We
understand that your business is very important to you -
and the whole reason behind having a website is to not
only advertise what you do or sell, but also to put your
personality across so people looking at your site feels
an affinity with you.
This unseen feeling of affinity helps increase your
database and, subsequently, your sales - but sadly,
not all websites perform this task successfully - in
fact, some clients that we have helped have had websites
designed in the past which they actually did not like at
all!
We talk to our clients and, more importantly, listen to
them and build their website around their desires and
expectations and their own personalities.
When you are trying to source a company to create a
website for your business, we think that it helps to see
what your chosen Website
Designer is capable of doing for you - so here are a
few examples of some of the sites we have created for
our clients.
You
have to decide what
you want your website for - for
example, maybe you want it for:
Promoting
your offline business
(using
the web as your online "business card"
or "brochure" to attract customers to
your "offline" business)
Selling
tangible products
(products
that can be ordered and paid for over the
internet but will require shipping to the
customer)
Selling
digital products
(products that the customer can purchase and
download straight away from your site)
Selling
a service
(like Web Hosting, Automation, Tracking
etc. ... (or even Web Design!))
Promoting
Affiliate programs /
products
(where you send the customer to the site owner
of the products, services or affiliate program that you are
promoting)
Of
course, there may be other reasons why you want a
website - but, in general, most "business
reasons" will fall into one of the above arguments.
What
is Required of You
Imagination
- visualize your product, decide on a color that
will blend with your product's identity, think
about any images you want to use, whether you're
going to use a background color, background image,
or leave it plain white - and don't forget about your logo and your
header.
Tip:
If
you get stuck, spend some time looking at
different websites and make notes of one's that
visually appeal to you to give you some ideas
for the layout.
Organizational
Abilities - a
website
is
organized to enable the viewer to click on an
internal link and be taken to a particular page
that they are interested in. This is
called "navigation". In order to
obtain this, your pages must be structured in an
organized manner.
Tip: Information
on how to structure your website building
project can be found in our publication Website
Creation Madezi.
Patience
and Perseverance - building
your first website from scratch is not
a quick job and can even become quite
frustrating at times - especially when something doesn't work
quite right the first time (or second, third,
fourth or fifth time!!) - however, providing you
stick with it, once your site is up and running you'll
get great satisfaction knowing YOU created your
own website!
Tip:
To
alleviate some of the frustration, make sure you
build a solid foundation - it makes it so much
easier to perform corrections! (see our
publication From
Ideas to Success Madezi
-
and download our free 7
Golden Secrets for Success Madezi
report too!)
Other
Alternatives
As I've already said, building a website from scratch is not for everyone -
you have to learn about using a text/HTML editor (this
is the best way for a DIY beginner), learn how to create
tables, forms and navigation, learn all about
images, image types and positioning - then there's
the keywords, meta tags and SEO (stands for Search Engine
Optimization) ... yes - there's a LOT of
learning to do and it sure isn't geared towards the
faint hearted!
So what's the alternative?
Website
Templates
If
you would like to design your own site but feel you
haven't got the knowledge to do your layout, there are
companies that specialize in selling Ready Made
Templates - these templates are blanks (this means
"no content") and,
if you choose wisely, they can be a very good way of
getting a professional looking site base in which to
house your own content.
Templateswill
give you a starting point for your site - and
potentially could eliminate around a fifth of your
work load in getting a site up and running - but don't forget the content has to be added along with the
finishing touches.
Some templates can be downloaded so
you can fill in the content from your own computer, but
others only work from the template creators / suppliers
website. This means you have to connect to their site to do
everything you want to do, every time you want to do
it. Call costs and tied up telephone line connections may be
a problem for some.
There's
more information on working with templates in our publication
Website
Design Madezi and there's also our own free
templates which you
can download
right now if you're raring to get started.
Ready Made Affiliate Sites
Ready made
sites are simply "self replicated" web sites
which often come as part of a sign up package with another
company to sell another companies products, usually
through an Affiliate
Program
These sites
that you sign up for are absolutely identical to, not only the one you signed up from, but also to everybody
else's that have signed up just like you - so take a
guess at how many sites are out there that all look the
same!
Think
you stand a chance with these? - hmmm ...
very doubtful!
Web Designers abilities, services and prices vary widely, just
like any other profession - and there a lot to choose from - so how do you make a wise choice?
First of all, determine which category your site will fall into
- personal, commercial, retail ... or even charitable ... and check out the designers that
specialize in your particular category.
Secondly, decide what you want to achieve
- for example, if your site is a store front then you will probably need
a shopping cart. If it is an information site with either single items
or, indeed, nothing to sell at all, a shopping cart would be useless to
you.
You don't have to know how
things, like a shopping cart for instance, actually work
- just be clear in your mind what you will really need so that you are not talked
into paying for something you don't require!
Benefits?
- The whole technical concept of your website building will be done for you so you
should end up with a site which is both user friendly and search engine
compliant.
Bottom Line?
- Take care if your requirements are for a business site, particularly
if you deal in a specialized field. A designer will not know the
technicalities of what you do, so you will have to be very very precise
over the content.
Viability?
- Actual cost must certainly be levied against your own time costs on
this one - depending on your requirements as outlined above (i.e.
"store"
versus "information" sites) the cost could be prohibitive.
I
cannot tell you what each individual designer will ask you for in terms
of information about your product, service, content etc. for your site as
every company works differently -
but if you'd like to get a rough idea of some of the things you'll
probably be asked for , fill in our own Website
Design form (with no obligation!) and I'll send you our design
information sheet.
If
you are going down this route, I would advise you, most definitely,
to spend some time in performing
comparisons on several web designers before making your final decision -
once you've got our design information sheet you'll be
able to ask your chosen designers the same questions -
that way you'll be judging like for like so you'll
easily see how similar - or widely differing -
individual web design companies can be!
Also
check out their portfolios of websites they've designed
for others to see how unique and inspired they are - in
fact, why not check out our own Website
Design Gallery while you're here!
A Few Words of
Advice
If you are building your first site, be prepared for an element
of frustration - there will invariably be times when you'll know in your
mind what you want to do - but getting it to actually work can seem
elusive - if such a situation arises you can always use our Helping
Hand Design Service.
No matter what the content of your site, or whether you are
instructing a professional designer, using templates for your layout or
building from scratch ....there is one very important issue to remember
Never
Lose Sight of Your Finished Site!
In other words, choose your site theme and stick to it - don't
be tempted to diversify. Once this happens you can kiss goodbye to
success - you'll get low ratings with the search engines and you'll not
only confuse your visitors - you will lose them - for good!
If You're Really Serious
about making your Internet Business a Success,
take a
look at our very own publication
All
of our "Madezi" publications are aimed at
beginners, and this one's no different - we cover every
aspect of Website Design from the blank page that you
start with - right through to the completed design.
We tell you about
the
fundamentals of design, page
layouts, tables, basic HTML,
keywords, content, color,
images and graphics,
navigation,
site structure ... ...
we even show you an easy, foolproof way to
create your own header and logo! Check
it out here
