So you want a website . . .

1
(No Transcript)
2
So you want a website . . .

• Presentation Goals
• Explain the basic building blocks
• Speak non-geek and demystify the process
• Answer your questions
• Help you know where to go from here

3
What is your name?

• What is a domain name?
• A domain name is the name that customers will use
  to find your site, e.g. www.agora-net.com
• How do I pick a name?
• Pick a name thats easy to connect with you
• Pick a name thats short
• Consider more than one name in some cases
• Typically pick a .com name if you are a business
  and .org if you are a non-profit organization
• Have more than one name in mind in case your top
  choice is taken

4
Getting a Domain Name
Where do I get one? You become the owner of a
domain name when you pay a registration fee for
using it. The companies that provide the
registrations are called registrars. To
register a name, you go to the website of any
accredited registrar (or a reseller), create an
account and pay the registration fee. How much
are the registration fees? Registrars compete for
your business so fees vary. Typical fees range
from 10/year to 35/year per name.
5
Buyer Beware

• Make sure your domain name is registered in your
  name or the name of your organization
• Know your registrar. If you get a notice from a
  registrar other than your own, ignore it!

6
Summary

• Your domain name is your identity on the web
• Pick a name thats short and easy to remember
• You register domain names with an accredited
  registrar for a yearly fee
• Get your name registered in YOUR name

7
Who are you?

• Where do I start with a design?
• What do you need?
• Logo?
• Consistent branding?
• New site? Redesign?
• Who is your site FOR?
• What do you want your site to DO?
• What is your budget?

8
The look

• What defines your organization?
• Use a consistent branding
• Determine what feel you want
• Determine the top 5 or 6 blocks of information
  you need to convey, e.g. About Us, Products,
  Services
• Know your audience, e.g. age, web-savvy,
  on-the-go
• How much does look matter?

9
What should it DO?

• How will people use your site?
• Gather information about you
• Buy your products
• Networking with you and/or each other
• Register for events
• Share files
• Access confidential information
• Watch videos

10
Who should build it?

• Use internal resources
• Do it yourself
• Use a relative, employee, neighbor
• Get started with a template
• Buy a template and build on it
• Hire a designer and/or developer
• Hire a graphic designer for a logo and/or site
  template
• Hire a developer to add your features

All of the above
11
Who should build it?

• Use internal resources
• Do it yourself or use a relative, employee,
  neighbor
• Low cost but quality and timing may suffer
• Get started with a template
• Buy a template and build on it
• Inexpensive, Quick start
• Hire a designer and/or developer
• Hire a graphic designer for a logo and/or site
  template
• Hire a developer to add your features
• Most expensive but offers most options

12
How much does it cost?

• Consider all costs
• Money
• Your time
• Weigh it with the benefits
• Saving staff time
• Increase office efficiency
• Money
• Templates Free Thousands Lots around 50
• Logo design Plan for 1000 - 2000
• Custom design Plan for 1000 - 2000
• Custom Full site Plan for 1500 - 5000
  depending on features

13
Important Features

• Content
• Write for the web
• Use pictures to liven up pages
• Avoid twirling flaming things
• Avoid background music unless needed
• Use the power of linking

14
Important Features

• Accessibility
• About 20 of people have a disability
• Make sure your site is programmed well for all
  types of disability
• Visual - Blindness, low vision, color-blindness
• Hearing use captioning
• Movement - Inability to use a mouse, slow
  response time
• Cognitive - Learning disabilities, inability to
  remember or focus on large amounts of information
• Its good business and may be the law

15
Important Features

• Help people find your site
• Make your pages search-engine friendly
• Get linked with other partner businesses
• Include your web address on all printed
  materials
• Test, test, test
• Do your menus work?
• Do your links work?
• Spelling ok? Grammar?
• Does your site work in all major browsers?

16
Summary

• Determine what you need
• Determine the features youd like
• Determine your budget
• Examine your resources
• Make your site a reflection of you
• Make your site usable by everyone
• Test!

17
Where do you live?

• What is hosting?
• Hosting involves putting your web pages on a
  computer (server) that has a connection to the
  Internet
• What does that really mean?
• Web servers are computers specially designed for
  delivering your web pages to your customers.
• Hosting companies maintain several of these
  servers and support them so that your site is
  always available

18
Why do I need a host?

• Professional web hosting offers
• Power backups
• Data backups
• Email service, e.g. you_at_yourdomain.com (use it!)
• Fast connections to the internet
• Ability to handle lots of requests at once
• Climate control
• Security
• 24/7 monitoring
• Customer service

19
How much does it cost?

• How much does hosting cost?
• Packages vary widely
• Typical prices are 10/month - 50/month for
  shared hosting services
• If you have greater needs, you can pay several
  hundred dollars/month
• Are all similarly-priced packages equal?
• No. Check around and get references for hosting
  companies. Some inexpensive packages may not
  provide you with the level of speed, reliability
  and customer services that you need.

20
Summary

• Hosting means putting your web pages on a
  special server computer
• Hosting companies maintain banks of servers
  designed just deliver web pages, email and other
  related features
• Hosting prices and packages vary
• Check out the reputation of the company get
  referrals
• If your site is down all the time or is too
  slow, customers wont come back

21
Will you still love me tomorrow?

• Keep your content fresh
• Offer reasons for people to come back
• Coupons
• Be a resource
• Offer a useful service
• Search engines like active sites

22
Will you still love me tomorrow?

• Who will do your updates?
• Internal Resources
• Outside Developers
• Both
• Can you do it yourself?
• Content Management Systems (CMS)
• Editing Software (works like a word processor)
• Adobe Contribute
• Coffee Cup
• Homesite
• Hand-program it

23
What do you need to know?
Questions?