- Why should I have a
web-site ... ?
- What are the main
benefits of a web-site over other forms of
communications ... ?
- How do I make sure my
site is listed with all of the major search engines, like Google, etc. ... ?
- How will e-mail work with my web-site ... ?
- What if I outgrow my web-site ... ?
- How much does it cost ... ?
The primary reason to have a web-site is to
improve communications.
If you have a personal or group (e.g., club) site,
you can share information about your activities and
keep people up-to-date with what you are doing.
If you have a business site, you can communicate
with employees and/or customers. You can also
offer special services such as your latest product catalogs,
signing up for mailing lists (e-mail -- of course)
and on-line ordering (e-commerce). See the "Big
Company" site on the sample site page for the
full-range of topics that might be included in a
business site.
- Almost instant updates and accessibility
- Interactive communications
- Easy interface with e-mail
- Rich graphics and multimedia capability
- On-line catalogs and e-commerce
- An image of "state-of-the-art"
capability
First, think about whether you actually need to be
listed with search engines.
A personal site probably doesn't need to listed
with all of the search engines -- it just needs to
be known by various friends and family. Similarly,
a group site probably needs to be known only by the
members of the group. Both of this objectives
are probably better accomplished with e-mail rather
than search engines.
On the other hand, a business site needs to be
found as quickly and easily as possible by potential
customers. This is the main benefit of having a
business site listed with various search engines.
Once you have decided you want to have your site listed, there
are several steps necessary:
- Make sure that your metatags (i.e., site name,
description and keywords within the headings of the
web-site program) are appropriate for your site.
These metatags are what the search engines use to
categorize your site.
- Submit your site to the various search engines.
Note: there are tools that will help automate this
process.
- Decide if you want to spend the money to submit
your site to the most popular search sites -- for
example, being listed on the Yahoo! search site costs
several hundred dollars annually -- the cost is
even more if you want to be listed at the "top" of Yahoo!'s search listing.
- Monitor your listings with various search lists
at least monthly and
re-submit if necessary.
You will have a number of e-mail options:
First of all, your web-site can have several dozen
separate e-mail addresses (typically) such as
person1@web-site.com,
person2@web-site.com, etc. These e-mail accounts
may be used just as you would use any other e-mail
account, i.e., to send or receive e-mail. In
addition, you may forward mail from any of these
accounts to your "standard" e-mail account on another
service, e.g., AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo mail -- if you
wish.
All ISP plan for growth in their
pricing structure. As your web-site's needs
grow (more disk space, more e-mail volume, etc, you
can add more capacity for modest monthly fees.
Registration of a Domain Name (e.g.,
www.joewsmith.com) is typically $25-$35
per year.
The web-hosting setup fees (by the ISP) range from
free to $50.
The web-hosting charge from the ISP is typically $5 to $20
per month (depending upon the services offered)
The cost to set up the web-site will range from
$500 to $5,000 depending upon the complexity of the
site. The time to create the site is an
important determinate as well. A simple four or
five page site that uses an "off-the-shelf" template
will be in the $500 range -- for example, a personal
site that has such pages as "an overview of who I
am," "recent activities -- including photos,"
"hobbies," and "how to contact me - including e-mail"
would be in the $500 range. A small business site
such as the "Eligibility Plus, Inc." site shown as a
link on the Sites-I-Have-Done page would be in the
$2,500 range. If you are going to do something
exotic like e-commerce the price would be in the
$5,000 and up range.
If you want someone else to act as webmaster, the
cost will normally be in the range of 20-25% of the
original cost of setting up the site -- annually.
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