Website
Services
You
can compare building a website to erecting a building or house.
The Web Coordinator will act as the Project Manager and architect
insuring all your needs are met. The following includes the services,
elements and considerations that I believe will create an effective
web site.
- Purpose: Determine
why you need a web site. Are you promoting a service, selling
a product, exchanging ideas or information? Knowing this will
help the web coordinator establish a budget & design that
will optimize traffic to your site.
- Budget:
Determine how much you can spend on your website that will provide
a decent return on your investment. The web coordinator will itemize
what features are included in the base price and what will cost
extra. More sophisticated features that require special programs,
such as shopping carts, will obviously cost more but may increase
your sales. Weigh out the options.
- Domain
Name: You need to identify an address for visitors to go to
which is known as the Domain Name. This
is a crucial step of the process as you are defining your identity.
Insure that you won't confuse your audience or lose them to your
competition. If possible, keep it short and sweet. Will the name
still apply if your products and services expand into new areas?
To
choose a domain name, visit Domain
Surfer and view what names are already taken. Domain names
are registered on an annual basis, for a nominal fee of <$15/yr.
Discounts are available if you pay for multiple years upfront.
When you determine the domain name, let me know and I will "secure"
it for you by registering it.
- Hosting:
Next, we need to obtain a physical place for your web site to
reside on, similar to a plot of land in a city that has roads
leading to it. This is known as Hosting. There are several Internet
companies that own the Servers that your web site resides on and
they each have different programs to manage your site, just like
a city has different characteristics. Instead of "owning"
the land, you will rent there monthly. If you decide you want
different features that this server doesn't have, you can pick
up your site and move to another server.
Things to consider: How large do you want it? Instead of square
feet, we measure a website in terms of server space or megabytes.
A typical introductory site will be less than 100 MB but grow
as you add new content and features. You can always build an "addition"
to suit your needs, but beware, your rent may go up. Are the "roads"
or bandwidth large enough to handle the traffic or do they experience
traffic jams, resulting in loss of customers? Your web coordinator
will help to insure you have the proper features to obtain your
goals.
- Designing:
The next step is planning & designing your web site which,
again, can be related to building a store or home. Consider who
you want your visitors to be and that will help the designer determine
what style you want to reflect: modern, traditional, crazy or
calming. This will help optimize the chance of your visitors entering,
staying and spending their hard-earned money. The basic premise
to an effective web site: Keep it Simple (AKA Don't make them
think!).
- Web
Pages: Think of each Page of your site to be a room of your
house or a department in a store, each serving a different purpose.
The Home Page or front of the house, will represent what is inside
and, as most 1st impressions do, this has a big impact on the
chances the visitor will enter. Other pages can be for "About
Us", "Services", "Contact Us", "Testimonials",
etc. All of these pages should be considered 'value added' that
increase your chance of turning visitors into customers.
- Navigation:
The navigation links are doors that will allow you to enter each
page. Make sure they are easy to understand and lead the visitor
where they intend to go. If your visitor has difficulty in finding
the information or product they are seeking within ~6 seconds,
they will leave.
- Mailbox:
Every
house & business has a mailbox to send & receive correspondence.
Web sites contain electronic mailboxes that you can use aside
from your Internet Service Provider's mailbox (such as AOL, Roadrunner,
Earthlink.) The hosting service will offer a certain number of
mailboxes and how much content they can hold. This is perfect
for a business with several employees. You can also use an alias
mail account that will forward mail sent to you@yourdomainname.com
to your ISP mail account, such as you@aol.com. Email management
can be controlled by you or your web coordinator.
- Graphics:
I consider graphics to be like furnishings in a home. They should
be both appealing and serve a purpose. If the graphics slow down
the time necessary to download a page, you risk losing your visitor.
Beware of using blinking or animated graphics, as they can be
too annoying to the visitor. Consider if the colors of the graphics
are easy on the eyes or make it difficult to read the page's content.
- Content:
The content of your site should be organized and to the point.
Just like when you enter a store, you wouldn't stick around if
the merchandise was messy and disorganized. Consider that the
majority of web visitors "scan"...they don't "read".
Therefore content should be listed or highlighted so the "scanner"
can skim the content to efficiently find what he/she's looking
for.
- Traffic:
What's the sense of building a store if nobody comes? The same
holds true of your website. You have more competition on the Internet
than you do in your own town. There are features that a good web
coordinator can incorporate into the design that can increase
traffic to your site. You can also register your website address
to certain Search Engine companies to optimize traffic. They can
be paid or free services. To learn more, visit searchenginewatch.com.
Another consideration is to promote your web address in printed
media. Request that your host include a program that you can track
your visitors. Traffic counters displayed on websites do not provide
enough information to make them worthy.
- Maintenance:
Like any house or building, it requires maintenance to keep them
in tip top shape. Periodically visit your site to insure it's
not outdated and all the links still work. Keep it dynamic or,
again, you risk losing traffic. Include new topics to get your
visitors to return or a dynamic program such as quotes or tips
for the day.
For examples
of web sites designed and maintained by Lynne Menz, visit Web
Designs.
Print
Designs & Graphics
Custom graphics
is necessary to identify you or your business. Where would McDonald's
be without the Golden Arches? And what if you don't have a business,
but still need cards to hand out to friends? Personalized note
cards or memo pads are perfect gifts for the person who has everything
and can be designed for fundraising.
The following
includes what I can create and print for you:
- Corporate Identity &
Logos
- Business or Personal Cards
- Greeting Cards: Special
Occasion, Holiday, All Occasion
- Invitations & Announcements
for Weddings, Births & Special Events
- Memo Pads
- Sales Brochures
For examples
of cards & graphics designed by Lynne Menz, visit:
Business
& Personal Cards u Special
Occasion Cards u Homestead
Design Cards
On-line
Slide Shows
The Internet
can be a powerful tool to share images that elicit excitement
or other emotions. The following is an example of uses for On-line
Slide Shows. [Clicking on the "example" link will open
a new browser window.]
- Share
the birth of your new baby (example)
- Share
highlights of your wedding day to the "out of towners"
(example)
- Pay tribute
to someone who has touched your life (example)
- Create
a story for entertaining friends & family (example)
Simply send
me the photographs that you want included (preferably in digital
format). Select the style of the slideshow, such as blending,
storybook or manual controlled and consider incorporating music
or captions with the slide show.
For examples
of On-line Slide Shows designed by Lynne Menz, visit the Slide
Show Gallery.
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