creating, managing and marketing your own web site by andy crowther bcs belgium section webmaster
TRANSCRIPT
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Creating, Managing and Marketing Your Own Web Site
by Andy Crowther
BCS Belgium Section WebMaster
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Contents
• Introduction
• Creating
• Marketing
• Managing
• Lessons Learned
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Increased Use of Web
• More and more people are using the WWW each day whether it be for – Business or pleasure– Hobbies– Online banking
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95% of Web Sites Fail
Some Reasons are:
1. It is generally a lot cheaper to start an online business than an offline one
2. It takes time and effort to make a successful online business
3. No or inadequate marketing
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How much will it Cost?
1. As much as you want to spend
2. With the tools available on the web today it can all be done for free
3. A Consultant can do it all for you at a price
4. A route some where in between
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My History
• Working in IT for over 15 years
• Started as a Programmer and occupied numerous roles including Team Leader positions
• Working at HP in Belgium for last 3 years as an Independent
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My Web Site
• With my technical background I decided to try my hand at developing my own web site in early 2002
• I launched my first site CoursesForFree.co.uk in August 2002
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Aim of Presentation
• Not to promote my CFF website, although if you want to explore it you can!
• The aim is to share my real life experience gained along the way
• Help anyone thinking ‘I want to develop my own web site’ but does not know where to start
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Aim of Presentation
• There is no definitive wrong or right way to produce a web site
• I will provide a lot of information to help you Create, Manage and Market your own web site
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Creating Your Web Site• Planning• Idea• Purpose• Demand• Site Structure• Web Site Name• Web Host• Development• Testing• Implementation
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Planning
• As with any project this is essential
• Will save you time & money in the long term
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Idea
• When you have an idea for a web site you should first start by doing some general investigation and research
• Stimulate ideas
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Stages
• Find similar sites using search engine
• For each site found answer the following:
– What is its aim? (selling, informing)
– What are its good and bad points?
– What do you like and don’t like?
– Where could you do it better?
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Idea• If it does not feel right then leave it
alone as it is more likely to fail
• Use your own area of expertise we all have one in either work or leisure
• Start thinking about keywords for your idea and make a list
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Idea Keywords
CoursesForFree examples:
• Course
• Education
• Information Technology
• Computing
• Free
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Purpose
• Hobby
• Information
• For Profit
• Promote/Support off line business
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Demand
• Look at search engines and see how many searches are made for your keywords
• Establish if demand exists
• Niche market or offline customers may not be as critical
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Defining a Structure
• Will there be a dbase?
• Will the screens be fixed or dynamic?
• What screens are required?
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Web Site Name• Usually tells people what the site is
about
• CoursesForFree.co.uk
• CoursesForFree.com
• .co.uk - registered in the UK
• .com - registered in USA
• .be - registered in Belgium
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Purchasing Web Site Name• Shop around as price differs
considerably for same extension
• For .co.uk I use – https://www.123-reg.co.uk/
– 2.59GBP approx $4.14 (minimum 2 years)
• For .Com I use– https://registrar.godaddy.com/
– $8.95 per year or $6.95 if buy 10 years
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Be Warned• They sell the web site names at
minimum profit and make money out of other things they offer– Web hosting packages– Submission to search engines– Email accounts– Web building tools
• You do NOT need to purchase these from the same source
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Existing Web Site Names
• As more and more names are registered less choice available
• Alternative buy an existing name– Via Auctions– Expired not renewed– Direct approach to owner
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Web Host
• You can get free or relatively inexpensive web hosting on the internet and in a lot of cases you get what you pay for
• After developing a web site you do not want to find it is unavailable all the time as the server is down
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Web Host Requirements• Uptime Guarantee• Disc space• Bandwidth• Dedicated IP Address• POP 3 email • Windows, Unix or Linux• Dbases • Scripting languages
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Web Host Requirements
• Forum to buy direct– http://www.webhostingtalk.com/– Shared WebHosting Special Offers– Dedicated Servers Special Offers– Web Hosting Requests - place own web request
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Web Host Pricing • Work out the price per year so can
