Establishing your Internet Presence

Introduction This article shows you what is involved toget your own website up and running. This information can helpyou with preparing the requirements for your website. Havingwell defined requirements will result in a better website whilemaking it easier for both you and the web designer to whom yououtsourced your project.

Outsourcing your web development project You are planningon outsourcing your web development project, right? A mistakecommonly made by small businesses is to think that they cansimply throw together their own website by using basic knowledgeof HTML, the language in which webpages are written.

I agree that having a basic understanding of HTML or tools suchas Microsoft Frontpage and Macromedia Dreamweaver can lower yourcosts in the long run. This allows you to do the maintenance onthe website contents yourself. However, please don’t make themistake of setting up your webpage yourself. Trust me thatoutsourcing your web development project will save you asignificant amount of time and frustration.

Making preparations Before outsourcing your project,collect the information as written in this section.

• Domain name. Your website requires an Internetaddress such as http://www.yourname.com. Brainstorm a few domainnames that are short and descriptive for your type of business.You can check availability yourself or ask your web designer totake care of the registration.
• Images. Mostbusinesses have digital versions of their logo and products.Collect these and pass them on to your web designer.
• Content. Don’t expect your web designer to copy writeall the contents of your website. He doesn’t know your businessas well as you. Create a simple document with: your missionstatement, history of your business, customer testimonials,contact information, and an introduction to your company.
• Layout. A good logo can spark the creativity of theweb designer. If you want to further steer this creativity,provide your web designer with your preferred color scheme. It’seven better if you can provide a list with Internet addresses ofwebsites that you like.

What to ask for Aftercollecting all this information, you are ready to contact yourweb designer. Here is a good hint: request your web designer tofirst deliver a design of your website for your approval beforehe starts implementing the website. Ask for at least thefollowing tasks to be completed:

• Domain nameregistration. Your web designer will know where to go forthis and who is offering a good mix between reliability andcost.
• Obtain hosting account. You need to beable to store your website on a server computer that isconnected to the Internet 24-7. For this a hosting account isneeded.
• Website development. This consists ofyour web designer making a design and then implementing thedesign of your website.
• Search enginesubmission. Make sure your customers can find your websiteon the Internet. For this it has to be submitted to the searchengines.
• Free support. If a web designerbelieves in the quality of his own work, he won’t mind givingyou free support for at least a few weeks regarding his workresults.

How much it will cost There or twotypes of costs involved, one time costs and recurring costs. Thelatter consist of your hosting account and the renewal of yourdomain name. Even if your web designer obtained these for you,they are your responsibility. These can vary greatly dependingon your provider and website size and complexity. For a basicwebsite you can expect these recurring costs to be approximately$100/year.

The one time costs consist of the actual website development. Abasic website containing up to 10 pages will take approximately1 week to design and implement. The hourly rate for webdesigners varies greatly based on their location and skills andwill be somewhere between $15 and $75.

Conclusion The contents of this article outlined what youshould do to obtain a website that satisfies your requirementsand expectations. It also gives you a guideline for calculatingthe costs allowing you to properly budget your web developmentproject. Let me emphasize it one more time: don’t waste yourtime and energy, outsource your web development project to aprofessional web designer.

About the author:About the Author

Frank Voorburg is anecommerce consultant and owner of Feaser LLC. Feaser LLC offers affordableecommerce and webdesign services.