Three essential elements of a web site
Here at PureIdeasPlus.com, we get a
call about once a month from someone who wants to put their business,
product, service, church, or community group on the web. They’re
hoping people will find their site and will be interested in what
they’re offering. This article is a non-technical tutorial
on the most basic elements of a web site, what you need and about
how much it will cost. In addition, it will help you find some free
resources on the internet that will help you get your web site up
and running.
A web site consists of three basic essential elements and a few
optional items. Each of these items has a cost associated with it.
The three essential items are:
-
A Domain Name (www.mybusinesswebsite.com)
-
A Hosting Company (we recommend http://AceOfSpace.com)
-
A web site Design (we recommend http://ourwebpage.net)
The three optional items are:
-
Marketing
-
E-commerce
-
Special Functionality
The Three Essential Items That Every Website Must Have
Essential #1: The domain name
Most people understand what a domain name is but here’s a
little bit of info you may not know; A web site doesn’t actually
need a domain name to be seen on the internet.
Actually, all web sites consist of a numeric address called an
IP number that looks like this (209.59.147.105). Without
getting too technical, when a domain name is registered it is associated
with this number. When you enter a domain name in your browser,
the name is cross referenced with the IP number to find where it
is actually located on the internet. The only thing registering
a domain name does is create this cross reference. Without it, you
would have to type in http://209.59.147.105.
Budget for domain name: $0 - $35 per year: The
typical domain name costs about $20 per year. PureIdeasPlus.com
offers them for free when you sign up for any of our accounts and
pay annually. To our existing members, we provide additional domain
names for $14.95.
Essential #2: The Hosting Company
Your web site needs a home and a hosting company is the place to
put it. A web hosting company is like an electronic condominium,
we provide the space on the internet for your web site and you furnish
it. Hosting companies connect your site to the internet. Technically,
they have some very sophisticated equipment and technology that
makes this possible (that’s about as technical as I will get
in this article so your eyes don’t glaze over). They also
provide you with e-mail, special tools to manage your web site and
quite possibly some tools to make your web site more functional
such as a counter or a simple web site design tool that even novices
can use. One of the most important features a hosting company can
offer is technical support. PureIdeasPlus.com offers 24
hour e-mail support and a toll free phone number to existing
clients or you can call 866-855-5445.
Budget for hosting: $0 - $50 per month: There
are some services on the internet that will give you a place on
the web for free (well, sort of). One such place is www.geocities.com.
The drawback is that you’re going to end up with advertisements
on your site. Some people hate these things popping up over their
web site. To avoid this type of nuisance, if that is your desire,
you may need to spend a little money. At PureIdeasPlus.com,
our most basic package starts at $9.95 per month when paid annually
and includes price of the domain name. This is a savings of about
$80 per year.
Essential #3: Web Site Design
The design of your web site depends who designs it.
If you have a professional designer create your site, prices will
typically start at $250 to $500 for a no frills web site. Often,
after the first page is designed the rest of the pages don’t
require very much more design. Therefore, the biggest expense is
the first page. So, if you pay $500 for a web site, it’s likely
that the first page might cost $400 and the rest are more likely
to be $25 each. It is important to know what you want in the web
site (and a designer can help you with this) and to know how much
it will all cost. Preferably in writing. web site prices can escalate
very quickly when you start adding more functionality such as guest
books, mailing lists, statistics packages, animation, sound etc.
One think I always suggest is that you start out small. You can
have huge dreams for the most spectacular web site in the world.
Set aside a budget over time to develop and craft the site. Trust
me, your first site will seldom be your final design and changing
it midstream is a lot less expensive than changing it after the
fact.
Do it yourself for
free. Depending on your skill level and the software
you have, your results may vary. We recommend a great tool for designing
websites that is free for the first year of use called SiteXpress.
This point and click software comes with over 400 professionally
designed templates for you to choose from.
I would suggest that if you want professional results, that you
will need to purchase some professional web design software which
will run you anywhere form $150 to $400 for the web site design
software. Our top picks are Adobe Dreamweaver and Adobe GoLive.
You may also need a scanner, digital camera, and some software used
to edit pictures. We recommend Adobe Photoshop followed closely
by Corel Paint.
Design by Throwing a rock. On thing I often tell
my clients who are looking for a designer is to go out and throw
a rock. It’s very likely that if you hit someone, they’ll
be a web designer or at least know one. Web design is being taught
in high schools and colleges across the country. Finding one should
not be hard. If you want help, contact the support department and
they’ll be happy to help.
Optional Items That Every Website Can Have
1.) Marketing:
There is nothing more important to the survival of most web sites
than getting found. Marketing your web site involves a lot of things
but the basics include putting your domain name on your business
card, letterhead, fliers and advertisements as well as announcing
it on the internet. The most likely way for people to find your
web site on the internet is going to be through search engines.
In short, registering your site with search engines enables them
to add your site to their database. You can spend a lot of time
registering your site with search engines and there’s a lot
to learn about this area.
2.) E-commerce
The process of selling a product of service on the net often times
involves e-commerce. Most e-commerce sites take credit cards. Due
to security reasons there is a lot of technical expertise required
to keep your clients information safe. In an effort to shorten the
learning curve, we’ve put together an e-commerce add-on that
enables our clients to get their own merchant account (the ability
to take credit cards) and have connected that with a prebuilt storefront.
Just add products. If you’re really on a budget, you might
consider a service like Paypal which will take the credit card info
from your clients, charge the card and deposit the money into your
checking account (minus some rather hefty fees).
3.) Special Functions
Special functions are the goodies that make web sites more robust
and interesting. Your web site will be perfectly fine without such
things as calendars, forms, forums, guest books, animation, databases
and other magic. Still, some people have a real need for such tools.
The software for many of these items are available on the web for
free. “So, why doesn’t everyone have them?” you
ask. Because free doesn’t always mean easy. The barrier to
entry on special functions is often the price of hiring someone
to install the software or learning how to install the software
yourself.
Conclusion
That raps up my web site essentials 101 tutorial. There is obviously
some technical issues that need to get ironed out before you can
jump on the highway. A good designer or hosting company will be
happy to smooth out the potholes for your.
If you have questions and want a better understanding of how to
proceed or are looking for help in design, hosting, marketing or
whatever, we’d be happy to help. Feel free to write
to us or call 866-855-5445.
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