|
|
Building your own website
 So, you want to build your own website? Well, everyone else is doing it so why not? The internet has brought us mixed blessings. Along with rather dubious adult content sites and the perfect way for the ill-intentioned to rob or terrorise us, the web has provided us with ways of finding information and buying goods and services that were previously unimaginable.
Once the initial silliness of the dot.com bubble burst, plenty of companies created a powerful presence on the internet as their sole channel of distribution or as a useful additional channel.
So, if you want to try making your new life as a web entrepreneur, what do you need to know? There are a trillion books out there but this is a fast-moving area, so these are the highlights, and then it’s up to you to work out your own individual solutions. We also recommend that you sign up to a few newsletters and web discussion groups to keep up to date with latest events and resources. We try to explain everything in plain english but if we don't, please write to us by clicking on the link to contact us.
A web-based business is still a business
- The first point to make is that all the other normal rules of business still apply.
- You still need a decent business plan, and well thought out financial plans etc.
- Having a business in cyberspace does not exempt you from thinking things through properly, or obeying the law and complying with the tax authorities.
- Walking down your local high street you'll see shops and eateries that are shining examples of their genre and have been in business for ever. You'll also spot plenty of shoddy or badly staffed ‘Johnny-come-latelys’ that may or may not make a buck before they either adapt, survive and become better or go under. The internet is just the same only it just isn’t so obvious. A badly organised site with poor navigation can be as bad as a shop that is merchandised like a jumble sale.
- A slow and unresponsive site full of irrelevant graphics can have the same effect on your shopping experience as a long queue at the Post Office or a surly shop assistant. You may never buy there again, you may not buy from there at all and, what’s more, you’ll tell everyone you know not to shop there either!
- Would you shop somewhere where they can’t give you a receipt, or would you pay in advance if you think they might rip you off? No – which is why you need proper security measures on sites that accept credit transactions. When you build your site you must incorporate these things into your thinking.
- What you do and how you do it are then really functions of things like your current level of familiarity with the internet, the time you have to create a DIY site or whether you need to farm it out to a professional, your budget, the level of sophistication you really need, and so on.
Website Building Essentials
Domain names
- Every site needs to have its own a domain name – this is the www.whatyoursiteiscalled.com (or co.uk or .co.org or .co.biz or .co.net, etc., etc.). That is how your sign is found on the world wide web (the internet) when customers type your address into the search engine (Google, Yahoo, etc.) to find your site. It’s just an address. The best address is a dot.com, followed by dot.co.uk or whatever country you need to use (de = Germany for instance - think car license plates). dot.org or dot.gov tends to be for government or official public sites, dot.ac for education (or academic) and the rest are really a waste of time.
- You can’t have the same address as anyone else, so you must register your unique address, pay a small fee to do so and prove that you own it. Lots of companies on the net offer to do this very inexpensively. You can check on sites like whois.net to see if your name is already taken. Even it is it, it might not be being used (it could be 'parked' i.e. registered but not active) and you may be able to buy it from the current owner.
- Short, snappy, easily remembered addresses are best, not least because they are less prone to typing errors.
- You then need to register your site with all the search engines either manually or using a specially designed software tool. It’s like deciding on your address and then telling the cyber equivalent of the Royal Mail where to find you. It’s that simple.
Website Design
Essentially, you have four options:
- Hire a professional who is a freelancer or part of a bigger web design company.
- Learn how to programme and do it yourself using commercial programming packages.
- Do it yourself using a simple hosting package that requires no programming skills.
- Do it yourself using software like the one used for this site - no programming skills are required, it is well optimised but requires you to design the layout and enter the content yourself.
So, how to choose?
Do it yourself
- If all you want is a simple three-page website with limited functionality to advertise your freelance consulting business, your plumbing business, your new restaurant, etc., then go for option three.
- There are some downsides but they are so minimal it’s hardly worth thinking about. There are other providers so choose what you feel most comfortable with after a little research, but if you use a provider like 1and1 Internet you can put up and maintain a perfectly adequate site for anywhere between £8 to £15 per month. Because they have huge economies of scale they can offer you lots of bells and whistles for very low prices.
- You choose a template from their selection (some are a bit horrid but the plain ones will do the trick) and create what you like as though you were typing a Word document. Also, for very low sums you can organise your web and email addresses with them, and host your site (a bit like permanent car parking for your site kept on their computer servers).
- You can add blogs (online diaries), voting forums, chat rooms, picture galleries, e-shops, newsletters, graphics, links, etc.
- They also give you free software to register your site with the major search engines, Photoshop software and so on.
- You can go on and amend it whenever you like, so it is very flexible.
- It’s worth setting one up to play with and get used to it so that when you want something more flash, you are capable of giving the designers a decent brief. It’s almost like live field research. You can find out what works and what doesn’t before you pay out more money. That's how this site was built.
To build a site like this means that you are in control but of something much more flexible than option three with better search engine recognition. The initial outlay is slightly more expensive than a DIY type package but much, much cheaper than a totally bespoke site designed by an agency. 
Go on a course and design it yourself from scratch.
- You will probably find courses at your local Further Education college. Building it yourself which will give you a huge cost advantage if you like programming and design.
