7

Brought to you By

Things You Should

Know

When Buying A Website

“An essential Guide designed to Explain the

Benefits and Jargon of the online World”

1, What is a Website?

A website is basically an information page or pages that are hosted

on the world wide web for anyone to view from all over the world 24

hours a day, 365 days a year.

There are many different styles of websites with many different

purposes but for the sake of this information pack we will not get to

technical and keep it simple.

Websites are used to:

Promote a Business, Service or Product.

Information Services & Resources

Allow people to Meet, Network and Socialise

Shop all over the world 24/7

The World Wide Web (WWW) became available to people in 1990

and was invented by physicist Tim Berners-Lee. It's now estimated

that 30.2% of the world's population now use the internet regularly

and has had an average growth rate of around 480.4% between

2000-2011. Oceania/Australia have the Second Highest geographical

penetration rate in the world after the USA. As of 2011 60.1% have

access and 21.3 Million of Australians are now online.

Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm Oct 2011.

"In brief a website is a way to show your

Service or Company to world 24/7. Your

website can be as detailed as you like or as

technical and self automated as you need"

2: Why will a Website Benefit Me?

The bigger the WWW grows the more written media Declines. People now days are living

busier lives than ever before and are reading Newspapers, Yellow Pages and Magazines less

& less. When you ask someone about a product today people say "Just Google it" or "Look

at the website". If you are a business owner than you must agree that its time to capture

those customers that no longer use traditional media to find what they want.

When you have a website you are able to do many things that you wouldn't normally be

able to do unless your Customers were in you place of business, Passing by your Window or

on the phone. For example, a website can be used for the following:

A Shop Front: When you have a website it is like having a shopfront that

anyone can look at any time of the day, anywhere in the world. No matter

what size your business is, you can use this shop front to give the image you

want to potential customers. Your Shop front can Look as new or modern as

you want, Advertise your services and offers, tell people about your company

plus a whole load more.

Advertising: Your website has to be the best advert a business can have. A

website is also the most cost effective advertising a business can have.

Think about it? Let's say you have a certain budget to advertise your service in

a classified advert. How much information can you really tell new customers

about your offer or promotion in a normal classified ad? NOT MUCH!

Now imagine if you could add just 1 extra line to that advert with your

website address www.mycompany.com Your potential customers can have a

look at your website which can be a whole heap of information, photos,

videos, special offers, testimonials all about your business or service.(research

has shown that 81.3% of all potential customers will check out your website

before they contact you) A website is definitely a tool that should be used

alongside your current advertising. Also in the Age of Information it allows you

to connect with a new generation of Customers like no other media can!

3: What a Website Involves?

Websites are made up of what we call web pages. A website can have as many pages as you

want or need and can have as many videos, photos, adverts, promotions, products and

contact details on these pages as your require. For the sake of this info pack we are going to

look at a basic 3 page website and generally what in contains.

Page 1: The Home Page

A home page is generally your Shop Window. The homepage is designed to welcome your

visitors and introduce your company to them. Homepages can vary dramatically in design,

they can have welcome videos that play automatically so you introduce your company

personally or get their attention straight away. They can have Display adverts on them to

promote a special offer or Sale you have on. What you have on your homepage is entirely

up to you but the idea is to get the visitors attention and encourage them to look at the

other pages of your website(Advert!).

When deciding on a homepage design and what you want to include, it is best to have a look

at your competitors sites or other companies offering a similar products to yourself. This will

give you a good idea as what they are offering, layout etc. Normally when designing a

homepage its best to draw it out on paper first so you can get the idea you have in your

head down on paper. You can now visualise it before it gets built, this way you will have a

guideline to stick too and also your web designer will know what you want.

Page 2: Our Services/Products

The Products/Services page is where you tell your visitors about what you offer. Above is a

screen shot of an Online Store that sell Lawn Care Products. This is where they show and

sell the products that they promote. If you do not have an online store you can use this page

to show products or brands you use. Photos and information about your Products. You can

also use this to tell visitors about services you offer or what you specialise in. You may also

want to include a photo gallery in which you can show off your portfolio of Past Work

Completed. You could use this page to allow customers to download brochures and

catalogues you would normally have to fax or send out in the post (Reducing Cost's &

Carbon Footprint).

Page 3: Contact US

The Contact page is where you tell your visitors how to get in touch with you. The above

Screen Shot shows a typical Contact Page. This includes Phone Numbers, Email Address,

Physical Address and also a Map to show people where you are. Again you can display as

much information as you want. You may want to show photos and direct contact numbers

for individual departments or members of staff.(admin, reception, sales, marketing,

customer service etc)

4: How Do I Get A Website

There a few different ways in which you can get yourself a website and the options are

listed below.

