Tips and advice for small-medium sized business executives, business owners, professionals or individuals who are about to create their first web site.

What you should know as a non-technical person that will help you save time and money.

Discover how a web site can be more than a web site.

Contents

• Introduction
• What you need to take your business online
• The basics of hosting
• The right web site solution for businesses
• Components of a good business web site
• Essential features of a good business web site
• So you should go for a web site that
• How can a web site be more than a web site?

Introduction

You visit a web-design company and they ask you a few thousand dollars for a 10 page static website. Or perhaps you come across an advertisement on the Internet about free web sites but you discover that what they offer you is a sort of pages-builder hosted with them. You also hear about monthly rentals or adding a banner to your free site. These are some common practices in the Internet market today.

It is true that any kind of business no matter what product or service it offers can use the Internet today to broaden it's market, communicate with existing customers, educate prospective customers and offer an additional sales channel. No matter if you operate a Hair saloon, a Flower shop or a Real estate agency. Think about how convenient and cost-effective it would be to communicate your new product or service, a special offer or a seasonal discount just by sending an email to your customers.

What you need to take your business online ? The 3+1 essentials

1. A domain name

2. A web site

3. Hosting for your web site

4. Consider some soft factors

Let?s look into each one analytically:

A domain name is your Internet address, your unique Internet identity. You should select a domain name carefully ; optimally it should be your existing business name or something relevant to it. It is highly advisable to choose the .com ending since it is the best identifier for businesses on the Internet. You can visit any accredited registrar to check name availability and register a domain name. Expect to pay anything between US$8-35 for registration and assorted extra benefits and features. Good registrars provide clear instructions and a straightforward registration procedure so it is fairly easy to visit one and register a domain name today. We strongly suggest that you should register your domain name today even if you don't have plans to set up a web site in the immediate future. It is your Internet identity so you should protect it. Good domain names are registered at the speed of light. You can't be sure whether your "good name" will still be there and waiting for you tomorrow.

Your web site is the second and probably the most important decision you will have to make. It is usually the most expensive part of your Internet venture. There are several technologies available for building a web site. As a business owner there are some important parameters that you have to consider when selecting a website tool or technology which we analyze below.

Hosting your web site in simple words means buying computer space (and related services) on another computer (server) that is appropriately connected to the Internet infrastructure and can display your web pages upon user request. There are thousands of companies that offer a variety of hosting packages for all kinds of users. Hosting can be shared or dedicated. Shared hosting means that your site is hosted on a server that hosts other sites as well. In dedicated hosting you have a whole server reserved for you. The majority of small and medium sized businesses would do just fine with shared hosting which is significantly cheaper. Businesses with high Internet traffic (lots of visitors) and more complex or larger sites should go for dedicated hosting. Another major distinction is the operating system of the host server. Widely available are Windows hosting and Linux/Unix hosting.

You should shop around for hosting. We have seen the same package selling for $10 in one Host and $30 in another. Avoid paying more than $15 per month for good quality hosting. A good tip when evaluating hosts is to send a pre-sales email. Testing response time is a good criterion for hosting companies. Look for hosts that they are not afraid to offer a money-back guarantee. Call them, when they claim that they have 24 hours live support to verify that.

Hosting is also a critical decision. You can have the best-designed web site but if your host has a lot of downtime, nobody will be able to see it. Ask a host to give you or guarantee you a minimum uptime. Also, see if it offers any refunds for downtime, meaning that when the service is down more than a predefined amount of time per month then he refunds part of your hosting fee. And this makes sense. We pay to get serviced. If we are not serviced as advertised or claimed we should get our money back.

The soft factors

While it certainly sounds great to have a new business web site you should also know that you must be prepared to handle this as an additional business activity and devote personnel and time for it's execution. It should be analyzed as a process and investigated in how it interacts or relates with the rest of your business processes. Some questions may help as an example:

• Are you ready to cope with 100 emails a day?

• What if you are accepting hundreds of new phone calls a day?

• How will you organize your email accounts? (info@, sales@, customercare@). Who will handle each account inside your organization?

