Hold on!

(websites can be done correctly for less than you think….)

There are many issues here, but I will bypass the fact that you are waiting to get a website up…the fact that a website for any size company shows another level of being real, longevity, and bascially a 24/7 open sign.  The issue we are dealing with today is why buy a domain name now if you have chosen to wait on the website?  There are many reasons.

Your email…You are probably starting out your business with a Gmail, yahoo, hotmail, or even a cable company email address.  You have it every place you can think of.  Your business cards, your yellow pages ad, your flyers, your email footer, your letterhead, etc.  Two things come to mind. 

• First, you should not put your company communication in the hands of a free service (see http://www.chitwood.org/chitwoodblog/index.php/page/6/ ).  But with that said, you plan on having your domain name in a year and I hope your email with that domain.  What about all the materials you passed out in that first year.  All the places on the web that you have entered that “temp” email address into?  Are you going to change all that?  Are you going to keep that “temp” email address forever to insure you can get all the payoff from that first year of marketing? It is better to start off with your email address with your new domain from the start to insure the best ROI from all your marketing now and throughout the following years of business.
• Second, let’s say you live on the west side of town, then suddenly for whatever reason, you need to either move to the east side of town or in a metro area, move into an entire different city?  The cable company you once were with is not available at the other location, yet your business is still up and running doing what it does.  Your email just might have to go away.  Now all the marketing, business cards, etc are out of date and people cannot contact you. (yes, your phone should stay)

Domain aging is a good thing.  The longer your domain is registered in the past, the better the search engines like you.  You are not a fly by night possible spam or fraud site.  You are older and more experienced and therefore probably more important for the search results.  Same thing in the future.  If you register and renew your site every year, the search engines see…”well, maybe they will be there in the future”.  If you register and renew your domain in 10 year blocks, then the search engines will see…”oh yes…they will still be here…INDEX THEM MORE”.

Get your domain now for your website, email and building your business.

I hear this question a lot and I see this question a lot on the web.  Interesting that the question is being asked on the web about why you need a website.

The answer I gave above is pretty blunt and mostly true.  There are those companies that have great reputations and great referrals showing that they are indeed a great company to do business with…I applaud the work these companies have done to not only build their business, but build their great name.

It is true that people look to the web to find companies, to research companies, even research vacation trip locations.  They are looking for photos, testimonies, prices, experience, longevity of business.  They are looking for a lot of things. 

If a person is looking for a business for what ever reason…totally cold looking, no referrals from a friend or workmate.  They come up with two businesses, yours and another.  They go to research and the other business is on the web, even with a small website with hours, pricing and a photo or two…as long as it looks professional, who do you think they will go with?  A company they have little information on or a company they can find more information on?

You don’t have to spend a ton of money with all the bells and whistles on your new website to get one out there.  You can add items and services later if the website is developed and designed correctly.  Get the site out there then build on it, market it and get the benefits of having your own website.

With your website, you can have your own email with your company name too…very important.

Get on the web…it will boost your business with the ability to be seen 24/7!

The same can be said about the web and a person’s website.  A personal website, business website or organizational website can be done with various programming languages on various website hosting platforms and for various prices.  Is there THE one best programming language for every website developed on the web?  Is there THE one best type of website for every need out there by everyone?  NO…there is not one solution fits all.

Each website that needs to be developed has a list of requirements and expectations that are unique to the visitors and owners.  Traffic, graphics, functionality, speed, interactivity are only a few of the specifics that a website developer and designer needs to take into consideration when the website is being created from scratch or put into a package or service.  These specifications of the website are gathered, and then the solution should be created.  Sometimes the website is built from scratch, sometimes a content management system is used and sometimes a service is used. The need for designers and developers range from a huge company with large resources to a single person that can get things done. Pricing is a big factor as well.

Don’t think that you need to use a specific package or service just because your competitor down the road is.  Maybe they don’t know what they are doing.  Hire someone you are comfortable with and someone you trust to talk with you and get what you have in mind for a website.  What do you want the website to do?  What do you want to do to the website?  Do you want to maintain the website? Do you want someone else to maintain the website?  How often does your website change?  How often should your website change? Do you want the website to interact with social media?  Do you want the website to be ecommerce and sell things?  Do you want to accept money over the internet or do you want to bill them later?  So many questions to be asked and so many answers to be given before the solution is created.

