Frequently Asked Questions regarding web design

1. How is a website different than other forms of marketing media? Why should I have a website?
2. How should I implement my site as part of my total marketing strategy?
3. What can I do to market my site? Are the search engines the best way to drive traffic?
4. Who performs updates on my website?
5. Do I have to own a computer to have a website?
6. If I have a website, does that mean I have to leave my computer on all the time?
7. Can people break into my company's computers or network through my website?
8. What costs will be involved with establishing a website?
9. Do I HAVE to get a domain name?
10. Are there any other costs involved?

I could write a book just on the answers to this question, but I'll keep it simple for now. Here are the primary characteristics of a website that set it apart from any other form of marketing:

• Development and distribution costs are extremely low. When you compare the cost of establishing a website to what it costs to promote your business in print or on the air, you'll see that a website is the cheapest form of marketing there is. A radio campaign featuring several 30-second spots per week for three months could run you $10,000 or more. That gets you five minutes per week of exposure for three months in the local area only. Newspaper and magazine space ads are similarly outrageous, and they only last for the lifespan of that particular publication. For space ads, the term "space" is used loosely - a little 2" x 3" or 4" x 5" area isn't space, it's little more than a matchbook cover.
  
  
• A website has virtually limitless space. You could put up a website with 100+ photographs and several thousand words for under $3,000 for the first year, and keep it up and running for $300 per year after that. What would it cost to run a newspaper ad of this size for a year? Imagine how much it would cost to produce a catalog for 200 different products, and keep the catalog in your customers' hands for an entire year. You can accomplish this with a website very easily, with low development cost and almost no distribution cost.
  
  
• You can advertise in color. Have you priced color ads in newspapers and magazines? How about a slick 4-color brochure? Websites are in full color - a palette of 16.7 million colors for your photographs and other images.
  
  
• A website is accessible globally. Your website can be viewed by anyone, anywhere, as long as they have Internet access. There are no physical limitations to broadcast areas, no circulation regions.
  
  
• You can keep it current. You can update a website immediately, and as often as you like. Magazine ads often require two or three months of lead time - there's no way you can run current ads when advertising a product or service that changes frequently. What if you sell products whose prices fluctuate every day - like computers, cameras, mortgages, collectibles or so many other products on the market? With a website, you can change these prices every time they go up or down, so your marketing materials are always accurate. If your pricing pages are driven by a database, you can simply update the database on your computer, upload it to your site, and all the prices are automatically updated throughout the site. You aren't forced to use the "call for the latest price" gimmick that serves little purpose other than to irritate customers.
  
  
• The little guys can compete with the big guys. Because a website is not limited by size and is so economical, a small business can establish as large of a presence on the Internet as a bigger company.
  
  
• A website allows easy, safe communication for the consumer and you. Anyone who visits your site can contact you at any time by sending an e-mail. Unlike communications that originate from other forms of advertising, consumers who send e-mails don't have to deal with pushy salesmen, remember to call during business hours, battle crowds to get to your store, or spend an hour in voice mail jail. It's convenient, easy and safe for the consumer. It's just as convenient for you. Because inquiries come to you by e-mail, you can respond to all of the inquiries at the same time, when you have a free moment. That's far more productive than trying to answer a phone call in the middle of rush hour, when someone calls up to ask for product information or directions to your location.
  
  
• You can save money on tech support and answering questions. If your employees spend a lot of time answering the same questions and sending out the same material, you can reduce that labor cost significantly by providing the information on the website. In one instance, a client avoided having to mail or fax out information for over 1,000 phone call solicitations in a one year period, simply by providing the information on their site. That improved on labor costs and provided a real cost savings in reduced long distance phone bills (for faxes) and postage. This also becomes a marketing consideration in that it demonstrates your commitment to customer support. This is a marketing advantage for you.
  
  
• It can take orders while you sleep. People can place orders on a website at any time, day or night. Television and radio ads generally rely on phone orders for items that will be delivered by mail. These require employees to be sitting by the phones.

Your web designer should understand these special characteristics, because a successful website will capitalize on them to maximize the site's effectiveness. If a web designer can't tell you why a website is a unique marketing tool as I have here, how successful will the website they design for you be? Are they helping you to develop a marketing mechanism, or are they selling special effects? Is it an intelligent tool for driving business, or a turbo-charged business card?

How should I implement my site as part of my total marketing strategy?

I recommend a specific approach to my clients, a way to make the web site a centerpiece of their entire marketing program. I believe my approach leverages the unique strengths of a website as well as the advantages of traditional marketing approaches to help you get the most from your marketing dollar. I'll be happy to discuss this with you in person, but I don't provide this information on my site, because to do so would be to help other designers by openly sharing my strategy. In general, I can say here that your website is a part of your marketing program. It isn't the entire program. You must use traditional and non-traditional marketing media in conjunction with your site to maximize the return on your advertising dollar. How you use the website within your marketing strategy is the key. Ask other designers this question, then contact me and I'll discuss it with you at length.

I have several suggestions to help increase your site's traffic. I don't display them here because they are some of the value-added benefits I provide to my clients. I can tell you this: If a web designer tells you that search engines will be your best source of traffic, or they try to sell you on banner programs, they don't know what they're talking about. Search engines are great and I'll register your site with a bunch of them. But if you put up a website, register with search engines, and wait for the dollars to roll in . . . well, I think you'll be less than satisfied. Banners? For the most part they serve little purpose other than to make your site slower to download.

The short answer is, you can or I can. It's your choice. This subject is covered in more detail in the "costs" section of this FAQ.

