http://www.minich.com/interneteducation/smallbusinesses
Mr. Curt Minich

Learn how the Internet can be used by a small business. The course will examine different levels of presence on the Web for small businesses. Students will also review the stages and many of the details involved with a commercial Web site such as design, hosting, maintenance, expected costs, and copyright.

Purpose of a web site for a business or charity organization. accessible 24 hrs a day can be viewed by unlimited people unlike print advertising can be updated as often as necessary giving more timely information can be designed with flow of information from general down to specific Web servers. What are they? Where are they? the first part of a web page address indicates the host domain server, which is simply the computer on which the web site is stored in the address of this page www.minich.com/interneteducation/smallbusinesses, the domain name is minich.com the address www.minich.com is more prestigious than www.members.aol.com/minich though it is more expensive to maintain Web servers are spread around the world, you cannot tell a Web servers real location for example, this Web page is stored on the minich.com web server which is a computer in California Internet vs. intranets vs. extranets the Internet (with a capital ' I ') is the whole collection of connected web servers; the idea is to allow people to link & organize their pages with others' pages an intranet looks like the Internet but is housed within a company; for example, Chrysler engineers in Detroit can share information with Chrysler engineers in Australia but those outside of Chrysler can't view the secret information an extranet looks like the Internet but is set up so that a company and its vendors and/or clients can exchange information usually through password-protected web pages Technical details domain names you must first register a domain name from a domain registrar such as Network Solutions in order to host a Web site at that address (2 yrs for $70 or less) using whois at Network Solutions or www.betterwhois.com to look up domain name availability regselect.com lists prices from many accredited domain name registrars if the name has already been taken (such as microsoft.com) then you are out of luck unless that company forgets to reregister some year in the future the extension at the end of the domain name indicates the type of web site extensions that you can register include .com, .net, .org, .info, .biz, and .name extensions that require special permission to register include .edu, .gov and .mi the anatomy of a URL Web address such as http://www.minich.com/interneteducation/smallbusinesses/index.htm the http:// is optional and doesn't need to be typed the domain name is minich.com interneteducation & smallbusinesses are simply folders (i.e. subdirectory) on the minich.com web server index.htm is the filename of this Web page

One page easy enough to design don't place too much text on one page; Web surfers tend to ignore big chunks of text unless they are REALLY interested in something; "less IS often more" in Web design Static information your set of products and services can be explained your location and contact information should be present it is easy to maintain a static Web site at first simply because you do not have to think of things to put there after the first design Web surfers may notice, however, that you are not updating your Web site and stop visiting remember you are liable for anything that you place on your Web site so businesses often do not list exact prices there Communication and customer service many businesses save money & time by printing information on a web site that their customers tend to ask over the phone some businesses invite email from customers through their Web site. Be careful, if you can't regularly reply to such email then you should not advertise your business' email address send customer newsletters via your web site and/or email provide online surveys to customers (e.g. websurveyor.com, zoomerang.com, or create a customized one) Catalogue and inventory a natural second step for many businesses is to develop or more extensive Web site that allows customers to see product information and even availability information from an existing database (e.g. Microsoft Access, SQL, etc.) can be ported to the web site Ecommerce What sells over the Web and what doesn't? products that are generally consistent with regard to quality sell well (eg. books) products that are easy to mail sell well (eg. flower seeds, compact discs) products that must be "tried out" or "tried on" do not usually sell well (eg. clothes) though J Crew, Land's End, etc have done well via mail order products that are highly customized usually do not sell well (insurance packages, wedding rings) If you do sell something through your Web site, how do you collect the payment? require the customer to printout an order form & mail a check or credit card number (very easy) online, automatic credit card processing. You must obtain a merchant account with a bank just as you would to accept credit cards in a traditional business. payment schemes such as PayPal allow consumers to first deposit money and buy credits into a trusted financial account. Then, they simply debit this account when purchasing something online. shopping carts are used at many Web sites to allow a customer to choose a number of items and then to checkout at the end of their surfing experience; they range from the free freemerchant.com to the popular Miva Merchant is a popular packaged shopping cart system that can be used in a simple or complicated Web site the current excitement in big business is that by buying products online directly from vendors saves money and doesn't result in oversupply (eg. Mobil Oil may save hundreds of thousands of dollars buy buying pencils directly from an online wholesaler for its national offices; Domino's pizza is saving millions supposedly by buying flour, etc. in such a way). Also, it is easier to ship products directly to consumers cutting out the retail stores (eg. Dell, Apple)

Call a traditional advertising companies (see the Yellow Pages) and they will do the rest Berks County ad agencies: Montgomery & Partners Slocum Blatt Advertising Niemczyk Hoffmann Group (go2nhg.com) partnersdesign.net reeseadv.com this is probably the most expensive method but your online marketing can be tied to your traditional advertising strategy Hire a local Internet service providers (ISP's) ISP's first priorities are usually to enable their residential and corporate customers to be able to surf the Web they can provide design and hosting services but are not well-suited for such since providing dial-up services is totally different than hosting Web sites you often get a limited amount of free space for uploading web pages with your personal account but they will host charge you more money if you are hosting a commercial web site this method is less expensive than hiring traditional advertising companies but you may not get the same level of service Berks County ISP's that provide hosting: countycorner.com dynamicnet.net readingeagle.com/web some non-profit or quasi-government agencies may be willing to advertise your business simply to bring more viewers to their Web site Use template hosting you can rather easily create your site by filling in blanks on web page template forms. Examples: bcentral.com, bigstep.com some industry associations (insurance, real estate, etc.) provide free or inexpensive web sites national hosting providers such as Network Solutions or Yahoo sometimes make it easy to put a site online, even ones that include eCommerce capabilities Hire a freelancer web designer such as myself ( www.minich.com ) I meet with you to discuss the type of Web site that you want and what information you would like to provide and give you an estimate for the initial web site We decide on a domain name & I register the domain name with a registrar such as Network Solutions. I create the Web site and show it to you for your approval. The web site would cost $100/page and up. I upload the Web site onto a virtual web server so that others can visit the site You pay a monthly charge ($50) to keep the site active. One hour of labor is included per month for maintenance. Additional web pages can be contracted in the future or changes can be made to existing ones at $40/hour. A sample estimate freelancers in Yellow Pages: bbdesign.com blacklabdesigns.com neo-pangea.com It is possible to transfer your Web site from one service's Web server to another if you are unhappy with the service that you receive or find a better monthly hosting fee. However, you must ensure that you have copies of the pags, ownership (copyright) of the design of your Web page(s) and that your company's name is one file with the domain name registrar as the official owner of the domain name.

4. The Process of Creating a Web Site

increased competition with regional, national, and international markets possibility of federal or, more likely, state taxation in the future more consumers will have broadband (i.e. faster) Internet access and expect even more from a web site