- You have to consider how long a course will take and cost and how much time you have to do that as opposed to all the other things you will need to do to set your business up. You might just be better off using software like the ones at Easily are based on.
Get someone else to do it - Your local Business Link contact will probably know who’s who in the area. You can go on to one of their supplier databases or find one on the internet.
- If you can’t do this, or you don’t like their site or examples of the work they have done for other customers, then don’t use them.
- You can spend thousands of pounds on this option and if you really need sophisticated tools, lots of storage, etc., then go ahead – but pick someone you respect and give them a decent written brief.
- If you’ve already created a DIY website, use that to show them what you want, and what else you need.
- They need to know what you are going to use your site for; whether you have any graphics or if they need to research them for you or take photographs; whether you have payment mechanisms set up already or not; and what levels of traffic you expect.
- Don’t let them start until you have agreed on the written brief and a project schedule and a price.
- Prices should include the one-off design and any subsequent alterations, page additions or copy changes. If you keep changing your mind, they might quite rightly keep charging you more and take longer to complete it!
Design notes
- Don’t go for every bell and whistle and piece of flash animation or high-density graphics just because you or the designer can do it.
- Your home page is a key starting point for search engines to find you - don't use bland photos or clever flash intros because search engines can't read them. It's like only having a one page site.
- Users also don't generally like flash intros, they skip them because they want to get into the content and use it.
- You want the pages to download as quickly as possible or your visitors will go elsewhere. If it doesn’t add value, don’t do it.
- Stick to limited numbers of fonts, preferably those like Verdana that work well on screens.
- Consider help for the visually impaired or sound options for the hearing impaired.
- Look at other sites you like and borrow the best ideas.
- Keep copy short and punchy as appropriate.
- Keep your content regularly updated.
- Create sensible links and navigation so that visitors can search and use your site in a natural and logical fashion. Use a child to test it – they’ll soon tell you what works.
Making money or 'monetizing' your website
- You can only make money from your site if visitors can find it so you can’t just publish it on the internet and hope that, magically, visitors will visit it and turn you into a millionaire. Out of sight, out of mind! Repeat purchasing or visiting is often a function of ‘recency and frequency’ too. If visitors only buy your product once a year e.g. car insurance, what else can you get them to come back for?
- Adding extra value - maybe you can add newsfeeds (RSS feeds 'really simple syndication' can be piped in from lots of different news sites these day), a forum or chat room, guides or buying tips. Be careful about giving away too much free stuff. It has to be paid for somehow.
- Being found - there are millions of sites on the internet so ensuring that yours can be found is critical. Internet search-engines work in a variety of different ways but mostly they use devices called spiders and robots to look for words or phrases that match the request that the customer has typed into whatever engine they use such as Yahoo! or Google. So, if you type in an exact web address it will be found easily enough. If you're looking for 'bed and breakfasts in the Peak District', it could throw up a whole range of options and yours may or may not be one of them. This means that your site needs to be properly optimized for search engines (sometimes abbreviated to SEO) to ensure that your keywords are relevant and will be found.
- You can pay relatively cheaply through the Google adwords programme to get your site higher up the page rank of search listings and also have ads from which you can create revenue piped onto your site. It’s called ‘pay per click’ advertising.
- You can also find other complementary sites and ask to swap links with them, because the more sites yours is linked with the more the search-engines will pick up your address. It sees this as a vote of popularity. Reciprocal links are less important than one way links.
- You may be selling your own goods and services or you can also join or use affiliate marketing programmes like Trade Doubler, Commission Junction, Affiliate Future and Affiliate Window where you advertise other companies’ products on your site and you receive a small commission if the visitors click through from your site to theirs and buy something. Links are listed in the directory below. Some sites like amazon run their own schemes which you have to sign up to individually.
- The bigger issue, however, is getting regular recognition for your site from other sources, so you need to put your web address on your business cards, your company stationery, brochures, mugs, mouse mats – anything printed.
- Get regular mentions on the radio, the local or national press, TV if at all possible.
- Send out a press release at least once a month to keep interest going.
- Ensure that you use involvement devices like newsletters, and ‘tell a friend’ (viral marketing) to keep visitors coming back to your site – it’s called ‘stickiness’.
- Speak at your local Chamber of Commerce, trade events, etc.
- Give away free stuff like documents and guides on your site.
- Be creative - constantly, or your visitors will forget you are there.
- Consult and use your web traffic statistics packages regularly so that you can see where your visitors go and what they are interested in. If something isn’t working, experiment, change it until it does work or drop it.
Link-Popularity.com: See who links to your web site. This service provides an easy one-click method of checking link popularity on three of the major search engines. They also provide a free monthly customized Link Popularity Report via e-mail.
Security & Legal issues
- People really worry about hackers and identity theft for good reason so make sure that you can assure your visitors that their payment transactions are safe using something like Verisign, WorldPay or PayPal. You can set up a PayPal merchant account by clicking on the link below.
- If you ask your visitors to share personal details make sure you are registered under the Data Protection Act.
- If you use tracking devices like cookies you must tell your visitors.
- You must take all reasonable steps to protect your systems from hackers or other system failure – choose your web host carefully.
- To keep up to date with any legal issues, sign up to Out-Law below.
Useful resources
|
|
