Best Mac Solutions Guide to Web Marketing - What Can the Web Do for YOU?

What can the Web do for you?

Increase Visibility

• A Web site provides a 24-hour a day, 7 day-a-week source of information about your product or service.
• You can reach a large, growing audience of educated consumers.

Improve Marketing

• A Web site can provide detailed information about your products and services at lower cost than other media.
• Your site may be easily updated with the latest information or special offerings.
• You can obtain detailed information about the number of people viewing your site, which pages they visited, how long they stayed and where they went next!

Reduce Expenses

• Your site may be easily updated with the latest information or special offerings.
• You can obtain detailed information about the number of people viewing your site, which pages they visited, how long they stayed and where they went next!
• Your site may be easily updated with the latest information or special offerings.
• You can obtain detailed information about the number of people viewing your site, which pages they visited, how long they stayed and where they went next!
• A web site can help reduce the amount of time you spend on the phone or traveling to a client's location.
• It can be a valuable tool for pre-qualifying sales leads or educating prospective clients.

Increase Sales

• Your Web site can be a virtual store where 'shoppers' can view and purchase goods right over the Internet!

How Do You Get Started?

Your Internet Service Provider and Web Hosting Service

• Internet Service Providers (ISP's) provide dial-up or broadband connections to the Internet as well as email accounts and other services.
• Web Hosts provide "hosting" services for your web site - in other words, your web site is stored on their servers. When selecting your ISP and Web Host you should consider a number of factors:
  • How much disk space will your web site occupy?
  • How much e-mail will you receive?
  • Do you want to support the storage and downloading of computer files?
  • Does the Web Host provide usage metrics (i.e. who is looking at your sit)
  • Does the Web Host provide tools and assistance for maintaining your web site?
  • Are the ISP and Web Host financially stable enough to be around in a year, or five years?
  • Do they have direct connections (preferably T3 or higher) into the Internet backbone?

Your Internet Address

• If you want to reserve an address that looks like the name of your business, your ISP, web designer or web host can help you in registering your name, or you can do it yourself.  This is known as a domain name (also called a URL) and looks like this: www.mycompany.com.
• Some people choose not to have their own domain, and instead use the space provided by the ISP.  This type of site is known as a personal page and looks something like this: home.webhostname.com/~mypersonalpage

Your Web Site Content

• The material you place on your web site should be carefully planned. Not only must you think about the content, but you must also consider your audience's range of computer capabilities. For example:
  • How fast can your potential customers access your site (i.e. modem or broadband speed)?
  • What is the size of their screen display and can they display color?
  • Do they have updated "browsers" that can support dynamic web sites?
• Different "browsers" may cause your web site to appear or behave differently. Some computers display a limited number of colors. While "cool" graphics and other visual images can be exciting, they can take a long time to download. When in doubt, it is best to stay with information that is clear and simple.

How Much Will Your Web Site Cost?

Setup fees:

• Your ISP may charge a small set-up fee for your dial-up account.
• Your Web Host may also charge a set-up fee - they are often around $50, but may be waived during special offers.
• The cost of registration of your domain name can vary from as little as $16 for 2 years to as much as $70. There are LOTS of registered domain name resellers out there and the difference in cost is for the "name recognition" and "add-ons". After the first 2 years, you will be billed half of that initial amount per year (In other words, if you initially paid $32, then you will pay $16 per year after the first 2 years.

Monthly fees:

• Your ISP will charge monthly fees from approximately $20 and up for dial-up service. This usually includes unlimited Internet access and at least one email account, often up to 8.
• A broadband service provider (DSL, Cable Modem, T1, Satellite) can provide service up to 60 times faster than a 56kbps modem connection under ideal conditions, but they often cost one and a half to two times as much per month.
• Your Web Host will charge a monthly fee for hosting your web site. Fees generally start at $20/month for a basic site, and will increase based on the size and services included.

Additional fees:

• If you decide to have a professional design your web site, you may pay as little as $500 for a small site to thousands of dollars for a large, corporate web site.
• Maintenance of your web site (additions, changes) can range from $60 - $125 an hour depending on the type of site and features.