitors, don't preach at them or talk down to them.
Browse
these articles to help you write
user-friendly content.
Make your site easy to understand - let visitors know exactly what you're
offering and how to find it.
Be visible - put up your real name and plenty of contact options.
Always respond to people when they take the trouble to contact you - even
if it's just a quick "thanks for your kind words."
Put up a page with all the nice things people have said about your site
and your services - this helps build your credibility and makes it easier
for people to form relationships with you.
Send out a newsletter
and let your personality show through - don't try to be too serious or
self-important. Give quality advice and tips but also tell short stories about
your family or your pets; crack some of your corny jokes - be a real person.
Invite your readers to contribute to your newsletter and publish their
contributions and feedback.
Provide opportunities for visitors and subscribers to join you in setting
up networks
of small businesses.
There are also numerous free programs which allow you to set up chat
rooms, bulletin boards, guestbooks
and so on. A search for "chat room+free" etc on any of the major search
engines will take you to these.
Good business has always been about building relationships with others - the
Internet gives us more scope to do this!
Jennifer Stewart has had her own web-based writing business since 1998. She offers Home Study tutorials and professional writing services
and has written extensively for clients around the world. Her articles have
appeared in ezines throughout the web and in off-line business magazines.
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