• What are the reporting procedures?

• Who is responsible for the site content?

• Who is your news editor?

• Is training required for any of your staff members?

The point is that depending on the size or the complexity of your organization, a touch of business process management or "who does what-when" adjustments might have to be made. Top

The basics of hosting

An FTP account. This is where your website files are physically located on the host computer. Your host should give you clear instructions on how to access this location. It looks like a folder on your personal computer and you can copy, paste documents between your computer and the FTP. You can access your FTP location with your Internet browser. FTP addresses start with ftp://.... instead of http://... However it is better to use special ftp programs to transfer files between your computer and the server.

Email accounts. Some hosting packets limit you to the number of email accounts that you can have. At minimum you should have 5 accounts. You host must also provide you instructions on how to create, access and use these accounts.

Normally a host should also provide you with web mail access. With web mail access you will be able to check your email from anywhere in the world much like you check your Hotmail.

Bandwidth or data traffic as it is also called. This is the amount of data that will be transferred from and to your web site when interacting with your visitors. A packet of 10GB can accommodate most small businesses. But as already mentioned, shop around. You will be surprised to discover hosts that offer more bandwidth for a very low fee.

Disk space is the amount of disk space that your web site pages occupy at the host computer. If you have a backup of your web site on your personal computer then it is exactly the same. That said, you know how much of disk space you need for your site. Some hosts will offer you attractive packages with an impressive amount of disk space and price them generously because they know that you are never going to use all this space.

A good host should offer a control panel from where you can control your account and make other fine-tuning activities. Hosts who offer good control panels usually are proud of them and offer a demo, so you should try it and see if it is appropriate for you.

If you choose a web site solution that involves a database then make sure that the host you choose supports this database and in general the type of web site you want to host. If your solution does not include a database now but you plan to integrate one in the future then it is imperative that your host supports one of these databases (not to say all of them): MSAccess, mySQL, MSSQL. These are the most widely used databases in small-medium scaled Internet applications.

Several extras may come with a hosting account. These may include a site statistics function where you can see visitor statistics about your site, a ready DIY 5-20 pages web site package, free domain name registration and a shopping cart system. Top

Other hosting considerations

Technically speaking the type of web site solution that you choose must be fully supported by your host. Not all hosts support the same technologies and a major differentiator is the operating system of the host computer. However if your site consists of all only plain html pages then any host can support it. Also, if your site has certain special features such as streaming video make sure that your host supports that.

Involve your web designer in the host selection process. The tips we shared above are a good complement but not a substitute for expert knowledge. We hope that you understand more now about hosting and how to perform a broad evaluation of a hosting package. However if you had a web designer done your site then he should be the first person to suggest you a host. Always ask for alternatives; never go with the one and only option presented. There is always something better to find.

Always bargain. The economics of the information products are a little peculiar. The marginal cost of providing an extra unit of a product is minimal and in cases close to nil. But let's have an example: Suppose a host says that a particular package offers five email accounts among else. You like this package and the features, it's just the right size for you but you wish you had another couple of email accounts since you are a 7 persons company. It would cost you host practically zero to provide these 2 extra accounts. If he wants to up sell you to another package that offers 500 email accounts then probably you are not starting in good terms. Hosting companies are like all companies and despite of the fact that most of the times our contact is only electronic, they should offer good customer service, cater to customer needs, responsive and effective support and good guidance.

Last but not least you must be able to see your site statistics. Monitoring your site statistics is an essential process of web site administration. That can either be done with a package that the host provides or by giving you access to raw log files. These files contain information about who, when and what a visitor did at your site. You can then use a third program to analyze these files and present results in a meaningful way. In either case it's good to have access to these files. Top

The right web site solution for businesses

Different businesses have different needs so we will discuss here some general parameters to consider when choosing your web site technology:

Acquisition cost. Many businesses cannot afford the luxury to engage in expensive and time-consuming web development. You should choose a cost-effective solution to build your web presence. A cost effective solution would be one that would require more personal work from you, but less or nil fees for designers. Among such solutions are the online website builders offered usually from hosting companies, graphical editors for designing the pages on your PC and upload them at your host or packaged ready-made web sites that are preconfigured for certain industry sectors or can be easily configured by the owner for any kind of business.

