Website Design Guide:
•  How Original is Your Idea?
•  What Type of Website Do You Need?
•  How Will You Accept Payment?
•  Do You Need an Online Database?
•  Planning Your Website Layout
•  Choosing a Domain Name
•  Choosing a Web Hosting Option
•  What TO DO
•  What NOT TO DO

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How Original is Your Idea?
So you have a great product or service that you want to sell. There are some things you should think about first - is your idea original, marketable, and profitable? Before you spend time and money on research, product development, marketing, website development, and other things, you need to check out your competition and determine if you can compete with them.

We recently heard a story of a gentleman who had a great idea and wanted to sell his product on the Internet. He purchased a domain name, spent days creating and posting his own website, lined up sponsors, launched his website, and submitted his site to the major search engines. When he searched the Internet to see if anyone was doing anything similar, he was shocked. Not only was his idea not original, but others were doing it cheaper, and better. For the next year he struggled and had difficulty competing in a global market. When his domain name came up for renewal, he let it expire and pulled his website down. If he had done a little homework and checked out his competition first, he could have made better decisions based on his findings.

Check out your competition on the Internet. Keep some notes on what you like and dislike, as a user and consumer, about other websites. Then make sure to avoid doing the "bad" things, and be sure to do the "good" things on your site.
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What Type of website Do You Need?
A Billboard website is just like a Billboard. One page, simple, and straight forward. It's perfect for a one-page business site, an event information page, or a calendar of events.

An Informational website is perfect for a non-profit organization, church, or school. This type of site is also good for conveying information about simple products or services.

If you really want to promote your product or service, you'll need a Marketing website. This type of website will help you convey many types of information about your product or service, as well as supply price lists, take online orders, supply online quotes, etc.

If your business has grown large enough, you may need a Corporate website to not only promote your product or service, but to manage your business. An online employee portal helps your employees get information no matter where they are. Features such as a company calendar, an in/out board, an employee directory, policies, benefits, job listings, company forms, newsletters, and much more will help keep your staff informed.

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How Will You Accept Payment?
When you sell products on the Internet, you need to think about how you are going to accept payment for those products. The simplest method is to take orders via an online form that is emailed to you. When the product is picked up or delivered, the customer pays by cash or check.

If you are just starting out and want to accept credit cards, but want to avoid setup fees, you should consider using a service such as PayPal. They do not charge a set up fee and do not require a merchant account.
If you wish to go "all the way", then you need to set up a merchant account with a bank. Merchant accounts normally charge a setup fee and monthly fees.
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Do You Need an Online Database?
Online databases can be complex to set up, but their payoff can be great. At Web Technologies we are experts at creating and maintaining online databases. You can have databases for things like inventory, customer data, merchandise info, price lists, guest books, etc. Databases can also be used to drive the content of your website. If there is content that will change frequently, Web Technologies Custom Design Group can design the page to be database driven so you can update the content as often as you need to. This saves you money since you do not need to hire a programmer every time there is a change to the content, price list, merchandise information, etc.
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Planning Your website Layout
OK, now you are all excited about your new website. Time to put that energy to good use. Even though you are not a website developer, you can still be very involved in the design process.

Get a pack of index cards. Each index card is going to represent a page on your website. At the top of one of the cards write the word "HOME". This card represents your home page. Label other cards with other headings to represent other pages. Some examples are Products, Price List, Order Online, Contact Us, About Us, etc.

Now take each of these cards and on each one write a brief description of what is going to be on each page. For example, on your "HOME" page you might have topics like Welcome Statement, Opening Paragraph, or Mission Statement. If there are photos or images you want on the page, make note of them.

Now we are drilling down into more and more detail of your website's content. The next step is to take a piece of paper and write down the details of these headings. Start by writing down the heading ("Welcome Statement"), and then write the actual text that will appear under the heading.

Laying out your website with index cards has a number of advantages.
•  You can start to see the site as a whole and how the site "flows".
•  You may discover where your site is lacking, pages that can be combined, or eliminated .
•  This pre-design work will help Web Technologies Custom Design Group get your site up quickly.
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Choosing a Domain Name
Choosing a domain name is as important as naming your company.
Your domain name should have the following characteristics:
•  Represents your company name as closely as possible.
•  Is short, but not too abbreviated.
•  Is easy to spell.
•  Is catchy and easy to remember.
If your company name is "John Doe Products", then www.johndoeproducts.com makes the most sense. However, you should be prepared to choose an alternative if that domain name is already taken. Some alternatives could be www.johndoeprod.com or www.jdproducts.com. Another thing to consider is purchasing other domain names that are similar to yours and are available for purchase. You can then re-direct these domains to your site. This way if someone accidentally types in something like www.jonathandoeproducts.com, they go to your site anyway.
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Choosing a Web Hosting Option
Before you can get your website on the Internet, you need to pick a Web Hosting package. This is kind of like renting a building for your business, except that you are renting server space on a web server for your website. A crucial mistake some people make is signing up for too much or too little server space. Web Technologies will help you match your website needs to the proper Web Hosting package. We are flexible, so if 6 months into a 1 year contract you find you need more features or server space, we'll be glad to switch you over to the appropriate web hosting package for your needs.
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What TO DO:
Your website only has a few seconds to make a good first impression. You may not get a second chance to gain a person's interest or get that sale. You need to put on the best face possible right from the start. Making sure your website grabs your visitor's attention and keeps it can be hard work, but it is worth it. Here are some tips to get you started:

•           Stick With What Works - Visit some of your competitor's sites. Notice any similarities in the look and feel or the content? If you do, you should do something similar. People feel comfortable when a website works like other sites they have visited. DO NOT, however, copy another website's text, design, graphics, or photos. This is called copyright infringement, which is against the law. What we are talking about using is the basic concept or layout.

