Planning Your Site
Since your site is tirelessly working for you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, it is one of the most effective of all your advertising costs. Your visitor comes to your site by choice, already demonstrating an interest in what you have to offer. This is in stark contrast to conventional media where a message is delivered to the recipient regardless of interest. We'll work with you to help you understand how a web site may benefit you or your business. After you've decided to proceed, follow these useful tips.
If you have already established a successful identity for yourself or your company, by all means, use it for your Web site. Brand recognition can be years in the making, and this valuable resource is easily translated to the Web. Unfortunately, this does not mean that the most desirable domain name will be available. Brief domain names are hard to come by these days, as are combinations of common words and/or surnames. Provide us with a list of names you would consider using, and we'll find out which ones are available, and make suggestions if they are not. You may also decide to register more than one domain name. We can set up all of the names to point to the same site. Be aware that improperly registering a domain name can add time, expense, and considerable frustration. Let us help you if you are inexperienced in this area.
Gather together all the material you currently use to promote yourself and conduct business. This includes labels, catalogs, letterhead, logos, photographs, and newspaper or magazine advertisements. Make notes on what you like or dislike about these materials. Be sure to indicate colors you have associated with yourself or your business.
If your goal is to create an online portfolio or catalog, you must have images. Try to gather a dozen or more that you like. If you are unable to do so, the process of building a Web site will be substantially delayed. Take some pictures or hire a photographer, if necessary. While it is easy to change the images at any time, they will have a profound influence on the appearance of the site as it is being developed. Start with ones with which you are pleased.
Write or gather together any text you would like to have on the site. This might include instructions, descriptions, tutorials, a history or biography, reviews, important dates, or any other information you want to include. Don't be concerned about layout; at this point it is simpler to save it as a text file and let us format it when we add it to the site. Take care to express your ideas clearly and concisely, and share it with others for error checking and critiquing. Don't be modest, soon enough the entire world will have access to your opus, so time spent now will lessen the stress of its debut. Bee careful knot to rely solely on spell checkers. We will do our best to catch any errors and make suggestions if necessary.
Will your site require frequent updates? Do you wish to administer the site yourself, but have no experience? These factors will influence the structure of your design. We can provide you with some of the information and tools necessary to fulfill your goals, but you need to ask yourself if a high maintenance site will take you away from focusing on other, more important, tasks.
While we have stressed the importance of advance preparation, keep in mind that making changes for graphics or copy is immediate and inexpensive compared to print media. Once we begin building your site, you may see new possibilities or notice flaws in some of the material you provided and decide to change it. This can be accomplished easily, and at any time - even after the site has been published.
By following the tips outlined above, you will provide us with the foundation upon which to build an effective Web site. We will also be able to proceed in a timely manner and avoid unnecessary expense.