May
13
Written by:
Steve Gray
5/13/2011 8:57 AM
I do quite a few consultations with people about web sites. Many of them are with very non-technical people; I thought I’d jot down some of the things that we go over as a primer.
Throughout this primer I’m going to refer to ‘your business’, but these concepts apply just the same to ‘your ministry’ if you’re in a ministry. Don’t think because I write ‘business’ I’m not talking to you. I am. <smiles>
What Are My Costs?
Let’s get the hard stuff out of the way first. Expect to spend:
- $10/year to own the domain name
- $10-30/month to have your web site hosted and to have your email served.
- $500 – $2000 to have a simple web site designed for you. The average is in the middle. If you want a shopping cart, or a blog, or any advanced functionality it might be more, you’ll have to check with your web designer. At any rate, you’ll need to explain what you want and get a quote
Domain Name/Email Address
You may not think these two things are related, but they are. Whatever you choose for a domain name will your email address. Forever. It’s real bad business to keep using that Hotmail (GMail, MSN, Yahoo, whatever) address when you’re in business. It gives a real feeling of being impermanent and non-technical. I feel strongly about this, here’s a rant that I wrote to help sell my point
So, go to a Registrar (www.register.com, www.networkSolutions.com, www.GoDaddy.com to name a few) and decide on a domain name. You might call me before you buy it and let me help you; some of these companies are experts in getting you to spend a lot more than you need to spend. Expect to spend about $10/year for a domain name.
It needs to be short enough to use for an email address, but long enough to say who you are. The good short ones are going to be taken, so be prepared to take some time to research this. An hour should be enough.
.com or .org?
.com is for business, .net is for technical businesses, .org is for churches/non profits. If you’re a .org, you might get the .com too, if it’s available.
Logo/Art Work/Business Card
You’ll need some graphics for your business. You’ll need letterhead, business card, web site logo. I usually hire graphics talent to do this for me, there are on-line companies that do it; or you can try to hire locally.
The point is, you’ll need some graphics, a color scheme. Coke is red/white. Pepsi is red/white/blue. You get the idea.
Research Your Competition
In our first meeting, I’d like from you a list of 10 good web sites from your competition. If you’re in ministry, this still applies to you. Give me 10 good web sites of people doing the same thing you are. They don’t have to be in your denomination… they have to be good and something that you’d like to have for yourself if it was rebranded with your text and your colors.
Don’t skip this step. How can I give you something if you don’t have any idea what you want?
Begin to Develop Content
We’ll need content for your web site, and that’s your job. If you don’t want to spend the time to do this, turn off your computer right now and forget the whole thing <smiles>. Your web designer is not going to write copy for you. If you’ve spent time doing the step above this one… you’re well on your way. Imitate the good looking web sites that are already built.
You don’t need to format the content, that’s my job. I just need blocks of text. I’ll add the color and the formatting and make it look nice.
We’ll need photos, lots of them. A lot more than you think we’ll need.