6 Reasons You Need A Website
If you don't have a website, then you might not realize all the great things they can do for you. Maybe you think there wouldn't be any point, because your business is too small - or maybe you don't even have a business! Perhaps you think it'd be a lot of work for little reward. Or maybe you paid big bucks for a site back during the dot-com 'boom' days, only to get nothing but trouble out of it and shut it down a year later.

Whatever your situation is though, you need a website and I'm here to tell you why.

1. People Will Look for You Online.
Sooner or later, someone's going to type your name into a search engine. What do you want them to find? Nothing? These are people who want to find you, and if you don't have a website then you're letting them down - they expect you to be online. For many people, you might as well not exist if you can't be found with a search engine. Not having a website is like not bothering to get listed in the phone book. Whether it's customers or old school friends you're hoping for, very few people are going to find you if you aren't online.

2. Websites Cost Next to Nothing.
Once, it cost a lot to run a website - but those days are long gone. There are 'pay as you go' services out there now charging as little as $1 per gigabyte of bandwidth. If you're sensible about the size of your pages, that dollar could last you a whole month, or even longer! If you don't want to pay for design, it's never been simpler to do it yourself, or find free software to do it for you. Really, it's never been cheaper to have a website than it is today.

3. Websites are Great Advertising.
Whatever you're advertising - your services, your products, or just yourself - a website is a great way to do it. Every other kind of advertising going costs a premium, especially if you want to target a specific kind of person, and there's no guarantee that they're paying attention. Websites are like brochures that are free to reproduce, interactive, and quickly distributed to people who are already looking for them. No advertising medium even comes close to the ease-of-use and effectiveness of a website.

4. A Website is a Worldwide Presence.
On the web, it doesn't matter whether someone is next door to you or on the other side of the world - they can see your website just the same as anyone else can, at no extra cost to you or to them. Phone and post both cost enormous amounts long-distance, but a website lets you send information anywhere without any extra effort or expense. You can make friends and contacts in places you've never been and will never go - suddenly, working globally is no more effort than working locally.

5. Your Website Can Make You Money.
There's a lot of money on the web, and it's not hard to get some - the longer you're online for, the bigger your share can get. If you have something to sell, you can sell it worldwide, thanks to credit cards. Doing business online eliminates almost every overhead there is: all you need to do is have the goods. If you've written something useful, you can put it out there with a few ads. You won't get rich overnight, but you can set up a steady trickle of income... and there's no limit to the number of trickles you can set up.

6. Your Website Can Save You Time.
Giving out information takes time, whether it's on the phone, or in brochures, or even if it's just emailing your family. Websites are designed to save you time. All your family and friends can read your online diary (known as a weblog), but you only had to write it once. Customers can see your whole product catalogue without ever needing to talk to you or visit you. This is the power of the web: things on it are written only once, but can be downloaded endlessly - a good website runs itself, and keeps being useful to people for much longer than you'd expect.

In today's world websites are not just necessary, they are essential. Many businesses have failed simply because they never created a web presence for their company. Learn from other businesses mistakes, have a professional company design and market a website for your business or ideas. It will probably be the best and most important investment you'll ever make.

There are many advantages to having a professional website. Nearly everyone has the Internet or access to the Internet, making your website available to people all over the world. Your own personalized e-mail accounts (YourName@YourDomain.com) show professionalism and further promote your website and business. Websites and email are the fastest, easiest and preferred way to keep in touch with clients. Every major business has at least one website. Most people will visit your website numerous amounts of times before ever picking up the phone. Avoid the hassle of 'cold calls' by having a well laid out website explaining exactly what your business does and does not provide. Dollar for Dollar websites are by far the most affordable and accessible advertising medium for your business.

Advantages having your own website include:

• Run your business from anywhere in the world, to Everyone in the world !
• Stream Audio and Video from your website to create a true multimedia experience. The advantages and opportunities of Video on the web are endless.
• No wasting time with 'cold calls' on the phone. Callers can be directed to your web site where they can get the information they need. At the same time, they will get a visual image of your company. Seeing actual photos of your product(s) and/or services will help you get the sale. This makes marketing much easier showing exactly where to place your marketing dollars.
  ... and much more !

