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Things To Do
The first step is
to make sure your computer is ready. If you aren't
running anti-virus and anti-spyware programs, you need to visit the "Free
Tools" page and get both AVG Anti-Virus and Ad-Aware. They're
both free, and the "Tutorials" page has
everything you need to know to set up AVG. If you
have Norton or McAfee already installed that's OK, but they must be up to date. As
for Ad-Aware2007, the anti-spyware utility, no tutorial necessary there.
Download it, install it, update it, and punch the "Scan"
button!
You will also need to change a few
options within Windows to enable you to work better with
web designing software. First you must turn
on viewing of the file name extensions, and I
strongly recommend activating Windows Quick-Launch bar.
Both are five minute jobs, and the "Tutorials"
page has everything you need.
Next, you'll want to get your new
domain-based email set up, so you can start
transitioning both your business and/or personal contacts
over to them. You can do that before you
even have a site built! A 10 minute job, and again, the "Tutorials"
page has everything you'll need to know to accomplish
that. Now
you're ready to start work on your actual web site. The first step in designing a web site is to
do a layout on paper. Decide what pages you'll want to include, and the
kinds of things you'll want to put on them. The "Make
It Sticky" FAQ, if you haven't read it yet, might give you some
additional ideas. But here's a list of some pages that many business sites include:
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| Home Page -
Logo, basic intro, perhaps a single picture, and a little of what to
expect from the rest of the site. |
| About Us - A
little business history here is good, but this is really a "why buy
from me" page. What differentiates you from the other
guy? Here's where you educate the potential customer without taking
up real-time. |
| Our Staff -
Sometimes included in the "About Us" page, but if the staff is
large and/or unique to your business, you probably want a separate
page. And maybe even pics. |
| Take a Tour
- Again, sometimes included in the "About Us" page depending on
the size and type of business, this page is usually a pictorial virtual
tour of the business, inside and out. |
| Products
& Pricing- Naturally. We're here to sell stuff, aren't we?
In depth item descriptions, (with pics if you sell a tangible product),
are "must haves". No successful site is
without them. |
| FAQs,
(Frequently Asked Questions) - More educating the customer, and question /
objection handling without taking up your normal business time. The
more questions you run into in your day to day business you can address
here, the more time it will save you in your day to day operations, plus
the more comfortable the potential customer feels walking in the door. |
| Testimonials
and/or Completed Projects - Whichever applies. A product reseller
might offer customer testimonials about how pleasant it was to deal with
them, whereas an auto body shop might post a picture of the job they
finished last week. A beautifully finished Jaguar speaks for itself. |
| Contact Us -
Pretty obvious. All forms of contact info on one page. Perhaps
even a map. |
Now that you've decided what pages to include,
the rest is obvious. You'll need to either gather up or create all the info
you're going to put on those pages in digital format. These might include
things like your logo, menu or price sheet, pictures of staff, products,
projects, or your establishment, and, of course, the copy that you want.
(Hint: Many office supply places will scan
photographs in
for you for a small fee, as will many places online).
Pictures, then,
have to be made "web ready". (If you already
have a graphics editing program you're familiar with,
great! If not, visit the "Free
Tools" page to download XnView and the "Tutorials"
page to quickly learn how to install and use it.) You simply need to make all the pictures
you intend to use less than 100k in file size. If
you intend to use multiple full-size pictures,
(non-thumb-nailed) on a page, it's best to get each one
down to a 50k file size.
As for text, if the copy you want isn't already in digital format, start
typing! Don't worry about the layout and formatting of what you write
because little of that will translate anyway. We'll do all that once we've
gotten the text into FrontPage.
Sounds like a lot of work, but it's not
really. The good news is that once you're done, you're also well
on the way to having your web site done!! In spite of the technical nature
of web sites, it's still the grunt work that takes up 80% of our time!
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