WEB SITE MARKETING PLAN
Web site marketing is what should be in the back of your mind as you contemplate building a website. Only then can you design to a purpose, and avoid the usual mistakes.
Build is indeed very straightforward, and you'll be familiar with collections of HTML pages grouped around some URL like http://www.mysitename.com. Websites can be very ambitious, with stunning graphics, animation, sound, database search systems, customer recognition and a good many other features. But they don't need to be. More can be less, and 'wow' sites will only hinder visitors getting to your content, and make promotion more difficult.
Your site still needs to look professional, of course, and your web site marketing plan will have to find space for one of the following:
1. Hire a web design company. Thousands exist, conveniently collected into directories. Think hundreds of dollars.
2. Build your own pages using HTML-editing software. Easy-to-use editors exist for all pockets, some of them shareware or even free.
3. Rent space on a web-hosting company offering site build online. Much like the out-of-the-box solution, the hosting company gives you templates and wizards to create a distinctive and professional-looking site.
Finding an URL or Internet Domain
The URL (uniform resource locator) is your address or domain on the Internet. You'll want something that identifies your company and possibly your line of business. How do you get a domain?
You visit an online company offering domains for sale. If you're a commercial concern, you'll go for a .com, or possibly a .biz domain. Otherwise .org or .info may be more suitable. You'll try possible names in the search box provided until you find a suitable one available.
Suppose your poetry magazine is Late Night Cafe. You find that late-night-cafe.org has been taken, and so has late-night-cafe.com. But late-night-mag.info is still free, and you therefore take that domain for a few dollars a year. An online credit card facility accepts your order, and an email a few minutes later confirms the purchase. Just as soon as ownership is recorded by the relevant authorities, usually within a couple of days, the domain is yours to go on with to the next stage.
Hosting Your Site
You're halfway there. You have the site built, and a domain name to host it under. Now you have to upload the site to a web-hosting company that will display it on the Internet, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Thousands of such web-hosting companies exist, and there are now web-hosting directories that enable you to select by cost, platform type, facilities, etc. — all of which are explained by on-site notes. You make your choice of hosting company, click through to their site, pay their hosting fee, and can then upload your site to that company's server. The hosting company will explain how. It's very simple, but you'll need a cheap or free piece of software called an ftp program. This you can obtain from any software supplier, and use it to maintain your site thereafter. Once uploaded, your site goes 'live'. You're on the Internet.
Of course if your site has been built by a web design company, then they'll upload it for you. And if you've built your site online, all you need do is email the hosting company that you're ready to go live.