This should not scare you.  It is important to ask the correct questions when building a website, but it should not be complicated.  Choosing the correct web designer and web developer is critical to not only the current success of your website, but the future success as well.  A good website can live for many years and expand with the needs.

Chitwood Graphics does graphic design, business analysis, web development, SEO, database design and website maintenance.  I know the business from start to finish and will talk in real English, not coded language you can’t understand.

Question 1:  What programming language to they know?

Some web site developers know one programming language and only one programming language.  There is nothing wrong with this fact.  That fact hopefully means that the web site developer is a master in that one programming language and can do anything and everything with it.  There are possible issues with this though as it narrows the solutions available to the developer when you start talking about your web site needs and wants.  Hosting platform choices for your web site are also being narrowed.  Cost, time lines, and maintenance are all areas that are affected by what the developer can do.

A developer should be versed in several programming languages to allow the best solution to be developed for your web site needs.  Sometimes dotnet is better, sometimes php is better.  There are other programming languages used as well for web site development.  Cold Fusion, Ruby, straight HTML to name a few.  All have their advantages and drawbacks.  A developer versed in more than one can choose the best solution for the project.

What you want to make sure is that for any programming language that is chosen, that you will be able to find someone to replace that person if needed.  A person that develops in their own special language pretty much guarantees that that developer will be employed long term.  A web site developed in a widely used and accepted programming language will allow you to find others to step in as needed in case your developer “goes missing”.

Question 2:  Do they develop web sites or they republish existing sites?

Does your web developer actually develop the web sites and write code or does this person take widgets, wysiwygs and wizards to stamp your new site?  Don’t get me wrong, there are many types and levels of web sites out there.  Different needs for each web site.  The question is what are your web site needs?  If you need something special developed for your site, or if the widget has two columns in lieu of three, can the web developer make the make it happen?  Is the developer shoe horning our web site into the cookie cutter they have, or are they building the site to fit your needs?

Question 3:  Do they do graphic design?

Sometimes a web site developer is not a graphic designer and visa versa.  If the web site developer is only a developer and not good graphically, does that developer work closely with the designer?  Sometimes a design is made, but then the developer can not make the design “fit” the programming layout.  If the web site developer and the web site designer are two different people, they need to work closely together to make sure all the puzzle pieces fit as needed for a successful solution.  The better choice is a web site designer/developer.  This type of person has an understanding of both worlds and can usually make it all seamless in half the time.

Question 4:  Do they understand SEO?

Graphic designers do a great job making your web site look great.  Web site developers do a great job making your web site run without errors and can include cool features.  Do they know SEO?  Will the search engines see your content?  Your keywords? Your links? Your Products?  Or will the search engines simply look at your web site as one page with little information indexed and move on?

A great web site is graphically designed to please the eye and designed to be easily navigated.  A great web site is developed to be error free and to be seen the same on all browsers.  A great web site can be seen, indexed and promoted by search engines…every page, not just the home page.  Make sure the web developer or graphic designer or the web developing company knows all the pieces that a successful website needs.

Question 5:  Do they maintain sites?

It is important to find out if the web site developer maintains the sites they develop.  Often times I come across clients who pay an upfront fee and an annual maintenance fee, then seldom hear from the developer for the rest of that year after the site is up and running.  The developer should maintain the web site, especially if you pay a maintenance fee.  They should be checking with you about updates and plan what the web site goals are throughout the year.

There are more questions to ask your web developer, but these will get the conversation going and the answers will let you know if the conversation about developing your web site or redeveloping your web site should continue, or move on to the next prospective developer is the best step.

Good luck with your graphic design and web development needs.  My answers to these questions are:

1. I know many languages from mainstream to specialized programming languages.
2. I develop all sites from the ground up after talking with the client to understand what the needs, goals and expectations are.
3. I do the business analysis, planning, graphic design, development and maintenance of all the websites for my clients.
4. I do understand SEO and the parts of the website that SEO is dependent on.  There is always something to learn and changing rules, so I will not say I know it all. Beware of those who say they do.
5. I offer maintenance to all my clients.  Sometimes they choose to take maintenance on themselves, but I am always an email or phone call away.

 Contact me at graphics@chitwood.org to talk about your next or current project and view some of my work at www.chitwood.org.  The portfolio is always updating.

