Working Virtually

No, I don’t mean the back corner of your bedroom where you have your laptop or the dining room table. I mean, just like people would visit your brick and mortar office or office building if you had an offline business, when you work virtually you need to have a virtual office…your website. This is your “first impression” and it better be a good one.

Professional looking and functioning websites these days don’t have to cost thousands of dollars. You can set one up very inexpensively using a template design or hiring a web designer and telling them that you just need an informational / brochure site. You will pay for their design skills, but there really aren’t any backend programming charges involved in a simple informational website. Another option for you, if you belong to or are planning on joining an organization for your industry, some offer free webhosting with available templates as a benefit of your paid membership - definitely worth checking out before you shell out the bucks for an independent site.

Something to remember when you are planning your website and the image that it will portray of you - stick to professional. No spinning, blinking images allowed on a business website. They are distracting and totally unprofessional. You want your skills and your talents to shine…not an image of a spinning @ sign indicating your email address…trust me, if they’re interested in contacting you, they will find you without that obstrosity!

Grammar and punctuation are also very important. Proofread your site several times and then ask others to do you a favor and go over it as well. No one is going to want to “higher” you if you can’t use proper English on your site.

Finally, keep the overall color and font scheme gender neutral (unless your business caters strictly to a certain gender) and easy to read. You want it to be visually appealing, interesting, and awe inducing…without being too busy.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither should your website be. I have been tweaking and changing my website since March of 2000…you can visit Archive.org and see how it’s changed over the years and how my design skills have grown (but you most certainly can’t tease me or laugh!). Search for http://www.ChrisTech.net to see what I mean.

Build a great and professional virtual office - it should be one of your very first and is definitely one of your most important steps to Working Virtually.

All the best~

Christine

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