Promotion Newsletter by Studiojules

Web sites are a necessity in the fast paced world of business. Your website should be the center of your marketing tools. It increases your credibility and provides information about your services thus enabling prospects to get to know you before they decide to use your services. Which shortens the sales cycle - they have been pre-informed before you meet with them.

What Makes @ Good Web Site? - Part I

THE BASICS:
Own your own domain name. Many of the ISP’s (internet service providers) offer free website hosting with your service. You will get an address like:

www.serviceprovider.com/myownpage

First of all, domains are so inexpensive now, as low as $8.95 for a year at GoDaddy.com. Web hosting is inexpensive as well. PowWeb.com has 2000 meg of space and free webstats for $7.77 a month. (It's really a good deal - some hosting companies charge charge twice that for only 50 meg of space and extra for website statistics.) So there is no reason for you not to have a proprietary domain name that is easy for the customers to remember. It’s the first thing in showing your professionalism and that your business is not just a hobby. Your web designer should be able to work with you to come up with the perfect domain name and do a search to find out if it is available and register the name.

Extensions: There are several categories of Internet domain names to choose from.

.com (commercial) most widely used extension

.net (network) commonly used by ISP's, Web-hosting companies or other businesses directly involved in the infrastructure of the Internet.

.org organization primarily used by non-profits groups or trade associations.

.biz used for small business Web sites.

.info credible resource Web sites.

.us American Web sites - the newest extension.

.cc originally the country code for Coco's Keeling Islands - now unrestricted and may be registered by anyone.

.bz originally designated as the country code for Belize, but is now used by small businesses who can't get the name they want using the .biz extension.

.tv rich content/multi-media Web sites, commonly used within the entertainment or media industry.

Technical: When you register your domain name, you pay on-line with a credit card and they will ask for your name, address, email and to create a password. If someone other than you does the registration for you, make sure the domain is in your name and has your email address as the owner.

When you set up an account with a hosting company to host your web page, you will (or your web person) go back to where you registered your domain to input the DNS information. This stands for “Domain Name Server”. Your hosting company will give you their DNS address. You will type this address in the “Change DNS” area where you registered your domain. Doing this “points” your domain to where you will be hosting your web site.

Under Construction: If you have your page started and it is not yet complete, stay away from all the fun animated graphics that say you are under construction. Don’t even say you are under construction.

If you have the time to type in “This page under construction”, then you have to time to put your logo and title of the page and a line that might say:

"Visit us again as we add more information on (topic), in the mean time call us at:
(contact info here)"

You might not get the information up as soon as you would like and viewers won’t get turned off by naive “construction” graphics.

Your website is not a copy of your printed brochures: It should enhance and compliment your other marketing materials with a consistent look. It should educate and inspire your viewers to do business with you. You should market your website as a source of information that is ever changing by incorporating monthly newsletters relating to your industry, e-Zines and monthly specials for example. If your prospects and customers are not visiting your website regularly, the money you spent on design and hosting has not been an efficient or effective use of your advertising dollars.

Your web address of course should be on all of your marketing materials. If you produce a regular email program, monthly, weekly et cetera, keep them simple. Use good email etiquette by BCC all of the addresses. “Blind Carbon Copy” keeps the email list private. Or try an email service like ConstantContact.com

Recommended Links Tip: Often people will add links within their web site to other web sites that they think the viewer would be interested. Always have it open a “new browser page” to open the site. That way your own web site stays open. Many don’t use this simple procedure and it gives the viewer the opportunity to leave your site.

See Part II for more information on Content and Design

Studiojules • Sugar Land, Texas • 713.504.9982 • studiojules@alltel.net