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It
is barely acceptable these days to have a business, any
kind of business and NOT have a website. People would
rather check your website before even speaking with you
on the phone many times.
There
are so many free ways to create your own website these days,
one may wonder why bother paying someone to do it?
Here
are my thoughts and suggestions for you to consider
before you hire ANY website designer/developer
or make the decision to just "do it yourself".
- Decide
why you need a website and what you want it to accomplish
for you?
-
Do you want people to find you on search engines or via
your business card only? (Is your audience local or national/international?)
- Do
you want to accept credit cards or Paypal? Are you prepared
to pay for a merchant account, etc?
-
What is your budget for a yearly web hosting fee, website
design and search engine optimization (usually an extra
charge and specialty)?
- Do
you want to work with a person or with a company? Do you
want to know your designer and be able to have conversations
about your site?
- How
many visitors/month do you expect to visit your site (you
pay for bandwidth; exceed it and your monthly charge could
be huge or your site could be shut down)? Do you need
to own .com, .net and .org (ask me why it is important
that you do; it is the cheapest insurance policy you will
ever own!) Will more than one domain name help you?
As
I said above, most businesses need a website these days
just for credibility but the extent of what you want to
accomplish with it will determine who you need to think
about hiring. If you want to have a business website that
needs to function like Amazon.com
or Ebay.com,
then you will be looking to hire a company that is capable
of creating a very complex website (and you need to be prepared
to spend in the 6 figure range). Hopefully, if you are looking
at spending that kind of money, you will also probably hire
an expert to do all the investigation for you and they will
also run the "department" that oversees your website.
OK, chances are that is not you! But, if it is, then you
don't need to read any further, I am not the person you
will want to hire.
Here
is a good place to start though:
- Look
online.
Go to your favorite search engine (Google
happens to be mine), and do a search on some keywords
that you would expect people to use if they were wanting
to find you. Look at their sites. Do they impress you?
Are you offered information immediately? Are they attractive
sites? Are there misspelled words? Is it the kind of site
you want to have - is it more or less than you expect
to need? Make note of these web addresses and your comments.
- Decide
how much involvement you want to have and how much time
you have to devote to website developement. You
will want to find someone to help you:
-
Pick a search engine friendly
domain name and which domain extensions
you should purchase. Do you want just one of would
several serve you better? (one domain name = only
one possible listing in the top ten. 3 domain names
= possibly 3 listings in the top ten!)
- Decide
the most economical way to purchase your URL
(Uniforml
Resource Locator), otherwise known as your domain
name.
- Find
a website hosting company.
Things to consider are price, bandwidth allowance
and bandwidth overcharges/shutdown; host computer
expected downtime; ease of contacting website host
day and night and your designers connection to the
company they are suggesting for all of these things.
(Ask me for examples of problems with 'conflicts of
interest' between designers and the companies they
are suggesting you use. I wish I could say all designers
are ethical, I can not. I personally would stay away
from anyone suggesting a company they are a "reseller"
for. I can tell you some nightmare stories I have
helped to correct - from a designer who stole a domain
name, a designer who registered the url in their own
name, a designer who signed up for hosting in their
own name so that you don't actually own your own site
and then charged more than they were paying plus you
can't fire your designer when/if you want to, etc.
But I digress...)
- Look
online again. Start looking at the web in general
for sites that you like and sites that you don't like
and why. Make notes for your designer.
You may also want to visit these "homemade"
websites and understand why it is important to hire a
professional!
www.MaryB.com
(ask me what they are doing that is also "illegal"
and can get them booted permanently from search engines.
Don't hire a designer who will do this to your domain
name!)
www.AustinTexasHomes.com
(Real Estate Agents in Austin seem to like homemade websites.)
www.RogerArt.com
(voted worst website of 2006 by WebsitesThatSuck.com;
a great site to review for the not-so-good, the bad and
the ugly!)
www.Mirapol.com
(well, this one just speaks for itself! Let's
talk about the importance of and what makes a good domain
name BEFORE you buy one ok? Does this site instill confidence
in this Pediatric Dermatologist? And let's talk about
the overuse of JavaScript. Just because you can do it
- doesn't mean you should!)
www.Unitnet.com/ckinchloe
or even just
www.unitnet.com (don't spend too much time,
you might get a headache!)
So, you get the idea.
- Contact
me: Betty(at)LookUPandCreate.com. Pick my brain
for what else to consider... Replace the (at) with the
@ sign. This is done to prevent spam. I will do it for
you too when I set up your email address with your own
domain name.
OK,
I don't want to overwhelm you.
I
will help you figure out all of the above before you pay
me a dime! I will gladly share knowledge with you so that
you make the best decision for yourself. I won't accept
the web design job if I am not the correct person for you.
I am NOT a reseller for anyone or any company to avoid the
"appearance" of impropriety. I also want you to
be able to fire me any time if you are unhappy with me for
any reason. I want you to own your own domain name and site.
No questions asked...no complications. I will copy your
site to disk for you any time you desire.
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I am also available to create flyers, ads, promotional postcards,
magazine layout, etc. Some examples follow. Watch here for
many more examples of my work.
Charley
Castex promotional materials — flyer,
business
card,
2006 cruise mailer etc. (pdf)
Center of Unlimited Possibilities Grand
Opening advertising (pdf)
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