Optimally, the web site solution you will choose must not limit you to a number of pages or price you per number of pages.

Expect to pay anything from $6 to $50 monthly rentals or a one time software purchase cost of $90-$400 or up to $3-4000 if you work with a design company, always depending on the size and the complexity of the project. When evaluating any of these solutions consider also the following.

It is not just for today. Your business grows, so your site should too. You should pick up a technology that is open, widely used, expandable and upgradeable and can support your business in the future.

Flexibility. Internet is a 24/7/365 business. You should be able to control your web site from anywhere in the world, any time you want even when you are on holidays. You must have complete control over your site's content.
If you choose to hire a web designer to do the work for you then it is important that his work is transparent and his programming clear and comprehensible by his peers and the technologies that he uses conform to industry standards. It is hard to do such an evaluation yourself if you are not experienced and technically literate. We will give you here a very simple tip to easily screen out certain web designers! After they explain to you their offering ask this simple question: "What do I do if I want to change my phone number in my web site"? If the answer is "Let me know and I'll do it for you immediately" or anything similar, then politely say goodbye and look for the door out.

Why is that? You should never accept a solution that does not transfer complete ownership to you. If for such a simple issue you are dependent on your web designer then just imagine how much you would have to pay for maintenance fees each time that you want to change your site's content whether it is your Welcome page or your Services pages or your Selected clients pages. Remember how many sites you visited that were so evidently outdated!

Technology. You must go for a dynamic solution. Ideally, it would include a database for storing all of your site's content and an administration tool from where you can easily edit your site's content. And all you should need to fully control your site must be no more than an Internet-connected personal computer. What about the technical skills required? It should be sufficient if you can type and click and know how to use an Internet browser.

If you are evaluating such a dynamic solution it's good to know that the most widely used databases are mySQL, MSAccess and MSSQL, the most widely used programming technologies are ASP, PHP ASP.NET, JSP and the most common hosting operating systems are Windows, Unix and Linux.

Maintenance. As explained already maintaining your web site must be a well thought-out, straightforward and easy process, cost-effective and less time-consuming. In the long run you can end up paying 5 to 10 times the acquisition cost simply because you did not select the right solution from the start.

It is good to have an administration tool that simplifies the management of your web site. Yes, you must manage your web site. It is like a window shop of your company. You must put some time to write your sales copy and describe your services and products, update your news and handle customer emails. You are online and you are transparent. You must be impeccable to your visitors and customers. A good administration tool can help you a lot with the management of your website.

It is better not to have a web site at all than having an average, mediocre solution. Simply put, a bad web site can have a negative impact on your company's reputation. And instead of having a poorly designed web site that can turn customers away, it is better not to have one at all. Top

If you like what you are reading choose to stay always informed with our free Newsletter. Use the form on the left to subscribe.

Components of a good business web site

For our analysis we will consider only the part of the web site that is available to visitors. No matter what solution you choose to go with, there are some pages and functions that should be present in a well-designed business web site. These are:

• Home page. It is the welcome page. Where visitors arrive when they come to your site. Visitors expect to find a clear navigation system at least at this page.

• About us page. Your business mission statement (reason of existence, besides making money) can fit in this page.

• Services and/or products page(s). You must have adequate pages to display your services or products, the ability to group them and relate them.

• Partners, clients, projects, news, links pages. Depending on your marketing tactics it is often a very good idea to show your partners, some of your best clients, projects that you accomplished or maintain a News page where visitors can discover all interesting new developments about your business.

• Contact info and form. Make sure it is as easy as possible for people to contact you any how they want. A visitor must be able to reach your contact page from anywhere in your site.

• Newsletter subscription form. One of the best online marketing tools. Making it easy for people to subscribe to your newsletter is a must. You should definitely develop a list of subscribers.

• Customer registration system. For businesses that want to offer more personalized services online, a customer login/registration system would be necessary. In such a case you can have for example an area in your website that is only available to your customers.

