Domain Registered? Now What?

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I own a company that, among other things, develops web sites, and I've hadmy own business and personal sites since the early 1990's.
While each website project has its own ... and rewards, ther I own a company that, among other things, develops web sites, and I've hadmy own business and personal sites since the early 1990's.
While each website project has its own challenges and rewards, there are some commonelements to all of them.First, make sure that the ISP or web development firm registered the domainname in your or your client's name, and not their own. Even today,outsourcers will often register domains in their own names, leaving you outin the cold if the site becomes popular, unless you already had the domainname trademarked.
If you are the web developer, register the domain in yourclient's name so that your ethics won't be questioned later.Second, help your client (or yourself) by developing a master plan fromwhich elements can be added to the sites as time and money allows. A lot ofbusinesses think they have to have a web site to stay current in today'sbusiness environment, but haven't given much thought about what that means.Some of the questions I ask are:1.
Is it for public consumption, or are you providing information toclients, suppliers, or business partners?2. Is your intended audience local, regional, national, or global?3.
What repetitive information are your customers, suppliers, or partnerscalling you about that could be presented on a web site?4. Does your product or service catalog change often enough that reflectingthose changes on your web site might garner more sales?5.
What information can you present that prospective customers will finduseful?6. Do you use a sales strategy (a presentation, or a decision tree) that canbe translated to a web site?7.
Can you use your site as an Extranet as well as an Internet site?8. What graphical elements (logos, pictures, etc.) will you want to have onthe site, and where?9.
Will the site contain advertising and how will the design accommodatethat?10.Practically every web site will have a slightly different focus depending onfor whom it is developed. The answers to these and similar questions willhelp define the purpose of the site, its scope, how it will be organized,and what kind of information will be presented on it.
It also helps compilea list of things that may have to be developed separately, thus affectingthe project schedule (e.g., a paragraph describing the company in 50 wordsor less, a new logo, gathering a list of product data, etc.).I have an insurance and investments broker client who, from very the start,was particular about how he wanted the site to "look", but he hadn't givenany thought about what the site would accomplish. It took several months andmany hours of conversation to develop a site plan.
His site allows hisclients to submit claims information, prospects to request more informationabout specific products, casual browsers to learn about his services, andhis clients' employees to look up medical providers from various HMO and PPOplans. Without some planning, he could have ended up with a fancy "businesscard" and never gotten lots of leads from people who have visited his site.Third, check whether the web hosting company is providing Front Pageextensions.
Microsoft's Front Page 2000 (and other high-end web pageeditors), is a huge timesaver and gives you access to a wide selection ofadvanced functionality for your site (automatic form creation, marquees,java scripts, tables, etc.). Of course, you can always be a purist and learnHTML coding in your spare time.Fourth, think long and hard about using affiliate advertising.
My mostsuccessful web clients waited a year or more to gain any significant sitetraffic, and that was only as a result of a concerted marketing plan thatpublicized the site to existing customers. Too many people, with nobackground in page layout and design, plop ads all over their sites and waitfor the referral checks to roll in.
The only thing they actually achieve ismaking their sites look like shoddy billboards for other sites. Affiliateads "can" help drive traffic, but map out a plan and be very picky about whoyou sign up with.
If your site is a local or regional site, look for adsfrom local and regional businesses that you (or your prospects) may alreadyhave a relationship with in the brick and mortar world.Finally, the best web sites are "works in progress". The web is an evolvingcollection of styles and technologies, and your presence on it can be aswell.
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