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 How
do I get a website for my business? What do I need to do?
How much will it cost? How do I get all those really cool
animations and special effects?
Website Author provides web design with a direct focus on
small businesses. This means that I approach the process with
a different mindset than other designers. Where most developers
dwell on visual and audio effects, my primary focus is on
compelling site content and a logical site structure that
is easy to navigate. I believe this is the most cost-effective
and powerful way to approach web design for businesses that
don't have large budgets for their marketing efforts.
Content
A website
is not a circus act. It is a marketing and communications
tool with unique characteristics and capabilities that make
it the most cost-effective, powerful way for a small business
to grow - locally or globally.
The purpose of a small business website is not
to demonstrate what the designer can do. For a business, a
website is a marketing and communications tool with unique
characteristics and capabilities. Used as part of a logical
marketing strategy, a website is the most cost-effective,
powerful way a business has to develop and expand their customer
base. Which approach do you think will result in an effective
website for your business?
I don't start with special effects and twist
your web site's needs into what those effects can do. I create
sites that support your business and your needs - any fancy
gimmicks take a back seat to SELLING you and your business,
which is done by quality content and logical structure.
I can certainly implement nice applets and other
effects to dress up a page, if they're called for. Some scripts
improve a site's functionality, and I'm all for using them.
If you visit the sites I've set up, you'll find CGI forms,
javascript enhancements, java applets, streaming video, flash
animations, even one site that requires a particular plug-in
program and Internet Explorer. My own site, websiteauthor.com,
is set up in Active Server Pages rather than straight HTML,
making use of ASP's server side includes, and employs DHTML
and database integration.
Do you understand what all those things
are? No? Neither will 95% of the people visiting
your site. But they will understand clear content
that explains what benefits your products and/or services
will provide to them. And that's my point - what is the focus
of the site? Are you trying to deliver effects or message?
Remember: A site
that is tastefully and appropriately designed with compelling
content will have a more positive impact than a tacky site,
chock full of effects.
Structure
You can have the best marketing copy and the
finest product photographs, and still lose your audience.
How? Your site MUST be easy to navigate. If visitors
can't easily find what they're looking for, they'll look elsewhere.
How many times have you floundered around a
website, looking for a particular piece of information? Doesn't
it irritate you to "go mining" on a site, having to drill
down seven or eight layers just to get to a page that has
any substance? That is inexcusable. I normally subscribe to
the "3 click rule" - that is, you should be able to get to
any page in a website in three mouse clicks. The site should
be logically organized in a way that is easily understood.
As you can see, my approach to web design is
unique. I will create your site with the goal of developing
an effective marketing tool for your business while keeping
costs within reason.
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If your site is driven by a database,
your visitors can selectively retrieve information and
enter their own data. You can also manage the site's content,
updating information as easily as filling out a form on
a web page. Check
out the example to see how this works. |
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Make your site dynamic
and interactive with database integration!
Your website can be far more than an electronic
business card when you have a database running behind the
scenes. This is more than a gimmick or flashy effect. By incorporating
a database back-end to your site, you can capture information
from your site's visitors, allow them to dynamically update
site content, and provide greater search and sort capabilities
for your information.
With a database back-end, you can actually have
fewer pages on your site. For example, if you have 100 products
in your inventory, you don't have to set up 100 different
pages. You can set up one "product page" that retrieves
information from the database and displays any product's description
based on a visitor's selection. The page your visitor sees
is a dynamically generated creation, seamlessly merging the
page's structure with the product's description, pulled from
the database.
Database integration also makes it easier for
you to maintain your site's content quickly and easily- If
you can fill out a form on a web page, you can update the
content on a database-driven site. This reduces your need
to hire someone like me to make content changes. Read that
as, you can save money on the maintenance costs for your
site!
Database interactivity has extensive potential
for corporate Intranets (internal web-accessible network intended
for the use of employees within a company, rather than on
the Internet, for public consumption). Virtually any information
that changes regularly and must be accessible to employees
at a moment's notice is well suited for an Intranet-based
database. Examples of these would include company directories,
project tracking lists, schedules, status lists, etc. Because
site visitors can interact with a database-driven website,
Intranet applications such as online training classes allow
users to learn, take tests, modify their curriculum to meet
their needs; further, they can offer managers the means to
check their employees' training progress at any moment. This
use of a database is beneficial in two ways. First, it provides
an extremely inexpensive means of providing training to employees
(no printing costs, accessible on the existing corporate Intranet,
very secure and controllable, fast and easy to update); and
second, it allows users to have greater involvement in the
training than what is afforded by a text book or even a PowerPoint
presentation.
I've used lots of terms you may not be familiar
with . . . dynamically updating, interactivity, applications
. . . Not sure what all that means? Click
here to see just one example of how database integration
with your site or Intranet can make it an exciting, interactive
communications tool.
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