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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)
how
many accounts you get with your account. Also, ask if
they are real POP accounts (which allow the user to set up the
account in an email program and send and receive from that
account) or just forwards (which only allow email to be sent
to that email address and it is then forwarded to another
account your users already have). Are their
representatives helpful and friendly? Ask them about
their tech support, how much they provide, what hours it's
available, and average hold times. Ask about minimum
service contracts and service guarantees. If they will
be registering your domain name for you, make sure that they
will register it to you and not themselves. Also
make sure that you are set as the administrative contact and
that they use a valid email address for you. This may
not sound like a big deal now, but should you decide to change
to another hosting company in the future, making sure this
information is correct now can save you a lot of headaches in
the future.
Now one question you may ask at
this point: Do I need a hosting company before I even have a
design? The answer: Probably not. But I would
suggest that you do your homework and find out what hosting
company you are likely to go with beforehand. Especially
if you will be working on a tight budget. I would be
better to find out now what type of space you can afford then
to design your whole site with a lot of goodies and gadgets
and find out you can't afford the hosting plan to support
them. Ouch. Another consideration is
support. If this is your first design, you may need some
help from your hosting company to make it happen. Make
sure you find a company who is willing to work with beginners
and help answer your questions or at least point you in the
right direction. Keep in mind that many hosting
companies simply provide the space and don't provide any
support for software or just general questions. Ask the
questions beforehand and make sure the company you choose will
provide what you need.
So you've done all
your planning and homework and now you're ready to start
designing your site. Okay, let's go!
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Design
Your Website |
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