Build a Web Site
Overview
 Information wants
to be free, the saying goes. Unfortunately, many of the tools needed to publish that
information are not. But the rush to the Web has recently given rise to an avalanche of
low-cost online publishing options. If you know what you are doing, you can post a
professional-quality site for less than a $500 investment — and you can get by for
next to nothing if you're willing to live without some of the extras. However, what is
most important is that you commit to investing the necessary dollars to produce a
high-quality, well-designed and well-written Web site.
Inexpensive Web site development is due in large part to
shareware, a cash-poor developers best friend. Shareware versions of everything from HTML
editors to animation builders are available for trial and usually cost less than $50 to
register. You may need one or two commercial products as well, but they don't have to
clean out your wallet. Many manufacturers have less expensive versions of high-end
hardware and software aimed at amateur Web designers. Many software manufacturers also
offer free beta or demo versions of their programs, so you can try them before buying the
commercial package.
Budget-minded Web site designers can also stand on the
shoulders of other Web developers. By modifying pre-made Web programming gadgets, buttons,
backgrounds, and multimedia doodads, you can deliver cutting-edge quality without having
to do it all yourself. You can create a dynamite site simply by finding the best place
from which to borrow.
Just a few years ago there were none, but today there are
more than 60 million Web sites. If you don't have a Web site for your business, it's like
not having your phone number in the yellow pages.
But there's a sweet side to this crusade to get on the Web. A
Web page helps small businesses create an image of a large company, which may help
increase the perception among potential customers that your company is credible and able
to perform.
So what's holding you back? The main hurdle to publishing a
small-business Web site is the belief that doing so is difficult, technically demanding
work. While that might have been true a few years ago when the Web first took flight, Web
page authoring is no longer the sole province of techno wizards. Plenty of easy-to-use
software is on the market, and a newcomer can usually post an initial site in a matter of
hours.
Better still, all of this can be accomplished at very low
cost. Even the smallest business can afford to be on the Web. Don't believe it? Following
are step-by-step tips for producing your first Web site — from choosing the right
tools and putting them to use to finding space to build your site and telling the world
about it. Just follow the steps, and in a few hours, you'll be in business on the Web.
Outline:
Why Are You Here?
Get Creative
Make It Shine
Where to Put It All
The Tower Of Babble
Getting it Right
I. Why Are You Here?
The starting point for putting up a Web site is knowing what
you want it to do — and what it probably won't do. The Web is not going to help most
small companies strike it rich. A very few start-ups have prospered on the Web, most
notably Amazon Books and Virtual Vineyards, but for most small businesses, the online cash
register rarely rings.
In that case, why put up a Web page? Even if the site is
little more than an electronic billboard for your company, it's still a powerful tool for
building a business. On the Web, for instance, time no longer matters, nor do time zones
or date lines. Your business can be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and on
holidays.
Better still, a well-executed Web site is a great way to
build customer loyalty. Many Web-savvy businesses use the technology to provide detailed
customer assistance tips at a very low cost. When a customer can get a question answered
24 hours a day, their loyalty will be much stronger.
You should also use the Web to provide information on your
products or services. Before, communicating with customers and prospects cost money —
for printing, stamps and so on. The Web allows you to communicate worldwide at a minimum
of cost.
Add it all up and small businesses are missing out on a lot
if they do not utilize the Web.
Back to Outline
II. Get Creative
Once, building a Web site meant hours of laborious wrestling
with HTML (hypertext markup language). But newer Web site-authoring tools are solidly
"WYSIWYG," meaning "what you see is what you get," and building a page
now involves little more than pointing and clicking with your mouse.
Which software package should you use? There are many
affordable programs, such as Microsoft's FrontPage, Claris' Home Page and DeltaPoint
QuickSite.
Most programs come bundled with an assortment of templates
that need only a little tweaking before you've got your own Web site. Stick with the
templates, and completing a Web page in 30 minutes is feasible. These templates provide
thorough instructions, and you type in your own information over the template's
boilerplate.
Some programs demand a more hands-on approach to site
development. The templates are more like blueprints than ready-to-use pages, but the
result is you'll get a highly customized Web site.
But you do not need specific Web-authoring software to create
a Web page. Many programs designed to fill other needs also include basic Web-authoring
tools. Microsoft Word 97 and Lotus' Word Pro 97 include handsome templates for setting up
Web pages. Netscape Communicator also comes with Web-authoring software that is extremely
easy to use.
Back to Outline
III. Make It Shine
The Web is a graphical medium — words matter, but images
are at least as important in attracting and holding viewers. That's why some
Web-development software packages come bundled with collections of free art —
buttons, page backgrounds, arrows and other visual elements to help readers navigate a
site. Images are skimpier with word processing programs.
It is important that your Web site is not simply an online
brochure. Rather, it must include regularly updated information that keeps visitors coming
back time and again. A well-balanced Web site consists of the following elements: strong
content (articles, interviews, tips, Q&A, testimonials, etc.), easy navigation,
logical flow, appealing graphics that download quickly, directions on how to order your
products or services, customer service information such as a FAQ sheet is appropriate, and
contact information (including names, addresses, phone and fax numbers and e-mail
addresses).
The following are examples of excellence in Web site content
and design. Although some of them have been designed with very large budgets, you can
surely learn something from each site that you can adapt to your own.
