Getting Started
Before you can market online you need to have a Web site ready to communicate with visitors.
The first things you need to do are:
1. Decide if your Web site will have its own domain name or be part of a larger site, such as an industry association or industry portal (most businesses opt for their own domain)
2. Select a domain name (Web site address)
3. Design and build the site
4. Host the site on a computer always connected to the Internet (Server)
A. Domain Name Registration
Just as you need a street address if you want customers to visit your place of business, you need an address on the Web so that people can visit your Web site.
The process of obtaining an address on the Web is called domain registration. The domain is the “www.nameofyourcompany.com” that users type in to access your site.
Most people want a ".com" (usually called "dot-com") address because it is the most popular "Top Level Domain" extension. TLD
Common extensions include:
.com Identifies a business (commercial).
.com.au Identifies a business (commercial Australia).
.biz Also a business.
.net Identifies a network provider.
.net.au Identifies a network provider. (Australia).
.info Informational site.
.org An organization, often a non-profit.
.edu Educational institutions.
.gov Governmental agencies.
Other extensions include .tv, .mob and more.
mySCOT.com story
scot.com.au
scot.net.au
myscot.com.au >>
myscot.com
understanding dynamic websites
Reasons most small businesses build a Web presence
- Give customer 24-by-7 access to information about your business, products and services.
- Answer common customer questions.
- Communicate with employees.
- Publish content to demonstrate industry leadership.
- Support additional sales channels if your products or services are sold by others.
- Collect market research data.
However, the first reason most small businesses build a Web presence is because the Internet is an affordable way to compete for customers, whether in your neighborhood or globally.
Effective marketing is a key method to increase the number of customers, get your existing customers to buy more and increase both revenue and profit.
A Web site does a lot to level the playing field between large and small businesses.
A Web site can provide product or service details, contact information, ordering instructions and information about your business.
There is no limit to the size of a Web site. A Web site can contain information in many formats because it is fairly easy to add photographs, audio, video, animated illustrations and maps.
B. Web Site Design
In a retail store, your window display or store facade is the first thing a potential customer sees. As a professional service provider, first impressions might be your lobby or reception area.
On the Web, your site design determines how customers view your company. To get an idea of what you want, check out the Web. Look at a variety of Web sites, including your competitions’.
Are there certain sites that give you a good feeling about the company?
That's how you want your customers to feel.
When planning a Web site, place yourself in the shoes of your customers or prospects.
What content, images and navigation will serve their needs while leading them to become customers?
Your "home page" is often the first page visitors to your site will see. However, sometimes other pages will be indexed in search engines like Yahoo!, Google or MSN, resulting in visitors seeing one of the deeper pages on your site as their first experience with your company.
That is why good navigation and copy that reads independently on every page are so important to creating a successful total user experience.
FLASH sites
Framesets
designing for different browsers??
There are several options for building your site:
- Consider the self-service Web development and design templates available from some search engines and hosting services.Templates PUBLISHER
- Use a software program like Microsoft FrontPage or Adobe Dreamweaver to design and build your own site.
- Hire a Web designer or Web development company to help with the process. (Prices range from hundreds to thousands of dollars, depending on the size, complexity and functionality required).
- Use mySCOT Web Site design course. mySCOT offers a complete course that uses an online editor to update your site yourself
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If you sell your products online as well, you can also easily create an online E-Store through mySCOT, scaled to fit your company’s size and catalog. mySCOTecom demo.
C. Web Site Hosting
Your Web site needs to be available 24 hours a day from anywhere in the world.
You need instant technical support and the reliability to survive power failures, line outages, hackers and other problems. mySCOT Secure Hosting
Really big companies have their own Information Technology departments, but small and medium-sized companies usually outsource their hosting to a firm that specializes in hosting. There are many options for hosting, including most of the domain registrars.
Hosting plans are prices based on the amount of bandwidth, traffic or site visitors you expect to have. More traffic requires larger bandwidth - a bigger pipeline to the Internet. Other considerations include e-commerce functionality, content management systems or other features, as well as the host's security system.
mySCOT offers very competitive hosting packages.
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