You Can Rent

You Can Buy

You Can Build one yourself

Rental Sites: Rental sites are generally the best option for any Business. They normally are

hosted and maintained by the Rental Company for a Fixed fee per Month. If you are a

business then the cost can be written off as an advertising Cost. Rental Sites are generally

the easiest, cheapest and most hassle free way to get a website online, they also have the

added bonus that you can just walk away from it at any time you choose too. They have a

low set up cost and you get a site designed how you want it. There are also no hidden cost

to worry about if you go with the right company.

Buy A Website: This used to be the only way of owning a site back in the days and although

it has its advantages, it also has a some downsides too. When you buy a website you have to

buy the following. Your Domain Name, Hosting, The actual Design and Then Maintenance

(Every time you want to change something). Domain names also need renewing every 1-2

years and hosting needs to be paid for monthly or annually. If you want to make changes to

your site regularly (Offers, Vouchers, Sales, Promotions etc) then you need to make sure

that you are not going to be charged a fortune from the web designer to do it. Average Cost

in Australia is about $70-$90 Per Hour. The only other major downside is you normally have

to pay for the thing upfront wether it works for you or not!

The average cost of a basic website including Domain, Emails and Hosting is around $1500 +

Annual & Maintenance Cost.

Build A Website yourself: With the advances of modern day technology it is now possible to

build your own website through various self build software programmes and websites. The

advantage to this is it appears to be the cheapest way to get a website online. The major

downside is, The software is not easy to use if you have no web design experience, The sites

do not have a lot of features and functions a professional site can have, they are Not Search

Engine Friendly. They are very hard to make unique and a lot of the companies advertise it a

free website which instantly discredits all the hard work you put into it. As you can probably

gather I am not a fan of this way of getting online and the reason for this is simple.

"Just because you can go to a builders merchants and buy a load of bricks, Doesn't mean

you could build a house the same way a Builder would!"

5: What are the Running Cost

Here is an example of running cost for a website. For the purpose of

this example we have compared DSLS Rental Sites to an average

Outright purchase cost, to give you an idea of what to expect.

DSLS Rental Sites Outright Purchase Sites Set up Cost/ Design $199.00 $1500.00

Domain Registration 0.00 $60

Hosting 0.00 $50

Email Address 0.00 $20.00

Changes Minor (1 Hour) 0.00 $90.00

Changes major (1 Hour) 0.00 $150.00

Rental Fee x 12 $359.40 0.00

Total Year 1 $558.40 $1870.00

Total Year 2 $359.40 $310.00

As you Can see from the above example Renting has all the same

benefits of owning plus some! Not to mention the 1st Year Set up

cost. But seriously whatever way you decide to get online your

running cost will be between $300-$400 per year. About a Dollar a

day.

6: How to Advertise my Website

Once you have got your website up and running on the internet you then have to let people know

that it exist, So how do we do this? There are a number of ways to easily let people know about your

new website for very cheap or even free! Please see below:

Add it to your Business Cards, Leaflets, Flyers, Brochures, Letterheads.

Include your Website address on All advertising you do.

Email all your existing Customers telling them about your new site.

Advertise it for free on Classified sites like Gumtree.

Tell your friends about on Social networks like Twitter and Facebook.

Get your website Search Engine Optimised so it is found on Google, Bing and Yahoo.

Advertise with a Pay per Click campaign with Google and Facebook Etc.

List your Business for free on directories Like Hot Frog or True local Etc.

Join relevant forums and start posting comments with links to your website.

Start to Blog on Free websites like Blogger or Squidoo with links to your Site.

When it comes to advertising your website there are 1000s of ways to do it. I always recommend

doing it yourself to begin with to see what kind of results you get. Some people never feel the need

to advertise their site online as all they want to do is direct customers to it from there normal offline

advertising.

If you really want to take advantage of internet marketing and advertising then you may want to

consult with a Search Engine Marketing company like DSLS Pty Ltd.

7: Lead Capture For Future Sales

The beauty of having a website is it doesn't matter how many people look at it in a day, month or

year it still cost the Same! The idea of having a website is not just about here and now it's also a way

to capture leads for future sales. What I mean by this is if someone visits your website, there is a

good chance they are interested in what you have to offer either now or at some point in the future.

What you want to do is to get as many people's contact details as possible that land on your

website. I would always suggest giving something away for free like a free E-book or guide in

exchange for their name and email address. This guide you are reading is given away on DSLS

website for the same purpose as well as to educate people on the whole concept of a website. The

reason you want to get their email address is because you add it to a list which you email regularly

with information, updates, special offers etc. This way when the customer is ready to buy your

product/service your company will be the first choice as you will be fresh in their mind and also seen

as an expert in the field because of all the Free information you have kindly provided in the Past.

Websites can be a very powerful asset to any business, get online today with DSLS and reap the

rewards over your competitors. If you are still unsure as to whether you want or need a website I

want you to think about this: At this moment in time only 35% of Australian Business's are online,

although 60% of the Australian population use the internet every day!

Just by having a website you automatically give yourself a 65% advantage on your competitors.