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In online marketing, Greg Snyder says, one element is more important than pixels and page views: storytelling.

"The main thing about any kind of marketing, including Web sites, is the Web site is only a way to tell your story," Snyder said. "All of marketing is about telling a story."

Snyder, president and chief executive of Colorado Springs-based Incognito Marketing, spoke at the Colorado Community Revitalization Association's conference Thursday in Steamboat Springs. He discussed the makings of great Web sites and answered questions.

Audience members included business owners as well as officials from Colorado towns including Arvada, Loveland, Montrose, Trinidad and Nederland. Many were from governments, downtown groups and organizations with little or no online presence.

"Everybody needs to have a Web site," Snyder said. He continued, half-joking: "Facebook is essentially a personal Web site, and there will come a time - in the next day or two, the way things are moving - if you don't have a personal Web site, you won't be able to buy milk. Life will be over as we know it."

Snyder's company designs sites. Some workshop participants asked about the cost, and he said Incognito charges about $5,000 for a basic site with several pages. Entities without sites should put one up immediately, he said.

But Web sites shouldn't be created willy-nilly, Snyder said. The business or group must identify the customers and how best to serve them, he said. That means building a brand and working out specifics, down to what words appear on the buttons visitors click. The marketing must tell a story the viewer connects with, he said.

"Everybody's got a Starbucks, everybody's got a gas station, everybody's got a main street with benches," Snyder said. "And that's good, but it's about what makes you unique, what makes you special."

He showed off some sample Web sites his company created, pointing out their simple, clean format. Information should flow from the top left to the lower right, Snyder said. The sites also featured images, often of the Rocky Mountains.

A woman who said she was starting her own business asked whether people tired of seeing the Rockies on Web sites.

"Look at who our tourists are," Snyder said. "Skiers come from Texas, Kansas, Oklahoma. : It's what's interesting to the fish, not the fisherman. I'd never eat a worm, but the bass love it."

Paul Turnburke, of the Nederland Downtown Development Authority, asked whether sites needed permission to link to others. No, Snyder told him, adding that it was illegal to take material off another site without an OK.

"I hesitate to make links because you spend all this time and money attracting people to your site and then send them away," Snyder said. A Web site has about 3 seconds to pull a viewer in, he said.

Snyder encouraged his audience to use blogs, which allows the entity to frequently update content. He also reminded them that all sites are works in progress.

"There's no such thing as a completed Web site," Snyder said. "That's part of the beauty of it."

- To reach Blythe Terrell, call 871-4234

or e-mail bterrell@steamboatpilot.com