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The Small Business Support Network
Helping you get more from your business!

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How to do business on the web.

Site Content and Design...

This page deals with the design, programming and maintenance issues of presenting your information on the Internet, and who is going to:

  • do the initial site construction, and then who will be responsible for the
  • ongoing maintenance, updating and further development of the material.

When you place an electronic ad in front of the world, make sure it works for you! All we can say is that there are many pages on many web sites that are just a waste of time, money and space!

When you are choosing who you get to present your information for you... make sure you see many samples of their work, and talk to their clients!

Anybody can put up WWW pages, but not everybody has the skills to develop your material to the point where you get great value for the money you are paying!

Also, there are various software packages which "do" these things so easily make many people think they are instant experts on WWW publishing and can actually handle the complete project themselves! The sad fact is that's just one of about 15 steps to complete the job! Other issues to be considered include:

  • overall site design/layout
  • user navigation
  • graphics - design, quantity, effectiveness and file size
  • development of interactive features to provide "edutainment" or add value to a visit
  • limiting access to restricted areas (if required)
  • database management (which may be useful in some cases)
  • proper indexing of pages for search engines
  • site promotion, etc. etc.
One of the most important considerations is whether your "developer" has the skills to modify your existing material, or write new material, to effectively present your marketing message on the Internet. If you, or they, don't know how to write effective advertising copy, then you are seriously wasting your time, effort and money!!!

Having been actively involved in the full-time development of Internet sites for a range of clients since 1995, and having been also involved in book and software publishing since 1980, we're fairly confident that we have quite a sound understanding of what is required to develop a successful business presence on the Internet.

It's that depth of experience that many professional web designers can bring to your project... and there's no way a D-I-Y software package can be programmed with that!

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For your web site to be successful, you must plan to change information regularly to offer something new to your clients to encourage repeat visits, and to encourage referrals.