BT Tradespace

If your website is still in the pen-and-paper stage and you’d like to experience both owning a website and social networking sites in one go, then sign up for BT Tradespace, the latest offering from the lovely people at British Telecom.

The site is a rapidly growing community of both individuals and businesses that features a range of service applicable to both parties. It’s very easy to use, for even the most novice of technophobes, and requires the usual emails address and designated password to begin to build your BT Tradespace profile.
 
Once you’ve added these details, you’re asked if you wish to have a personal account or a business account. Personal accounts allow you to ‘buy stuff and meet people’ whilst a business account allows you to ‘promote your business and sell’.
 

Get yourself a profile

If you’ve been following our 101 Marketing Tips since the beginning, you’ll have all of the information required for the form on your desktop. Your profile photo or logo image must be 136 x136 pixels ideally, and for each image you add, you must add a title and a description, which is brilliant for adding applicable keywords.

You are then given three options; Enhance Your Profile, Set Up Your Shop To Sell Online or Get Talking. We’d recommend completing your profile as much as humanly possible first and save all of the online socialising and networking for later, after all, there’s no point in meeting potential customers with an empty profile is there?
When completing your profile, the usual routine applies, such as adding keywords to describe your business, and plenty of room for your to tell the world what your company does and why you’re different from the rest, which is another perfect place for you to add some relevant keywords too.

In terms of images, if you’re business really is in it’s infancy and you have nothing more than a logo, then BT Tradespace also provides links on the form to istockphoto, where you can use some royalty free images on your profile.

It’s also worth mentioning that you’re also encourage to add a banner image measuring 990 x 440 pixels which is used on your profile. This can look very good if your logo and colour scheme work with the design of the BT Tradespace, but bear in mind that it simply may not, and this could be a feature to avoid.

Keep checking on your profile as you complete the form, by opening the profile in a separate tab of your browser and periodically updating it. You’ll also notice that the profile features the ability for other BT Tradespace users to rate your business with a five star system and add their own testimonials, which can be used to your advantage if you take an active role in the online community and encourage custom from the site.

Set up shop and sell online

Once your profile has been completed, you can go to the second option Set Up Shop To Sell Online. This allows you to upload images of your products, and is very easy to set up, with step by step instructions so you don’t get lost along the way. There’s lots of options here which depend on what kind of business you run, but again, it’s all explained along the way.

Finally, you can go to the Get Talking option, which is where BT Tradespace has truly shone. Like the now defunct MSN Communities and Spaces of the early 2000s, BT Tradespace has communities made up of groups of businesses, products, services and individuals, with each group possessing a gallery and discussion forum. There’s literally thousands of groups to choose from, making it easy to pinpoint your target market and join in with debates with the end goal of gaining traffic to your profile and then, to your own business website.

BT Tradespace is very easy to navigate and is free to begin with, offering a platform for you to promote your business and a blog to fill with company news, special offers and promotions and lots of juicy keywords to link back to your main website.

The free business account features:

•    The ability to add videos, podcasts text and images to your profile (although there is a limit with the free account);
•    Interactive map detailing your location;
•    Enough space for you to upload an online catalogue of fifty different products and services;
•    And you can upload an unlimited amount of blog posts.

For this, BT Tradespace will only charge you 5% commission from the sales you have made via it’s site, which seems quite reasonable. However, if you feel you business needs a little more ‘umpf’ and you have a budget to play with, you may want to consider upgrading your account to BT Tradespace Contact or BT Tradespace extras.

There’s plenty of information on upgrading your account on their website and lots of different features for each kind of upgrade, but for a novice, we recommend using your free account first to become accustomed to the site and what it can offer you and your company before you part with any of your money.