Launch of Getting Australian Business Online program
On Wednesday, I went along to the launch of the Getting Australian Business Online program, a nationwide campaign by Google and MYOB to give a website, free for 12 months, to more than 50,000 Australian small businesses (actually the program is open to any Australian organisation with an Australian Business Number, which could include not-for-profits as well).
As part of our work here in the Department, when we talk to small business owners we regularly hear that getting online and figuring out how to get an online presence is something that they are interested in and know they should do but the trouble is getting around to finding the time to do so. Let’s face it, small business owners are busy – busy running their business, being a manager, accountant, salesperson, cleaner, etc. — and that’s all before trying to manage that important work-life balance.
But having an online presence is an increasingly important part of running a business. As was repeated often at the launch – these days, having a website is as important to a business as having a phone.
Australians are turning to the web in ever growing numbers to research what they want to do or buy online. Here’s a short video that Google’s Jason Pellegrino showed at our recent Online Retail Forum with a vox pop of people talking about how, what and why they search online before deciding what to buy:
Some of the statistics mentioned at the launch included that more Australians are searching for builders and accountants online than are searching for news of Miranda Kerr and Julia Gillard. There are over 30,000 searches online every day in Australia for cafes.
Indeed, the launch took place in the Vivo café in Sydney and Angela Vithoulkas, the owner of the café, kicked off the event by saying that it was a dream for small business owners to make money while they slept and getting online can help you achieve that dream. Angela’s café can easily be found by people looking, at all times of the day and night, for a place to catch up in the city.
Google have advised that the campaign is off to a good start – with 120 new websites created in the first 90 minutes after launch.
Of course, it is important that you read the legal terms of the program http://www.gettingbusinessonline.com.au/terms so that you understand the privacy and other conditions on which your free website is provided. The legal issues section of this site has some basic information about some of the key legal things you may want to take into account when operating in the online space.
The strong message from Wednesday’s launch was that getting online is important for local businesses, so just dipping your toe in the water to see what’s involved in getting a basic website will be a great result from this program.
If you’re interested in more details, you can also check out Google’s blog post about the program.
By Mia, DBCDE
Edit
It is a great first step for small business to be able to get online and have a presence in a media that is becoming more and more important. The interview did not ask for online purchasing habits however, I think more and more consumers are making online purchases. Also does not touch the exact opposite of researching online and buying offline which is researching offline and buying online. I would have thought that was more popular among consumers due to online prices being more competitive most of the time. Anyway, great to see that small business is getting some help from the privet and the public sector to move into this important media…
I can’t believe that no where on this site do they mention the king of all online promotion being Affiliate Marketing. I mean Affiliate Marketing has driven many online companies like Amazon to where they are. Without companies like us most online business would cease to exist. Any company that is serious about making money online should consider a affiliate marketing strategy with an affiliate network.
It’s good that business owners are encouraged to utilize the power of the web.
But in my opinion it is more than just having a website. Websites need to add value to a business (increase enquiries, leads, subscription, etc…).
I feel business owners could be encouraged to use the web better. E.g. Have some sort of rebates in place for qualified/certified web professionals to implement. Many business owners know having an online presence is good, but don’t understand the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’. Until a proper web presence is in place they’ll never understand how the web can benefit their business.
I tested this program a few weeks back and while I think it’s great Google and MYOB are helping businesses get online, the website is pretty much no different to a listing within a web directory such as true local.
The problem is these sites will only be useful for promotional purposes, by that I mean business owners putting their URL on business cards and other promotional material. With that, the sites are very bland and when I last looked there weren’t any options to pretty them up, people are visual creatures and a big part of converting customers online is visual attraction.
Also, these websites are more than likely not going to rank highly in the search engines unless given some sort of bias from Google which would go against everything the search engine stands for. So, until these business owners actually fork out some cash for a decent website, hosting and at least take the time to put up a listing on Google Places, they are never going to see the potential of successful trading online.
Thanks for your feedback on the Getting Business Online program. For many Australian business owners this may be their first step into the digital economy. We certainly do hope that some of the businesses that participate in this program do gain the confidence to take the next steps in developing their online presence, such as more comprehensive websites, online shopping and customer mail lists.
Hey Natalie,
Totally agree with your comments I’d just hate to see all these business owners sign up, not get all that much out of it and decide online is useless, especially considering the stats clearly indicate Australians are spending more and more online.
Without at least being shown the bigger picture in a realistic manner with realistic expectations I fear this could be the case for many which would be a shame as ultimately they will be left behind by those that adopt the online market now.
Regards,
Mark.
It will give you a presence but its very limited in it’s capability. These days you can get online within $300 and manage it for under $100 a year, first impressions & quality are important and nothing that’s free can provide that. I have come across an Aussie company samedaywebsite.com.au that’s probably the cheapest and do some good work for what they charge.
Thanks for the comment, Amit. There are a lot of options out there in the market and it’s important that people investigate their options to ensure they know what will work best for them.
I was attracted to this option as it had federal government support. I used this to set up my website and it was very easy to use and I now have the basics. BUT it won’t allow you to add in code to the website which means you can NOT register with Yahoo etc nor add things like Pinterest buttons etc . If this was fixed it would be a very good. I have registered this as a change on their discussion forum.
Hi Sandra. Getting Australian Business Online is an industry initiative, rather than a Government program, but as you say, it’s really important to make sure the website creation tool you choose is able to support the features you want. Thanks for sharing your experience with Google/MYOB’s platform.