1-800-FLOWERS
There's more to this site than meets the eye. Not only can
you buy bouquets for your sweetheart, but you can also learn the origins of each type of
flower, find out how to extend the life of an arrangement, discover how to dry flowers,
and look up your state's flower. This site gets a thumbs-up for easy navigation and
thoroughness of information.
Cooking
Light
Although this site allows viewers to subscribe to the
hard-copy magazine, it also offers a hearty helping of recipes and tips that are updated
often. The graphics are classy, and the site is a joy to search.
eBay
The purpose of this online auction house is to generate sales
of antiques and other odds and ends, yet it doesn't overlook its viewers' needs for other
information. To that end, it offers a chat room, Q&A, updates on what's new on the
site, and live 24-hour assistance.
kidsdoctor
With pleasing pastels and simple graphics, kidsdoctor offers
anxious parents an array of information and tips on children's health from birth up
through toddler age. The site sells nothing at all, but surely gets plenty of traffic for
its rich content.
The Living
Edens
Developed by Reader's Digest World, this educational site
allows you to explore the far corners of the world — from Patagonia to Madagascar
— without ever leaving your desk. The graphics are phenomenal and download quickly.
The content is rich, from the natural history of the land to interviews with experts to
trivia games.
Want to go a visual step beyond? There are plenty of software
tools for creating your own graphics, but most impose a steep learning curve. It's easier
to search the Web for free art by graphic artists who let others use their images. A must
see site: Web Promotions which
features several dozen superb animated images. Another source is TuDogs http://www.tudogs.com,
a gateway to dozens of graphics houses, most of which provided free clip art.
You can spend days downloading images the Web is swamped with
terrific free art. But use it sparingly: A chief beef of Web surfers is the long wait for
graphic-heavy pages to come up on screen.
Another caveat: Before uploading any images to your site,
read the fine print on the artist's page. Some prohibit use on commercial sites. If in
doubt, ask permission, which will protect you against future complications.
Back to Outline
IV. Where to Put It All
Once you've created your page, you have to find a place to
put it. Free space is available to members of online services such as America Online and
ISP's such as Earthlink which has up to 10MB of space available to members. If your ISP
doesn't have some space available for your site, head over to Geocities or Tripod which provide 2MB of free server
space to members; membership is free to anyone who registers at the sites.
There are some drawbacks to free space, however. For
instance, some sites require that advertisements for their service appear on your pages.
The hitch is that selling at sites erected on free space is generally prohibited. Find out
by checking the provider's terms of service, which is usually prominently flagged on the
home page. But that doesn't necessarily rule out this space for business. You can still
erect a cyber billboard that offers plenty of information about products and services in
these free spaces. For many businesses, that's the surest way to get initiated to the Web.
Have bigger ambitions? If you want more space —
specially if you want to retail on the Web — you've got to open your wallet and sign
up with a Web-hosting service that will provide up to 30 MB or more of space. These
services will also allow you to set up several POP3 e-mail accounts per site for free and
additional accounts for an extra charge. A POP3 account would be something like
yourname@yourcompany.com. A low-budget option is the SimpleNet service, which provides
unlimited Web storage space starting at $10 per month. Hundreds more Web-hosting options
are available; search for candidates using a search engine. Ask any potential Web-hosting
service for e-mail addresses of current customers. Contact a dozen or so and ask for
feedback: How reliable and fast is the server? Do the tech support personnel promptly
answer cries for help? If their customers are unhappy with the service, yours probably
will be to.
Back to Outline
V. The Tower Of Babble
Building a site is only the beginning. You can't build it and
assume potential customers will automatically come. This isn't the Field of Dreams, this
is Cyberspace. You must promote your site the way you promote your address and phone
number. Otherwise, only accidental tourists will find you.
The first step to drawing visitors is to visit the major
search engines — Infoseek, Excite, AltaVista, Yahoo, HotBot, and Lycos. All
feature simple procedures for adding a URL, the "universal resource locator,"
that is, your site's address.
What about the estimated 300-plus other search engines on the
Web? Many Webmasters skip them; others pay a service to do the submissions to them. Shop
around for a service that will do the submissions for you and find the one that best suits
your needs.
Just adding a URL to a search engine is still no guarantee of
visitors. Get more exposure for your site by enrolling in a free link exchange programs
that will display your banner on other sites if you make space for third party banners on
yours. Generally, every two 'hits" on your site result in one view of your banner on
another. Just with search engines, there are many link exchange programs, but the two
biggest and reliable are LinkExchange
and Smart Clicks. Enrollment is a
matter of filling out a simple form and pasting hypertext code — supplied by the link
exchange — into pages at your site.
The last step, neglected by a shocking number of businesses,
is to put your site's address on your letterhead, business cards, fax cover sheets and all
other printed material your business gives out. It's a low cost way to build awareness of
your site. Back to Outline
VI. Getting it Right
Survey the experts and they will agree: The quickest route to
Web-site failure is not delivering on what you promised. If you solicit customer feedback
by e-mail, that e-mail has to be answered promptly. Promise spec sheets, and they must be
available online. If you are unwilling to take the time to communicate or follow up with
people via the Web, then you shouldn't bother with it. You will only convey an image of
being unresponsive.
Won't you need to still put in more time on the Web?
Absolutely, but the investment is warranted. The Internet is a frontier with limitless
possibilities. Now is the time to experiment — before lack of competency puts you out
of business.
If you are not on the Web, you are missing out on resources,
and potential customers. So now what's holding you back?
Back to Outline |
