Market your Web

So you're ready to build a Web Site?

1. What is your web site for?

2. Who's the site for / your target market?

3. Do you have offline collateral you want incorporated in the site?

4. Have an idea of what web sites you Like and Dislike.

5. What kind of a Budget do you have in mind?

6. Do you have a Domain Name (web address)?

7. Hosting

1. What is your web site for?

To sell online; use as an advertising medium for a Bricks & Mortar store; a personal site; a membership site; to create a corporate image . . ?

Each type of site will affect both a) the way your site is put together and b) what’s in your site.

2. Who’s the site for / your target market?

What's their demographics; their geographic area; type of computers they use; their internet connection type  . . ?

As above, each variable affects your “Site to be” in a different way. For example, say your target market is European seniors – So don’t use graphic intensive web pages due to the limited availability of high speed internet connection to this market segment.

3. Do you have offline collateral you want incorporated in the site?

• Brand – in particular style of presentation, symbols and wordmarks (or are you going to need to create a brand?).
• Copy that you want to reuse
• Images that you want to reuse.
• References in your site.

4. Have an idea of what web sites you

a) Like
b) Dislike

What is it that makes you prefer one web site over another? Think in terms of:
• Style of navigation
• Colour scheme
• Amount of graphics
• Other wingding features, such as database or applets

And make a note of them. Be prepared, your web developer may strongly advise you not to choose some of the features that you liked above. Just because it may look good to you, doesn’t mean that it will actually make for an effective web site.

5. What kind of a Budget do you have in mind?

Obviously the fancier and bigger your site, the more work it’s going to take. There are some ancilliary costs that are not immediately apparent and you may need to consider: For example:


• Are you getting the copy professionally developed?
• Are you providing all images and are they web ready?
• Do you need to go through a Branding Exercise, (the most apparent result is the logo).
• Registering your Domain Name.
• Setting your site up with a web hosting company.

Then you have ongoing costs, that you might want to be considering at this stage:


Maintenance
• Monthly web hosting fees.
• Modifications to your web site. Web sites should permanently evolve.


Marketing
• Membership fees to other web sites.
• Online Advertising.
• Search engine registration (many can be done free).
• Marketing sponsorship programs.

Click here for an idea of what we charge.




6.Do you have a Domain Name (web address)?

While your web site can easily be developed without a web address, it is advisable to start looking for your web address as soon as possible.
It takes time to think up your web site name. Even if you just want to use the name of your company, is that name available, is it really the most appropriate web address, are you considering the marketing implications (both online and in printed material)?

Develop a list of 30 – 40 web addresses that are appropriate. For example they may be about you - johndoe.com, your company - mycompanyinc.com, or your product - thegreatestwidgetinvented.com. Many of them may only differ by minor spelling changes or adding words like “the”, or “a”.

Remember, once you open your site to the public and search engines, your web address could appear on your customers' favourite web site lists, in the search engines and all your printed collateral. You don’t want to have to change it.

Now check a registrar to see if any of these domain names are available.




7.Hosting

Once the web site is developed and you have your domain name, you are going to have to host your web site somewhere. There are many factors that will affect your decision and don’t necessarily need to be addressed until later. However as with researching domain names, it is worth researching web hosting companies early on.

If you want to see what to do next, click here.




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