Hostway Launches Series of Small Business Seminars

Industry leaders share expertise in online marketing in first of series

Chicago—November 26, 2002—Hostway Corporation, a Chicago-based provider of Web hosting services and online business tools for small- to medium-sized enterprises, kicked-off its series of small business seminars this month with "Online Marketing Revealed: Behind the scenes stories." This first seminar of the series presented small business owners with advice on online marketing from executives with CNET Networks, NetMechanic and Hostway Corporation.

As a provider of Web hosting products and services, Hostway supplies small business owners with the tools to get their businesses up and running online. Most Web hosting providers would end their responsibilities there; however, Hostway recognized that customers were often not aware of what to do next. Therefore, the company designed the series of seminars to alleviate those frustrations and educate small business owners on how to take the next step.

"The Internet can be of immeasurable value to a small business if used to its full potential - it provides small companies with limitless opportunities to grow their customer base and expand their business' visibility at a rapid pace," said John Lee, co-founder and director of marketing for Hostway. "We noticed that many of our customers were hesitant to jump into online marketing because they didn't know where to start. With this first seminar of our series, we hoped to help our customers, and other members of the small business community, leverage their company's Internet presence to the highest capacity."

Hostway's first seminar covered various aspects of online marketing. Mickey Wilson, vice president of industry marketing for CNET Networks, spoke about the do's and don'ts of online marketing today and the power of Internet branding with her presentation, "Beyond the Click-Throughs." Chris Churchill lent her expertise in search engine optimization as co-founder and director of Web development for NetMechanic. Churchill educated the small business attendees on how to secure the most effective search engine ranking for their sites. Lastly, Hostway's co-founder and director of marketing, John Lee, presented "Web Analytics and Management" - an informational session on how to use Web analytics to make marketing decisions and gain insight about customers.