Health for instance. If you only drink beer and pop every day and eat only donuts (of any kind), chances are you are not going to be a world class performer in any way. Athletics, business, or labor. Your results will be quite different if you drink water and veggies.

Your life with God. If you don’t go to Church, never read the bible, then your chances of knowing God and what he has planned for you will be as illusive as the golden pot at the end of a rainbow. Attending Church on a regular basis and reading your bible will get you closer to God and his plan will be more visible to you.

Graphics and Web development. If you don’t tell the designer / developer what you want or what your intent is for the product, then chances are, you will not get something you are happy with. Providing specs to the designer / developer or sitting down and talking about the project is the best way to insure you will end with a successful product.

There are two types of designers / developers. One is a person that is able to take a specific list and detailed instructions and create great graphics and over the top web functionality to server the desired goals. They will take not ideas, but instructions to the end result. Another is a person that can take an idea and match it with design and technology for the end result. Someone who can look past the idea and not only physically design and develop the product, but also convey the end result to the client before a stroke is done or a piece of code is written.

When you are looking for a designer or developer….which type do you have? Which type do you need? Which type can you work with? Which type do you NEED to work with?

Choose wisely

They want a wooden fence with character as they have seen around the local area. They go to the yellow pages (yes, people still use the yellow pages) and they find 10 different companies that build fences. Four of those specialize in custom wooden fences. They all have phone numbers and postal addresses, but only two of them have web addresses. The couple wants to view what they have done, so one the two that have web sites will probably get the project.

Since they are from New York City, they do not own cars. (they didn’t need any) They go to the newspaper to look through some ads. They come across several ads for used cars and find two cars that are perfect in price. One ad has a phone number and postal address. The other has a phone number, postal address AND a website. The dealer with the website just sold a car.

A business can survive and even grow without being on the web. But especially in today’s economy, it is good to get all the paths open you can to bring in business. To make sure that you are infront of everyone. Some people like to use the phone, some people like to come in to a physical business, and some people (more ane more) like to shop and research online before making a choice of purchase. Having a web site is NOT expensive to create. Maintaining a website is also NOT expensive if the site is built correctly. Even the most simple web site for your business will give you the step up above your competitor.

A week goes by and what you have been observing in your analytics is absolutely astounding. You cannot believe your eyes. Are these stats correct? You have spent all this time and money for a better web site. You have spent all this time and money to handle more traffic and bring in more traffic. You have spent all this time and money deliver the information everyone needed faster and to promote everything you planned. What you see is…25% of the traffic you had before. 75% of your traffic is gone. The traffic has dropped off…BIG TIME. You check your site and yes it is still working. It is still error free. The links work in your site. So where did all your traffic go?

The fact might be that your out dated site was developed in straight html or any of many server-side scripting languages (PHP, ASP, COLDFUSION, etc) and the new site was developed in something else. It may be because your developer likes to use a specific technology because that is what they know. It may be because the latest widget or gadget only had code for a specific technology. It may be because your new hosting can only host specific technology. You spent YEARS building external links to your site from professional association sites, from search engines, from partnership sites and others. Those links for example used to go to www.yoursite.com/thepage.html and now your new site does not have that page name at all, or the page name now is www.yoursite.com/thepage.aspx or www.yoursite.com/thepage.php. Every link you had took time, money and resources to build your web presence…and now those links are leading to empty space.

There are many ways to prevent this from happening. When you talk with your developer, make sure you ask about how they will protect your existing traffic and external links. The old traffic is important. The old external links are very important. You only want to rebuild your web site, not the links to your web site.

You have been in business for a while now. Handing out business cards all over the place as you meet people and your clients refer your great work and your friends refer your great character. Thousands of people now have your name and email address. In that same time frame, you have spent a lot of money sending out mailers, flyers, advertising in various places.

You don’t have a domain name for your company because you just did not want the huge expense of setting up a website. Running your business was taking all of your time, so no time to work with a designer / developer to get the site up either. Your email address is Joe1967@ispprovider.com. Suddenly, you receive an email from ispprovider.com that the company is going out of business or being bought by another ISP next week. The domain name is being shut down. That means YOUR email address will not longer EXIST.