compare like with like
• Some price monthly some annual
• Some offer substantial discounts for annual payments in advance as less administration
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Web Host Pricing
• Things to add to the cost– Initial set up cost for account– Extra disc space charge – Extra bandwidth charges– Procedure if exceed bandwidth
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Web Host I Use • Very reliable and stable company state of
the art equipment– 50 MB disc space– Unlimited bandwidth– Free trial– $10 setup fee– $14.95 per month
– Refer 6 people get hosting for free
• http://www.cashculture.com/?ref=andychess
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Development Common Pages
• Introduction
• FAQ
• Feedback
• Newsletter Sign Up
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Development Platform
• Own PC or server
• On web
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Development • There are thousands of packages on the
market that allow you to develop your site faster
• They are designed to build your site without having to learn the languages
• They are very helpful but not necessary
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Development Products
• Instant site maker
• FAQ factory
• Pop up Creators
• Deadline Generators
• Payment acceptor & protector
• Instant meta makers
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Development Tools • These can all be bought on the web
• I have bought a partnership in a software company that allows me to use and resell over 60 software products and 100’s of ebooks
• You can have 1 for $39 – http://www.free-software-forever.com/sales/sale-00162002.htm
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Testing
• This is very important
• Need detail testing plan
• Someone else to test on another PC if possible
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Testing Plan • Tick list to detail every screen and all the
– Buttons– Links
• Proof Reading – spelling
• Feedback form sends email
• Registration form– Adds user to list– Sends appropriate email to user– Displays correct thank you screen
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Implementation
• Move all code to production server
• Go through all items on the testing plan to ensure they still work
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Marketing
• ‘If you build it they will come’
• Does not apply to the WWW
• People have to know your site exists
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Traffic Required
• Indicated that only 1% of visitors to a web site will want what is on offer
• Others say it is as low as 0.1%
• This means you need 1000 visitors to reach 1 person who is interested
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Traffic Utilisation• To best utilise traffic to your site
• It is suggested that you create a newsletter and capture email addresses of all those interested
• People who do not want what is on offer today may be interested in the future
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Traffic Generation
• There are hundreds of methods for promoting your web site
• You can do it all for free or you can employ a marketing consultancy to do all the work for you
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Traffic Generation Online
– Search engine – Pay per click– Pop up Window – Pop under Window– Classified Ads– Banners– Exit Exchange– Link Exchange– Free For all– Safe lists
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Traffic Blasting tools
• To increase your coverage you can now buy tools which blast your 1 web site advertisement to many places at the same time– Classified ad blaster– Safe list blaster
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Traffic Auctions• Numerous sites auction
advertisement specials on the WWW
• These can provide cheap access to a diversified market
• You could sell advertising on your site to generate profit
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Traffic Co-ops
• If you do not have time to spend marketing your business then you can pay a traffic co-op to generate the leads for you
• This is now big business on the WWW with businesses dedicated to it
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Traffic Generation
• Do not forget, just because your site is on the WWW does not mean that you can not use traditional offline methods of advertising
• In fact combining both offline and online marketing can be the best combination
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Traffic Generation Offline
• Newspaper Ads
• Trade Magazine Ads
• Posters
• Flyers
• Direct mailing
• Business Cards
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Managing
• Once your web site is up and running and you have started marketing your web site you have to consider the ongoing management
• A web site should be a living entity, constantly evolving
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Management Tasks • Responding to email queries in a timely
manner• Production of newsletters• Updating site content• Updating advertisements• Checking site for dead links• Backup
– Dbase– Website– Mailing List
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Lessons Learned
• Took longer to develop than expected due to the number of new skills required, but these new skills should enhance my future job prospects– HTML– PHP– MYSQL
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Lessons Learned
• Need to shop around for the best deals on web site hosting and domain names
• Marketing of the site is a bigger task than I expected
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Need a Web Site Building
• I will be available after April 2003 when my current contract ends!!
• If you have any further queries I can be contacted via email at: