What You Will Need
ALL websites must have the following to be placed on the Internet
for visitors to see: A Domain Name: A domain name is like
the address of your business. When someone sends you a
letter, they write your address in the envelope. Similarly, when
someone wants to look at your website they type your address or
domain name into their browser to see what you have to offer. This
can cost around $9.99 per year. BEWARE - Some companies double,
triple, quadruple this cost and pass it on to you! Your domain name
should be registered in YOUR OWN NAME or BUSINESS NAME not under the
person who designs your website. All website expenses should be tax
deductible. Website Hosting: Hosting is like a bookshelf.
It is a place to hold or store websites until they are called by a
user to view. This can cost from $3.99 per month to upwards of
$189 per month for secure servers. Do your homework on this one. You
really do get what you pay for. If you choose to purchase low end
hosting your website may not be available all the time to all your
visitors! A website: A website is like a book. It has a
cover (homepage) and many pages within the book all held together by
a series of links like a chapter index. You may either choose to
buy a pre-made template, use a free service online and use their
templates or you might choose to have a custom website template
designed just for your business.
Do not make this decision lightly. *Free* is very
appealing especially in today's economy. However, you really DO get
what you pay for.
Imagine what sort of business you would gain from placing an add
in a local newspaper which was written in crayon, misspelled and
ugly. Do you think the people who saw that type of ad would want to
visit your store or buy anything from you? Another reason you
should have a custom design is for the sake of branding.
Think of branding like this... Close your eyes and try to
envision what your favorite jar of peanut butter looks like. What
brand was it? or coffee.. anything you have a preference for. Those
companies recognize the need to stand out above their competition.
So, when you go to the store you can easily recognize your favorite
"brand" of whatever you are buying. Yes, I know we all look for
sales but given the choice, we choose our favorites. You have
letterhead designed, logos, store monikers, and more just to make
sure your customers recognize you by sight. Same goes for your
website. If you have taken the time to "brand" yourself don't
destroy it with a free, unprofessional and ugly website. A
website, like a book, can have as few or as many pages as you have
content. Content: Text, photos, video, PDF's, Diagrams,
animations, etc, etc, etc. anything you can think of to add to the
pages of your website. |
