Web sites are rarely a quick path
to riches.
They are, however, becoming an essential part of most modern businesses.
The Plus side..
Web Sites can bring in additional income.
How much depends upon:
- The sale ability, and demand for, the product.
- The marketing of that product / web site.
- The popularity and ease of use of the web site.
Web sites are better than brochures.
- They can familiarise customers with companies and products.
- They can interact with customers.
- They can sell.
On the down side..
Initial and ongoing web site costs.
Marketing and advertising.
The simple fact that one may not be that familiar with web site things, and
may, quite understandably, lack confidence.
Basically, it is a business decision.
Outlay against return.
Where the web site sells a product, one can make educated estimates, of likely
sales. Everything is quantifiable.
Many sites, however, do not generate sales, but provide information or support.
This, of course, is harder to quantify.
There is the prestige value.
Plus the fact that prospective clients can quickly, and anonymously, get a
picture of your company, or products, from your web site.
Overall.
In most cases, a web site is a definite business plus.
It functions best for those selling* on the world wide market, but can also
be efficient in country specific sales.*
* or information / support / whatever. |
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How much to spend.
Too dear:
You could end up paying for someone else's excessive overheads.
Too cheap:
You could employ someone with limited experience. More costs to put their work
right.
You may be told that your site needs this system, or that programming language.
Most nonprogrammer's tools, like ColdFusion, PHP, etc., add to the loading of
the web page.
In any event, when you build a system using a specific system, or language, you
should appreciate that, when future maintenance is needed, you will need someone
with specific knowledge of that system or language.
HTML and Classic ASP are two of the cheapest languages to commission work in.
Systems and programming languages often appear to move in and out of favour.
Design
One needs to be totally objective.
What is the purpose of the site? What does it need to do?
Any existing logos, trademarks, colour themes, etc.?
Styles
What appeals to the young, may not appeal to the old.
In some cases, simple and traditional may work better.
Reliable functionality, and user friendliness, is important.
Domain names
Not too long.
Ideally, should contain keywords.
Plenty of domain search tools available on the Web.*
These generally explore many extensions, (.com, .co.uk, ,biz, etc.)
* Do a search on 'domain name generator' for numerous
choices.
Hosting
Cheaper hosting is generally 'high density' but may be adequate for the smaller
site.
Speed of display, of your web site, and reliability, (uptime), are the main things
to look for.
Many companies do successfully host their web sites on their own, in-house, web
servers
Hosting one's own web server, however, means that one has to be very alert and
aware on security issues.
And there is the expense.
Smaller companies are often better off using a hosting service.
Slow display of web sites is a problem with some of the biggest hosting companies.
For our own web sites we use one of the fastest we have found.
And after many years of trying other hosting companies.
Corporate or heavy duty sites we put on five server appliances, with an additional
server in hot-spare to handle load spikes, in a network load balanced environment |
