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Domain Name: First off, you will need a
domain name. That is the www.yourname.com (or .net,
.org, etc) address that users type into a browser
to see your site. I recommend www.domains410.com
($10 a year) or godaddy.com ($7). I also recommend
registering your name for a few years. Although
unlikely to happen, someone else can buy your name
if you forget to renew! When you register your domain
name, remember to write down your password and
username. You will need this for renewing the
name and for specifying who your host will be.
Host: Next, you need to arrange for you
site to be "hosted". A host puts your
web page information on a special computer called
a server. This computer can be accessed around the
world by various browsers to see your website. You
are essentially paying to rent a certain amount
of memory on one of the host’s servers. A
host will cost from $2-25 a month, depending on
your location, size of your site, number of email
accounts and other features you would like to include.
I highly recommend, and almost exclusively use Hosthead.com
in Verona, though Beantree.com in Appleton is also
a good company.
When you contact the host to set up an account,
they will give you the name of the server. This
is a name like tobin.unisrv.net or a number like
10.0.0.1. This tells the world "I own www.myname.com
and the information for this page is on the server
named tobin.unisrv.net Once you have this information,
send it to me along with your domain name password
and login and I will get your host information set
up. If you change hosts, we can easily change to
the new name server. Remember, you own your domain
name and any information you host on a server, not
the hosting company. You have the right to move
your website to a new host if you want to.
When setting up the hosting you can also set up
your email accounts. Even if there are only 1 or
2 employees at your business, you may find it useful
to have email accounts such as info@yourname.com,
billing@yourname.com, jobs@yourname.com, etc. These
can all be separate accounts or all forward (empty
out) into one account. Take full advantage of having
an email with your domain name in it. Nothing looks
more unprofessional than having a great new web
page (ProfessionalAccountingServices.com), but a
hotmail or aol contact email (fuzzybunny1234@aol.com)!
Once hosting is set up, the host will give you
a FTP (file transfer protocol) login name and password.
Remember to write these down. I will need
this login name and password to put your finished
site on to the server and to make changes.
As a side note: Remember to keep track of all
your hosting, domain name and design invoices and
receipts. They are all tax deductible as business
expenses.
Designing Your Site: Things to consider
for your site are:
- Who will be using this site?
- Why am I creating this site? What are my goals
for this site?
- What information do I want on
this site? Do I need product or portfolio images,
contact information, hours, location map, Frequently
Asked Questions, request for information form,
client testimonial, links, my logo, professional
association logos, history, spec sheets, pdf forms,
etc.?
- Have I seen sites that I like?
What elements do I like - layout, colors, links,
images?
- What is my budget for now? What are the most
important areas to get done first? Can I do part
of the page now and add other pages later?
- How often do I plan to update
this page? Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly?
Will I update this site regularly so information
does not become dated, or should I put more generic
information on it?
- Am I writing/gathering new text
and information for this site, or can I pull it
from previously created pieces such as brochures?
- Who has final authority on the site design/content/launch?
- What are the keywords you want to use for your
site meta (hidden keyword for search engines)
tags?
Site Creation: If you are planning a larger site, I will
be glad to provide a detailed proposal. For smaller sites, I will
send an email estimate. I will design 2-3 rough index (main page)
designs. These will be sent via email as a pdf (Acrobat) file or
placed on a hidden folder off of my website. We will refine and
tweak the initial page design until it meets your approval. I will
then create web ready artwork from this design. After this, I will
spin off a similar template design for the secondary (sub) pages.
Once this template is created, I place your text, pictures and artwork
into these pages. The site will be available to you in a hidden
directory. I will test the site on various browsers and platforms.
Once the page is ready to launch, I will put the new site on your
host’s server and register it in the search engines. The page
will then be "live" and anyone in the world can see
it.
Search Engine Registration and Site Promotion:
At present, there are about 300,000 new sites added
to search engines like Google, Yahoo, Dmoz and others
every hour. The main browsers still accept registrations
of new sites for free. However, it may be 6 weeks
or more until your site has filtered into the system.
There are other ways to become listed and visited.
This first is to pay for a listing. Sites like Yahoo
charge a few hundred dollars to list you. This may
not be the best use of your advertising dollars.
The majority of people searching on the web now
use Google. Google both lists sites for free and
also offers a "pay per click" program.
You can chose what words you want your site to show
up for and how much you are willing to pay for it.
You can offer to spend anywhere from a few cents
a day to hundreds of dollars. If you belong to any
professional associations, make sure your page is
listed. You may also want to consider paying a small
fee to be listed on various local business listings.
Far from being dead, print is actually one of the
best ways to get noticed. Most potential customers
expect a company to have a site. They will look
for the web address on letterhead, business cards,
print ads, phone book listings etc. While you still
need print advertising, the web site can save you
money by:
- Spending less time on the phone
giving hours, directions, rates and more.
- Show a wide variety of products in full color,
without the cost of printing.
- Collect information from forms and emails when
the business closed.
- Offer printable forms, brochures
and other documents to be downloaded. This saves
you the time and cost of printing and mailing
them.
- Quickly make announcements, offer
sales or coupons, newsletters and other up-to-date
information without waiting for a publication
to go to press.
Last, but not least, take a big breath. This is
a lot of information to take in. Don’t worry
about understanding it all at once - that is what
I am here for. Feel free to call or email for help
or with questions. I will be glad to explain anything
that doesn’t make sense, work with you in
getting the name and the host and help you in any
way I can.
Elaine Meszaros
EMGraphics.net
www.emgraphics.net
608.243.9713
e@emgraphics.net
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