Why Have a Website?

And can I design it myself without professional help? A web site is simply a tool to give you or your business more public exposure and extend your public image. Additionally it gives your business a widely expanded market, greater credibility and ultimately more growth. A Web site won't eliminate the need to advertise in other media, but WWW advertising works very effectively as an integral part of your other forms of advertising. An effectively designed web site should even allow you to cut back on some of your other advertising costs.

Do I Need A Professional Web Designer?

Surely you have a friend or relative who has created a web site all by him or herself. That brings up the question, why use a professional at all? Can't you create your business or organization's web site in your spare time and without the services of a professional web site designer? The answer is probably, yes. But following are some reasons why it may not be a wise idea for you.

Time: For most of us, time is a precious commodity. Is it better to take time away from your business and other activities to learn how to create and maintain an effective web site? You need to decide if you have the time to follow through on these parts of the web design:

1. create and edit web pages
2. scan or otherwise create graphics
3. optimize graphics
4. upload pages to the host
5. run telnet sessions

Money: Saving money is the main reason most would consider designing their own web site. But by designing their own, are they really saving? It's takes a substantial monetary investment to purchase the necessary software to create a professional looking web site. It also takes a considerable amount of time to learn how to use the various programs effectively. Many business owners don't have that kind of time to spare and are usually better off investing their time in what they know best - running their business.

Expertise: When a professional web designer is hired the customer receives the benefits of their business experience, artistic talent, technological skills and the expertise to help you establish a effective, highly visible presence on the Internet. Your web pages will be built to load quickly, be user friendly, appeal to your target audience and encourage repeat visits.

A web page professional can advise you on what you should do to promote your web pages, and how you can develop your own skills and knowledge needed to communicate with potential customers on the Internet. Your web page designer will want you to be successful and recommend his services to others, so he will do all he can to make your pages a success.
 

Comparison to Traditional Advertising

The cost of advertising is one of the first considerations in which most business persons are interested. Typically annual fees on a two or three inch ad in your local newspaper can run into the hundreds of dollars (that's not including the costs paid to a designing service to create the ad for you). By comparison, the annual hosting fees for a Web site through me will be remarkably less. Furthermore, instead of a snippet of information crammed into a couple of inches of space, your Web site can include descriptions, color images and pages of information!

Unlike traditional newspaper, yellow page or magazine advertising where listings are typically placed under one specific category (or "keyword"), when I register your Web site with the major Search Engines, your business is indexed under numerous keyword descriptions.

Using most traditional advertising methods your exposure reaches a relatively small geographic area. For example, in the past persons in nearby towns generally learned of area business through their local newspaper, phone book, radio or TV. But those types of media may cover only a limited local area. Persons just outside of that area searching for a specific services might have been interested in your business had they known of its existence. With a Web site, you can reach those customers, and better yet, they'll have the potential to find you!

Similarly, pleasure or business travelers to your area may not know of your business until they arrive in your community and access the local phone directory. Your Web site can reach and inform travelers before they arrive. That long distance capability even extends to international prospects who might be interested in your business, products or services. Your Web site literally has exposure to a world-wide audience.

Anything that can be put on paper - text , graphics, photos, order forms and more - can be put on a Web site and remember, the World Wide Web never closes. Your advertising runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week! Can radio or television coverage can give you that kind of exposure?

Compatibility With Traditional Advertising

There certainly is a good reason to continue with some conventional advertising. Placing the address of your Web site in your conventional advertising (including letterheads, brochures, business cards, etc.) can increase their effectiveness. It gives interested parties a place to go for additional and more comprehensive information than can be affordably placed in conventional forms of advertising. Additionally, the information carried on your Web site can at any time be easily updated to reflect any special offers or seasonal changes.

What's more, perspective customers don't have to wait until business hours to receive information from you. They can access your Web site information when it's convenient for them - 24 hours a day!

Updating Ease and Flexibility

If I manage your Web site for you, changes and additions to your Web pages are generally as simple as an e-mail message, a phone call or a fax. No typesetting deadlines weeks or months in advance. Most simple alterations and updates will be accomplished within hours.

Not only are changes handled with ease, but when compared with advertising media such as pamphlets and brochures in which changes to your services or products aren't reflected until the current print run has been depleted, your Web site advertising can be change as often as you'd like.

Exposure

According to recent statistics, 125,000 new Internet Access Accounts are established every month in the United States alone. If structured carefully, your Web site marketing campaign will gain a greater response for far less money than you would ever attain with conventional advertising media.

If you are interested in tapping this quickly expanding market, guess what? You need a Web site on the World Wide Web. I hope you'll choose me to assist with your "link to the future".