No. You don't need a computer to have a website, because your web designer will create the site for you and upload it to a domain host. You probably should have a computer, because people will want to contact you from the website by e-mail. You'll need a computer and an Internet access account to send and receive e-mails. Don't know what kind of computer to buy? Should you buy a computer from mail order, from the smaller VAR (value added retailer) or from a department store or computer superstore? What kind of system do you really need? I'll admit it - I'm a power hungry maniac when it comes to computers. Gotta have the latest processor, the most RAM, the cool new software program. (You know the old adage about men and boys and their toys.) That said, I recognize that most people don't NEED the latest and greatest hardware and software for most applications, especially if you're just starting out on computers. I can help you choose a computer and Internet access account that best fits your budget and your needs. I'm not affiliated with any computer maker, so I can look at any brand to find the best deal for you. See the other services section of this site for more information about how I can help you save money by choosing the best computer for your needs.

No. The website is stored on another computer, called a server. This server maintains a constant connection to the Internet. Your computer is not connected to the website in any way. Like I said before, you don't even need to own a computer to have a website - although I recommend that you have a computer and a dial-up internet access acount so you can communicate with visitors to your website via e-mail.

If your website resides on a domain host's server, it is not connected with your computer or your network in any way. (See "What costs are involved with establishing a website?" for more information about a domain host.) No one can "hack" into your setup through the website. They can send viruses to you via e-mail, but they can do this to any e-mail address, whether or not you have a website. Are you concerned about viruses on your system? I can help you choose an anti-virus program, install it on your system and train you on how to keep it up to date. See the other services section of this site for more information. If you maintain your own web server that is connected to your network, you do have to worry about hackers. However, if you have your own web server you probably know enough about the way the Internet works to be aware of this.

There are three cost elements involved with developing a website and putting it on the Internet.

1. Website development. This refers to paying a web designer like me to create the site. Also included in this would be search engine registration, helping you to establish a domain name and domain host (more on this in the next paragraphs), advice on marketing the site . . . for the most part, these are my labor costs to get your site up and running on the Internet.

2. Domain hosting. You do not keep the website on your computer for others to access, and the web designer doesn't keep it on his computer. Your website is uploaded onto a computer that is connected to the Internet. This computer is called a web server. The company that owns this server is called the domain host, because they act as the Internet host for your website. You rent web space from the domain host for a monthly fee; some hosts also charge set-up fees. A good domain host provides other services that improve the quality and visability of your site, such as CGI scripts, e-mail addresses, e-mail forwarding, auto responders, and other nice benefits. Most importantly, the server will recognize domain host names (this is explained in the next few paragraphs). I encourage people to use Catalog.com as their domain host. I've found them to be easy to work with, and their packages represent some of the best values on the Internet. I recommended several domains to Catalog.com before I became a reseller for them. As a reseller, I now draw a small bonus for domains that I refer to them, but understand that I became a reseller because I was already sending business their way, not the other way around. Websiteauthor.com is itself a domain on Catalog.com. Catalog.com's packages run $25 - $60 per month, with substantial discounts for annual prepayments.

3. Domain name registration. This is the name you want for your site, the www.whatever.com name that people type in to see your site. Domain names are stored in a huge database on the Internet. The database provides the central association between the name you choose for your site and the "address" where it is actually located. For example, websiteauthor.com's real Internet address is 209.217.22.211. Not very easy to remember, is it? The database sets up the association

209.217.22.211 = www.websiteauthor.com

Now any server on the Internet recognizes that my name refers to that specific address, and can go to my website immediately. No one else in the world can use that Internet address, or that domain name. You can see that this is an important service - they help us to avoid having two websites using the same name, or two sites at the same address.

This domain name is a fixed cost - $65 for two years' registration, $35 per year thereafter. When you figure that this costs about as much as what you pay to have someone spray-paint your house number on your street curb each year, you can see that the registration cost is really inconsequential.

Of these three elements, the first - website development - is the biggest variable you have. Development costs will hinge entirely on how much work is involved. Domain Hosting and Domain Name Registration are pretty much fixed costs.

Do I HAVE to get a domain name?

Having a domain is not required. If you have an Internet access account, you probably have some personal web space that you can use. That said, if you're serious about establishing a business website and you want to get good traffic to that site, you'll register a domain. Here's the main reason why: With a domain, your address is www.myname.com. Without it, your address will look something like www.dallas.net/~myname/index.html. How easy will it be to tell someone your website address when it looks like that? Most people don't even know the name for the ~ (tilde), so it's extremely difficult to tell someone where they can find your site on a non-domain hosting environment. Even if they see your web address, who could remember the non-domain address? Domain names are a bargain - I'd rather see you put up a smaller site with a domain name than a bigger site without a domain name, even though I'd make more money on the bigger site. Your site will be more successful with the domain name.

Three other items bear mentioning:

• Content Development. These costs are your labor and other expenses for developing the materials that will go on the website. This could include having photographs taken, establishing a merchant account for credit card processing, the hours you spend figuring out exactly what you want to say on the site, etc. These are normal costs you would incur when establishing any business or creating any marketing tool. I can perform some or all of this work for you as well; you'll find my pricing for product photography to be extremely competitive.
  
  
• Updates. Chances are that you'll want to update the information on your site. If you take my advice on ways to increase your site's traffic, you'll change out information regularly to keep people coming back. You are free to make these changes on your own, or have me do them for you.
  
  
• Marketing costs. Your traditional marketing efforts will not go away just because you have a website, although you will use them differently. I will provide more information about this during personal conversations. Look at the answers to the various marketing questions on my FAQ for explanation in more detail.

Do you have a question that I haven't answered here? Send your questions to me and I'll get the information to you as soon as possible.

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