Interactive Traditional Industry Insider Designers Corner

Online Implementation/Execution

SELECT A DOMAIN NAME, A WEB HOST, A DESIGN , PHOTOS AND FILL IN THE GAPS 

Now that you've answered a few of the key questions, it is time execute. Below, I will layout package options for a web-host, details on web design templates and tools used when building my web presence.

SELECT A DOMAIN NAME
1. If possible, apply some of your market data findings to help with your domain name search. It seems most entities use their business name or personal name as their domain name. If you conduct some SEO research, i've read that including your service offering type along with your name as your domain name will help with search. To find out which keywords might match well with your name and offering use google ad-words keyword tool.

2. Once you've identified your top 5-10 domain name options use the domain search below to determine if your names are available for purchase.

5 free Domains with Select Hosting Plans. Get yours!

 

SELECT A WEB HOST
Selecting a web host is very important and must be researched in terms of capability  to the types of “widgets” you want to include on the site before finalizing your selection.

Questions to ask yourself regarding a web host
1. What webspace/monthly bandwidth size is sufficient for your website? If you plan on running multiple databases holding a lot of information, try to get as much web-space and monthly bandwidth you can afford.
2. Does the web host allow running phpads? PHP ad is a free ad serving option. If so ,then make sure you select 1&1 Linux Hosting for the package. Note some web host package selections doesn't allow these types of server heavy apps to run on their server. Therefore, if these types of services is important select the appropriate package. For example, if you want server side includes (SSI) and plan on using PHP, select Linux hosting and the 1&1 business package.
3. Do you need 5 domains and plenty of email accounts up to 4,000? Do you plan to incorporate work that uses PHP, Perl or MySQL, Linux hosting? The 1&1 developer package is what you should select.
4. If you plan on building a simple web presence and providing mainly information, then the Linux Hosting 1&1 Home package will suffice.

To be safe always select Linux hosting even if you don't plan to use a database, just in case you would like to in the future it would be a simple addition.

SELECT A DESIGN
Selecting a design is also very important as this will communicate your personality and image to all your visitors. So with the information you've collected from the Market research and general research, compile a list of the features that would communicate your identity and cross reference your wants to the many design templates found at 4templates.

If you would like add a blog to your website, then i recommend using wordpress which is a state-of-the art publishing platform for free. Which is also fairly easy to install after you've installed it a few times. Here is a link to their famous 5-minute install.

Once you've installed wordpress check out the many free wordpress themes available.

SELECT PHOTOS
What better way to communicate your message and mission, but through an image. Now that your main web design layout is selected, it is now time to select photos specific to your service or product offering.
Locate a commercial photographer. Shameless plug...”I am available if you are interested, please check my portfolio and multiple stock portfolios detailed below.

If you can't afford a photographer to create exclusive images for your website, then the next best place to go for quality images are micro stock agencies. I've listed a few stock agencies that i contribute to below. 

1.Istockphoto 
2.Shutterstock
3.Fotolia

TOOLS USED
1.Computer (To run all the softwares needed for the tasks)
2.Web Authoring Software (Design/layout)
For PC
a.Microsoft Frontpage (Beginner)
b.Adobe Dreamweaver CS3 (Advanced) Apple compatible
For Apple
a.NVU (FREE)
3.Photo Editing Software (Customize images)
For Apple and PC
a.Adobe Photoshop Elements. (Beginner)
b.Adobe Photoshop CS3 (Advanced)
4.FTP client (Upload and download files to and from the web server)
For Apple, I recommend Cyber Duck (Free)
For Windows, I recommend FileZilla  (Free)
5.Online web design/layout references
a.HTML Cheatsheet
b.CSS Color Names
c.Fonts
d.Scripts
e.Meta Tag Analyzer
f.Host Tracker

FILL IN THE GAPS
Now that you've selected the domain, the web-host and the design template and tools. It is time to fill in the content. Remember to use the data you've garnered through your extensive research and populate the website with SEO friendly content to place your website at least in the top 3 pages of your search via google.

Exercise: do a google search for the keywords “weekend photographer”  my photography blog Memoirs of a Weekend Photographer should be in the top 3 search pages.


I hope this brief breakdown of establishing a web presence was hopeful. I wish you all the best of luck.

TOPICS OF QUESTIONS YOU SHOULD ASK YOURSELF BEFORE STARTING A WEB PRESENCE:

1.PRESENCE
2.COMPETITION
3.MARKET RESEARCH
4.MARKETING
5.IMPLEMENTATION/EXECUTION


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