October 4, 2006; 12:41 AM
The growth of the Internet as an economic and social force continued
this year and now, nearly 80-90million domain names are registered
worldwide. At the same time, millions of small businesses in the US
still lack web sites, cutting themselves off from a potential global
market and also limiting their reach domestically. AIT, Inc
(http://ait.com) provides free domain registration with each hosting
account. “This is a no-risk means of establishing an online
identity, so business owners can see for themselves the value of
reaching new markets,” said Clarence Briggs, AIT’s Chief Executive
Officer. “Their only investment is the monthly hosting fee and that’s
as small as pennies per day; the domain name can be theirs forever.”
Reports
on online sales have, naturally, focused on the holiday season and
consumers will spend nearly 20-billion dollars in digital purchases
this year, according to ComScore Networks. That would be a 63% increase
over last year’s holidays. “Even consumers who don’t buy online
use the Internet for research, comparing vendors and prices, and
looking beyond their local market for the best deal,” said the
company’s CFO Steve Young. “Companies without a web presence take
themselves out of the game before it even begins.” As domains
come up for renewal, businesses would pay a fee to retain them but a
year’s worth of exposure to the Internet should be ample evidence of
the web’s worth. “In terms of return on investment, no vehicle
provides as great a ratio as an Internet presence,” said Briggs,
“unless businesses don’t want to participate in a venue where tens of
billions of dollars in transactions occur.”
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