Getting Started with Your Web Site

Web sites can be as simple as a page or two uploaded onto your Internet provider's server or as complex as a storefront, or an interactive web site with hundreds of pages and features. If you are an individual looking to set up a simple web page or if you just need your contact information on the internet, your ISP (Internet Service Provider) may provide you with your own web page.  This is usually limited to a page or two and is not addressed here.  This page is intended to provide information about the most commonly used components which apply to most web sites.

Click one of the links below to read more:

• Domain Names

• Web Hosting

• Web Design

• E-Commerce

• Search Engines

• Web Promotion

• Web Maintenance

• Rates

• Visit Our Sister Site - The Web Design Place

Every web site needs a domain name.  When users visit your site they type in your URL which is the full address needed to direct them to your site.  Your URL includes your domain name.  You must purchase the right to use a domain name.  You must also renew your right to use that domain name each year.

Site Hosting                          Typical cost varies from $15-$130/mo.

Your web site must be uploaded to a server which will host your site.  It is important to find a hosting company which has the resources to provide 24/7 support.  It is essential too that the company have plenty of bandwidth and space on their server, otherwise your site might be slow.  It is important that the hosting company provide all of the latest security measures and have large power back-ups in the event of a power failure.  All servers will go down from time to time, but it is important to find a hosting company whose servers are down rarely and then only for short periods of time.  The price difference in monthly hosting fees varies from company to company and will increase if your site takes up a particularly large amount of space or if it requires special features. Click here to see a chart with typical hosting fees.

Sites Without E-Commerce             Typical Cost - $500+

Site design is the service which you can see.  It involves layout of text, graphics and features.  Click here to see some basic home page formats.  If you provide the content (i.e. the graphics and the text) your site will most likely cost no more than $500 to design.  The more content you add, or if there are special features, interactive features or customization will increase the time required to design the site, and therefore the cost.  We can give you a price quote if we have the necessary information. Fill-out a request for quote form and we will usually contact you with a quote within 24 hours.

If you intend to sell products on your web site, you will need e-commerce software and systems set up.  In doing so each product must be entered, described and graphics will be uploaded for each.  There is a great deal more time involved to add e-commerce, especially if you have large number of products you intend to sell.  For just a few products, you can usually estimate another $300-$500 for site design and implementation.  Fill-our our request for quote form for a more precise idea of the cost for your site.

You must set up credit card accounts to accept the various credit cards and to receive the deposits into your bank account.

For sites with a large number of products or orders it is necessary to have shopping cart software which is mostly software that can manage all of the product information, send it to your database in a format which can be manipulated as you need it and which can interface with the user to allow that user to find and purchase products without realizing the complexity behind it.  You can use an online service or purchase or lease software which is actually loaded onto your site and interfaces directly without the involvement of another web site.

An Internet gateway processing service actually processes your customers' credit card information, obtains an authorization then sends all of the information to your bank and the credit cards to get the payment to your account.

Search Engine Submission       Typical Cost - Free to $1000/yr

Unless a user knows your URL, typically users searches for sites on the Internet by using one of the main search engines.  Yahoo! and MSN are probably the largest. Our charge for the basic search engine submission and generation of meta tags for your site is $100 for a site with fewer than 10 pages.  The search engines generally locate sites in 3 ways:

• Software. Crawler or spider software which search the web for information based on meta tags then include that information when a user searches from a search engine.

• Site Submission.  Some search engines require that you submit your URL and specific information about your site.  Some search engines immediately include that information in their databases, while others such as Yahoo! use people to evaluate the sites before accepting the site.   In recent years, the larger search engines are requiring payment for submission of a business related site. Some sites work exclusively with URLs submitted for a fee.

• Other Search Engines.  Some portals use other search engines to power the search capabilities of their sites.  Many search engines such as Dogpile and Google use information submitted to the Open Submission Project or similar resource.  The Open Submission Project is a database where the sites submitted are reviewed by volunteers.  Many search engines use this database for information.

We have not found a search engine submission service that performs as it promises.  The less expensive services submit to the main free search engines and to hundreds if not thousands of sites which exist only to advertise.  The response is usually hundreds, even thousands of junk e-mail sent to you in response.  We have not heard any credible reports that the high priced services work either.  Unfortunately, it seems the best way to be seen on the major search engines is to pay for higher placement or advertisements.

Tell Everyone!  Include your URL on every printed item used in your business, e.g. your business cards, stationary, order forms, e-mail signatures, advertisements, yellow pages ads, etc.

Manual Site Submission to Search Engines.  Manually submit your sites to the main free search engines.  Keep up with the submissions.  Sometimes they take weeks and they often need to be resubmitted until the search engines add them.

Purchase Key Word/Phrases.  You may want to consider paying for a key word search.  Sites such as MSN will give you a priority position if the user types in certain key search terms.  This is an effective way to get traffic to your site but can cost several thousand dollars.

Pay for banners and advertising.  If you focus your advertising dollars carefully, you can reach a multitude of potential visitors to your site if you spend the money on an advertising banner or a feature on the major portals.

Join an Affiliate Program.  In an affiliate program you pay a percentage of any sales originating from a particular site to that site owner.  Our site participates with Linksys, a centralized place for affiliate programs.  For each person who finds your site through clicking on your logo from our site and purchases a product or service as a result we are paid a small fee.  Our affiliate links are new to us, so we are unable to tell you just how much revenue, if any would be generated from our site.  Affiliate programs are very successful for larger sites.  Of course the more people who link to your site, the more visitors you will have, and as an added benefit, you will be seen in some search engines as a result.