•           Be Unique - Standardization is a great idea, but you don't want your site to be just another clone. Do something to make your website unique and memorable. Fonts, colors, graphics, and photos can all be used to accomplish this without making your site look "wacky". Make your site your own.

•           Design For Performance - Internet users are impatient and will abandon a site that takes too long to load. Remember, not everyone has a high speed cable or DSL Internet connection. To keep your website humming along - limit the use of animations, and watch the size of your graphics and photo files.

•           Be Interesting - Why does someone want to visit your site? What keeps them coming back? What makes them want to buy from me? These are questions you should ask yourself, and be honest. View you site as a visitor and consumer, not as the designer and owner. Keep you content interesting, informative, dynamic, and relative to your industry. If you visited a site 6 months after your initial visit and it was exactly the same and had links and content that had nothing to do with the subject of the site, would you ever come back? Most likely - NO. Give them a reason to come back and they will.

•           Communicate With Your Visitors - Give your visitors a way to contact you. Make sure you list your address, phone number, fax number, and email address. Also provide a feedback form for them to fill out. If you get feedback - read it, and respond to it. Make sure your visitors know you value their input.

•           WWW.EVERYWHERE.COM - Put your website address on everything! Letterhead, envelopes, business cards, yellow pages, email signatures, you name it. Talk it up too. Every time you have a chance, let someone know your website address. A good source of customers comes from referrals. Tell a friend about your website, and next thing you know he is telling a business associate who needs your services or product. And pass out business cards like they're free (which they can be if you know where to get them). Any time you can leave a card, do it.

•           Keep Evolving - Like we said earlier, a static website is boring. Keep your site alive by changing or adding to it often. Even a simple "Latest News" section can keep people coming back. Add new valuable content (like this website Design Guide), news about your projects or clients, or coupons and special offers. These are all good reasons for visitors to come back.

•           Check Your Stats - If your web host offers a web statistics analyzer package, use it. You should analyze your stats at least once a month. This gives you an idea of not only how many visitors you had, but what they looked at, how much time the spent on your site, and where they came from. Imagine trying to run a department store, but never knowing how many people came in the store or what departments they visited. Now you will know, and with that knowledge you can focus on what needs improvement, what can be cut loose, and recognize what parts of the site are successful.
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What NOT TO DO:
We've all seen websites that make us go "Uggghh" and we quickly move on. Here is a list of poor practices people do to their sites that end up annoying their visitors, and thereby they loose customers. These are definitely things to avoid when designing your website.

DO NOT:

•           Use a Free Site - Free sites are fine for personal sites and such, but a real business needs a real site. Free sites have names like www.yahoo.com/~mycompany.html. Yeah, try to get customers to remember that! Plus it just doesn't look professional. Free sites are also limited to what they can do, most prohibit commercial sites, and almost all plaster your site with pop-ups and banner ads. That's a quick way to chase away customers!

•           Imbed Music in Your Site - There is nothing more annoying than going to a site that has some annoying music playing in the background that seems to go on forever or plays every time you return to the Home page.

•           Use a Flash Intro - these are mini-movies created with Macromedia Flash. They take a long time to load (especially on dial-up connections), are more annoying than they are useful, and the only person who usually thinks it is "cool" is the designer.

•           Sound Effects - Another annoyance is those little sound clips that go off every time your mouse moves over a menu. Blip, boing, bong! Lovely, huh?

•           Automatically Maximize Windows - Some websites have a bad habit of maximizing the browser window without bothering to ask first. Some even disable the browser menu bar and other Windows controls including the task bar. Don't annoy your visitors by taking control of their system without their permission.

•           Force Fixed Window Sizes - Some websites open a new window with no browser or window controls at all. At a typical website using a fixed-size window, you are not allowed to resize the window and are generally forced to use Next buttons or use scroll arrows.

•           Implement a Poor Interface - Poor color contrast, too many different fonts, and too many colors. Think about the sites you like the most and you will most likely find they are simple, clean, easy to read, and easy to navigate. It can be exciting to have all of those colors and fonts available to you, but resist the temptation and keep it simple. Using just a few colors and a few fonts, your site can be very appealing and usable. This is what keep people coming back and talking about your site.

•           Forget to Provide Contact Information - Your potential customer wants to contact you about your product or service, but there is no phone number or email. How hard do you think your customers will search for your contact info? You must make it easy to find.

•           Allow Mis-Spellings - Every page should be checked for spelling. We run a spell checker on every page we develop, but you still need to proofread them to assure the content and grammar is correct.