Gun Industry Business Websites
Notes on creating an online presence for gunsmiths and firearm businesses.
A business needs its own website and domain name. In addition to listing the offerings and activities of a business or organization, the site should provide a reason for people to return and to share with others. An ideal way is to publish articles and information that people in your industry and searching customers would like to find.
Free American Gunsmith subscription: https://firearmusernetwork.com/subscribe/
Providing a free service that any visitor can subscribe to, such as a newsletter, is obtaining permission to contact people directly. They are voluntarily giving the ability to contact them, rather than posting something and hoping someone sees it, with the views possibly throttled by a social media platform. The critical thing is having access to the emails so they can be backed up and later moved to a different service/provider if necessary.
All forms of social media should be viewed as a public bulletin board you can post to but don't own. Everything you share can be taken down at any time and your contact with any followers you have can be reduced or completely erased instantly.
Social media is a form of advertising, nothing more. With traditional advertising, you purchase space to run an ad to tell people about you. This ad lasts only as long as your payments. Social media may not charge upfront but it has all the same issues as advertising. Consider: how do social media companies make money? If your account/page/group on their site is free, then someone else is their paying customer and you are the product.
Click/tap to watch a video about social media and how they treat our industry:
Having your own site, domain name, and newsletter list is like owning real estate; your landlord can’t force you to move when you’re the landlord! Even if your hosting service cancels you, your domain name, site software, and data can be transferred to a different company with no change apparent to your site’s visitors or users. Maintaining a newsletter with a list of email addresses you’ve received permission to contact can be ported to a different service at will. In contrast, if (or when…) the social media company randomly decides your group or page “violates community standards” (watch the video above for an example) they can erase your online presence without warning and you’ve lost that community of customers and other interested people instantly.
Getting Started
Getting started with something simple is not difficult for anyone capable of writing and sending emails: https://philip.greenspun.com/business/weblog-as-website
Philip Greenspun is an original pioneer of complex web services. His book Database Backed Web Sites: The Thinking Person's Guide to Web Publishing was the basis of his PhD thesis at MIT and was written about a decade before the first social media companies existed. The company he co-founded was building complex bespoke web services for large corporations (at $10,000+ per month!) before common tools for web development existed.
Even with that level of knowledge and experience, his advice for most companies and organizations is to set up and use popular blog software. This won’t be adequate for every company or organization, but it will suffice for many.
Managers of new small enterprises or established non-profit organizations sometimes ask me "Whom should I hire to build my Web site?" I ask them what they want the site to do. The answer is to promote their business and distribute some basic information to customers. What they want is a static 1994-style graphic designer-produced Web site. I explain that publishing on the Web now is like producing a word processor document or writing an email. Would they hire a designer to write their documents and emails? No? Then why would they hire a designer to build their Web site?
Using a Weblog Solves Every Problem
Cutting the site development budget from $5,000 to $5 solves all of the problems at once. Here is how using a standard Weblog works for a small organization:
cost to build is $0, other than employee time to type in site content, something that would have had to be done with a graphic designer as well
cost to update is $0; anyone who can remember the admin password and click a mouse on the "edit" option next to a posting can update text on the site; anyone who can read English and click a mouse can add photos, videos, and stories to the site.
all items on the site will be dated by default, with the newest content automatically appearing first; a reader who sees a story dated a week ago will be confident that the organization is still operating
built-in community; standard Weblog software allows readers to register and post comments on publisher-created content, including stories, photos, and video. The publisher can approve or delete user-submitted comments.
An inexpensive (or free) theme with a look you like handles the basic design. Many organizations don’t need functionality beyond the ability to create static pages for evergreen content/information, posts for current events/stories, and a link for a newsletter. For an idea of how inexpensive this can be, a domain name can be registered for about $20/year. WordPress.com will host a basic site with that domain name starting at $13/year. Newsletter options range from free to nominal. A budget of $5-$10 per month may be sufficient for many small to medium businesses and organizations and simple enough for even non-technical people to set up.
Summary
Purchase a domain name for your business that fits your company name and brand.
Set up a site using that domain name. Unless you have special requirements, a simple site with static pages (about your company, location and business hours, etc.) and posts with current news about your business may suffice.
Unless you have special requirements, basic blog or Content Management Software is adequate for many. Once set up, putting up content online is no more difficult than writing and sending emails.
Post something to your site regularly. Weekly is reasonable and monthly should be a bare minimum.
Maintain a newsletter and send something out regularly. Special business offers to subscribers is a great option, along with info from those site posts you’re making. Monthly should be a minimum.
Use social media if you like, but make your website and newsletter primary.
Understand every social media presence is a public bulletin board you have no control over that can be erased without warning. Use it accordingly.