Web Design For The Do-it-yourself

Many potential online business owners want to develop a powerful website that is a blending of their own personality and a potent visual presentation that will be attractive to visitors. Interestingly, these same business developers often have very little in the way of solid direction for their site. They know they want to sell products to customers, but may not be sure how to translate that desire into a web design. This is where a web designer can come into the picture to help identify what you may actually need in the form of a web development and design. The biggest problem with hiring a web designer is you are likely to pay a significant outlay of capital to get the site up and running and the cost continues as you essentially pay a retainer fee each month to keep the designer on hand in case of any major changes. The straightforward answer to your dilemma is your lack of planning will ultimately cost you significantly in present and future web design application and redesigning. Is there a way to make design and development easier? Yes. Think about a website in terms of a family tree. Instead of the patriarch of the family at the top of the tree, you have your homepage. Under that homepage you list primary pages (instead of children). These pages may consist of features such as “About Us”, “Contact Us”, “Shopping”, “FAQ”, etc. Then you should identify how many pages you will need under each of these pages. For instance in the shopping section you should determine how many pages you need to list individual products and descriptions. If you can work to develop a site map (something like a family tree) for your web business then you can develop the website yourself at significant savings. What’s more you can also make any changes to your website on your own without needing to work through a web host or designer (who may or may not have time to help you once the original design is finished and they have found a new client to work with). Template rich site builders can allow you to develop your own web design. The primary difference is you will need to take some time to plan the site and then work to implement the ideas on your own. Most of us have some idea about how a family tree works. With that same principle a new website can take shape that conforms to your own personality and offers the opportunities to use the latest in web tools to help you make your site unique and distinguishable to site visitors. Think about it another way. If you are looking to complete a home repair you might likely look at a website designed to provide details on managing a home repair project. This information can allow you to gain the satisfaction and pride that comes with saving money and gaining a new skill. Online tutorials can help you learn what you need to learn about web building tools for a positive, self-directed web design.

 

< Prev		Next >

Web Hosting Considerations For The Small Business

If you are operating a small business and are currently in the market for a web hosting service then there are a number of things that you need to take into consideration. Of course the first thing that you need to take into account is that you need to get the best deal that fits your needs. Its easy for the larger business, because they can just shoot the works and if they end up paying for services that they don't even need its no big deal. Lets face it though, unless you plan on remaining small you have to get the best bang for your buck that gives you exactly what you need, nothing more and nothing less. If your website is one-hundred or less pages and doesn't have any data intensive features such as streaming videos then you can easily get by with a budget or entry level plan from any one of the many web hosting services that are out there. These plans will all be in the range of $5. If however, you have upwards of one-hundred pages and the pages are heavily laden with content and pictures you may want to opt for shared hosting which is going to cost you somewhere in the area of $10. It will have the added bandwidth and memory that you will be needing. What you are using your website for can figure in inconsiderably when you are in the market for a hosting service. For instance, if you plan on using your website for Internet marketing there are a few things that you will want to take into consideration. The first thing that you will want to consider is the intense level of competition you will be facing with any Internet business and the level of sophistication that your competition is going to be using to compete against you. Far too many Internet business people that are new to the game can be overly optimistic with regards to the level of success that you are expecting and the amount of time that it will take to reach that level. This means that if you are going to be competing on the Internet you have to take that into consideration when selecting a web hosting service and the features and options that they offer. SEO or search engine optimization should be your main consideration and what it refers to is the process by which you enhance the positioning of your website in the search engines on the Internet. You have the option of simply paying a web hosting service to do it for you and many of them offer this service or you can do it yourself. If you plan on doing it yourself there will be tools that you will need your hosting service to provide for you to do it. Take a little time to learn about SEO online, so you can determine what tools you are going to be needing and then you can find a web hosting service that offers them.