Here are some of my most frequently asked questions:
When I want to get my site up onto the server, what is it really going to take?
What do you think of the .cc endings for my website?
What about getting mail set up to come to me?
How long does it take to make a website and get it online?
How soon will I start making money?
I know a little HTML, should I just try to make the site myself?
How do I get hits on my site? It is made and beautiful and I don't get any hits.
What about all those services that say they'll submit the site to 300 search engines and such?
Q.) When I want to get my site up onto the server, what is it really going to take?A)
There are three main parts to getting the site online.
- Buying the domain name
- Paying for the design cost
- Setting up the domain name on the server and uploading the site.
Buying the domain name -
Domain Name: This is the part that goes between the www and the .com For example www.ourbusinessname.com This is $70 for a 2 year license and this money is paid to the ARIN
(American Registry for Internet Numbers). This is done through one of several companies and really only buys you the domain name. It costs $70 for the first two years and
then $35.00/year after that. There is a new company out the called bulkregister.com that will do it for less, but you have to buy a membership for $89.00 and then you get to register your domain names for $19.00/year and even
lower. This will save you money only after you regster the third name. If you are planning to register a lot of names you will want to check them out.A little background: Originally, there was only one company
that was allowed to register Internet names and that was
Network Solutions
(NSI). However, about a year or two ago many people became unhappy with the way NSI was doing things, and there was a great outcry that they were not doing that great of a job with registering domain names and keeping track. Therefore the industry was deregulated and a couple of other companies were also allowed to register names. Now you can go through many different companies and in my opinion it isn't any better than it was when NSI was in charge. As a matter of fact, I have had a great many problems with names that were registered with other companies like register.com and I always use NSI anyway. They were the first and have the most experience. When I register a domain name for a client I register it through the virtual host and they will register the domain name and give the ARIN the IP addresses that must be attached to the name. (see section on server below).
Your domain name MUST have IP addresses attached to it even if it is just ``parked". This basically means that you can't live somewhere unless you have an address. Your domain name is the same. You can't own it
unless you have some server address. Most companies will park your domain name for about $5.00/month. Also NSI will park the name and give you a nice one page web site for about $48.00/year, which is not a bad deal if
you are just parking the site and holding your name for future use. Many people buy domain names and never use them. Also many people buy the primary name and want to protect their name rights so they buy many related
names and the.net and the.com just to make sure they own the name outright and no one can masquerade as you. It does avoid confusion to own all the related names to your company's name, but in most cases it really isn't
necessary.
If you decide to buy al related names you should get one page of server space through NSI and make redirect pages to your actual site. A redirect page is one that you click on the link and then you get
``forwarded" to a different site. Most surfers just notice a quick flash and have no idea that they have been re-routed.
Paying for the design costs - I am an Internet designer and I create web sites and upload them
to your server. It is your job to create the content. It is your job to come up with ideas and a marketing plan for the site. If you need help with this you can hire an internet consultant or a marketing
consultant. I do give consultations, but I am primarily a designer. I also can configure your mail server when you sign up with Hurrican Electric through me.
Setting up the domain name on the server -
I always use
Hurricane Electric for my clients as they are the best that I have
found for the money. They have a great backbone and many redundant servers and are fast and always up. If you decide to sign up through he.net please use my VAR number which is
Q.) What do you think of the .cc endings for my website?
A.) I get this question a lot. In my opinion the .cc address is an indication that you were not organized or intelligent enough to buy your domain
name early enough. Anyone with a real company should have bought their domain name a long time ago and should be a .com. If you are not a .com you are not really taken very seriously in the Internet world.
Q.) What about getting mail set up to come to me?
A.) Once you buy your domain name and server space you can set up mailboxes that end in
``@yourbusiness.com". Hurricane Electric gives you 21 mailboxes and you can set up one for ``anyname@yourbusiness.com"
. You can have all of these mailbox addresses forward to any address or you can configure them to just sit on the he.net server until you pick them up. There are some standard mailboxes you will probably want to use for
example most companies have info, sales, webmaster, support, abuse, help, or you can use your employees names and set up an account for each of them:
johndoe@yourbusiness.com or yourname@yourbusiness.com. Q.) How long does it take to make a website and get it online?
A.) This is one of the most variable of all the variables. It often comes down to how prepared you as a client are for going online. One thing I can tell you is you should have some idea of what you want your
web site to accomplish before you start designing it. For example: Is it for selling product? Or is it for customer recognition of your name, also referred to as branding. Or is it just something to give
your business more credibility?
In regard to site content, the clients that have a lot of content and planning are usually successful, but if they have no plan I am usually stuck trying to make content to fill the pages...
The more content you can start with the better. then you can whittle it down from there.
Be prepared before you send the site to the designer. Know your target audience and make your site usefule and helpful to
people. If you want repeat customers you need to offer people a service, usually a free one, and then you can try to sell to them subtely after they are there. Keep in mind that no one WANTS to be sold to. People
are basically cheap and they want something for nothing. The internet is no different. Give them something for free and then they will usually grudgingly let you try to sell something to them.
Q.) How soon will I start making money?
A.) Maybe never. There are many people out there trying to figure out how to make money on the internet and there are many people
failing. The best advice I can give you is don't expect that as soon as you put your site online that the money will start rolling in so fast that you will be running to the bank everyday. You are starting a new
business from scratch and it takes a while to build up a customer base. In addition, it is expensive to get the site setup and up on the server, not to mention the tweaking that will need to be continually done to make
the site more and more functional.
Q.) I know a little HTML, should I just try to make the site myself?
A.) It is really harder than it looks folks. Just
knowing a few lines of HTML will get you started on a design for the site, but you will soon learn there is more to web programming than opening up an HTML editor and uploading the site. I recommend to my budding HTML
designers that they should practice on a free site on yahoo.geocities or tripod and see how long it really takes to get your site online. I do not consider it to be programming if there is some sort of online wizard that you
just enter you info and hit the button. That is not the real world of web programming and wont get you very far. Feel free to try making your own site and then when you get frustrated, as you will,
give me a shout and I'll do the dirty work for you.
Q.) How do I get hits on my site? It is made and beautiful and I don't get any hits.
A.) Great question! First you MUST SUBMIT the site to search engines. It is not enough to just put the
site online because no one can find it unless it is listed with the search engines. Your best bet for submission is to start with
addme.com. They will submit your site to all the top search engines for free and you just need to add a link from your site to theirs. You should expect
it to take anywhere from 1 day to 8 weeks for your site to show up on the search engines. I recommend you resubmit your site with different keywords as often as possible, but at least once every two months.Q.) What about all those services that say they'll submit the site to 300 search engines and such?
A.)
Well there are a few programs that will submit your site to lots of search engines, or there are some people who create these "pointer pages." That means
you have make a bunch of redirect pages and submit each one as a different URL. This is a lot of work and is very effective. It really depends on how much work you want to do. The companies that just
say "we submit your site to 198 engines" are usually just the spider programs being done by someone just like you. I actually own a couple of these spider demos and don't much use them. Most of them are not
for the top search engines.
These systems usually cost between $39.00-$75.00 to buy and they usually charge you anywhere from $25.-$50.00 per time you submit your site.
``If you build it they will come" - Don't believe
this adage on the web. you MUST SUBMIT THE SITE OR THEY WILL NOT COME!
If you have a question that I can answer please feel free to
send it and I will try to answer it here and by return e-mail.
