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Implementing Your Plan - explaining how to actually implement your web site.

You now know what your business objectives are and approximately what you intend to spend. If you have just skipped through then you are one of those people that don't like working to a precise formula, but the information on this site will still help.

Having got this far, we now look at what we need to do to actually implement the content of the site.

There is a lot of money being spent on web site development at the moment, with large corporate companies investing hundreds of thousands of dollars. At the other end of the scale, other companies who have designed, developed and run their web site, and it has cost only $20 per month for everything, yet it has increased their turnover. This latter example involves many hours of effort, learning HTML and so on.

This section will tell you how to do things at the lower end of the scale!

To create your web site you need web space and contents, written in HTML, to go into the web space.

There are three options for writing HTML:

Do It Yourself.
To do this, you need a simple Text editor (such as Microsoft Notepad that comes as standard), and a knowledge of HTML. You can get this last knowledge either from a book or from a site such as www.lne.com.

Using an HTML generator.
Dreamweaver, Microsoft FrontPage and the latest version of Microsoft Word allow you to easily create and edit contents of a web site, and they will generate the HTML.

You can get a professional web designer such as CalebSoft Solutions to create the site. 
 

A few web design tips:

Separate each part onto its own page with the page only covering one topic. This results in faster loading.

 

bulletTry to make your home page fit into one 640x480 pixel screen
bulletDon't use too many graphics and when you do, keep them small - it can be painful waiting for lots of images to download.
bulletMake it easy to navigate throughout your site by providing links at the top and bottom of each page, or in a frame at the side.
bulletUse the HTML ALT attribute of the <img> tag wherever you have graphics since the text associated with this tag is shown to everyone before the images appear.
bulletTest your site using Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer - what works in one may not in the other.
bulletOnce you have created your HTML and any associated graphics, your web site is ready to go live.

There are four ways that you can get a site up on the Internet.

 

bulletHave your own server at your own premises and leased line to a service provider : this is the most complicated and expensive option. Unless you're a big corporation, forget it.
bulletHave your own server at the premises of a Service Provider and pay them to manage it for you : this is still a complex option and one which is suitable for medium or large companies
bulletRent space on a server provided by an Internet Presence Provider (IPP) such as CalebSoft Solutions also known as web hosting : this is an excellent option for a small business, particularly if you are committed to making your online business succeed
bulletUse the free space provided with your basic Internet account (if provided) : this is a good option for small businesses if either you want to experiment to test the market or your resources are so limited that this is the only viable option

For a small company, the only viable options are the last two.

 

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