Hello DVPC Members. I have tried to copy the essence of the text from my presention on October 4th 2007 here with the links and information that may be helpful. If you have any questions please e-mail me at bkbrown95@hotmail.com or go to my web site www.bkbrown.net and click on the e-mail link.
WEB PAGE DESIGN AND HOSTING
Presentation October 4th 2007
Benefits of a personal web site:
Set up a site for a far flung family to get news and to share photographs.
Share a hobby or other interest.
Permanent e-mail address.
Benefits of a web site for a small business:
Today it is almost mandatory for any business to have an internet presence. We have become more dependent on searching for goods and services on the web than ever before and a company without a web site runs the risk of losing a lot of potential business.
However it is not necessary to have a site that rivals Amazon.com to make your presence known. Most web surfers are looking for either a product or a service and where to find it. Flashy graphics and pictures may seem appealing but I doubt that they do much selling. Remember what seems to be great on your home computer with a broad band connection can be slow torture for someone with a dial up connection. Also remember that what looks good on your monitor might not on a computer with a smaller screen resolution, or support as many colors. Non standard fonts can also be a headache, if the computer looking at your site with a fancy font that it doesn’t have the taxt will revert to a completely different typeface which might look awful or even undecipherable! If you must use exotic fonts make them images!
It is said by many web design professionals that the average “amateur” web designer goes through three phases:
1. I’m just learning, so I’ll keep it simple.
2. I’m a web guru, and I’ll prove it by piling on features and flash.
3. I’ve been burned by browser and monitor compatibility, so I’ll keep it simple.
My philosophy on web sites is that you should always cover the four points below or a combination thereof:
1. Who we are
2. What we do
3. How we do it
4. Where to find us
If you can cover these points in a web site your mission is accomplished. At the very least points 1 and 4 are essential.
For this a simple site is more than adequate. Your site should be designed so that it is easy to change. What you initially envisage may change and completely redesigning a site can be a monumental task.
A lot of small businesses I have talked to bemoan the fact that getting a web site designed is expensive. I know that professional designers (and there are many, go and Google “web designers”) charge from $700 for a very basic two page site to thousands for a site incorporating e-commerce. That is also not the end of the story, maintenance and upkeep can add a substantial cost over a year. If you want a very complex shopping cart site then using a designer may be the only way to go. There are a lot of “free” sites which offer the shopping experience but unless you are prepared to spend hours checking and rechecking content plus updating and maintaining the site it usually is better to bite the bullet and use an expert. However don’t go to the first company on the list, ask other people who they use, always ask the designer for examples of their work and for references.
Most small businesses do not need an elaborate setup. There are do it yourself web sites which are comparatively easy to use and not too expensive but you need to know what you are starting. To see what you don’t want there are a couple of web sites which catalog bad sites:
www.websitesthatsuck.com
www.worstoftheweb.com
I don’t know how many of you are familiar with my own web site but let me give you a quick run down on it.
This site is probably more than most businesses need and definitely more than most individuals but it still is very simple and easy to maintain.
Go to www.bkbrown.net
Also on my web site on the home page you will find a link to 1&1 which will give you the first three months of web hosting free! Just click on the 1&1 box.
It is set up in Dreamweaver, an Adobe software (used to be Macromedia) which is the standard for web site creating. The only real competitor was FrontPage from Microsoft as part of the Office suite. However with the release of Office 2007 Front page was discontinued and has been replaced by Microsoft Expression Web. Actually Expression comes in five flavors, Web, Blend, Design, Media and Studio. Each supposedly works with the other for seamless production. This together with SharePoint from Microsoft is supposed to be a very potent package. I haven’t tried the product but reviews in the professional field I have read are very positive and updates from Front Page can seriously reduce the initial cost. Dreamweaver is no cheap item either but if you have (know) students or enroll for a Dreamweaver class with DVC San Ramon you can buy the educational version for less than half price (about $200).
Here are some other examples I have put together.
www.justdoors.org
www.fastwrapproductions.com
www.independentmercedes.net
www.tileistinc.com
www.theblueprintshopdublin.com
How you can make your own web site? If you don’t have Dreamweaver ($200-$400) a cheaper alternative is Coffee Cup (www.coffeecup.com).
The sits has a free limited version and a more sophisticated one for about$50.
However if you choose some of the web hosting services they have free site building capabilities. There are too many of them to list (last time I checked Google search on Web Hosting I found several hundred sites) so I am going to talk about just a few. The main players for personal and small business are Yahoo, Go Daddy and 1 & 1. For major players there are people such as Network Solutions etc.
The book that I recommend is "Creating Web Sites, The Missing Manual"
by Matthew Mcdonald, Pogue Press. Order through the link to O'Reilly Publishing on the DVPC web site or from Amazon (about $20).
If you want to add some animated gif's the place to go for free stuff is:
http://http://www.feebleminds-gifs.com/
Thursday Evening, 10:00 PM
Just back from the meeting and I would like to thnk you all for your attendance and participation. The two day Dreamweaver class I recommended starts Saturday morning (October 6th) 9 am at the DVC San Ramon campus which is on Bollinger Canyon Road in San Ramon. The instructor is Mario Tejada( say hi to him for me) and I know you will enjoy the two days and learn a lot.
Go to http://www.srvc.net/online/for further details including how to get to the brand new campus!
The graphics software I demonstrated was "Xara" 3D text and WebMaker.
Go to www.xara.com for details.
The counter I used is from "StatCounter", they can be reached at www.statcounter.com .
Remember any questions please e-mail me, I am always happy to assist you.