Frequently Asked
Questions
What do I NEED to have my own
website?
What domain name is best for me?
How do I get visitors to my
site?
What is a "Buy Button", Merchant Account,
and/or Payment Gateway?
How do I update my own site?
What do I NEED to have my own web
site?
There are two basic things that are
absolutely required for any web site. First is a page or pages written in
html or one of the variants (xhml, shtml, asp, etc.), and the second is a
place to put the pages where people can find them (server or hosting). A
third element is highly recommended for professionalism, however, and that
is a domain name of your own.
Pages (which are the site itself) are
written in a format or coding that a web browser can translate into layout
that a visitor can read. They contain all of the text, links to other
sites and pages, as well as links to images (graphics) on your site. Most
sites will want a mixture of graphics and text.
Once a person has the pages, they have to
be made available to visitors. In order to do this, they are put on a web
server which is simply a computer which is connected to the internet and
has software which sends the pages when someone wants to view them. Some
people operate their own servers, mostly large businesses that are
connected to the internet 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have fast
connections; however, most will prefer to put their pages on a server
operated by a hosting company. Some hosting companies are "free", like
Geocities, Tripod, Angelfire, etc., while others charge a fee for storage
and bandwidth (the amount of information that is accessed by visitors).
"Free" hosts usually make their money from ads that pop up or other
advertising that's placed on the site and which cannot be controlled by
the site owner. Paid hosting companies offer more storage and bandwidth
without the advertising. For "Professional" and "business" sites, paid
hosting is preferable since it gives the impression that a business or
organization is established.
A domain name is another element that is
highly recommended for "professional" and business sites. This is
something like: celticgraphics.com or kellyskomputerkreations.com,
etc.
(back to top)
What domain name is best for
ME?
There's no hard and fast answer to this.
The prime consideration is that it should reflect YOUR business. At this
point, many of the simpler domain names have been taken; however, there
are alternatives that include using one of the newer suffixes or adding
hyphens to the name. We will search available domain names for you to give
you the best alternatives.
(back to top)
How do I get visitors to my
site?
This is a matter of site promotion which is
included in all of our web design packages. We register sites
with over 40 search engines, 120+ directories, and over 500 free
links pages. We also make sure that our sites have metatags on EVERY
page to help with search engine placement. We also recommend link
exchanges with other sites, web rings, and other forms of traffic
enhancement.
Can anyone guarantee that your site will
come up at the top of a search? The answer is NO! Many promotion firms
will promise that, but it's impossible to deliver. Let's face it, if it
were possible, they could only have a few clients, and there wouldn't be
as many promotion companies as there are.
(back to top)
What is
a "Buy Button", Merchant Account, and/or Payment
Gateway?
These terms are essential for anyone who is
contemplating selling a product or products on the internet. Primarily
they're used to describe elements of a shopping cart and how you get
paid.
A "Buy Button" is simply the button that is
on a product page that a visitor clicks to start the actual purchase. Some
providers of merchant accounts, however, use it to refer to the entire
process.
The "Merchant Account" is the account at
your bank into which credit card payments are placed. Banks require a
special account to handle these transactions. In most cases your regular
bank can set one up for you, although many payment gateway providers can
also help with setting one up.
A "Payment Gateway" is the software that
actually processes the credit card on-line. Payment processing companies
like Verisign and others will handle that part of the transaction for
you or lease the software to you for processing your own.
(back to top)
How
do I update my own site?
You need at least two pieces of software to
do this, an editor and ftp software, along with some knowledge of
html.
An editor can be a simple as Notepad which
is installed on most pc's or Simpletext on mac's. These will edit html and
text documents without adding unnecessary characters. Other editors
include programs like Frontpage or Homesite, and have graphic interfaces
that show a simulation of the final page.
Ftp software is readily available on the
internet in freeware and shareware versions, and is used to upload your
pages to your site once you're through editing. Frontpage and Homesite
both have publishing programs built in, though.
Most of the "free" hosting providers have
on-line uploaders and editors which means to update a site on those, you
don't need additional software, just a knowledge of html.
(back to top)
