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| Website Set-Up and
Design Help |
- Getting Started (cont'd)
The seven steps to designing your new website:
Plan | Design
| Create
| Check/Re-check
| Upload
| Promote
| Maintain
Planning Your Website: (cont'd)
In doing this planning, use the structure that works best for
you. A lot of people do rough sketches of the page,
drawing boxes to outline areas and putting one or two words in
each box to describe what's going on there. Some people
do outlines, or just make notes of what goes on each
page. You're not looking for great detail, just an idea
of what elements each page will contain. Will your site
be graphics heavy? If so, you'll need software that
provides good graphics compression (compression reduces the
size of the file while maintaining the image quality.
Some programs are better at it than others. See Graphics
for our recommendations and more detail). Will you want
forms on your site that you client can submit to ask questions
or provide feedback? That requires CGI/Perl programming,
use of Front Page features or ASP. Will people be
ordering products or services online, providing payment
information? Then you something to make forms plus you
need a Secure Certificate and a hosting provider who offers
SSL. Will you be creating your own graphics or
logos? If so, you'll need a graphics creation program
like Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, PaintShopPro, etc.
Something else to think about while you're planning your
website is how to keep people
coming back to your site. If you will be advertising
specials, adding new products, or regularly adding information
that would
benefit from return traffic, consider now what tools you might
use to keep people coming back to your site. A few ideas
are an opt in email list so that you can send people updates,
a message board, or a news ticker. Another
reason to 'keep em coming back' is that if your site numbers
are good, you may be able to sell ad space on your site.
This may not be something you're ready to dive into right now,
but keep it in the back of your mind.
If
you are at all familiar with software prices, you know that
the software items above can all rack up to a pretty penny. Don't
despair. Anything can be done on a budget. Often
there are shareware programs which may not have all the
features of the more expensive programs but will serve your
needs just fine. Or, you may know someone with the
software who might be willing to let you drop by and use it,
or help you with what you need. Once you establish all
your needs and the cost of each, take your time, sort through,
and decide what is a necessity and what can be worked
around. Don't let it overwhelm you. It's okay.
Continuing with needs, the next thing to look at (and a very
important choice) is what you'll need from your web hosting
provider. If you'll be using Front Page to author your
site you will need to make sure you're hosting provider offers
Front Page extensions and find out what fees (if any) that
adds. If you will be using CGI or ASP make sure they
allow it. Will you be setting up email for employees of your
company? Make sure you ask your hosting provider
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