Web Design FAQ
10 Questions to Ask Yourself
Before Designing a Website

Many site owners make the mistake of building a website without laying out a clear plan for their online business. This is a sure set-up for failure. There are 1000s of abandoned sites on the web due to lack of careful planning. Before designing your website you should ask yourself some questions to avoid making mistakes down the road.

10 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) About Designing a Website

1. What Are Your Business Goals?

It's easy to say, "I want to make monéy," however, this is not a great motivator. Think of a deeper motivation that you feel passionate about e.g. "I want to have the financíal freedom to spend more time with my kids as they are growing up."

2. What's the Purpose of Your Website?

This is the question most visitors will ask when accessing your website. Your home page must clearly explain the purpose and benefits of the products and/or services you are offering.

3. What Type of Products or Services Will You Sell?

Research the marketability of your products or services by doing keyword research. Use the Google Keyword Tool to find out how many searches your main keywords receive every month. If there are no searches, it means there is not much demand and therefore not worth marketing.

If it is a very competitive market (millions of searches per month), it may be difficult to stand out from your competitors and create a profitable online business.

4. How Many Products Will You Sell From Your Website?

This will determine how many pages your website will have. If you're only selling one product or service, you may only need 4 web pages e.g. Home, Product (or Services), About, Contact. If you're selling 100s of items, you will need a database driven site to store and manage all of them.

5. How Many Variables Does Your Product Have?

Variables may include size, color, type, sku#, shipping, tax? Make sure your shopping cart allows you to include these variables.

6. How Will You Accept Online Payments?

To accept bank card payments online, you will need a shopping cart, merchant account, payment gateway and SSL certificate for secure transactions. This means you will have monthly fees and processing fees every time a customer purchases something from your website.

A less expensive option for accepting payments online is the Paypal shopping cart. You don't need to purchase a separate merchant account, shopping cart, payment gateway and secure certificate. For a small processing fee it takes care of all this in one place.

7. Do You Have a Web Hosting Plan?

Your website needs to be hosted on a server for it to be available online. Select a hosting plan that has sufficient space for all your files and bandwidth to receive 1000s of visitors each month. Make sure you have the flexibility to upgrade your plan should you need more space and bandwidth.

8. Will You Need to Maintain the Website Yourself?

Asking this question before the design will determine what software your designer will use to build your website. If it only consists of a few web pages which don't need regular updating, then use software such as Dreamweaver to build it. It creates clean code and you will have only a few files.

If your website has 100s of pages, consider a content management system such as WordPress, Joomla or Zen Cart. They all enable 100s of items to be stored in a database. The website can be managed (add, edit, or delete items or pages) by logging into an administration area.

9. Do You Have a Marketing Plan?

To create a profitable online business you must create a plan to promote it. Some methods may include, search engine marketing, pay-per-click, article marketing, press releases, social media, video marketing, etc. Website campaigning needs to be done frequently and consistently to be effective.

10. How Will You Monitor Your Website Statistics?

Check if your web hosting plan includes site statistics (e.g. AW Stats). If not, create a Google Analytics account and insert the code on your web pages. It will track how many daily, weekly, monthly, yearly visitors you receive, where they are coming from and what keywords are being used to find your site in the search engines.

If you answer these 10 questions first, you'll avoid the pitfalls of designing and building a website and add to your potential of creating a profitable online business.

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If you're searching for a company that designs custom web sites
at an affordable price, you've finally found it!

Your website is a reflection of your business and something you should be proud of. It's also essential that people are able to find your site through the Search Engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.). If your site is outdated, non-existant, or you're just not placing well with the Search Engines, please call to see how we can help!

Search Engine rankings are key to your website's success as a marketing tool, and our sites rank very well with the major search engines. Our excellent rankings are a result of building sites using techniques that will naturally enhance placement.

In addition to all of this, you'll receive friendly and personalized service.
We value and appreciate all of our clients!