Remember years back when the cell phone industry made it available for you to keep your cell number no matter where you went with your service? You can have a cell number and move from one provider to the next and then again across the country and keep the same number. Great feeling to know you could virtually have the same number forever to keep in touch with your family, friends and in business terms….your clients. You could be contacted years later at the same number.

Email addresses are not the same. If you have an email address joe1967@ispprovider.com and ispprovider.com goes out of business, then it is probable that you will loose your email address. All the newsletters you subscribed to will need to be changed, all your clients will need to be notified, all your business cards, stationary and mailings will need to be changed, which all is time and money. The biggest thing is anything already sent out, printed and advertised are now WRONG, which is wasted time and money. People from 5 years ago can no longer contact you because your email address is different now.

The Reality check is that on your advertising and business cards that have been sent out usually have more than one contact piece of information, but how many of those future clients will try to contact you via email and just give up. Are you willing to give up those clients? Do you have so many that you are willing to give up a few?

The correct way to do your email is to register a domain name that is your company name, or says something about your business. Make it simple to remember, short to type, but unique enough to stand out. The cost is ever changing, but $10/year will cover it usually. Now get hosting for that email address. If you go through the place you register your domain, then great, but there are other hosting companies to do either email alone or a package deal with web hosting for your future website when you get to it.

The best thing about this new email address is if your hosting company goes out of business, then you can move your same domain name (and email address) to another hosting company. If you find a better deal with a new hosting company, then you can move your domain to the new hosting company. People change their cable company all the time from 123xyz to zyx123 or visa versa for the simple reason of money spent. If your email address is associated with those cable companies, then now you have to change it everywhere you registered (and you will miss something) and all your previous advertisements and contacts will be void.

This is not only for business…personal use is the same. If you move from cable company to cable company or from city to city or state to state, then you run into the same thing.

You say you are safe because you are Google or Yahoo? Remember last year when Yahoo was in trouble and possible take over? Yes Yahoo.com email probably would have continued, but do you want your business to depend on that? The cost of changing is measured by more than just money.

I think future business from past clients and word of mouth marketing is worth the $10 for your own domain name and custom email address. A custom domain name looks more professional and says to future or potential clients that you are a company that expects to stay in business for a while.

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I am going to a funeral today for my brother-in-law. He was 65 years old and lived the last half of his life in a wheel chair. Every time I saw him, he was smiling and was able to kid around and tell jokes. He loved his family and especially his grandchildren. He is an inspiration to me about what life deals you. You have a choice to how you will look at things and how you will live with your choices and events in your life. One regret that I have is that I waited for the bananas to become yellow. I did not know him the best that I could. He had a lot to teach any of us, but other things came first.

My dad passed away over two years ago and there is one thing that I am very happy that I did. The summer before he passed, I made a special trip home and helped him work on the car. During that time, I made it a point to ask him if he was proud of me. The answer was yes. The answer was great to hear, but I think the conversation was the most important. I am very glad that I had that conversation when I did and I did not wait for the green bananas to turn yellow.

Business, family, friends and so much more all is guided by this simple rule. Don’t wait, get it done now, make the phone call to make it happen, learn about people and things today, tell them you love them. Don’t wait for when the bananas might turn yellow. Do it now.

She went to the internet to look for a good recipe she could make. After searching for a while, she found a good one that she thought to be quick and easy. She went to the kitchen and gathered all of the ingredients together to make the coating. She combined everything that she needed to, mixed it up really well, and then started to coat the hotdogs. She then discovered that she did not have enough oil to fry them in. My friend then started to cut down all the freshly coated corndogs to fit what oil she did have. After a bit, the corndogs were fried to a golden brown perfection and were ready to serve.

She walked over to the table where her grandson was sitting and placed the plate down. She sat down and then watched him … pick … all … the … coating … off … the … corndogs. You see, her grandson really just wanted hotdogs on a stick…not corndogs.

Before a line of code is written, before any final graphics are created, I will sit down with my clients to talk about what they want and need. Talk about the real outcome of the project to make sure the correct technology is used and the correct path to solution is taken. I want to make sure I give my clients hotdogs … in lieu of corndogs…when they really want a hotdog.

Whoever you use for your graphics and development projects…make sure they will listen to what your needs are. Make sure they listen to your ideas and design requirements. Make sure they know you want a hotdog…or a corndog and you get what you order.