The Internet Challenge and Opportunity

The challenge of the Internet is that it brings competition from around the world to our doorsteps. The opportunity is that it brings the world markets to our doorstep as well. Something often over looked is the local market that can be reached online, which has challeges of it's own.

Considering that Alaska has the highest number of Internet users per capita in the US, it's surprising we don't expend more resources promoting ourselves to our fellow Alaskans online. Google is quickly supplanting the 'Yellow Pages' as the preferred way to find information, products and services - local or not. Given the opportunity, I believe most Alaskans would prefer to buy local and support local businesses. I also believe they won't go out of their way to do so. It's up to us to make it easy for them to find us and buy from us. Increasingly that means being visible and available online.

So what are the options for Alaskan web site owners to promote their web sites to local Internet users?

Paid advertising (online and off)
Online directories (or other inbound links)
Major search engine results (first two pages of results)

All three can be expensive, take significant time and effort to see results and have limitations. If you think there must be a better way, you're right. There is.

Next: The Better Way
Back: Introduction