• A shopping cart system (if you want to sell online). Top

Essential features of a good business web site

• Fast loading.

• A thorough, clear navigation system must exist.

• It should display your logo distinctively at all pages.

• Usable meaning being accessible from all kinds of internet browsers, reads fine at all kinds of screens with different analyzes, it's easy to navigate, colors and text are always visible etc.

• Coherent look and feel among the pages.

• Clear site structure. It should be evident to the visitor where he is and how to reach the rest of the pages.

• Avoids excessive use of Flash or Java or large-size image files.

• Administration and maintenance processes must be automated to save you time.

• It should have all or most of the pages and features described above. Top

So you should go for a web site that

• Will allow you to pick any host you want and change host, if needed, as often as you like.

• Is not costly to set up and maintain and does not tie you up in long term contracts or requires high advance payments or any other leasing agreements. The pricing of your solution should be clear and transparent.

• Includes a comprehensive administration tool (back office) accessible by an Internet browser.

• Is based on a highly available and widely supported technology. For those of us familiar with Windows, Active Server Pages (ASP) technology by Microsoft is a good choice. An MSAccess database can be sufficient but a good demanding solution should be also able to work with more professional databases such as mySQL or MS SQL.

• Does not tie you up with a company that may not exist tomorrow. Does not commit you to a single provider.

• That has a short roll-out time enabling you to capitalize earlier on your investment.

• That can grow with your business.

• That can communicate with your existing computer systems or any future systems you may have.

• That is fully controllable by you and accessible any time you want from anywhere in the world .

• And you don't have to pay thousands of dollars to get all these features Top

How can a web site be more than a web site?

No matter if you are a one-person business, a medium-sized business or a Professional. You should not compromise with your web site. A good start makes a good ongoing. We suggest that you bookmark this page now because we are sure that you will want to come here again after you conclude your survey on making a good business web site.

You can easily have a perfect solution for your company's web site without spending hundreds of dollars or on excessive designer fees. Best of all you can have such a solution for FREE if you want.

At designerFreeSolutions we have developed a platform that besides serving as a fully featured web site, it incorporates an administration tool, a document management system, a member management system and a newsletter manager. And we made it in such away that anybody can use it without having any technical skills at all!

The designerFreeSolutions web site suite is ideal for

• All services businesses

• Professionals

• Home-based businesses and/or personal businesses

What is the web site about?

• You have a complete website with all the major pages, features and components found in built-to-order websites.

• It is multilingual. You can have your website in as many languages as you wish as long as you can translate your content.

• You can create an unlimited number of your company's services, group and relate them in categories. The pages are created automatically and the navigation menu expands automatically.

• You have pages for your partners, selected clients, projects, news and links.

• A professional contact form that captures contact information stores it in the database and automatically sends you an email.

• Newsletter opt-in box where visitors can subscribe to your newsletter. Each time a visitor subscribes, the site automatically sends him a welcome email. His name and email are captured and stored in the database. You can see and email your newsletter subscribers from the administration tool.

• Customer registration system and private menu. You may use this to offer more personalized services to your customers. A forgot password feature comes together with this feature. The site automatically sends an email to a customer who can't remember her password.

• Goodies such as email to a friend where a visitor enters his friend's email address and the site takes care of the rest by automatically sending an email.

What is the administration tool about?

It can be your autopilot, your assistant or your best hand in the management of your web site. It is an extra web site that is only accessible by you. You will use the administration tool to:

• Enter your company's information.

• Set which pages and features will be available in the web site. You can choose to hide or show certain pages.

• Change the site's colors; upload your logo or other images.

• Add, edit, and remove all of your web site's content. Want to add or change your news? Change the description of your services? Add a new service? Change your homepage? Or change the details of one of your partners? You come here. You simply click and type and do your work anytime you want as often as needed.

• See your contacts and your newsletter subscribers.

• Sent Html and text newsletters to all your subscribers and/or customers with just one click.

• Manage your registered clients.

• Access several other site utilities, see visitor statistics and more.

What is the document management system about?